External Threat by Michael Atamanov

Author:Michael Atamanov [Atamanov, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magic Dome Books
Published: 2018-07-23T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen. Housewarming Party

I WAS RUNNING very late to my party, so I hurried my Miyelonian escort along, feeling worried. It would look bad, and my guests might get sick of waiting and leave. But then, finally, I reached my tiny yet safe room in the hotel on the Medu-Ro IV space station. Hurriedly closing the metal curtain and blocking myself off from the rest of the world, I immediately chose “Exit Game.”

Would you like to review your statistics for this game session?

No, I had no time for that. I needed to get into the real world right away! I threw back the lid of the virt pod and, with indescribable joy, discovered friends waiting to meet me. And though I was somewhat expecting to see Anya and Imran next to my virt pod, Dmitry Zheltov was there too. How long had I been waiting to hear from him? What a pleasant surprise!

“Gnat, you’re a whole twenty minutes late!” Anya said with reproach, helping me stand up from the soft bed. “The table is already set in your apartment. The guests have arrived, but you just won’t show!”

“I’m sorry I’m late, friends. If only you knew about my endless day!”

I set my weight on my left leg extremely gingerly and was pleased to discover it was no longer broken. So, I turned down the crutches and hurried to the stairs.

“Tell me everything!” I demanded of the Starship Pilot. “What happened with the Shiamiru? Where have you been so long?”

Dmitry gave a somehow tortured smile and admitted that he had no idea where he had gone. He didn’t know Geckho, so he didn’t understand the crew and couldn’t read the screens either.

“But where we are now is not that important. What matters more is what happened. We were attacked by space pirates!!! Picture this, I load up the game, and there’s a siren wailing on the Shiamiru. The whole crew is armed and wearing spacesuits. I also put on my helmet, take out my gun and run to the captain’s bridge. And there, that furry geezer Uraz Tukhsh is howling away, clicking his nails on the monitor and pointing at three bright orange spots following our ship. Then with gestures, he offers me a seat at the control panel, hurries me along and even shoves me into the chair. Picture this, it’s my fourth day in space, and the captain wants me to drive!”

“And what came next?” Anya asked, intrigued by the copilot’s story.

“Well... I sat at the control panel and tried to gather my thoughts, then remembered my training. I’ll admit, the fear made me forget half of it. I just checked the maneuver drives, added power to the mains, and set the monitor display to something a bit more manageable. Then, it was like I’d been flying a starship my whole life. It seemed easy and even intuitive. Also, everything is setup logically, and all the handles are the perfect size for a human hand!”

“Well, they were probably made for Geckho,” I corrected my friend, but Zheltov answered that it made no difference.

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