Day 7

The day started, as all days do, with sunset and a earthquake. And a pretty big one at that. It swung the CBers about in their hammocks and tossed most upon the floor that had a odd metal shine.

Dragonrider and Silvery, for two, did not get tossed about because they were floating. And sleeping, unlike everyone else who have been dumped from their hammock and sleep, quite rudely. Will looks up, and isn’t sure that he can believe his eyes. For the main room has transformed. There is a large window in the front  and something that looks like the controls of a spaceship, many blinky lights, big red buttons, levers and switches. None of them labeled, of course to confuse most everyone.

All of the floor and walls are shiny metal, and the air smells like harsh chemicals and not the least bit like donuts. Nothing is grand any more, just crisp and metal. The one last wall that looks like the old hotel spins around in a cloud of smoke and transforms into a metal wall. Clock walks over to the controls and is about to touch them-

When in another cloud of smoke, (The air is quite smoggy by now) The Teller of Tales materializes, coughing, right in front of her. “Don’t touch them! Especially the big red one.”

“Why?”

“Because they’ll do something to the spaceship. l don’t know what.”

“What spaceship?” asks Shadowdancer.

“Why this one, of course,” says TTT, throwing her arms wide. “Why can’t you recognize a spaceship when you see one?”

“Ahem,” says Somebody. “Isn’t this the Hotel Le’Faye?”

The Teller shrugs. “l guess it’s the Spaceship Le’Faye now.”

There is a crackling sound and even more smoke fills the air. “Oh dear,” Mumbles TTT. “The rocket boosters must’ve malfunctioned.” And hurries off to a random door.  The CBers are left clueless and hungry.

“l want donuts….” Moans Spyro for what must’ve the tenth time that morning.  “We could go to the kitchen,” suggests Katydid. There is a momentary silence after this idea was voiced. The dreaded kitchen. CBers-eating-refrigerators-and-who-knows-what-else. Gulp. “We could go explore,” says TARDISrider. “The rest of the hotel--er, spaceship--should’ve changed as well.”

“You’re ri-” Another earthquake, or what they thought to be an earthquake, rocked the building--er, spaceship.

Everyone is thrown into very hard metal walls. Ouch. And then it seems like the build-spaceship jumps, and lands. “What is-” Thump “Going on?”

The CBers pick themselves off the ground, just to be thrown back. Ouch and again. There is now so much smoke that you couldn’t see your hand right in front of you face.

Baefire flies across the room at another jump and onto Devil, who in turn is smashed against the wall and into a random door along with Bae. This room is empty and small, and thankfully, no smoke. A few crashes later, Madeline, Booksy and Somebody are thrown into the room. They blink the dust out of their eyes and look around. The spaceship the tips to the side. There are sounds of alarms and “l’ve got it!” from the rooms beyond. And then bangs. And then silence. Devil Owl picks himself off the ground and cautiously opens the door.The CBers with him follow him out the door. The air is less smokey, you can actually see now. The Teller is by the controls, holding a large wrench and several pages of a history book in German. “l’ve got it! The rocket boosters are finely workin-” There are more thumps and what sounds like an explosion.  “Mostly working, that is. Something’s not quite-” Thump. “-Right.”

And with that, The Teller dashes off to a door marked Engine Room. Border of all things possible and impossible. DO NOT ENTER

Turgon whispers something to Feather, who in turn whispers it to Devil. “What is behind that door?”

Booksy whispers something to Silvery. “What happens if we touch the controls?”  

“l heard that!” yells a disembodied voice. “Don’t you dare touch the controls!” Devil mutters something and runs over to one of the doors. “Wait! You-” A sudden bolt of electricity shoots out of the ceiling, right onto Devil. There is a short, horrified silence. Devil Owl has been reduced to a pile of ashes. The spaceship lurches yet again, and Devil’s ashes are blown away, like leaves, never to be seen again. Feather begins to cry. The spaceship gives a little jump. Then starts rocking, then-”We’re off!” says The Teller, emerging from the engine room. “The rocket boosters are-” Then seeing everyone’s faces, “What?”

“The gravity generator's shorted out. Devil was zapped,” says Somebody, glaring.

“Oops. And that also means no gravity. But anyways,” The Teller of Tales rushes over to the control panel.  “Does anyone know how to operate a spaceship?” She is meet with blank stares. “Don’t you know who to?” asks Will. “You did fix the rocket boosters.”

“Fixing rockets is not flying a spaceship. And l’m sorry about Devil. And we wouldn’t have any gravity when we get to space.” In a flurry of German history books, The Teller marches over to a large red button. “This better be the one.” And presses it. “Prepare for launch off.” Booms a robotic voice. “In 3...2….1...Launching.” And quite suddenly, they are flying. The world rushes by from the window.  Boom.  “It’s the rocket boosters, again.”

Day 8

It is hard to tell whether it is day or night, for such things are unknown to the infinite blackness of space. The Spaceship Le’Faye orbits Earth, as the rocket boosters have failed, and The Teller is off to fix them. Madeline is reading a German history book that just happens to be there in the control room (formerly the main room).

Shadowdancer is peering at the controls, wondering why none of them are labeled. Clock is to be found hiding in a pile of white lab coats, working on something with pies and clockwork. Spyro, the ever-hungry-purple-dragon, has ventured into the mysterious depths of the CBer-eating-kitchen. We hope he comes out in one piece.

Booksy is reading along with Feather, Shifting is haunting the metal halls of the spaceship, Baefire is hiding somewhere, Somebody is examining the technology of the spaceship, Turgon is eating ice cream, Will is baking pies, Dragonrider is watching Will bake pies, and Silvery, Katydid and Brookeira are off somewhere in the spaceship.

The gravity generators are working at last, and everything is pretty good. Until they suddenly decide to quit working and, then we’reeeee flllloaaattttiinnnggggggg………. And crackers appear from absolutely nowhere. Non-existent crackers, that is. Somebody floats over to the window. “Mostly void, partially stars,” she says, gazing out.

“But look!” says Shadowdancer, coming beside her. “What is that? It’s not a star. It looks like a spaceship.”

Upon hearing this, the other CBers gather around the window. “It is a spaceship. But whose? And is it friend or foe?” asks Katydid.

“Well we can’t get away, the rocket boosters being broken,” says Brookeira, as the ship comes closer and closer. “Whoever they are.”

“What if this ship has other means of momentum? What if we tried one of the buttons?”

“What about weapons? This ship must have some.”

“It doesn’t,” says The Teller, appearing in a puff of German history books. “No weapons. And unless you know what you’re doing, don’t touch the button. Especially that big red one. And someone deliberately rigged the rocket boosters so that they would fail. It was one of you.” The CBers glance around at each other nervously. Someone did that? Who? It could be anyone of them.

“Look!” says Dragonrider. The approaching ship is so close that it almost fills the entire window. “Grr…..” mutters The Teller. “Alien craft. Hostile, probably. They’re sending out a pod to dock.” They watch as the tiny space pod comes around the spaceship. “They’re going to the bay doors. Everyone out!”

The CBers dash into the halls. They hear the sound of air pressure equalizing, as the doors open. There is a moment of panic as everyone scrambles into a room.

Whosh. Beep-beep. Thump. Beep-beep.

The aliens are now coming down the hall. “WE ARE HERE TO DESTROY YOU. SURRENDER OR DIE.”

The CBers remain deathly quiet. The aliens roll down the hall (ss it seems that they are robots) to the control room. More come down the hall and then leave. All is silence. “What should we do?” asks Booksy. “We can’t let them see us.” Someone steps on her foot in the dark. “Ow. Get some light in here.”

Spyro ignites a pile of German history books that just happens to be there. The flames cast ghostly shadows in the room. And they also melt the metal floor. “We need to destroy them,” says The Teller. “l’m not going to have the likes of those robot aliens in my spaceship.”

“But we don’t even know who they are,” says TARDISrider. “Or what they look like. Or what defences they have. Or why they want to destroy us.”

“Let me tell you something,” says The Teller. “A tale of what happens when you let alien robots take over your spaceship.

"Once upon a time there were some silly people. (l was not one of them, l was with them.) One day some alien robots boarded their spaceship and took over. They thought that the robots were nice. They weren’t. The aliens went zap-zap with their laser thingys and everyone died except for me. Do want that to happen to you?”

“Wellll...Not really……” says Will. “But we’ve got to think up a plan! We can’t just go rushing into the control room and take them by surprise!”

“Why not?” asks Madeline. “It sounds like a good plan. It’s the only one that we’ve got.”

 “Right!” says Brookeira. “We just sneak up on them and pounce! They don’t know that we’re here.”

The CBers might’ve protested if they had a better plan, but they didn’t. So Madeline and Brookeira, armed with German history books, creep down the hall to the control room. The other CBers hold their breaths, until they realize that they’re probably going to suffocate if they don’t breathe.

Behind the door, they listen. First a yell, then bangs and “YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED.” More yells and thumps, a sizzling, and the sound of a rabbit eating lettuce.

“What happened?” whispers Shifting in the sudden silence. There are hurried footsteps and Brookeira opens the door and then rushes in. She slams it behind her. “They got Madeline,” she gasps. Her hair and clothes are charred, like they caught on fire. “They overpowered us. The German history books were not enough. Madeline is gone. The robots know we are here. They are going to come after us.”

~~~~~~~~~~

R.I.P. Madeline. Your puppy will be in good hands.

Interesting story. Why a floating letter? Why second person pov? Why a hotel and rocket boosters?

Note: From now on, the days are going to be shorter.

Day 9

Sleep. Oh blessed sleep. Where we can forget and dream of a better world. And float. And don’t remember all those alien robots in your spaceship. And the fact that you have no idea how to defeat them.

It could’ve been day or night, not like anyone of them really cared that much. They’re all sleeping, anyways. And floating. Expect for The Teller, who doesn’t sleep.

The alien robots are silent when Clock wakes up. All is silent, really. The spaceship seems to be dead. She opens the door, quietly and sneaks out into the hall. There are only a few dim lights on. She is holding the thing that she created yesterday, the one with clockwork and pies.  

Clock though that everyone was asleep, but she had woken up Silvery, who slips out of the door after her.

Down the hall, the two of them go, to the control room. Clock pauses, and adjusts something on what looks like a rifle, the boldly marches into the control room.

Silvery, now very alarmed, dashes back to the room and begins to awaken everyone by jumping on top of them and yelling, “THE BRITISH ARE COMING! THE BRITISH ARE COMING!” Which doesn’t really work in zero gravity. And in spite of all that yelling, everyone’s still asleep to this world.

****

Meanwhile, the Daleks (Hurrah! St. Owl) turn, looking very surprised at the entry of Clock. “DIE, ROBOTS!!” she yells, and fires at one Dalek, who promptly turns into a very surprised looking bunny rabbit. Very quickly, she fires at the rest of them. But one of the Daleks dodges and fires a laser thingy at Clock.

*****

Silvery has finally succeed in waking up some of the CBers. As soon as they hear her story, they rush over to the control room, only to find a room full of confused bunny rabbits, and a pile of ash.

~~~~~~~~

R.I.P. Clock. Rest with rabbits.