Dinosaurs, slugs and AIs. Oh, my! Part 1

Who: Andy, Rufus
Where: Blue Dwarf, hangers
When: 10 seconds after the Vespidae's launch.
<Snip>
"What about me?" Andy asked, feeling a bit like a spare part. Amber's
face softened slightly. "Look after him. He's not feeling right at the
moment. He'll come around. Until then, make sure he gets to the lab
ok" Amber turned and ran to Vespidae just as the sirens went off and
Holly's warning of incoming attack vessels came over the loud speakers
to scramble all pilots. Once the hanger was clear Amber sent the
final shot into the Restaurant and punched Vespidae out into the
blackness of space. "It's killing time." She growled.
<End Snip>
Andy's forearm snapped up in front of his face as the Golden palace
was enveloped in a firestorm. Grimacing as flaming wooden debris
clattered around his feet. Andy wasn't sure if the restaurant visitors
were still inside or if they escaped before hand. The cleaner
inexplicably felt a pang of guilt as he watched the red paint slowly
brown and finally become charred into nothing. Those Aliens were just
trying to get a feed there… right?
Andy shook his head angrily. There were ALIENS; they wanted to kill
every human being. It doesn't matter if they were hungry or not! They
initiated an unprovoked attack upon man without hesitation. If the
civilians had to pay for their government's crimes then so be it. The
crew of Blue Dwarf certainly had already…
Rufus forlornly watched as his sister's Interceptor fired off and out
into space. The second she left the safety of the ship laser fire
barrelled past her craft. Still even with the Spartan amount of
reaction time she dodged them all and came back for more.
Then the bulkhead closed and there was nothing left in the hanger but
the cleaner and flaming Mollopod wreckage.
The Scientist held his mother's arm tight against him. Gore had long
since soaked into the already heavily bound cloth. Only now when he
stood still long enough did he notice the stench of blood that rose to
greet him. He had a job to do.
"Rufus…" Andy began tentatively. His sister had left quite the mark on
the cleaner. Amber embodied everything about the female race that both
confused and, to be honest, frightened him. Wether it was the look in
her eye, the threatening snap of her well-honed muscles or simply the
dominating tone of voice. For one of the few times in Andy's life he
was left dumb-struck, unable to make up a sarcastic or even remotely
creative comeback at her vicious assaults. Although he felt that even
if he had ventured such a reply. She would have immediately unleashed
a Xena-equse battle-cry, front flipped forward onto his shoulders then
promptly snapped his neck with a twist from her hips. Not a bad way to
go actually. "…let's go." The cleaner finally finished as he lay a
gentle hand on the teenager's shoulder.
The Scientist looked back at Andy. He was scared. Amber was right… boy
was barely holding it together. Although of this moment, the only
thing that separated Rufus and Andy was that Andy knew how to suppress
his emotions.
The Australian was scared out of his wits. But he would be dammed if
he anyone know it.
"Alright dudes?" A familiar monotone filtered in through the speakers
behind the two. "Holly!" Rufus replied with a noticeably more positive
voice. "The other lot are in another hanger." The AI stated dully.
"How far?" Andy asked. "Well… the thing is that a bunch of Alien
bad-dudes followed `em in. If you try to hook up with the others you
invariably see them first." Holly voice had all the danger and
excitement of a golf world champion announcer.
Rufus shook his head in frustration. "We're not going to hook up with
the others. We have to get the science deck. Please Andy; we've got to
go now!" Andy crocked his eye brow at the teenager. Either this kid
was bi-polar or he was under more stress than a Japanese school girl
at an Otaku convention. "Holly, he's right, we don't have time for the
others. Show us the quickest way to an express-lift. One that will
preferably NOT get us killed."
"…Can't…" Holly mumbled dumbly. "What do you MEAN you `CAN'T'!?!" Andy
may not know much about AI's but he was pretty certain that they had
preventative measures from pulling a HAL. "…Not yet, just a bit
longer." The middle aged man repeated. "DAMN IT HOLLY, I DON'T HAVE
TIME FOR GAMES!!" Rufus's head turned to observe a particularly large
vein bludge out of the side of Andy's neck.
A prolonged, single note, screech pricked the edge of Rufus's ear.
Coming from the left of the hanger's main door and carrying along to
the right before fading out of existence on the other side. It sounded
roughly like elephant, being subjected to electrical prods, whips,
chains and worst of all- a live performance of `Macarthur park'- all
while in the back of pick up truck driving at terminal velocity.
Rufus and Andy paused to give each other a prolonged, freaked out stare.
"Okay, we can go now." Holly finished.
"Wh-what was that?" Rufus ventured. The scientist and the cleaner
doubted that they would have liked the response. They were right.
"Oh. That would be the sound of a member of the velociraptor genus
chasing down a Dodo." The AI explained in an equally dull tone. Rufus
groaned and held his head.
"A-a Velociraptor?! Why the hell are there Velociraptors on a space
ship!?!" The cleaner had seen Jurassic Park. He knew what those things
where capable of. Those big bastards fired radioactive beams out of
their mouths and destroyed Tokyo every week end…"Don't worry, `s gone
now, c'mon- I'll show you to the express-lift." With that the AI
disappeared from the screen. "Easy for HIM to say, nothing on this
ship wants to eat him." Andy muttered as he walked forward.
Andy poked his head out of the opened hanger door tentatively, looking
up and down the corridor. Fully prepared to take a claw to the face
for every second he exposed himself. Rufus brought up the back,
sensing Andy's apprehension he remained quiet. What was he so scared
of? A velociraptor was the size of a turkey… none of the larger ones
would be able to fit in the corridors, not to mention that the cleaner
was armed with a giant smegging laser!
"…Really racking up the phobias, aren't ya?" Holly suddenly piped in
over the mics, causing the cleaner to scream like a girl and discharge
the Bazookoid; creating yet another smoking hole in the Blue Dwarf.
"What is WRONG with you people?!" Andy yelled up at the unseen AI.
"Dinosaurs, evil aliens, practically non-existent hygiene specialists
and yet you people haven't gone down in flames! If this was a set for
a horror movie we would all be dead a month before we launched!!"
"Let's just go, okay?" The teenager walked out into the corridor and
carried on without fear. If he could wade through an unknown planet
that smelt like the inside of a morbidly obese football team's locker
room, not to mention the aliens trying to kill him at the same time-
then Blue Dwarf was nothing to worry about.
"OI!" Andy yelled as he quickly ran past the boy. "I'M the one with
the gun here. Stay behind me." "I'm sorry, I thought you were too busy
being afraid of your own shadow." Rufus replied bitterly.
"I don't know what you're so scared of," Holly chimed in "You're both
armed… opps, sorry Rufus."
A prolonged indignant silence occurred. The AI wisely decided to keep
out of conversation from then on.
<To be continued, rest posted tomorrow...ish.>