Descending Road - TOURIST by Dana W. Paxson

TOURIST

6163 CE

Something heavy, probably a small mass of iron, had penetrated the ship at a forty-five-degree angle, fore to aft, traveling at many miles per second. At such velocity, the intruding mass vaporized both itself and the heavy armor of the ship, creating a super-hot plasma jet that blew a wide hole from the ship’s outer skin all the way to the near-spine corridor where Doug clung staring in horror. He looked out past glowing patches of steel and outgassing jets of dirty vapor, and saw distant stars.

All along the path of destruction, swarms of droids sprayed vacuum-hardening foam into the breaches in the ship; one repair robot batted an oblong shape away from the boiling clouds. The shape careened against a riven bulkhead and flew, twisting, toward Doug. He ducked, but not in time to avoid seeing its frozen bearded face. The body bounced several times and lodged in a ruptured closet; two droids clambered in to retrieve it with clutching grippers. This tourist wouldn’t finish the trip.

Story List	SURPRISE ME	Author Page
USER SURVEY	PUZZLE ME	MAKE ELM MARK

HOVER Lucida Bright BARE	HOVER Lucida Bright FULL	HOVER Palatino Linotype BARE
HOVER Palatino Linotype FULL	HOVER Times New Roman BARE	HOVER Times New Roman FULL
PAD Arial BARE	PAD Arial FULL	PAD Lucida Bright BARE
PAD Lucida Bright FULL	PAD Times New Roman BARE	PAD Times New Roman FULL


	TOURIST 6163 CE Something heavy, probably a small mass of iron, had penetrated the ship at a forty-five-degree angle, fore to aft, traveling at many miles per second. At such velocity, the intruding mass vaporized both itself and the heavy armor of the ship, creating a super-hot plasma jet that blew a wide hole from the ship’s outer skin all the way to the near-spine corridor where Doug clung staring in horror. He looked out past glowing patches of steel and outgassing jets of dirty vapor, and saw distant stars. All along the path of destruction, swarms of droids sprayed vacuum-hardening foam into the breaches in the ship; one repair robot batted an oblong shape away from the boiling clouds. The shape careened against a riven bulkhead and flew, twisting, toward Doug. He ducked, but not in time to avoid seeing its frozen bearded face. The body bounced several times and lodged in a ruptured closet; two droids clambered in to retrieve it with clutching grippers. This tourist wouldn’t finish the trip.