Stars Above The Willow Tree

Chapter 2 - Tears Can't Fall In Space

     Willow awoke freezing, her cheek pressed against a piece of metal that could have been a block of ice.

Groaning, she swallowed thickly and pushed herself up. And kept going. With a gasp she flailed as she floated off the floor. No, not the floor. Ceiling? The little chamber she was in was lit only by a sallow yellow circle of dim light on the wall.

"What the fuck?" she whispered, eyes darting around the little space. She realized if she didn't get moving faster she might slow to the point that she could get stuck floating in the middle of the room. So despite her pounding head and, the confusion, she kicked at the ceiling at an angle that launched her toward the wall with alarming speed.

She cried out and put her arms up to shield her face as she crashed into the wall hard enough to bruise her elbows and knees. But then she found herself floating away from that little yellow circle on the wall once more.

"No, no, no..." she said, desperately reaching out for that little circle of light.

She couldn't reach it with her hands so she brought her legs up and kicked it, the ball of her foot hit hard and a loud beep sounded, just before the door slid open.

With a gasp, she looked over her shoulder to see how far she was from the wall. Just a few more inches already and she could touch it, but she seemed to be moving so slow and she had no idea how long that door would stay open. She had to fight to keep herself from trying to kick off the wall before she could get a better purchase. But once she could touch it with her feet and bend her knees, she launched herself at the open door.

Just as she feared, it started to slide closed again.

"Shiiiiiit!" She said, cringing as she made it to the doors and gripped them, giving herself another shove. If she's been just a little slower she would have lost toes as the door closed behind her.

She'd made it out of the little airlock but the angle at which she floated had her on a collision course with the floor. Not much farther was a contraption of some kind that was tethered down with long straps.

With a grunt she reached for it and just barely got her fingers around a strap before she hit the floor. She still hit pretty hard and her shoulder took a good hard yank but at least it wasn't her bad shoulder. Her body tried to bounce off the surface and float away but her grip held her to the contraption and she steadied herself enough to look around and get her bearings.

It appeared to be a massive cargo hold full of barrels and boxes, and contraptions that might have been vehicles of some kind. All these things were held down with tethers or what she assumed to be magnets.

Willow swallowed and winced. She had an uncomfortable tickle at the back of her throat and her eyes felt itchy. The air had a somewhat astringent smell and taste to it and it suddenly hit her that she was in space!

Her stomach tried to crawl up her throat at the thought.

"Holy shit," she breathed, suddenly feeling dizzy as her perspective changed just enough to make her think the ceiling was the floor. In fact, there was no ceiling or floor. There was no up or down. Every surface was just a surface that served a function.

A little terrified voice in her head told her to find a place to hide and wait until she woke up because this couldn't be real. But her shoulder still hurt...

With a gulp, she took another breath that tickled the back of her throat and shoved that terrified little voice away. She couldn't panic. She couldn't. Not with Evan depending on her.

From somewhere in the cargo hold, a door slid open, and she froze, glancing around. Where had that come from?

She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. Carefully, slowly, she eased herself beneath the large machine beside her. There was barely enough room for her to fit and once beneath it, she breathed slowly. That tickle at the back of her throat suddenly seemed terribly threatening. What if she suddenly started coughing? What if she had to sneeze? Her heart pounded and despite the chill in the air, a bead of sweat made its way down the side of her face.