"Foreboding"
(previous post "Executive Nights")
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"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
-Frank Herbert, Dune, "Litany Against Fear", 1965
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Stardate: 60323.2300
Setting: Unknown – Makeshift holding cell
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She could hear the moans through the cold stone wall but she couldn't tell which of her crewmates were making them. She stared at the tiny beam of light that pierced the darkness of her cell. She could follow it up to the small hole near the ceiling that was as far as she could go. She knew there was light out there but that was it. What was on the other side of the door was a complete mystery and she wasn’t sure she even wanted to know what was out there.
She glanced over toward the sound of labored breathing in the corner of her cell. As she waited for her eyes to re-adjust she tried to remember the last time Carrie spoke to her. She had no idea what day it was but she had managed to develop a crude time keeping method based on the beam of light.
She moved toward her friend and winced at the pain in her right leg. She had been injured in the attack on the MERCURY and hadn't been given any medical attention since they were brought here, wherever here was. She found her friend lying motionless and had it not been for the rattling sounds of her breathing, Sarah may have taken her for dead.
"Hang on, honey," she whispered as she stroked the prostate woman's hair. "It will be over soon, some way or another, I promise you." When they were first thrown into this cell, Sarah had held on to the hope that they would be rescued but as the beam of light came and went so did that hope.
They had only been visited once by their captors but she knew that others had garnered more attention. Their screams and cries had told her that. When this ordeal first began, she used to wonder about what had happened to the others, the Captain or the First Officer, her friends but she stopped that a while ago. It was just easier to not think about it, to try and pretend that this was all a nightmare that she would soon wake up from, that all her friends were fine.
Carrie began to whimper and Sarah caressed the side of her face. "I'm here sweetie," she said. She wanted to cry but she had no tears left.
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Matt Kelly (downwitmal@yahoo.com)
Writing for:
1st Lt. Pravat 2005 post #272
MCO
USS ANUBIS
