Tisis

Jumping ship

As the blaring intensifies and the rumbling grows ever more frequent, our prisoner grows more antsy by the second.

Eventually I motion my company to stop, face her and ask, "Look...I know it doesn't look like it, but we're not going to hurt you...if you comply that is."
The woman shakes her head and whispers with tears almost drowning out her voice, "It's not you I am worried about."

I scratch my head and say, "The rumbling and the alarms? Well, there is fighting going on all over the ship...it'll be okay once the fight's over."
The woman shakes her head even more strongly, cradling the child in her arms.

"I..." she starts before steeling herself, looking up straight at me and I instinctively assume a defensive stance, which makes many of my comrades prepare their weapons.

"...the captain has reestablished communication...and issued an evacuation order."
"An...okay, that sounds bad. What does that mean?"
"It means...that the ship is in a critical condition and that we are supposed to flee. The...ship will soon be no more."

My eyes grow wide as I begin to process the information.
"The...your people are destroying the ship?! Just because we want some equal treatment?! I can't believe that!"
"No! This is not the doing of my people! I...think?"
"Well, stop them!"
"I can't! I...I don't even know what's going on! Please, I beg of you Jor...let me go. Please let me get my child to safety!"

Unrest spreads among my company as another explosion shakes the ship, this time uncomfortably close to our current position.
Only then the gravity of the situation hits me and I switch gears, "Alright, you can go..."
"Sirus!" one of the others snaps at me, but I ignore the man.
"...after you tell us, how to get out of here ourselves."

The woman's eyes light up at my proposal and quickly says, "There are about a hundred escape pods scattered across this block. The red line on the ceiling leads to the next unoccupied launch station. Just follow them and you'll eventually reach one. Just hit the big green button once everyone is inside and everything else happens automatically."

The woman hasn't even finished talking yet, when the first ones already start running, which leads to a widespread panic and everything I might have wanted to say gets drowned by the shouts.

I shake my head and ask the woman, "We have women and children of our own back at the cells...how can we save them?"
The woman merely lowers her head, tears trickling to the ground.

"...I see. Get lost. And...good luck."
The woman looks up thankfully and speeds off, following the red line on the ceiling.

I look up to the ceiling and mutter, "God damn it...we're all going to die..."

I shake my head and pick up the pace myself, but another explosion throws me off my feet and when I look back up, the red line is gone, along with the rest of the artificial light.
It's a blackout and only the flames illuminate my way.

I slump down against the next wall, bury my head in my hands and begin crying.
This is so not how I wanted to spend my last moments.

Just as I'm coming to grips with my inevitable demise, I hear hasty steps. Asmodean steps, as the clicking noise of their shoes tells me and as I look up, I see a purple shadow running through the curtain of smoke.

Before my mind even registers that they would know where the escape pods are, my feet have already started moving and going after the Asmodean.

After a short chase down various hallways I've never been to in all my life, I see a speck of light in the distance.
The Asmodea is going straight for it and now even accelerates, so I pick up the pace and run as fast as I can, despite having to cough heavily from the biting smoke stemming from the flames.

I am not going to die here!

**************************************************************

Another explosion rocks the ship and the communication channels fall silent along with the emergency guidance system and the lights.

I guess one of the asteroids must have hit the block generator.
Under my heavy and hasty breath I thank Garkla for my fathers foresight, that made him teach me all about the escape routes in case of emergency.

I whiz past various corridors, jumping over debris and corpses alike.
Most of the escape pods I've come past are already gone, so I guess more of my kin survived the onslaught than I thought.
Either that, or the vermin figured out what's going on and are fleeing the ship themselves...but how could they?

After all, these savages are hardly capable of figuring out what the rescue capsules are and how to operate them, despite it being really easy.

Another corridor down, another escape pod gone.
My lungs burn like fire and the dense smoke isn't making it any easier to see where I am going.

All of a sudden, I notice heavy steps behind me, but I dare not to turn around.

Be it friend or foe, if I let myself get slowed down now, I will not make it in time, so I force my feet to go even faster.

And then I see it.
Through the smoke shines a light as if sent from Garkla himself.

I mobilize the rest of my energy, while the heavy steps and coughing from behind gets closer with each passing second.

Another explosion, the ship isn't going to last much longer.
I need to run faster!

With a last ditch effort, I jump into the capsule as another asteroid tears straight through the corridor, causing an intense pull as the air gets sucked out into the depths of space.

I hit the launch button with one hand just before something heavy falls on me, pressing all the air from my lungs.

I struggle as the automated procedure disengages the escape pod from the ship and eventually I somehow manage to push the human off my back.

The inertia of the launch and the shift in gravity helps, but the struggle isn't over yet as we toss and toil all over the cockpit.

Eventually my mind snaps back to the reality of the situation and I shout, "Would you stop it already?! We're both going to die if we keep fighting!"

I don't know what made me think that a savage would actually listen to reason, but surprisingly enough, he stops trying to kill me.

"...what in the world is that?!" he suddenly shouts as he points past me, out the capsule window.

I turn away to look myself and stare down a swirling hole inside the void.
A small black hole...without a doubt the gravitational anomaly that is responsible for the end of my ship.

My mind races and I try to get to the controls, but need to realize that they got smashed during the struggle.

"Well...crud..." is all I manage to say as the gravitational pull engulfs us and pulls us ever closer to what I assume will be our end after all.

I am so going to die here.