Chapter Three: The Other Passenger?
Thom sat in front of a computer panel, Blankly staring at the digits and letters rolling on the screen. He got up and walked out of the bridge, Thom looked up and down the corridor before trying to find the Interface room. He flinched when he heard gunshots, but remembered Greg saying that he and Jonas were practicing their aim with a rifle.
Greg looked down the sights of the M36 Pulse rifle, narrowing the crosshairs over the first of many tin cans he had set up at the other end of the hallway. He exhaled, steadying his aim before squeezing off a three round burst, sending the can flying against the back wall in pieces.
He laughed in triumph before handing the gun over to Jonas, who shouldered the pulse rifle, picked a target and fired four individual shots in quick succession. Three of the cans exploded as the first three bullets hit their marks, the fourth struck the back wall and put a hole in the improvised backboard. "Great job genius!" Greg yelled, "god knows what you've probably hit you know!" Jonas simply shrugged it off and passed him the rifle again. +
The Captain entered his cabin and opened a small case, lifting off the carbon fibre casing and removing the contents. He placed the device on the floor and pressed a series of buttons which lined the side of the box. The device flashed a blue light up into the cabin, and a small, holographic creature materialised out of thin air. The beast was a small, round thing with two webbed feet, its' main body resembled that of a beachball.
The hologram was an experimental entertainment system The Captain had been sent as a gift from a friend, the device was built to produce a holographic image which behaved like a real living creature. The Beachball Alien was a trial version deigned to show behaviour, sound and colour to check if the device was working properly -similar to a test card on an old TV. The creature chirped like a bird before scuttling around the room. The Captain looked down at its' transmitter which displayed a small screen reading ;PRACTICE ONE: FEED THE ALIEN.
Captain James sighed before removing one of the interaction pieces from the box, which to his surprise, was a small squeaky toy of a mouse or something. He pocketed the toy before moving to the holographic alien, which chirped and squealed violently and lunged at him, webbed feet flapping like wings. The Captain frowned as he took a step back, revealling the squeaky toy and squeezing it. He grinned as the toy distracted the alien hologram, which scuttled over at him, trying to pry it from his hands as he waved it out of reach.
Powel knocked on the Captains' door before entering, only to find him playing with a walking beachball. James looked up at hi8m, "I am not enjoying this, please turn it off. Now would be a good time." Powel slowly nodded before reaching over and switching off the hologram emitter and the beachball alien quickly dissipated.
"sir, may I ask, what the hell was all that about?" The Captain turned to him, "it was a gift from a friend, they asked me to turn it on and try it out as soon as I could, I had no bloody clue that it was gonna be a talking alien beachball." He grinned, "How long till we reach the planet?"
"Not long sir, only about an hour or so. I recommend getting everyone to their stations now so we can land properly." Powel responded, before leaving the cabin and heading to the bridge. The Captain began to put the device back in its' case, when he finished, he madce his way to the bridge to take command of the Dark Star.
If you've seen Dark Star, you'll easily recognise the beachball alien from that movie. If not, google "Dark star beach ball alien" and I know you'll probably laugh. Funny to think that was the original 'Alien'
stay awesome!