I wasn't sure what to think of it but Angus probably sized it up best.
"Wow," he muttered as he walked over towards the new arrival. "Cool trick!"
The Ebon had simply appeared below the control node without any fanfare or sound, completely the opposite of what you see on the T.V. - one moment he wasn't there and the next he simply was. Since neither Gael nor Casper had ever shown the talent for folding, it was completely alien to me and I was awestruck. Like Angus said, it was a pretty cool trick, but it could have been fatal if he'd folded in ten feet into the bay.
As it was, our visitor had folded in behind Obie instead of in front of him and I counted that as a very good thing. On a good day, the Chagrin is barely tolerant of Ebb use (unless it's Gael, for some weird reason) and the magic trick of materializing out of thin air in right in front of him probably would have set him off. With his recent bad attitude, I certainly wouldn't want to surprise him. As it was, he didn't see the Ebon at all and I started over to meet him before he did something stupid.
The Ebon was quite a sight and obviously more concerned with being spectacular than say, Gael or Casper are. He stood a good two inches taller than me and his deathsuit was a tinted neon blue with silver highlights. His shaggy main of hair was bright enough to light the room and reminded me of Angus after a bad night on the town and a hard crash on my couch. He looked thin as a rail and somewhat unreal as he took a moment to look around and smiled at the Frother. That was when he made the mistake I had thought he had avoided.
Obie picked up the movement behind him without turning and his eyes shot back and forth just before his muscles flexed. With a spun, he snapped his claws out and roared at the intruder. That sent McNeil and Casper diving for cover and the Ebon screamed and threw himself backwards onto the deck into a fetal position. The Chagrin was towering over him in less than a step and had gone into full combat mode, snarling as he moved on the terrified Ebon.
"OBIE! STOP!" several of us yelled, but the 714 wasn't listening. Angus was closest and ran after him, slapping him in the back without a reaction and then mag-plated his Claymore. With a vault, he climbed a crate and jumped onto the Chagrin's back, suddenly having to hold on for dear life. Obie flailed backwards and spun, slashing out with another roar. I ducked so low that my hands touched the deck as a claw as big as my head went over, but Casper wasn't as quick. Fortunately for her, she was a little too late for the claw and only caught one of Angus's boots in the face. It sent her and McNeil tumbling and I would have laughed if I had the time. It sounded like a good hit and I would have love to have seen the replay.
"CALM DOWN!" Angus yelled as he reached forward and grabbed hold of a tusk. With a heave, he got Obie to turn his head and it halted him long enough for Gael and myself to get close. While Gael dragged the Ebon out of harm's way, I did the stupid thing and pushed on the Chagrin's chest with my shoulder. Casper had recovered enough to yell, but sitting on her ass fifteen feet away didn't seem to have any effect.
"HEY! LOOK AT ME!" I yelled up to the Chagrin and smacked his breastbone. Getting his attention was the only way to keep the Ebon alive and I wasn't doing so well. I thought about grabbing him by the other tusk, but didn't want to register as a threat in his current state and get killed by accident. "CALM DOWN!"
His big eyes finally set on me and he gave a powerful jerk of his head that sent Angus spiraling off his back onto the floor. The Frother was dazed and slowly came to his feet behind me, cursing under his breath all the while.
"It's okay," I said, but Obie was still tense as hell and racked from the adrenaline. "The Ebon is the crewmember they sent and not a hostile, okay? He FOLDED in, alright? He FOLDED in!"
"OKAY?" I asked again but he just looked at around for the intruder as he brought his breathing under control. When he didn't answer, I smacked his chest again harder but he barely noticed. "OKAY?"
"Okay," he boomed and walked over to cover the door where I had been. I watched him for a moment and thought about how Chagrins have got to be Karma 's highest strung product yet. They definitely have fewer automatic reactions to most situations than humans and all of them involve some sort of ultra violence. To hell with having "fight OR flight" options - Obie only has one and from what I've seen, he's nearly unstoppable. I looked over at Angus and he nodded, patting me on the shoulder. My little druggie brother was a little worse for wear, but no more than usual.
Gael worked to calm the Ebon down, who had quickly gone from a quivering wreck to an off-color rant about an unstable Karma vat toy coming at him. The snips of language that I caught before Gael removed her mike proved that his pastel nature ended at the appearance and I was glad that Obie had been out of earshot. I decided to give him a few minutes to calm down, but no more. We didn't have time for this and if he didn't remember why we were here and help, I'd give him a good reason to rant about humans too.
As I watched Gael work and took in the unusual surroundings, Casper got up and pulled her mike off. The char-eyed freak walked up to me and I just looked at her, more than a little pleased that she had a split lip and a swollen cheek. I wondered what she wanted - maybe for me to stop picking on pretty boy? Keep the Chagrin off her or she'd cry? Her face was neutral and unreadable.
"Look, Cole," she started, without any tone of malice. "I'm not really good at this sort of thing but I wanted to-"
"No shit," I cut in. I wasn't in the mood to hear some half-hearted apology and her and her boy were on their own as far as I was concerned. Her face frosted over and her eyes narrowed into her normal wicked slant. She's got one of the meanest faces I've ever seen and I'd love to plant a fist in the middle of it, or maybe a boot.
"Fucker," she spat and stormed away towards McNeil who was watching with a confused look on his face. I'm sure I'd feel really bad about upsetting her tomorrow, but for the time being I couldn't care less. I just laughed after her. So much for making nice-nice.
"Alex," Gael called out and I started over. While I had been concentrating on Casper, something had happened to make our visitor more agitated than before. He was talking to himself and waving his hands. That was when I realized he wasn't out of his mind. He was talking into some sort of Dark Lament hands-off mike that looked like a part of his deathsuit.
"What is it?" I asked as I got close and the crewmember circled away from me, still waving like he was swatting flies.
"I don't know," she said. "I had him calmed down and explained why we were here when someone beeped him."
I waited as long as my patience held out and then tried to interrupt him, but each time I tried to get his attention, the Ebon turned away like he was trying to keep me from listening in on a private conversation. After two or three times of having this happen, I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. That got his attention and his eyes went wide. I guess he'd have to complain about humans now too since everything except shiny happy Ebons seemed to give him the creeps. He'd probably have nightmares about this.
"Now you're going to get us in touch with the bridge or the navigator or whatever in hell controls this ship. A Dark Night cell has boarded and you' re going to help us stop them."
He stared at me like he didn't understand Killian and didn't speak for several seconds. I thought about slapping him, but that would have been uncivil.
"Did you understand what I said? A Dark Night cell is here and you're going to-" I started, but waved his hands in front of my face and broke in. The rest of the squad had gathered around to listen and he became even more animated.
"Engineering is offline and the Central Control Nexus isn't responding! The bridge can't reach them!" he screeched and I squeezed the side of my head. His high-pitched voice was making my temples pound and I wished he'd drop it an octave or two.
"Okay, so they can't get away now!" McNeil said. "That's good!"
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" he pleaded, as if everything he said had to be as dramatic as possible. He was still waving his hands and I swatted one down when it got too close to my face.
"What don't we understand?" Gael asked in a polite tone, trying to control her irritation. Apparently screeching Ebon males bothered her too.
"Mariella is losing her orbit. We're all going to die!"
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