Cartio awoke to a very peculiar smell. A very clean, anit-septic sort of smell. He looked around him, observing the strange site. The room was small, surrounded by all sides with lights and buttons and levers. Straight ahead was a large window, overlooking the stars. Stars? This close? This is unreal... Just then a man entered from the back of the room.



The man returned to the back room. Hmm...'get us back on course'...and just how am I supposed to do that. As the ship got closer to the star the radar started to beep. The computer then instructed, "Re-adjust course to the right 30 degrees." Cartio grabbed the controls and turned the ship. How did I do that? This is odd, it seems as if I think about something, I think of it as Cartio, but if I act on impulse, I act as this 'Johnson' fellow. Hmm...



The man took hold of the controls and Cartio headed to the back room. There were crates everywhere. He cleared the dust off of one of the crates to see what was within them:

"Chipmunk Chow"

We're flying throught the stars to deliver Chipmunk Chow? This is just stupid. Who needs to feed this many chipmunks anyway? Cartio continued to walk through the back and found another door. In the far back room were two beds and a sink. Well, I'd might as well try to get some sleep. As Cartio lied down to sleep, he realized that someone was going to kill him. He also realized that the other man was the only 'someone' he knew of on the ship. Maybe sleep isn't the best idea in the world. Noticing a small drawer under the bed, Cartio opened it and found a book. Hmm...no writing on the outside. And the inside looks to be like some sort of log. Cartio read the through the log, discovering that it was indeed Johnson's log. He discovered something rather disturbing while reading. As the days progressed, it seems, the other man, Thompson, was becoming more and more insane. Cartio turned to the last page in order to see just how bad this Thompson fellow really was:

"I fear Thompson may finally snap in a few days. He's been
sleeping less and less and has been laughing to himself a lot
more often than usual. Yesterday, he didn't speak a word
to me. He just sat there reviewing some maps, almost as if
he was plotting some other voyage. All I know is I'm going
to be on my guard. I'm certain he'll snap, I just hope I'm
strong enough to suppress him when it finally happens."

So, I'm on a ship with a madman. Cartio pondered for almost an hour, wondering how he should go about handeling the situation. His final decision was that Thompson would be easier to suppress now than if he were to actually go insane. Cartio looked around the room and found a length of rope hanging on the wall. That'll have to do. Cartio grabbed the rope and headed back towards the cockpit. He slowly crept the door open and saw Thompson typing quite a bit on the computer. He moved in further, but kept enough space between them so that he wouldn't realize he was in the room. A few minutes later, he stopped typing, leaned back in his chair, and smiled widely. This is as good a time as ever. Cartio approached Thompson quietly and strangled him untill he passed out. Then he took the rope and tied him to a chair. Well, that takes care of that. Now what? It was eerily quiet. This ship had been set to autopilot and Thompson was still unconscious. Cartio sat in his chair and waited for something to happen. Nothing happened. Cartio, before long, was asleep in the chair.

Cartio awoke from his slumber to the sound of a beeping radar and a chuckling Thompson. "Crash immenent" sqealed the computer.



Thompson's chuckling bursted into hysterical laughing.



Thompson went back into his hysterical laughing fit. Well, I'm out of ideas. I wonder if Johnson could do any better. Here goes nothing. Cartio tried as hard as he could to not think. He concentrated souly on not thinking. Suddenly, Cartio ran back into the far back room, got into a space suit, and jumped out of the cargo bay into space. Well, I guess Johnson did have a better idea than me.

Cartio watched as the cargo ship crashed into the star. Nothing much happened at first. But once the shipment was into the core of the star, a bright white explosion could be seen emerging. It quickly spread over the entire star and continued to expand with much speed. Cartio was eventually burned up by the explosion. His last sights were of the other stars getting sucked into the first star, only to make the explosion even greater. One thing is for sure, Thompson certainly left his mark. All faded to black yet again.