Nano Writing Month, 2017.4

[mc776]

Every day, write some bit of fiction. Preferably over 50 words, but there will be no standard beyond "something". Posting is entirely optional.

There were two sets of dials. I squinted and rubbed my eyes. Still two blurry sets where there should be one not-blurry one. I might have been leaning on the emergency airlock release. Hope we didn't leave anything in there last night. Nights are meaningless out here anyway, just the ticking - really the incessant mind-wracking drone - of the machinery telling us when we are "naturally" supposed to sleep or wake.

I glanced over at the half bottle of rum. No, not now. Not until I've relocated the target. Before Captain Alvarez woke up and noticed.

"Commander, we've got movement coming in at 9:45 and 10 o'clock, about 120 megametres away, bearing 4 and 5 at 42 megs."

I was definitely not in the mood for this. "Did our quarry take a sudden U-turn? Or are we just that completely lost?"

"No sir, it's not the Phlogistroni. Heat signature's all wrong. Looks like passing Noodles."

Of course the name would be shortened to something silly after a while. No one knows how we started calling the aliens the Nudibranchs - they had all the colours but really they didn't look, and certainly didn't act, anything like their seafaring namesake.

"Fuck. Raise shie-"

"Wait! We're getting hailed with a Code 19420."

"How do we know it's not a trap?"

"Treaty of Kallomaria 3, 2752, paragraph 19(42).0. They know the consequences."

"I've seen stupider things done by smarter people. Shields up, wake the Gunnerbot but do not start charging lasers."

"Done, sir. Receiving signal."

And what do we hear upon connection but the middle of a Gregorian cover of "My Heart Will Go On" - which is abruptly cut off in a loud vinyl scratch, followed by an awkard pause, some shuffling, numerous cuss words in the wake of something made of glass falling over, and the instantly recognizable squeaky voice of a nudibranch: "Oh! Um... yes. Hello. Is this thing on? Do they hear us? Arthur, get Chompas off that video cable, we're trying to do something here..."

Whatever we were using to define "day", this was going to be a long one.

Comments

[mc776]

I had no idea who the other speaker was when I wrote this.

At some point my mind had settled on it being Orgoth. I came here to retcon it to sound more like him, then read the entire thing again and realized it was Finkelstein talking all along.

No changes made.