"Sudais, report!" Commander Amir barked, as he skitted back and forth, struggling to stay upright as the dining room tipped further and further to one side.

Ivy crawled over to where her date had fallen, and squeezed a hand. "You okay, Talia?"

"Nope." The woman snorted, eyes flicking around, but mostly towards the barrier between the restaurant and the planet below.

Ivy couldn't blame her. There was no Mr. No to dive after them and help them into some kind of ridiculous landing. The man who always seemed to turn up randomly, wasn't around now that they needed him.

The maids and waiters of the room were in a huge panic, as well. Most of them weren't helping the guests, they were scrambling towards all of the emergency exits.

"The alarms aren't going off." Ivy realised grimly.

Talia stared at her, wide-eyed, "You're freaking analysing this? I'm just trying to work out how to get to a door!"

Ivy shrugged, "What's the point of a door? So we can fall off the deck? Been there, done that. Safer inside a room."

"She's not wrong. Stay put!" Amir yelled at them absently, before going back to whatever he was doing. Hopefully something that would actually save them. That was the captain's job. Save the ship.

Talia grunted grimly, "Hadn't thought of that."

Ivy squeezed her hand, "Hey, at least the tilt isn't that bad. We're not slipping anywhere. It's just a really awkward angle. Like climbing mountains, back home."

"I... Have never climbed a mountain." Talia admitted.

"The last time I went mountain climbing, was because ash from a volcano made flying suck. No spaceships." Ivy tried to distract her friend, "Actually... Earth has a crazy word for people who die in ash clouds. That was what I was looking at. Ancient society, beneath a volcano. They got buried thousands of years ago."

Talia glared at her, "Aha."

"Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Crazy word, right?"

The bovine rolled her eyes, "Remind me to stuff a pneumo...Volcano... Isis, up your butt."

"Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." Ivy playfully corrected her.

Talia was so impressed, she punched Ivy in the gut. Which instantly reminded the both of them, that Ivy had been having stomach problems, as she ejected her champagne all over the actress.

The woman let out a shaking and lowing moan, staring in horror at herself. Ivy made a weak and sympathetic smile, but she didn't think that Talia was really noticing it, right now.

There was a loud blare of an alarm, and then Commander Amir's voice echoed through an overhead system. "All guests are to be returned to their quarters. Autonomous Security and Wellbeing Units have been deployed to assist. Please cooperate, this is for your safety. Other staff are to return to their quarters."

As if on cue, Mr. No landed beside the two of them. He was standing up, and seemed entirely oblivious to the tipping of the ship. Ivy considered not taking his hand, when he offered it.

She still did, but gave it a thought.

He helped up Talia as well, and laced an arm around the both of them, and without so much as a word, started walking them back towards the stairs. Ivy struggled not to feel mad at how easy he found it, and how presumptuous he was.

When they got to the deck, they found similarly dressed guards all around. More than Ivy had realised were onboard. All the guests seemed quite frantic, and arguing with the guards. Who paid as little mind as Mr. No. Maybe it was their training?

What really made Ivy's stomach twist, was when she noticed how many children were on board the cruiseliner. She hadn't seen most of them when she was cleaning. One here or there.

If this really was a crash, then how were they going to save them all? Wasn't like the Earth could deploy rescue ships.

Maybe Desdemona's planet could help? They were supposedly advanced enough.

"Oh! It is you! Could you possibly, help me?"

Ivy looked over as Mr. No went to dash on by, and slammed her booted feet onto the deck. Which had about as much impact as a gnat attempting to bite through the skin of a honey badger.

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"Stop!" She yelled, "Help him."

Mr. No came to a skidding halt, and turned the two women to look back at where the blue-skinned man, who looked rather weak and pathetic, and entirely as if he couldn't cope with the steep incline of the deck.

"Terrible apologies, but I would rather like to get back to the cabins." The professor said weakly.

Mr. No adjusted his stance firmly, "I do not have a third arm with which to assist. The individual must remain put. I will return to assist, if another Autonomous Security and Wellbeing Unit has not done so, by the time I have returned."

With that said, without waiting for a reply, No turned back, and propelled both Ivy and Talia onwards. For her own part, Ivy was attempting to push her feet into the ground, but it really was pointless.

They moved along the deck, by the lights which were dimming and lighting, unsure whether they should be set for night or for day. Past the restaurants that were all shuttering down and slamming shutters that looked more like those used in meteorite storms than just closed up shop.

The three of them didn't go by the elevator, instead Mr. No went for the steep and rough stairs. Not that he seemed to need a bannister to hold onto, the man was as steady as a healthy heartbeat.

Talia hadn't said a thing, and she still wasn't. The woman's face was one of fright, and she really hadn't been reassured by Ivy trying to play around with her earlier. There was something there, beyond just the fright of a disaster.

Eking out her date's personal story probably wasn't the best thing to do, at the moment, though.

"Desdemona is in sick bay. She be okay?" Ivy demanded from the faceless man.

Mr. No hesitated, nearly missing a step, before resuming their rapid climb. He didn't offer any answer at all. Not just an empty platitude, like most of the staff opted for when they shouldn't answer.

Ivy was getting sick of that.

The three of them arrived on the top deck, and Talia seemed to find her feet. Mr. No also seemed to grip them less tightly, at least so he wasn't hurting Ivy's wrist, as he directed them across the tipped floor towards their room.

Ivy looked back over her shoulder, and her jaw dropped. "There's a freaking landing craft! Who is getting evacuated?"

"Ignore the spacecraft." Mr. No barked and yanked harshly on her arm - enough that he very nearly popped it out of the socket.

Ivy let out a surprised squeal of pain, and stumbled, falling backwards away from him.

Mr. No released her, allowing her to topple to the ground. He looked down at the fallen woman, and she swore she could feel the disdain burning through his sightless helmet. "Stand."

She rubbed her shoulder, and glared at him, "No! I know it's bad timing, but you're such a bastard! I don't exactly have a prejudice against being born out of wedlock, but if I did, you're the absolute picture perfect justification!"

"Stand." Every syllable of his response was exactly the same as before.

"What the...?" Talia clapped both hands over her mouth, staring over the top of Ivy.

She looked over her shoulder, and then scrambled to her feet, "Desdemona!"

"I must escort you to the cabin." Mr. No ignored what was happening and grabbed her tightly by the wrist, grinding her fragile bones together.

Ivy stomped a foot, driving her boot down with the force of every ancestor in her tree-like family. She planted it firmly enough that his helmet managed to show the smallest of responses, and he stopped pulling.

She glared at him, "Save. Her."

"Mission accepted." He replied without any emotion, and walked by her to the edge of the stairs, before making both Ivy and Talia gasp in shock as the man leapt effortlessly down and across the entire staircase.

He landed not in a crouch, but in a run. The leather-bound freak almost a blur as he moved across the deck.

"Hot damn. Is he like... Flying?" Talia whispered.

Ivy reached over and squeezed her friend's hand, "For Desdemona, I pray that he is."

The hovering ship by the first aid station wasn't of a design that Ivy recognised. It embraced sharp and angular shapes that were entirely impractical, suggesting a violent sort of culture.

It was just a landing craft, big enough to support a half dozen passengers, but no more than that. Tiny, compared to the cruiseliner. All the same, flying it through the air shield and onto the ship, especially with the deck tilting, would take stupidity, not courage.

Below it, Desdemona was rolling back and forth. She was clearly doing her best to resist, but was still sick. The woman managed to throw one or two of the soldiers, but a punch to her stomach ended that.

They were like her, or a similar species. Dressed in barely processed leather, and carrying spear-shaped guns. A warrior caste, probably.

Ivy was tempted to reach out to Sudais, and demand some answers about who they were, but the AI was probably fully occupied with the strangeness of the crash. One that they weren't able to prevent, without the assistance of the commander.

Could these freaks have managed to hack Sudais...?

Ivy hadn't heard much about managing to hack a modern AI. However, AI weren't exactly popular back in on her planet. They preferred to grow things for the task, not force a bunch of mechanics to whir and grind out an answer.

Talia clenched her fists, her bell trembling as the woman struggled to stay upright on the tilted deck. "Come on, come on... Come on! Save her already, you bastard!"

The invaders opened fire as she finished yelling, a blinding hail of whites and purples. The flashes left scores of black across the deck and walls, where Mr. No had been just a moment before.

His speed seemed to flicker between fast, and impossible. Ivy stared, hoping against hope. It didn't make sense that anyone could dodge a rifle, but he seemed to be doing -

A charred leather body fell to the ground.

Ivy's eyes burst forth and she clapped her hands to her mouth in disbelief. Beside her, Talia let out a frightened wail and fell to her knees - which led to her falling over altogether on the tipping floor.

Smoke drifted up lazily from where Mr. No had fallen, and the invaders finished loading their giant red friend into the ship. There was barely a pause before it started lifting off into the air.

The liquid rolled down both of Ivy's cheeks, and she could feel her flowers twisting and turning towards the tears. Suckling as they always did when grief came crashing down.

No was dead.

"Sudais. Kill them." Ivy tried pointlessly.

There was no reply as the ship lifted up and through the top of the shield, and out into space. It rolled slowly, aligning, before there was a glow of engine and the craft was gone.

Ivy shrank down onto the deck, her vines circling around her. Intertwining and twirling around her in frightened instinct. Shielding her from the horrors of the outside world.