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May 24th, 2015
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  1. I don't remember much after I knew it was going to happen. I guess I just shut down as my controls failed and the tractor beam drew us closer and closer.
  2.  
  3. I've never gotten along great with my fighter, but to his credit, he kept...well, fighting...to the end. The last thing I remember is him yelling my name and something about sidearms.
  4.  
  5. I woke up in the dark. I thought I'd just had a nightmare at first, but then I tried to roll over and something was in the way and it made a weird noise. I was in some kind of hollow. My movements made a rattling, crackling sound and it smelled like the time my 6th grade class toured the local paper mill. Looking up, I could see veins of orange light outlining rounded concave shapes. I touched one with a shaky hand and it crackled.
  6.  
  7. No human built this.
  8.  
  9. I became aware of yelling from far off, as well as clicking, crashing, and shrieking noises. It sounded like the fighters' base level for a moment. Then the yelling got more frantic and abruptly stopped.
  10.  
  11. In its place, I heard a dragging noise, coming closer until one of the orange veins of light above me split. I was blinded by the sudden brightness. Then I saw several long, thin, shiny, many-jointed limbs holding a long, thinnish bundle wrapped in something like paper. I managed to get only partly out of the way before it was dropped half on me.
  12.  
  13. I shoved and kicked at the bundle as the orange seam was sealed up again. It was heavy, and it took some work to get free of it.
  14.  
  15. I couldn't go far, though. The other side of the chamber was less than two meters away, and the roof was too low for me to stand. Cupping my hands around my eyes as I pressed my face to the clouded but transparent surface of one of the hollows, I could see the blurry outlines of many more chambers like this one.
  16.  
  17. The bundle groaned.
  18.  
  19. I scrambled back over to it and tentatively placed a hand on it.
  20.  
  21. It moved a little, as if something was trying to get out and not doing a very good job. Then it made another noise that sounded exactly like a muffled human voice.
  22.  
  23. That was enough for me. I started tearing at it with both hands. The outer layers were sticky but not very strong, but I had to use my teeth to get a start on the inmost layer.
  24.  
  25. I made a hole. Straight, oily black hair poked through.
  26.  
  27. "T-Tech..ne...arghhh..."
  28.  
  29. My spit seemed to dissolve the stuff, so I bit it again, and it wasn't hard to make a bigger hole. Within a few minutes, I had most of it off and balled up in an icky sticky mass that I glommed to the ceiling.
  30.  
  31. And it was my fighter, of course. Still calling for his old navigator after all this time. It doesn't take a genius to figure out they loved each other, and I really feel sorry for him, but just then, I didn't have time for that.
  32.  
  33. I shook him, gently, and then as hard as I could. Nothing.
  34.  
  35. So I slapped him across the face.
  36.  
  37. I'd never hit anyone before. I guess I didn't do it right, because he just groaned and turned his head away.
  38.  
  39. I slapped him again, harder.
  40.  
  41. "Uhhhh...ssstopppp...."
  42.  
  43. Oh, come ON!
  44.  
  45. "PRAXIS!"
  46.  
  47. Whack!
  48.  
  49. "WAKE!"
  50.  
  51. Whack!
  52.  
  53. "UP!!"
  54.  
  55. Whack WHACK!
  56.  
  57. "Oww... Tec--E-Ethos?! Wha..!"
  58.  
  59. He blinked a few times and took in where we were.
  60.  
  61. "Oh."
  62.  
  63. I nodded. "Yeah."
  64.  
  65. He slowly sat up and tried to cross his legs. One of his boots was still stuck to the floor with threads of sticky papery goop.
  66.  
  67. "Eeuughhh!"
  68.  
  69. "Yeah."
  70.  
  71. "Gross. Usually, when I get captured, they just put me on a table and cut me up. Should be over by now."
  72.  
  73. He scowled at me.
  74.  
  75. "You're not usually in these ones either."
  76.  
  77. What?
  78.  
  79. He pulled a knife out of his boot and used it to cut a hole in the ceiling.
  80.  
  81. "Well, come on. Let's go see how we die this time."
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