Air Force
Author - Kavanne
Summary - John tells he crew something he thought he would never have to
remember.
“AHHHHH!!” he sat bolt upright in bed, in a cold sweat, shock on his face,
and horror. His head twinged with pain as Aeryn ran in, pulse rifle in hand.
“What’s, what’s wrong Crichton?” she asked after looking around and not
seeing anything worthy of being afraid of.
“Er, nothing just a bad dream, a really bad dream.”
“You are very odd Crichton.” she stated matter-of-factly, tilting her head
slightly. She turned and walked out and then walked back in again, startling
Crichton somewhat. “Hey.” she said abruptly, as she stopped in the middle of
the room, triumphant at the fact she had trumped John.
“Hey.” he replied hoarsely.
“Hey.” she said again.
“Ok, Ok, you got me, and no I don’t want to talk.” he said slightly annoyed.
“Sometimes people need to talk without actually realising they need to talk.”
“Aeryn, this I do not need to talk about.” he replied, he should have never
taught her that.
“I think you do.” without warning he started the story.
“For a short while I was with the Air Force, I only went on one mission, but
it was terrible. I was flying in formation, by the book, but one of the
pilots was not experienced with planes, especially vertical take off and was
having trouble adjusting. He couldn’t evade the enemy fire and it took off
his wing, his ship swerved towards me and I didn’t have time to move and he
got me. I tried to eject but the switch was stuck and I couldn’t get out, I
was convinced I was going to die, probably slowly. Just waiting to hit the
ground, either dying on impact or letting the injuries overcome me, slowly
but surely.” he had gotten lost in this trance of memories and forgot about
Aeryn’s presence, he was brought out by a gentle voice.
“Crichton?”
“Um, yeah, I hit the ground and then it was black, for about 5 hours I guess.
When I woke up, no one was around, and I couldn’t hear any planes above, my
leg had some metal embedded in it, but it wasn’t bleeding much, and if I had
removed it I would have probably died of loss of blood. Anyway, I managed to
find my compass and move north towards the border and, hopefully, to safety.”
she interrupted him.
“What about a search party, weren’t you going to wait?”
“Looking for a single soldier in the midst of enemy territory and the middle
of the jungle? Even I thought that was slightly insane, I knew they weren’t
coming, my best, my only option was to move.
I walked for 12 days through that jungle. I always slept up a low tree for
safety and never walked in the dark. It was a risk sleeping in a tree,
spiders, ants, snakes, all kinds of poisonous animals could climb, but at
least I wasn’t going to become dinner for some panther.” Aeryn had no idea
what a panther was, but she guessed it was some sort of carnivorous animal on
Earth. “By the time I reached the edge of the jungle my wound was septic, but
I knew I wasn’t in enemy territory, I was safe. If I could find a hospital.
I found a road and continued north, no one came down the road so I couldn’t hi
tch-hike. Eventually I came to a group of houses with a barbed fence round
it. I gathered all of my remaining strength and cried ‘Hello, please, is
there anybody in there who can here me?’ I heard a door close and someone
ready a gun, a really big gun. Just then a voice came round the corner ‘Hands
in the air, and shut up.’ it was an Australian voice, or maybe it was just y
mind playing tricks on me, but what they were doing out there in South
America I don’t know. ‘Ok, Ok.’ I replied, I don’t think he heard me though.
‘Get down on your knees.’ he said next, I used the last shred of strength to
say. ‘That may be a problem sir.’ I must have fainted then, because the next
thing I remember was a woman sanding over me with a wet towel to my head.
‘It’s going to be Ok, honey.’ she said in a Southern US accent. ‘He’s awake
dear.’ she called to her husband, he walked in, like a general.
‘That’s quite wound you got there, now son, how’d you get here?’ all I could
struggle out was: ‘Plane, crash, 14 days’ then ‘hungry.’ The woman chuckled
and hurried out to the kitchen. The man then took the chair next to the bed.
‘I told my butler to go to the village and contact the US air force as soon
as you came, 2 days ago, he should be back within the hour. You’re alive.’ I
think somehow he knew what had happened to me, I don’t know how, but he did.
I felt my leg and it had a bandage on, she must have removed the metal, it
felt worse, probably because of the infection.
3 days later, a US air force helicopter, with a med team and my commanding
officer arrived to take me back to America.” Aeryn was about to say something
but Crichton motioned with his hand for her to stay silent, and that he
hadn’t finished. “They were the best 12 days of my life.” he said dazed.
“What?!” she said, almost laughing.
“They were the best 12 days of my life, it taught me so much about the
meaning and value of life and that it should never be taken for no reason,
like in war. I tried to stop the war, make peace, but I joined space program
instead. My dad wanted me to. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t be here today.”
“Wow, Crichton, I thought I had a bad lot in life.” she said, not quite
believing what he had just told her. A story from the heart, a true story
from the heart.Fini