3.01 - Continuing fire | Stuck Station | Stuck Station

3.01 - Continuing fire

Mar 21 2011 Published by under Chapter Three

Chapter Three

When the flash from the missile's impact faded, Daniel was surprised to find himself still breathing.

“We’re alive,” Daniel said.

“I noticed,” said a rather confused Alitma. “Fire again.”

There was another flash. Daniel, Trak and Rachel-7 continued to exist.

“This is odd,” Alitma said. “Fire again, again.”

There was a flash … again. The missile had exploded against the hull, but the Afterthought remained unharmed.

“Just keep firing until the ship falls apart!” Alitma yelled, exasperated.

Flash.

“Trak, why aren't we dead?” Daniel asked.

Flash.

“Don't know. His—"Trak said.

Flash.

“Weapons are—"

Flash.

“Interfering—"

Flash. Flash.

“With my sensors and—"

Flash, flash, flash.

“Would you stop that?!” said Trak, who didn't like to be interrupted. “The missiles are obviously not working!”

Alitma used his battle exoskeleton to give Trak a thumbs up. Unfortunately, Alitma was using the Balakan species version of that hand gesture, which was significantly more vulgar than the ancient human one.

“Anyone want to ask me why we're still alive?” Rachel-7 said.

“No,” Alitma, Daniel and Trak said together.

“Too bad,” Rachel-7 said. "Because I figured it out."

Flash.

“I said stop that!” Trak yelled.

“Fine,” Alitma said. He whispered to his second in command.

The Afterthought's viewscreens changed color.  While they still displayed Alitma's face, each screen now had a dark blue tint.

“He’s switched to energy weapons,” Trak said.  "Doesn't hurt my sensors, but the Afterthought's instruments don't like it."

“Anyway," Rachel-7 continued, "remember when I said the object that we landed on was a headlight from an Onean transport?”

“An error on your part,” Trak said.

“Shhhh,” she said, trying to shut Trak up so she could finish.

Alitma’s sigma cannons continued to bathe the Afterthought with killing sapphire-colored radiation.

“The reason I thought it was Onean—an excellent, theory, by the way—” Rachel-7 said.

Alitma ordered his crew to turn the weapons to full power.

Still no effect.

3 responses so far

  • John says:

    Here are some of the things I'm thinking of adding to the website ... when I figure out how.

    -- "A Story So Far" page with summaries of the chapters. I'd try to write it without spoilers. Or I could write one with spoilers and one without.

    --Social media stuff, so people can digg, stumbleupon, tweet, or facebook posts.

    --A good search box.

    --A forum.

    --A store. (But that's waaaaay in the future.)

    --A Stuck Station news blog.

    --3d interface (even further in the future than the store) :-P

    Here are some things I'm thinking of adding ... when I get the time

    -- An About page

    --Table of Contents

    By the way, i've decided to start using these comments as a sort of an interim blog until i figure out how to add one to this site.

  • Rebecca says:

    Haha!
    Funny!
    Alitmas' being Roman with that gesture is an interesting addition. Do his soldiers solute like Roman's to?

    • John says:

      Oh, he's definitely not using the Roman gesture. He's using the Balakan gesture, which is considered worse than the middle finger.

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