Snippet #2776837

As one, the brows of the Chosen Few furrowed and each of them turned to look out of the window. The view hadn't apparently changed from their last inspection besides the different positions and constellation of stars and nebulas. One by one, they would stand up and walk towards the window.
"Out here?" said Max, responding to Grimms' inquiry. "Not too good with maths, but I'd say the chances are a million-to-one."
"That'th hopeful, Mackth," mumbled Jack.
It took them a good seven seconds to detect the invisible thing outside, but like the shape of a cloud seemingly turning into a whale or a naked woman, it revealed itself; a large shadow in space where stars should be, swimming through the cosmos, yes, like a serpent, or a sea-snake. If one strained their vision, there was a faint suggestion of spike-like bristles around what was likely the head of the thing. At the moment, it did not seem inclined to strike the vessel, although it was possibly pursuing a viable tactic of predators everywhere, which was follow its prey until it tires.
There was a moment around the head area, as if the almost non-existent thing was opening its maw, and the background noise of the vessel was almost completely drowned out by the peculiar anti-noise that forced the Few to cover their ears. As darkness was not the opposite of light, merely its absence, so was silence not the opposite of noise. There existed a noise that approached the soundwaves from the other direction, presenting itself instead as an almost oppressive silence, the true opposite of noise. The Chosen Few had heard of a tongueless bell on the Discworld which silenced the entire city it occupied as it tolled the silences.
This anti-noise, however improbable it may be, had an edge to it. It was as if one took the roar of a great sea monster and somehow inverted the soundwaves so that it went to the negative. The hull shuddered under its negative cry.
"--it," said Max, as the hum of the engine returned. He turned to the gramocon on the opposite wall of the Cornucopia and began to walk towards it before Fancy said, "Max, I don't think that's a two-way communication thing. He'll probably never hear you."
"Well, if I yelled in the corridor on this ship, he'd have less of a chance to even know I was yellin'," replied Max. "Help me up, we gotta tell John about this."

John consulted the radar on the control panel with unease. On either side of the central dot was a larger, pulsating dot. They were staying about half a mile's distance besides the spaceship, which meant that they were travelling parallel with the vessel. If they decided to veer towards his ship, it would get sandwiched.
What was strange was the dots weren't lighting up; they were darkened. On the criss-crossing green lines of the radar, they were only noticeable by where the lines were blotted out. He didn't even know that was possible on the radar. He suspected something similar to Narrative Causality was in play.
From the extendible funnel which lead into the gramocon piping system, there was a faint noise just barely noticeable over the electronic hum of the control panel, fading in and out, "...ohn, there's a big fucking shadow serpent outside......ike it's eyeing us up, you gotta get......right now!"
John rolled his eyes, or rather the pinpoint light which served as the pupil in each of his eye-sockets, and held the gramocon speaker to his mouth. "Max, there's one on either side of the ship," he answered, his voice echoing across the S.S Victoria. "And I'd suggest you stop trying to use the gramocons to vent your panic at me, I've got the means of knowing what's following us."
Putting back the speaker, he reached for the chadburn, a wheel-like device normally used to control the speed of sea vessels, and turned the handle to "Ahead, Full". After a while, the vessel would begin to pick up speed in an attempt to evade these invisible "shadow serpents".