b**DISCLAIMER**/b
I don't own Gundam Wing, sadly. I don't own the G-boys. I don't own the G-Boys' gundams. I own myself. Kryss, Ashley, Anna, and Nick own themselves. Woop. XD Now, I give you...Misplaced in Space!
bMisplaced in Space - Chapter One; Escape Pods and Snakeskin Bags/b
Nicole sat back happily on the beast of a couch in her living room, picking up the television remote. She began idly flipping through channels until she finally came to her desired station; Cartoon Network. Ah. Gundam Wing was on. "Anime makes the world go 'round..." she sighed happily.
Just as that day's episode began to get exciting, the picture turned blue, and a man in an ugly suit with a hideous polka-dotted tie tied lazily around the starched collar of his shirt appeared on screen. He rifled through papers nervously, beads of sweat on his forehead sparkling in the searing hot lights around him. Nicole sighed, grumbling about the undesired interruption, listening half-heartedly to the message.
"This has just been received from national geologists. The continent of North America is beginning to shift and crumble beneath us right now as we speak. We have approximately two months before the crust beneath us will crumble into the sea beneath us.
"The president of the United States has decided to release information that has been kept confidential from the American people, as in this case, we lack space on this rather small planet to ship the people of North America."
"N.A.S.A has built numerous spaceships for a case where the people of Earth would need to relocate from our home planet. As our planet lacks enough space for our people to live on a different continent, it has been decided that the people of North America will all be split up into thirty separate groups and board the ship they are assigned. Each group will hold approximately three million people. Ship assignments will be sporadically e-mailed to persons on the World Wide Web, posted at local supermarkets, schools, and city halls. For now, that's all. Updates will be reported when new information is reported. Thank you, that's all."
An annoying, computerized, feminine voice squeaked out, "And we now return to your regularly scheduled programming."
Silence stirred through the living room. One could literally hear the air circulating in the room as Nicole sat, staring at the television screen, where the credits for Gundam were rolling. Her eyes had bugged out of her head in an unnatural-looking way, an expression of 'huh?' plastered to her face.
"...MOOOOOM!" she suddenly called in a strangled, high-pitched voice, "DID YOU JUST SEE THE MESSAGE ON T.V?"
"YES," her mother called back in a similar tone.
"...I'M CHECKING MY E-MAIL!!!!!!!" Nicole shrieked, leaping off the couch and into her computer chair. The chair tipped and fell, causing her face to smash into the floor. "Ow..." she mumbled, rubbing her face, righting herself and the chair.
After rapid mouse clicking and typing in of screen-names and passwords, Nicole had reached her Internet destination; her inbox on hotmail. And behold, there in her inbox sat a message from the government. In the subject line were the golden words; 'Ship Assignment.' Swallowing, she clicked open the e-mail. She read the enclosed message:
CITIZEN ID; VINYARD, NICOLE RENEE
SHIP ASSIGNMENT; ORION
POD NUMBER; 1452C
BOARDING DATE; JULY-4-2001
BOARDING LOCATION; WASHINGTON D.C.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Her eyes almost bugged out. "Gods...it's real," she whispered, a shiver tingling down her spine. "I need a distraction..." She clicked open AOL Instant Messenger, watching as her buddy list appeared. She clicked on the screen-names of her friends Kryss, Anna, and Nick (though she and her friends preferred to call him Q; short for his usual Internet alias, Quatre). She dragged them all into a buddy chat which was appropriately titled, 'Eh...'
Once the chat was opened up Kryss was the first to speak:
Impish: ...Did you all see the report on T.V?
LoneWolf: I did.
Qkewl: Me too...
UFO: I did, too.
LoneWolf: What are your ship assignments? Mine's on the Orion.
Impish: O_O;; Me too.
Qkewl: O.o Me too
UFO: o.o ME TOO!!
LoneWolf: ...Gyahahah...
Nicole and her friends discussed the fun they would have aboard the ship together, how exciting the voyage would be, and how scared they were to leaving Earth. All four were but teenagers, and had, of course, spent their entire lives on the ground of Earth. The idea of entering the vast unknown of the universe was both intriguing and frightening to them all. But in the end, all four agreed they would make the best of their limited time left on their home planet and would see each other in two months when the Orion began its journey into outer space...
***Dawn, 7-4-01***
Kryss awoke to the beams of sunlight that filtered through the thin curtains over the window. She was on the couch she'd been sleeping on in the hotel room. She was staying in with her family. They had arrived in Washing D.C. two days prior to Boarding Day with all their valuables they had decided to take with them into space.
She sat up groggily, blinking and running her fingers through her long blonde hair. She growled at the filtered purple-tinted sunlight shining in her face and swung her legs off the side of the couch with a yawn. She shivered as her feet hit the cool hardwood floor of the hotel room, padding over to the bathroom to lay first claim on the shower that morning. After a quick shower and running a brush through her hair she threw on a purple and white shirt she had made after watching Meilin on Card Captor Sakura, khaki pants, and put her hair up in her usual purple bandanna. She then laced up her sneakers and exited the bathroom.
She walked to the couch, stuffing her pajamas from the night before in her duffel bag that she'd packed with a laptop with Anime and such on it, clothes, and of course, her sketchbook, and other various tools.
She walked over to the door that led into the extended room her mother and stepfather were sharing and knocked upon it. "Hey, Mom? Can I go down to the ships and go onboard right now?"
Her mother called back, "Sure Kryss, go ahead. You know where our luggage compartment is at, right? Make sure to meet us there before we take off."
"Okay Mom, thanks," she replied and left the room. Once she was out in the hallways she tore down to the lobby and out of the hotel, leaving a trail of puzzled looks behind her.
She began laughing maniacally and grabbed her skateboard out of the huge side compartment in the duffel she'd gotten especially for their journey into the unknown. She dropped it down on its wheels, riding off down the street and around the corner to the large open field where the thirty space ships were sitting, awaiting their passengers. All the ships were of a uniform shape and size, like an army of alien-looking soldiers. They ships were somewhat oval-shaped with a hill-like top, which had a window running all around the peak. Around their bottoms was a huge collection of tiny spheres, likes a skirt made of bubbles. Underneath those skirts were there huge legs-the thrusters. Along the circumference of them were a few smaller thrusters for directing the ships in space, like many arms from which the hands had been severed. The names of the ships had been painted boldly on the sides in bright yellow.
She skated past probably fifteen ships, dodging angry people who shook their fists, screamed, and cursed at her while she skated past them at insane speeds, before she saw the word 'ORION' printed on one of the ships. She grinned and turned on the board, skating up the ramp of the ship. Once inside the belly of the ship she gaped in awe, nearly toppling over on her board, and nearly running over a fellow passenger who was in a similar state in front of her.
In the belly of the ship it was shocking how much space there was within the metal walls. There was a large open space in the middle of the ship with two stair cases leading downwards, one on the right and one on the left. There was one staircase that led upwards to the long spiral of stairs. The spiral seemed to continue upwards for eternity. Rectangles with numbered and lettered codes were lined up along the spiral, the entrances to the many shelve-like openings; had to be the pods.
At the center of the large open space was a large tube with a little chamber in it and a cable running upwards, all the way to the top. This was the elevator to the observation deck up top. Also, from the top came down a few colored lights that gave the ship a bit of life.
In the midst of her gaping, Kryss realized she was about to run over the brunette girl in front of her about five seconds before she was upon her, taking a sharp turn and meeting a large, black, snakeskin suitcase. "AAAHHHHH!" she screeched as the skateboard rammed into the heavy suitcase, sending her flying over the miniature roadblock and into the metal floor of the ship. "Ouch..." she whimpered, peeling her face off the cold metal ground.
***
Nicole turned around at the yelping behind her, blinking at the sight of the blonde girl sprawled out on the ground, pushing herself up off the floor.
"This is no way to treat a K.E.P.E.P," the girl muttered, fixing her bandanna and scowling at the snakeskin suitcase a few feet away from her.
"...Kryss?" Nicole asked, a curious look on her face.
Kryss looked up in the direction of the voice that had called her. She blinked and sputtered out, "Ni...nic...NICCI?"
"KRYSS! MUAHA!" Nicole cackled, running over to her fallen friend.
She then tripped over a large blue duffel bag, which had not been there seconds before, managing to at least avoid the violin case next to it. She herself was sent sprawling in front of her friend, thus taking a nosedive into the floor of the ship.
She growled, pushing herself up and turning around, "Whoever's bag that is, dies..."
"..." Her glare became a look of surprise, then, again, a glare. "Q...." she growled at the short boy with light brown hair standing with a taller, older-looking girl with dark black-brown hair streaked with red standing next to him. "You tripped me."
"...Oops?" he grinned in a way that reminded herself and Kryss of Quatre so much that it was scary. The girl next to him shivered.
"You are so Quatre..."
"Shut up, Anna."
"Why don't you, little brother?"
Kryss and Nicole looked at each other disdainfully, then back to the squabbling 'siblings.' After they had finally quieted the two, all four finally began their exploration of their new home, Orion.
***Later***
"I didn't know Earth was so beautiful," Nicole breathed dreamily, staring out the large window of the mass hall. "Oh, wow, look...It really did happen."
She pointed out the window in the direction of the North American continent. It was beginning to crumble and those around her and her friends watched it drop off into the ocean with a symphony of gasps and cries for their old home.
The ship had launched into space, and was preparing to make a jump into the neighboring galaxy of Andromeda to begin their search for a new planet to call home.
Something else the people had not been informed of was the technology of 'jumping.' This would enable the people aboard to journey the universe quickly. They could jump from place to place through wormholes to get places that would normally take light-years to reach in seconds. If they were to continue their journey without this ability, the people would not outlive exiting the Milky Way galaxy.
Then, even more was revealed to them. The citizens learned of cryogenic freezing as well. For the purpose of space and the time in which they could be in space, they would be placed in one of those millions of shelves and frozen. Perfectly preserved for as long as it would take to find a new home.
"Come on," Anna said, breaking the fixation her friends had upon the Earth, "Let's go eat something while they make the jump, then let's look around some more."
Nicholas nodded in agreement, "Good idea, let's go." He grabbed Nicole and Kryss' arms, dragging them from the window to the food line across the room from them.
"Damn iiit..." Anna wailed, "This line's so long! We'll never get fed!"
In front of the teenagers stood an old man dressed in a brown suit with a yellow tie. He looked somewhat like Santa Claus, what with his round belly and snowy white beard. His hair was cropped at his ears and he wore a dressy brown hat. He smiled kindly at the young people, saying, "There, there, we'll all get fed sometime. You just have to be patient..."
Nicole grinned, "She knows, but patience isn't her strong point. Neither is thinking..."
Her taller friend stuck her tongue out in reply.
"Hey, uh, why are you all dressed up, Mister?" Kriss asked politely, as she didn't know him well enough to act crude. "I mean, I know it's the Fourth of July and all..."
The old man chuckled, then answered. "Well, see, this is my first time into space, so I felt I should dress up. This is an important event, you know!"
Nick smiled, "Yeah, it's a first for just about everybody on board. So...What's your name, sir?"
He smiled. "Timothy McDermott! Pleasure to meet you kids." He tugged on the sleeve of the woman in front of him. She wore a pretty lavender dress with a ruffle at the skirt and collar. The lady's shoes matched her dress, adorned with silver buckles on the tops. "I'd like you to meet these children. Some of the nicest kids I've met in awhile! Kids, this is my wife, Iris. Iris this is...I'm sorry, what're your names?"
Nicole pointed to herself and to the others in turn, reciting each name. "I'm Nicole, this is Kriss, Anna, and Nick."
He smiled again. "Yes, Nicole, Kryss, Anna, and Nick."
Mrs. McDermott smiled. "It's lovely to meet you all. Where're you all from?" the elderly woman asked as they moved up to the head of the line. She took a tray and plate, moving down the line that somewhat resembled that of a school cafeteria.
"Illinois," Nick said simply. "Not much to say about Illinois. It's just...Illinois."
"Texas," Nicole piped, "but I was born in Florida. I really don't like Texas much; I hate their sports teams, and rodeos bug me. It's just not home to me."
"New York here," Kryss said with a good Yankee accent. "And proud!" she added, nodding.
"New York again," Anna said, picking up her own tray. "Where're you two from? Are you here with any other family?"
Timothy said, "We're from New Hampshire; we have a son, though he moved out a long time ago. His name's Richard; he and his family were assigned to the Nexus."
"My grandparents (on my dad's side) are on the Nexus. So is my grandma on my mom's side," Nicole mentioned, looking over at the couple she and her friends conversed with, not paying attention to whatever the cafeteria workers slapped onto her plate.
"Really?" Iris said.
"Yes ma'am."
After a couple minutes later, the lot of them had finally been freed from the line. Timothy and his wife turned to the kids and smiled. "It was nice talking to you kids! I hope to see you around some more."
"Yeah, that'd be nice," Nick replied. The elderly couple turned and walked off towards the other end of the mass hall.
***
After a bit of searching, the four had claimed a table together with their food piled trays, all with very confused expressions.
"...What is this stuff?!" Nicole said finally, giving the goop on her tray a poke. "Maybe we should have looked a little closer at what they were serving..."
"It looks sort of like Jell-O," Kryss remarked, spooning some of it up, then spilling it back onto the tray again.
"But it's liquid-y, like water. Only it's not as thin," Anna added.
"...All in favor of trashing it?" Q asked. The girls around him sent back frantic nods. All four flung their trays in a garbage can, getting up from the table.
The group went upstairs from the mass hall, looking around in the center of the ship. Outside a small porthole window, Nick noticed everything outside turned colors, into a rainbow of light. The brilliant light shone through the porthole windows all up the spiral doing the same. A moment later the light flashed away and the ship lurched a bit, as if making a sudden stop, which sent the girls toppling backwards onto him. An announcement came up over the loudspeaker almost immediately after that.
The Orion had made its jump into the Andromeda galaxy already. The ship had been well built, holding up well in the journey and through the jump. The gravity machine had held up as well, completely unaffected by the leap through space. The scientists on board would be looking for possibly inhabitable planets while they were there for the next few days. Within a day or two, all humanoids on board would be sent to their pods for cryogenic freezing while Orion scanned all planets for hospitable conditions. If none looked appealing, then they would jump on to the next nearest galaxy to have a look-see.
The teens shortly after decided to head down the other staircase to check out the extra rations and the escape pod area before they had to get frozen. After all, they had all decided to drop their gear in one of the pods down there because so many people had taken up all the room in the main cargo areas with their own supplies. Pretty much everyone was too lazy to take their things to their own luggage compartments.
Kryss stepped over a familiar black snakeskin bag with a scowl, "Snakeskin bag...my nemesis." She gave the bag a swift kick and sent it flying a few feet, disappearing into the escape pod area. Whilst she took to triumphant cackling, Anna shoved her forward, following the direction the bag had gone.
Down in that area of the ship boxes and boxes of rations were stacked everywhere, tied down to keep from shifting during the earlier take off, jumps, and possible spacial turbulence. Bags were piled everywhere here as well, stacked everywhere, even in the open passageways that led to the escape pods.
"Where did we put our bags?" Anna wondered aloud, stepping over someone's bicycle.
"In escape pod number 34G," confirmed Nick, pointing at the pod as he read its name.
All four teenagers entered the pod, squeezing through the small opening that led inside the pod. It was a small round ball, with a ring of seats going around with a window directly across from the entrance. A small control panel with a large red button in the center of it read 'launch' in large bold yellow letters that was placed in the center of the seat ring.
"There're our bags!" Nicole pointed to the bench, trying to get by. "Hey, Q, don't shove damn it!"
Q continued to try and get by the girls first until, annoyed by his trying to squeeze by, the three gave him a good shove inside and stepped in. He fell over the control panel, getting a good stab to the gut from it. Having the air thoroughly knocked out of him, he turned and sat upon the edge of panel to catch his breath. Kryss brushed by him, giving him another shove. Suddenly there was a beeping sound and the pod door slid shut. A sign blinked red bold digitalized letters reading, 'AIR LOCK SECURE.'
A computerized voice spoke to them in the pod, "Pod launch has been initiated." The pod began to stir and shudder, and the sound of clamps being released could be heard. Then the three unwilling escapees of the ship felt the momentum of the pod hurtling off into space.
The three females within the pod turned their heads to Q, their faces blank.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"GOD DAMN IT, NICK!" they screeched, lunging for his throat to strangle him. Shortly after a quick round of abuse was performed on their male comrade, the three began frantically trying to contact the ship with the controls available to them. Suddenly the stars around them flashed with that colored light again, the skies seemed to smear, and the computer voice spoke again, "Jump action performed. Current location; Unidentified Galaxy."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"DAMN IT!!"
A few minutes later, after much more kicking, screaming, mutilating, cursing, and general mangling was performed upon Q, the computerized voice came again, fainter this time. "Pod life-support low. Fuel low. Please...ee--je.ct..." The voice slowed and cut out.
All four sighed, the girls refraining from violence. All silently agreed it would be a waste of oxygen.
Kryss suddenly glared, a small, black object catching her eye. Snakeskin bag, she thought bitterly, I shall never be rid of thee...
Gradually, all four teenagers began to feel sleepy. The lack of oxygen began to take toll on the unlikely passengers of the escape pod. Their eyelids drooped, and the world went black.
***
Trowa Barton blinked as a green light appeared on a navigation screen.
He brushed his long bangs from the side of his face behind his ear, looking at the screen quizzically. "Duo," he called over his shoulder, watching the slow-moving tiny blip.
"What do you want, Trowa?" Duo Maxwell called back. He came skipping to the taller boy, his long braid behind him.
"Look. What do you think it is?" Trowa asked, putting his finger to the green speck.
Duo frowned. "I'm not sure. Let's go inform the others, come on."
***
Duo, Trowa, Heero Yuy, Quatre Winner, and Chang Wufei all stood over the small escape pod they had pulled from space. This had been the small dot on their radar, a meager pod from a ship that was obviously poorly crafted and lacked fuel and oxygen. Inside the young men had discovered four teenagers, three females and one male, all not much younger or older than themselves.
"...Where DID they come from?" Quatre wondered, scratching the back of his corn silk-haired head. "And who are they anyway? Why were they in the middle of space?"
"Like I'm supposed to know?" Duo said, rolling his eyes. He picked up the short blonde inside the tiny escape pod. Duo was thoroughly enjoying the fact that they had found three females. He liked having chances to flirt.
Quatre walked over to the pod, lifting up the smallest of the four, a short brunette with thin-framed glasses. He followed silently after Duo.
Heero stood there and shrugged. "Get the others and all of those bags," he said. Then he walked out after Quatre and Duo.
The others looked at each other and shrugged. Wufei grabbed up the remaining girl with dark brown hair streaked with red and followed suit, leaving Trowa with the male and baggage. He glared angrily after him and sighed, hauling the young male and bags violently across the floor after his departed 'friends' to sick bay.
Once there he found Quatre, Duo, and Wufei placing the girls on what would appear to be a table with cushions on it. Heero was sitting on another table and cleaning his gun. Trowa slapped the boy on a table as well, putting all the access baggage on yet another.
"...Let's look through it," Heero said, taking the bag nearest to him, which had a tag labeled 'Nicole Vinyard' on it.
***
Nicole stared at the blackness on the insides of her eyelids. Her whole body tensed. She didn't know where she was. She was lying on someone soft and cool, and the room she was in was cold as well. Male voices were speaking.
"What's this thing?" one said, "It looks kind of like a slingshot."
"Wufei, don't do that..."
"OW! The damn thing smacked me in the face! Bloody hell, it's got me bleeding!"
Snorting and laughter followed that.
Nicole took a deep breath and chose to open her eyes, meeting bright lights. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her head. The conversation nearby ended abruptly, and she chose to turn and look at whoever was in the room with her.
She blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes. "Du...du...DUDE! I'M ON THE PEACE MILION! We are so not in Kansas anymore, Toto..." She felt another faint coming on... Was she really on the Peace Milion? She could swear the boys in the room with her were the main characters of Gundam Wing.
All five boys stared at her with very surprised expressions, their eyes practically bugging out of their heads, Wufei holding what appeared to be a red bra to his bleeding nose. Well, she found herself musing, He won't stain it that way, now will he?
"Ah...um...I mean...Hi?" she coughed, trying to look innocent.
Heero looked at her scrutinizingly. "How do you know of your location?"
She flinched. How was she supposed to answer that one? She couldn't exactly tell him the whole story was on a television show. "Um...if I say I'm just special like that, will you stop glaring at me?"
He chose not to respond or to stop glaring, instead whispering in a barely audible voice to his fellow pilots, "We'll take the girls in for interrogation. You saw all those pictures and the drawings in those bags. Wake the others up. The male will be dealt with separately." The other boys nodded in reply. "You," he said more loudly, looking back at Nicole, "What's your name?"
"Nicole Vinyard," she replied in a meek, militant voice.
"Nicole Vinyard, get your bag and that of your female friends. You're coming with me." He turned on his heel and left, his arms crossed, a frown on his face.
She quickly jumped off the table and grabbed up her bag and those of Kriss and Anna, giving Wufei a strange look. "That's a bra. It's used to support females' breasts. That belongs to Anna," she gestured in her brown and red haired friend's direction, then scurried after Heero. As the door slid automatically shut behind her, she heard the sound of the pilots cracking up.
***
TO BE CONTINUED! MUAHA!
I don't own Gundam Wing, sadly. I don't own the G-boys. I don't own the G-Boys' gundams. I own myself. Kryss, Ashley, Anna, and Nick own themselves. Woop. XD Now, I give you...Misplaced in Space!
bMisplaced in Space - Chapter One; Escape Pods and Snakeskin Bags/b
Nicole sat back happily on the beast of a couch in her living room, picking up the television remote. She began idly flipping through channels until she finally came to her desired station; Cartoon Network. Ah. Gundam Wing was on. "Anime makes the world go 'round..." she sighed happily.
Just as that day's episode began to get exciting, the picture turned blue, and a man in an ugly suit with a hideous polka-dotted tie tied lazily around the starched collar of his shirt appeared on screen. He rifled through papers nervously, beads of sweat on his forehead sparkling in the searing hot lights around him. Nicole sighed, grumbling about the undesired interruption, listening half-heartedly to the message.
"This has just been received from national geologists. The continent of North America is beginning to shift and crumble beneath us right now as we speak. We have approximately two months before the crust beneath us will crumble into the sea beneath us.
"The president of the United States has decided to release information that has been kept confidential from the American people, as in this case, we lack space on this rather small planet to ship the people of North America."
"N.A.S.A has built numerous spaceships for a case where the people of Earth would need to relocate from our home planet. As our planet lacks enough space for our people to live on a different continent, it has been decided that the people of North America will all be split up into thirty separate groups and board the ship they are assigned. Each group will hold approximately three million people. Ship assignments will be sporadically e-mailed to persons on the World Wide Web, posted at local supermarkets, schools, and city halls. For now, that's all. Updates will be reported when new information is reported. Thank you, that's all."
An annoying, computerized, feminine voice squeaked out, "And we now return to your regularly scheduled programming."
Silence stirred through the living room. One could literally hear the air circulating in the room as Nicole sat, staring at the television screen, where the credits for Gundam were rolling. Her eyes had bugged out of her head in an unnatural-looking way, an expression of 'huh?' plastered to her face.
"...MOOOOOM!" she suddenly called in a strangled, high-pitched voice, "DID YOU JUST SEE THE MESSAGE ON T.V?"
"YES," her mother called back in a similar tone.
"...I'M CHECKING MY E-MAIL!!!!!!!" Nicole shrieked, leaping off the couch and into her computer chair. The chair tipped and fell, causing her face to smash into the floor. "Ow..." she mumbled, rubbing her face, righting herself and the chair.
After rapid mouse clicking and typing in of screen-names and passwords, Nicole had reached her Internet destination; her inbox on hotmail. And behold, there in her inbox sat a message from the government. In the subject line were the golden words; 'Ship Assignment.' Swallowing, she clicked open the e-mail. She read the enclosed message:
CITIZEN ID; VINYARD, NICOLE RENEE
SHIP ASSIGNMENT; ORION
POD NUMBER; 1452C
BOARDING DATE; JULY-4-2001
BOARDING LOCATION; WASHINGTON D.C.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Her eyes almost bugged out. "Gods...it's real," she whispered, a shiver tingling down her spine. "I need a distraction..." She clicked open AOL Instant Messenger, watching as her buddy list appeared. She clicked on the screen-names of her friends Kryss, Anna, and Nick (though she and her friends preferred to call him Q; short for his usual Internet alias, Quatre). She dragged them all into a buddy chat which was appropriately titled, 'Eh...'
Once the chat was opened up Kryss was the first to speak:
Impish: ...Did you all see the report on T.V?
LoneWolf: I did.
Qkewl: Me too...
UFO: I did, too.
LoneWolf: What are your ship assignments? Mine's on the Orion.
Impish: O_O;; Me too.
Qkewl: O.o Me too
UFO: o.o ME TOO!!
LoneWolf: ...Gyahahah...
Nicole and her friends discussed the fun they would have aboard the ship together, how exciting the voyage would be, and how scared they were to leaving Earth. All four were but teenagers, and had, of course, spent their entire lives on the ground of Earth. The idea of entering the vast unknown of the universe was both intriguing and frightening to them all. But in the end, all four agreed they would make the best of their limited time left on their home planet and would see each other in two months when the Orion began its journey into outer space...
***Dawn, 7-4-01***
Kryss awoke to the beams of sunlight that filtered through the thin curtains over the window. She was on the couch she'd been sleeping on in the hotel room. She was staying in with her family. They had arrived in Washing D.C. two days prior to Boarding Day with all their valuables they had decided to take with them into space.
She sat up groggily, blinking and running her fingers through her long blonde hair. She growled at the filtered purple-tinted sunlight shining in her face and swung her legs off the side of the couch with a yawn. She shivered as her feet hit the cool hardwood floor of the hotel room, padding over to the bathroom to lay first claim on the shower that morning. After a quick shower and running a brush through her hair she threw on a purple and white shirt she had made after watching Meilin on Card Captor Sakura, khaki pants, and put her hair up in her usual purple bandanna. She then laced up her sneakers and exited the bathroom.
She walked to the couch, stuffing her pajamas from the night before in her duffel bag that she'd packed with a laptop with Anime and such on it, clothes, and of course, her sketchbook, and other various tools.
She walked over to the door that led into the extended room her mother and stepfather were sharing and knocked upon it. "Hey, Mom? Can I go down to the ships and go onboard right now?"
Her mother called back, "Sure Kryss, go ahead. You know where our luggage compartment is at, right? Make sure to meet us there before we take off."
"Okay Mom, thanks," she replied and left the room. Once she was out in the hallways she tore down to the lobby and out of the hotel, leaving a trail of puzzled looks behind her.
She began laughing maniacally and grabbed her skateboard out of the huge side compartment in the duffel she'd gotten especially for their journey into the unknown. She dropped it down on its wheels, riding off down the street and around the corner to the large open field where the thirty space ships were sitting, awaiting their passengers. All the ships were of a uniform shape and size, like an army of alien-looking soldiers. They ships were somewhat oval-shaped with a hill-like top, which had a window running all around the peak. Around their bottoms was a huge collection of tiny spheres, likes a skirt made of bubbles. Underneath those skirts were there huge legs-the thrusters. Along the circumference of them were a few smaller thrusters for directing the ships in space, like many arms from which the hands had been severed. The names of the ships had been painted boldly on the sides in bright yellow.
She skated past probably fifteen ships, dodging angry people who shook their fists, screamed, and cursed at her while she skated past them at insane speeds, before she saw the word 'ORION' printed on one of the ships. She grinned and turned on the board, skating up the ramp of the ship. Once inside the belly of the ship she gaped in awe, nearly toppling over on her board, and nearly running over a fellow passenger who was in a similar state in front of her.
In the belly of the ship it was shocking how much space there was within the metal walls. There was a large open space in the middle of the ship with two stair cases leading downwards, one on the right and one on the left. There was one staircase that led upwards to the long spiral of stairs. The spiral seemed to continue upwards for eternity. Rectangles with numbered and lettered codes were lined up along the spiral, the entrances to the many shelve-like openings; had to be the pods.
At the center of the large open space was a large tube with a little chamber in it and a cable running upwards, all the way to the top. This was the elevator to the observation deck up top. Also, from the top came down a few colored lights that gave the ship a bit of life.
In the midst of her gaping, Kryss realized she was about to run over the brunette girl in front of her about five seconds before she was upon her, taking a sharp turn and meeting a large, black, snakeskin suitcase. "AAAHHHHH!" she screeched as the skateboard rammed into the heavy suitcase, sending her flying over the miniature roadblock and into the metal floor of the ship. "Ouch..." she whimpered, peeling her face off the cold metal ground.
***
Nicole turned around at the yelping behind her, blinking at the sight of the blonde girl sprawled out on the ground, pushing herself up off the floor.
"This is no way to treat a K.E.P.E.P," the girl muttered, fixing her bandanna and scowling at the snakeskin suitcase a few feet away from her.
"...Kryss?" Nicole asked, a curious look on her face.
Kryss looked up in the direction of the voice that had called her. She blinked and sputtered out, "Ni...nic...NICCI?"
"KRYSS! MUAHA!" Nicole cackled, running over to her fallen friend.
She then tripped over a large blue duffel bag, which had not been there seconds before, managing to at least avoid the violin case next to it. She herself was sent sprawling in front of her friend, thus taking a nosedive into the floor of the ship.
She growled, pushing herself up and turning around, "Whoever's bag that is, dies..."
"..." Her glare became a look of surprise, then, again, a glare. "Q...." she growled at the short boy with light brown hair standing with a taller, older-looking girl with dark black-brown hair streaked with red standing next to him. "You tripped me."
"...Oops?" he grinned in a way that reminded herself and Kryss of Quatre so much that it was scary. The girl next to him shivered.
"You are so Quatre..."
"Shut up, Anna."
"Why don't you, little brother?"
Kryss and Nicole looked at each other disdainfully, then back to the squabbling 'siblings.' After they had finally quieted the two, all four finally began their exploration of their new home, Orion.
***Later***
"I didn't know Earth was so beautiful," Nicole breathed dreamily, staring out the large window of the mass hall. "Oh, wow, look...It really did happen."
She pointed out the window in the direction of the North American continent. It was beginning to crumble and those around her and her friends watched it drop off into the ocean with a symphony of gasps and cries for their old home.
The ship had launched into space, and was preparing to make a jump into the neighboring galaxy of Andromeda to begin their search for a new planet to call home.
Something else the people had not been informed of was the technology of 'jumping.' This would enable the people aboard to journey the universe quickly. They could jump from place to place through wormholes to get places that would normally take light-years to reach in seconds. If they were to continue their journey without this ability, the people would not outlive exiting the Milky Way galaxy.
Then, even more was revealed to them. The citizens learned of cryogenic freezing as well. For the purpose of space and the time in which they could be in space, they would be placed in one of those millions of shelves and frozen. Perfectly preserved for as long as it would take to find a new home.
"Come on," Anna said, breaking the fixation her friends had upon the Earth, "Let's go eat something while they make the jump, then let's look around some more."
Nicholas nodded in agreement, "Good idea, let's go." He grabbed Nicole and Kryss' arms, dragging them from the window to the food line across the room from them.
"Damn iiit..." Anna wailed, "This line's so long! We'll never get fed!"
In front of the teenagers stood an old man dressed in a brown suit with a yellow tie. He looked somewhat like Santa Claus, what with his round belly and snowy white beard. His hair was cropped at his ears and he wore a dressy brown hat. He smiled kindly at the young people, saying, "There, there, we'll all get fed sometime. You just have to be patient..."
Nicole grinned, "She knows, but patience isn't her strong point. Neither is thinking..."
Her taller friend stuck her tongue out in reply.
"Hey, uh, why are you all dressed up, Mister?" Kriss asked politely, as she didn't know him well enough to act crude. "I mean, I know it's the Fourth of July and all..."
The old man chuckled, then answered. "Well, see, this is my first time into space, so I felt I should dress up. This is an important event, you know!"
Nick smiled, "Yeah, it's a first for just about everybody on board. So...What's your name, sir?"
He smiled. "Timothy McDermott! Pleasure to meet you kids." He tugged on the sleeve of the woman in front of him. She wore a pretty lavender dress with a ruffle at the skirt and collar. The lady's shoes matched her dress, adorned with silver buckles on the tops. "I'd like you to meet these children. Some of the nicest kids I've met in awhile! Kids, this is my wife, Iris. Iris this is...I'm sorry, what're your names?"
Nicole pointed to herself and to the others in turn, reciting each name. "I'm Nicole, this is Kriss, Anna, and Nick."
He smiled again. "Yes, Nicole, Kryss, Anna, and Nick."
Mrs. McDermott smiled. "It's lovely to meet you all. Where're you all from?" the elderly woman asked as they moved up to the head of the line. She took a tray and plate, moving down the line that somewhat resembled that of a school cafeteria.
"Illinois," Nick said simply. "Not much to say about Illinois. It's just...Illinois."
"Texas," Nicole piped, "but I was born in Florida. I really don't like Texas much; I hate their sports teams, and rodeos bug me. It's just not home to me."
"New York here," Kryss said with a good Yankee accent. "And proud!" she added, nodding.
"New York again," Anna said, picking up her own tray. "Where're you two from? Are you here with any other family?"
Timothy said, "We're from New Hampshire; we have a son, though he moved out a long time ago. His name's Richard; he and his family were assigned to the Nexus."
"My grandparents (on my dad's side) are on the Nexus. So is my grandma on my mom's side," Nicole mentioned, looking over at the couple she and her friends conversed with, not paying attention to whatever the cafeteria workers slapped onto her plate.
"Really?" Iris said.
"Yes ma'am."
After a couple minutes later, the lot of them had finally been freed from the line. Timothy and his wife turned to the kids and smiled. "It was nice talking to you kids! I hope to see you around some more."
"Yeah, that'd be nice," Nick replied. The elderly couple turned and walked off towards the other end of the mass hall.
***
After a bit of searching, the four had claimed a table together with their food piled trays, all with very confused expressions.
"...What is this stuff?!" Nicole said finally, giving the goop on her tray a poke. "Maybe we should have looked a little closer at what they were serving..."
"It looks sort of like Jell-O," Kryss remarked, spooning some of it up, then spilling it back onto the tray again.
"But it's liquid-y, like water. Only it's not as thin," Anna added.
"...All in favor of trashing it?" Q asked. The girls around him sent back frantic nods. All four flung their trays in a garbage can, getting up from the table.
The group went upstairs from the mass hall, looking around in the center of the ship. Outside a small porthole window, Nick noticed everything outside turned colors, into a rainbow of light. The brilliant light shone through the porthole windows all up the spiral doing the same. A moment later the light flashed away and the ship lurched a bit, as if making a sudden stop, which sent the girls toppling backwards onto him. An announcement came up over the loudspeaker almost immediately after that.
The Orion had made its jump into the Andromeda galaxy already. The ship had been well built, holding up well in the journey and through the jump. The gravity machine had held up as well, completely unaffected by the leap through space. The scientists on board would be looking for possibly inhabitable planets while they were there for the next few days. Within a day or two, all humanoids on board would be sent to their pods for cryogenic freezing while Orion scanned all planets for hospitable conditions. If none looked appealing, then they would jump on to the next nearest galaxy to have a look-see.
The teens shortly after decided to head down the other staircase to check out the extra rations and the escape pod area before they had to get frozen. After all, they had all decided to drop their gear in one of the pods down there because so many people had taken up all the room in the main cargo areas with their own supplies. Pretty much everyone was too lazy to take their things to their own luggage compartments.
Kryss stepped over a familiar black snakeskin bag with a scowl, "Snakeskin bag...my nemesis." She gave the bag a swift kick and sent it flying a few feet, disappearing into the escape pod area. Whilst she took to triumphant cackling, Anna shoved her forward, following the direction the bag had gone.
Down in that area of the ship boxes and boxes of rations were stacked everywhere, tied down to keep from shifting during the earlier take off, jumps, and possible spacial turbulence. Bags were piled everywhere here as well, stacked everywhere, even in the open passageways that led to the escape pods.
"Where did we put our bags?" Anna wondered aloud, stepping over someone's bicycle.
"In escape pod number 34G," confirmed Nick, pointing at the pod as he read its name.
All four teenagers entered the pod, squeezing through the small opening that led inside the pod. It was a small round ball, with a ring of seats going around with a window directly across from the entrance. A small control panel with a large red button in the center of it read 'launch' in large bold yellow letters that was placed in the center of the seat ring.
"There're our bags!" Nicole pointed to the bench, trying to get by. "Hey, Q, don't shove damn it!"
Q continued to try and get by the girls first until, annoyed by his trying to squeeze by, the three gave him a good shove inside and stepped in. He fell over the control panel, getting a good stab to the gut from it. Having the air thoroughly knocked out of him, he turned and sat upon the edge of panel to catch his breath. Kryss brushed by him, giving him another shove. Suddenly there was a beeping sound and the pod door slid shut. A sign blinked red bold digitalized letters reading, 'AIR LOCK SECURE.'
A computerized voice spoke to them in the pod, "Pod launch has been initiated." The pod began to stir and shudder, and the sound of clamps being released could be heard. Then the three unwilling escapees of the ship felt the momentum of the pod hurtling off into space.
The three females within the pod turned their heads to Q, their faces blank.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"GOD DAMN IT, NICK!" they screeched, lunging for his throat to strangle him. Shortly after a quick round of abuse was performed on their male comrade, the three began frantically trying to contact the ship with the controls available to them. Suddenly the stars around them flashed with that colored light again, the skies seemed to smear, and the computer voice spoke again, "Jump action performed. Current location; Unidentified Galaxy."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"DAMN IT!!"
A few minutes later, after much more kicking, screaming, mutilating, cursing, and general mangling was performed upon Q, the computerized voice came again, fainter this time. "Pod life-support low. Fuel low. Please...ee--je.ct..." The voice slowed and cut out.
All four sighed, the girls refraining from violence. All silently agreed it would be a waste of oxygen.
Kryss suddenly glared, a small, black object catching her eye. Snakeskin bag, she thought bitterly, I shall never be rid of thee...
Gradually, all four teenagers began to feel sleepy. The lack of oxygen began to take toll on the unlikely passengers of the escape pod. Their eyelids drooped, and the world went black.
***
Trowa Barton blinked as a green light appeared on a navigation screen.
He brushed his long bangs from the side of his face behind his ear, looking at the screen quizzically. "Duo," he called over his shoulder, watching the slow-moving tiny blip.
"What do you want, Trowa?" Duo Maxwell called back. He came skipping to the taller boy, his long braid behind him.
"Look. What do you think it is?" Trowa asked, putting his finger to the green speck.
Duo frowned. "I'm not sure. Let's go inform the others, come on."
***
Duo, Trowa, Heero Yuy, Quatre Winner, and Chang Wufei all stood over the small escape pod they had pulled from space. This had been the small dot on their radar, a meager pod from a ship that was obviously poorly crafted and lacked fuel and oxygen. Inside the young men had discovered four teenagers, three females and one male, all not much younger or older than themselves.
"...Where DID they come from?" Quatre wondered, scratching the back of his corn silk-haired head. "And who are they anyway? Why were they in the middle of space?"
"Like I'm supposed to know?" Duo said, rolling his eyes. He picked up the short blonde inside the tiny escape pod. Duo was thoroughly enjoying the fact that they had found three females. He liked having chances to flirt.
Quatre walked over to the pod, lifting up the smallest of the four, a short brunette with thin-framed glasses. He followed silently after Duo.
Heero stood there and shrugged. "Get the others and all of those bags," he said. Then he walked out after Quatre and Duo.
The others looked at each other and shrugged. Wufei grabbed up the remaining girl with dark brown hair streaked with red and followed suit, leaving Trowa with the male and baggage. He glared angrily after him and sighed, hauling the young male and bags violently across the floor after his departed 'friends' to sick bay.
Once there he found Quatre, Duo, and Wufei placing the girls on what would appear to be a table with cushions on it. Heero was sitting on another table and cleaning his gun. Trowa slapped the boy on a table as well, putting all the access baggage on yet another.
"...Let's look through it," Heero said, taking the bag nearest to him, which had a tag labeled 'Nicole Vinyard' on it.
***
Nicole stared at the blackness on the insides of her eyelids. Her whole body tensed. She didn't know where she was. She was lying on someone soft and cool, and the room she was in was cold as well. Male voices were speaking.
"What's this thing?" one said, "It looks kind of like a slingshot."
"Wufei, don't do that..."
"OW! The damn thing smacked me in the face! Bloody hell, it's got me bleeding!"
Snorting and laughter followed that.
Nicole took a deep breath and chose to open her eyes, meeting bright lights. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her head. The conversation nearby ended abruptly, and she chose to turn and look at whoever was in the room with her.
She blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes. "Du...du...DUDE! I'M ON THE PEACE MILION! We are so not in Kansas anymore, Toto..." She felt another faint coming on... Was she really on the Peace Milion? She could swear the boys in the room with her were the main characters of Gundam Wing.
All five boys stared at her with very surprised expressions, their eyes practically bugging out of their heads, Wufei holding what appeared to be a red bra to his bleeding nose. Well, she found herself musing, He won't stain it that way, now will he?
"Ah...um...I mean...Hi?" she coughed, trying to look innocent.
Heero looked at her scrutinizingly. "How do you know of your location?"
She flinched. How was she supposed to answer that one? She couldn't exactly tell him the whole story was on a television show. "Um...if I say I'm just special like that, will you stop glaring at me?"
He chose not to respond or to stop glaring, instead whispering in a barely audible voice to his fellow pilots, "We'll take the girls in for interrogation. You saw all those pictures and the drawings in those bags. Wake the others up. The male will be dealt with separately." The other boys nodded in reply. "You," he said more loudly, looking back at Nicole, "What's your name?"
"Nicole Vinyard," she replied in a meek, militant voice.
"Nicole Vinyard, get your bag and that of your female friends. You're coming with me." He turned on his heel and left, his arms crossed, a frown on his face.
She quickly jumped off the table and grabbed up her bag and those of Kriss and Anna, giving Wufei a strange look. "That's a bra. It's used to support females' breasts. That belongs to Anna," she gestured in her brown and red haired friend's direction, then scurried after Heero. As the door slid automatically shut behind her, she heard the sound of the pilots cracking up.
***
TO BE CONTINUED! MUAHA!