The Toxic Tea Shop

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...

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...

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 ...