|
THE NEWCOMER
Path B2A1 by Jay
[Path B2A1. Try to grab with left hand.]
"Aaaah!" Cyberreyn screams, the sound of her own voice echoing the terror of her most frightening dreams.
The Captain leaps to the top of the ladder, but watches helplessly as he can do nothing.
Amazingly, Cyberreyn's left hand catches one of the upper rungs, her ribcage banging hard against the ladder, and knocking most of the wind out of her.
Her mouth opens in a silent groan, the pain shoots blindingly up and down her left side.
"Cy!" Hitch, the first officer and senior operator above Flicker, yells from the bottom of the ladder. "I gotcha!"
She barely hears his voice. And in what seems like slow-motion, Cyberreyn lets go of the rung, finger by finger, until she floats downward like a fragile autumn leaf.
"Ughhh!" exhales Hitch, his strong serpent-like brown arms catching her easily. "Gotcha," he whispers to himself. He nods to the Captain, and Kan-chiang quickly returns to the cockpit.
Sky, the second officer, emerges. "Hitch! What happened?"
"She slipped off the ladder." He gestures with his wide charcoal eyes. "You better go ahead, Sky, I'll take care of her."
With a nod, Sky scrambles up the ladder.
"What do we have, Captain?" she calls.
"Three Sentinels," Kan-chiang responds, bringing up the central holographic display. "Behind us... maybe three minutes... and closing." Then he turns to her in concern. "How is she?"
"She's alright. Hitch'll take care of her." Sky snaps back to the situation, hopping into the seat beside him. "OK," she turns to one of the display screens, punches a few keys. "I can't find any side entrances, pockets, places to shut down... No wait, I see one! The tunnel splits up ahead... maybe four or five minutes away... Dammit!"
"We can do it," the captain reassures her. Peering ahead down the spinning tunnel, Kan-chiang weighs his options. In three or so 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.
But he would have to delay the machines at least one minute, before he could duck into one of the tunnel branches. Could the hovercraft withstand an assault that long? And with Cyberreyn momentarily down as either a gun operator or "Cockpit Construct" pilot [refer to Path A1A1A1], his choices were cut down considerably. Dammit!
He had no choice. He would have to 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.
"Sky," Kan-chiang commands, "turn the 'Nos' around."
"What?" Sky's emerald eyes widen in disbelief.
"We have only one path before us. It is best to meet it, not shy away from it."
His words seem to both soothe and pierce her still skeptical soul.
Choose Path B2A1A for Sky to disagree, this is crazy.
Choose Path B2A1B for Sky to disagree, we can make the side tunnel in time.
Choose Path B2A1C for Sky to agree, and trust her captain fully.
|
|