Space Time Unknown A single shadowy figure filled most of the cockpit. The stars, shining through the viewscreen, provided the only light source replacing lights which hadn't been used in years. The light diffused through the dusty air, only moved when the figure did, with the life support down. "Bored... bored... bored...," the figure muttered through the thin air turned to the viewscreen and began counting stars again. He went on for quite some time "...376...hmmm, did I already get that one?...I guesssss not, 377..." ----------------------------------- Bridge - The Fury 10:30 AM The Fury flew through deep space, its sensors stretching out like the arms of an octopus, picking up pieces of information and drawing them in. A single small blip appeared on its screen. "Admiral Drake, sir?" "Yes, what is it?" "A object is on the sensors." "Shell, scan the...er, Ensign Nobody, scan the object." "It appears to be a craft, larger than a shuttle, but not large enough to be any recognizable ship class. It is designed along the lines of a fighter." "Hail it." Ensign Nobody worked the controls and a few seconds later reported, "No response, sir." "Any signs of danger?" "Not really, it appears to be heavily damaged and running on minimal power." "OK, bring it into the cargo bay and I'll send a team to investigate." ----------------------------------- Space 10:30 AM The counting was interrupted by a small telepathic voice. <> "Nahhh, probably jussst another sssspacccial anomaly." Suddenly, the ship shook and the figure crashed to the ground. "What wasss that?!" The ship again responded telepathically <was a ship.>> "No need ta sssay I told you ssso..." he glared at the control panel. "Sssince we're being ressscued, how much time did you have left?" <> "Right," and the shadowy figure said and began to 'fold' in on itself. Soon, only a small floating orb was left. The orb moved to the viewscreen to watch as his ship entered a shuttlebay. The ship shook again as it landed on something. The orb spoke, his earlier lisp gone, "Apparently, it's time to meet our rescuers." <> Cipher sighed, "Thanks, Viper." Opening the door, the fresh air poured in, stirring the dust in swirls and eddies until it flowed down the ramp. The orb floated out. ----------------------------------- Cargo Bay - The Fury 10:45 AM Admiral Drake stood at the front of the welcoming party. Or at least he was only standing behind the security guards. As thick smoke pored down the ship's gantryway, the lights in the cargo bay seemed to dim as the light's from the ship seemed to brighten. The group took an involuntary half-step back. A sliver sphere appeared in the doorway. As it floating forward, a golden beam of light extended toward the group. Before any had a chance to react, it has covered them all and vanished. With a soft voice, the orb spoke, "Hi, I'm Cipher. Thanks for rescuing me! Uh, who are you guys?" Drake stood forward, "I am Admiral Drake. And these," at this he gestured at the people behind him, "are some of the Hunter." The sphere appeared to blink as if it were a giant human eye. "Hello Drake, hello Hunters." The sphere bobbed forward, "Whatcha doing out here in deep space?" "I should be asking you that." "'Kay...um...I kinda got lost... and then I nearly ran out of power... so I ended up drifting. Really boring, you don't want to hear about it." Diamondback leaned over and whispered to Drake, "Admiral, I'm picking up some telepathy, but I don't think it's from the sphere." Cipher, picking up the whispered comment, even from its distance, cheerfully popped out an answer, "That's just Viper. Say hi, Viper!" The ship behind him blinked its running lights. Cipher continued, "Viper says thanks for the recharge," it paused for a moment and continued, "and says she's sorry for not asking first." The lights in the cargo bay brightened to their normal levels. Drake replied, "That's ok, this time. Next time ask. Let me introduce you to the Hunters." "What are the Hunters? They sound neato! Can I be one?" Drake hesitated for a moment and began introducing the Hunters present. "... this is Chris Carter, one of our enhanced..." Cipher interrupted, "What's an enhanced?" Drake paused for a second, trying to thing of the best way to explain. "Basically... when they were young, they were experimented on, turning them into power psychics. Also increased their physical capabilities." Drake sighed and continued. "This is Gravedigger..." Cipher interrupted again, "A Reploid? Aren't they kinda outdated? They should have been shuffled out of service decades ago." "And with ignorance like that, so should've you." Grave mumbled. The sphere shook with anger. "Ignorance? Look at you, you... walking junkheap!" Grave proceeded to morph a selective finger bigger than Cipher's head, until Drake spoke up. "Gentlemen, please, calm yourselves." Noticing Drake again, Cipher forgot about Gravedigger, "So can I be a Hunter? Can I? Huh? Huh? Please?" Drake cleared his throat and glanced at the Hunters next to him and back at the Cipher. "I'm afraid, while we are accepting new Hunters, we don't know who you are, where you're from, or what your intentions are." Cipher cleared his vocal synthesizer, and in official tones he declared, "I am Cipher, a Mark II Reploid," he paused to glare at Gravedigger, "Pretty much I've been lost in space for the past 20 years, and my intentions are not to be bored." At this point Dimondback realized that he had to get to work, and with a telepathically mumbled apology, rushed out of the cargo bay. Drake crossed his arms. "This isn't a game, of course. We do put our lives in danger." "So, how do you think Viper," Cipher nodded at his ship, "got so shot up?" ". . . you were bored?" "No, some idiot got a lucky shot and fried her hyperdrive." "I see. Well, if you're willing to do some training, I see no problem in you joining." "Yay! Where do I start training?" "Anytime. Though it is Christmas Eve," said Drake not noticing that Cipher had said where. "Really? Where's my present?" "...uh?" "Can I open it early?" "...but..." "Please?" "...I..." "Pretty please?" "But you don't have a gift." "WHAT!? Why? the orb sniffled. "Er," Drake muttered, panicking, "your gift is that you become a - - -Hunter without...training! Yeah. Merry Christmas!" "Ooh! Yay!" The orb bounced back to his ship and began looking over the damage that was rapidly repairing itself now that it had power. "Well, I'll be heading off. I'll send some MPs down to help you." With this, Drake and his escort, walked out of the cargo bay, leaving Cipher to his own designs. ------------------------------ The Fury 7:15 PM Cipher, with the help of the MPs and the biogenic repair system onboard Viper (using the power stolen from the Fury) had Viper spiff and span by that evening. Keeping his telepathic voice low to avoid interception by the enhanced, he began exploring the Fury. He started with the cargo bay. He bounced around the room like a superball on steroids. "This place is sooo neat!" Viper let of a telepathic sigh, emphasized by the flickering of her running lights. <> Cipher spun in place, stopping eventually facing Viper's cockpit. <> he sent, and then out loud, "I'm hungry!" Viper sighed again, and sent a telepathic image of her rolling her eyes. Cipher began floating over by Xrileshr's ship. "Hey this ship looks nifty! Not like the other boring shuttles here! Can I eat it?" <> "I thought you wanted us to keep it down," Cipher whined. Bouncing off the floor, he headed toward an exit, barely dodging one of the MP's sent to check on what he was doing. Spinning, Cipher sped back and hovered in front of the startled MP's face. "Greetings, abase yourselves and worship the great Cipher. Ain't I nifty?" "Uh, ya?" "See ya slowpoke!" and Cipher shot off to cause more random chaos. Dodging past the few people wandering the halls at this time of night he left behind only a few words drifting in the air circulation system. "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." He finally popped out into a large courtyard. Rise a few meters into the artificial air, he found that he was in an shopping area. Noticing a group of people huddled in a side passage, he flew above them and dropped down into the center of the group, "Merry early Christmas peoples!" Cipher emitted a golden light as he scanned the group. Three of the people had jumped back at his appearance, their surprise obvious even through their ski masks. The other two, a male and a female, simply huddled closer together. He could hear Viper trying to talk to him in the back of his mind. <> Cipher ignored Viper and started spinning. One of the masked men was the first to speak, "Uh, boss, what is that?" Cipher bobbed in a simulation of a bow. "Greetings to you, funny boss-guy, I didn't know ski masks were in style. Actually, I've been out of circulation for a while, but those things were really outdated when I was around. Could you direct me to the nearest place to eat?" The masked man who had spoken shakily pointed toward a food stand. As the masked men were watching Cipher, the couple broke into a run. "Hey, where are you going? Did you just steal something from these fashion-conscious citizens? Stop thieves!" The masked men simply shrugged at each other as Cipher took off after the couple. They mutually decided that the eggnog that they had had earlier in the night must have fermented and that they should call it a night. Within seconds Cipher was bobbing in front of the frightened couple. "Now, what did you steal from those nice men?" The lady was the one to speak up, "...Uh, ... you got... it wrong... it was them." "Trying to frame honest citizens?" "No, why do you think they were wearing ski masks?" Suddenly the reality of the situation sunk in. "Oops, sorry, carry on." They started hustling on their way. As the sphere headed back to where he had left the masked men, the male commented to his wife, "That thing needs help." Finding the spot, he spun and seeing that the masked men... er, robbers, had not chosen to wait for him, he sighed and bobbed back toward the lit area. <> Viper sent. "Um, stupidity I guess," Cipher slowed down and hovered only a few inches off the ground, "I'm really sorry." Remembering that he was hungry, he forgot the robber situation (except where they had pointed out the food stand) and floated slowly over to it. When he appeared floating in front of him, the kid of the counter asked nonchalantly, "What'll you have sir?" "Sugar! Caffeine goes good with sugar! Me needs caffeine!" Cipher began spinning out the counter like a top, "'twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe!" The kid yelled to the back, "Can we kill the customers?" A voice yelled back, "NO!" "Look can you be more exact?" Cipher continued spinning like a loony. "Jolt! Coffee! Moca! Viva la Java! May the cappuccino be with you!" "Okay that will be six gil." "O, ah, I don't have any gil. Where do I go for food then?" "The food shelter is over that way, bub." A short while later, Cipher was at the food shelter, "What no coffee?" "This is a food shelter, not a coffee shop." Cipher sighed and floated away. "Bored, bored, bored..." <> ------------------------------ Deck 45 8:00 AM Charles's party was a loud one. A couple complaints had been filed, but not enough for official action. It was Christmas Eve and they were just having fun. Everybody was saving the alcoholic beverages for the new year and nobody wanted a Christmas hangover. Into this party Cipher floated. At first nobody noticed him. People only caught glances of him out of the corner of their eyes and assumed some idiot had brought a disco ball. Rapidly tiring of this, Cipher bumped into somebody to get his attention. "Hey, watch where... what the?" "Could you point me to the food?" "That way," the guy said, "But you can't get there from here. Well, you can - it just won't be fun. There's too much of a crowd over there." Cipher smiled internally, and showing more thought than he had used the entire day, said enigmatically, "There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." Floating above the crowd, he shot over to the food table, a small popping following his trail in the air it returned to the vacuum left in his wake. Stopping on a dime once he reached the table, he hovered for a second looking over the choices. Then, not finding any caffeine-based food products, he shot down at the table. Impacting in the center of the punch bowl, the liquid evaporated like he was a vacuum cleaner. Continuing in his path, he left a perfectly round circle in the center of the bowl and began munching on the metal of the table. Within 10 seconds, the table tilted and food tumbled to the floor. Finishing, what was left of the table, he noticed some threatening glances from the people nearby. "Urp, thanks!" he yelled out chearfully and then made a strategic retreat to his ship faster than anybody could follow.