Harper saving the Andromeda - take one
He felt that familiar tugging sensation as he plugged himself into the ship, and found himself back in the database looking at all the data streams running past him.
Harper took a deep breath before he started looking for the "Thing" as he affectionately liked to call it.
"Riiiiiiiiiight... if I was a horrible big scary monster who wanted to destroy the ship and my friends, where would I hide." He mused as he wandered around the database. Every where he looked he could see chewed up data streams and files, literally! It was a mess, and if I get out of this alive I'll be the one to clean up, joked Harper to himself. Looking round another corner, he saw nothing, again!
"This is hopeless!" he shouted to the air, thrusting up his hands "Where is this THING!"
"Looking for meeeee?" something rasped from behind him.
Spinning round, he saw the tall, black alien staring down at him. Wow, it was scary. Really. Scary.
"Heh! Hi, Mr alien. Um, I'd like you to, uh, I suppose, uh, leave? Please?" Harper squeaked.
"Noooo. I will not Leeeeeeave. And yooooou can't make me short, weak, little maaaan!"
This got Harper riled. He could handle being called little, hell even sometimes he could handle short, but weak he was not.
"Sorry to tell ya this asshole! But you WILL be leaving, and if you won't leave by your own accord, then I'm just gonna have to kick your shiny, black ass right outta here. Got it?" he yelled right in the aliens face before running past it.
Harper could hear the alien right behind him. With those long legs it wouldn't be long before it caught up with him. He had to find out where the 'Thing' was operating from. He ran down endless corridors of information when he stopped suddenly and ran back to the last turn off.
"Of course!" he exclaimed before running down this new corridor. He had found where the creature had made its home for the past few hours. The command deck. It made perfect sense. The command deck was where they made all their decisions from. It was where they controlled the whole ship from and where Andromeda was stored. It was also one big mess on the information database side of things. That stupid alien had destroyed everything! Chewed up data streams and broken connections littered the floor. The first thing he had to do though was get Andromeda back online, if anyone could help him it was her.
That was easy. Being the big freakin' genius he was, he had Andromeda up and running in thirty seconds. He fiddled with two connections when Andromeda fizzled to life before him.
"Harper! What's happening..." She looked into space as if concentrating for a second then stared in horror at Harper, "There's something else in here!" She whispered, acknowledging the creatures presence.
"Yeah, tell me about it. But first things first. We need to figure how to get it out of here. It's destroying the ship. If we don't work fast it'll find life support and cut it off. Then everyone will be dead. So... do you have any idea how it's in your system?" He asked Andromeda.
She closed her eyes and after a couple of seconds, "It's jacked in, that's for definite. So that means if we can find out where it's jacked in we can kick it out. Let's go." She said as she ran off .
Harper looked surprised for about a second before following her.
"I can sense the creature but I can't sense its entry point at the moment. If I wander about enough, I should be able to detect that point. It must have left some information streams somewhere." She mused as she ran in no particular direction. However, the creature had been good at covering its tracks. After searching the database thoroughly, Andromeda stopped dead, "It's no use Harper. There's no trace of where it came in. I'm sorry." She looked at Harper, her eyes full of sorrow and despair. She wanted to help him, he could see that, but at the moment she just couldn't see how. He couldn't stand to see her that way, he had to make her feel happiness again.
Closing his eyes, he searched his brain for some brilliant idea he just hadn't thought of yet. There had to be some trace of that creature. It wasn't entirely methodical. It was just destroying the database as it went merrily along. Yes!!
He opened his eyes and jumped for pure joy.
"Yes! Andromeda, you'll have records of when exactly your systems all went off line, won't you?" He asked with a sense of urgency in his voice.
Andromeda looked confused. She furrowed her brow "Yes, but how will that help?"
"Look in your records and see what system was first to go down."
Pausing for thought, "The door locks in your quarters. Oh of course! I get it now, that'll be the first thing it destroyed so that is where it entered the system! O Harper, you are a genius!"
"So I keep telling everyone!" he joked.
"You need to get out of the system and extract this thing by force." She said with conviction.
Harper wasn't entirely convinced that this was the bet way to go, "But it's a big scary alien. What am I gonna be able to do?"
Andromeda sighed in exasperation, "Harper, If it entered through the door controls in your quarters then it's not gonna be very big now is it? In fact, I bet that it's actually tiny. That way it wouldn't have been detected."
"Okay, I'll go. Just don't blame me if I screw up." He mumbled before he fizzled out of view, having just exited the system.
Andromeda smiled to herself, "You won't screw up. I trust you."
He felt that familiar tugging sensation as he plugged himself into the ship, and found himself back in the database looking at all the data streams running past him.
Harper took a deep breath before he started looking for the "Thing" as he affectionately liked to call it.
"Riiiiiiiiiight... if I was a horrible big scary monster who wanted to destroy the ship and my friends, where would I hide." He mused as he wandered around the database. Every where he looked he could see chewed up data streams and files, literally! It was a mess, and if I get out of this alive I'll be the one to clean up, joked Harper to himself. Looking round another corner, he saw nothing, again!
"This is hopeless!" he shouted to the air, thrusting up his hands "Where is this THING!"
"Looking for meeeee?" something rasped from behind him.
Spinning round, he saw the tall, black alien staring down at him. Wow, it was scary. Really. Scary.
"Heh! Hi, Mr alien. Um, I'd like you to, uh, I suppose, uh, leave? Please?" Harper squeaked.
"Noooo. I will not Leeeeeeave. And yooooou can't make me short, weak, little maaaan!"
This got Harper riled. He could handle being called little, hell even sometimes he could handle short, but weak he was not.
"Sorry to tell ya this asshole! But you WILL be leaving, and if you won't leave by your own accord, then I'm just gonna have to kick your shiny, black ass right outta here. Got it?" he yelled right in the aliens face before running past it.
Harper could hear the alien right behind him. With those long legs it wouldn't be long before it caught up with him. He had to find out where the 'Thing' was operating from. He ran down endless corridors of information when he stopped suddenly and ran back to the last turn off.
"Of course!" he exclaimed before running down this new corridor. He had found where the creature had made its home for the past few hours. The command deck. It made perfect sense. The command deck was where they made all their decisions from. It was where they controlled the whole ship from and where Andromeda was stored. It was also one big mess on the information database side of things. That stupid alien had destroyed everything! Chewed up data streams and broken connections littered the floor. The first thing he had to do though was get Andromeda back online, if anyone could help him it was her.
That was easy. Being the big freakin' genius he was, he had Andromeda up and running in thirty seconds. He fiddled with two connections when Andromeda fizzled to life before him.
"Harper! What's happening..." She looked into space as if concentrating for a second then stared in horror at Harper, "There's something else in here!" She whispered, acknowledging the creatures presence.
"Yeah, tell me about it. But first things first. We need to figure how to get it out of here. It's destroying the ship. If we don't work fast it'll find life support and cut it off. Then everyone will be dead. So... do you have any idea how it's in your system?" He asked Andromeda.
She closed her eyes and after a couple of seconds, "It's jacked in, that's for definite. So that means if we can find out where it's jacked in we can kick it out. Let's go." She said as she ran off .
Harper looked surprised for about a second before following her.
"I can sense the creature but I can't sense its entry point at the moment. If I wander about enough, I should be able to detect that point. It must have left some information streams somewhere." She mused as she ran in no particular direction. However, the creature had been good at covering its tracks. After searching the database thoroughly, Andromeda stopped dead, "It's no use Harper. There's no trace of where it came in. I'm sorry." She looked at Harper, her eyes full of sorrow and despair. She wanted to help him, he could see that, but at the moment she just couldn't see how. He couldn't stand to see her that way, he had to make her feel happiness again.
Closing his eyes, he searched his brain for some brilliant idea he just hadn't thought of yet. There had to be some trace of that creature. It wasn't entirely methodical. It was just destroying the database as it went merrily along. Yes!!
He opened his eyes and jumped for pure joy.
"Yes! Andromeda, you'll have records of when exactly your systems all went off line, won't you?" He asked with a sense of urgency in his voice.
Andromeda looked confused. She furrowed her brow "Yes, but how will that help?"
"Look in your records and see what system was first to go down."
Pausing for thought, "The door locks in your quarters. Oh of course! I get it now, that'll be the first thing it destroyed so that is where it entered the system! O Harper, you are a genius!"
"So I keep telling everyone!" he joked.
"You need to get out of the system and extract this thing by force." She said with conviction.
Harper wasn't entirely convinced that this was the bet way to go, "But it's a big scary alien. What am I gonna be able to do?"
Andromeda sighed in exasperation, "Harper, If it entered through the door controls in your quarters then it's not gonna be very big now is it? In fact, I bet that it's actually tiny. That way it wouldn't have been detected."
"Okay, I'll go. Just don't blame me if I screw up." He mumbled before he fizzled out of view, having just exited the system.
Andromeda smiled to herself, "You won't screw up. I trust you."