Dare to Dream discussion
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End of the world
There's that word of yours that I don't like. * I look around the room nervously* How do we get out? How did we get here? Mike, I have a really bad feeling about this.
Well, according to the recorder we're close to where we came in...the corridor is just gone. You know me, my main plan is to find the general area of the door and use armor piercing ammunition to blow a big enough hole to get out...then push the button to blow the entire thing.
*I lift my ears, thanks to extra muscles, and look behind us* Umm..Mike ...you might want to hurry that up becAuse something is coming this way and it's coming pretty dang fast.
*Mike sets Lacy down and turns...he then fires several shots back toward the approaching shape. Whatever it was ducks to one side...through a door that wasn't there a few seconds before.Mike turns, removes the assault weapon from his back and firs into the wall of the "ship". As holes blow through the entire ship shudders. Mike turns to Lacy. *
Wait, do you...feel anything mentally? I'm getting some pressure. it doesn't feel like an attack...
* Mike turns back in case "whatever it was" comes back at them.*
*I close my eyes for a moment then reopen them* Yes...it's the ship asking you to stop firing. It's alive...and whatever is following us is one of the few crew left. The creatures on the vines weren't always deadly but when they entered the planet's atmosphere something changed them and they began to attack the crew. *I place my hand to my forehead* We can't blow it up, Mike. We would be killing other innocent lives.
*I look at you* Can't we contain the blast, mentally? Just blow up the vines.
Maybe...lets see who or what this is and maybe we can go back and reposition the explosives. It would be best to blow that vine where ever it's pulling in nutrients if we plan to save the ship.We also need to know why the creatures changed. That's no spontaneous change. Someone...or as I said something, caused it.
*I lift my hand and push down your gun so that it is no longer pointing at where the creature had disappeared* Then let's start by letting the creature come to us so we can talk to him or her.
See if you can reach him. I'll drop my shield...a little.
*I move forward slowly and lean against the wall to support my weight since my injured leg can't at that moment. I look to the door where the creature had disappeared and called out quietly in my mind. A few second later a head pokes out and we see four yellow eyes staring at us on a pale green face. I smile and hold out my hand and the creature runs towards us, running into my open arms* Oh Mike...he's just a child.
Great...okay. See if you can get him, her or it to come out and fill us in on what's gone on here. This ship looks to have been buried up here maybe a thousand years. Apparently they've been here a while and something has started waking them or something.
*The little alien child looked at Mike and made a rude sound before disappearing* Mike, it's a boy and he doesn't like your tone of voice. Remember he's still young. If he were human, I would say about six or seven. *I painfully get to my knee and call to him, the child reappearing and coming to me, not taking his eyes off of you. He snuggles in my arms and sniffles a little * The creature killed his mother two days ago. His father went out to see if he could find help but hasn't returned yet. The father left a few moon cycles ago before his mother's death on a small escape pod that the ship carries. *I look a you, eyes wide* The ship we saw! That must be his father!
But that ship's floating toward us, not leaving. What does he mean his father went out? Did he go out of the ship or was he able to get a shuttle or something above ground?Is there a control room, someplace we might find records or anything that will tell us what's going on?
He said that the emergency pod can be flown like a ship and it flew out of here a few moon cycles ago. Not sure how long ago. *I slowly stand up, readjusting my weight to my good leg, the little boy looking at the wound, one of his four arms gently touching around it, whimpering* Hey it's okay. I'll be fine. *The boy looks up and shook his head, my eyes growing wide for a second* Okay I'll take good care of it I promise. Mike, he says that his mother had been bitten and died a few hours later that the thing has some sort of poison in its bite...
Okay, lay down...let's check this. * Mike uses the tricorder to do an analysis of her blood. *
Okay...can you contact the ship itself? We need an door out. If it can't let us out I'll have to make a way.
*I lay down, smiling at the boy as he knelt next to me and held my hand. I reassure him with my smile and nod. The boy lets go of my hand and walk over to the side of the ship and gently touched it. The ship responded and opened a door to the outside, the dark cave beyond the door. He looks at you then me, whimpering again.*
Lets go...* Leaning on his mutation as he hadn't in a long time Mike snatches her up, leaps to the ground and takes off at a rune, trusting the young one to keep up. It doesn't take long to reach the shuttle where Mike puts Lacy on complete life support.
The boy who had fallen behind arrives as Mike is working with her. Within minutes the shuttle is up and Mike is setting it for highest speed outside the atmosphere.
They arrive back at the ship within an hour. Lacy is stable but unconscious.
Soon she's in the Ship's sick bay having her blood treated and her organs rejuvenated. *
*The boy nudges around you to get closer to me. He looks at the machines that were working on my blood and finding a way to get rid of the poison. He flinches every time the machines beep and moves closer to me. He takes my limp hand and holds it looking up at you and blinking all sets of eyes one right after another. In Mike's mind he hears the boy say, 'this going to save me?'*
We will if we can. Try not to be scared. She has to stay here for a while. Are you hungry?
*He blinks at you again and nod* Haven't eaten since mom died....*He rings his hands together.* There are only a few of us left. Hidden...the ship hides us from them...
Okay...well, lets see what you can eat and then we'll see if Lacy's alright for me to go back to the ship. I'll see about getting your people out and killing the bad things.
Without killing our home? The ship is our home...we love our home...*He follows you to the mess hall, taking your hand with one of his own, his eyes going this way and that as he looked over our ship in awed curiosity*
I'll try. We have to kill the creatures. I think the ship knows that...but I need to find out why the ship hasn't killed the other creatures but keeps feeding them on that vine or whatever it is.Do you know when the creatures on the vine started to change? How long have you been awake?
*He looks up at you* We have been awake for three years, staying below since we didn't know what to expect some ground. The vines changed when we woke up...something from the atmosphere..the asteroid shower we went through had a gas...a bad gas that for to the vines. The gas...changed them.
Well, do you usually eat meats or vegetables? Will you let me prick your finger with this pin? I can use a drop of your blood to tell what's safe for you to eat.
*He looks at the pin for only a split second before he pricked his own finger on the tip and squeezing a drop of blood up* Is this enough? *His blood is the same color as ours but a little bit darker red*
Sure...* Mike dips the pin into the blood and takes it back into the sickbay/lab area. After a few seconds Mike gets the readings *Okay, not too different from us...you need a lot more iron than we do. What say we get you a burger and some greens and see if you like it?
*He looks at you excitedly* What kind of meat do you eat? We eat all kinds of different kind of alien meats.
This is cow.... From our planet.
Cow? What is cow? Does it have three eyes, two heads, and six tails? *He sits down at a table*
Just taste it.... It has meat. I'll put just some mustard and ketchup on for now and we'll try other condiments later. Try these greens to, they may not be as good as the burger, but they have a lot of iron.* Mike hands him a burger and slides a plate of greens to him. Then adds a bit of vinegar to cut the green's bitterness. *
*He looks at the burger and greens curiously. He pokes the burger then grabs it up and begins to eat it, smiling to show that he enjoyed it. He then looked at the greens and poked at it. He looks uncertain*
I know...but they're good for you. Eat them and I'll get you another burger. Here try this.* Mike hands him a milkshake.*
I'm going to check on Lacy while you eat. I at least need to get back there, don't know if Lacy can go or not.
*he looks at the milkshake then at you* The others they can help you. Just tell them that you are my friend. Tell them you know Lar-ka. *He smiles then takes a sip of the milkshake, a look of surprise crossing his face*
* Mike goes back to check on Lacy's condition.*
*I lay on the bed, my head turned away from you but once you enter I turn my head and opened my eyes. I smiled tiredly at you* Mike....where is the boy? Have you figured out how we can destroy the vines without harming the ship?
I'm not sure. I think I can direct the blast inward but it will depend on if the ship can contain said blast without being hurt. Maybe the ship can help us by feeding something into that vine thing that will kill the creatures. I'll have to try and hear it.I've got to head back...will you and the boy be alright? He's in the galley, he likes burgers and milkshakes by the way.
You can't go without me. *I quickly sit up and grab your hand* You can't go back there alone. It's not safe. *I blink my eyes several time trying to focus on you from sitting up too fast*
Think about it. You just almost passed out from sitting up. How safe will I be worried about you all the time? Besides that do you think the boy will be alright without someone to care for him? If he goes charging back into things there's another life in danger.Tell you what, I'll get my things together,
* Mike holds up the knife he used to kill the two creatures and it's sheath. Both are ruined by acid from the creatures blood*
and come back. If you're well enough to go you and the boy come and stay in the ship while i try to save the other colonists and kill the vine. Will you go with that?
*I lay back down and nod my head* Okay...get your stuff. But I'm going with you no matter what.
* Mike shakes his head as he rearms. Then he goes and rigs a bed in the fighter which he intends to take in place of the shuttle because of it's speed. *Okay the boy has finished...think you can walk to the ship?
*I slip off of the bed* Yes... *the boy runs into the room and with strength he kept hidden he picked me up* No I carry you! *I giggled and looked down at the you as he carried me to the fighter. I look back at you shocked*
*He gently lays me on the bed then hops on and cuddles close to me. I wrap my arm around him as he smiles and closes his eyes. I look at you sadly as I gently stroke his forehead* I guess we're ready to go, Mike.
Right....* It takes little time to make the hop by breaking atmosphere and orbiting the planet. As we arrive at the area things have changed. A dozen or so people of the boy's race are fleeing the hole that leads down to the ship.
Lacy get's a sad contact from what she realizes is the ship:
"These are all I could save. The OTHERS are starting to break free and I can't allow that. Goodbye."
Mike got only a sense of this but feels the over riding sense of sadness. Then his attention is drawn away.*
There's a shuttle over there landed and some of the people are around it to...
Did you feel that, sadness?
*I lift my eyes from the ship and follow where your are looking* Must be this ones father finally come back for him. *I look back at you* The ship...it's going to kill itself.
* A blast rocks the ground as a geyser of earth explodes upward. Mike fights the controls a few seconds and sets the ship down by the grounded shuttle.*Well, we seem to have guests...
*The boy hops off of Thebes eager to see if it is in fact his dad in the other ship. I sit up slowly and slid off the bed, easing my legs to the ground readying myself to stand.*
Dare to Dream
Books mentioned in this topic
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (other topics)Phoenix Rising (other topics)
The Janus Affair (other topics)
* They speed along the corridor but it soon becomes plain that they have run back farther than they walked down.
The corridor has indeed shifted or changed. Mike stops in a wide area where the corridor has widened out into a large round chamber. No doors are in evidence, only the continuing corridor. *
Crap...