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Emergency
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2023 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: scenario
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The siren was strident enough to wake the soundest sleeper, with a few joking that it was capable of alerting the deaf or the dead. The sound was accompanied by strobing lights in red, blue and yellow, with the frequency of the strobing calculated to be just short of causing epileptic seizures in susceptible individuals.
The siren sounded in every part of Downtime Station, and after exactly two seconds a voice was heard in the slightly intimidating Terran Basic Received Dialect: “ATTENTION. ATTENTION. STATION BREACH. ALL NONESSENTIAL INHABITANTS EVACUATE TO SHELTER AREAS NOW.” A similar message was being given to all of the Kashlanin inhabitants of Station NZh-2233 in their own language.
Halfway through the opening second of the siren Fuji and Meredith were awake and out of bed, their prior experience in space giving them somewhat better reflexes than someone unused to being roused in the middle of the night. The golden palomino mare scooped Jinzi up out of her crib and the young filly, unaccustomed to the sound, began to cry. Her mother comforted her as her father pulled a large satchel from a closet and he led the way out of their apartment, joining a jostling group of furs as they all headed for the station shelter.
The station had been built upon and into an asteroid that was largely nickel-iron in composition, and a distance away from the docks, habitats, forests, and support infrastructure were specially-constructed areas capable of being sealed away from the rest of the installation. The shelters were to be used if the station’s pressure hull was compromised or if the facility was under attack.
Station personnel were at the doors, checking furs in as they crowded past, and after the last ones came running the blast doors and airlocks slammed closed. The strobing lights and siren slowly died away.
Meredith finally quieted Jinzi down and became aware that she and her mate were naked. Of course, quite a few other furs were in the same state of undress, with one feline couple trying unsuccessfully to hide the matted fur on her crotch and his still-erect penis. “Are you all right?” Fuji asked Meredith.
“Yeah,” the mare replied, “and so’s Jinzi.” She smiled. “I’m glad you remembered the bag.”
“We decided when we first moved in; the bag’s my job.” The satchel contained an inflatable, spherical emergency life pod as a last resort. It was too small to hold much in the way of consumables, but it would keep the three of them alive for twelve hours.
After that? Well.
The station personnel rechecked everyone to make certain, and consulted with their Kashlanin counterparts. This took several minutes, and everyone quieted down as the same voice said over the station intercom, “THIS HAS BEEN A DRILL. DRILL CONCLUDED. ALL PERSONNEL RETURN TO NORMAL DUTY.” The airlocks and blast doors opened, and the crowd of Terrans began straggling back to whatever they had been doing.
More than a few joked to the feline couple that they could go home and finish what they started.
“Gaia, my nerves are still jangling,” Fuji remarked as he and Meredith walked back to their apartment. Jinzi had fallen asleep in the mare’s arms. “When was the last drill?”
The golden palomino shrugged as they entered the living room. “Can’t recall. Few weeks, maybe?” The station did this randomly, and never announced it as a drill, thinking that it was far better for people to believe it was the real thing. “You want some tea?”
“Yeah,” Fuji said as he put the satchel away.
For next time, hoping that next time wouldn’t actually require its use.
end
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2023 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: scenario
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The siren was strident enough to wake the soundest sleeper, with a few joking that it was capable of alerting the deaf or the dead. The sound was accompanied by strobing lights in red, blue and yellow, with the frequency of the strobing calculated to be just short of causing epileptic seizures in susceptible individuals.
The siren sounded in every part of Downtime Station, and after exactly two seconds a voice was heard in the slightly intimidating Terran Basic Received Dialect: “ATTENTION. ATTENTION. STATION BREACH. ALL NONESSENTIAL INHABITANTS EVACUATE TO SHELTER AREAS NOW.” A similar message was being given to all of the Kashlanin inhabitants of Station NZh-2233 in their own language.
Halfway through the opening second of the siren Fuji and Meredith were awake and out of bed, their prior experience in space giving them somewhat better reflexes than someone unused to being roused in the middle of the night. The golden palomino mare scooped Jinzi up out of her crib and the young filly, unaccustomed to the sound, began to cry. Her mother comforted her as her father pulled a large satchel from a closet and he led the way out of their apartment, joining a jostling group of furs as they all headed for the station shelter.
The station had been built upon and into an asteroid that was largely nickel-iron in composition, and a distance away from the docks, habitats, forests, and support infrastructure were specially-constructed areas capable of being sealed away from the rest of the installation. The shelters were to be used if the station’s pressure hull was compromised or if the facility was under attack.
Station personnel were at the doors, checking furs in as they crowded past, and after the last ones came running the blast doors and airlocks slammed closed. The strobing lights and siren slowly died away.
Meredith finally quieted Jinzi down and became aware that she and her mate were naked. Of course, quite a few other furs were in the same state of undress, with one feline couple trying unsuccessfully to hide the matted fur on her crotch and his still-erect penis. “Are you all right?” Fuji asked Meredith.
“Yeah,” the mare replied, “and so’s Jinzi.” She smiled. “I’m glad you remembered the bag.”
“We decided when we first moved in; the bag’s my job.” The satchel contained an inflatable, spherical emergency life pod as a last resort. It was too small to hold much in the way of consumables, but it would keep the three of them alive for twelve hours.
After that? Well.
The station personnel rechecked everyone to make certain, and consulted with their Kashlanin counterparts. This took several minutes, and everyone quieted down as the same voice said over the station intercom, “THIS HAS BEEN A DRILL. DRILL CONCLUDED. ALL PERSONNEL RETURN TO NORMAL DUTY.” The airlocks and blast doors opened, and the crowd of Terrans began straggling back to whatever they had been doing.
More than a few joked to the feline couple that they could go home and finish what they started.
“Gaia, my nerves are still jangling,” Fuji remarked as he and Meredith walked back to their apartment. Jinzi had fallen asleep in the mare’s arms. “When was the last drill?”
The golden palomino shrugged as they entered the living room. “Can’t recall. Few weeks, maybe?” The station did this randomly, and never announced it as a drill, thinking that it was far better for people to believe it was the real thing. “You want some tea?”
“Yeah,” Fuji said as he put the satchel away.
For next time, hoping that next time wouldn’t actually require its use.
end
Category Story / General Furry Art
Species Komodo Dragon
Size 120 x 92px
File Size 36 kB
Oh, my tall tale has them too. A wall of text from my in-work Book 5:
Once aboard, Zhanch walked Wenfrec through the basic safety and emergency procedures that the Folly used. Having been raised on a ship, Wenfrec had no problems with the procedures, but a cub going by reminded her of another question. “Who’s in charge of them in an emergency?” she asked as Spitfire dodged back into the ‘cub room’.
“Whoever’s available,” Zhanch told her, a grin starting to form. “Since you brought it up, let’s walk them through a drill.” They walked into the cub room and found only Spitfire and Darkstreak were still playing quietly, the rest were asleep in a pile. Touching her badge, Zhanch whispered, “Tess, gravity loss and wind whistle when you start the alarm.” Turning to Wenfrec she quietly added, “You’re on cub patrol until you are relieved. That means you’re cub-sitting for part of tonight.” Zhanch then turned and left the room before Wenfrec could come up with a response.
Moments later an alarm sounded and Wenfrec suddenly found herself in zero G. Reaching out; she grabbed a nearby shelf to keep herself from floating away from the floor. She watched in amazement as the cubs responded. The two larger cubs were the first to respond. The smaller threw hir toy away from hir, sending hir towards a panel that displayed a warning sign that it contained a life bubble. Shi activated the release and opened the slowly unfolding bubble. While the bubble was being prepared, the other one had jumped to the far wall and then kicked off to put hirself on a collision course with the now airborne ball of cubs that the alarm was just waking up. Wenfrec stared as the older cub pushed at the pile of little ones, and as they started to move away, shi grabbed the end of one of their tails. That cub then grabbed the tail of another cub. They were soon in a not quite straight line that slowly drifted towards the now ready life bubble; the cub that had opened it had hir hands on the opening and hir body and tail stretched out in their direction. The cub at the front of the chain grabbed the tail and pulled hirself hand over hand across hir bigger sister and into the bubble. As the last cub climbed in, shi looked back a Wenfrec.
“Hurry up!” shi told the big Rakshani, “We don’t know how long the air will last!”
Wenfrec pushed off, mentally kicking herself for just standing there while there was an emergency – drill or no drill. As soon as her tail was in, the cub that had opened the bubble closed and sealed it. She felt the pressure increase slightly as the bubble’s life support kicked in and she heard the alarm start to fade as if there was no longer an atmosphere to carry the sound. She watched the cubs form into another ball and start going back to sleep. Noticing one of the older cubs was watching her, she asked, “Now what?”
Darkstreak eyed her curiously. “We sleep. Daddy says it conserves our air and we won’t get hungry as fast.”
Once aboard, Zhanch walked Wenfrec through the basic safety and emergency procedures that the Folly used. Having been raised on a ship, Wenfrec had no problems with the procedures, but a cub going by reminded her of another question. “Who’s in charge of them in an emergency?” she asked as Spitfire dodged back into the ‘cub room’.
“Whoever’s available,” Zhanch told her, a grin starting to form. “Since you brought it up, let’s walk them through a drill.” They walked into the cub room and found only Spitfire and Darkstreak were still playing quietly, the rest were asleep in a pile. Touching her badge, Zhanch whispered, “Tess, gravity loss and wind whistle when you start the alarm.” Turning to Wenfrec she quietly added, “You’re on cub patrol until you are relieved. That means you’re cub-sitting for part of tonight.” Zhanch then turned and left the room before Wenfrec could come up with a response.
Moments later an alarm sounded and Wenfrec suddenly found herself in zero G. Reaching out; she grabbed a nearby shelf to keep herself from floating away from the floor. She watched in amazement as the cubs responded. The two larger cubs were the first to respond. The smaller threw hir toy away from hir, sending hir towards a panel that displayed a warning sign that it contained a life bubble. Shi activated the release and opened the slowly unfolding bubble. While the bubble was being prepared, the other one had jumped to the far wall and then kicked off to put hirself on a collision course with the now airborne ball of cubs that the alarm was just waking up. Wenfrec stared as the older cub pushed at the pile of little ones, and as they started to move away, shi grabbed the end of one of their tails. That cub then grabbed the tail of another cub. They were soon in a not quite straight line that slowly drifted towards the now ready life bubble; the cub that had opened it had hir hands on the opening and hir body and tail stretched out in their direction. The cub at the front of the chain grabbed the tail and pulled hirself hand over hand across hir bigger sister and into the bubble. As the last cub climbed in, shi looked back a Wenfrec.
“Hurry up!” shi told the big Rakshani, “We don’t know how long the air will last!”
Wenfrec pushed off, mentally kicking herself for just standing there while there was an emergency – drill or no drill. As soon as her tail was in, the cub that had opened the bubble closed and sealed it. She felt the pressure increase slightly as the bubble’s life support kicked in and she heard the alarm start to fade as if there was no longer an atmosphere to carry the sound. She watched the cubs form into another ball and start going back to sleep. Noticing one of the older cubs was watching her, she asked, “Now what?”
Darkstreak eyed her curiously. “We sleep. Daddy says it conserves our air and we won’t get hungry as fast.”
Wow they aren't kidding around, usually it's announced its a drill beforehand, but I guess they can't take any chances on an asteroid.
You definitely got me with this one, nicely done.
btw I watched an interesting youtube video about warning sirens* which mentioned how they have to be carefully calibrated by psychologists etc so that they alert the population without causing panic. Well I thought it was interesting.
*don't worry, I'm used to that look.
You definitely got me with this one, nicely done.
btw I watched an interesting youtube video about warning sirens* which mentioned how they have to be carefully calibrated by psychologists etc so that they alert the population without causing panic. Well I thought it was interesting.
*don't worry, I'm used to that look.
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