Flash Fiction: Time Warp Troubles

He had not been expecting a letter. But there it was in his hand as he ran down the stairs to the engine room. The alien skipped a few steps despite his short legs. He had what you might call a nervous character but he didn't panic easily. This letter was enough to make him run down five flights of wire stairs in the bottom of a spaceship. He was also what you might call pudgy and his roundness made him look less authoritative than his title of Senior Engineer and his lab coat would allow. He made it to the bottom of the stairs in the darkened engine room lit by three rows of circular lights which climbed up the walls and encircled the room. He noticed one of the lights had gone out but he was too concerned with the letter which he was still holding above his head as if he could already see the person he was taking it to.

He finally found him playing a game on a primitive console from his collection of five-hundred-year-old video games. He had never seen this one before but Zander, the only human in Arion Command, was obviously an expert.

"Zander, did you read this letter?" he asked as urgently as he could without throwing it at him.

Zander sighed, "Yes, Alan, I read it."

"Doesn't this concern you at all? They're shutting down the program!"

Zander turned to him curiously letting his character die in the game for a round, "Where did you find it?"

Alan looked down ashamedly holding the letter in the air between his hands as he always did when he had done something he wasn't supposed to.

"You went into my pod again, didn't you?" Zander reached over and grabbed the letter from him putting it on top of the console he was playing with as he turned his back on Alan.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Alan regained some of his previous confidence. Zander continued his game also continuing to ignore Alan's authority that he was increasingly believing was unfairly given him.
Alan began to tap his foot impatiently Zander could imagine the arm crossing that was going on behind him along with it. "We're leaving today," he said without turning around.

The foot stopped tapping and Zander smiled to himself. Behind him Alan looked incredulous and uncrossed his arms. "What?"

Zander stood and turned to him after shutting the console off. "We're leaving today."

Zander walked away from him. Alan looked at the console, then looked at Zander and decided he better start following him if he was going to catch up with those long human legs of his. Alan followed Zander down another long flight of stairs to the launch chamber where they had been installing the controls for the new ship Arion Command had given them as their new mission. The lights came on as they entered the blue and gold covered room. As brilliant as the shine was on the walls in the room housing the new ship the new ship with its Onyx hull marbled with ivory colored metals from the Zeta Taurini galaxy which was made up of three planets and one sun and generally no stars that weren't shaped like lobsters.

"You can't do this," Alan said as Zander pushed buttons on a screen that was housed on the back of the small ship they were about to illegally launch.

"Need I remind you of all the other times I have done this?" Zander pushed a final button and a piece of the hull closed over the control panel revealing the logo on the side which read A.S.S. Command. "Like the time we went to Alpha Centauri for ice cream?" Zander said climbing up the ramp into the shiny, new ship. Alan stood at the bottom of the ramp thinking how spectacular this opening would be if it were legal. "Yes but not in this ship!" Alan finally yelled as Zander disappeared into the ship. Zander was gone from sight for a few minutes but poked his head back out of the door with a smile. "Ah, but now we can go to Alpha Centauri two years ago for ice cream."
Alan sighed and put a hand over his eyes disgustedly. "Are you coming?" Zander asked as he went back in. Alan sighed again and looked up.

"I need a second in command," Zander called from the pilot's seat of the A.S.S. Command where he was already getting ready to launch. Alan waddled up the ramp reluctantly.

"Alright but if you get court marshaled..." Alan pointed a warning finger at him.

Zander smiled as he set the coordinates for their first destination, "We'll be fine. Besides, it was always meant to launch today."

Zander turned to Alan as Alan was strapping himself into his custom made travel pod which was perfectly conformed to his egg-shaped body.

"We're just going a little early."

Alan shot a quick, prayerful look toward the ceiling as he asked the next question, "Where are we going first?"

Zander smiled and turned back to the front of the ship, "I thought we'd go play a game."

'What kind of a game?" Alan looked at him warily.

"My kind of game," Zander said as the hatch opened and the restraints on the A.S.S. Command were released.

"By the way, what game were you playing earlier?" Alan asked genuine curiosity replacing utter disdain.

"Pong."

*

The hatch opened and the virgin voyage of the A.S.S. Command began as it shot off into space and time. This latest ship of Arion Command was not just one of the hundreds in the fleet already in operation. The A.S.S. Command was meant to be the prototype for the newest generation of ships that could not only travel through space but through time including fictional worlds. Zander thought this was very cool and had spent the entire time he was working on the optimization process planning the top five places in history he wanted to go. The first on his list was where they were going now. As he initiated the time warp sequence flashes of blue and green lightening flashed and eventually engulfed the ship amidst clouds of plasma. The ship spun down a spiral of stars before flying out the end of an invisible tunnel into the next world.

Alan looked out the window when the ship had seemed to calm down. All he saw was blackness endless blackness. Until a ship much larger than the A.S.S. Command appeared in front of them as a thin white line with two more white lines above it. Alan squinted at the new ship trying to make out some kind of definite, solid shape until Zander shot two beams of light and it blew into a million little pieces and scattered around them without hitting them.

"What happened?! Where are we?!" Alan started to panic.

"Alan, I welcome you to Asteroid!" Zander said with a flourish indicating the scene of blackness outside which was beginning to be filled with white lines heading straight for them.

"What?! What is Asteroid?!" Alan unbuckled his seat from the floor and floated it over to Zander as Zander destroyed three more asteroids.

"It's a game," Zander said simply shooting another of the smaller asteroids with expert precision.

"This is a game?! What happens if we get hit? Will they shoot at us?" Alan didn't see how something with so much danger attached to it could be a game. Alan started pushing buttons on the communicator built into the control panel.

"No, they don't shoot at us but if we miss one we disappear. Or die, whatever," Zander said turning the ship around in a circle as he shot hundreds of beams at hundreds of asteroids that seemed to be growing in number throwing Alan against the opposite wall.

"That's it, I'm calling Arion!" Alan floated his chair back to the console and locked into the floor again as he dialed the communicator inside his chair.

"A.S.S. Command! Come in, Zander," the voice of his boss Orville came through the speakers overhead. Zander sighed as he continued to turn the ship in circles. "Not now, Admiral, we're in a little bit of danger here," Zander said.

"Danger? You got the A.S.S. Command in danger on her first voyage?! That was supposed to be a test!" Orville never yelled, in fact he had been given an award by the Arion Commanders Union for being the least exciting or relatable being in all of Arion Command.

"Yeah, until it was canceled," Zander said with a smirk. Alan was starting to get really sick and was now in full prayer mode.

"It was canceled for a reason!" Orville yelled.

"Well, no reason was given to me so I'm not giving a reason to you," Zander waved the communication off as he continued shooting.

Zander and Alan felt a sharp bump to the back of the ship just before it disappeared. Alan opened his eyes feeling the atmosphere suddenly still around him only to find that they were floating unprotected in space.
"Ahhhh!" Alan screamed as the lack of gravity turned him in a slow upside down elipse. "What have you done?! Where's the ship?" the sense of urgency in his voice would have matched a faster pace than the one he was turning in.

"I don't know. I expected us to just disappear if we got hit," Zander said turning in his own slow trajectory. A sudden idea struck him and he snapped his fingers, "I know!" Zander swam over to Alan and grabbed him. "We have to get hit."

"What!?" Alan's eyes got as wide as they could go and he tried to swim away in his little chair. Zander rolled his eyes, "The reason we didn't disappear was because we weren't part of the ship." Zander swam them back into the center of harm's way as more asteroids appeared. Alan started to scream as he realized there was nothing he could do.

*

Alan was still screaming as they reappeared on the ship finally still and out of danger. Alan unhooked himself from his seat as soon as he realized they were back and ran to the back of the ship as Zander sat back in the captain's seat. Zander smiled as he saw the base ship towering where it was when they left. Alan threw up in the background as Zander thought about what to do next. Zander started the engines on the little ship as Alan hobbled over.

"Aren't we going back?" Alan gasped as he grabbed onto the back of Zander's seat.

"Eventually," Zander said, "but I wanna see what else she can do."