Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Report Posted January 30, 2003 Chris Stephens Visitor Posts: 3 (11/24/01 12:03:22 pm) Reply A Thrust into the Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two tall, masculine figures stood against a wall in the communications room. Standing seven feet tall and having a faint yellow tint to their skin, their eyes kept over the room. Others like them were sitting in front of large boxes, pressing buttons, turning knobs. A loud, scratching noise was constantly blaring in the room. ----------------------------------------------------------- Chris Stephens stood silently as Admiral Taylor Colidet read from a booklet. With every word the admiral said, Chris felt smaller and smaller. "...absolutely no intimate relationships aboard ANY vessel, active or inactive. What don't you understand about that?!" Chris shrugged. "Well, maybe this will help you understand. There's a Type-Seven planetoid somewhere around here and you're going to spend some time on it." "Class.... seven?" Chris asked. He remembered the documentaries on Class Seven environments. Without an environmental suit, death was instant. The atmosphere was mainly of sulphur and carbon dioxide, and acid rain was the only thing that fell from the sky. As for life, there was none. Life was known to exist in the harshest of environments, but this environment was too harsh. "Yes, Class Seven. SFV Ultima came across it approximately three weeks before returning to Earth." (OOC: For any writers on Ultima, this is a hint. They have to make it home) "But wouldn't it cost too much to make a special trip out there? I mean, I know we're on a tight budget-" "I am funding this privately. I have too much money, anyway, so basically, follow me." The thought was so depressing it was sickening to Chris. A Class Seven Planet? How could any human endure such torture? Better yet, how could any human place another person into such torture?! Chris followed Taylor into the next room, where he met three other senior officers, sitting in chairs. "Take a se Taylor said. "Everybody, this is Chris Stephens, renowned Captain and recent drug addict. Chris, this is Mike Ross, Wendy McCallowe, and Charles-Jesse Roberts-" "What's with all the formality? Can't you call me C.J.?" Charles asked. "Personally, I don't care what you call each other. Chris here will be joining you in your trip to Furtusia, as he has racked up too many black points for minor drug abuse, disrespect to senior officers, and having intimate relations with other crewmembers." Taylor added. "How is it a crime? Doesn't it say, in the Regulation book, that a senior officer cannot be held to punishment by torture for disrespect to another senior officer of any rank?" "You're exactly right. I took this one into my own hands for the simple reason that you have over a hundred counts of it. Anyway, Mike is going for sabotaging the shuttlebay of the Starcharter, Wendie is going for leading a mutiny on the Alamari, and C.J. is going for threatening to launch a psychotic rampage on the High Council of the Codenamer Hierarchy. Well, we're to depart, so follow me." Taylor grabbed a few papers off of a desk and had the group follow him to the shuttle port in the neighboring room. "Lieutenant Simon Forrest will be your pilot. It'll take three days to get there, and you will be confined to the surface for three weeks. We are transporting enough food and water to sustain you for six or seven weeks, should an emergency occur. Board the shuttle," Taylor ordered. The thought that was going through the group's heads was either how to kill Taylor or take control of the shuttle. But, because it was Simon Forrest piloting, the latter thought could possibly be made into reality with little effort. "Hi," Simon said as Mike, Wendie, Chris and C.J. boarded the shuttle. They stared at him blankly as he fired up the shuttle's engines and blased off into open space. "So I hear we're off to some Class Five planet?" Simon asked. "Seven," C.J. corrected. "Class Seven? Is that man crazy?!" Simon asked. "Beats me, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was," Wendie commented. "He probably has some kind of mental defect," Mike said. "Maybe so. Anyway, Simon, if you don't like the idea, why are you taking us there?" Chris inquired. "Well, mainly because it was an order and he's got contacts everywhere. If we were to try to hide, he'd find us." "But," Mike began, "Chris has to be the best pilot anyone's ever seen, and I can alter our engine exhaust to make it appear that we were just an ordinary Bryonian cargo freighter." "Sorry, man, but there's nothing I can do. If I break these orders, I'll be hiding all my life. I have a family that I have to return home to. I care about you guys, but an order's an order. If it were just me, and I didn't have anything to return to, I'd do it," Simon said. The four in the back of the shuttle sighed. The next day, absolutely nothing happened. Chris, Wendie, Mike, and C.J. sat in the back of the shuttle, bored out of their minds. There was absolutely nothing to do, for Simon was required to keep a force field around him at all times. The only thing in the back of the shuttle was themselves and some food, which Mike was hoggishly digging into. To pass the time, they would sleep. Finally, on the third day, things became a little less boring. At first, it was the usual... but that quickly changed. Simon's control console started blaring loud beeping noises, which caught the attention of everyone. Listening to only the shuttle's humming and the breathing of the other people for two days bored them to the level that for every "bleep" and "bip" they heard caught their attention. "I get the feeling we're in for some... problems," Simon commented. He looked down at his control console, and a screen showed a thick mass of space dust blocking the Jzest Pass, located at the L'Tori Asteroid Belt that they had to pass through to get to Furtusia. "Nah..." Simon lied, "Everything's peachy." Chris and Mike, who had started to get up and see what was the matter, sat back down. "I know y'all are bored, so I'm going to play a game with you," Simon said. "What kind of game?" Wendie asked. "An 'if' game. I'm going to give you a situation and I want you to tell me what we should do." "Neat!" Mike said. "Okay... You're on an urgent mission. You have to pass through a pass in an asteroid belt, but it is blocked by space dust. You have to go through this pass, but the dust could very easily disable your engines. What would you do. Mike?" Simon asked. "I'd grease up the engine system and make it so that any debris or dust would go right through the system." "Wendie?" "I'd push right through it, unless it would be too thick to stop me." "C.J.? You're the engine maintenance officer, what do you think?" "Well, I think Mike's plan would make it worse, because the grease would allow the dust to stick in the engine. You'd have to go in dry." "Chris?" "I think we have an obstacle and you're trying to get us to answer for you." Simon blushed... OOC: I got to go for now, but I'll be back later to continue.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 peredhil31 Elder of Lists and Manners Posts: 407 (11/29/01 7:38:56 pm) Reply Munching Popcorn... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peredhil waits impatiently for the next promised installment. Good stuff! He whispers, trying not to break the mood.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Chris Stephens Initiate Posts: 4 (12/9/01 10:31:09 am) Reply Sorry its taking me so long -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've been very busy over the last two weeks, school's putting a bind on me. Add that to an AM guild war, and you'll notice I'm not on any of the forums I usually browse and I hardly talk to anyone on MSN. But I stopped by because I have to write more of this story. ---------------------------- "What do you mean?!" Simon screamed as he turned away so no one could see the expression on his face. "There isn't an asteroid belt between Furtusia and Teranig Eight. We passed Teranig Eight yesterday, and we've still got a good way to go before we reach Furtusia." "How could we know if you're lying to us or not, Simon? I realize you want to get home, and I understand that. But, you can at least be honest with us," Mike commented. "I am being honest with you. There's no asteroid belt between us. I was only placing you in a situation, there's no need for you to get paranoid." "Simon," Chris began, "I know you better than that. There's an asteroid belt, and there's a load of dust blocking us." "No," Simon said, shaking his head. "Don't lie to me," Chris demanded. "Are you trying to order me?" Simon chuckled. "You have no rank and no power and no ability to do physical harm to me. I told you already that I'm not turning around. I have a goal, I am getting through that belt, regardless of what you want." "So there is a belt?!" Wendie screamed. "S***!" Simon screamed as he punched his work console. "You are a terrible liar, now turn us around because we won't make it through," Wendie suggested. "Nah, C.J.'s advice seems to be good enough for me. We're going in as we are right now," Simon said. He fired up the engines to the shuttle, and as it proceeded to the thick dust cloud, the engines made a loud crunching noise and suddenly stopped. The shuttle moved forward very slowly and then stopped. "Crap! Damn!" Simon screamed. Chris looked at C.J., who was grinning. "He's so stupid, nobdoy plays 'if' games and nobody asks the prisoners what they should do." C.J.'s grin turned into uncontrollable laughter while the power in the shuttle flickered and went out. "No! Emergency power!" Simon screamed, noticing the security threat he had placed himself in. The force field that separated him from the four in the back of the shuttle was now offline, as was all weapons should an alien threat impede upon them. Wendie ran up past the force field to Simon, laughing as she danced like a six-year old ballerina girl. Simon frantically tried to get his ship back up and running when Mike put his hand on Simon's shoulder. "We're not going to hurt you. We're just going to hijack your shuttle and lock you in the back." He let out a maniacal laugh, one that sent a chill through everyone's spine. "You can walk to the back of the shuttle peacefully where C.. will restrain you until we get the shuttle back operational. All we have to do is clear the air intakes on the engines. Stupid engineers, building air intakes on a shuttlecraft that's designed to go into space." Mike and Chris went down into the lower engine deck and within a minute, the engines were back working and power had been restored. At that same time, Simon somehow broke free of C.J.'s grip and ran to the front of the shuttle to regain his controls. Mike and Chris came up through a set of stairs that opened right beside Simon's operating console. They saw him running, and Chirs, determined to not let him regain control of the shuttle, tackled him midway to his workstation. Chris's eyes began to glow red, and his two arms bent themselves perfectly straight. " MY SHUTTLE!" he screamed as what appeared to be a nine-inch blade, of the same enamel that fingernails are made of, emerged from his hand. This "blade" was sharp to the touch, so sharp that when he touched it to Simon's face, he started to bleed. His excessively deep, scratchy voice started again, it said, " You will not command or control me, weak human!" He picked Simon up and threw him against the back wall of the shuttle, knocking him unconscious. Mike and Wendie stared in shock, C.J. had seen this happen only once. "What the f@#$?!" Mike screamed. He looked at the blade, and the blood pouring from where the blade came through his skin. "Skrian Rage," C.J. informed. "It's said that when he was on the Magentose mission, when they went after Jesse Kane 12 years ago, he was infected with a Skrian virus that altered his genetic code. He's had outrages three times before I believe, mostly against Commander Lidox of the Ultima. "He's Skree?!" Wendie screamed. Chris pushed himself off the floor and looked at her. The blade began to retract as he looked at her and said, "I am human, like you. I will never be Skr-" Chris fell face first onto the floor, into the blood that had continously poured from his arm. "I believe they said its best not to move him, it could trigger another relapse onto us," C.J. informed the other crew.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Chris Stephens Page Posts: 6 (2/10/02 2:48:19 am) Reply This is taking me TOO long , but I'm still here & wri -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OOC: For a while I totally forgot about this story... then Falcon sent me a few links to his song and I remembered the story, I give my sincere apologies about not writing. I've been trying to obtain a real life (anyone have a good one they wouldn't mind selling to me?), thus leaving me with a sincere less amount of computer time. Not to mention, Blake (Vincent Silver on the AM boards) uses my computer as well, taking two hours from the time I would usually use. I'll try to write on this whenever I can, and actually when I just re-read it, I realized I have more inspiration on this one than I do anything else I've been writing. So here we go, continuing from where I last left off. EDIT: Whoa, I must be sleepy because I almost said that Chris was C.J.'s guild captain... hehe --------------------------------------------------- IC: "I don't understand... just what is he?" Wendie asked. C.J. looked at her and replied, "He was my ship captain for three missions. He's human, like you and me, but it was believed that on the Magnetose mission, that the event horizon they were traveling near was somehow... altered... and a Skrian radiation was somehow being emitted from it. It's being investigated that the event horizon was artifical somehow, created by the Skree. Chris's DNA pattern was altered, as was Jesse Kane's and a few others from the ship. Chris suffered the most heavily from it, staying in the MTC of the Starcharter for nearly a week before his radiation treatments were over." "Oh... I thought he was one of those filthy Skree..." she replied. "There are times when he flips into Skrian Rage, though. It happens when he gets extremely anxious, in an angry type of course, or when he gets very tense. He's not the type of person who gets into those moods easily, though, so the chances of him going into Skrian Rage are rare." C.J. turned to see Mike walking toward Chris and trying to help him up. "No! Mike!" C.J. screamed. But Mike didn't listen, he thought he was acting in Chris's best interests. C.J. knew what was going to happen - it happened every time before. Mike grabbed Chris's arms and tried to lift him up, and a sign of shock came across Mike's face when he felt Chris's muscles tense to an extreme. Chris lifted himself from a puddle of blood that had accumulated on the floor, spun around, and with reddish-black eyes, stabbed Mike through the chest with the blade. Mike stared at C.J. with even wider eyes than before, as he felt the rush of blood flowing outward from his chest. Running down his chest and darkening his uniform the blood flowed, eventually soaking his uniform to the point where it began to drip through. Wendie and C.J. grabbed Mike and hauled him to the back of the shuttle where they fumbled through the technical tools that they held. "Grab that scanner!" C.J. screamed. "Tell me if he punctured any internal organs!" "I can't tell, this thing is telling me that his chestbone is broken into two, but that's all. I can't read anything beyond that." "Then hand me a skin regenerator and tell me if his chestbone is aligned back into place or if I will have to do it!" As C.J. worked, Mike tried to speak but coninually choked up blood, leaving the sides of his face reddened from the stains that were beginning to form. "They're aligned," Wendie said, handing C.J. the skin regenerator. "It's our only chance of saving him. I can't stop the bleeding but maybe I can with this." C.J. turned the device on and watched as the wound closed up, leaving a very noticeable scar. C.J. then proceeded to get a body cast for Mike, which would prevent him from moving and would allow his bones to start healing. Chris remained standing, dumbfounded to anything that had just happened. Simon stared as Chris shook his head and looked around him. Realizing what had happened to Mike, he inquired about how Mike had been injured. Wendie began to realize the true effect of Skrian Rage on a person when Chris was unable to answer the question "What was the last thing you did?" correctly. "He tried to help you up, you were bleeding and you stabbed him through the chest," C.J. explained. Chris was also in shock - he had never stabbed a friend before when coming out of Skrian Rage. In fact, the closest he ever came to injuring was a nurse who was doing the EXACT same thing, but he snapped out of Skrian Rage while in mid-swing and was able to stop himself. Chris was filled with such remorse that he was sick to his stomach the whole day... he sat in the back of the shuttle while Wendie played the role of pilot aboard the shuttle. Wendie's skill was soon to be tested when the ship's control console blared many bleeping noises. C.J. walked up and realized that a Haikron patrol vessel was closing on them, with their weapons locked...
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Chris Stephens Page Posts: 7 (2/19/02 8:42:02 pm) Reply Yayz! An update in under two weeks! lol -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OOC: Well, I remembered this time and I'm here to write on this story, just letting everyone know that I am alive, and I will try to get on IRC sometime. Also, on a side note, all alien dialogue is recorded in an alien dialogue dictionary, to be used in future purposes. IC: "I think we might have a problem," Wendie commented as she read her stat screen in front of her - the patrol vessel was nearly six hundred times larger than the shuttle they were using, and had laser cannons aboard that could rip the shuttle into a thousand pieces with one shot. "I think you might be right," C.J. commented as he overlooked Wendie's stat screen, then was caught off guard by a loud noise from the speakers - the Haikron had opened a communications channel. "Pathetic humans!" the hideous nine-foot, six armed and three legged yellow humanoid yelled in his native language (though through a translator). "How dare you intrude in our space?! You will die for your actions!" C.J. cleared his throat, and began his attempt at impressing the Haikron officer and his crewmates. "Jak-Mes Ucha, tesa et mat'trai Earth gata'es peca. Jes C.J. Roberts, Human gata'es Ucha. Tesa pat'na pasa nehrit gatliox phaki Hatkren gata'es. Tesa moch hest zapet swa'la getro lade gata'es tuoa tesa pat'na pasa chu'esla gatliox." The Haikron officer stared at him, wondering how he knew the sacred dialect. "We will not let you pass, however, we will not kill you. Thank your human space officer." After cutting the link, Wendie let out a loud sigh of relief, while Chris walked up to him and asked, "What the hell?! How did you know that? I thought I was the only one who could speak an alien dialect, because of my Skrian genes." "Well... be surprised," C.J. replied. Chris continued to stare in amazement as Wendie plotted an alternate course that would take them out of Haikron space... and into a Skrian space colony. Wendie, through careful piloting, got through the security border without getting caught. Getting through, though, wouldn't be as easy. Wendie's blaring, danger-detecting alarm went off again, catching the ears of everyone, including the injured Mike in the back of the shuttle. C.J. looked forward at the oncoming barrage of Skrian warships, while Chris threw Wendie out of her seat and took over, fiddling with controls in a desperate attempt to hide the ship from the Skrian scanners. When a loud, straining, creaking noise was heard while the ship violently shook, he knew that he had failed in his attempts. "I'm going to fire back at them," Chris muttered, only to the disapproval from each and every one of his crewmates. "Well, look at it this way, we either get hit and die or die fighting." The crew then agreed with him as he fired his first energy-ball like shot at the lead ship, which surprisingly did more damage than expected - once impacting their fusion core room, it disabled their ship and two others that were following direct orders from it. Six more ships followed, desperate to kill the humans and the shuttle... Have to write more later, father came home drunk like usual and is b****ing, so i've g2g for now. I'll try to write more on this later.
Archive Posted January 30, 2003 Author Report Posted January 30, 2003 Falcon2001 Quill-Bearer Posts: 232 (3/8/02 12:21:12 am) Reply Re: Yayz! An update in under two weeks! lol -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRITE MORE, DANG YOU!!! Now that I finally found out where the hell you were putting it...
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