Hmm, the prompt's influence on today's story continuation is the idea of reconnecting the rubber mats to cover the dangerous floor; I'm not sure if that really comes across though.
Reconnecting "Is it safe to touch him?" I asked, staring at Chuckles. He was sprawled across the floor , his feet and ankles on the rubber mats but otherwise in full contact with the exposed metal of the ship's deck. He looked peaceful, but he was also either unconscious or asleep, and given the noise and light I doubted asleep severely. "I have no idea," said Kraulik. He sounded cautious. While there had been plenty of deaths on this ship already, and there would probably be more, neither of us particularly wanted to have the others thinking we were starting to eye them up and consider the competition. "I didn't know it was dangerous to touch the floor until he did." "Can we just leave him here?" Kraulik sighed. "Probably not a good idea to leave the floor uncovered. Chuckles might have shorted out whatever it was -- electrical current, I guess -- but if he hasn't then we'd be leaving a live current out where anyone else could walk on to it." He sighed. "Maybe I can push him off the floor using the mats. Or get a mat under him; once he's not touching the floor any more it should be safe to drag him off." I came over to where Kraulik was, walking the long way around through the corridors of towering machinery. He waited, though he moved the mats he'd lifted around a bit to make it easier to try and push Chuckles off the exposed floor. As I got close to him I saw what had intrigued him: there were lines etched into the metal surface of the deck like a circuit diagram. They were intricate and appeared to continue underneath the mats that were still laid down, and they glittered slightly as though they'd been dusted with something to make them stand out. "What is that?" I said, stopping and staring. "Damned if I know," said Kraulik. He gave a short, bitter laugh. "Though I think we're all damned on board this boat anyway, so maybe I should find another way to say that." "It looks like a circuit diagram," I said. "Do you think it's something to do with the engine you can't find?" "I hope so," said Kraulik. "Maybe it somehow connects the engines here together and runs the power down to another engine somewhere else? So that the power generation is dispersed throughout the whole ship so we can't tell what engine is running because they all are, just really, really quietly and low level, but their output is all going to keeping us in place?" "That seems complicated," I said. I frowned, and Kraulik picked a mat up, struggling a little to hold it as it flopped under its own weight, and started pushing Chuckles's body. He resisted and the mat bent, but Kraulik pushed and thrust and got some movement. "Wouldn't something mechanical be easier?" "What's the point in sitting us all here in the middle of nowhere?" asked Kraulik. He sounded slightly short of breath, but the first mat slid back into place and Chuckles was about half-off the floor. "There's a lot going on here that seems to be intended for things we've not been told about. Somehow the second mat managed to slip underneath Chuckles in just the right way and he flipped over and rolled away from the exposed floor. Kraulik got the second mat reconnected easily after that, and I knelt by Chuckles. "He's still breathing," I said after a moment. "Very shallow, but he's not dead." I had a momentary pang of sadness; tipping his body quietly over the side would have been an easy solution. "Stinks of alcohol."
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Hmm, the prompt's influence on today's story continuation is the idea of reconnecting the rubber mats to cover the dangerous floor; I'm not sure if that really comes across though.
Reconnecting
"Is it safe to touch him?" I asked, staring at Chuckles. He was sprawled across the floor , his feet and ankles on the rubber mats but otherwise in full contact with the exposed metal of the ship's deck. He looked peaceful, but he was also either unconscious or asleep, and given the noise and light I doubted asleep severely.
"I have no idea," said Kraulik. He sounded cautious. While there had been plenty of deaths on this ship already, and there would probably be more, neither of us particularly wanted to have the others thinking we were starting to eye them up and consider the competition. "I didn't know it was dangerous to touch the floor until he did."
"Can we just leave him here?"
Kraulik sighed. "Probably not a good idea to leave the floor uncovered. Chuckles might have shorted out whatever it was -- electrical current, I guess -- but if he hasn't then we'd be leaving a live current out where anyone else could walk on to it." He sighed. "Maybe I can push him off the floor using the mats. Or get a mat under him; once he's not touching the floor any more it should be safe to drag him off."
I came over to where Kraulik was, walking the long way around through the corridors of towering machinery. He waited, though he moved the mats he'd lifted around a bit to make it easier to try and push Chuckles off the exposed floor. As I got close to him I saw what had intrigued him: there were lines etched into the metal surface of the deck like a circuit diagram. They were intricate and appeared to continue underneath the mats that were still laid down, and they glittered slightly as though they'd been dusted with something to make them stand out.
"What is that?" I said, stopping and staring.
"Damned if I know," said Kraulik. He gave a short, bitter laugh. "Though I think we're all damned on board this boat anyway, so maybe I should find another way to say that."
"It looks like a circuit diagram," I said. "Do you think it's something to do with the engine you can't find?"
"I hope so," said Kraulik. "Maybe it somehow connects the engines here together and runs the power down to another engine somewhere else? So that the power generation is dispersed throughout the whole ship so we can't tell what engine is running because they all are, just really, really quietly and low level, but their output is all going to keeping us in place?"
"That seems complicated," I said. I frowned, and Kraulik picked a mat up, struggling a little to hold it as it flopped under its own weight, and started pushing Chuckles's body. He resisted and the mat bent, but Kraulik pushed and thrust and got some movement. "Wouldn't something mechanical be easier?"
"What's the point in sitting us all here in the middle of nowhere?" asked Kraulik. He sounded slightly short of breath, but the first mat slid back into place and Chuckles was about half-off the floor. "There's a lot going on here that seems to be intended for things we've not been told about. Somehow the second mat managed to slip underneath Chuckles in just the right way and he flipped over and rolled away from the exposed floor. Kraulik got the second mat reconnected easily after that, and I knelt by Chuckles.
"He's still breathing," I said after a moment. "Very shallow, but he's not dead." I had a momentary pang of sadness; tipping his body quietly over the side would have been an easy solution. "Stinks of alcohol."
Greg - honestly, as long as my prompts don't interfere with the continuation of this tale I'm happy with however you work them in.
Hmm, some interesting possibilities presented here. And a surprising discovery to find Chuckles still alive!
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