Ambrosia Software Web Board: Ares Chronicles: An Exercise in Futility - Chapter Two - Ambrosia Software Web Board

"Unnngh...." A voice groaned somewhere in the blackness. Sabrina sat up and rubbed her sore back. Her head was swimming: Here she was, wherever she was, and she couldn't even find out where because it was so dark. Then it all came back to her: She had been knocked into the primary cargo hold of a superfreighter by a defective CargoBot™ arm.

"It's ok, Sabrina," She mumbled to herself, "Jus' gotta find the light switch. You've spent half your life serving on these rustbuckets, 'ya know them inside-out." She reached and grabbed thin air. The switch was not where it was supposed to be. She felt her way along the (dented) crates, searching for a light. Several times, she nearly fell over because the floor was very smooth and slippery.

She turned left, where a corridor was supposed to be, and her face slammed into a wall. This wall had a different texture than the others and after rubbing her nose and cursing quietly, she fould a handle that closely resembled a pencil holder, as it was full of holes. With a little bit of strength, she managed to push open what was apparently a cover to a hatchway. Red light flooded the cargo hold and she covered her face in pain as her eyes slowley adjusted.

No, it wasn't a hatchway, it was a window into outer space! She snuck a glance at the Red Dwarf, which was surrounded by a blue Halo. "Gasp! We're not docked with the station! I've gotta get out of here!" She frantically spun around and started heading to where the main hatchway was, when she stopped (or slided, on the floor). Everything in the room, except for the crates, was black. Just totally black, even in the intense light!

But it wasn't the Blackness that disturbed her, it was the pile of fat, crumpled bodies in the corner, lying in a purple puddle of something. The bodies all had blank expressions on their faces, and they just sagged there, sort of like deflated balloons. She began to hyperventalate. There was no way of knowing where sh was, the room she was in was impossible to navigate as to it's color scheme, and her only company was a pile of dead bodies of the men she had just helped a few hours ago!

She dug out her laser torch from her back pocket and began wandering, searching for a way to escape: no doors! She flopped down hopelessly on the ground and let out a sigh. Her eyes gazed blankly at the ceiling in dispair when she say something! "A ventalation shaft!" she exclaimed. Hurriedly, she focused the torch into a pencil-thin beam and, after a few minutes of cutting, sliced a hole large enough to let her through. She clambered onto a couple of the crates (using the dents as footholds) and slipped into the shaft.

Sliding on her belly, she traveled in the direction where she could hear the hum of strange machinery. When she arrived at the outlet where the him was the loudest, she cut a small peep-hole and looked in. There were several pieces of equipment blocking her view, but what she saw was definately some kind of facility for equipping small ships. She cut a hole large enough to let her through, and she hopped our of the venilating shaft. The ceiling was awfully low, and she had to stoop a bit to fit through some sections of the hall.

She walked up to the object that most caught her attention: a ship of some kind. She touched the hull without realizing it, as it was totally frictionless! It was all black, and light seemed to just fall into it! Eyes widened as she looked at the alien writing on the side. This ship was Salrilian!

She stepped back slowley and carefully, as if it was going to explode at a hair's touch, and still watching the fighter, she turned around only to come face-to-face with a strangely familiar Salrilian!

"Long way from home, eh cowboy?" He cackled in a slightly slurred voice.