wicked_west | Escape [PSL]

"Chistery we need to get back to... oh!" There was a... thing... coming down the hall and pointing... another thing at her. Chistery immediately flew back into her arms as Elphie tried to come up with an excuse that would explain why she was on this... ship. But then the creature spoke in an unknown language of grunts and growls. Oh dear.

Right it was time to go. Elphie began backing away.

As he emerged into the hallway behind them, Ford spoke to the creature, just in - what would sound to Elphie - like normal English, they way he usually spoke. The creature lowered the weapon and gestured to a door.

"Oh. Right. Thank you very much," Ford told him, ushering Elphie and the monkey through the door.

The room was dark.

"Right. We're the technicians they've been waiting for, if we want to live. See if you can find the light switch."

"Oh..." Elphie answered shakily as Chistery peeked out and started flying again. "But... how did you understand him? And he you. You spoke... normally..."

But then Ford was moving forward into a dark room and asking her to find a light switch. The witch groped along the wall. "Would it be like the switches at the hotel?"

"Yeah, don't worry. We'll put a fish in your ear, sort everything out," he assured her, fumbling around for the lights. "The switch is sort of a groove that you have to stick three fingers into."

"A fish!" she asked, slack-jawed for once. "Why would we put a fish in my ear?"

But Did continue searching for a switch... a grooved switch for three fingers. Light flooded the chamber when she finally found it and Chistery was up and flying again. Very little phased him for long.

Ford blinked as light filled the room.

"So you can understand people," he answered. "It won't do you much good traveling around space if you can't tell what people are saying."

"But how does a fish make me understand people... no, better yet, how does a fish fit in my ear?" Elphie asked, completely confused.

"I don't know how. It just does. It's called a Babelfish." He glanced over. "I don't know if it'll work for the monkey. We could try."

Elphie covered an ear. It sounded like magic to her. "What sort of ship are we on?" she asked when she finally opened her mouth again.

"A cargo ship," Ford said helpfully. "Tremeans. Not the most hostile race in the galaxy, but we should probably find a way out of here before they realize we can't fix their hyperdrive," he explained casually as he poked around the consoles.

A cargo ship. In space. And there were no windows for her to look out.

"But Ford? How are we to leave this thing if there are no other ships around? I thought we couldn't last out there without protection. Can the next ship we go on have windows?"

"Sure," Ford said cheerfully. "If we get off this one alive."

He fiddled with a machine in the corner. "And you never know when other ships will be around," he pointed out, continuing to fiddle.

"Right Alive." She wandered over to the big machine in the middle of the room. Chistery followed her. "No Little One. We don't touch things that aren't ours," she told Chistery, but she didn't grab in time to keep him from flipping a BIG lever.

"Uh Oh!" he chittered and immediately flew to Elphie cowering. "Now... I think now would be a great time to get off this ship..." she replied to Ford.

"Well, I was kind of planning on doing it when there was a ship around." He glanced around. "Maybe there's an escape pod..." He went back to the computer terminal to check.

The machine Chistery had touch was beginning to smoke and make very not good noises.

"Right when there's another ship around... um Ford? Is it supposed to be doing that?" Elphie asked as she backed away from the thing. "Because it doesn't sound good...."

"Not so much," Ford told her, rooting around in some equipment. "But it probably won't explode right away."

Elphie glanced at the machine again which had started to make a grumbling sound that resembled the Time Dragon and a thousand angry lions at once. "OK... Let's hope a ship comes soon..." She also made her way to a computer monitor and began looking through the screens. Just to see if she could find an escape pod. That sounded like a good thing.

"Or that I work out how to release the escape pods," Ford pointed out. "Because that'll keep us alive a little bit longer to look for a ship. But we have to do it before they realize they'll need them."

"Of course, that would be ideal," Elphie snarked as she began to realize just how bad the situation was. The door opened and one of the creatures came in, yelling at all of them. "I think he's figured out we don't know what we're doing," she called to Ford.

"Oh." He pressed some buttons and a forcefield came up between them and the aliens. "Excuse me!" he called to them. "We're in the middle of very dangerous work here. Off-limits to civilians."

He poked at some more buttons and glanced over his shoulder now and then at the aliens.

Elphie tried to shoo the aliens away. Chistery flew at him chittering, "Go go go go!"

The forcefield was a lucky thing. One of the aliens had tried to grab at the monkey. They drew their weapons and trained them at Elphie. Not that the weapons would do much now, but once that forcefield was down...

Elphie made her way over to Ford and looked at the screen. "What's that part?" she asked, pointing to a corridor that appeared to just stop.

"Airlock," Ford said. "And not that I've never just popped out one for some air deprivation, but they're a lot more fun when there's a ship or something at the other end."

"And what we want is one with an escape pod or a ship on the other end?" she asked. Elphie looked around the screen and jabbed her sharp finger down. "There and there."

She looked back up, but the aliens were gone. "Where'd they go? They were just here and threatening us with guns..." And then an alarm sounded.

Ford punched some information into the computer. "Oh. They've gone to the armoury to get bigger guns," he shouted over the klaxon. He looked at the escape pod Elphie had pointed out. "We can't get there unless I can activate the emergency teleport."

"Well that's just dandy. Aliens going to get bigger guns." Elphie shouted. She'd be damned if she left the safety of the hotel only to die on a spaceship with some creatures she'd never met or even knew existed before.

She hoped Ford figured the emergency teleport, whatever that was. Elphie began pacing, Chistery following behind her as she muttered to herself. The monkey hilariously began muttering too though his mutterings made less sense than Elphie's.

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Ticket was dropped for my accident! YAY!!

Wooooooooooooooooo!

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Merry Christmas!

And happy new year!!!

You too!!

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