The Inner Ring (gxg)

Chapter 35

"Oh fuck, that hurts!" moaned Pepper as she awoke. It took her a moment to understand where she was, as she hadn't slept in her spacesuit since the launch from Earth's orbit over four years ago. Now, her view was obscured by red dots and splatters that she realized was her own blood, which she could also taste in her mouth. Taking inventory of her body and surroundings, she realized that she was wedged halfway into the ajar door that she had been looking through moments before...

Moments before what?

She didn't even remember what happened. The last thing she remembered was that word. Gasping, she pivoted and turned her light back into the classroom, and it was still there. Ἀτλαντὶς. Her heart raced at the possibilities, but there were only a few that made sense.

"Hello?" She groaned into the comms. But nobody answered. Her ribs felt like they were on fire where they were caught in the frame of the door and wedged like she was she could only see into the room, and not back the way she came. She wiggled and kicked, her foot hitting something in the hallway that she couldn't see yet, and every movement made her ribs worse, it wouldn't shock her if there was something broken in there. "Help!" She cried out once more into her mic, feeling desperate. It hurt too damned much to move!

"Nessa?" She whispered into the earpiece, desperation in her voice as tears pooled into her eyes. "Nessa, please be there!" But there was nothing but silence.

She reached up, gripping the edge of the door, and pulled, hoping it didn't hurt her ribs more. She heard a small pop as her body finally pulled free, but also felt a grinding in her side as her ribs flared up in pain. She screamed in pain, but there was nobody to hear her.

Now that she was free, she looked down the hallway, that they had all been walking down in horror. Two bodies hung limply in the low gravity. The closer one was Miles, and she moved quickly to him. Nothing looked to be wrong with him, but she couldn't tell. Not that there was anything she could do, even if there was first aid that he needed, opening his suit would kill him. Assuming he wasn't dead already.

She moved to the next body, not sure if it was Anton or Brody, until she saw the A. Joseph tag on the chest. She also saw the large crack on the face plate, and the frozen blood on the inside. Anton was most certainly gone.

She kept trudging along the hallway, noticing that the walls were now bulging outward, until she came back to the entrance. The wreckage of a sled was there, but not the other. Brody's body wasn't around either. Looking out, she could see the scattering of alien ships, and then the larger ship that they had been exploring. Her stomach caught in her throat when she realized that their ship was gone though. Had they left her here to die?

No! Nessa would never do that!

"Hello! Is anyone there?" She screamed into the comms mic, maybe the signal had been blocked by the ship's hull before!

But there was still no answer.

What the hell had happened? Was there an attack? Had the aliens returned?

She went back down into the hallway near her doorway and sat down to rewind her camera. Accessing her video feed, she rewound, shocked to see that she had been out for over 12 hours. She hadn't even realized what day or time it was! Finally, she saw a flash of light on the screen, and then let it play. She had been facing the blast, but her eye hadn't even focused enough to see what was going on, she had just seen Miles, and then the flash was beyond him. She rewound a bit to before the flash and played the video.

She saw one of the sleds gliding into the hallway. Anton turned to look at it, while Miles covered his face. Then the sled blew up. Where was Brody? Oh, of course. He pushed the damned sled. After the flash, the camera angle shifted rapidly, no doubt as she was thrown backwards into the doorway. The camera was focused on the ceiling for several minutes before a hand pulled the helmet up so that another helmet was in view.