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Oops! - Chapter 3
Time: CY 10086 - AD Aug 5163Location: Huron Spaceport
Oh my aching head" moaned Beka as she stepped from the Maru's airlock elevator into the staging area "Why do suits always insist that a business deal be followed by a late night dinner party? I'm exhausted and the loading crew will be arriving early tomorrow morning."
As she stepped from the elevator into the stagging area she stopped in surprise. There was a trail of some dark substance on the Maru's deck. The dim illumination provided by the ship's night lights didn't provide enough light for her to determine what the substance was so she knelt down to touch it.
"Dirt?" she asked herself. "Harper's restricted to the ship, Rev's visiting some Wayist monastery on the other side of the port and Trance isn't the type to go running around in the dirt. Something or someone must have gotten aboard."
She reached under her dress jacket and removed a small pistol from the holster concealed in the small of her back. After checking to make sure the weapon was charged and the safety off she cautiously began to follow the trail. It led from the staging area and into the passageway leading to the common room and the berthing compartment.
"Damn," she thought. "He's going after the kids."
She charged through the passageway and into the common room. There alongside the bulkhead near the door to the berthing room was a sinister shape. The light was too dim to see more than a vague outline but Beka got a glimpse of an abnormally thin upright figure with several spindly arms standing beside the door to the birthing compartment. One of the arms was reaching for the door opening mechanism. Acting on instinct Beka opened fire and was rewarded by seeing her target break in half, the top half falling to the floor while the lower half remained upright and unmoving.
"What?" she thought. "That isn't right." Weapon still in hand she approached her victim and realized that she had just killed a small tree. The dirt trail she had been following was dirt from around the tree's roots.
While Beka was wondering just how a tree had gotten aboard the Maru the door to the berthing compartment opened and Trance stepped out holding a small shovel. She went wide eyed at the sight of Beka holding the pistol.
"It's OK, Trance," reassured Beka . "It's nothing to be alarmed about. I seem to have killed a tree."
Trance looked over to see the remains of the tree and let out a heartbroken cry. "Walter!" she wailed.
"Walter?" said Beka. "Trance, it's just a tree."
"His name was Walter," cried the girl. '"And you killed him. You, you murderer."
Beka put her pistol back in its holster wondering what the term for killing a tree was. The best she could come up with was vegicide. As she was wondering, Harper entered the common room coming from the corridor leading to the engine room his nanowelder in hand Seeing that there was no immediate threat he put down the nanowelder and walked over the the common room table. He picked up a small potted plant that hadn't been there that morning.
"Hey, how did this get here?" he asked holding up the plant.
Trance looked up from the remains of Walter and saw Harper holding the plant. "Don't you dare hurt Gloria," she shouted.
Location the Andromeda Ascendant
“Vegicide?” said Andromeda. “I'm going to have to remember that word in case we ever encounter a species of sentient plants. What about the cheesecake? Whenever Trance tries to cook something aboard me I make sure there's a Maria with a fire extinguisher nearby. ”
She's set off the Maru's fire suppression system a time or two as well, but this time I stopped her before she set anything afire. We had been laying over on Albuquerque Drift awaiting arrival of a cargo...”
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