Seabourne flipped through the binder, unimpressed with the font selection. It was all sans serif, and not even a fun sans serif like comic sans. He considered opening up the digital file to insert some well placed wingdings and some jokerman when a word caught his eye.
"Scotty, is an intrasystem jump drive what I think it is?"
Jumping from system to system requires a tremendous amount of energy, like the amount supplied by a capital ship engine. Making time and space do things that would turn even Seabourne's stomach within a single star system requires significantly less. Say, 90% of the power output of a luxury liner. Seabourne looked up to the tube. The glowy bits were glowing faster.
"What kind of idiot proposed hide and seek with a blindly jumping escape pod?"
He flipped to the section containing the minutes of an Orbital board meeting where it had been first proposed.
"Huh. That was pre-accident even. Wonder what I was thinking."
A slow, menacing SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT drew Seabourne's attention from the binder. Miraculously, the goose was still alive. Even more miraculously, the cardboard core of the party hat was still holding though the red foil on the outside had long since disintegrated through the color spectrum to an ominous shade of black. The goose let out its gargle/hiss/roar again, though the gargle factor was significantly higher than before.
Seabourne considered the situation. Scotty was in no shape to run, but it was in a perfect place to hide. Seabourne would just have to close the pod's access door and then get another starship hull between him and the goose. Such as the doors of PuddleJumper, still docked on the port side.
"Scotty, hold tight, I have something dangerously close to a plan buzzing around the ol' brain box."
Before Scotty could react, Seabourne slammed his hand on the door panel, shutting the door to the pod. Had he been a more observant man, or at least a more sane one not staring down a homicidal goose, he might have noticed that both the pod and the ship's doors closed when he had only pressed the button to seal the pod's. Instead, he turned to his foe, whose outstretched wings were now blocking the fastest route back to PuddleJumper.
"Alright bird-o. I doubt either of us saw things going this way today, but-"
The bird made some unnaturally moist choking sounds and keeled over, its throat visibly swollen with what Seabourne presumed was its own secretions. He thanked the goddess for the bit of good fortune.
He heard the unmistakable sound of explosive bolts firing behind him.
He remembered that his is not a benevolent goddess.
