The Adventures of Alora (p2)

(Part 1 found here)

A sudden jolt throws Alora from her bunk along with a few small mechanical contraptions from the shelf above her. A few of them losing parts from the hard impact against the metal floor. Alora, still heavily disoriented, had no time to brace herself as a loud boom caused a massive ringing in her ears quickly followed by the power going out. An odd falling sensation made her stomach churn before red emergency lights switch on. As she tried to stand she felt herself float off the ground. Disoriented and confused a muffled robotic voice reached her ears, though the ringing made it impossible to understand.

"What the fuck Krysta? This was not the story I was expecting. This better not be a horror story." She said out loud, her voice sounding muffled.

After rubbing her ears for a moment her hearing eventually returned only to be met by a wailing claxon and a now clear robotic voice.

"Warning! Artificial gravity failure. Main drive offline. Impact detected. Warning! Artificial gravity failure. Main..." It repeated over and over.

"Seriously? Just where the hell am I? And more importantly, Krysta, why don't I have any knowledge of this place? That's not cool. So not cool. Fine! Come on reader let's figure out where the hell she's stuck us. But Krysta if this is some kind of lousy choose your own adventure story I'm gonna be pissed." She said to no one imparticular.

"You know damn well who I'm talking to! Fine! Play your 4th wall game. At least do me the favor of giving me a rundown of this room alright?" She said before taking a look around.

It was a modest-sized room that fit an industrial style. Rough unfinished metal floors with a hex pattern for grip, not that it helped at the moment. The walls were an iron looking metal with only one small window opposite the door. Thick steel-like bulkheads, every few feet, gave an almost military feel to the room. The heavy industrial door leading out looked like it belonged on a submarine reinforcing the aesthetic. Across from the door in the back corner was a simple bed suspended from the wall with metal cables. At the foot of the bed was a window from which little light shined through. In the opposite corner was a simple table that had been converted into a workbench. Floating around the room were various electrical and mechanical devices and tools in various states of repair, none of them looking familiar. Above the workbench was a metal frame attached to the wall via cables and a posable metal arm. The frame looked like it was supposed to have some kind of monitor or display in it however it was currently empty. The tech looked futuristic from what Alora new and yet clearly well used and worn in places.

"Oookay. So I'm in the future on some kind of beat-up ship. And either I'm the engineer, mechanic..." She paused as an odd-looking metal sculpture floated by,

"Or I'm someone who just likes to collect weird shit." Suddenly the emergency light in the room shorted out leaving her cloaked in darkness,

"Naw, it's probably my job to fix whatever the hell just happened. And I have no fucking clue how. See what I have to deal with reader? Krysta is an angry spiteful 'god' I'm telling ya. Alright, let's have a look out the window."

Alora struggled for a bit trying to figure out how to move in zero-g. But after a few tries, she managed to drift close enough to the ceiling to push off of it and aim herself towards the window. Looking out the head-sized portal she was greeted with a breathtaking sight. Billions of stars dominated the view like a sea of diamonds. However, one of them seemed to be brighter than the rest and was growing brighter by the second. As she watched, it not only grew brighter but larger as well. Then she realized it wasn't one light but two. The second growing larger and brighter at an alarming rate. A second later the sea of stars was replaced by a blinding red light. Alora barely had time to grab onto something before her world was rocked again with the impact of some kind of energy. This time the whole of the ship started to spin making her nearly vomit. She tried desperately to hold on as dust and debris flew through the small room! Several pieces hitting her hard enough to leave marks.

"Fuck!"

She yelled as a massive tool slammed against the wall with a loud clang, just inches from her head! Alora tucked her head down bracing herself against the wall letting her back take the worst of the hits. Amidst the sharp stings of small objects and deep thuds from the heavier ones. She felt something soft brush against her arm. She turned in time to see the mattress floating away. She quickly reached out and managed to grab a corner, pulling her and the mattress together. As soon as she could, she wrapped her arms and legs around it in a desperate bear-hug only letting go to grab softer things to protect herself with. She did her best to maneuver the mattress between her and anything large till she could again reach one of the walls. Eventually, she managed to grip one of the bulkheads with a free hand keeping the mattress between her and the chaotic cloud of junk and tools. There was little she could do besides hold on and hope.

After several moments, she heard several loud bangs echo throughout the ship. At first, she thought it was heavier objects flying around. But they started to become louder and more frequent, to the point where they were making the walls shake with each impact.

"Okay, okay, am I getting shot at again? Or what? A little help here Krysta. I mean the mattress was nice, thanks for that, but a little more info would be nice!" She pleaded,

With that the ship suddenly jerked! The whole world seemed to lurch for a moment before the spinning suddenly stopped causing Alora to slam her head into the wall behind her. As her world went dark the mattress drifted away from her now limp arms.

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