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THE NEWCOMER
Path A1A1A1A1 by John
[Chose Path A1A1A1A1 to trust Nos to find a way through the metal plate.]
The plate rushes towards the ship like a fastball towards the bat. Nameless metallic things whoosh around and past the sides of the ship. Salty water is released from the skin of the ship’s occupant’s as the decision will soon be made for them, a decision of trust, a choice of life or death.
“I trust you Nos,” Sky says even as she closes her eyes. “Lead us through.”
“Thanks, Sky. I hope I am right. If not, I—“ but he cannot even finish his sentence as the nose of the Nosferatu hits the space in the plate. The ship shudders and jolts strangely backwards and forwards as a vibration attempts to be their unneeded dentist.
Sky’s jaw clenches out of fear and as a vain attempt to stop the involuntary snake rattle of a mouth. She feels dizzy, and sick. Her hands are vises tight around the armrests. But, they rattle up and down, causing her funny bone to hit a piece of metal there on the chair. Her eyes are closed so tightly, she risks pushing them on into her brain.
The noise is unbearable as the ship seems to rip itself to pieces. Sky can feel it like a wave that started on the nose, and now she can sense the ship’s length by following it to the tail.
As she senses it reach the tail, the ship seems to be stuck, and uses this as a focal point to whip around in all directions.
1001001, feeling more independent than ever, rushes forward so fast that it knocks its companions to the side. It flings them away from him most carefully, though –- for he has aimed them towards what will hopefully be their doom. The one on the right it uses two tentacles on that side to temporarily grab it and fling it just enough above it so that it will smash head on into hard part of the plate.
The sleek multi-jointed silver arms whip out and grab the one to right and do just that. Without foreknowledge it can do nothing to stop 1001001’s twin tentacles from launching it up off course. It has just enough time to register wonder and fear before it attempts to become part of the plate. Like an aluminum can being crushed under foot, it accordions itself as the tentacles fly all around it like dreads and SLAM into the plate, making it shudder under it’s impact. Soon the destruction is too much for the power cell and it ignites in a roiling expanding ball of blue electro-magnetic furry that rushes in a ever expanding circle along the plate as well as straight out behind it and it sounds like a frightening fast freight train passing a hair breadth’s away. Air first pulled into feed the explosion is just as quickly expelled with the waves of destruction and launches itself out in horrific force in all directions.
As the right Sentinel hits the plate, the left one sense the change in direction of both its partners. Its brain registers danger it never thought would be possible – “My God, 1001001 must have gone rogue!” and so it attempts to make some last minute adjustments to defend itself.
It is these miniscule mathematical formulae based on quick analysis that may have saved it from the same fate of 0110110, for 1110001 is miraculously able to cause 1001001’s three tentacles to glance off of it instead of making purchase. Still, it is enough to knock it off course and the other’s arms do manage to cause damage to part of its stabilizers. So, 1110001 is helpless as it starts to spin clockwise along its axis and on down the tunnel and out of sight.
“Damn! Hopefully I damaged it enough. No matter.” It watches the Nos as it slips through the plate as if it were going down a gullet. “Oh no you don’t!” It flings its arms forward into attack position. It makes contact with the solid places around the plate and attaches itself. 1001001 then zings its other arms forward like un-missable missiles to attempt to grab the tail of the Nos as it crosses the last few feet into the camouflaged entrance.
It makes contact, and braces for the stress. Its plan works! It is thrown through the hole after the ship, but it is able to hold onto the ship and the plate. The ship is whipping around as if it were a fish pulled out of the sea that would be damned if it were going to be tonight’s dinner. “Too bad, you die, away you cannot fly.”
But the ship’s movement is too complex for 1001001 to hold on to and soon it must let it go. No matter, it’s pray is trapped anyway.
So, the Nos is able to break free of its predator. As luck would have it, it is let loose at an angle so that it did not slam into the surrounding walls in this new area. Nos is able to regain control and bring it to a more manageable speed and angle soon enough.
Captain Kan-chiang is the first to utter a human phoneme. “Nos, what just happened? Where are we?”
“Captain, we passed through some kind of artificial barrier that I have yet to analyze in full. We are in a cavernous room. In a cave, I think. Yes, I can see stalactites and stalagmites and other features that literally scream out ‘CAVE!!’ I can sense all the walls around us, so far no other way out, either real or camouflaged. Let’s see, to figure the volume of a sphere, I cube the diameter (which is 333.33 repeating, then multiply that by pi and then divide by 6 … 155140377.9550617.”
“Um, oh-kay Nos. Is there any danger?”
“Well, of course! So, you want the ‘Oh Sh*t’ news or the “F*ck me!’ news first.”
“Nos!”
“Sorry Sky. Behind us it looks like only one Sentinel made it through, but there are multiple strange signals completely surrounding us.”
“Oh sh*t, f*ck me!”
“I told you, Sky!”
“Suggested courses of action, further analysis, Nos?”
“Pray.”
“Seriously, Nos!”
“I am serious! OK, OK, here are some ideas:”
Choose Path A1A1A1A1A to turn the ship around to attempt to fight past the lone Sentinel and back out the plate barrier.
Choose Path A1A1A1A1B to race the ship away from the lone Sentinel and face whatever these other signals are.
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