Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep

[Halbarad]

"Just Tim will do for now," Tim replies a bit shakily, blinking a bit to get used to the feeling of the machine in his head - since it seems to have taken up partial residence for the moment. Slowly he backs away from the rapidly spinning shaft, watching it carefully - while he does think it'll hold, better to keep a close eye on it until they DO get out of here.

[Brian]

Tim doesn't need to worry about the shaft much longer.  Very shortly, the upper shaft runs out of steam, and the lingering traces of energy in the air fade away.  Only the stick remains.

The schematic begins fading from Tim's mind, too.  Not vanishing entirely, just drifting into the area of the mind where less important things go, eventually.  It's rather disconcerting.

Catherine shakes her head, as though to clear it, and groans.  "My head," she whimpers.  "And, oh, good sir ... it would honestly be for the best if you told no one, for the moment.  My brother and I are in hiding, and ... well ... suffice to say it's for good reason."

Angus blinks, squinting.  "Are...."  He turns to look at Tim for guidance.  Nemo calls from the other side of the fallen hullplate.  "Hoy!  Tim!  Are you there?  Step away from the plate -- we're going to burn through with an anabaric torch."

The Foreman follows the command immediately, taking a few steps down the walkway away from where they're going to cut, and motioning Catherine and Tim to follow.

[Halbarad]

"Let's talk about it later, Master Tavner," Tim says quietly, shaking his head.

Raising his voice a bit, he calls back to Nemo. "We're here, Nemo! The door's clear, cut away!"

[Brian]

"Cutting," Worthington calls.  By the sounds, there's several people out there.  Probably people very happy not to be crushed thanks to the shield miraculously working, come to think of it.

Catherine sighs, then leans into Tim, her eyes drifting shut.  "I never was as good at this as you were," she mumbles, shaking her head.  "We've ... got to get to ... Nathan, before...."  But then she slumps completely, falling asleep.  Angus shakes his head, as a spark begins to bite through the plate.  It's slow going, though.  As badly abused as the plate was, it was still armor on a battleship.

Tim only has a few moments to wonder how he knew it was a battleship before he recalls the dream-stick, still overlapping the shaft.  That could raise some questions.

[Halbarad]

Using one arm to support Catherine, Tim takes a moment to return the stick to the Dream it came from, grimacing at the impact he knows is going to hit once the lower part of the shaft is released.

With things back to "normal", he takes a moment to pick Catherine up entirely, exhaling a long sigh.

I have really got to get some answers, he thinks. But at least I'm still alive to get them.

[Brian]

The shaft does indeed drop itself lower with a ponderous creak, though this is mostly masked by the sound of the cutting going on not far away.  Shortly, a passage is carved through the plate, and the way is opened.  Tim sees all of his co-workers crowded around the gap, all of them grinning like idiots, or kids on a field trip.  Behind them, Balmer is looking less and less pleased as he surveys the damage to the works.

At a guess, it's going to take literally months to repair, unless they bring in some sort of flying platform to drop of parts.  Catherine is surprisingly light, too.

She does garner a few raised eyebrows, though.  Mostly from Nemo and Balmer.  "Right," Angus says, shaking his head.  "The lady needs to be taken to the infirmary, everything else can wait."  With that said, he forges a path through the gawking men, seeming to take special glee in pushing Balmer against the railing so that Tim has enough space to move past.  Then Angus barks over his shoulder, "Nemo!  Get some papers -- Worthington, try and figure if anything left here is salvagable."

"But, Master Tavner, Master-"

"You can give what you've gotten to him when he gets here," Angus says levelly.  "And good job keeping your wits about you.  I know I can trust you to handle this."

"Aye, Master Tavner!"

And then Angus opens the elevator door.  At least that still seems to work.

[Halbarad]

Tim only spares Balmer a short glance, pushing his way through the crowd to reach the elevator with Angus. "I really need to figure out what the hell is going on," he murmurs under his breath, looking down at the woman in his arms.

[Brian]

Angus laughs shakily, guiding the elevator down perhaps a floor.  It lets out into a familiar looking hallway.  Tim could find his way to his own quarters from here....  But the foreman leads the way down the path the opposite direction, towards a room with a symbol of a heart on it.

Must be their medical station.

[Halbarad]

Taking a moment to get Catherine into the first open bed he can find, Tim then flops down heavily next to it, running a hand through his hair.

[Bjorn]

In Anabara now.  Where are you?

[Halbarad]

Tim sits up a bit straighter at the unexpected mental contact.

Glad to hear from someone, finally. I'm in some sort of anabaric power station, run by a guy named Balmer. Have you met the others?

[Bjorn]

All here, ascending the Echelon. News?

[Halbarad]

I just narrowly avoided getting crushed by a piece of battleship armor and I'm apparently royalty in hiding. Other than that? I bought flowers and played poker. You?

[Bjorn]

Brought battleship. Need to stay hiding, or do you want to be found?

[Halbarad]

Found would be good, was planning on meeting Rez soon if I could swing it. Cover's semi-blown anyway.