SPACE MAZE
by 
Ken Bushnell


The start ship orbits a planet light years away.

"The surface appears to be of some sort of permeable 
material," the science officer says staring down at his 
console.

"Can we beam down?" The captain says urgently.

"I don't know captain. We'll have to do some more tests," 
the science officer is hesitant.

"We don't have time." The captain's urgency intensifies. 
"Our stock holders are about ready to sue us for taking 
too much time on these surveys. Ensign Bolduer!" The 
captain turns to a crewman standing stiffly behind his 
chair. "Put together a down team. Get McGruder, Dower and 
Dixon. Side arms and communication gear mandatory."

Ensign Bolduer acts quickly. The down team is assembled 
in the away room and beams down immediately.

"Owe!" Ensign Dixon yells clinging to a long brightly 
colored pipe.

"Sheet!" Dover groans straddling another colored pipe.

McGruder and Bolduer are balancing precariously, arms 
flailing trying to keep their balance on yet two other 
section of pipe seeming to run into infinity.

"Bolduer report!" The captain's voice comes from a 
communicator device attached to Bolduer's belt. Bolduer 
reaches for it and drops it. It bounces endlessly off 
pipes seeming to go on forever until the sound finally 
fades out.

"McGruder here." McGruder calls in, a little scared, 
braced, sitting on one pipe with feet on another. 
"Bolduer dropped his communicator. It appears captain, 
we're sitting on an endless maze of pipes, all of the 
same diameter, but of different colors, lengths and going 
in different directions bent at ninety degree angles 
randomly. We beamed to what we thought was the surface of 
the planet but it's only the top layer of pipes. The 
planet must be below us somewhere"

What do you make of it?" The captain says turning to the 
science officer.

"They still seem to be growing on the far side of the 
planet captain." The science officer's glare intensifies 
at his console. "I've observed a single pipe on the other 
side of the planet extending in length, turning randomly 
at a rate of several hundred feet a minute. It also seems 
to cap itself at random distances and then a new pipe is 
started of a different color with each pipe beginning and 
ending in the same type of bulb shape. All the pipes are 
the same diameter. It appears captain that an ancient 
race once lived here but died off and left a computer 
running and the screen saver has mutated into reality."

"You mean this is all a computer fantasy?" The captain's 
bark is serious.

"No captain," the science officer calmly replies. 
"Somehow the old default Window's screen saver they were 
using here, you know, the one with the randomly shaped 
pipes that keeps extending in different colors, has 
turned into reality here and it covers the whole planet, 
sort of like a hermidiades sphere. It appears captain, 
that a random virus infected a computer after this 
civilization died out and kept developing algorithms 
until the pipe screen saver mutated into physical 
matter."

"Didn't that screen saver dissolve every few seconds and 
start over," the captain observed.

"Yes captain and this planet is about to self destruct." 
The science officer showed his first hint of concern.

"McGruder! Bolduer! This is the captain. Get out of 
there, NOW!" The captain's order was for immediacy.

"We can't captain." McGruder's voice crackles over the 
intercom. "Dixon got his tongue stuck to one of the 
pipes."

Startdate whatever. The start ship escapes at warp nine, 
just ahead of the blinding flash of the planet being 
pulverized with a few pieces of pipe flying by at warp 
ten.

THE END
copyright 2005 Ken Bushnell

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