The Toxic Tea Shop

Chapter 3 My face must have been a picture as I stood there staring at our new guests. Dr. Anibo gently nudged my shoulder and I snapped out of my trance. I turned to him and he had a grim look on his face so I didn't ask the question that was burning on the inside of my mind. He guided me out of the medical wing and we walked slowly next to each other. We stopped just short of my classroom and he turns to me, places a finger on his lips, indicating to be quiet about the ordeal, and then left me. I turned around and entered my classroom. The class was halfway through a surprise test, and everyone stared at me silently when I entered. I muttered a “Sorry” to Mr Strauss and trying to hide my now bright red face, I scuttled back to my desk and sat down. After a few seconds of silence, everyone turned back to their tests. I then sat, staring at the test paper for the remaining time. Mr Strauss sounded a buzzer when the time was up and the class gave off a collective sigh. Risa pre

The Way Of The Sword I sat patiently as my armor was strapped over my under suit. The heavy chainmail clinking quietly against the padded bottom layer. The maids were pretty as always, though the palace maids were always a bit plumper than I liked. To be fair I was a bit plumper myself, it had been a while since I’d had time to attend one of master genous’ training sessions. But now the war had made its impact upon the citizens and it was required that one of the royalty was to attend the battlefield. This honour fell to me, what with my father being too old to fight and my other brothers either being too young or too poor with the sword to join in, let alone letting the women fight! I stood up to allow the rest of the straps to be tightened and soon I was ready. The armor was heavy, but I was used to its weight. I held my helmet under my arm as I walked out of the dressing tent. My personal butler, Griffin, was waiting outside, we studied me, and tightened a few more straps, and

It was my 143rd birthday, the holo cake still managed to fit all of the candles. I stood in the lounge with my friends and family, my parents came all the way across the ocean to my habitat just to celebrate my birthday. They had to hire a special drone to fly them across, they did live 50 years before the singularity after all. My sister made the joke that they are nearly more nanomachines than person at this point. The act of giving gifts at birthdays phased out a long time ago, since everyone lives so long now, even my grandmother, who lived most of her life before it happened, made it to 203rd birthday! I mean, they cured cancer within the first five years after the singularity. The year is now 127 PS, PS standing for Post Singularity. The oceans have risen and most of the 12 billion people of the earth live on habitats which float on the surface of the ocean. The lunar bases are restricted to qualified professionals ever since the “Grey Lung” epidemic of 120 PS and the few space

Chapter 2 I rose with the morning alarm, the blaring siren that goes off at 8:00 am. I hopped out of my bunk and strode into the shower before my roommates could hog it. I let the hot water cascade down me, cleansing me as much mentally as physically. I dressed in a freshly laundered uniform, a dark green boiler suit emblazoned with the bases logo, a trident with wings and the phrase “ Sub fluctibus Salutis ” which is more or less latin for, it is safe under the waves. After checking that I had all my things, I shouldered my bag, and headed for school with Riza, who had already unbuttoned the top two buttons on the uniform. We both agreed that trying to face the morning rush hour wasn’t worth it, so we took the more “express” route. An air vent near to our room had a broken lock so you could just climb in and follow the vents to your destination, it had taken us about a year's worth of free time to find the correct route. I was grateful for the padding on the knees and elbows

Chapter 7 It was surrounded by bodies and entrails of the old crew, the walls were painted with blood, as well as large floating orbs of it around the room. The creature resembled a hole in the wall, filled with teeth and surrounded by tentacles, all of which was a dark pink colour, whether that was a natural colour or if it was stained with blood I did not know. My fellow crewmates that I had arrived with, floated motionless in the room, attached to the walls by some sort of umbilical cord, their helmets had fogged up indicating that they were still breathing. I darted back around the corner and prayed that it hadn't seen me, let alone smelt me. I backed away from the corner trying to not draw attention to myself, and yet one of those tentacles followed me round and slowly came towards me. I span around and pushed my way down the corridor, attempting to put as much distance between myself and the incoming tentacle. No matter what I did, the tentacle continued towards me, I cou

Chapter 6 I was glad of the similar designs, it definitely made getting around easier, I guess new crew members got given a map as there were no signs. I floated around, until i had found what I was looking for, the engineering bay opened from a small door in a thin corridor. The engineering bay itself was a large room, with the walls and most of the floor space being covered by machinery. I made my way to the main terminal, which was set into a large semi circular console, extra buttons and levers to check  it over and unsurprisingly it was powered off. It was a simple matter to re-boot the generator, a flick of this switch, a twiddle of that knob and it roared back into action. Life re-entered the ship and it shuddered with the addition of power, the lights came on illuminating the until now dark interior. The alarms also came on, creating a cacophony of noise, I made my way back the console and found a flashing red button labeled with “Alarms”, I pressed it and the alarms shut