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THE NEWCOMER
Path A1A3B1 by Jay
[Path A1A3B1. Tell Flicker what happened.]
Cyberreyn's blue-gray eyes open immediately as she regains her real-world breathing. She sees the familiar metallic arteries and veins of the Operator Station above her.
"Thanks, Flicker," she sighs, "That construct was getting-- Hey, wait!"
Flicker looks to her. "Yeah?"
"I thought I told you 'No peeking!'"
Flicker awkwardly looks back to his monitors. "Uhh, yeah, well, um... I just thought..."
"That's the problem. You THOUGHT," she retorts, then softens. "But thanks anyway."
"No prob."
"But I have a question," she starts.
"Yeah?"
Sitting up, Cyberreyn adds, "Did you notice anything strange in there?"
"Strange?" Flicker puts a fingerless glove to his beard. "No, why?"
"Well, when Brad Pitt froze..."
Flicker's eyes open wider. "Froze? What are you talking about?"
"Well, when he froze, there was a moment when his face morphed into someone else, a woman, maybe from another ship, talking to me from the Matrix."
A few minutes later, in the humming cockpit of the 'Nosferatu,' Cyberreyn describes her experience to Captain Kan-chiang.
"From the Matrix," Kan-chiang says softly. "Did she say anything?"
The newcomer sneaks a peek at the spinning tunnel speeding towards her, then quickly looks back to her captain. "Y-Yeah! Like I told Flicker, there was something about a pirate signal... um, surviving some attack..." She struggles to remember. "...10:13... and um, oh yeah, someone named Vernon Wells?"
"Vernon Wells?" the captain ponders. "Are you sure she didn't say 'Verne and Wells'?"
"Umm... could be, yes! The corner of Verne and Wells... why?"
"Well," Kan-chiang suddenly turns to press a few lighted buttons on the control panel, "In the Matrix, Verne and Wells was the site of my last meeting with Commander Pandora of the 'Red Dragon'... before its disappearance five days ago."
Instantly, the captain grabs the steering wheel, and initiates the security alert. The bright indicators flash and loud klaxons blast all around them. A moment later, he turns the wheel hard to port. Outside, the Nosferatu decelerates rapidly, turns 180 degrees, and accelerates just as rapidly in the direction from which it came, its trembling engines shrieking and blazing hover-pods crackling down the dimly-lit tunnel.
"What's going on?" Cyberreyn says.
"What's the situation, Captain?" Hitch calls seconds later, hopping into the co-pilot seat on the captain's right.
"Looks like a distress signal from the 'Red Dragon!" Kan-chiang answers, and shuts offs the klaxons.
Sky hops into the seat behind the captain, to Cyberreyn's left. "The 'Red Dragon'?" Sky utters. "Captain Prometheus's ship?"
"Hitch," the captain orders, "locate the most likely points where the 'Red Dragon' could have been in broadcast range to hack the Matrix, YET close enough to us to hack into our Construct systems."
"Sure, boss!" Hitch says, fingers flying from panel to panel.
"They said '10:13'," the captain adds, "That's only minutes away. We may not meet them in the Matrix, but we may not have to!"
"OK," Hitch jumps, "there are 4 likely positions within scanning range, but..."
Sky turns, "But what?"
"But one of them seems to have some sort of-- What is that?" Hitch scans from screen to screen. "It doesn't match up with our current maps... it's like a sensor storm, high energy readings, can't see through it, like a radiation cloud..."
"That must be it!" Sky bursts.
Sensing the familiar energy signature of a hovercraft, the Sentinels correct their trajectories to intercept its fleeing electro-mechanical prey. Assuming a triangular formation, the three tentacled-bullets streak through the wide-sweeping twists and turns of the sparsely-lit passageway.
Their appendages undulating according to specific mathematical formulae, two of the multi-eyed machines focus on their sole mission: Seek and destroy. However, the third machine experiences an improbable electronic sensation... a pulse or flash... a spark verging on desire...
It's the second such spark it has experienced in five days...
"Fuck! Fuckin' piece of shit!" yells Commander Pandora amidst the remains of the Red Dragon's Operator Station. "Can you bring it back up, Enn?"
Operator Enigma shakes her greasy-haired head. "Sorry, Pann. It's dead." She hops off her chair to unplug Pandora.
"Fuck!" the commander repeats. "I hope they got my message!"
"I'm pretty sure they did."
Pandora sits up and sighs, "Let's hope so, Enn." She takes a look at her battered chrono-scope. "Come on, let's go, it's almost 10:13."
The two human survivors of the battle leap down the hovercraft's fractured entrance and onto the dark, muddy, smelly tunnel floor. Nearby, they take refuge in a shoddily-constructed camp site.
"They better get my message," Pandora looks past the dim glow of the Red Dragon's collapsed hull, into the endless blackness beyond. "Or I'm gonna kill their asses."
Aboard the 'Nosferatu,' another set of alarms fill the cockpit.
"Dammit!" shouts First Officer Hitch, bringing up the central holographic display. "Three squiddies behind us... they'll intercept us in about two minutes!" He looks to his captain. "We'll reach the radiation storm in one minute!"
Peering ahead down the spinning tunnel, Kan-chiang weighs his options. In less than two minutes, the Sentinels will appear. The gun batteries don't have a chance of deactivating the machines, but they may delay them. If he can delay the Sentinels, he may have additional time to shut down the hovercraft, and release the electro-magnetic pulse. Or he may not.
Otherwise, he could shut down in the middle of the tunnel, and face the Sentinels in full clear view... and hope he fires the EMP before they tear, slice, or bomb his hovercraft to pieces. Or he could fail.
But what about this mysterious 'radiation storm'? What part could this play?
Choose Path A1A3B1A for the Captain to continue ahead to the storm.
Choose Path A1A3B1B for the Captain to continue ahead to the storm, and get both manual gun batteries ready.
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