A short story (spoiler: you die!)
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Foggy-minded from cryo-sleep, you try to picture where the extinguisher is mounted. The flashing lights and buzzing alarms are not helping the hibernation hangover. You have a brief image come to mind of an incident trying to experiment with a new recipe to add some flavor to an ‘impossible beef and mashed potato’ MRE.
“In the commons!” you jut aloud to yourself, noticing the stale cotton taste of years-old morning breath in your mouth. Yes. There it is; mounted above the Med-bay counter on the forward-facing wall of the latrine, starboard side.
It is a few steps away. You turn about-face from the engine room door and shuffle to it. A schematic is pinned next to the extinguisher mount in the med bay showing the exits of the ship. Glancing at it for a second clears the mind fog of hibernation just a bit.
Flashes of memories rush to you. Dr. Mergman assigned to you as co-pilot! Meeting Thames for the prisoner transfer exchange! The uncanny "substance X” that overrode your drone’s protocol directives to collect a classified sample! It's coming back to the front of your mind now!
However, this is no time for a "dear diary" moment just yet.
Wisdom prevails. Your training kicks in. Since you are already here, you prepare to arm yourself with whatever you can until you can make it to the arsenal below deck. You set the extinguisher on the ground, then you shuffle through the med bay first aid cabinet. Then the supply nook. You unzip the pocket in your thermal underwear and add one red flare, two glow sticks, a fist full of gauze, and a pack of wet wipes.
Almost hidden in the back of the nook, you find a Calibrating Access Node opener (CAN opener) with maintenance level clearance. You’ll need this to manually rewire the engine room door open. You grip it firmly in your hand.
Just as you step out of the supply nook, another loud THUD vibrates the hull with such force that the lights go dark and the artificial gravity shuts down, sending you and the extinguisher flying up towards the ceiling. You crack your head against the overhead compartment of the nook and momentum sends you in a backflip.
Gravity kicks back in momentarily... You drop, landing your head on the corner of the med bay bench. Your body falls prone on your back. Your stiff cold bones ache. You look up just in time to see nothing but the red of the extinguisher.
[Fade to black.]
Drops of blood pool like mercury as you slip in and out of consciousness. The flicker of flames from the engine room window cast them in silhouette, as they dance in and out of your blurred vision.
Malkovich:
All passengers please be advised. All passengers please be advised. All passengers please be advised. This is an Emergency Response System. Volatile organic compounds such as CO2, NOx, CO, SOx, and low molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of particulate matter have been detected in dangerously high concentrations in the ship's airflow system. All passengers should remain calm and seek an alternate source of oxygen or filtration until this matter is resolved. -
@TableTopProphet CAN opener is such an amazing name for equipment that probably cost millions of dollars to develop
I'm really enjoy your writing style, it has a nice balance of action and worldbuilding. Have you written any more in this world?
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@Kykeon your 3d printing adventures have the cost of production at the forefront of your mind! haha
Thank you for your kind words.
Before Metroid Dread was released, a buddy and I wanted to get immersed in the lore and he wanted to play TRPG games but was too busy at the time with changes in his life and work. So, I spent a week or so in the Metroid WIKI and found out about the Metroid choose your own adventure book released in Japan. I created a roleplay Discord Channel and made my own choose your adventure style story using the rules of D&D and a dice roller bot. He made a character, and I took some creative liberties using Metroid lore as a backdrop. Since my friend didn't have the time to write, we made it all a multiple-choice pen pal adventure. Link below to the act1 if you want to skim it. We had fun. Somewhere in the middle of ACT3, his child was born and Metroid Dread was released, so it was never finished.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rPdUxb0CAWbDvzSprCCqAPxwcj1kSIBY/view?usp=share_link
