Amalgam Universe

A 2291-post collection

Challenge #00882-B151: Stifled Rude Noises

Prompt: That “GNK” noise a person makes when they manage to sneeze with their mouth shut.

Brexx didn’t know what was wrong. The human ambassador spasmed suddenly and made a sort of Skngx! noise. Then she gasped for breath and went, Skngx! Skngx! Skngx! in rapid succession.

Brexx hit the panic button. “Human ambassador non-communicative. Making abbreviated noises of unknown meaning.”

“…th’ flowers,” gasped Ambassador Harry.  Skngx! Skngx! Skngx! Skngx! Skngx! “I’b allergig…”  Skngx! Skngx! “To th’ flowers…”  Skngx!

Brexx
flushed them unceremoniously down the recycling chute and cycled fresher air rapidly into the environment. At least until Ambassador
Harry’s breathing regulated itself.

There was still an alarming production of mucous and liquid leaking from her eyes.

“What
was that?” asked Brexx, just as the ERT’s arrived to add to the chaos of the scene. Brexx gave them footage of the last five minuted.

“Stifli’g sdeezes,” Ambassador Harry Blew her nose on a tissue. “If I don’d id’s very loud and sdardli’g…” HASCHOO!

The
next thing Brexx knew, she was staring at the ceiling of an Intensive Care Closet Drawer. The infoscreen above her eyes told her that the
Ambassador was very sorry about the noise and did not intend harm.
Brexx’s hazard pay had been tripled.

Maybe admitting these Deathworlders to the Galactic Alliance wasn’t that great an idea, after all…

[Muse food remaining: 12. Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!]

Challenge #00881-B150: One Missed Point on the Commercial Concourse

A time machine has to have flashing lights. It’s not a proper Time machine unless it has flashing lights!

It was a tiny little nookery of surprising inside dimensions. It only
seemed small on the outside. The shelves were full of interesting things that looked very impressive. There were a myriad of blinking
lights.

“Welcome, welcome,” beamed the proprietor. Their nametag declared them to be Thiite. “Do you like my time machines?”

Blez Jenkins looked again at the items on the

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Challenge #00880-B149: Feelers

“‘The flowers that bloom in the Spring, Tra, La!’ Have everything to do with the case.”

Prison cells on Amalgam were, for assorted humanoid species, a Ten
Distance Unit Cube that accommodated the bare minimum necessary for
existence. And monitors for all activity.

Shayde had chosen a
rubber ball for diversionary occupational therapy and sat with her back
pressed against one wall. She was currently engaged in throwing it
against the floor so it would ricochet off the wall and return to

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Challenge #00879-B148: Tokens of Adulthood

multitool,

They threw him a Going Away Party. Just like they threw him an
Adoption Day party on the anniversary of his arrival on Hippo Mining
Station. And, like all the things the mining crew did for him, it
involved available materials.

So far, he’d been given a pair of
The Drongo’s old work-boots - refurbished and ‘gussied up’ with a layer
of gleaming black ductape. This parcel contained fabric scraps from
Dode’s stash. Every colour of the rainbow,

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Challenge #00878-B147: Educational Aside

Since this year was a bust, eurovision prompt 2: Lasha Tumbai

[AN: I looked her up on Youtube… wow]

“So…
if that’s ‘Eurovision Lite’…” Rael couldn’t help himself. Perhaps curiosity was yet another Alpha-draft flaw. “What is -ah- ‘Eurovision
Heavy’ like?”

“Nearest words I can get is - the video answer tae crack.” Shayde queued up another video segment and fetched more popcorn.

“I’m not going to see anything… awful… am I?”

“Na, na,

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Challenge #00876-B145: DO NOT ASK

Murphy’s Law, and ensuing resulting chaos thereof.

[AN: You can get some really interesting ones over here: http://www.scottrainey.com/jokes/murphys_laws.htm]

There are rules to space travel. Primary amongst them is: Shut the flakking door. And many of them are cycled upwards or downwards depending on the frequency of use.

But always, somewhere in the top ten is: Never ask questions with an inherently obvious answer.

The
examples of the lawbreakers are numerous. Blex T’iiv once

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Challenge #00873-B142: Distracting Objects

Keets and a laser pointer.

Problem one: Keets are super-delicate babies and must be protected.

Problem two: Keets are as hyper as all get out in rainy weather.

Problem three: Keets can climb, but they’re not that great at getting down safely.

Problem four: they’re suicidally curious and have worked out how to open the playroom door.

Keri had to keep them under constant supervision and off the shelving and occupied until the grownups came back.

And, as further trouble,

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Sahra only wanted one thing - a better life for her family. Unfortunately, she's currently on the bottom end of the status ladder and...

Sahra only wanted one thing - a better life for her family. Unfortunately, she’s currently on the bottom end of the status ladder and literally has no power over anything.

Until she meets some of the rebels and discovers her mental powers are more than anyone would assume, leading her into a rollercoaster ride of stealth and intrigue that culminates in her becoming an Ambassador for her people.

You can own the entire trilogy for less than $6!

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Challenge #00870-B139: Never Hitchhike Drunk

“And that is how I accidentally fostered peace between two species and became mayor of Broccolopolis”

Let me tell you, there are some cargo haulers out there who can make Space Lightning out of anything that can ferment.

And freeze-distilling that stuff in Kelvin-scale temperatures gives it one hell of a kick.

And my brewer in chief decided to drop me off somewhere light years away from my destination.

A planet in the middle of a generations-long war.

By the time I

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Challenge #00869-B138: One Mildly Hazardous Evening in the Commercial Concourse

After many stumbles and a lot of explaining and apologising, how does the first date between little havenworlder and big scary deathworlder go?

It had taken some significant time in negotiations and a lot of
education on both sides. Ground rules established. Diets planned, they
now sat awkwardly across from each other at Unsuitable Food Eat.

Bear cleared his throat three times before he said, “I understand you’re insectivorous? Do you mind sharing a Hakuna Platter?”

“That
is…“ Ryll scrolled

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Challenge #00868-B137: Mistakes Were Made

After http://internutter.tumblr.com/post/119809238784/challenge-00851-b120-one-fine-evening-at-a

The deathworlder’s attempts to apologise for the earlier incident and continue to express interest in the little havenworlder

This negotiation booth had a clear barrier between the Human called Bear and the Agamid called Ryll.

Both parties had a security detail and a negotiations counsellor.

“I’m very sorry,” said Bear. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Usually those lines get a big laugh.”

“Cogniphagia is humorous?” meeped Ryll in alarm.

“Uhhh&

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Challenge #00867-B136: Manuals Exist for a Reason

Two people are standing in front of [Large, technical, dangerous-but-necessary item]. They are discussing how to do something highly dangerous with it that is their best hope at this point.

Person #1: [Name], walk us through this.

Person #2: First, you’ll want to [BAD IDEA]. Then [ANOTHER BAD IDEA]. After that, [NO]. Then [DON’T DO THIS] and [SERIOUSLY, DON’T].

Person #3: So…basically everything written here, in order, right after ‘WARNING: DO NOT’…

Person #2: Essentially.

The night before

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Challenge #00866-B135: When You Have a Hammer...

Person #1: Great! You just gave an engineer a problem that can’t be solved with duct tape. Now we’re going to be stuck here all day.
Person #2: There are problems that can’t be solved with duct tape?

“Maybe if I recalibrate the spline actuator frigit…”

“What’s the first rule?” demanded Captain Dalia.

Sub-lieutenant
Branley sighed and toed at the metal plate floor. “Never give a stop-over mechanic a problem that can’t be solved with ductape,

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Challenge #00864-B133: Versatility

string, 1001 uses.

“Um,” said Rael.

“What?” said Pix.

“It’s more than a
thousand and one,” he said, reaching slowly for a handbook datachip and
slotting it into his reader. “The uses for string pile into the
billions, if not quintillions. Of course, some of it is dependant on the
originating fibre and the definition of ‘string’.”

Pix glared at him. “I might not have enough funds for an infodump, sir.”

Ah. Right. People paid to hear information. He was still

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