Acceleragel spurted from the ruptured pod. Strange lights shimmered and pulsed erratically. Nyrrim33 opened their eyes and began to survey the damage. None of ship's AI were responding. All queries went unacknowledged, unanswered. The Core was probably dead. The ship had crashed.

Nyrrim33 extricated themself from what remained of the dissolving podcase. Everything was canted at a 22-degree angle. The air was colder than the normative baseline. A muted roar could be heard in the far distance. Somewhere back along the length of the ship there was a breach.  What atmosphere remained was bleeding out.

Three steps away from the podcase and Nyrrim33 was covered head to toe in a seamless, glistening siliconite sheath. Internal systems would sustain the replicant for well over a thousand years or longer if need be. The very thought of spending that length of time sealed away within the transparent armor filled Nyrrim33 with dread. It was an irrational response, but then replicants were designed to mimic many such aspects of humanity. It made them almost as erratic, nearly as dangerous. Such traits had given them their only chance against their one-time creators and former masters.

According to the internal optical-schematic Nyrrim33 was on the 88th floor. The other criopods had failed. Most systems had died in the crash.  Only the most redundant and hardened sub-sub-systems even had a chance of working. But those systems were slow. Painfully slow. Interfacing with them would cost precious time.

Nyrrim33 tugged the blast door open. A plan crystallized in their mind. The Central Shaft would be the place to go. From there everything else would be accessible. On the way it would be possible to ping the sub-sub-systems and see waht sort of response was to be had. It wasn't a great plan. But it was the best option right now.

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Author guidance for This story

This is all base don the collaborative Science Ficiton setting "The Worldboat at Lifes End," which is based on an off-hand comment by Cnor of Lunching on Lamias, and has grown into something strange, surreal and unique based upon the efforts of Porky and Garrisonjames/Netherwerks.

What we know so far about the Worldboats can be found at the Objects of Chance blog where we maintain an on-going, constantly updated index-page for the Worldboat project: http://objectsofchance.blogspot.com/2011/04/worldboat-index-page.html

This project is open to anyone who wants to collaborate -- there are several Worldboats, each one quite different from the others, so feel free to go exploring your own vessel in your own way...

updated Nov 11 '11 by Garrisonjames