//(text-colour:#a61e4d)[(text-rotate-x:21)+(text-rotate-y:18)[You better watch out, you better not cry...]]// The distant voice of a young Michael Jackson echoes through empty metal hallways beyond your cabin. //(text-colour:#a61e4d)[(text-rotate-x:330)+(text-rotate-y:14)[You better not pout, I'm telling you why...]]// The song sounds pitifully tinny through the ship speakers. You struggle to open your eyes. Darkness. What time is it? Oh yeah, time has no meaning here. Here in [[space.]](css: "font-size: 200%;")+(align:"=><=")+(text-style:"blur","expand")[(text-colour:#0b7285)[Ship Alone]] Computer, turn on the (text-colour:#ffd43b)[[lights]].(enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 149, 0,#000000,0.5096,#251b4b,1,#000000))) A dim purple light illuminates your small cabin. That's odd, the ship must be operating in low power mode. //(text-colour:#a61e4d)[(text-rotate-x:350)+(text-rotate-y:12)[He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...]]// Apparently low power mode doesn't stop the ship from playing excruciating Christmas music. You groan and shout, "Computer, stop the music." Suddenly, everything is quiet. Completely silent. Dead. You pull yourself out of bed, float over to the door, into the hallway. Empty. "Mom? Dad?" Your 8-year-old voice echoes through the ship. No reply. Where is everybody? "Buzz? Megan? Linnie? Jeff?" Nothing. They're probably playing a dumb prank. Better go find them. But where to check first? [[Check the mess hall]] [[Check the bridge]](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 149, 0,#000000,0.5096,#251b4b,1,#000000))) You head to the mess hall first. Maybe everyone's already eating breakfast. At the end of a long corridor, the door to the mess hall slides open, but like the rest of the ship, it's empty. "Computer, where is everyone?" you ask. Maybe you should have asked sooner. The computer's uncanny near-human voice comes through the tinny speakers: (text-colour:#da77f2)[Sorry, the ship is currently operating in low power mode. Conversational AI assistance is offline.] "Computer, disable low power mode." (text-colour:#da77f2)[Sorry, that command requires administrative privileges.] Dang it. Now what? [[Eat breakfast]] [[Hack the mainframe]](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 149, 0,#000000,0.5096,#251b4b,1,#000000))) Better go to the bridge and see what's going on. There's always at least one person on the bridge, right? Wrong. When you finally get to the bridge, it's as empty and eerily silent as the rest of the ship. "Computer, where is everyone?" you ask. Maybe you should have asked sooner. The computer's uncanny near-human voice comes through the tinny speakers: (text-colour:#da77f2)[Sorry, the ship is currently operating in low power mode. Conversational AI assistance is offline.] "Computer, disable low power mode." (text-colour:#da77f2)[Sorry, that command requires administrative privileges.] Dang it. Now what? [[Press random buttons]] [[Hack the mainframe]](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 149, 0,#000000,0.5096,#251b4b,1,#000000))) Never mind your family, you're hungry! You press some buttons and the machine makes your favorite breakfast: Space Cereal. You gobble up the space cereal. Wow, that hit the spot. Now you have plenty of energy to: [[Hack the mainframe]]You may not have administrative privileges, but you are pretty smart for an 8-year-old! Time to go hack the mainframe. You float down the corridors and into the mainframe, a small room that houses most of the ship's computers. You already know a few tricks and backdoors. But what was the admin bypass password? ... Oh yeah! The funny number. (text-colour:#087f5b)[(text-style:"bold","smear","expand","tall","shudder")[56]]. You have hacked into the mainframe! The first thing to do is disable low power mode. The ship [[lights up.]]Your parents //never// let you touch anything in the bridge. Now this is your big chance! You have no idea what any of these buttons and levers do, but finally you can go wild! Mad with power, you begin performing a magnificent concerto on the keys and dials and knobs and touchscreens throughout the bridge. You dance and twirl from console to console, mashing buttons and flicking switches. The ship begins to (text-style:"rumble")[[shake]].The ship explodes. You have died. (text-style:"bold","outline")+(text-colour:#c92a2a)[BAD END](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 181, 0,#a3a30a,0.5121,#000000,1,#000000))) The ship hums to life. Gravity kicks in and you stop floating. Feet on the ground. Ah, that feels much better. (text-colour:#da77f2)[Conversational AI assistance is online. How may I assist you today?] "Computer, where is everyone?" (text-colour:#da77f2)[Processing.........You seem to be inquiring about the whereabouts of the ship's crew. 14 out of 15 crew members disembarked 3 hours ago.] "What? Why? Where did they go?" (text-colour:#da77f2)[Processing.........It appears they went to "Space Paris."] Suddenly it all comes back to you. Today was the day! The big family trip to Space Paris! And those jerks left without you!! How could they?! Hmph. Well, you never liked them anyway. And guess what? "I guess that makes me the captain!" you say. (text-colour:#da77f2)[Registering new captain....registered. Captain, I have a report. An unregistered ship is heading towards us. Do you wish to hail them?"] [[Hail the ship]] [[Open fire on the ship]](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 181, 0,#a3a30a,0.5121,#000000,1,#000000))) "Computer, hail the ship." (text-colour:#da77f2)[Opening communications with unknown vessel.] On one of the screens of the mainframe, a fuzzy, distorted picture blinks into view. It appears to be a man in Space Police uniform. (text-colour:#5c940d)[Hello? Uh...hello? This is uhh...the Space Police. We're just performing umm...a routine check. We were just uh...checking the system. And uh...we saw your ship was in sleep mode. Uh...y'know it's the holiday season, and there's a lot of space pirates out there robbing unattended ships. We uh...just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Uhh...Hello? Is anyone there?] [[Tell him the truth]] [[Open fire on the ship]] [[Have the computer impersonate your dad]]Shoot first, ask questions later! That's the way of a true Space Captain! Well, not really. Nobody ever said that. You just always wanted to get a chance to try it. "Computer, engage all phasor cannons and missiles." (text-colour:#da77f2)[Engaged.] "Open fire!" The entire ship (text-style:"rumble")[shakes] and the lights (text-style:"fade-in-out")+(text-colour:#ffd43b)[flash] as the weapon systems power up and fire with surprising speed. One of the monitors shows the mystery ship, a tiny dot in the vast blackness of space. You see the missiles and cannons suddenly light up the darkness for a split-second. Then nothing. It's gone. (text-colour:#da77f2)[Target eliminated.] A manic smile slowly creeps across your face. Is this real? Did that really just happen? But wait? What's that on the screen? [[Another flash...]](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 181, 0,#a3a30a,0.5121,#000000,1,#000000))) You activate the camera and explain everything to the nice Space Policeman. How your family went on a trip to Space Paris and must have forgotten you in the commotion, and how you, an 8-year-old boy, were all alone on this big ship. How it would be at least a few days before your family could come back from Space Paris, due to the vastness of space and all that. For some reason, the more you talk, the more the Space Policeman seems to smile in a strange way. (text-colour:#5c940d)[Oh, you poor thing! Forgotten by your family! Oh, well that's simply terrible. But don't worry, I'm sure they will come back for you as soon as they can. And you are so lucky that we were in the area. Don't you worry one bit. We're going to come aboard your ship and make sure you're completely protected from those meany space pirates!] [[Before you can protest, you feel a thump as the two ships connect.]]It's Christmas morning, and your family has come home from Space Paris! First your mom, who gives you a big hug and won't stop apologizing. Then the whole rest of the family. They all feel really bad for forgetting about you. "Oh honey, we are so sorry we left without you! Were you okay by yourself? You didn't have any trouble?" your mom asks. "Yes momma," you say, barely suppressing a psychotic grin. "Yes, no trouble at all." (text-style:"bold","outline")+(text-colour:#a9f9a9)[GOOD END]Your ship was stolen and you were thrown out of an airlock. (text-style:"bold","outline")+(text-colour:#c92a2a)[BAD END](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 181, 0,#a3a30a,0.5121,#000000,1,#000000))) You see right through his disguise -- that's no Space Policeman, that's a Space Pirate! "Computer, generate an AI voice of my dad saying thank you, but we're fine." (text-colour:#da77f2)[Greetings, Space Police. I am the captain of this ship. Thank you for your concern, but we assure you that everything is fine. ] The supposed "space policeman" looks a little suspicious, but after a bit of back-and-forth with the computer, he gives up and closes communication. His ship begins to fly away. Phew, that should buy you some time. But you know they will be back. Better get ready. [[Set traps]] Moments before their own demise, the enemy ship had sent a counter barrage of missiles and lasers. Your ship explodes. You have died. (text-style:"bold","outline")+(text-colour:#c92a2a)[BAD END](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 181, 0,#a3a30a,0.5121,#000000,1,#000000))) Time to set some booby traps for the space pirates! (link:"Electricity")[You use your hacking skills on the docking bay to hotwire the entire docking bay. The next person to touch anything metal in the docking bay will be in for quite a shock.] (link:"Toy cars")[You get out your giant collection of toy cars and spread them all over the corridors. You add some deadly spikes for good measure.] (link:"Lasers")[You borrow some of the laser weaponry from the armory and set up a series of laser guns in the corridors triggered by tripwires.] (link:"Spiders")[Your older brother Buzz has a big collection of poisonous spiders. You let them loose in some of the corridors, making sure to mark them first so you don't wander in yourself.] (link:"Fire")[You go to the maintenance closet and get some blowtorches, and wire them to some proximity sensors.] (link:"AI")[You force the Computer to watch decades of science fiction films to learn how to play deadly mind games.] (more:)[[[Go to bed->gametime]]]You feel like you're ready enough now and go to bed. Goodnight! [[The next morning...]](enchant:?page,(bg:(gradient: 181, 0,#a3a30a,0.5121,#000000,1,#000000))) //(text-colour:#a61e4d)[(text-rotate-x:21)+(text-rotate-y:18)[It's the most wonderful time of the year!]]// Game time. You quickly make your way back to the mainframe, where you lock the doors and watch the monitors. Sure enough, the space pirates are back, and this time they don't bother asking questions. You feel a thump as their ship connects. They're boarding! Five Space Pirates jump out of the ship into the docking bay. They start to climb the stairs, but as soon as their hands touch the railing...(text-colour:#ffd43b)[(text-style:"rumble")[BZZZZT!!!]] They drop to the ground, dead. After a few moments, more Space Pirates pile out of the ship, this time wearing rubber protective gear. They make their way into the corridors, but (text-style:"blur","shudder")[WHOOPS!] They slip on the toy cars and fall to the ground, impaling themselves on strategically placed spikes! Hilarious. More pirates stream in, stepping over the bodies of their fallen comrades, this time carefully avoiding the spikes and cars. But whoops! They activate the tripwire, and (text-style:"bold","shudder")[(text-rotate-x:359)+(text-rotate-y:330)[(text-colour:#ff8787)[PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!]]] Deadly lasers instantly incinerate a dozen more pirates! Undeterred, more pirates manage to make it to the next corridor. Only to be greeted by (text-style:"double-underline")[''(text-colour:#030202)+(bg:#a61e4d)[DEADLY POISONOUS SPIDERS]''] which pounce and sink their venomous fangs straight through their armor and into their fleshy necks. They writhe on the ground screeching in ungodly, horrendous pain as their insides slowly liquidate. So wacky! But somehow, even more pirates are coming! They don't make it far before the proximity sensor activates a wall of blowtorches. (text-style:"bold","emboss","expand","sway")[(text-colour:#ff8787)[BRWAAAHHHWAHWHHFHFHFF]] goes the fire. The pirates are turned to ash. Finally, there's one lone pirate. He cautiously makes his way into the ship when the Computer comes online. (text-colour:#da77f2)[Hello, Dave.] He stammers, "Wh-who the hell are you?! You're a freakin' psycho! And how do you know my name?" (text-colour:#da77f2)[Oh, Dave. I know everything about you. I know all your secrets, Dave.] "Sh-shut up! Show yourself! (text-style:"shadow","tall","rumble")[''(text-colour:#38d9a9)[AHGHGHAGHHGHGHHHH!!!!]'']" He starts shooting wildly at the walls. One shot ricochets off a toy car and into his brain. (text-rotate-x:12)+(text-rotate-y:330)[(text-colour:#162d26)+(bg:#5c940d)[Splat.]] [[Days later...]]