Chapter Text
Her left shoulder was killing her. Literally. Whatever it was that she’d fallen on was imbedded deep in her shoulder, and the puddle of blood was growing larger and larger. She could feel it under her fingertips now. Her head went back and forth between aching and throbbing. And her legs….
She didn’t want to think about the fact that she couldn’t feel them at all.
Claire would be able fix her up in no time if she were here. But she wasn’t, and Alara didn’t think she wanted the doctor to be here. Not with the smell and the tight spaces and the big green eyes lurking in the darkness. The creature was waiting for something. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know for what.
She knew what Claire would say if she were here though. She’d say something like, ‘If it wasn’t for that Xelayan biology of yours’ or ‘Anyone else would already be dead’. It was true too. She was glad it was her who had gotten dragged down here and not Claire or Kelly. If it had been one of them, she would have probably lost a friend.
As it was, it was just her life she was probably going to lose.
No big deal.
Just her life.
She could handle this. Yeah, she could definitely handle this. No reason to panic. It was better than the alternative, right?
The big green eyes watching her seemed to draw closer. She couldn’t get up to investigate. Her weapon was useless. She’d already tried shooting the…thing, but the creature hadn’t seemed fazed. After dragging her down here she had expected to be eaten or mauled to death or something, but after falling down the hole the creature had just left her laying where she’d landed. It almost felt like a trap and she was the bait.
The green set of eyes blinked at her before a deep rumbling sound echoed through the small cavernous space. It was followed by a screech that, if she’d had the energy, she would have shielded her ears against. Everything fell back into silence as soon as the echo faded, and she once again felt alone. Trapped, dying, and alone.
Minutes ticked by. The pain in her shoulder moved to her chest. Or maybe the pain in her chest had just grown to the point that the pain in her shoulder couldn’t overshadow it anymore. Breathing was becoming a problem, she realized, as a cold damp feeling began to seep into her bones. Why was it so cold anyway?
She opened her eyes and stared up at the barely visible opening overhead. It was so far up that it might as well not even be there. She could see little specks of glittering lights though. So she was either hallucinating or night had fallen on the planet. Neither were very good possibilities.
She hoped the Orville had returned by now. She hoped Doctor Finn and Commander Grayson were back on board and safe. Maybe if she closed her eyes and let herself sleep, then when she woke up she’d be on the ship too. Maybe it would all just be a really, really bad attempt at a prank by Isaac.
She heard the sound of gravel scraping against rock. The creature was moving again. She turned her head as much as she could and tried to find the eyes that were now missing. They weren’t anywhere within her visual range though. She’d lost track of the creature. It could be anywhere.
“What do you want?” she asked, her voice hoarse and gravely as she shouted into the darkness.
There was no answer.
She tried to keep her eyes open, but the cold chill was making her fingers ache and her muscles felt like jelly. Exhaustion quickly won out and her eyelids fluttered closed. Her mind drifted, memories of completely unimportant things filled her head. Regret and questions floated around her.
“Hang in there, Alara.”
Her eyes flew open and her breath hitched in her chest. Her eyes scanned the area, but there was no one there. Just the darkness and the faint twinkling stars overhead. Kelly wasn’t down here. Tears started to sting the corner of her eyes and she shut her eyes again.
“Alara….” This time it was Claire’s voice whispering through the void.
“Head is screwed up,” she muttered, her words sluggish and slurred. “Going to hallucinate myself to death.”
The communication unit was broken. She’d tried it multiple times already. Either the unit was physically broken or the connection was no good down here. She was alone.
Except for the creature stalking her from the shadows, of course.
“This is not the purpose of the mission,” Isaac’s steady voice informed her.
She opened her eyes again, or at least tried to. She could barely keep them open. She was still alone….
No, wait. The big green eyes were back. Closer than before. The creature was leaning over her. She could feel its hot breath ghosting over her. It smelled like Gordon’s severed leg if it’d been left out in the sun for a couple days. She nearly vomited at the odor.
“If you’re going to kill me or eat me or something,” she began, staring up at the grotesque creature. She couldn’t make out its features in the dark, but the looming bulk of the creature was intimidating. And she wasn’t easily intimidated. “Just do it. I’m tired.”
The eyes blinked slowly. The head titled to the side with a look that almost seemed…calculating. It began to inch closer to her and she squeezed her eyes closed instinctively. The warmth spread over her more and the increased odor made the nausea worse. If she had the energy for it, she probably really would have thrown up.
The warmth was gone as quickly as it had come. She forced herself to open her eyes again, and found herself once again staring up at nothing. Just the inky dark void with a few tiny dots of light far away. Her vision suddenly blurred though, her mind swimming out of focus as well.
“You were not given permission to die.”
Bortus this time.
She swallowed around the tightness in her throat and tried to get her vocal cords to function. The pain gave way to numbness, and she really wanted to embrace the pull of unconsciousness. Her own self-preservation made her hold on though.
She thought she heard the sound of gravel moving across the rock floor again, but it was far away. Distant. It didn’t matter. She was going to die here and her body would rot and someone else would move into her quarters and someone with more experience would take her place. She just hoped they didn’t mess up the organizational system she’d set up for the weapons' storage.
'You were not given permission to die.' Bortus’ words echoed through her groggy head again.
“I think I’m beyond protocol, Bortus.” A cough rattled her chest and set her side aflame.
“Alara?”
Kelly’s voice was questioning this time, and laced with concern. A lot of concern actually. That was weird. She didn’t have the strength to acknowledge the hallucination this time. There was probably some irony in that.
“Why is she talking to Bortus?” the voice asked, but it didn’t seem to be directed at her.
Yeah, definitely weird.
“She has a head wound,” a voice that sounded like Claire said.
This voices weren’t nearly as whisper-y as before. It was a shame she could barely concentrate on them.
“There’s a lot of blood.”
“Her spinal cord….”
“…fix it?”
“…back to the…”
“Why is it just watching us?”
Okay. Too much noise. She groaned in annoyance and tried to turn her head away from the voices, but a pair of hands were suddenly holding her face and keeping her head from moving.
It felt weird. Hallucinations were weird.
“Just hang in there, Alara. We’re getting you back to the ship.”
A faint smile tugged at her lips as she finally drifted into wonderful unconsciousness.