Cmdr Niples "Blackout"

Commander Seymour Niples
JMC Blue Dwarf
"Blackout"
 
The under-worked and highly-paid Captain Cannon staggered onto the bridge and mumbled to the bridge crew. He had been in bed when he'd felt the collision with the asteroid and had come running as fast as he could. Even though it had been 3 hours since the collision.
 
Niples was in his office waiting for Kieran and Smegg to return  as well as waiting from a damage report from Engineering. As he reached for the button to turn on his desktop lava-lamp, the button seemed to have a negative effect- the room went dark.
Then he realised it wasn't just the lights that had lost power- he could hear the continuous drumming of the engines fading to silence.
 
He ran out into the Drive room just as the emergency lights flickered into existence. The first thing he saw was the half dressed Captain.
"What have you touched this time?" said Niples, knowing that Captain Cannon had been the cause of most anguish in his life.
"...I...uh..I was in bed when....."
Ok so it wasn't him, thought Niples so what was it?
 
"Engineering!"  Niples heard Harris shout over the internal com.  There came no answer and Harris shouted again "Engineering respond!"
 
Niples moved over to Harris and put a hand on his shoulder to indicate his presence, then he quickly removed it as Harris growled as he turned his head.
 
"What's causing this?" asked Niples.
"No bloody idea" snapped Harris back at him.
 
Niples looked at the viewscreen (with Dolby surround and teletext TM) at least that was working, although it looked more like a snow blizzard with the amount of static.
 
The Drive-room crew were silent as all eyes turned to the viewscreen.
 
The stars and asteroids in front seemed to sway and shimmer, then something blocked their view entirely- it was big, very big, it blocked the entire view.
Niples didn't see it at first as it was black, and coincidently that was the colour of space. But something was definately there, it hung there silently as if just for dramatic effect.
 
And then something happened. A light, a red light eminating from the object filled the screen. Everyone looking at it directly were temporarily blinded by the brightness of it.
The light seemed to cast shadows in the Drive-room, dark shadows. Shadows that seemed to flicker and dance for what seemed like hours but was only in fact a few seconds.
 
"What is it doing?" whispered Captain Cannon to Niples.
"It... it seems to be scanning us." whispered back the Commander.
"I've never seen anything so big...." said the Captain.
"It's magnificant...." said Niples
"Well Fuc......" started Harris but never finished the word because the dark object started to move away, spinning as it did so.
 
Now they could see it in full, it had huge arm-like tendrills which seemed to reach forward as if they were long bony fingers grasping for something.
It was obvious that something that size must be a ship, but it looked so smooth and curved like an overgrown insect. As it moved away it didn't look so forboding at all, just as people say about spiders when they're at the other side of the room.
 
The shape seemed to fade into nothingness and was gone.
 
 
Then the power came back on, and the joyfull voice of Steev MAcKenzyyyyyyy came over the comm.
"Sorry about that everyone, there must have been a problem with the engines after all- they just died for no apparent reason."
The drive-room crew were transfixed by the viewscreen.
 
"Hello?" said Steev. "Did I miss something interesting?"
 ==================================Lt. David "Onion" BallAssistant Helm officer/ Pilot  USS Endeavour-ACommander Seymour Niples  JMC Blue DwarfWWW.Geocities.com/BlueDwarf2000Are you being paid for being online? I am! http://www.alladvantage.com/home.asp?refid=IJU209==================================