Operation S.A.L.V.A.T.I.O.N.

Chapter 9

BASE STARDUST

A.D.3267

March 22nd

00:30

7 MONTHS AGO

Lantroupa gave up struggling a while ago, the pain in her throat and chest nearly unbearable and getting worse with every movement. The hands on her limbs have tightened drastically, or maybe her pain is electrifying her senses to make it seem that way.

She can hardly breathe through the hood over her face and wrapped around her throat, nearly strangling her. She's jostled with every step, nothing but the clanking of boots and harsh breathing in her ears.

Suddenly they stop. Lantroupa stops breathing to focus everything on listening to her surroundings. There's a slight buzz and a click, then they advance a couple more steps, and another buzz and click. Lantroupa takes a breath, just for it to be ripped out of her as she's tossed roughly to the floor, landing hard on a cold smooth surface. A gasp rips from her without consent and agony tears through her throat. She squeezes her eyes shut and doesn't even try to fight as a knee drops into her back, the full weight of a guard landing on her. Fingers grab at the hood and loosen it, as well as the bonds around her wrists and ankles.

She breathes out, lying limp. The weight vanishes, taking the hood with it and her eyes shoot open. She struggles to her feet and stares wildly around. Glass, white, a room. The guards leaving through a door.

She's trapped, she has to follow them. She stumbles after the guards but her weak movements aren't enough to meet her will's demands. The last of them file out of the door and lock it behind them long before she ever reaches the only way to freedom. She crashes into the steel rectangle, a gurgled cry escaping her already ravaged throat as she hammers weakly against the unyielding door, the thumping of her efforts the only sound in the echoeing stillness. 

Where is she?

Lantroupa's legs give out beneath her and she slides to the floor in a heap, tear stains on her cheeks and sweat soaking her skin. Her hair lies against her head and neck in a draggled mess, clothes torn in various places as a reward for her struggles.

Her breathing has turned frantic and her fingers claw against the cold smooth surface beneath her in an attempt to calm her panicked state. It works, the cool touch of the metal sending soothing waves through her skin, her breaths slowly calming as she regulates them to every five seconds, in and out. Something warm runs down her chin, tickling her, and she reaches up to wipe it away. Her fingers come back crimson, slick with blood. Despair and the copper taste hit her like a blow and she wipes her hand on her pants, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in her arms in desperation. 

Please let this nightmare end.

Her thoughts fly to Sapheer, her beloved twin brother. What was she thinking, leaving him on Earth all alone? Not that she had a choice.

Her heart aches at the memory of his laughing dark blue eyes, strands of emerald hair whirling across them in the heavy gusts Earth produces. His laugh at one of her exasperated faces, the sun on his pale skin. His brotherly care, how easily she can communicate with him without words, his annoying antics. She would give anything to have him get on her nerves again. 

Lantroupa sniffs and swallows the tears that threaten to fall, a relieved breath whooshing past her lips as she realizes the pain in her throat and chest has finally started settling, allowing her to breathe and swallow properly again.

She lifts her head slowly from her arms and quickly wipes her mouth again, peering across the bleak white room she's in from her hunched position. She sniffs again and releases a shaky sigh, then moves to get up, her ribs aching from the metal claw that had held her so tightly in the ships belly. She brushes her hands off and wanders slowly around her confinement.