‘No! Stop it! Right now!’
What was with all these reminders? Why couldn't her blood loss-induced hallucinations show her something happier?! She roared internally. But perhaps, that was a good thing. Her defiance and the questions that followed, were enough to pull her back from what could've been her final rest.
"Uuugh!" Her own voice was painful to hear. Yet it was a sign of life. Even though she could barely hear it due to the constant ringing in her ears. Then rapid gasps escaped as Guila quickly realized that she was in a far worse state than she remembered. Now that her adrenaline had subsided, the undiluted aching of her back from almost being crushed, her wounded leg, battered body, and some sort of concussion - assaulted her all at once.
"Eurgh… hrk…!" Sobbing in place was all she could do for now, while questions like 'What if my mind dredged up memories to help me die painlessly?' circled around in her head. Her gasps soon hastened further but also weakened with each one. She tried to raise her arm to try and pull herself off the floor. But there was nothing to grab. Nothing but smooth, flush metal containers. She knew that. She must've. But her arm still flailed aimlessly, hoping that she would get out of this somehow. That fate would open the way for her.
Hope. That accursed, fleeting, painful thing. It was all that kept her alive for until now. No, it was the only reason that she could keep walking forward, ever since that day she threw herself into the flames. Selfish, ugly hope. She understood just how disgusting of a monster she’d become, even before this trip. But she still wanted to live. If she was going to die, at least not in this desolate place, empty and dark. She wanted to die somewhere different from what she’d subjected herself to. But soon enough, chills and tremors racked her body. Her eyelids felt heavier and heavier as time went on, until she could no longer keep them open. The feeling of fear and panic was stronger than it had ever been before, and yet, even her heartbeat was slowing down.
Eventually, it would stop altogether, the more she succumbed to her injuries and blood loss. However, despite that creeping sense of resignation, she… found the strength to clench her fists and whisper; "Please, let me live…" She pleaded with tears running down her surely pale, dirt-smeared cheeks. To whom? She didn’t know. Actual faith in the Divines had faded long before she was born. But she pleaded again, lowering her head even further. "I promise… I won't ask for anything else… I'll stop being selfish…"
"I'll even accept the dol-" She cut herself off. Even during what could've been her final moments, she could not say such a barefaced lie. Because if someone really was listening, then they would know. "... I really don't… deserve it… don't I…?"
Her lips formed a self-deprecating smile as the tears stopped flowing. Somehow, she’d found some small slice of happiness. Happiness in acceptance of her fate. More and more, as the seconds ticked by, she relinquished herself to the emptiness. And then, just as the last of her senses disappeared, the ringing stopped and she felt something grab her shoulders. She was shaken violently, torn away from peaceful darkness and back into the light.
‘Wait… light…?’ Guila’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the torchlight pointed directly at her face. She couldn't see the figure holding it, but she knew the hand that held her was that of a woman's. Small and thin, almost like her own. "Tell Sereni… found… find others…!" Her words were distant, even when she was so close. But Guila understood that she was accompanied by a team.
They were rescuers, then? She mustered whatever energy I had left, to stay conscious for just a little while longer. So that she could say what I needed to."Thank… you… thank... you..." Yet she never heard a response. Not even an encouragement, as she was placed onto a stretcher.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
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None of it seemed to matter. Whatever actions the people on the ship did, whether they lived or died. None of it would change anything. That was the shared opinion of everyone that was actually in the know. The ship had been at hyperspeed for almost three hours now. Far, far longer than the original travel time of five minutes for a 15 light-year jump, which was to be followed by a week of cruising towards their destination in order to recalibrate their course.
Artificial gravity in most of the ship had been shut down or damaged while a quarter of the mini-moon had been torn off in a large chunk, left to float somewhere in the emptiness of space. Even if a rescue attempt was to be made, the speed at which the piece was flung off and the lack of friction in space, meant that it could be anywhere. If for some reason, it was still at hyperspeed, then… Well, any survivors left inside would be doomed to a slow death.
Those left on the actual ship wouldn't fare much better. The Count understood this, as he watched a diagram of the ship's status on the large LED screen, accompanied with the worrying power and utility statuses across the vessel. The image then shifted to a live recording of… a thick and opaque, gray polymetal sphere. Which was, unfortunately, beginning to glow red, underneath the many cracks across its surface.
"We have no way of stopping the ship from here, or directly. Something is keeping the antimatter engine on. We are also locked out of navigation." A voice came from behind him to the right. It was the Captain of the vessel, a tall and wide man with graying hair on his temples, dressed in a white and blue uniform, and adorned with several medals on his chest. "Our engineering team tried to detach the liquid hydrogen pumps-"
"But that didn't work and instead damaged the engine from the inside." The Count interrupted as he gestured at the screen with his index and thumb to lower the zoom and see more of the core's outer shell - revealing several large cracks along the surface. Due to the heat seeping from those cracks, many arcs of semi-molten slag were cut into the larger room that contained the apparatus.
"Those fissures which tore across the western hemisphere were also caused by that disastrous attempt, weren't they?"
"Yes…" The burly man seemed to hand his head in shame, before turning to the screen beside him. "The engine's fusion fate and power output are far beyond what it should even theoretically be capable of. Making another mistake could see the entire ship explode in a supernova." A schematic was then shown regarding the extent of the fuel cell damage. However, based on the system records, just before a chain reaction could occur, the cooling system had also functioned far beyond its limits.
"So you aren't doing anything at all?” Cold and distant, the Count turned around and asked. “No, you can't do anything at all. Because you also lost a massive amount of manpower due to that first mistake." Meanwhile, his men surrounded the bridge, brandishing bulky pistols that glowed a distinct bright green, even underneath the sharp white light from the ceiling.
"By the Emperor, if you and your crew are the best that the Federation can offer, then I’m surprised my wife was the only one to-!" He turned his head and roared; his irises glowing like flames. This was no time to be driven by emotions. He had to first gather as much information as he could, so that he could see his countrymen to safety.
However, it was too late for that, as the once meek and ashamed crewmen now raised their heads and glared back with twice the hate of the Imperials. But the Count was not one to buckle under such gazes. Not when he was protected by people that he trusted and possessed a duty to them. Though it would've done no harm to have had them beside him too.
"Do you at least have any idea, why?"
A short, yet seemingly eternal silence befell the room, before the entire LCD wall came to life and showed the same image of a… glass marble? It shone and pulsed before a solid light blue background.
[Greetings, Lord Count.] A woman's voice, though clearly artificial, came from the PA system. [My name is Serenity, please allow me to answer for my own actions.]