The Toxic Tea Shop

(I'd actually written this ages ago but forgotten to post it, and yes, it is a bit short) Chapter 8 It was dark, darker than I had expected. I switched on the light for my suit, and visually checked myself, I had avoided the teeth and was totally intact, even if I was inside a space monster. The muscles and sphincters were moving me downwards, towards what I supposed would be its stomach and frankly I would rather not end up in there. I still had my knife, which I then used to latch onto the inside of the monster's throat, and for a short while it continued trying to swallow me, creating a large gouge in the wake of my knife. I could feel the vibrations of it roaring in pain. climbing back up the creature's gullet was no easy feat, but I made it back to the mouth. I looked down at my gear and remembered my jack! This Jack was designed to hold lift doors open during repairs, but it should suffice to hold this creature's mouth open, I know, how convenient eh? I...

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 s...

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...