i was incredibly bored this evening... so i devoted 40 minutes of my time to write the beginning of a fanfic. I suppose i'll continue writing it, but i dont have a lot of time for that stuff. Also, post any other fanfics here too. I have seen two, both of which sucked. Ahem. anyway:
A.D. 2808, on board the colony ship "Eclipse"
Jed was bored out of his mind. Every day, for the last two weeks, it had been his job to walk the plated decks of
the Eclipse and make sure nothing was wrong with the other passengers while they were in cryo.
While he was payed handsomely to do it, and he had a huge multi-billion credit ship almost to himself,
the utter silence and complete lack f human interaction to wonders to stifle any interest he had in well... anything
It was day 15, and he was walking through Hall A8. Everything was like it had been for two weeks. However,
on the dark gray floor in front of him, he noticed a black splotch. It could have been anything, perhaps some mold
from the hydroponics center had somehow drifted here - but - no. He walked this hall four of five times a day,
and would have noticed it before. He pulled out a small pocket flashlight and peeked up into the ventilation
panel above him. Oddly, the light was blocked as though there was a blanket over the vent. He saw no reason for
that, the place was cleaned regularly. If he had a problem with mold, it would come out of his salary! Cursing to
himself, he walked to a supply closet a few halls down and came back with a stool and a mop, just in time to see
more of that curious black substance drip from the vent onto the floor. He bent forward and grabbed some of it
between his fingers.
He immediately jerked back, scraping his hand on his clothing. The stuff burnt - and it was sticky! He grabbed the
mop and scraped it off on the head. The cloth instantly started smoking,and he watched in fascination as the tar
like substance slowly turned a dark grey, expending itself. Startled, he wondered for a second if there was a leak
from the reactors - he knew they released wierd toxic chemicals like this. First however, he would have to
see what was up there.
He quickly retrieved a scewdriver to open the ventilation panel, and began to undo the screws. As he got the third
one off, the panel suddenly lurched, as if there were weight on top of it. Jed was not a large man. He was about
five and a half feet tall, and one hundred and fifty pounds. He was also not particularly strong, and the weight
on the panel was too great for him to bear. It crashed down on top of him, and bounced off his shoulder.
He yelped in pain and jumped out of the way of it - just in time to be horrified.
On the top side of the panel a thick growth of the black goop was supporting a pulsating grey-purple... thing
It had three vertical ribs supporting what looked to be a thin membrane.
Jed's mind raced. He knew what the procedure was for unknown space organisms. He ran as fast as he could,
his fear and apprehension spawning adrenaline that fueled him to race like a star athlete. He reached an
emergency pod and pulled on a biohazard suit. Over that, he donned a plated suit of carbon fiber and steel,
and a helmet with a small radio transmitter and movement based radar. Although he was untrained with
weapons, he entered the ships code into a thick green armoury terminal and pulled out a blaster. He also
initiated the lockdown procedures for the Cryo sectors. Even in his fear, his rational mind was telling him that
it was probably just a biomass that had come from... somewhere. Either way, he now had to walk back to it, his
helmet streaming data to a central server which itself broadcasted to a local hub - and then to the NASA inFeed
hub, which tracked every ship in the galaxy. He finished the walk back to the... thing. It was only to his horror
that he discovered it had been split apart, and was laying wilted, looking rather comically like a banana peel.
However, he saw movement, and his radar confirmed it.
Something moved around a corner, and he chased after it. If the ship was malfunctioning, its bio sector breeding
animals or god knew what, he would have to report it... and his pay would be docked.
Blaster raised, he charged around the corner, not before taking another glance to make sure the... he only hoped
it wasn't an... EGG... was still there.
A compact, green... creature, about the size of a dog, was busy forcing its way into an access vent.
At the sound of his footsteps, the creature turned around and hissed at him.
It was a dark olive color. Four eyes, appeared to have some sort of carapace. And tusks.
A single analytical glance told him he had no clue what it was. But it didn't seem... threatening.
He palmed the safety on the blaster and and lowered it to the ground. Whatever the thing was, it was probably
lost.
He reached up to the helmet and snapped some pictures with its built in camera before taking it off.
"Hey, little guy" he said. "Gave me a scare."
the thing looked at him, its four eyes racing.
"So... how did you get HERE, anyway?"
still, no answer, but it backed up slightly at his emphasis on the word 'here'.
"Are you scared?... well, shit, that makes two of us."
At that, the creature looked at him, well at least the thought it was, and then it took a step forward.
"Heh. Hey little guy. You gonna keep me company around here?"
The creature continued to study him, and as he got up to walk away, he realised it was following him.
Without further ado, he realised he had befriended some sort of alien... thing.
He walked back to his pod, and put the blaster and armor away. He got a disposal bag, and swept the remains of
the egg into the garbage. It was as he was leaving that he heard a grunt from the vent.
Looking around for the little creatue, he shrugged and stood on the stool. He poked his head and had a look
around.
His little buddy was busy doing something over at the wall of the circular vent. He turned a full 360 degrees,
realising that this was the main intersection for the air conditioning system.
It was then that he heard the buzzing.
In an instant, the buzzing turned into a deep grunt. He turned again to see something coming down the vent,
grunting as it moved.
He wondered if it was another one of the small creatures.
His wonder turned to horror as a thick and insectile leg rounded the corner.
A beast walked into plain view.
It was at least the size of a horse, although not as tall. It had a thick carapace, and (he gulped) a mouth full
of prodigious teeth. It also had black eyed the size of buttons. Which were pointed at him. Instantly, he tried
to pull his head out of the hole. Only to realise that there was something sticky holding him. He shifted the little
he could, and saw his little "buddy" was slowly... drooling a sticky substance on him.
Terrified, he tried to pull out, but the the stuff was starting to harden, and he was not nearly strong enough to
break its hold
It was then that he realised he would die.
The monster was striding towards him, quickening its pace until it stood right in front of him. In his peripheral
vision, he could swear he saw spiders.
And then the creatures jaws moved forward quickly, and he saw no more.
A.D. 2812 on board "nameless derelict."
Its transmitters had stopped working long ago. As passing ships had tried to hail it, they realised it was a derelict
and moved away. However, it was James job to find out why.
James worked with NEOIC, or Near Earth Orbit Interests Consolidated. A group which worked under a centralised
management to catalog all of the near-earth objects and derelicts which were so common. So his dropship was
moving toward a ship which had been registered as "lost" long ago. As they rounded its right side, a quick check
of its serial numbers showed that it was the "Eclipse". A current-generation colony ship which had dissapeared
4 years ago. But that was common among colony ships.
So with a sigh, James gave the order to load up the dropships.
There was a great screech as the clamps pulled an escape pod out of its bay, and a tube moved to seal against the
hole. As soon as the seal was completed, three men rushed out of the dropship and got instantly to work cutting
through the thick vacuum doors. A relay was set up to the moon, and James strode out of the dropship. He was
writing on a notebook, cataloguing the state of disrepair of the ship and generally the actions taken to discover
what had caused the ship to become lost.
He also noted that none of the escape pods had been launched.
Men scurried back and forth, setting up a mobile command center. The dropship clamped onto the ship, looking
like a sleek metal parasite. James notified his superiors via light accelerated radio, and the operation began.
"Ughh..."
Brian sat up, only to hit his head within a few inches. With a grunt, he put his hands in front of himself.
He hit a thick blue wall. The roof of the cryo tube?
He wondered if there had been some malfunction... they were supposed to wake up in four years, with everything
prepped and ready to go.
Had there been some sort of accident?
He had heard the stories... everyone had. People wake up early in their cryogenic tubes. They have months - years
in which to contemplate their own loneliness. Provided with food and water, they slowly go insane.
He didn't want that.
"Helloooooooo?..."
There was no answer.
Brian began to panic, striking out at the thick blue panel in front of himself. It was only by accident that he hit the
emergency release.The panel flew forward quickly, and he laughed at how quick he was to panic.
He sat up, and with a quick glance around confirmed that he had, indeed, woken up early.
A few sniffs made him realise that the air was... stale. It smelled... off. Rather like bad eggs. And blood.
He pulled himself out of the tube, his bare feet thudding on the loose metal of the floor. He walked over to a terminal
and checked the date and time. March 14, A.D. 2812, 1932 hours ESRT.
It was then that he realised he was hungry. He walked back to his pod and pulled out a ham sandwich, something he had
had included on special request. He also grabbed a bottle of water and sat on the edge of his living coffin, pondering his fate
if it was the right time to wake up, where was everybody else? On the U.S.C.S Eclipse, which was built for comfort and
sustainability, every cryo pod had its own room. Perhaps he was only a couple hours late, and every one else would be up soon?
He walked over to the lock. Pulling the card key from around his neck, he swiped the magnetic strip through the door and
stepped out into the hall.
"Hellooooooooooo?..."
There was no answer.
He walked all the way down the hall, to the escape bay pod door and then all the way down the other way to the bio-sector door.
Nobody had emerged from their rooms, and indeed all of the doors were still securely locked, as they had been when everyone first
went to sleep.
Intrigued, he walked to the bio sector door and tried to pull it open. He was rewarded with two monotone beeps. The door was locked?
On a civilian ship?
Now he was very confused, none of the doors should have been locked, except to the reactor room and the biohazard rooms.
Moving at a trot, he turned into an access corridor. He walked down to a maintenance room and tried the exterior access door.
Success, the door was open. He padded shoeless into the main corridor, walking past window after window displaying open stars.
"What the hell?..." he said to no one in particular.
"We should be at titan by now..."
Firmly convinced something was very wrong, he continued along the corridor.
He turned a wide corner, moving past a hub of the large plumbing system. Suddenly, a clank echoed through the halls behind him.
Frightened, he grabbed the first convenient thing - a piece of pipe - off of the ground. He backed slowly into a dark corner,
keeping his eyes on both turns of the corner.
And thats when the world exploded.
There was an amazingly sharp pain in the back of his neck. It felt like someone had slashed him with a hundred knives
all at once. With a loud yelp he turned around, grabbing his neck. His hand brought back bits of skin, and a lot of blood.
He took off down the corridor, swearing he could see movement in his peripheral vision.
Suddenly he came to a stop, turning around to face his "attacker".
A biege... thing ran across the wall towards him at high speed. Its body was shaped like a figure eight, but it moved so quickly
and changed its position so rapidly as it moved between dark and light that he couldn't accurately determine its size.
The creature jumped off of the wall, flying straight at him at high speed.
And then he hit it with the crowbar.
With a sick squeak it flew to the ground and bounced into the corner, oozing a green fluid. Without looking back, Brian raced back
toward the cryo sector. He slammed the door shut and barred it with his pipe, and then got a mirror.
He looked at the nasty wound of the side of his neck
There were four deep marks, each one looking like it had been done by an axe. He knew without a doubt that that spider-thing had
been the culprit, but he certainly wasn't going back to take a look.
He applied a bandage and grabbed a service rifle out of a rack on the wall.
He had never used one of the big, heavy rifles. But, he knew how to fire it, and knew how to turn the safety off.
It was also really heavy, easily used as a club.
Brian was a tall man, with black hair he stood about six feet tall. He was in good shape, although he wished he would
excercise more. He had no family, or any ties to hold him down. His parents were both dead when he was 16.
12 years later, he was feeling restless and decided to go on a colony ship to settle titan.
Chances were almost certain he would die and never be seen again, but there was always a chance he could find his fame there,
and he had nothing to lose. He certainly wasn't suicidal, but he had no one and nothing to leave behind.
Arriving at the escape pod section door, he began working at the terminal, and eventually banging on it.
Because he needed the practice, and doubted he would get through this way anyway, he levelled his rifle at the
doors panel, and took a few clumsy shots at it, the recoil nearly knocking the weapon from his hands.
To his extreme suprise, the door opened.
And what he saw shocked him.
