A Bridge Over Troubled Space

by Sinaqua

3. The thing about the night...

James awoke to find himself back in his studio apartment. This was strange, to say the least, as his last memories were of bedbugs and irradiation. Or something like that. He stands up, goes to his closet, and puts on a shirt--even the closet was exactly as he remembered it, disgusting and disorganized. But everything felt surreal, like it wasn't really there. "Well, I must just be tired," thought James, "I did have the weirdest dream last night," but the odd feeling didn't leave. He felt as though he were being watched, but as he turned, there was nobody in the room with him. Just him and the bed. James checked his Bonsai tree, nothing out of the ordinary, no hidden cameras, nothing. Nothing in the closet either. James looked around very closely, trying to spot something out of place, something hidden, anything really. There was his TV, a mini-fridge that was always unplugged, the Bonsai, and his computer. Wait, a computer? James never owned a computer, he could never wrap his mind around how they worked, nor did he have the patience to figure it out. "Yeah," James' thoughts began, "I own a PS8, not a-"

"Do not be afraid." A voice emanated from the walls.

"Whointhewhatnow?!" asked a very startled James, "Have I actually lost my sanity?"

"No, thy mind is safe, but we doth need thy help."

"Okay, talking wall--no, I've dealt with enough insane B-S." James stated bluntly.

"You dare to defy us?" said the wall threateningly, "We could turn thy dreams into eternal nightmares!"

"Ooh." James shook his hands sarcastically, "I'm so very scared. A fucking wall is going to give me nightmares."

"How dare--"

"Listen, wall, it was good talking with you and all, but uh- things are a bit too weird for me right now."

"You dare to inter-"

"G'bye"

Immediately after James finished talking, he forced himself to wake up the only way he knew how--Remembering walking in on his grandparents when he was eight. "AAH--holyshit, I'm up." James shuddered, thinking that maybe some repressed memories served a purpose. If nothing else, it would stop any morning wood from growing. James went to the galley to fix himself a cup of coffee.

James stood at the--um machine that replicates food? The Replicator? Sure, why not? James stood at the replicator, trying to get it to function. "Hey, machine. Do you know what coffee is?"

The machine kicked on. "AFFIRMATIVE, WOULD YOU LIKE A -CUP OF COFFEE-?"

"Hell, yes."

"INITIATING REPLICATION MATRIX... LOADING MATERIAL CONFIGURATION: COFFEE... INITIALIZING... COMPLETE."

An opening in the machine produced a cup of pitch-black elixir. James spent no time getting it out of the machine's opening.

"CAUTION ADVISED: LIQUIDS MAY BE HOT," chimed the machine.

"Yeah, yeah." James sipped his coffee as he went back to the bridge. He sat down at his chair, turned to face the cube, and spoke, "What time even is it?"

"CURRENTLY 04:30. THE LOCAL AREA IS STILL IN A NIGHT-CYCLE."

"Thank you."

"AFFIRMATIVE. I HAVE DONE SOME SCANNING OVERNIGHT, WOULD YOU LIKE THE RESULTS OF THE SCAN?"

"Um... sure?"

"DURING YOUR REST, THERE WAS 124,873 DIFFERENT ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE CHANGES--"

"Cube, cut it to the interesting parts, please."

"ACKNOWLEDGED. THERE HAS BEEN AN INCIDENCE OF TRIONIC INDUCTION WITHIN 1/2 MILE OF THE SHIP. FURTHER SCANS HAVE INDICATED THAT TRIONIC INDUCTION IS HAPPENING ACROSS THE PLANET'S SURFACE AT SEEMINGLY RANDOM LOCATIONS. HIGH AMOUNTS OF TRIONIC INDUCTION HAS BEEN OCCURRING WITHIN A STRUCTURE ON A NEARBY MOUNTAIN."

"Is Trionic watchucallit dangerous?"

"NEGATIVE, BUT IT WILL INTERFERE WITH ELECTRONIC SCANS AND LONG-RANGE SENSORS."

"Why is this important then?"

"TRIONIC INDUCTION DOES NOT OCCUR NATURALLY. TRIONS ARE A BY-PRODUCT OF A HYPER-FUSION REACTION, CAUSED BY SMALL QUANTUM ANOMALIES WITHIN THE REACTOR CORE. FURTHER SCANNING RECOMMENDED."

"Alright, I'll make it a point to do sometime, until then, is there a way I can get some weaponry?" James asked, knowing that his luck was bound to run out eventually.

"THERE IS A KNIFE IN THE--"

"I know about the knife, something with more of a kick, like a plasma thrower or somethin'"

"THE REPLICATION UNITS IN THE GALLEY HAVE AN EXTENSIVE LIBRARY OF TEMPLATES, WITH SUFFICIENT ENERGY AND MATERIALS, THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO PRODUCE A FIREARM WITH SUFFICIENT 'KICK'"

"Did you just use my own words against me?"

"NEGATIVE, I JUST USED THE WORD METAPHORICALLY, SIMILARLY TO HOW YOU DID."

"Fair enough. What materials would the replicators need to make a 'thrower?"

"MOST REQUIRED MATERIALS ARE ALREADY ON BOARD. WOULD YOU LIKE A LIST OF MATERIALS NEEDED?"

"Yes."

The cube begins to spin around, twisting suddenly, then returning to a neutral state. It does this repeatedly, until a list is printed out of one of the many openings in the cube. James looks at the list:

ELEMENTS REQUIRED FOR A MK-I PLASMA DISCHARGE FIREARM
-GOLD, 1.5 mg
-COPPER, .5 Kg
-EXODIUM
-PETROLEUM
-CARBON
-------------

Noticing the missing amounts on several columns, James asked, "Hey, cube, how much exodium would you need?"

"ANY AMOUNT VISIBLE TO YOU WOULD BE A SURPLUS FOR THIS PROJECT."

"Alrighty then."

James folded up the list and put it in his pocket. Exodium was a dark metal typically found near Sathium deposits. Sathium was usually found in asteroids. This would be fun--but before he could ask the cube to scan for Sathium, it blared out "PLASMA IONIZATION IS OCCURRING IN THE LOCAL AREA--WEAPONS SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN ARMED... ENGAGING EVASIVE MANEUVERS." The ship suddenly lurched from its perch in the center of town, throwing James to the floor. He heard the telltale sound of a plasma barrage firing past the hull of the ship. It seemed to miss entirely, whoever fired it didn't expect the ship to suddenly catapult itself up. "RAISING SHIELDS... SHIELDS ARE AT 100%. SCANNING FOR IONIZATION..." the cube chimed.

"Are there ANY fucking weapons on this thing?!"

"DIRE SITUATION PROTOCOLS ENGAGED... JAMES OAKFIELD, AS CAPTAIN OF THE CRIMSON LANCE, HAS BEEN GIVEN FULL USE OF ANY AND ALL MACHINERY. ENGAGE RETURN FIRE?"

"YES, DEAR GOD YES!!"

Not before the second "YES" James heard a plate, no, several plates shift on the outside of the hull, then the sound of machinery, followed by the sound of plates once more. Then the sound of plasma casters warming up, followed by the cube "LOCATION IS POPULATED BY CIVILIANS, WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?"

"Move the fight or something!"

"AFFIRMATIVE." The back engines roared to life, just as James managed to stumble into his chair. He looked out the windscreen for any indication of what they were being fired upon by. In the night he couldn't make out much, it was basically useless to try to see anything, anyway, with the ship bobbing around. The ship flew about a mile before re-scanning the area. A barrage of plasma hit the rear shields, followed by the soft thumping of returned caster fire--the cube had seen something--another barrage hit the top shields, and James got a look at their assailant. It was a dark blue horse-thing, with large black wings. It wore blue-ish armor on it's head, also where a long, smooth horn jutted out. It was larger than the previous ponies James met earlier, and it's hair seemed to be made of stars. James told the cube to lock on to it, but the cube failed. A caster barrage flew into the field below, igniting the dry grass. The thing turned in the air, it's horn lit up, and a barrage hit the forward shields. James had an idea, didn't the cube say that trions were detected in the local area?

"Cube, scan for trionic distortions!" The cube hummed, then locked on to the creature. The creature turned to make another attack, but the cube was faster--the soft thump-thump of the casters was met with a shrill screech as the creature's shield broke. The thing fell a distance before it flew back into the air. It made a circle around and seemed to be trying for another barrage, but the cube met it halfway. Another screech as its shield broke once more, and it fell. It seemed to fall a farther distance before flying once more, this time away from the ship. It turned, trained its horn to the sky, and pointed it at the ship.

"HYPERMATTER WEAPON CHARGING, ENGAGING SHORT-DISTANCE ANSIBLE JUMP," chimed the cube before all was black. The suffocating blackness was all that James saw before all senses came back to him. They were behind the creature now--and not a moment too late--the area they were in was blasted with a massive beam of energy. The creature turned towards the ship, but before James could give the order, before the creature could react, two bright blue balls of plasma hit it directly in the chest, a third grazing the top of its body. The thing fell, smoking, to the ground. The cube scanned the creature. "UNKNOWN CREATURE IS THE SAME SPECIES AS THOSE WE MET EARLIER. THIS ONE IS NOT DEAD, MERELY UNCONSCIOUS. RECOMMENDED ACTION: CONTAIN UNTIL FURTHER INFORMATION CAN BE GATHERED."

"How the hell are we going to contain something that can fire plasma at will?!"

"A CARGO BAY CAN BE SET WITH AN IONIZATION INHIBITOR AND A FUSION SHIELD IN APPROXIMATELY 20 MINUTES."

"See to it then." James sighed, almost dead two times now?

Comments

[Huk]

Not bad so far - one thing I would like to suggest though is more spacing between paragraphs, a single empty line should make it easier to read

A lot of other hints are listed in the Ezn's guide from the FAQ - currently the link is down, but here is a copy:

http://web.archive.org/web/20160502070657/http://eznguide.neocities.org/