I walked into the room, hands deep in the pockets of my coat.
I stomped into the room, and kicked the door as it shut behind me. The
others looked up quickly at the disturbance.
I walked into the room, and Apollo looked up and smiled at me.
I walked into the room, and Jenny had a map of Venezuela spread out on
the conference table.
I walked into the room, and Jenny had a map of Venezuela spread out on
the conference table. She looked up irritably as she heard my footsteps.
I walked into the room and Jenny looked up with a puzzled expression on
her face. An ash from the end of her cigarette fell onto the fax in her
hand, and started burning a hole in the paper.
I walked into the room, and the no-one was there. Just then, the
collision warning sounded.
I walked into the room, and Jack looked up from something he was
sketching on a yellow notepad.
"About time," he said without malice.
I walked into the room, and noticed that Angie's hand looked a little
different. Three seconds later she started screaming as it melted into
a glimmering puddle on the floor.
I peeked around the doorjamb, and ducked back quickly. Four guards,
two officers. Child's play.
I walked into the room, and the others were sitting around drinking
coffee, but nobody was wearing any clothes.
"Did you forget?" asked Jenny, eyeing my leathers.
I walked into the room. Everybody was looking subdued, and Shen was
crying on Jack's linen sleeve.
"It's about Jenny," began the Doctor.
I walked into the room. Everybody was looking subdued, and Shen was
crying on Jack's linen sleeve.
"It's about Apollo," began Angela.
I walked into the room, and there was a 500 gallon fishbowl where the
conference table was supposed to be. Jenny had the Doctor backed
against
the far wall, and was giving him the worst tongue-lashing ever
witnessed by
man or beast. An orange Koi with black patches and a white tail swam
up to
the side of the glass and looked at me.
I walked into the room, and stumbled on a bundle of wires and cables
lying
on the deck. The place looked like it had been assimilated by the
borg.
There was a nursery rhyme written in duct tape across the ceiling, and
Angela had everybody locked up in a containment field at the center of
the
room.
"Hi, Mid!" she called brightly.
I walked into the room. Jenny blew a lungful of cigarette smoke out
through
her nose like a dragon, then began,
"Our next job starts with McMurdo station. Jack, you-" From the
ceiling
above, a laser cannon unfolded itself suddenly out of an
innocuous-looking
section of gray paneling.
"GET DOWN!" I yelled.
I walked into the room.
"Hmm..." Jack critiqued.
"Good coat-swirling." shrugged the Doctor, sounding bored.
"Don't look down as much," suggested Shen.
"Not bad." smiled Angie.
Apollo just sighed.
"Bleedin' hell, man! Try it again," snapped Jenny, pointing to the
door
meaningfully.
I walked into the room, and the lights went out. Something hard and
metal
struck me from the side, and I went down hard.
I walked into the room, and the lights went out. I snapped into a
combat-ready stance, but then the soft glow of Apollo's corona
illuminated
the tabletop as he showed himself to me.
"Glad you could make it." he whispered.
"I thought Jenny called a meeting here." I frowned.
"That was a recording." he said, smugly. "I just wanted to get you
down
here."
"Got plans, have you?"
"Lock the door."
I walked into the room, and the lights went out.
"Not AGAIN!" moaned Angela.
I walked into the room, and the lights went out.
"Get 'im!" yelled Jenny, and they dog-piled me.
I walked into the room, and the lights went out. Apollo brightened his
corona enough that everyone could see again, though his face was
worried.
Jenny cursed acidly at faulty light-fixtures, and tried to use the
video-phone. It was dead. So were the computers, and from the silence
that
was usually filled by the hum of the ventilation ducts, so was life
support.
Angela raised the shield over the window, and against the red
backdrop of
the bleed, we could see a molten-obsidian shape flowing through
non-space
towards us.
I walked into the room, and Angela asked if I wanted a cupcake. She
had a
bowl of them set out on the conference table.
"Are any of those blueberry?" I asked.
I walked into the room. Everyone was seated around the conference
table
looking exhausted. The doctor's face was ravaged, most of the skin
over his
left cheekbone eroded away, and flaky patches beginning to come loose
on his
forehead and the backs of his hands. Shen looked under the weather
too, but
nothing was actually missing yet. The others were just really, really
uneasy.
"We've got a situation here." Jenny stated, unnecessarily.
I walked into the room. Angela was meshed with the wall. Jenny Sparks
was
nowhere to be seen. Shen was perched on a high shelf, eyeing her
toenails.
Apollo was watching the holographic map projection over the conference
table, slack jawed. Jack was in the corner rubbing his cheek against
the
edge of a computer console like a cat.
"Want some tea?" asked the Doctor.
I walked into the room, and took the open seat next to Apollo. Five
minutes
into Jenny's briefing, Jack unexpectedly collapsed unconscious.
I walked into the room. There were bloodstains all over the floor, and
long
red and silver smears where bodies had been dragged out towards the
window.
As I crossed to examine the exit point more closely, I could feel the
tackiness of half-dried blood coating the soles of my boots with each
sticky
step. The smell was overpowering, but disgustingly familiar.
I walked into the room. Jack turned to Apollo and asked,
"What's taking the Midnighter so long to get here?"
"Yeah," put in Shen. "Where's your bitter half?"
Apollo shrugged uneasily.
"He said he would be here ten minutes ago."
"I'm here-" I began. Jenny tapped the ash off the end of her cigarette
into
the ashtray on the table in front of her.
"If that wanker isn't here in thirty seconds, Apollo, YOU brief him."
she
snapped.
"Hey!" I yelled. "I'm RIGHT HERE!"
Nobody heard me.
I walked through the doorway, and let my fingers trail over the wall
for a
moment. I would miss this place.
I walked into the room, and looked into the beady eyes of over a
thousand
cybernetically-enhanced Norway rats.
I walked into the room, and was just in time to see the light fixture
overhead explode in a shower of glass and fluorescent gasses.
"Shen!" screamed Angela. I couldn't see through the smoke to the
level of
the floor, but Shen wasn't in her chair anymore.
I walked into the room, and suddenly an fist-sized black object
clattered to
the deck from somewhere behind me.
"Grenade!" yelled Jenny. "Midnighter, boot that bloody thing out of
here,
and I mean NOW!"
I reached the conference room door, and it swished open in front of me.
Walking through the doorway, I saw Angie, Jack, Apollo, and the Doctor
sitting around the conference table. Jack was examining the back of
his own
hand critically. The doctor had a large mug of very black coffee on
the
table in front of him, and he looked like he needed it. Angie was
talking
to Apollo when I first caught sight of them, but she broke off a moment
later when she saw she had lost her audience.
"Hey, you," Apollo smiled.
" 'Morning," I returned. Standing behind his chair, I leaned over
Apollo's
shoulder, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Jenny walked in behind me
while
I was doing this.
"Christ on a crutch..." she muttered, darkly.
So far, so good.
~Fin~
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