There was a bump, coinciding with alarms. The Starbucket shook
like the bridge of the Enterprise, knocking its inhabitants around,
spilling Nick's glass of wine in Anakata's lap, and so on.
"Like, I don't know how," Neil's voice echoed majestically
through the 'Bucket, "but we've been, like, hit."
Schopenhauer looked very annoyed at the dart sticking out of his
wall several feet from the Hegel text. "Hit by what?" he asked,
terse and irate.
"What do I look like, God?" asked Neil. "Omnipotent? Like,
I'm busy opening doors for dogs. Multiprocessing only goes so far,
you know."
Schopenhauer glared at the sensor.
"Okay, okay, you don't have to get pissy," Neil pouted. "It's
some sort of lifeboat, with a single inhabitant. It doesn't have
any propulsion unit, and barely any atmosphere. It's very primitive."
"Well, let it in!" Schopenhauer exploded. Something had to be
done about Neil. He was acting very strangely.
"Like you can't do anything for yourself anymore. Without me,
you would all probably die, and what thanks do I get? Even a please
would be nice, but NOOOO!" Neil trailed off, then said, "Ok, I'm
bringing it into docking bay 73."
In a few minutes several bucketeers stood waiting outside bay 73
(after cajoling Neil into revealing its location). Finally, the
landing was complete, the outer doors closed, and the inner door
opened. The bucketeers entered the bay. Before them sat a small
ship shaped like a mishappen egg. It was scorched and dented, its
outer screens burnt into uselessness, its paint chipped and fading.
There were small holes in the hull, probably from a meteorite cloud.
There was no way anything still lived in there.
A loud banging commenced to happening, and with a creak the hatch
began to open, then suddenly fell off, clattering loudly on the
docking bay floor and echoing painfully. A dark figure appeared in
the opening, climbed out, then shakily pulled himself to his full
height.
"I am called Brian," he intoned, "and I have come to bring you
the News."
"Is it good news?" asked Anakata.
"No." Brian looked sad. "The News is that Cheom is Lord."
And with this, the strange man collapsed.