//------------------------------//
// Chapter 40 
// Story: The Parliament of Dreams 
// by Wheller 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 40


Sparky scrambled down spin over to where Juan Carlos had left her space suit. Frantically jumping into it and suiting up. She checked her seals three times before donning the helmet and pressurising the suit. She was breathing her own air now. 'Amarilla!?' Sparky cried out over the helmet radio.

'Sí, Sparky?' Amarilla asked in reply as her voice crackling over the radio.

'Where are you right now?' Sparky asked.

'We have just reached the Leninov, Juan Carlos has just put the supplies into storage. Why?'

'Stay there! Don't come back over!' Sparky cried out as she dashed back up spin towards the console that she'd been working with. The fuel transfer had completed. Sparky let out a sigh of relief, and ejected the fuel transfer lines from the Discovery One, and locked down the ship's airlock.

'Sparky? It's Hopely, what are you doing over there?'

'Sparkplug? I have that sensor information you have asked for', Hannibal said calmly. 'I have detected the tetrahedron outside our hull. It has returned'.

Sparky's eyes widened in fear, she didn't know what it was here for, or why, but she did know that it wasn't good. 'Hopely, I'm locking down the Discovery One, undock from us and move away'.

'What? Why? What's going on?'

'The tetrahedron is right outside! And worse, Mission Commander Ice Wind is on board, you get us away, and I'll keep her busy!' Sparky said as she started to tap on the holographic keyboard.

'Sparky!?' Dizzy's voice barked over the radio. 'What about you? We can't just leave you over there!'

'I'll be fine! I've got a plan', Sparky said. 'Just go! Now!' Sparky cried out. Seconds later, Sparky felt the ship shudder as the Leninov undocked from the Discovery One, and begun to move away. She let out a sigh of relief as she looked on the monitor, Ice Wind was still aboard the Discovery One, and she was headed right for the crew deck. Right towards her.

Good, she wanted the Mission Commander coming for her and not the Leninov. 'Hannibal? Vent atmosphere, now!' Sparky ordered.

'Affirmative', Hannibal said.

Sparky tried to cover her ears as the loud roar of oxygen leaving the ship ripped through the air. She began to slide on the floor, and gave a panicky leap for whatever she could hold on to in order to keep herself from being sucked away.

A few seconds later, the air became still, though, that wasn't entirely accurate. The air wasn't there at all. Sparky pulled up the internal sensors, and to her horror, Mission Commander Ice Wind's mass was still moving towards her without having even shown any signs of being slowed. 'Crap...' Sparky said as she started to panic. Ice Wind had not been wearing a helmet when she had seen her on camera. She had hoped the lack of oxygen would have been enough to stop her.

'Do you have a plan of action, Sparkplug?' Hannibal asked.

'I'm working on it', Sparky said.

…

Kelso straightened her fedora, and adjusted the buttons on her overcoat. She wasn't just Ana Kelso, the private investigator. Not any more, now she was Detective Sergeant Kelso, Ponyville Police Service, Serious and Organised Crime Group. She had never thought that she would be returning to the PPS.

Viola looked over to her and smiled. ‘Relax Kelso, It’s just the SOCG, still the same people that were here when you left... for the most part’.

‘That’s what I’m worried about’, Kelso said with a frown. ‘Corrupt coppers to the left, corrupt coppers to the right’.

‘Nah, we’ve cleaned up our act’, Viola said with a smile. ‘For a while, I told them that the Independent Police Complaints Commission was investigating our group and that they needed to act straight. Eventually I dropped the lie, and told them things were changing. They could change with me, or they could walk, most of them changed with me. Every now and again I catch one or two taking bribes; I report them on the spot, SOCG is different now, there are one or two bad eggs still floating around, but we’ve cleaned ourselves up’, Viola placed a hoof on Kelso’s shoulder and gave it a gentle pat. ‘And we all have you to thank, Detective Sergeant Kelso’.

‘Thanks... Guv’, Kelso said with a smirk as the two of them pulled into the parking lot of the PPS Headquarters at the intersection of Twilight Sparkle Street and Parliamentary Drive. Kelso opened the passenger door and stepped outside to discover a horde of detectives clad in overcoats and fedoras, who immediately began stomping their hooves in applause at Kelso’s return.

Kelso turned bright red from embarrassment. She certainly hadn’t been expecting the reception she’d been given.

‘Welcome back Kelso!’ several of them cheered from the crowd.

‘All right! All right! Relax you lot! You’re going to scare her away!’ Viola called out with a chuckle. ‘We’re all glad to have DS Kelso back with us; it’s been far too long’.

‘Speech!’ one of the members of the horde cried out.

Kelso smiled towards the crowd. ‘Well, if I was that important of a team member here, then you all must really suck at your jobs’, Kelso said with a smirk, garnering a round of chuckles from the crowd. ‘I really missed this job, all I can say is that it’s really great to be back’.

The crowd gave Kelso another stomp of applause before Viola raised a hoof to shush them. ‘All right you lot, settle down! Come on, we’ve got a job to do now! I want all of you in the briefing room in ten minutes!’ Viola said.

Kelso looked at Viola suspiciously. ‘What are you playing at?’ she asked.

‘Oh you’ll see’, Viola said with a coy smile. ‘I told you Kelso, I have a plan!’

...

‘I could use some suggestions here Hannibal!’ Sparky cried out as she floated down the hallway away from the crew deck. ‘You know this ship better than anyone’.

‘I may be able to offer some insight’, Hannibal said. ‘Make your way to the aft emergency airlock’.

‘Okay... and, what? We lure Ice Wind there and we vent her into space?’ Sparky asked.

‘No... we vent you into space’, Hannibal said. ‘The Cosmonaut Anatoliy Leninov will then take you aboard, and I will overload the Discovery One’s fusion reactor, and destroy Mission Commander Ice Wind and the tetrahedron’, the VI added calmly.

Sparky glanced over her shoulder in shock, despite the fact that the VI was not physically there for her to look at. The idea was suicide. ‘Are you insane!?’ Sparky cried out.

‘You know... I am not entirely sure how we could test that’, the VI said with a hint of humour in his voice. ‘I am a Virtual Intelligence, Sparkplug. I am a machine, if I must sacrifice myself so that my pony creators can live another day, then so be it. Mission Commander Ice Wind and the tetrahedron are a threat to the Equestrian Republic and the Præsidium both, a threat that must be ended here... Sparkplug, be advised, Mission Commander Ice Wind’s mass has disappeared off my internal sensors’.

Sparky turned her head back around, there was a flash of light and Ice Wind appeared directly in front of her. Sparky jumped in surprise, losing her balance and being sent head over heels. She reached out and brushed up against the walls to stabilise herself and looked forward towards Ice Wind. The Mission Commander looked back at her, there was no life in her eyes. She opened her mouth to scream, but of course, with no atmosphere, no sound came out. Ice Wind looked down in confusion, as if she was completely unaware that there was no air for her to breath. Sparky looked up to her and pointed mockingly at her.

Ice Wind clearly understood the gesture. A look of anger formed on her face, and she reached up and drove her hoof through the metal plating of the Discovery One’s wall.

'Crap', Sparky said biting her lip. She turned herself around and kicked as hard as she could to push herself away. She turned around to look at Ice Wind, to her horror, despite the fact that there was no gravity aboard this section of the Discovery One, Ice Wind's hooves were planted firmly on the ground and she was slowly stumbling after her.

Ice Wind did not need her hypersonic scream to hurt her. She was going to kill her with her bare hooves.

Sparky jumped as she felt a hoof press against her shoulder, shoving her to the floor. ‘Get down!’ Dizzy’s voice barked over the helmet radio. Sparky looked up to see Dizzy standing over her levitating a Præsidium automatic carbine at Ice Wind. The mindless mission commander seemed completely disinterested in Dizzy all together, and continued her slow shuffle towards them.

‘I’d shout at you to stop... but you can’t hear me anyway’, Dizzy said over the radio as she braced herself against the wall and pulled the trigger. Silent gunfire erupted from the automatic carbine, filling the zombie like pony full of holes.

Ice Wind staggered back and fell to the floor, allowing Dizzy to let up the trigger and swap in a new magazine. ‘Ha! Take that bitch!’ Dizzy cried out triumphantly as she helped Sparky back up to her hooves. ‘You okay?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, Yeah I’m fine’, Sparky said, nodding her head. ‘I thought I told you all to stay aboard the Leninov!?’

‘You did, I didn’t listen’, Dizzy said with a chuckle.

They looked back over to Ice Wind, and to their horror, discovered that the pegasus mare had pulled herself back up to her hooves, completely ignoring the bullet wounds and letting out another silent scream. Either she was not aware, or simply did not care that there was no air to carry the sound.

‘Well so much for that plan’, Dizzy said with a frown.

‘Plan B?’ Sparky asked.

‘Plan B’, Dizzy said, nodding her head in affirmation. ‘Run!’