Part 32

    A strange sensation - though maybe not quite as strange as being hoisted upside-down towards impending doom - was the breeze he felt in his nether region as he was hoisted upside-down towards impending doom. The bottom edge of the gown he had woken up in was now tickling his nose as the Conglomeration dragged him, bare assed, toward its nearest mouth.

    He rubbed at his tickling nose with his hand and something hard and metal cracked him in his face before his knuckles could touch his nose. This caused two things to happen: first, his lip split open and blood started pouring out of his mouth; and second, he realized that he still held - and almost dropped thanks to his startled state - the pistol. He had a weapon in his hands that he could use to escape. Somehow... Probably...

    Blearily, blood dripping up into one of his eyes - being upside down was weird - he aimed his pistol towards the Conglomeration, shot once, thought better of it, then aimed at another stack. He fired twice. He missed twice. He was still pretty dazed from that hit. He aimed again and fired and this time his shot connected. 

    Oh shit... He really hoped that wasn't the part he needed to upload his message back to Earth. Oh well, if it was, it was too late to worry about it now. He thought all of this as the stack exploded in a shower of sparks, causing the Conglomeration to writhe in pain. This had the added bonus of making it drop him. Unfortunately, this had the added downfall of a ten foot drop.

    Pain shot through his left arm as he hit the floor with a thud. He tried to get up, struggled and failed, then tried again. When he finally got to his feet, his left arm hung limp at his side. He moved away from the center of the room, away from the Conglomeration, then thought better of it. He turned back and ran - limped? - back to the interior stacks. He was dangerously close to the Conglomeration, but since it was still reeling and screeching, he figured he would be fine.

    He reached the access port and pulled out the drive, then inserted it into the access port. The screen came to life and information started scrolling on the screen. Kevin smiled - gritted his teeth? - and waited. He was pretty sure he was done with his part in this process, but he needed to know that he was done. The information finally stopped scrolling and gave a prompt which read.

DO YOU WANT TO SEND THIS INFORMATION? 

YES / NO:

     This was why he stuck around. He entered "Yes" into the command line and pressed Enter. 

    Done