Kill or Eat in the Event of a Crash

PROMPT: I stepped up to the platform where the ship was docked. It hadn't done more than 20 light years yet, but was showing its' wear, with the patina from shattered space dust hitting its' hull billions of times.

It was my first experience in such a place. I got out of the ship, and down to the station. Just like a thousand years ago, the comet had swallowed into the large asteroid belt below Earth. The shells were clashing against one another, and after a few seconds the two chattering asteroids broke apart and fell on the ship.

I struggled to stay focused on the signal, trying to imagine what a single storm like this would do to this much more important detail than it did me. There was only one thing I could do. I threw my flashlight up and gave it the finger command. To a face I had never experienced before, I added the scan command, indicating what path the comet would take. I stretched and got up. I pulled out the hand signals and in six minutes went through them all.

I was the first to see the comet’s tracks. Almost three months later, that was when I realized that the first thing I wanted to do was get up and head back to the station to see where it was. I took a huge chunk of ice off of the bottom of the comet and took a test run with the beam source to see what it would do. The results were spectacular, almost unbelievable.

Today, a visible comet is about 10 times brighter than our Sun, and this is a massive feat. As I watched the data, I realized that it wasn’t the most exciting finding of the day. Here, I had a little go at getting out of the ship, and I was slowly losing track of where I was, and what was happening to me, as I quickly got up and started planning how I could return to Earth.

I took a closer look at the ship, and saw all the features I had seen before. There were three doorways in the interior, and the layout was very, very simple. There was a passage that led to the east side of the ship, down the stairs, and down another hallway. There were four doors leading to the middle of the ship, down the stairs, and up to the top of the first two rooms.

I could see every piece of equipment I could imagine myself, and my vision became sharper and clearer.
I reached out and grabbed one of the arm signals.

“I have a deadly weapon of your own in my hands.” I began, but before I could say anything, a ferocious kick hit my face and ripped my helmet off, knocking me unconscious.

“Oh, the helmet, I’ll cut you from the inside!” I thought as I twisted around to get to the other side of the ship. I tried to make out some things, but they just didn’t fit. One thing was certain. The monsters still had the helmet, but it was too ugly. A second piece of equipment I’d created came to life as I tried to jump up the stairs. A third piece of equipment I’d made came to life as I tried to climb. After a moment, the ride itself was done.

That was when I had to ask what the hell is happening. The safety of a large ship does not mean that it’s impossible to kill or eat in the event of a crash. If it’s not a metal monster, it’s probably not an automobile. I must have killed an old man in the only way I knew how to do it. But I was forced to see it all, and I was glad I’d have an idea of what I was going to do.

I could have killed a little of the monsters out there, and get out of here, but as I stared at the 3 doorways and one hallway, I began to wonder what would happen next. But the next thing I knew was that I was going to die. The feeling in my stomach was more vivid than when I first saw it, and there was a loud and dangerous sound as the ship went up.

I was still able to hear a scream from behind the doors, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I crawled up to the nearest big door that I had seen before. This time it was a giant cut out of metal, and I had no idea how to get in. But I could see that there was something else. A the paper on the door was a lot like a mirror, except that it was larger and stronger. Then, a small fire started spewing from the hole in the door, and

[END TRANSMISSION]

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