"Snapped" drabbles by Jeff Taylor

Power Status

Snapped #4

"Do we have any idea where we are?" Harold groaned as he felt a rib grind. "I think I cracked a rib"

Angela pushed off from the deck and looked up and out through the cupola on top of the bridge. She returned and put her hand onto Harold's shoulder to get suit comms to work.

"Somewhere near galactic centre I think. Someplace we really don't want to be. Can you try and get ship's comms relays back up?"

Harold nodded. "Sure. Ship? What's your power status?"

++ AI core, one hundred percent ++
++ Engine, offline ++

Harold smiled.

Dead in the Black

Snapped #3

Harold coughed and then groaned as his head threatened to explode. "What the hell happened?"

He felt a hand grab his shoulder and Angela's face came into view. "Are you OK?" Direct-touch suit comms, so the radio relays were offline?

"I'm alive. OK can come later. What happened?"

"Ship says that we hit a spatial fold."

"Doesn't explain why I feel like I got trampled by an elephant."

"That's because our forward momentum in hyperspace translated into inertia when we re-entered normal space. The ships dampeners weren't enough. The drive is damaged and we're dead in the black.

Waking Up

Snapped #2

Beep, beep, beep, beep...

Groggy, Harold opened his eyes. Well, his right eye anyway. Nothing was happening from the left. The big crack across his faceplate probably meant that his left eye was swollen shut. It certainly gave off enough pain to indicate that along with the nasty, metallic, taste of blood that filled his mouth and dripped from his chin.

He pulled himself upright and looked around. His console was utterly dead, with faint wisps of smoke and flame flickering behind it.

++ Leak detected ++

He automatically tore a patch and slapped it on on the cracked faceplate.

Snapped

Snapped #1

Angela came to amongst a cacophony of blaring sirens and flashing red lights. She groaned and put her hand to her face, only to find a faceplate in the way so she couldn't put pressure on her head. Her blurred eyesight focused and she looked about the bridge.

The engineering console was smoking and Harold was slumped in his chair unconscious.

"Ship? What happened?"

++ 32 seconds after drive activation we encountered an anomalous spatial fold. Energy feedback damaged the drive and we were snapped out of hyperspace. Primary systems are offline. ++

"Where are we?"

++I do not know++