Out There

Out There
The captain stared out of the window gawking. “Sir,” the co-pilot said, “we’ve seen some crazy shit, but this might just top it all.”

The Captain looked at the co-pilot with a quick grin.

“Sure does,” he replied, “but thirty years of space exploration’s got to lead somewhere.”

“You think they’re like normal trees?” the co-pilot asked.

The pilot shrugged. Outside the observation window, hundreds of blue and red orbs danced and floated about. Some moved in recognizable patterns, while others flitted about with seemingly no set course. There was a tree on each of the orbs, or at least what looked like trees.

The co-pilot rubbed his chin. “Should we get some images and video and get the hell out of here?” He asked.

The pilot nodded. “Yah. You know, people always said that the further you’d go out to the fringes of the universe, the crazier things you’d find, but this you know what? We’ve found more crazy shit scattered through space than at its edges. The edges are boring, its stuff like this,” he said waving his hand at the trees on the view screen, “that we all-“ but he was cut off.

Something had changed. The trees had split up. The blue orbs separated from the red ones and were now circling the ship.

“What the..” the co-pilot trailed off.

Suddenly a tree on one of the blue orbs came hurling toward the ship and smashed into it. The branches beat the sides of the small vessel several times before it backed off.

Without warning, a second one followed suit. In rapid succession a third, fourth and fifth ‘tree’ all collided with the ship, pummeling it.

“What in the name of God?” the pilot asked as he grabbed for the controls, arming the ship.

The small scout ship began laying a hail of fire on the tree’s but they wouldn’t yield, in fact, the fire seemed to do nothing whatsoever. White and blue beams emitted from the orbs cutting through the shields and into the ship itself. The ships computer was flashing warning of system failure, and the ship rattled and shook as the trees hammered away relentlessly.

The co-pilot looked up and saw a something as strange as anything he had seen so-far. The red orbs were sending yellow beams at the blue orbs. The blues slowly moved back into their original positions and began moving around as if nothing had happened at all.

Perhaps nothing had.

The pilot blinked a few times. He looked down at his ships systems, which all showed maximum power as if they hadn’t taken any damage, and let out a few nervous laughs.

“On to more crazy shit?” he asked the co-pilot.

The co-pilot responded with a nod. “Naturally. Christ, after this the only thing that will ever surprise me again is if I’m never surprised again.”