The Nyx Carrier juddered to a stop as the webs took hold. The pilot, Moquin, controlling the ship from within her pod, was worried.
She loved her crew in a way few pilots did these days. They were only the most important part of the ship to her; it was what she was fighting for. Most had been with her on the last three Nyx Carriers. Each time the ship had gone down, the final call had been the same. Save the children, then families, then main crew, and finally the bridge crew. The final group was the emergency teams. She hated to lose those people who’s last moments kept the ship alive. Buying time for the rest to live. She never assigned people to those teams, they just volunteered.
Now the ship was in trouble again. It was bad
***
Ellic was a good boy. The guide told him. He was in the long thin room. He was using the small brush on the floor. The guide told him to use the piece of paper with the yellow dot on the back to rub on the mark on the floor. Then the mark would be gone. The guide told him he was a good boy.
* * *
Captain Sabyl stood on the bridge of the Nyx Carrier with a worried look on his face. The com channels told him it was bad. The unformed fleet had been ambushed. Support down and the fighter-bombers had ripped great shreds out of his ship. The crew were battling to keep it alive.
"An Isk for your thoughts." A voice chimed up from the panel in front of him, a minature hologram. A perfect miniature of Moquin’s perfect body floating on the desk. Only twelve inches high it was a yellow lit version of her beauty.
She had always appeared to the bridge crew in this way.
"You do know that one isk can buy a small country these days." He chuckled and she joined it.
"We pulled a survivor from one of the bombers.”
"You want the normal treatment?”
"Yep. Make it quick. I am expecting more visitors any second."
"Ok cap, but you owe me one." A sneaky smile crossed his face. "I want a private holo tonight. Just you and me."
The hologram dropped it head in a fake cute way, a broad smile across the face.
Captain Sabyl walked out, his feet squeaked on the clean floor leaving a small mark. The hologram watch him walk admiring the sight.
"And this time I want the dangles after the full striptease." He shouted across the bridge to the vision of beauty.
Maybe the hologram blushed, but it did retort to the bridge crew that all could hear with fake anger.
"What are you all looking at? Remember I can see you all naked any time you want to." And she disappeared in a showy flash of gold light rays.
* * *
He had finished in the long room and was instead in the room with all the smells and tastes. He did not like this room. It was filled with people that did not see him. They ran into him. They say nasty words to him. The guide told him what to eat. He came in here to take the food that the guide told him to take. He ate it was in his room. He liked his room. It had a bed and he could stay in there. He like his room as everything was always in the same place and never moved. The guide told him that it was because it was only for him, but he did not know what this meant. He liked his room because it was only him in there.
One time two men had come to his room. The guide had told him to wake up. The guide had told him to open the door. They had come into the room. He had not like them because the did not like his room. They told him lots of words that he did not understand. They did not let him talk to the guide.
They had said thay they had come to fix him and that they were going to take away his guide. That he would be able to do things that he could not do before. He had asked them why and the guide had told him that they said that they had broken him when they had tried to make him like the golden voice. He was frightened by this because the golden voice was nice and not like Ellic.
They had told him that he would be able to remember things forever. He had asked what forever meant. But they did not understand. He had said that the guide told what to do. He did not want to be fixed. He was happy.
But the men had got loud and he got scared. He had asked the guide to tell them to go away. And the guide did, but then did not go. They put a piece of paper in his hand. But it did not have a yellow dot on it. They had shouted at him to touch the paper in a special place. But he had not and had started to cry. He begged the guide to make them go, but the guide could not. He became even more scare.
And then the golden voice had come.
She had spoken calmly to Ellic and the guide had told him that she had told him not to be scare, and that she was going to make them go away. And she appeared in the air before the men and they looked scared. And she had said many word that Ellic did not understand, and then two more men in special clothes appeared. And they took the piece of paper with no yellow dot and they ripped it up into very small pieced. And then the men had left with the men in the special clothes. And the golden voice lady had turned to Ellic and told him that he would always be safe. Ellic had not understood. And then she had gone. And the guide had told him to clean up the funny smelling yellow liquid that was on the floor where the two men had been stand. So he had.
And then ellic stopped remembering and the guide told him to go to the room with all the desks with lights. So he left the room with all the people.
* * *
Sabyl walked into of the canteen, toward the survivor flanked by two guards. On the table infront of him as a EVA helmet, with the alliance’s current enemy logo printed on the side. This was a breed of fighter pilot apart from the normal. A bomber.
The carrier couldn’t last much longer, but that wasn’t the point here. A real Capsule pilot lookws after the crew. A real pilot would have not needlessly killed their crew for an unread line in a battle report on someones desk. But this group who were attacking them didnt care, so instead they had saved the few they could.
The bomber pilot was stuffing food into his face, cramming it in. It was the eating of a scare man, someone who had expected death, and also someone that hadn't had a decent meal in months. Another major difference in the alliances.
"Hi. Captain Sabyl, deputee to this ships pilot." He held out his hand, and as always it was completely ignored. "And you are ?"
"Plag N'Ark" The voice said inbetween mouthfulls. "I know why you captured me and I ain't telling you anything."
"Sorry ?" Captain Sabyl asked. "We saved you because you were in trouble. I am trying to get a ship here so we can transfer to neutral ground, but most are tided up at the moment and the ones that aren't are too small to fit your bomber in."
Plag looked up from the food shocked.
"Hey. What you don't want me to rag on my side’s stuff ? Oh wait I get it, this is some sort of mind game right. Your buttering me up ready to stick the knife in, right. Well I ain't fall..." His voice dropped off as a familiar face entered the room.
"Hi Plag, how it hanging. You got you self trapped on the good side at last." The woman laughed. "Took you long enough."
By the time Sabyl walked out the room he had achieve what the visit had been about. The man had relaxed and was now taking with his old flight mate. She had convinced him that everything was on the level and that there was nothing to worry about. If he wanted to go back, they would arrange it, if not well she would show him the ropes. They got no information out of either of them, but they never asked for any. Now if they could just make it out alive. The sirens went off again and he headed for the bridge.
* * *
The guide told him to go to the room with the desks with lights so he had gone to the room with the desk with lights. He went to the door of the room and then the guide told him to walk 15 squares forward and then turn to face the big window and walk 5 squares. He liked the counting game. He sat down on the next square and put his box on the same square. He took out this little brush and placed it next to the box. He took out the little piece of paper with the yellow dot. He took out the little piece of paper with the red dot. And he took out the piece of cloth. The guide told to clean. It was noisy in here.
* * *
Captain Sabyl grabbed hold of the console in front of him as another volley of heavy fire hit the ship. He watched in horror as the overload induced by the fire caused the panel of his second lieutenant to erupt in a shower of sparks. The window on the bridge showed the scene of fire and brimstone outside, great beast of battle firing everything they had at each other in a desperate race to be the last one to fire. He saw an Oneiros explode in an explosion of gases and shells and as he did so he prayed silently for its crew. The ship was going down. He knew it in his heart and any minute she would call it. He looked down at the control panel and saw a new problem and stabbed at the connection button
"Emergence repair crew B16, there is a new breach about to form in section XT3. Get out of there, you can't stop it just get...”
He words were cut off as the ship rocketed again, this time with an internal explosion. You could tell the difference, the sound was more muffled. A distant voice came over the com lines
"Too late, we lost team B16. We are getting our butts kicked big time. I don’t think we can hang on much longer. I think we are about to lose the whole deck. Evacuating all the... Oh crap."
The ship rocked again with a much larger explosion. Support beam above cracked as the ship twisted, exposing the inner working of the ship. Wires and cables, ducts and pipes. The core of the ship layed bare before his eyes. A reflection of the guts of the dead crew around him.
"It’s time." He spoke the words quietly but despite the noise, all the bridge crew seemed to hear him. But most importantly she heard him
"All of you go. I am going into overload mode. Trying to hold on so you can get clear."
It was the voice of Moquin, and then she appeared before him, flickering and shaking, disappearing in parts. Her face turned to him it was the most frightened he had ever seen her.
"You are my reason. And although this body will soon fall, my heart wont. I will rise again and come for you all." Sabyl nodded his head and blew her a kiss. The image smiled and her face softened, only to harden.
"Go." The Hologram screamed and the alarms sounded.
The lighting change and red flashed appeared, guides on the floors and walls and ceiling pointing to the escape pods, the vessels that would save the most vital part of her ship, the crew.
Sabyl turned and looked around the bridge. He didn’t see the man behind the console, intent on clean. He saw only one person left, laying on the floor.
"Come on.” his shouted over the alarms and screams.
He stumbled across the room everyone should be saved. He pulled him across the floor to the pod's. He slowed, too tired. Then the load became lighter. The rest of the bridge crew had followed him out to help. They all tumbles and fell into the pod and the door slammed shut, automatically starting the ejection process.
But nothing happened.
Sabyl frantically stabbed at the open button, but the system had locked them in automatical. They could not get out. They could not save themselves.
It got worse as he remembered the escape pod was not part of the ship. Not part of Moquin’s control system. With the rest of the crew either gone, trapped, dead, no one else was left to save them. They were dead.
* * *
She could see him trapped and she could do nothing. In a few moments the ship would burn and so would he, only a few hundred yards from her clone body save in its the pod. She could fly to the star, kill billions with a thought, and yet she could not raise a finger to help him. Could she get the crew trapped below out to help. Could she blow up the ship in a way that would safety eject them? No, nothing would work. All for the sake of pressing one button, her beloved and the rest of the bridge crew would die.
And then she saw and found a way. And it started with a name.
"Ellic. Ellic, Please I need you."
The man's head turned.
***
The guide told him to look up, so Ellic looked up. The room with the coloured light on the table was empty and there was a room was a funny colour. The guide told him there was something bad happening. The he heard the Golden voice. It was a good voice and he was not scared.
"Ellic, please I need you to help me."
He looked at where the Golden voice was coming from. A little woman was on the desk. She was golden and looked nice. She pointed to a wall across from him. He walked across the room. On the wall was a panel with coloured lights.
"Ellic, I am not sure if you can understand this, but the crew are trapped. I can't get them help and I need your help, but if you do this..." Her voice cracked as she tried to say the words. "If you do this, I am not sure you will be able to get out of the ship in time. Do you understand? I need you to press the manual release button. Can you do that for me?”
Ellic was confused, the guide did not tell him what to do. He wanted to get back to the job he had. This was not fun. He wanted the guide to tell him.
"Oh god. Ellic. Please, I wish you could understand. Oh to the thousand of gods that never hear the cry of the dying, please just press the button."
He was scared now. The Golden voice made him sad. Maybe he could make it sound nice again. So Ellic asked the guide, what is a button? And it told him. So he pressed it. There was a funny sound and it stopped. Ellic turned round and walked back towards his square. He moved the dust and big pieced of metal so that he could see the square He picked up the piece of paper with the yellow dot again.
***
The pilot had no sensation of a body, any arms or legs or feet or hands. She felt nothing of her physical form, but as she floated in the tank, she saw the saviour as he was. The ceiling had fallen in; panels were on fire and sparks arcing across the room. But there he sat cleaning one spot on the floor with a little piece of abrasive cloth. She was fast running out of time and capacity charge. It was a choice for another second of life or this.
So in the dying ship she closed circuits and rerouted power to the holographic display on the bridge. And you stood forth in front of the bravest man she had ever seen. And the last explosions ripped through the ship, she leant forward.
"Thank you." The hologram said as she placed an intangible kiss on the forehead of Ellic.
Ellic was a good boy the guide said. Go to sleep.
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Topic: [Silver Night Story Comp] Ellic and the Golden Voice (Read 1124 times)