C1 Abandoned (Patreon)

These last few chapters have been so hard to write. I really hope they're turning out good. Do you like them?

–––

Tori sat in stunned silence while the galaxy collapsed around her. She felt numb, sitting like a statue, present but irrelevant.

She vaguely observed Captain Gutassi ordering his engineer to weld the commissioner’s door shut and then shut off the wireless network throughout the ship. Only when they’d completely contained the krakun should Onaha disconnect the power to the commissioner’s stateroom. He said he wanted to make sure the commissioner couldn’t escape, couldn’t override his controls, and reactivate the trinity or call for help.

But now what? she wondered. She was trapped here, forever. Re-enabling the trinity would allow the company to fly a warship in through the gate to punish the crew. So, if the captain was never going to re-enable the trinity, then there was no leaving. She could never go back to the Harvest Reaper III. She could never see her family again.

With wet eyes, she looked up at the airlock across the corridor and cursed her petty self-pity. Here she was, depressed about being cut off from her family, and only meters away, the commissioner was poisoned, in the dark, and welded into his stateroom. What a horrible way to die!

She felt terrible about that, but in a way, she was thankful that she had never spoken to him. This happening to a stranger was horrid enough. Had it been someone she knew, someone she cared about… Well, she didn’t want to imagine that.

Tori peeled her strand from her shoulder. She longed to hear Druka’s reassuring voice, but when the device wouldn’t connect, she remembered. The wireless network was offline. Grabbing her cane, she decided to go visit her mate at work, only to realize that she didn’t even know which manufacturing bay he worked in.

Ugh. The ship felt like a horrible and hostile place. She craved comfort and reassurance, needed it. But who could she turn to? Sese would be swamped, looking for an injured killer. Her neighbors would be asleep. Holly, well, he could be anywhere. Without being able to call, she wouldn’t know where to search for anyone.

She wiped her eyes on the back of her wrist. Staring at her strand, she idly tapped on the screen. The last document she had opened was still there: the permission form from Doctor Amhela. She tapped again and was just about to delete it—not like she’d be able to get the commissioner’s permission now—when she realized, maybe she no longer needed it?

The doctor had insisted on the commissioner’s approval because he was afraid of getting in trouble. But if the crew had welded the commissioner into his room, it wasn’t like he could punish anyone! Would it really matter if she had all three signatures? Perhaps, two would suffice—given the circumstances?

Tori’s ears lifted into a fragile smile. Yes, it was terrible that she was trapped here—even worse that Commissioner Troykintrassa was trapped here too—but he was never going to sign that release anyhow. She’d been fooling herself to think that he’d even have considered it. After all, Daskatoma had told her that “no elective surgery” was his ground rule for even giving his nephew the job.

Pff. In fact, Doctor Amhela probably told her to seek commissioner approval just to be rid of her! He knew there was no hope that she’d ever succeed.

But now … what if she had?

A crackling sound drew Tori’s attention. The light above the open airlock glowed brightly and inside the airlock itself, so did the small indicator next to the intercom. She perked what remained of her ears. “Captain! Captain? Are you there, Captain?” shouted the krakun.

Oh, jeez. Oh, no! She had shut the commissioner out of her thoughts by writing him off as dead, but now … hearing his voice? A shiver ran down her spine, and her heart dropped into her stomach. The deep bass rumble was like a ghost’s moan, a voice from the dead.

She sat still, staring in horror, but everyone else had left. She was alone in the corridor now.

The krakun repeated himself time and time again. The indicator blinked off, then on, then flashed repeatedly as the commissioner must have been taking out his frustrations on the toggle, desperate to catch anyone’s attention.

Silence, then Whump! An impact that Tori felt more than heard shook the deck. Had the commissioner just punched the hatch?

Another Whump! then another.

Leaving her cane behind, Tori scrambled across the corridor and grabbed the open hatch with both paws. Airlock hatches were heavy, solid things, and she’d have to put her back into it to make the thing swing either one way or the other. But a krakun? Those lizards were enormous! To the commissioner, a locked hatch was probably little more than a cork stuffed into the top of a wine bottle. If he wasn’t careful, he was liable to pop the whole thing from its hinges, allowing the deadly sulfuric air that filled his chamber to flood out into the ship!

Tori lowered her head and started to push the hatch closed, desperate to save everyone from the burning, disfiguring gasses…

But then she paused. Sealing the hatch was the logical thing to do—the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few—but something was stopping her. Other emotions bubbled up, eclipsing her fear.

When she’d been sitting, passively watching while the captain ordered Troykintrassa entombed, she felt disconnected, helpless, and uninvolved. This was a terrible thing unfolding, but there was nothing she could do about it.

But now … if she sealed this hatch … she’d be the one doing it. It would be her actions that entombed him. And … she couldn’t do it.

Leaving the hatch wide, she shuffled quickly inside, stopping her momentum with one palm pressed flat to either side of the intercom speaker. “Please stop!” she bawled. “Please! You’re going to break the hatch and then all the sulfur is going to come out and kill us all! Please!”

A pause as she drew fresh breath. Then, the voice, “Who is this?”

“This is Tori, sir,” she whimpered. “The captain asked you to talk with me before you left? I got burned by sulfur, and I need your permission to get surgery.” Even though she’d decided that she wouldn’t need his permission, the words just tumbled out.

“Oh… Yes… I remember.”

Her nose running and her eyes blurry, she cried, “Please. Sulfur burns are horrible. They’ve left me … a monster. Please don’t break down the hatch!”

“Okay, okay,” said the krakun in the most calming voice such a mighty creature could manage. “I’m leaving the hatch alone. I wasn’t trying to break it. I just needed to get someone’s attention.”

Tori sniffled hard. She flopped down on the bench beside the intercom and breathed a few shuddering breaths of relief. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her wrist. “Okay,” she whispered back. “Thank you.”

“Look… Tori… It’s … vitally important that I speak with the captain. Okay?” said the commissioner. “Could you please go out in the corridor and tell him to get his tail in here?”

The geroo shook her head, then realizing that the commissioner couldn’t possibly see her, she said, “He’s not there.”

“What?” gasped Troykintrassa. “I specifically told him… Well, where in the Dead Gods’ names has he gone?”

What could she say? “I… I… I don’t know where he is, sir. Everyone left.”

The krakun growled. He cleared his throat and said, “Bridge? Bridge? Can you hear me? Pick up, now.”

After another longish pause, Tori asked, “Sir?”

Commissioner Troykintrassa sighed. “The bridge can listen in on the intercoms. I don’t have a button to call them, but I was hoping they might have heard that.”

He said nothing else, and the silence became oppressive. She began climbing to her paws and mumbled, “I suppose not—” but the commissioner interrupted her.

“Tori, something’s gone wrong with my communicator, and I can’t call anyone. Will you—”

“The wireless network is down,” explained Tori quietly. “I can’t call anyone.”

“Gah! Are the lights out there too?” he asked, sounding very frustrated. “It’s pitch dark in here. My communicator is the only light I’ve got.”

“No, our lights are on,” she said, shaking her head, “but…”

“But what, Tori?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she surely couldn’t tell him the truth. “Something must be wrong. Everyone left in a hurry.” That seemed honest enough.

“A fire?” he demanded. “Is the ship on fire?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I don’t smell any smoke, but then again, I can’t smell anything after the sulfur poisoning. There’s no alarms. I don’t see any smoke.”

“Okay, here’s what I need you to do… Do you know where the bridge is?”

“No.” She sniffled.

“That’s fine, Tori,” he said. “When you leave the airlock, you’ll turn right, then go down two—”

“Sir, I’m sorry,” she said. “This has been a terrible day. I’ve been running all over the ship. I’ve been to three different crime scenes. I’ve seen two dead bodies, and now with the captain running off, I don’t even know…”

“Tori?”

“I can’t even call my mate!” she cried, breaking down into fresh tears. She gasped for breath and explained, “I don’t even know where he works. I can’t go visit him. I’m going back to my stupid apartment, and I’m going to hide under the damn blankets. I don’t care. If the administrators want to toss me in the recycler for not doing my job … well, they can just do it.”

“No! No, wait!”

“I’m done.”

“Tori, don’t go.” The krakun’s voice was huskier now, more desperate, like his snout pressed against the intercom. “Um, uh, you wanted to talk to me about getting surgery, right? After I finished my inspection? Well, I think I’m done. Let’s you and I talk right now.”

“I… I…”

“What did you need, Tori?” he asked. “You need some kind of surgery because of the sulfur poisoning?”

–––

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FSq67mhqOXRFuNyeQs-z7tTGfA9VdUDQIGwqz1t98AY/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?