The Inner Ring (gxg)

Chapter 27

Lena, Pepper and Vanessa stood next to the radar panel back up on the bridge, trying to decide which panel to try next. They all looked similar, flat panels with various buttons, knobs, and dials, so their function was unknown just by glancing at them.

"I guess it doesn't matter, we just try pressing a button and see if it does anything, then do the same with the other," Lena sighed with a shrug.

"We could always go check out the computer again," Vanessa suggested.

"There is a computer?" Lena squawked excitedly.

"We think so," Pepper confirmed. "One of the panels in the back has a keyboard you can enter information on, but we can't understand the language so it might be useless for now."

"Computers are never useless, show me the way!" Lena commanded in a silly mock imperial voice.

Pepper giggled while pushing off to shoot over towards the computer, Lena and Vanessa trailing behind her. They landed next to the panel that they assumed was the computer, now with an empty screen. Pepper typed a few random keys, and then pressed the key that they still assumed was the Enter key, and as before it showed a string of blue text.

"This is what happened before, we type in random stuff, and it displays a message," Pepper explained.

"Is this the same message you got the last time?" Lena asked, studying the text.

Pepper looked over at Vanessa, who simply shrugged in her suit.

"I'm not sure, I don't remember what it said last time," admitted Pepper.

"Well try another command," suggested Lena.

Pepper typed another random string of letters, and then hit the Enter key again. The message was almost identical, except one section that showed the same characters they had typed.

"So, this is a standard computer error message I would guess," Lena surmised. "But did you notice that the error message is in blue?"

"Yeah, we saw that," Vanessa confirmed.

"Right, well we always use red for error messages, and then on computer displays we use red for enemies. If you remember the battle display, our ship and the enemy ship were in blue, just like this message. I have to assume that is their warning color." Lena decided.

"It still makes me nervous that our ship is the same color," Vanessa said with a shiver.

"They could be playing it safe. Any unknown ship could be perceived as a potential threat. That is probably a safer way to think when you're out in space I suppose," Lena suggested as a possible explanation.

Pepper just grunted in return. That did make some sense, though it would seem to be a good way to get into a lot of unnecessary fights. She was about to chime in about that when she heard Vanessa gasp.

"Hey, does anyone have one of those laser pointer things? There is a hole on the front of the panel that might fit one!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"I think they're all over on our ship now," Pepper groaned. It was just their luck that they had loaded them all from the bunk room.

"Hold on," Lena grunted as she sank to her knees. "I think there is a compartment here."

Indeed, on the lowest part of the cabinet was a narrow strip that had a crease around it. When Lena pressed it, the piece sunk into the panel before popping back out and allowing her to grip it and pull it out. The compartment was full of the pointers, perhaps two dozen of them. "Gotcha!"