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THE NEWCOMER
Path B2A2B by John
[You chose B2A2B for the captain to turn the hovercraft around.]
Captain Kan-chiang sets his mind for the serious work ahead. Predictably, whenever he begins to train his senses and skills for dangerous work that had to be done, his own inner demons come in to try to distract him. But, even as the bumpy brown tunnel whips around him and the ancient ship creaks and groans like a tree in a hurricane, he ignores it all to center himself. He concentrates on his breathing, filling and emptying his lungs as if they were balloons. Instead of ignoring his body, he quickly acknowledges the full sensation of it. He was robbed from true bodily sensation while he was trapped in The Matrix, and so he pays attention to his real senses whenever he can. As soon as he has transferred his attention to his third eye, incorporating his entire body through this one inner spot, he stops the hovercraft and turns to face his aggressors.
Hitch has seen the Captain in this mode before. He knows implicitly that this means that not only has the Captain resigned himself to following a difficult choice, but that he is prepared to follow it through to the end. Still Hitch's jaw unhinges of its own accord.
"Captain?"
"Stop the ship."
Suggested Addition
"You must have a whole slew of guardian angels looking after you, girl." For a moment in Sky's mind, Cy's face is replaced with that of her teenaged daughter from the Matrix. "Too bad they couldn't have stopped your fall, though," Sky fights back the tears and shakes the image away.
Quickly jumping to her feet, Sky scoops up Cy and carries her carefully but quickly to the Infirmary. She thinks she knows what the Captain has in store for them, but will he risk trying the LOTUS protocol?
She is still many yards away from the Infirmary when she is knocked to her feet. The ship has been jolted once. Not thinking, she tries to get up, but is quickly knocked down again by a second jolt.
Suggested Deletion
"Cy, are you OK?"
"I don't know, my head hurts a little."
"Do you think you can make it back up to the cockpit?"
"Why?"
"That'll be safest place for us."
"OK."
With Sky behind her helping her climb up the ladder safely, both women manage to make it up to the cockpit safely.
"Captain?"
"Yes, Sky?"
"Cy is conscience now. I hope you don't mind, this seems the safest place to put her."
"OK."
Again the ship shakes. The sensors show Sentinels have landed on the ship.
Hitch leans over the sensors, and adds, “Wait, only two are on us.”
“Look at the readings, can you see the third one?”
“Maybe it is on a blind spot, but I can’t really know.”
The warning lights and sounds rushing upon them like a tear gas cloud, the Captain tries to think of how they could possibly get out of this situation.
“Captain, in a minute they will be through the hull.”
"Can you see the third one yet?"
"Nope ... wait! It is actually racing AWAY from us. It just stopped annnnnd yes, it is just out of EMP range."
"Damn, either they've gotten smarter or this one has gone rogue. We're just going to have to do this the hard way, or the harder way.”
> Choose Path B2A2B1 for "the hard way".
> Choose Path B2A2B2 for "the harder way".
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