Gyroscope: #atozchallenge

Read part 1: Fuzzy 

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"What's wrong with the gyroscope?"

"Don't know, Cap'n. It’s been acting up since that strange girl appeared."

"Ugh, one of those? Look, what functionality do we have left?"

"We can manoeuvre a little, but that's about it. We're stuck here, sir."

“You sure? Have you tweaked with those

Captain John Edwards sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Let's go talk to her then."

"Hello? Anybody there?" Cherise called out, her eyes roving the seamless walls. "Mike? George? I... I wasn't trying to tick you off, you know? I was just... just... Look, I shouldn't have to justify myself to you. I demand that you let me go right now. Do you get me? Or I'll... I'll sue you. I'll report you to the police and then I'll sue you. So you better let me out!"

"Actually, you are free to go anytime you wish," a low voice came from behind her, making her jump. She turned, almost losing her balance, to face a man rather like Jean-Luc Picard, if he were much shorter, much fatter, had boatloads of hair and had a very jolly, florid face; in other words, nothing at all like the good captain, except for the shiny, sleek-looking uniform.

"Who are you?" they said almost in unison.

"Ladies first," John said politely.

"No, I think you should be the one explaining who you are and why you are holding me hostage."

"As I have said before, my dear lady, you are free to go anytime you wish. In fact I would rather that you do so sooner, than later. I would like to get out of this hellhole of an atmosphere as soon as possible."

"But how did I get here in the first place?" 

John cleared his throat. "We were rather hoping you could tell us that."

"But... But I don't remember anything."

"Anything at all?"

"Well, there was that embarrassing singing act that I was forced to do, then I ran to the bathroom crying because I was so stressed... that's all I remember, really."

"Did you broadcast a distress signal?"

"Distress signal? What kind?"

“Did you call for help?”

Cherise looked at him uncertainly. “I did say ‘Oh God’ right before I fainted.”

“Ah.”

“Ah? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Our ship interpreted that as a cry for help. She is rather a soft-hearted being. I figure she thought she was rescuing you. What a pity we were passing by within earshot.”

“Your ship?”

“Yes, our ship. My ship. This ship. The ship you’re in. And the problem now, of course, is that with you on this ship, we can’t jump.”

“Jump? Why would you want to jump?” she looked down at his feet.

“Into another galaxy, my dear. Your, err, gravitational pull is upsetting our gyroscope a bit. The oscillation is somehow being pulled towards you - never mind, it’s rather technical.”

“Oh. Well then, um, put me back.”

“You see - there’s another problem with that. We don’t really know where we picked you up. You just appeared rather suddenly.”

Read part 3: Hysterical

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Gyroscope:

a device consisting of a wheel or disc mounted so that it can spin rapidly about an axis which is itself free to alter in direction. The orientation of the axis is not affected by tilting of the mounting, so gyroscopes can be used to provide stability or maintain a reference direction in navigation systems, automatic pilots, and stabilizers.