Hell Ship

Sai-ias

“What kind of catastrophe?” I asked.

“Can you feel that?” said Quipu One.

And I could; the tingle down the spine again, coupled with a sense of oddness.

“We’re passing through a strange place,” said Quipu Two.

“Experiencing some kind of reality dilation,” said Quipu Three.

“It is time,” said Quipu Four. “Every seventy-two of my years, with some degree of variation, this sensation occurs. But we do not know why. We suspect dimensional or rift travel of some extraordinary kind is occurring.”

The oddness intensified. I braced myself; this was a familiar sensation to me also, after all these years on the ship. Yet it was still deeply eerie and unsettling. I felt as if I existed in a million places all at once. I felt sick. Bile rose up in my mouth

And finally,

NO!

The strangeness ended.

We were back to normal.

And I was baffled.

This shouldn’t have happened! Normally the strangeness lasted an hour or more. Had something gone wrong with the Ka’un’s technology? Would they be unable, this time, to flee from their pursuers?