Caged Bird & Horned Snake

The world was twisting. A blue box hurtled through a dizzying wormhole, occasionally warping to reveal a much larger ship that seemed to defy the sense of the space around it. Again and again it spun, in at least five dimensions at once. Inside, a man and a woman clung to the center console as they stared at three people in jumpsuits floating sickeningly in the air. They opened their mouths to yell, but the words were already gone, before they even had a chance to be heard. One of the floating figures managed to cling to a beam, her long dark braid flicking between different potential physics. Another was not so lucky; she hung in the air, seemingly too sickened to move. Finally, the third launched himself towards the console, his voice chopping between thousands of sentences as he jabbed at the controls. The man stared at him for a moment before reaching across and frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers wherever he could reach. Then there was a sound like sucking air and a roar of overwhelming sound. The man and woman's head swung to the door, but it was too late. The three figures tumbled through the opening, seemingly propelled by the ship itself. 

The moment all three were gone, she door slammed shut and the ship righted itself. The man rushed to the window, but there was no sign of their would-be rescuees. The ship happily settled as the two left inside shared a grim look.

For the three launched into the wormhole, their time-twisted voyage lasted only a second or two, or perhaps a few billenia, before they landed with a gentle thump on a cold, smooth floor. But it was the one who had seemed unconscious that was the first to move, albeit not with much vigor. Arianna looked around as she tried to gather her thoughts.

The place they had been dropped in was dark and silent. But not for long.