7.10 - Cafeteria 407 | Stuck Station

7.10 - Cafeteria 407

Nov 04 2011 Published by under Chapter Seven

The stench was overpowering – like a dead fish soaked in cat urine.

Daniel hoped the teleporter wasn’t the cause of the smell; he couldn't take 56  more sniffs of it.

After blinking back tears, he saw that Tour Guide had returned him to the cafeteria.

"This is Cafeteria 407 ,” Tour Guide said. "One of the many culinary destination across--"

“Already been here,” Daniel said, eager to move this along.

“Deeply sorry. On to the ….”

As Daniel held his breath and prepared to flit across the station, he wondered what Prnei had been trying to say about the orientation.

“Do not look at the int—!” … Interrogator? Interception? Interesting objects?

Again there was a flash of light, and the smell was back, worse than before.

Stuck On: Fear

While many sentient lifeforms experience fear (see Stuck On: Hugs and Phobias) not all react the same way.

Some ignore it. Some embrace it. Some feed off it. Some sell it as gag gifts at parties. A lucky few, like Trak, never feel it.

As for humans, fear is a powerful emotion.

Not as powerful as, say, love or hatred, both of which have spawned countless interstellar conflicts and – thanks to the unfortunate invention of the senso-conversion beam powered countless interstellar conflicts.

But fear is a close third on the list.

Nausea is high up there too. But there is some debate as to whether nausea is an emotion at all.

The least powerful emotion?

Boredom … though Jeska and the current crew of Stuck Station crew might disagree with that.

As for fear, what awaited Daniel, Trak and Rachel-7 in the final orientation room would induce paroxysms of terror in almost any intelligent being.

Despite Prnei’s unfinished warning, Daniel was not afraid.

He should have been.

This has been Stuck On: Foreshadowing … I mean, Fear.

3 responses so far

Leave a Reply to trak42 Cancel reply