Chapter Text
“Alert, alert, alert.”
She wakes gasping for air, lungs burning with the loss of oxygen. The world flashes red as angry sirens blare through bleary brain. Thoughts are scattered in the panic, memory wiped clean in the chaos, so for a few heart pounding moments the only thing known for certain is that everything is wrong. Instincts have her lashing out with arms and legs, but she finds she can barely move, body enclosed in a small space and attached to tubes and wires. She would scream if she could remember how.
“Alert, alert, alert.” The repeating announcement pulls her attention to the small window at eye level. The view beyond is dark and flooded with that ghostly light, but it is the bright yellow words scrolling against the glass that finally snap her back to reality.
*ALERT* *ALERT* *ALERT*
AUTO-NAVIGATION, STATUS: OFFLINE
PRIMARY POWER CELLS, STATUS: REBOOTING
EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS, STATUS: ACTIVATED, REVIVING SENIOR STAFF:
- Captain Deshanna Istimaethoriel
- First Officer Keela Lavellan
- Flight Lieutenant Solas Harel
- Science Officer Merrill Sabrae
“Shit!” she yells and it hurts to speak after so long silent. “Open, open! Shale, open my door!” Her fists pound against the metal of the pod. With a shudder, it retracts into the ceiling and throws her out tumbling to the grating below. Shaking fingers rip at the wires still connecting her to the cryo-chamber and the task is made more difficult by the way the ground vibrates beneath. “Shale?”
“C…Com..nder,” a robotic voice replies. There is a break before it comes again in a steady tone. “Commander Lavellan, how wonderful to hear from you again.”
“What’s happened?”
“Running diagnostics now, Commander. Please see to Captain Istimaethoriel. My connection to her chamber is dark.”
It takes a few stumbling tries before Lavellan can rise to trembling legs. She crashes into the pod to the right of her own, nails digging into the screen’s ledge to pull herself up. The interior is black and it takes a flash of the blinking lights to illuminate the weeping corpse inside. “Fenedhis!” she curses and flies back in surprise. “She’s dead!”
“Well that would explain it.”
“What the hell happened?” Lavellan shouts and moves to the next pod. There is little time to mourn as the alarms grow more numerous. Lieutenant Harel’s cryo-chamber appears intact and she can hear the machine cycling through its emergency procedures.
“Main power was disabled approximately five minutes ago. Sixty percent of secondary systems were activated in response,” the A.I. answers.
“How?"
“Unknown."
"Where are we?”
"We are 7 degrees beyond our destination point. You should probably see this, Commander.” A loud banging assaults her ears as the bridge’s shield retracts. Lavellan covers her eyes against the sudden brightness only to have them widen in shock. A massive planet swallows up the whole window and fills her with icy dread. Shale’s calm voice echoes around the cabin. “I suggest immediate action, Commander.”
“No shit!” Lavellan rushes forward towards the glittering console nearby. “Get Harel out of there, now!”
She does her best to stabilize their bucking vessel as more power cells return to full strength, but they are already caught in the planet’s gravity. The view of the brown and green body tilts away as she commands thrusters to align them for entry. It will buy a few more minutes but they are still coming in too fast. She will never be able to land them safely on her own.
“Commander, Flight Lieutenant Harel’s pod is opening.”
Lavellan returns to the line of cryo-tubes and waits before the sliding door. She barely has time to react as his body falls forward and crashes into her.
“Leiutenant!” she cries, struggling to bring him to the floor without injury. A quick check for a pulse finds one slowly waking from its long slumber, but there is no time for this beauty sleep. Hands grab the sides of his face and shake it gently. “Harel?”
She has never been this close to their pilot. It was only a few weeks before their departure that they were introduced. He came recommended as one of the best, and Deshanna wanted to make sure their operation went as smoothly as possible. Finding the possible location of the former Elvhen home world is a momentous occasion, after all. The lieutenant seems capable, opinionated, distant at first. Their interesting discussion within her quarters brought their orbits much closer together. She enjoys their dance, the subtle hint of mischief in his gaze. What she wouldn’t give to see his eyes right now.
“Wake up!” Lavellan runs her thumbs across his cheek. The ship shakes and strains beneath her as more urgent alarms begin to ring above, but none of it matters if he remains this way. “Please. You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.”
She’ll never know what possesses her next actions. Perhaps it was the memory of his deep voice whispering words unknown to her before cryo, or her impending death, but the First Officer dips her head and brushes her lips against his. They are soft, warm, and a moment later open against hers with a gasp. Lavellan springs back on her heels and watches him struggle with the revival process as she did. When he’s taken a few mouthfuls of breath she grabs him by the collar and tries to catch his dilated eyes.
When he can focus on her features, she watches his brows crease down in confusion. There is something else there, something that makes her breathless. His hand comes up to brush across the vallaslin under her eyes and for a few seconds the only thing she knows is the wide open, blue sky of his gaze. “Lavellan?” he breathes, trying not to break the dream he’s in.
Shale, however, has not forgotten reality. “If you are done with this mating ritual, we are indeed still heading towards a painful demise.”
Lavellan bounds back to her feet and shakes away this thing between them. Whatever it is, it won’t matter in a few minutes if they do nothing. She bends forward and holds out her hand. “Come on, Lieutenant. We have a ship to land.”
art by tigernaute