You laugh. "Rachel," you say,"are you saying that you actually believed me when I told you I love you?"
She looks puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"That's your problem," you reply. "I've seen fish less clueless than you. At any rate, thanks for the money. Maybe I'll ransom you back for real next time. Unless I can find anything better to do with you."
Before she can think of anything to do, you point your gun and fire, careful to have it set only at stun. As soon as she hits the ground, you pick her up and drag her unconscious body to one of the smaller rooms in the ship, where you keep a stasis chamber.
As soon as she's in, you walk back to the cockpit. Everything has gone absolutely splendidly. And surely you can think of something to do with a sleeping rich girl to make a little more profit.
But before you can do that, you suddenly see the sky before you open up. It is replaced by a swirl of rainbow colors. You recognize this instantly. You've hit a fissure in the space-time continuum. There's not much you can do but try and steady the ship while you wait to find out where the thing is going to drop you off. You notice that this seems a lot longer than most you've heard of. And when it stops, you realize why.
Your ship is unexplored territory. Short of a miracle, you're years away from the nearest human outpost. And you can't help noticing that during the voyage, your engine has taken damage.
You make a scan and find two planets within reach of your engine that, according to your readouts, seem to have, or have had, something like civilization on them. One is to your ship's current right, and one to it's current left. |