Re: The Fatal Conflict (GBS2G7) (Round 3: The Infinite Playground!)
04-10-2012, 12:40 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pinary.
Carter, if the thought had occurred to him, would've welcomed some sort of possessed-ghost scenario. As it stood, he was stuck babysitting a herd of decidedly-sane children while some guy in a cape looked over his damaged shuttle and talked science with the person that had somehow been transmitted into one of the devices the cape guy had had with him. The conversation was all "causal string" this and "higgs suspension" that, and as much as he might've been interested from a practical perspective, the two science types were managing to go on and on so much that Carter couldn't even bring himself to pay attention to anything potentially useful.
He was content to stay with the kids, anyway. They were calm enough, now that they'd figured out that he wasn't dead, and they were mostly running around and playing indeterminate, constantly-shifting games. They were kids being kids, and Carter-
Wait, shit.
"Hey, uh, Steve? I just remem-"
"Scott."
"Sure, sorry, whatever, it's not important. Have you opened the cargo hold at all?"
Scott frowned at him. "No, not yet. It's pretty much intact, along with most of the hardware. It's mostly-"
Carter swore to himself. "Stay there, I'm going to open it up."
"Why, what-"
"The kids," the pilot said, clambering through the hole sheared into the cockpit and reaching for the controls, "the ones being shipped in, they're still in there."
"...Shit, right." Somehow, he realized, he'd been so busy yelling at Carter about how bad it was to transport kids to feed to the creature in the planet that he'd forgotten that that actually meant that Carter was transporting kids to feed to the creature in the planet.
As the pilot worked the controls, the side hatch on the ship began to slide open, and as it did, Scott braced himself for another chorus of childrens' wails. The kids in the ship were going to start crying, then the kids outside would join in, and he'd have to deal with screeching for at least an hour.
Once the door was halfway open, Scott's confident pessimism faltered slightly. They should've been crying by that point, shouldn't they? Was there a second door inside that wasn't open yet? No, it was still opening, and Scott could see some of the kids' feet. The kids outside hadn't noticed, as they'd gotten bored when the door had taken longer than a few seconds to slide up and open, but the kids being shipped didn't seem to be moving at all.
Slowly, carefully, Scott took a step forward, going to move under the door. If he could, he didn't want to risk waking-
"Mister Thandov?"
-
Once Carter got the door all the way open and double-checked the stasis fields' integrity, he went through the process of shutting it down. One by one, kids in the back began to wail.
It was easier when the soundproof cockpit didn't have a big hole in it to let all the kids' crying in. Hearing them loud and clear, from right around the corner... It damn near killed him.
When the process was complete, he left the cockpit and headed around back. The restraints were supposed to automatically release, but with the ship as banged up as it was, he wanted to double-check.
All was well, however; the older kids were helping the younger ones out of the ship, and the group that apparently lived in the jungle gym was slowly, cautiously making introductions in that awkward way kids had of doing such things.
There wasn't much for him to do, the pilot realized, so he started back for the cockpit. Maybe he and the guy in the cape-
The guy in the cape. Where'd the guy in the cape gone?
"Hey," he said, pointing to a pair of the local kids who looked older than the others, "do you know where the guy in the cape went?"
The kids look at each other and shrugged. "Mister Thandov just left," one of them said.
"Poof," the other agreed.
-
Looking back on it, immediately organizing the kids into a search party and heading off into the jungle (the only real place nearby the guy could've run off to) might not have been the best of ideas. For one thing, he didn't even know the guy, and if he wanted to just run off, it was his own business. Carter didn't need to be out there looking for him, and he was just too big to move through the jungle gym jungle as fast as any of the kids could.
Mostly, though, Carter just didn't like being lost on a planet with a known sanity-devouring entity stuck in the middle. If he could've figured out the way back to the ship, he might've been able to get off in time to not just go completely nuts, but that relied on him having a spaceworthy ship, and spaceworthy the shuttle he'd brought was not, not with a big hole in it.
He sighed, trying to think positive thoughts. At least he wouldn't have to sentence any more kids to being lunch, right?
-
When he reappeared, Scott found himself about where he'd been when he left. His watch didn't show any other hims existing at the time, and though the ship was still sitting where it had been before, neither Carter nor any of the kids were around.
"Alright, so..." Searching his mind, he came up blank. "What exactly do we do now?"
"Well," Will said, speaking as though he were stating the obvious, "there's this abandoned ship with some superficial damage and a big hole in the cockpit."
"True, true..."
There was a pause for a moment while Scott tried to get his thoughts in order and Will waited for him to put things together.
"Oh, right. Other fighters."
-
Carter sighed. He should've expected it to fly away, he really should have. Some local kids probably got into it or something, knowing his luck.
Oh, well. Nothing for it but to follow the jungle kids back to their hideout, he supposed.
Carter, if the thought had occurred to him, would've welcomed some sort of possessed-ghost scenario. As it stood, he was stuck babysitting a herd of decidedly-sane children while some guy in a cape looked over his damaged shuttle and talked science with the person that had somehow been transmitted into one of the devices the cape guy had had with him. The conversation was all "causal string" this and "higgs suspension" that, and as much as he might've been interested from a practical perspective, the two science types were managing to go on and on so much that Carter couldn't even bring himself to pay attention to anything potentially useful.
He was content to stay with the kids, anyway. They were calm enough, now that they'd figured out that he wasn't dead, and they were mostly running around and playing indeterminate, constantly-shifting games. They were kids being kids, and Carter-
Wait, shit.
"Hey, uh, Steve? I just remem-"
"Scott."
"Sure, sorry, whatever, it's not important. Have you opened the cargo hold at all?"
Scott frowned at him. "No, not yet. It's pretty much intact, along with most of the hardware. It's mostly-"
Carter swore to himself. "Stay there, I'm going to open it up."
"Why, what-"
"The kids," the pilot said, clambering through the hole sheared into the cockpit and reaching for the controls, "the ones being shipped in, they're still in there."
"...Shit, right." Somehow, he realized, he'd been so busy yelling at Carter about how bad it was to transport kids to feed to the creature in the planet that he'd forgotten that that actually meant that Carter was transporting kids to feed to the creature in the planet.
As the pilot worked the controls, the side hatch on the ship began to slide open, and as it did, Scott braced himself for another chorus of childrens' wails. The kids in the ship were going to start crying, then the kids outside would join in, and he'd have to deal with screeching for at least an hour.
Once the door was halfway open, Scott's confident pessimism faltered slightly. They should've been crying by that point, shouldn't they? Was there a second door inside that wasn't open yet? No, it was still opening, and Scott could see some of the kids' feet. The kids outside hadn't noticed, as they'd gotten bored when the door had taken longer than a few seconds to slide up and open, but the kids being shipped didn't seem to be moving at all.
Slowly, carefully, Scott took a step forward, going to move under the door. If he could, he didn't want to risk waking-
"Mister Thandov?"
-
Once Carter got the door all the way open and double-checked the stasis fields' integrity, he went through the process of shutting it down. One by one, kids in the back began to wail.
It was easier when the soundproof cockpit didn't have a big hole in it to let all the kids' crying in. Hearing them loud and clear, from right around the corner... It damn near killed him.
When the process was complete, he left the cockpit and headed around back. The restraints were supposed to automatically release, but with the ship as banged up as it was, he wanted to double-check.
All was well, however; the older kids were helping the younger ones out of the ship, and the group that apparently lived in the jungle gym was slowly, cautiously making introductions in that awkward way kids had of doing such things.
There wasn't much for him to do, the pilot realized, so he started back for the cockpit. Maybe he and the guy in the cape-
The guy in the cape. Where'd the guy in the cape gone?
"Hey," he said, pointing to a pair of the local kids who looked older than the others, "do you know where the guy in the cape went?"
The kids look at each other and shrugged. "Mister Thandov just left," one of them said.
"Poof," the other agreed.
-
Looking back on it, immediately organizing the kids into a search party and heading off into the jungle (the only real place nearby the guy could've run off to) might not have been the best of ideas. For one thing, he didn't even know the guy, and if he wanted to just run off, it was his own business. Carter didn't need to be out there looking for him, and he was just too big to move through the jungle gym jungle as fast as any of the kids could.
Mostly, though, Carter just didn't like being lost on a planet with a known sanity-devouring entity stuck in the middle. If he could've figured out the way back to the ship, he might've been able to get off in time to not just go completely nuts, but that relied on him having a spaceworthy ship, and spaceworthy the shuttle he'd brought was not, not with a big hole in it.
He sighed, trying to think positive thoughts. At least he wouldn't have to sentence any more kids to being lunch, right?
-
When he reappeared, Scott found himself about where he'd been when he left. His watch didn't show any other hims existing at the time, and though the ship was still sitting where it had been before, neither Carter nor any of the kids were around.
"Alright, so..." Searching his mind, he came up blank. "What exactly do we do now?"
"Well," Will said, speaking as though he were stating the obvious, "there's this abandoned ship with some superficial damage and a big hole in the cockpit."
"True, true..."
There was a pause for a moment while Scott tried to get his thoughts in order and Will waited for him to put things together.
"Oh, right. Other fighters."
-
Carter sighed. He should've expected it to fly away, he really should have. Some local kids probably got into it or something, knowing his luck.
Oh, well. Nothing for it but to follow the jungle kids back to their hideout, he supposed.