The Escape Pod

Posted on Mon Apr 3rd, 2023 @ 11:59pm by Commander Qillin Wren
Edited on on Tue Apr 4th, 2023 @ 12:05am

905 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: A whole new world
Location: USS Orinoco
Timeline: 3 weeks ago

"Here, here.... " Tetayn finally found an escape pod hatch that hadn't been claimed by any other fleeing crew. She could feel Qillin's hand on her shoulder still as they fought to stay upright and forward facing through the constant shutters of the dying ship. Another engineer had joined them in their flight, Aaron Patterson.

Aaron was a tall, young human from Mars. Tetayn first met him shortly after she arrived on the Orinoco. He was shy at first, but once they started talking, she learned he liked some of the same things as her. Running along the shoreline of a lake, flying kites, and reading mystery novels. And the shore needed to be a lake shore, not an ocean shore because they had both stepped on an unwitting jellyfish at the seashore, and that had been an absolutely horrible experience.

Aaron had been helping them find an open escape pod. And the time could be felt ticking down - faster and faster. Somewhere on the ship, a massive decompression roared, pulling at the air around them until a safety shield dropped in protection. That is when a large chunk of debris fell from the ceiling, knocking Qillin hard on the head. She watched his eyes close. He didn't react to the hit in any other way. It sounded absolutely horrible - a sound she would have a hard time forgetting.

"I've got him, " Aaron called over the roar of another decompression. This time, the hull breach was much closer to them. Aaron took the weight of Qillin into his arms fully and told Tetayn to get into the pod, watching as she scurried through the hatch of one of the smaller escape vehicles available on the Orinoco. She poked her head and shoulders out of the hatch, grabbing Qillin's feet and with all the strength she had, she pulled and forced Qillin to come through the hatch. He fell with a thump and she momentarily landed top of him. His head hit the floor and she flinched, knowing that was the last thing he needed at a time like this.

Tetayn scrambled to her feet once more, her hand jetted out of the hatch one last time, reaching for Aaron. But Aaron was no longer there. She froze. The zone decompressed around her, blowing the air out of their zone. Aaron had gone with that force after helping her... She tried to take a breath, to call out for him. But just as a fish cannot breathe out of water, she could not breathe in a vacuum. The wind whipped her hair around her face and with the last bit of sense allowed to her, she hit the control to launch.

Her legs turned to jelly while the pod ran its programming. They were launched and thrown from the Orinoco with a force that should have required seat restraints. Tetayn looked at the viewscreen, watching their departure and the beam from the Vulcan warbird's ship, netting up escape pods. “You've got to be fucking kidding me," she cursed, realizing that, though they had escaped the destruction of the ship - which exploded now to emphasize the extent of the damage it had taken - they were still not safe. Debris from the Orinoco rained past the pod. Something hit the pod with a violent clang. The pod took on a new trajectory. And with a minor stroke of fortune, they were knocked away from the sweeping Vulcan tractor beam.

She turned her attention back to Qillin. She could see the breath rise in his chest. A short look around the pod located the first aid box. Tetayn opened it to find a basic tricorder and several other items neatly tucked inside. The hum of the tricorder began and she aimed it around Qillin's head. She watched the display as the readings were returned.

When she had first entered secondary schooling, Tetayn had begged her parents to be able to get a job - any job - just so long as she could get away from both home and school a few hours a week. It had taken a lot of negotiating, but they had finally relented with the condition that her grades didn't drop.

She took a week, looking at the different help wanted postings, and finally found something she wanted to do. She had applied for one job only, convinced that was the one she would get. Two weeks later, she was training for a lifeguard position at the pool; training included extensive first aid classes. Though it was nearly six years since those classes, Tetayn remembered the lessons and was able to read the tricorder. She set it down, looking in the kit box and found an ice pack. She activated it and carefully pressed it to Qillin's head.

And time slowed down again. The rushing sounds of panic and destruction faded, and then the silence rushed in, leaving Tetayn with only the sound of her breathing - and the slower breaths of Qillin.

She sat down properly, her butt landed hard on the pod's floor. That's when she first discovered her own injuries. A whimper escaped as she rubbed at her waist. Something sharp had made an impression and her hand came away with a coating of sticky blood. Tetayn turned a face at that, wiping her hand on her shorts. She returned to the first aid box. She needed a plaster.

 

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