The long way back…
Porter and Dizzy are in the room where the container with the humanoid inside is,
PORTER: “I guess we’re here then”
DIZZY: “It’s the right room, I can see the box over there”
They are in a largely white spacious area that looks like it is used for medial storage with equipment around the walls. The container is against a wall on the floor, it has a VDU screen with alien writing and graphics scrolling across on it.
PORTER: “Well, surprise! This seems to be trouble free and straightforward, I bet the other team are finding this just as easy as we are!”
DIZZY bends down and lifts one end of the two-and-a-half-meter long box by its handle at the end. Something can be heard sloshing around inside like a liquid gel. Dizzy stands still silently and motionless for a few seconds while her computer brain calculates the boxes weight.
DIZZY: “Its 310 point seven three kilograms, we can carry this between us easily”
PORTER: “Can you hear that DIZZY, sounds like the humanoid has melted”
DIZZY: “Should we open it and check? John didn’t say don’t open it did he?”
PORTER: “Nor did John say open it either?”
DIZZY: “Ok, let’s take it back to the Ballerina then”
Porter picks up the other end of the container and they both exit the room.
Dizzy notices the display on the wall next to the door as they exit the room.
DIZZY: “That is flashing Porter”
PORTER: “I think that must be an alarm. I think they know we are here”.
Porter and Dizzy start walking quickly back down the corridor with the container.
Meanwhile…
John finds himself laying on the floor four meters away from where he Tombs, and Ghost had been hit by the blast from the aliens weapon. He
sits up and looks left and right for Tombs and Ghost, then hears some shouting and looks forward, the aliens are shooting at John. They start shouting at him in an alien language. Both aliens reset their weapons and take aim at John.
He sees that Ghost and Tombs are on their feet already and have taken up position on either side of the opening where the Endellions just came though.
Ghost and Tombs raise their guns up behind the Endellions and fire.
Boosh! And both of the Endellions heads turn into clouds of fuzzy green and red mist splattering over John who is still sitting upright on the floor.
The Endellions headless corpses fall to the ground still gripping their weapons.
GHOST: “I love that gun setting”
TOMBS: “Yeah, Boosh!”
John is wiping the green and red gelatine substance off his face.
JOHN: “Why can’t you just fucking well shoot them both with bullets, why have you got to use the polarized wideband particle setting”
GHOST: ”Because Boosh!”
TOMBS: ”Yeah! Boosh!”
GHOST: “Their body amour most likely would stop any projectile, or even bounce off, ricocheted, hit you, and could had fucked you off, dead!”
TOMBS: “Boooosh! is best boss!
Tombs stands over one of the aliens corpse and pokes it with the end of his weapon.
TOMBS: “That way they don’t get up”
JOHN: “Generally Tombs, aliens with a liquified head, which incidentally is mostly over me, don’t get up”
John looks around at his shoulder and sees an alien eyeball hanging from his collar, it seems to wink at him, he grabs it then throws it at Ghost who overhand catches it, then holds it up to show Tombs.
GHOST: “Tombs! a souvenir”
Tombs gives Ghost the thumbs up as Tombs unbuttons his combat jacket top pocket and tucks the eyeball into it then pats it and smiles.
JOHN: “Let’s get going, A-S-A-P”
They all start walking briskly back down the corridor back towards the Ballerina. As they pass each bulkhead the door behind them glides closed and locks with a heavy thud and a clunk, sounding like a lock engaging.
John looks back at the heavy closed door they just passed though.
JOHN: “I don’t like the look of this”
Johns armband device is flashing a warning, he stops to look. Then he notices something happening down at his feet, John looks down at the floor. John looks up at Ghost and Tombs, the corridor that John, Ghost and Tombs are in seems to be stretching and elongating, Ghost and Tombs seem to be moving away from him while he is standing still. John shouts at them both,
JOHN: “You two go on”
TOMBS: “What’s going on John?”
Then Tombs and Ghost both look down at their flashing warning arm band devices. Ioa contacts them all via there head comms, her voice is echoing,
IOA: “John!, Tombs!, Ghost!, the ships sensors are detecting a gravity shear in the area where you are currently, there is a strong possibility of space-time Frame Dragging at your location”
GHOST: “Shit, move it Tombs”
TOMBS: “Yeah, Ok”
Ghost and Tombs move on down the corridor, Ghost worryingly looks back at John as another set of doors close behind them trapping John.
John tries to contact Ioa,
JOHN: “Ioa, Ioa? Shit!”
John looks around quickly accessing the situation, either ends of the corridor are moving away, he seems to be in the middle. He reaches behind his back near his gun.
His artificial hand magnetically levitates his silverly square folded media gun from his belt. As it levitates it spins into the correct position for him to hold it firmly, he grasps it and unfolds it then sets it up pushing each of the four one cent size round glowing gemstone buttons in sequence to a high-power laser cut mode, then aims it at the corridor wall next to him.
His media gun shines a blue guide circle on the wall panel.
He adjusts the laser guide silhouette to an oval shape on the wall just big enough to get his body though and fires the gun, with a flash, some sparks, and some smoke the edges of the laser cut shape glow red, he kicks the thick wall panel in, the oval shape metal wall falls into a room with a positive metal thud.
He jumps though the hole and finds himself in the middle of a firefight between Endellions and a dark triangular pillow shaped spaceship about 30 meters across docked in an auxiliary cargo deck of the Endellions destroyer.
The Endellions see John and John realises this, John looks back at the hole he just came though thinking he could go back through it, but he sees the chunk of metal on the floor move up from the floor and back into the hole. Time has just reversed the hole he cut in the wall.
He cannot go back that way and the Endellions are starting to fire at him now. He’s realises that he is close to the dark triangular pillow shaped spaceship and runs towards it intending to shield himself from the Endellions fire.
A particle weapon shoots and grazes his upper right arm burning though his space suit and though to his flesh beneath as he dives for cover and slides along the floor and behind part of the spaceship. As he squats down behind the spaceship he pat’s his smouldering clothes with his left hand.
JOHN: “Fuck, FUCK, bollocks! that hurts, that fucking burns”
John adjusts his gun to shoot bursts of particle laser fire. He starts to look up to take aim at some of the Endellions, but suddenly there is a large
“Slap” noise just behind and above him, he looks around and sees an orange blob the size of a clenched fist stuck to the side of the spaceship.
One of the Endellion’s has fired a “Tack grenade” at him, he knows exactly what it is and gets up and tries to run.
JOHN: “No, No NO!”
The grenade explodes and John is caught in a big explosion, his body is flung across the docking bay floor like a discarded rag doll. Laying on the ground with debris across him he realizes some of his injuries could be fatal. Badly injured he drifts into unconsciousness……
John wakes up, and he thinks that Ioa is looking down on him. The woman is dressed all in black with gothic like makeup. He is laying down and cannot move his head. He is looking around with his right eye. John is in a dark and unfamiliar spaceship. He panics, JOHN: “Ioa, IOA ?”
WOMAN: “Quiet John, your very very badly injured, please breath normally”
The woman puts a breathing mask over his mouth and nose. John falls asleep.
JOHN: “I-o-a……”