The Toxic Tea Shop

Chapter 5 The lights on the interior dimmed to red and the security lady, I now knew to be called Marshall, announced that we had arrived. I got up from my seat and made my way to the pods. We each stood by one and once the all clear was given, climbed inside. The actual pods are situated inside the wall on one side, and you have to slide into a small airlock/hole in the floor next to the wall, where you can then climb into the pods. The pods were rugged and claustrophobic, meant to withstand atmospheric re-entry. I pulled the harness tight and locked myself into the pod. I pressed the button above my head which told the pilot I was ready. I heard the pings of the other members readying up. A countdown started on the small screen in front of me. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. FOOSH A large force pushed us out of the ship, after the G’s normalised, the screens turned on and I could see the others pods falling into position ahead of me. I could see the target approaching, appearing be

Chapter 4 I pushed my way against the tide of the day shift returning home, and pressed towards the docks. the lift emptied and I got in, once again descending towards my destination. Only now did I start to realise the risks involved in these missions I left the lift and walked back to the dockmasters office. There was a not on the door which read: Sam, (then an arrow) dock 18. I shrugged and asked my Forzy as to the location of dock 18, he promptly overlaid a line for me to follow on my visor. Dock 18 was a part way down the secondary docks, within the dock was a large, stocky looking ship, its snub-nosed, dropship design being quite iconic, I recognised it as being a Class B vessel of the Aster variety. It bore the classic white and blue markings and paint job typical of its creator, the Kerbodyne corporation. The name of the ship was “Bullfrog III”, part of me wondered what happened to Bullfrog I and II. I made my way to the gangplank and as I approached the dockmaster came o

Chapter 2 The difference between a third technician and a second technician is like that of private to captain in the military, i'm not the highest technician, that titles goes to the executive technicians, but it’s a significant promotion never-the-less. My day-to-day roles have changed slightly, I now oversee the third rate technicians, and also get to work on the more advanced machinery. For example I no longer run maintenance on any quarters lower than Q2! I now get to work with the Primary Technicians in the power rooms, tweaking and fixing the giant StatBlocs, making sure the ship always has power. Today however, I was crawling through the stiflingly hot utility tunnels of the PR Residential block. It was actually quite relaxing, going through the tunnels by myself, I had somewhat gotten used to the heat and continued with the job at hand. The rooms here were smaller than mine, but the furnishings were improved, the beds a little bigger, fabrics a little softer, etc. In

Chapter 3 The lights came on slowly as my alarm sounded, simulating dawn. I lay still in bed for a few minutes, trying to extend a lay in as much as possible, I thought I deserved it , since yesterday I saved a StatBloc from exploding . I was just about to get up when my bed did it for me, it rose up on one end, tipping me onto the cold floor. I groggily stood up, I asked Forzy “What was that?” Forzy replied “All Q2 standard issue beds are fitted with a wake-up insurance policy,” I just nodded and waved it away. I sleepily padded into the bathroom and stepped inside the auto fit. This machine automatically undresses you, washes and then clothes you, it certainly makes getting ready a whole lot quicker.  The machine tore my sleepwear off as it always does, then sprayed me with the cleaning fluid, followed by its slightly painful powerful water jets. They certainly get in all the nooks and crannies. This was then followed by an intensive drying procedure, It then presented me with my

His Majesties Seed Ship: Pangolin Prime This is the personal log of Sam Grimsbry, second technician on board the HMSS Pangolin Prime. The year is 2178 and humanity has left earth, a mixture of global warming and wars made it uninhabitable. Mankind spent its latter years creating seed ships in the stellar docks, but tensions broke and war erupted in a high earth orbit, causing many of the seed ships to be destroyed. The remaining four were separated in the dash to flee the conflict and now roam the milky way en route to one of many possible exoplanets. HMSS Pangolin Prime is heading to  Kepler-186f, one of the first exoplanets to be discovered to be roughly the same size as earth and in the “habitable region” of its solar system, its years are shorter and its sun is dimmer, but it could be humanity's last hope. Chapter 1 “Yahoo!” I shouted as I leaped over the railing of the administration building, Today I finally got that promotion I was going for, you can now cal

(Note, this is the New first Chapter) Seth watched as Lorus held the sword to the man with the hat’s throat, they were both glaring daggers at each other, the man with the hat’s men were tied up behind him were gagged, probably for good reason as muffled shouting could still be heard. The man with the hat spoke up “Lorus, you don’t need to do this, I got a kid back home” Lorus just stared at him coldly and whispered in his ear, “So do I” as he plunged the sword through his neck. His colleagues exclaimed at Lorus, the man with the hat choked once, then collapsed to the ground. Lorus beckoned to his men and they brought up one of the man with the hat’s men. “Now you too, will die” Lorus said to the man, he raised his sword and as he brought it down, Seth jumped in front of the swing, trying to block the sword with his arm, the sword met his arm and... Seth woke up. “Another nightmare?” he said to himself, as he rubbed his forehead. Seth decided not to dawdle and pulled himself out

Week 1 Day 7 Evening Everyone sat around the fire, staring into it their expressions grave. Ellyn had tried arguing a rescue out of them but Julian said that the risk was too great and Seth would understand. The look that Seth had given still haunted her. They had made their way back to the building, without being spotted but decided to not stick around. Acorn was exited at their return but had kept looking in their group for Seth, Ellyn tried to tell him that Seth wasn’t there, but either he didn’t understand or didn’t care, he sat on her shoulder and kept looking for him. Ellyn had barely eaten anything, she had no appetite for anything, she just sat staring into the fire, trying to think of a way around the problems, but she just didn’t know where he would be or even how they could get there, they had the cart but only Julian knew how to operate it at a basic level so it wouldn’t be much good for longer journeys. They had set out with the setting sun, moving away from the

Week 1 Day 7 Afternoon  They walked for hours, nearly dead on their feet, every little sound made Ellyn jump as if it was someone out to get them. Seth kept on offering to carry her, but he ended up being carried by Dahveed after injuring himself by falling into an animal hole. They stopped for lunch by the side of a lake, Seth went fishing with the line he had stored in his bag and managed to catch a Prawn, which they proceeded to cook and eat. Even with the six of them they didn’t finish it and threw the carcass back into the water. They stayed by the lake for a while, resting their legs, Seth applied a bandage around his ankle so that he could walk on his own again. They all sat in a circle, and started chatting about nothing, to help ease the tension. The cold air cooling their worked bodies. Seth got up and slowly walked over to a set of bushes. “Seth?” Asked Ellyn, but he just held up a finger to her, now the whole group was watching him. He stopped just short of

Seth shook Ellyn awake and held a hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t make a noise; he put a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet. He moved off her and she looked around, the others were crouched low, the fire had been kicked out. About 50 metres from where they were, Ellyn could see a group of the tan uniformed men, moving between the trees, they hadn’t see them yet,  Julian signed to move away, into a set of nearby bushes, that would conceal them. They slowly pushed through the line of bushes the sound of twigs snapping was worryingly loud, but the patrol seemed to not notice. They waited on baited breath so see if they noticed them. There was a shout, the patrol turned to them, and ran over towards them but they stopped at what was left of their camp. “Looks like they were here, they must be somewhere nearby!” one of the men said Ellyn started to shuffle back but Dahveed stopped her and shook his head. “No shit num-nuts” one of the men said to the other. “Let’s get

The man had sat down at the table and opened a folder, taken out bits of paper and a pen, then began to write on the paper. He was there for what felt like days to Ellyn and Seth, other people came and went, bringing the man drinks and snacks. Seth gave Ellyn a nudge as the man got up and walked out the room. Seth signed for Ellyn to nudge the others. He switched the fan off and they all filed out of the vent. Dahveed and Blueberry began sieving through the paper on the desk. Julian and Clarence went over to the door to stand guard. Seth went over to one of the machines and punched a keyboard, pressing many keys at once, nothing happened at first, but then the machines whirred into life, Julian walked up to Seth and gave him a light slap on the face, Dahveed reached up and placed all the paper they had gathered into the vent, so they could get it later. Clarence looked out the door and gave a thumbs up to show it was clear, they all left the room, and entered a long curved hallway, a

They gathered outside the building, the clock showing that it was exactly noon. As Ellyn exited the building the midday sun was blinding, she held a hand to her forehead to shield her eyes.  “Wouldn’t have been better to sneak into somewhere at night?” asked Ellyn, “Well, like I said it’s mostly underground so it doesn’t matter when we go, Noon is a time that just works!” Seth Explained. She looked around and counted 6 of the members from last night’s meeting were there, including herself and Seth. Ellyn saw the moustashe man from last night, who she now knew was called Blueberry. The bearded man as well, his name was Clarence, and the dark skinned man called Dahveed was there. Seth’s cart stood nearby, its unorganised nature looking more evident in the light. They had just finished going through some hand gestures that they would use during the activity, Ellyn tried it on Seth by pointing to her eyes then too Acorn. Seth nodded and told Acorn to stay with the cart. They joined

This area was beyond the plains, both dust and industrial. This set of lands, known to all as “green sepulchre”. Its distinctive features are of the tall evergreen trees that grow in abundance. Their bark is tough and incredibly sticky with its sap, which is toxic. The trees feed on insects and small rodents, but have also been known to trap people who get too close. While Ellyn woke with the dawn, she decided to make the most of the comfortable bed. While she did appreciate the carts hammocks they had nothing on that bed. Seth meanwhile had decided to not lie in and was doing some errands for himself and the other members of the Regal Syndicate. By around 10 o’clock Seth had already completed his list of tasks, and now he decided that it was time enough. So he opened the door to Ellyn’s room, peered in, saw she was still asleep, and then threw Acorn on to her bed. The post-aerial Acorn was less pleased with the Ellyn shaped landing pad then she was. It certainly woke her up. Wit

As the sun dipped below the horizon, once more hidden by the hills in the distance, they rode the cart through some woods to a large building standing on its own in a concreted plaza. Seth parked outside and Acorn was left to guard the cart again. Without the sun the wind was quickly chilling them and Ellyn began to shiver. Seth noticed and took off his jumper and draped it over her shoulders, she did not protest. Ellyn saw that Seth was wearing a black long sleeved shirt; it had some sort of crest on it which she did not recognise. They quickly hurried towards the building; it was a large building with a clock on the outside, which was not working. The windows were boarded up but there was light streaming from the gaps, and voices could be heard from within. Seth linked arms with Ellyn to keep her close, he muttered something about appearances and it’s her first time but most of his words were stolen by the wind. They approached the bouncer at the door, a wall of a man that stood wi

By the afternoon the landscape had transformed from dead pillars of trees to dead pillars of metal. The pipes and vents twisting around each other criss-crossing the landscape, leading to and from various tanks and valves. Ellyn turned to Seth who merely shrugged, “It’s called the industrial plains” he explained, “I have no idea what they were for”. There were still some fires burning from some of the tallest chimneys burning off something left inside the pipes, producing points of fire floating in the smog that seemed to never leave the plains. Some of the sections of pipes had been removed by looters or destroyed by some ancient explosion. They passed a few turn-off roads as well as small camps, which inhabitants either wave them by or just ignored them. After what seemed like forever to Ellyn, Seth pulled the cart over to one of said small camps for some food. Seth seemed to prefer food other people make fresh rather than digging in to his own supplies though Ellyn, who had seen a