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When the door swung open--turning out and down as if he were euely circular room of which he appeared to be very near the center The space was turned on its side, of course His stomach seemed to love to point that fact out But in this case that little detail mattered little The roohly equal in depth and width The direction of gravity , all looked basically identical, and one such surface was just a few meters below him

He pointed at it "I dub you Sir Floor World, startsense"

And it did A bit It had an up and a down, at least

S little pockets of white in the otherwise dark room A few spoke hallways radiated outward, with si Terloith text and iconic graphics that probably indicated Very Ireen there, at least He took that as a good sign and shifted his focus to the more immediate concern: What the hell now?

Find a friendly face Find a gun Find a bag of crisps Any of the above

Soh the large empty room Another voice folloith a hoot Prue of perception, heard conversation

"That’s a start," he said under his breath, and sha for back into his swollen feet, then walked toward the voices

His foot caught on so down, he saw the floor or wall or whatever had a shallow channel running off in two directions, hat looked like ladder rungs bolted within His brain drew a picture of floating workers, foisting theuides with expert--

Stop that He snapped his eyelids shut and shook his head When he opened the Sir Floor, everything else be darew louder Prumble moved over to what seemed to be a temporary barricade--thick square sections of the floor that had rotated up on heavy hinges to block off a portion of the roo the partial wall until he caood fiveout slowly until he could see with one eye, Pruuards seated on the floor about fiveeach other Between the Bothat their rations now, conversation apparently on hold

On the floor next to one of them lay a compact assault rifle If the other was arhed his options Clearly they weren’t expecting trouble They’d been left here, as backup perhaps in case a need did arise elsewhere Good

Prumble turned the corner and walked casually to the men With each step he expected thee hirew on his face

One finally turned when Prumble was just a step away The man’s cheeks looked like they held a week’s worth of food He tried to say so but only cracker crue cracker and perhaps a few teeth exploded outward, propelled by a uard sat frozen, eyes ith abject disbelief He was staring at Prued him tith one meaty fist First punch bloodied the nose, second one broke it A lohiut as his brain finally caught up as happening He tried to stand but Pru him down hard on his back Another kick to the abdo mass Years as a bouncer in Christchurch’s shittiest clubs still paying dividends, Prumble knelt beside the bloke, held him down by the shoulder, and haht fist

Theto breathe in sharp littleof pain he lay in that breathing wasn’t soain

Prumble whipped his focus back to the firstfor the sleek rifle that still lay forgotten on the ground He leaned over the guard, and ignored the horrid hed from the wreck of the bloke’swhen he felt the cold metal of the rifle’s business end press up under his chin His tear-filled eyes searched, found Pruaze they found there

"Take me," Prumble said, "to my friends"

Tim sed hard

The alien ship, all six kilo To see Midway Station attached to it like a barnacle frayed the last of his nerves

Tania was not alone in there now Her oxygen reserves would be uncomfortably low, too A decision had to be th of a couple lanced at the timer--four hours

"No," he said His voice sounded feeble, a squeak Tania would be so iain "No," he said "No" Conviction now "No" There Force, drive

Ti ring on Midway Station

"Which friends?" the guard sputtered He coughed, and groaned with pain for the effort Cracker crumbs stained red with blood sprayed out in a cone on the floor in front of hiripped the man’s shirt and hauled him to his feet "You knoho I h hishiroups Some went inside the … ship The rest are still here"

"Where’s here?"

"Midway Midway Station"

He knew of it froliroup still here: How uards?"

"Uh," theto start breaking fingers in a second here, mate How many?"

"Two … two"

"That’s better Which way?"

The estured off to his left, and started to turn

"Sorry, friend You’re a liability now" Pruan to whi to shoot you,This way" Pruuided him to the vacant climber and, after a few more threats of bodily harm, stuffed the man inside the shitter-coffin and tied the door closed, securing it with a length of cable ripped fro away froo bay hid mostly in shadow, and this suited Pruan to wonder if he’d ht not The door ell secured and besides, the poor sod was in a living hell now, as Pruh for his breaths to come at a normal rate, and the steady drum of adrenaline at his te led off in each direction, to his left and right, each bending backward in the current setup instead of up as they would under normal circumstances His brain desperately wanted to make the carpeted side the "floor" instead of the outers

He waited for a longbehind the thin walls Ventilation ducts were everywhere

Voices to his left

Pru close to the wall, his stolen gun pointed at the floor a few uous LED strip along the curved wall to Prued from top to bottom in a pattern that didn’t help his mixed-up internal compass at all