After the long trek to Hutton Orbital, I think we all had to visit the doctor to check our vitals. I know by the seventh day, I wasn't showing many signs of life myself. But that's our topic this week, to discover those Signs of Life that exist ...somewhere... other than here.
Psykokow hosts the Abraka-Drabble live reading show and comedy hour at 7pm BST, Fridays on...
> HUTTON ORBITAL RADIO! http://streaming.radionomy.com/HuttonOrbitalRadio (audio only)
> LAVE RADIO! http://laveradio.com/ (audio only)
> TWITCH! http://www.twitch.tv/psykokow/ (audio & visual)
and will also be uploaded to his You-tube channel & anywhere else he can infect the world with our drabblings!
Remember, the winner(s) of this week's Drabble Contest get to choose next week's topic. They also get to wear the Drabble Crown for a whole week. Sorry it hasn't been to the cleaners since it made it out of Winnard's Hole.
_________________________________________________
01 - Ian Philips - No signs of life
The SRV rested, parked on a cliff edge, heat radiating from the engine. Needle hard pinpoints of light pierced the
utter black of the sky, stars unsoftened by atmospheric blurring.
Underneath the SRV the ground, warmed by the engine, began to move, humping itself up attracted by the source of heat.
Once the highest tendril touched the cover, it rapidly spread over the vehicle, absorbing the surface as it went.
In an amazingly short amount of time the engine was compromised. Inside, a warning light flashed, illuminating a life
scanner set to detect Carbon based life.
Silicon life is rare!
_________________________________________________
02 - Frank - Noble Cockroach
The scene was desolation, piles of rubble where there used to be houses.
The wind whistles around a small girl as she pokes and tugs at a pile. She starts bawling, holding aloft a dismembered
plastic arm as a sign of her failure to free a doll trapped in the debris.
Adults were too busy to attend to her, scurrying over the rubble and checking their infra-red drones. They turn to
where they hear a yelp of success, and everyone runs there to help.
If it is the aim of the Thargoids to wipe out humanity, they are not succeeding.
_________________________________________________
03 - Alien - The Alien Chronicles: Part 6
The Equinox left the planet Eden, and headed for a stricken Cobra MkIII. Captain Ferbus ordered a scan of The Domino as
they approached it. The canopy was iced over.
"There appears to be no signs of life ... wait .. I am picking up a faint remlock signal". Ferbus decided to bring the
Cobra aboard.
As the hatch was cut open with a plasma torch, they found a female pilot in cryo-sleep with a ginger cat.
At that moment, the tactical station asked Ferbus what to do about the planet
"Nuke it from orbit ... it's the only way to be sure."
_________________________________________________
04 - Edit_The_Hutt - Operation Colossus
Freelance commanders are the deniable assets of the 34rd century. Not bound by traditional oaths of allegiance they
work as occasional contractors with a security clearance corresponding to a rank in whichever navy is paying.
"Admiral" Turing was no stranger to military dirty work, but this target he would have worked for free. His Asp swooped
low and fast over the rocky terrain, towards the pirate base. Racing through air defenses he released the physics
package. A double-flash behind him confirmed detonation and he yawed round to survey the destruction.
His contract was very clear: Eliminate all signs of life.
_________________________________________________
05 - Darkoba - Parasite Elimination
She lay unmoving, slumped over in the pilot's seat.
The noise of the hatch being forced helped her to concentrate. Her heart slowed, her breathing stilled.
The intruder entered the cockpit, glancing at the recumbent pilot.
Seeing no signs of life, he turned his attention to the system status board.
"All secure," he reported, "Head back to base. I'll follow with this ship."
The three pirate ships jumped
He sat in the co-pilot's seat and rebooted systems.
He reached for a switch over the pilot.
She moved. Her knife found its mark.
"One less space-rat" she muttered, setting course home.
_________________________________________________
06 - moose666 - Simoof's visit to hell
Simoof exited the elevator, into a corridor made of flame. To his left, was a series of doors
Peeking through the first one. He saw himself being shot by Psykokow with a handheld plasma accelerator , the head of
his simulacrum reduced to a carbon stump.
The next door, he saw himself choking while multiple halon jets discharged from above.
Third door: He was melting into a pool of molten steel.
Before he could proceed, he felt a tingle across his chest, and his vision brightening.
An echoy voice - "We've got life signs!".
And thats when Simoof came back to life.
_________________________________________________
07 - MrMogadon - The Waiting Room
The outpost's basement section. A dismal place forgotten and abandoned by all. Almost.
Amidst the detritus, a store-room, scrupulously clean with bright overhead lights shining over a gowned figure.
Also, an operating table. On it, a body, once recognisably human. Once, now no more.
Gutted. Splayed like a lab specimen. Thorax gaping; internal organs, removed: intact, still attached. Still
functioning. Pinned and labelled textbook style. Limbs broken and twisted at obscene angles. The face an abomination:
flayed, peeled and infinitely ruined. Only the eyes remain untouched. In them exist the faintest signs of life. There,
eternity waits for an end.
_________________________________________________
08 - cleonymus - Weak Signal Sources
It took two commanders to move the outer door.
They exchanged nervous glances as they brushed aside dust, cobwebs and used fast food cartons.
The light switch was already on, the bulb burned out long ago. Their torches illuminated a grisly scene, as they
carefully picked their way onto the bridge. The smell was overpowering.
A hunched figure sat, slumped in front of a flickering screen. It looked like they were too late. More cobwebs wreathed
the body and hands, seemingly locking the hands in a death grip around the hotas controls.
Then it moved!
“Are you the fuel rats?”
_________________________________________________
09 - Missileman - A suspicious life....
I felt around for a pulse, nothing, chances are he'd been dead for weeks, the airless environment preserving the body
despite the working remlock.
it wasn't asphyxiation that had killed him.
I released the straps holding him to the cockpit pilots seat grabbing hold as his body started to float upwards, the
rotation of the craft providing a small centripetal force.
I checked for laser fire, nothing, in fact all my tests came up negative, there wasn't a mark on the body.
It soon became clear what killed him if not how when three ships appeared on my scanner.
Pirates...
_________________________________________________
10 - CMDR Texas Stu - The Cure?
The water, so dark blue almost black.
Only a degree above freezing and calm as if a lake not a sea.
The turquoise sloop slid as if it were motionless and the planet moving instead at it's bidding.
No ships but these navigate this part of the world.
Space ships sink on the floes here.
Is the quest almost complete?
Seventy-three stations, 48 worlds led me here to an Elder who holds the secret so many seek?
Flickering glow ahead breaks my concentration.
An ice floe with a lone silhouetted stooped figure.
Does he really have the cure for MODs?
_________________________________________________
11 - Simoof - The all-consuming emptiness - no signs of life
One self-blip, lonely on scanner.
Power failing. The ships lights flickering, danced around the softening static hum of the radio. He was aimlessly
drifting in deepspace - days past Hutton now, maybe weeks. The joyful sound of children crying, a long and distant
memory.
Mixing salt-water tears to the ships panel sent an occasional jolt of electricity through his body. He welcomed having
a feeling of any kind.
He slumped back in his chair reminiscing, whispering to himself.
"Tammy sharted" - a small smile cracked onto his sullen face.
Sighing - "Give the people what they want." And thats when Simoof killed Simoof.
_________________________________________________
12 - Splendour - Crawling Home
Jan glanced wearily at the clock. Eighteen days and five hours since the incident. She left the controls and opened the
cockpit door, letting in strange noises from the malfunctioning frameshift drive.
At the tiny galley she grabbed a coffee bulb and cranked its temperature right up.
"Show some signs of life! Your watch started half an hour ago!"
Dan continued to sleep like a dead man.
Jan squirted a jet of scalding coffee at an exposed foot.
A yelp, a jerk, the twang of 0g sleeping restraints
Jan grinned and handed the coffee bulb to her bleary eyed copilot.
_________________________________________________
13 - DocStone - Part Three - All information has a price.
Her knife once again slid under the skin of Hutton Orbital’s Commander.
“Please, stop, I don’t know where they went” he pleaded.
“Commander, I have no time for this. Tell me where the ship is headed and I will bring an end to this.”
“Please” he sobbed.
She slid her already bloodied fingers into the gap in his skin, gripped the flesh firmly, and pulled down sharply,
ripping another strip of skin from his chest.
He gave a final agonised scream before his weakened heart finally gave in.
She felt for a pulse. No signs of life.
“So, who’s next?”
_________________________________________________
14 - Sneevus - Lost and Found
Both engines sounded right this time, red lights started turning green as the window cleared. The frozen hulk was
becoming a ship again.
Nodding as she left the pilot's seat, the suited figure made her way over to the crying coming from the airlock. His
restraints were still secure.
She made the call.
"Yes, sir. The ship is salvageable and cargo intact, just where our information said it would be. Should have her
underway in an hour or so."
The figure paused, listening.
"That's correct, sir. No sign of the pilot." She cycled the airlock and got back to work.
_________________________________________________
15 - Galactic Midden - Pristine Reserves... But of What?
They'd named it the Valley of Death as first ship then crew succumbed to the horrors within its depths.
"Anything?", Fillia asked anxiously as Gerauld scanned deep between the rocks. "Shhh" he replied, "there's definitely
more than rocks".
Fans swirled dust about their plastboots as the jury rigged device fought to stay cool. Once a simple prospector drone,
Lil' Bot was now so much more after Gerauld's ingenuous crafting.
Sounds echoed, metal on rock. "It's coming!" screamed Fillia.
As something leapt out Lil' Bot reacted.
Some time later the survivors of Frank's Claim stood embraced, metallic shards floating around them.
_________________________________________________
16 - Erik Marcaigh - Creatures Great and Small
The creatures lived in the rock, in their burrow. They emerged only at night due to the star's UV rays.
The ground jolted once, twice. Then again and again. It had a rhythmic beat to it that lasted several minutes, then
stopped.
Huddled together, scared, they eventually took courage and peeked out into a semi-darkness.
"Where are weeessss? Our gardennnn is lossst," said one.
The other crawled out and looked around. The dirt had been replaced with black metal that stretched as far as he could
see. He looked up, and there sat a creature, a thousand times their size.
_________________________________________________
17 - Listeri69 - Take yer life and stick it up ya..........
David: and you say you found him like this inside the cargo bay?...was that with or without the Mcstiffy?
Finn: He was quite stiff when we found him..But the McThargoids is his own...
David: well whatever convinced him you could drink it through that hole.
Jack: All tha' kids are doing it
David: And this? Crumbs? Meat? Trumbles? Signs of Loaf right in there.
Finn: Maybe smuggling and all that?... he's coming around...
Richard:....<coming around> You wouldn't dare stick that McStiffy up my rear Jack...
Jack: Fine it was me but I swear the Trumble isn't mine....
Last edited:
