Chitter -- The Shipyard

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 15:34:07 10/24/03 Fri
Author: Squeak
Subject: Chitter

The beast hops in, startling the attendant into life. The attendant had never seen a creature like Squeak before, and likely never would ever again, should he not visit the Critter Homeworld.

A long chain of squeaks and chatters was out of 'Squeak's' mouth before he could stop himself.

"Uhhhhh? I'm sorry, I don't speak... what language is that?" the attendant said quietly, meekly.

Squeak dug out a small electronic device from his pouch--the one identical to the pouch a kangaroo has--and squeaked into that, after clipping another device to his ear... Much like a tracking tag, but less troublesome and more useful.
"Ahem. Greetings. I seek a vessel." It was a robotic-sounding voice emanating from the machine, but the words were crystal clear.

"Yes... sir? Um. Yeah. What are you looking for?" The attendant mumbled, but repeated his words when Squeak gave him a dirty look and cupped a paw in the universal 'I can't hear you, speak up' gesture.

"What I seek I will find," the rodent answered, and hopped off quickly to eye the ships lying about... He'd been forced by his crew to trade his own private vessel to a trader long ago, having stripped it of anything of value... They'd later sold the luxury cruiser they were travelling in... Perhaps his ship would be...

There. A small clump of metal hiding in a junk heap in the back. The creature wrestled it free, squeaking in delight.
Beautiful. He'd been going planet-to-planet on shuttles trying to find it, but now it was found!

"Sir? You sure you want that piece of junk? Some nutty trader stowed it in the cargo hold of another junk shuttle he sold us, but we saw no purpose to that thing other than to throw it in the scrap heap. I'm sure someone like yourself would rather one of those..." the attendant pointed to a luxury cruiser, and then fell silent as Squeak gave him an ugly snarl.

"Um... Yes. 'Tis your choice, sir."

Squeak crawled in amongst the junk, throwing out several more mix-matched globs of equipment and other things. When he's finished, a miniature junk heap has assembled around the small shuttle--about the size of a Volkswagon Beetle, the ship is...

"How much will that be?" came the robotic voice, translating the squeaks.

"Uhhhhh.... Uhhhh... One moment." The attendant scurried off, returning with the manager.

"Ah! A fabulous customer!" the manager said, smiling broadly. Squeak hissed and pointed at the pile, repeating his question.

"Hmm... For you, sir, we've a discount. Although are you sure..."

"Boss, he's sure he wants that stuff." The attendant interrupted meekly.

"I see. Well, Junk Heap Special today is... Uh... Fifty five thousand credits for the whole lot of it that you've got there?"

Squeak shook his head. "Twenty." The robotic voice said.

"Forty."

"Twenty."

"Thirty's as low as I go."

"Twenty." The robotic voice answered.

"Fine." The manager grumbled and scanned Squeak's card, removing the proper number of credits. Twenty thousand credits for a pile of junk that wasn't worth much to him was a good one.

He watched intently as over the next few hours the little rodent put all the junk into, and onto, and repeared the hull of what had been--and would be again--a ship, working industriously. The attendant and boss took shifts, amazed at the speed and skill with which Squeak reassembled his machine, finally squeezing inside to turn it inside.

What had been a husk of a foreign ship hours before was now roaring with life. The ship's hull bore strange scratches, painted on... Markings. It was dubbed, in the English tongue, 'The Paw of Avenging' or something like that... The translation ruining the poetic justice of the original title of the craft in Squeak's language...

With a roar that settled into a humming as the ship adjusted to its components again, the Paw of Avenging, and passenger, flitted off into the dark depths of space...

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]