home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
On Disk Monthly 83
/
odm83.zip
/
TA3GFX.TA3
/
TEST001.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-07-20
|
3KB
|
69 lines
MAKING SPACE IN SPACE
An alarm sounded, destroying the silence of hyperspace travel
and triggering an algorithm in the Hercules' main computer
that would awaken Ramsey Leighton. Seconds later, the sleep
chamber hummed softly as it adjusted the internal temperatures
and air pressure to match the ship's. Leighton, still in anti-
age sleep, twitched a long, tapered index finger in response.
When a miniscule needle injected a potent stimulant into the
side of Leighton's neck, his body never moved. Pain did not
exist in anti-age sleep.
The hum of the sleep chamber drew the intruder to Leighton.
Almost patiently, he watched as Leighton's body slowly resumed
the normal reflexive activities of breathing and digesting. He
leaned forward, his head resting against the opaque portion of
the sleep chamber's surface, and watched Leighton's muscles
begin to twitch in protest to the resumption of aging--of time
itself. When Leighton's eyes suddenly popped open, the
intruder may have smiled, but Leighton would never know the
intruder well enough to gauge his moods or lack thereof.
Instead, Leighton screamed and died seconds later....
"Mission accomplished?" asked his wife.
"No problem." He was silent for several moments. "I know they
threaten our very existence, that they breed as often as is
physically possible if left to their own devices, and that
they cannot be trusted to honor the space boundaries we've
set...but it's still hard to assassinate them so...so
callously."
"I know what you mean," she responded. "Just last week I was
almost convinced that one of them not only understood me, but
that it actually attempted to communicate vocally and with
its strange pale fore-limbs."
"That's nothing new."
"Of course not, but this one was clever enough to draw a
picture on the wall of the ship," she whispered--even though
they were the only two on the ship.
"A picture? Of what?"
"A solar system...with an arrow pointing to the third planet
in the system. I think, though I can't be sure, that he may
have been trying to indicate that he was from there."
"Ludicrous."
"Not really. We haven't explored that system yet. Who knows
what we'll find?"
"You're right as usual, darling."
"Thank you. Now, shall we continue our mission?" she asked.
When he nodded absently, she mentally started through the
hyperspace checklist. Going by the book had become habit
after all this time.
He reclined, watching his wife and idly glancing at the
port-side monitor. Only a few empty miles away, the Hercules'
shiny hull caught his attention. He silently begged the
Provider's forgiveness for taking the life of an almost
defenseless lower life form. He thought about the curious,
seemingly shocked, expression that had crossed the alien's
face just before it screamed. Did such a blank, square face
and small head conceal a keen intelligence capable of drawing
pictures on the hull of a ship? Surely not. He dismissed the
idea and turned to a mirror he'd allowed himself to install in
a moment of vanity and began to carefully clean his mandibles.
Cleanliness is, after all, next to godliness.
~