Proteau and Jeffy sprinted through the corridors in route to officer's quarters. Both had their Splazers set for "knock down on the floor unconscious" as they rounded the corner
where Jeffy had met Proteau's imposter. They nearly bumped into Commander Reed as they stumbled to a halt.
"What's the rush, gentlemen?", Reed queried.
Jeffy breathlessly explained what had transpired as the security team arrived. Proteau barked out commands and the team began a room to room search for the aforementioned
doppelganger. After several
minutes, Lance Corporal Orwig reported negative findings to his superior. Orwig turned to Reed.
"I gotta tell you, Commander", he said with admiration, "you throw a mean punch. My jaw's still aching."
Reed looked at the troop evidently puzzled by his statement. "What do you mean?"
"I'm the guy you clocked in the corridor when you were trying to get to the bridge, sir.", the corporal explained.
"Oh...yeah, that's right.", Reed agreed, nodding. "Well, if that's about it", he continued, "I think I'll retire to my quarters and have a nice cup of tea."
He turned to leave, but was grabbed bodily by the collar and thrown up against the wall by Mr. Jeffy, who thrust the tip of the Splazer into the commander's ample, right nostril.
"What the hell are you doing, Mr. Jeffy?", Proteau demanded incredulously.
"This ain't Reed.", Jeffy countered, sneering, "this is the guy I talked to a few minutes ago."
Reed made no effort to pull away from his captor. "You're obviously a little confused, Jeffy", he said evenly, "Why don't you pull your Splazer out of my nose and we'll discuss this."
"No deal, sunshine", Jeffy retorted disrespectfully, "you're going down."
Proteau put a hand on Jeffy's shoulder in an attempt to calm the agitated engineering officer, but Jeffy just shrugged it off. It was then that he noticed Jeffy had changed the settings on his weapon to "super-terminate".
"Now just calm down, Mr. Jeffy.", Proteau suggested calmly, "We can work this out. Just release the commander."
"This isn't the commander!", Jeffy shrieked, spittle spraying from his mouth and alighting on the security officer's glasses. "don't you see?!? It's the imposter."
Proteau considered the possibility for a moment. "How can you be sure, Mr. Jeffy?"
Jeffy smiled maliciously, thrusting the muzzle deeper into Reed's nasal cavity. "I know", he explained, "because he just said he was going to have a nice cup of tea."
"And?", Proteau prompted.
"Reed hates tea.", Jeffy continued, "He says it's for, and I quote, 'Blokes and Hucksters'."
"That's a lie!", Reed retorted, squirming to rid his nostril of Jeffy's weapon. "I just switched over to tea as...as...a change of pace." He freed his nose and pushed away from Jeffy,
screaming, "Mr. Jeffy is the real imposter! Kill him!!"
The security team looked to Proteau for direction. He said nothing, but raised his own Splazer, took aim, and squeezed the trigger.
