002 : Amnesia

[Elena de Luca]

Burning ... Burning ...

Somewhere in her subconsciousness, her mind was warning her she was in mortal danger. Something had to happen, something had to change, or she would cease to exist !

Something was preventing her from breathing, and that was what her unconscious was trying to cope with. As the lack of oxygen began to take it's toll, her mind decided to act ... Spasm's began to rage through her musculature, trying to draw live-giving air into her lungs. She coughed, expelling a gravel-like substance from her mouth, her lungs tried to suck in air and she coughed again. This time her body moved ... No longer on her stomach, she could begin to take in the scorching oxygen, but even that was rejected as she dry-vomited.

~~~~~

Opening her eyes she was almost blinded as the raw cloudless sky allowed the full force of the relentless sun to burn her retina's ... Rising onto elbows and knees, she took deep gulps of air, trying to refuel her bloods' oxygen deprivation ..... Satisfied she was going to remain with the living, at least in the short term, she began to get to her feet. Shading her eye's she looked around her. It was sand, so a desert ? ... But as she looked up from under her makeshift shade, she counted four, no, two moons, and 'TWO' suns ... Something in her mind told her that was significant, but she couldn't quite grasp why.

Making a rapid inventory of what she had took seconds ... She had nothing, save for the clothing she was wearing and a small knife that was tucked into her left boot top. She had no other survival equipment, no bottled water, no first aid box, no food rations, but the thing that caused most concern was the water, or apparent 'lack' thereof ... Something told her that she would die inside three days if she couldn't find water.

Looking around, she picked the smallest of the dunes and began to make her way upwards, making sure to take a step, then rest, then step, then rest, as she had been instructed. 'How do I know that ?' she thought as she continued to climb. Thirty minutes saw her reach the rim ..... She figured she had line-of-sight of somewhere approximating fifteen miles ... A slow three sixty rotation told her she was in serious trouble, but for one life-line ..... Wisps of black smoke.

She estimated the distance at less than two miles. A long strenuous walk given her situation, but it was a life-line she couldn't afford to ignore, so she began to walk .....

~~~~~~~~~~

Finally reaching her goal, she looked at the twisted, burned, ruptured chaos. It was the wreckage of a ship, a space ship, she decided quickly. She didn't care at this point, as all she needed was liquids to replenish what she had lost while laying in the sand, and then walking here. Looking at the debris, she chose a point that would afford her cover from the quickly setting twin suns and hopefully provide her some sustenance, before her body closed down for good ...

Climbing towards the opening she had chosen, she came across what she thought could be writing of some sort:

מהנדס

She had no idea what it could mean, nor did she care at this point. Climbing through an accessible rip in the metalwork, she dropped onto a hard, cold, metal floor. She began to move forward as the light rapidly faded, until she came across yet another word:

נאמן; איתן

Why couldn't she read this, why couldn't she understand, she knew she was dehydrated, something in her head told her that, a survival instinct maybe. So, why ? .... 'I do not have time to think about this' she decided quickly, still not facing the question that had been nagging at her since she woke. She forced the doors open until she could enter, totally confused by what she saw. But she did find fluids ... Pouring a small amount into the palm of her hand, she touched her tongue to the liquid ... "WATER !" she almost shouted, drinking deeply from the container before realizing she should be cautious rather than impulsive.

Leaving the room, she began to explore, climbing steadily until she reached a large room, obviously important. She walked around the room, struggling due to the fact it was angled at maybe thirty degrees off horizontal. She looked at the 'stations' each having a seat, some form of console, all without any form of power. But again her worries surfaced, 'Why can I not read this ?' she asked herself again and again. Looking in the direction the seats were facing, she could see a hole, some ten yards by maybe three. 'The front maybe ?' she thought as she climbed towards the gap. Then, sat on the rim she looked up at the moons, at the unfamiliar stars, at the surrounding wilderness ...

She had asked herself a hundred times where was she, but the question that drove itself forward now, feeling the panic rising so intensely that she could no longer ignore it, was:

'WHO AM I ?'

[Elena de Luca]

'It is getting bloody cold !' she thought, beginning to realize her situation as the first of the suns began to reach the horizon.

She looked around the area and decided her only hope of surviving the night was in the husk of the ship. That in itself opened up several issues for her, the main one being would the thing collapse on top of her ... The temperature had dropped over thirty degrees in the last fifteen minutes. She had to find shelter, and something to protect her against the coming cold. The first sun vanished from sight ... Beginning to climb back into the ship, she realized her mistake in delaying. Her hand almost stuck to the frost-laden metal, a subconscious reaction pulling her hand away before any permanent damage could be done. She dropped the three meters to the sloped deck and braced herself for a fall, but thankfully she regained her balance ... Moving through the semi-darkness, she looked for some sort of room, small, where she could wait out the night.

Through gouges in the shattered hulk, she could see the smaller, second sun dipping rapidly toward the horizon. The temperature was falling quickly now, it was approaching zero and was still falling !

She found a small utility room and kicked at the storage units to open them, not willing to risk touching the metalwork. Everything was now beginning to get covered in an ever thickening layer of frost. The exposed parts of skin on her face neck and arms glistened as ice crystals multiplied, rapidly trying to cocoon her body in life-sapping ice.

'Look ! .. Find something, or you are dead' she chastised herself as she searched.

There was some form of gel in the second cabinet, a blue, thick liquid that even in the diminishing temperature, seemed warm to the touch. Without hesitation she smeared it on her arms, face neck and chest, hoping the slight 'burning' sensation was her body heat recovering, and not something more serious ... The fourth cabinet rewarded her with several items she could use. Pulling the material out she quickly wrapped it around her shoulders, feeling the warmth helping instantly. But she was rapidly succumbing to the early stages of hypothermia as her core temperature continued to fall ... She was feeling tired, shivering, and knew she was close to loosing consciousness.

Dragging everything she had found into one corner, she crouched, not daring to sit on the sub-zero beck plating, then wrapped herself in each item she had found. The shivering had stopped, but she knew that was due to her condition worsening and not the protection she had found ... As the second sun dropped below the horizon, she was plunged into complete darkness. The complete lack of any light prevented her focusing on anything but her situation.

'Maybe that will save your life ?' she thought.

"Yes, maybe it will ....." she answered herself as she began to loose any will to remain conscious .. Her heart was slowing, needing to pump blood to smaller and smaller area's around her body as the hypothermia took an even stronger hold on her body. But something was telling her she would not allow this to happen, she wouldn't die not even knowing 'HER OWN NAME' ....

Each breath was now an agony in itself, the frozen oxygen nitrogen atmosphere burning her throat, making her lungs feel as if they were on fire. Some form of self-preservation took over before her eyes froze in their sockets, though it made no difference in the blackness. She had no control over what happened to her now, she would wake when the suns rose, or she would perish on this unknown planet, in this unidentified husk of a ship long forgotten, it was out of her hands ..........

[Elena de Luca]

The room began to brighten as light from the first of the rising suns began to enter the wreck. It warmed the air rapidly, raising the temperature from below zero quickly. She waited, cocooned in her blankets, until she began to feel the warmth against her skin ... Slowly, she pulled the blanket away from her face, squinting against the sudden refracted glare, and within moments the blankets themselves lost all signs of the ice that had formed and were drying rapidly ... Getting to her feet she hung her makeshift protection over a railing to complete their drying and began to examine the room in more detail now she had light ...

The lowest corner of the angled room held a large amount of clear, ice-cold water. She found several containers and filled them, after taking a long drink, as the liquid evaporated. Storing them in one of the cabinets, she had life-sustaining fluid to spare, but she needed something solid ... Food !

Leaving her new-found lodgings, she decided to explore the rest of the wreckage before risking venturing into the harsh, blistering sunlight ... She returned to what she thought was the control room, but for the life of her she still couldn't remember what the correct terminology was. It was obvious the ship had been here many many years, maybe centuries, as everything was covered in a deep layer of sand ... Thirty minutes confirmed her fear that there was no power left withing the wreckage.

'You were expecting everything to just light up ?'

"Not really." she answered herself, continuing to check before moving on to the next room. This one seemed to be some sort of 'office' maybe. A shattered window was allowing harsh sunlight to enter, and it's destructive prowess was evident as the full length of the rear wall seemed to be burnt and blistered from long exposure.

'Just a suggestion, but you need to find somewhere that may have some of that food you are going to need ?'

"You don't say. I may well have lost my memory, but I do know what I'm doing." she replied, abandoning this room and going on to the next.

This room was similar, but had a sleeping area, impractical given the angle of the bed of course, but it showed her that this vessel was long-range, rather than a local hop ship, something that moved inside a system only. She continued her search ... After eight rooms she came across something different. The writing was still abover the doors as always, but for some reason she felt it was more warning than informative:

<< אחסנת נשקים >>

She couldn't get through the doors, but decided she needed to know what was in there. She would return to this one later, she decided before moving on:

גליאת סרנים

She knew this room, it was the ships' galley, no, too small, it was the Captains' private galley. The place were he ate. Finally thinking she was onto something, she began to search the room methodically. Everything was of course dust ! ... There was nothing remotely edible in here, but it gave her hope that somewhere on the ship she would find preservatives, something stored in a dry state ready to be re-hydrated maybe. She moved on and worked her way through most of the rooms, but found nothing that would be able to help her. She came across a large area, the Medical Bay or surgery. She began to look into cabinets, again hoping to find anything useful.

Her frustration with not being able to read the writing was now worrying her greatly. If she found something she could use, how would she identify it ? ... She did know that medical kits tended to have nothing harmful, so she began to look for anything similar, and within minutes found what she was looking for ...

Most of the item's were beyond use, either decayed like the food stocks, or damaged enough that she wouldn't risk using them. She decided that this room was going to be safer than where she had slept the previous night, so she began to move equipment and cabinets to form a small section in one corner, away from the door and hopefully not in any direct sunlight from the massive tare in the bulkhead ...

'You called that a bulkhead.'

"So ?"

'Why bulkhead, and not wall, maybe things are coming back to you ?'

She didn't bother answering herself this time, she was trying to survive, if her elusive memory allowed her a snippet here and there, all well and good. Maybe it will come back altogether, that way she would know 'how' she was, and 'how' she had ended up here ...

Leaving her new accommodation she headed back to the other room to retrieve her water supply. She reached the room and began lifting the containers out of the cabinet. She took the first batch back then returned for the rest ... She pulled out the containers and began to leave the room:

''Did you miss them the first time we were in here ?'

"Missed what ?" she asked, looking around the room in confusion.

'In the corner'

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She looked around slowly, a sudden feeling of foreboding running through her. There, in the corner she had taken the water from, was a small metallic box, the lid raised partially. She put down the containers and moved to the doorway, checking left and right and listening intently for any 'out of ordinary' sound, but all she could hear was the light breeze outside and the expanding contracting metal of the wreck as the suns took their toll ... She went to the corner and knelt in front of the box. Lifting the lid, she could see it contained maybe two dozen gel-like sphere's all approximately one centimeter in diameter. She closed the lid and lifted the box, then, returning to the containers she gathered those up and took them back.

She took the box and placed it to one side before storing the remainder of her water supply. There was still a substantial area of the wreck she needed to investigate before she took to searching the area for flora and fauna ... She headed off to the next room on her list:

'You are not going to admit that the box wasn't there last night then ?'

"It was dark. I missed it ... Simple as that." she replied, realizing that she was whispering.

'Really !'

She didn't reply to that, but couldn't help looking over her shoulder as she moved along the passage towards the next room, the first minuscule hint of doubt beginning to inch itself into her mind ..........

[Elena de Luca]

Entering the room, she could see it was in disarray, but it looked like some sort of weapons storage. Searching through the sand laden decking, she came across several weapons, long with a bulbous protrusion toward the center. She also found several smaller hand guns, non of which seemed to have power ... Discarding the weapons as useless, she moved on to the next room ...

Accommodation maybe. There were several bunks, all flung haphazardly into the corner of the room. Her frustration was growing by the minute as she came across more and more of the indecipherable writing, though at least she could speculate that some of it was names, rather than directions or informational.

'Are you just going to keep wandering around this wreck until you drop. Because personally, I think you are wasting your time when you should be trying to find out who the hell you are and how you managed to get her .... Don't you find it curious that someone with an eidetic memory can't pick out her own name from everything stored in there >'

"It's called survival. Besides, if you're in my head you should know who you are, hell, we can't both have amnesia." she said, continuing to rummage among the overturned lockers and shelving ... Though she did realize the sense in trying to find out more about her situation past knowing there were two suns and it was bloody cold during the thankfully short night. Taking out her knife she moved to the corridor, and before moving on she scratched a large 'X' into the panel next to the door.

'And what is that for prey tell ?'

"It is so I can see which rooms I've been in and searched." she said, shrugging as her actions were self-explanatory, If you're going to keep interrupting you need to start keeping up."

She continued down the sloping corridor, using what she already knew to 'guesstimate' where she was and how far below the sandy surface outside she was getting. The last thing she wanted was to find herself trapped with no way of getting back out ... She stopped suddenly, as the realization hit her ... She was remembering. Not before, but at least everything since waking. That is a good sign, she decided as she continued on. The bulkhead before her was impassable. It seemed to split the corridor into two channels, left and right, but both seemed blocked beyond her ability to clear. She turned, looking back the way she had come and grinned ... Moving back along the corridor, she came to what she thought was a store-room of sorts, but remembered something else from her casual perusal.

"HA !" she said as she entered the alcove-size room. There was an access tube.

'Jeffries tube ... See, I am remembering stuff too.'

"Give yourself a pat on the back." she said as she looked into the semi-darkness, before taking hold of the first rung and stepping out into the narrow tunnel. She took a breath then began to climb down, deciding that if it got too dark she would come back up and figure out a new plan .....

~~~~~

There was little light, but enough that she could see, she was acutely aware that as the suns began to set, this level would be in pitch darkness quickly, so she set her mind on thirty minutes maximum before stepping into the corridor. The first room was large, much larger than those directly above she decided. What halted her in her stride was the nature of the room ... It was obviously a secondary Sick-bay, or Medical Center of some form, but as she entered she could see things that were 'out of place' even here. The bio-beds, were metallic rather than covered, and seemed set out in a large circle around a central work station containing equipment she could not imagine uses for. But one thing was certain, no-one in their right mind would be coming down here for help !

Something within her said that people coming in here rarely, if at all, left again. There were darkened panels above each of the tables, draws, open after the impact had strewn unfathomable utensils around the room. She picked up something looking like elongated forceps, that seemed to have small nodules along the inner jaws rather than a serrated edge.

'Well at least we know your field medic training is still in here somewhere.'

"There's a connector on the end of one of the arms, biometric's scanner maybe. Though why the nodes ?" then it hit her, "These are for torture !"

'Seems our friends are less than ethical in their persuit of knowledge, or information ?'

She dropped the forceps and moved on around the room. Several smaller 'examination' rooms extended from the main area. In the back of her mind she was mapping out what she had found thus far, and for some reason this level seemed much much larger than the one above ... Storing that information, she continued her search of the ante-rooms ... The first two were empty, containing only one of the metal tables and open cabinets with equipment piled into the lower corner. The fourth ..... This room held the same as the previous ones, but with additions ... The most obvious thing, was the body !

Most of the skeleton had fallen to the deck. The skull was large, definitely non-human in origin, but also no species her sketchy memory could identify. The skull itself was marked with deep gouges, and at least a dozen holes. She doubted they were there due to someones attempt to alleviate pressure build-up, more likely they were inflicted with harmful intent she decided. She turned away, ready to move on, but stopped suddenly, turning to face the table once more.

'Ahh, you realized the inconsistency then ?'

"Yes ...." she replied, looking at the scene before her, "The bones are on the deck beside the table, and 'not' in the corner like the rest of the unsecured stuff in here ... So ......"

'He, or she, or it, was alive when the ship crashed. I am going to hazard a guess here, but maybe they were in the middle of whatever they were doing when the ship went down. So my question would be, did it crash, or was it attacked, and if so by whom. Maybe this poor being's race ?'

She ignored the comment and moved to the next room, again much larger than the corresponding room above. This one had one fixed table in the middle of the deck, but was surrounded by almost fifty metallic doors ...

Each was approximately one meter square, with a darkened access panel beside it. The smell gave it away instantly, it was their 'Morgue' !

The first doors were unyielding, and some part of her was thankful for that fact. But eventually she approached a door that was not seated within the frame. She put her fingers into the small gap and pulled ... The partially decomposed body feel outwards, slamming into her chest and knocking her off her feet, both hit the deck side by side, rancid fluids spilling from the chamber ran over her legs and chest. She pushed herself away in blind panic, putting as must space between her and the rotted corpse as she could, frantically trying to brush the putrid sludge from her. Vomit rose within her and she spun her head to one side, ejecting the contents of her stomach in seconds ...

Unable to control the retching, she staggered to her feet and ran from the room. She couldn't remember climbing to the upper level, or throwing herself out into the scorching heat of the two suns. Throwing off her soiled clothing she tried for long moments to control her body, before dry-washing in the hot, smooth sand ...

Only the distinct possibility that she would begin to boil in her own skin if she didn't get into shade, forced her back into the ship itself. But it took a long time before she could go to the room she had chosen, her thoughts constantly on the macabre scene below ..........

[Elena de Luca]

It had taken her three days to build up the nerve to go down to the lower level once more. Only the fact that her meager supplies were dwindling forced her hand. She had made an extensive search of her surrounding area, and was convinced there was no help she could rely on. She needed to survive on her own merits ... Thankfully, she was beginning to recollect things from her past, snippets only, and she still had no idea of her own name, or any details about herself, but they would come, she was sure ...

Approaching the ladder, she hesitated, building up the will power needed, and eventually she began the climb down ...

She reached the bottom and stepped into the dimly lit corridor. The morgue was off to her left, so she decided to avoid that for now, though she knew she would need to go in there again at some point. Moving along the corridor she looked into each room as she passed, but avoided entering. The fifth room seemed, almost anesthetic. She entered cautiously, after inexplicably looking back the way she had come. The room held a single table, pristine given the surroundings, thickly padded, almost surgical.

'So why is this room different I wonder. You can't get past the fact that it looks like it was used only an hour ago, rather than like the rest of the ship ?'

She couldn't argue. You could almost expect a patient to be wheeled in here at any moment ready to undergo some surgical procedure or other ... The thought stopped her in her tracks ! ... She spun around, irrationally expecting there to be someone in the doorway, but she was alone. Frightened, but alone.

'You really should start to notice things you know. Has it occurred to you yet that the deck in this room is horizontal, unlike the rest of the place ?'

She hurried to the door and into the corridor, No, this section of the ship was indeed level, it must have split on impact, the front section riding up one of the dunes, while the center and rear sections settled into the sand on a level plane. that was good in one respect. She was beginning to add to her mental 'plan' of the ship and was now convinced she had been on what could be called 'Deck 1' or the Command deck, which was by design smaller and more practical than the rest of the vessel. She was convinced there would be several more decks now.

This whole level seemed designed for medical experimentation she decided, but surely no-one would design a Star Ship for the sole purpose of, what, research, torture, sadism ?

Leaving the 'white room' as she called it, she made her way along the corridor. She came across partially open doors, a shaft dropped what looked like several decks, a turbo-lift shaft then, she decided, looking down on the crushed remains of what could be a lift compartment ... Moving on, she found another 'Jeffries tube' access, but the light was fading now, and she didn't want to be caught down here when the sun's go down. Marking the rooms she had searched, she made her way back to the surface.

As the first sun set, she made her way inside. Checking her water supply, and the containers she had set up to catch more during the night, she climbed into her bunk and pulled the covers over her before dragging the plastic sheet across the front of her grotto ... As tiredness caught up with her, she began to fall into a deep sleep, her subconscious didn't alert her to the line of footsteps in the sand outside the ship ..........

[Elena de Luca]

'OK, I think we all get it now ... Your experiance in the rue morgue has upset you, but why would it I wonder. You have seen your fair share of death, your fair share of decapitated, dismembered bodies in your time, so why would this disturb you suddenly ...

So you're not even going to reply then, just wander from room to room, finding little tidbits to squirrel away in your little hellhole. That's fair enough, I can cope with you not speaking, after all, it isn't a requirement, I'll just chatter away in the background ...

Just out of curiosity though, and no need to feel the obligation to reply, but when are you going to accept the fact that there is someone else here. Maybe not in the next room, on the same level, hell, they could be camped outside in some cushy accommodation you haven't managed to find yet, coming and goi .....'

"You hear that ?" she said, stopping in her tracks at the end of one of the lower corridors.

'Hear what ?'

She listened intently, blocking out the natural background sounds you find in even the most isolated environment. Yes, there is was, the tiniest sound, constant, low-pitched, almost a deep whine of something running, something 'powered' ... !

She was trying hard to think, fear and apprehension coursing through her veins .... The majority of the vessel she had explored thus far seemed almost 'ancient' almost too old to have been anything that originally traveled the stars, but then, who was she to know. The first of the sun's was already on the horizon, and would set in minutes, plunging the lower decks of the ship into pitch darkness, but she wanted so much to investigate the sound ahead. Making a decision she began to move forward a single step at a time, but after only three meters her light was gone and she was forced to retrace her steps to the ladder feeling along the walls for guidance.

Heading back to her room, the second sun fell below the horizon and the temperature plummeted into the minus scale. From experience, she knew she had seconds to get under cover and protected, before everything was covered in life-sapping ice !

~~~~~~~~~~

Dawn, and the first of the sun's rose, warming the surface sand in seconds, the second sun only enhanced that climb. After collecting water and storing it, she readied herself to go below. She once again climbed down the ladder, ignoring the mortuary rooms, and headed back to the port-side corridor. She estimated she was approximately two hundred meters past the point where the ship was burred, and given the angle of declination she figured she was maybe twenty meters below the surface, likely more ...

Sitting in the corridor she listened intently ........

'What exactly do you think you are going to hear again ?'

"THAT !" she said, only just managing not to 'Whoop' in excitement as she heard the almost inaudible whine again.

'Well, what can I say, you can hear non-existent sounds, yet you deny the plain fact that someone has been wandering around these catacombs while you were elsewhere. Great !'

She stood, pulling the knife from her boot as she rose. Then, she inched her way along the corridor. She looked into each of the open rooms as she passed, making a mental note of which may need further examination. But eventually, she reached her goal .....

'You realize that sound you say you are hearing will be something as simple as resonance from the wind flowing over fractured bulkhead panels, much like the sound you would get from air rushing over the open end of a pipe maybe ?'

Ignoring the comment, she approached the bulkhead. She placed the back of her hand against the wall next to the door ... Cold ... As she expected. Then she slid her hand, slowly toward the bulkhead itself ... It was WARM !

She snatched her hand back quickly, taking several steps backwards, eyes locked on the wall before her. Her heart was pounding as she took one step, then a second, and third, until she was in reach of the bulkhead once more, then she tentatively reached out. As her fingertips made contact, she could feel the heat within the metal. She tried to imagine that this part of the ship was in fact open to sunlight, which would explain the warmth, but everything was screaming that she was wrong. There was heat, and it was coming from the other side of the door in front of her !

The semi-darkness, almost like twilight, this deep into the vessel, was making it hard for her, but she slowly moved her hand around the almost seamless join between the door and the bulkhead. The door, in her opinion, could be a millimeter thick, or several meters, it was impossible to say. There was a panel to the right, so she concluded the door would open to the left. Placing her feet, she put both hands flat on the 'door' and applied a small amount pressure. Naturally, the door stayed put.

Ahh, that insatiable curiosity, and your constant need to jump right, in is coming back I see. Well, off you go, force the door, jump into the unknown ... But whoa, hold on, that isn't you is it ? ... You are clinical, working on information gathered, on your own experience and ingenuity, your desire fro self-preservation, while endeavoring to complete your assigned mission .....

"Wait ! ... So you remember who I am ?"

Hardly surprisingly, there was no reply to that, so again she approached the door. Looking around the rim, she could see no manual access, that didn't mean the door had non of course, just that it wasn't in plain sight. So she again went to the door and pushed, harder this time, and with a little more self-conviction she decided. Then it moved. only the smallest fraction, but she felt the give in the door beneath her palms ... She doubled her efforts, planting one booted foot against the side wall for leverage.

The light in her eyes was so unexpected that she lost her hold on the metal of the door and fell to the floor, gasping fro breath as the wind was knocked out of her. Getting to her knees she looked back at the door, and there was a sliver of light extending from the centimeter gap, dust particles were illuminated as the light traversed the space between the door and the passed along the corridor.

Moving forward, she looked into the gap ..........

[Elena de Luca]

She had guessed that the wreck was at least a hundred, if not as much as a thousand years old, given the decay and saturation from outside elements, so how could the bulkhead be warm ! ... She fought the urge to look behind her as she approached the small gap, a sharp line of white against the gun-metal color of the deck plates. As she leaned forward a pain shot through her head, unlike anything she had felt before. Dropping to her knees in agony, she pushed her palms against her temples in a vane effort to stem the lancing pain in her head.

She could feel bile rising in her throat as her vision swam, the light seemed to be 'inside' her head, burning, torturing her even synapse. She knew she was passing out and tried to fight the self-preservation of her mind to shut-down before permanent damage could be caused ... She lost the battle ...

~~~~~

Something warned her she was in mortal danger !

Forcing her eye's open, she could barely see in the semi-darkness of the corridor. There was a light, she remembered that, but now, nothing ... Lifting her head she was stopped by her hair, it was froze to the deck-plate ... Trying to keep calm, she took hold of the hair and pulled it free of the thickening ice, taring several inches off the bottom in the process. She tried to move but realized instantly that not only her hair was stuck. She looked down and could see her calf was exposed and on the deck. Carefully, she sat up, reaching around the part of her leg in contact with the ice. Thankfully, if indeed there was a good side to her predicament, there was only a coin-size piece of skin stuck down.

'You know what you are going to have to do, and quickly. It is giong to hurt like hell and tare the skin. You will have to get it covered quickly and get to your little hidey-hole before you freeze to death.'

She couldn't argue with the facts ... She carefully tore a strip of cloth from her shirt and placed it on her knee. Then, she put both hands under her calf and felt for the contact point. Looking around, she could see the ice building rapidly now, and the light faded even more.

'Waiting for a drum-roll are we ?'

"SHUT ... The HELL ... UP !" she shouted, taking several deep breaths and grasping her calf even tighter. Closing her eye's she pulled upwards. She dared not halt now, or the blood she was loosing would freeze the leg to the deck completely, and that would signal her death as surely as if someone had stepped up and fired a phaser into her temple.

Stifling a scream, she pulled the leg free and quickly wrapped the makeshift bandage around the open wound. Getting shakily to her feet she quickly retraced her steps to the ladder ... Climbing was almost impossible, and she could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness. Finally, she reached the top and rolled away from the shaft, standing quickly for fear she would stick once more. The corridor swam before her as the last of the light vanished. She dared not touch any wall now as she would stick instantly. Her boots stuck more with each step, and her nausea and dizziness increased.

'Do you want to die here or are you going to stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to your room. There is warm clothing in there, a little light, and something to drink before you sleep the night away ... FIGHT !'

"BE QUIET !" she screamed to the empty corridor, but the exertion was more than her body could manage, and her knees buckled from under her. She lifted her arms around her head as she hit the deck hard, rolling onto her side to keep any exposed skin free of the ice, "LEAVE ME ALONE !"

'Get on your feet ... NOW ! ... Because the option is stay where you are, curl up into a ball and think about your Mummy and Daddy, while the ice and freezing air sap the last vestiges of your weak and pitiful soul from you.'

"I'm ... Going to ....... Kiwll ywou." she slurred incoherently, trying to fight her way to her knees, but she simply didn't have the energy, drawing on her will-power, and her desire to remain alive, she tried a second time, this time she got to her knees. She knew she was suffering the latter stages of hypothermia now, her heart rate was slow, she could no longer speak, even if she had anything to say. She knew that her muscle co-ordination was failing and needed to get up before it did. Fighting the urge to lay down and sleep, she pushed herself up ... The door, her sanctuary, was only meters away now, meters, meters. 'One more step' she thought, but how ... She closed her eye's to think ..........

[Elena de Luca]

'Wake up ....'

'Wake up ! ........'

'WAKE UP ...... NOW !!!'

She opened her eye's, squinting as the sunlight slammed into her unprepared retina's. She took a moment to accustom herself to it suddenly being day. How, how is it she was in semi-darkness, wanting, needing, to sleep, to rest from the pain and frustration, to being inside her room, beneath the covers, beneath the waterproof sheet she used to prevent her freezing to death in her sleep ...

"My leg." she said, reaching down to where she had torn the skin from her calf. But there was a bandage of sorts in place, protecting the raw skin ... How ? ...

'You need to get up and look for supplies. The water is going to be here every morning, but you are running out of solid fuel. Your body needs solids, so get your pitiful [word deleted] in gear and work on a plan of action.'

"Did I, bandage, this ?" she asked, confused, as she moved her covers to one side and tentatively stood on her injured leg. She could see discarded strips of cloth laying around the floor, several empty tubes were strewn around, and she picked one off the floor.

אנטיכאפטיך

"So I am guessing whatever this is is some sort of antiseptic ?"

'Are you asking ?'

"Apparently not." she said, looking around the room as she tested the injured leg. Satisfied she could stand on it, she made a decision ... She headed back to the Morgue ... It took moments to find what she was looking for, a metallic-like fabric, used to cover the bodies. It had felt cold, even when the sun had directly shone on the material. Pulling a large sheet away, she tore it into a rough circular piece, then found a piece of cord to use as a choker. Happy with the result, she made her way back to the surface ... Pluuing her makeshift poncho over her head, she stepped into the light of the twin sun's, then waited .....

Five minutes ... Ten ... Fifteen ... She was cool. Not cold, but whatever the fabric was, it worked to retain cold as well as temperature, so now she had her means of getting out of the ship and exploring. She let out a yelp of success !

'Clap, clap, clap ... That is me clapping by the way ... So you finally figured it out. I knew those survival skills would come in handy at some point. Lets hope you don't starve to death while patting yourself on the back. OK, so here is a little pop-quiz ... Can you figure out the mean solar day on this Eden of a rock ?'

She tried hard to work out when she had come up to the surface, how long she had slept, the length of day and night, and came up with a guesstimate:

"OK ... I'd say, a twenty eight hour day, with twenty daylight hours and eight or less to night." she said.

'Not a bad guess. but we should work it out more accurately. Don't want to get caught out, now do we .....'

She looked up at the first of the Suns then waited ... It took two hours for the second of the sun's to pass the same point, approximately. So she figured if she left the ship by the first Sun's passing the spire of the ship she had used as a reference, the second sun was moving faster, no ! ... The planet, or moon, was in an 'n-problem-orbital path' or a figure of eight orbital path around the two Sun's, but not leaving the transitional path, thus keeping her inside the orbits of both Suns, so she was right, she had 20 hours of day, but only 8 of night.

'We are the clever one I see. So, if there is any chance you can hold off the patting on the back, maybe you could address a more pressing problem ... Food ?'

Stubornly deciding not to reply, she headed back into the ship. She took three pouches and filled them with water. Figuring she had twelve hours' worth of daylight, so she would easily cover a square mile for exploration. She came back to the surface and drew a circle on the bulkhead. deviding it into sixteen sections, she marked off the first section, and with a tentative look back, she headed away from the ship ..........

[Elena de Luca]

For four days she ventured out of the ship, returning each evening before the first of the sun's slipped below the horizon. She was still eating the survival packs she had found. It wasn't fine dining, but it supplied her body with all the nutrients she needed. Thankfully, it seemed emergency rations were all alike in their function.She realized that the ship must be much larger than first thought. She had noticed the swell of the sand running almost four hundred meters beyond where she estimated she slept at night ... The light was a worry, she hadn't forgotten her experiance, nor the fact that she had somehow treated her wound and bandaged it without knowing. She had gone below to check the room, but it was in the same condition as the rest, dilapidated and empty of anything that could help her survival. She decided that once she had checked the area south of the ship, she would once again try to make headway into the bowels.

On the fifth day, she set out early, hoping to cover more ground, and complete the final section of area around the ship. The first two hours were hard going, having to climb out of the depression made by the original impact ... Reaching the crest, she looked around and saw something off in the distance. The heat haze made it impossible to estimate the distance, so she set off walking, checking back every couple of minutes so she didn't loose sight of the spire of the ship ...

Three hours of steady walking and she could clearly see the dark outline of the object. It was large, maybe eighty or ninety meters in length. 'Escape pod maybe' she thought.

'Sit and rest, you are burning off energy. That thing wil stilll be there in another hour. You need to drink some fluids'

"Yes Mother." she said, but did as she was told.

'Oh, and by the way, that is no escape pod. It looks like some sort of animal !'

After storing her canteen of water, she increased her pace a little, until she was almost there, she knew it was an animal now. It looked as if it had simply lay in the sand before dying. Four massive tusk-like appendages stretched out of the head over ten meters in length, the body was hairless, the skin almost translucent. From what she could see, the animal had at least three legs per side. The smell was almost too much and she had to fight her inclination to vomit, but as the minutes past she became less affected, as long as she remembered to breathe through her mouth that was ...

'WOW ...... We can live off this for the best part of a year. So, steak tonight, all we need now is a handy vegetable patch and a winery and we are set. Well, don't just stand there, start carving'

Instinct told her that something this large didn't need to employ poisonous skin cells, or neurotoxin's that could restrict breathing ability, or attack the nervous system, so it was likely the meat would be edible ... 'If I could find a way to cook it' she thought wryly, before taking her knife and making a tentative incision in the flesh. When the animal didn't explode in her face from any gaseous build-up, she enlarged the cut to over a meter. The meat was pink, despite the fact it should have been almost cremated in the heat of the sun's. 'Maybe the skin prevents heat saturation' she thought, making a mental note to cut a section for her own use at some point, but first things first ... She took her pack, making sure not to expose herself to direct sunlight. She dropped the pack and let the metal warm. Cutting a slice of meat she dropped it onto the pack. It sizzled and crackled as the fats began to cook. Turning the meat she waited, smelling the cooking steak over the rankness of the cadaver it came from. Two minutes and she had a large cooked steak on the end of her blade. She raised it to her mouth, hesitation suddenly gripping her. Touching her lips to the meat, she had a flash-back of a restaurant, a meal, a bottle of wine, but the 'memory' faded instantly as her taste buds caused her brain to crave a taste of the fare.

Thirty minutes and she had ate her fill of the animal, not having to make any further cuts. She cut several lengths of meat and packed them away, she would take them back to the ship and store them. She could return to the animal again and again now she knew she had a supply of fresh meat ... Happy, for the first time since waking, she began her return journey and home.

'Never pictured you as any sort of cook. I have to admit I am surprised at how good that steak tasted. Not to put too much of a damper on things while you are busy congratulating yourself, but ... Has it crossed your mind as to just how that animal managed to die within reach of you, bit of a coincidence maybe, or just blind luck ?

"Is there any chance that you are going to keep quiet for once ?" she said, keeping a wary eye on the spire for directions.

~~~~~

As she crested the rise, she could see the ship less than two hundred meters away. She had been making her way down the side of the dune when she stopped in her tracks !

'Now you choose to rest. Not sure if you have noticed, but the sun is going down, and things are about to start getting a little colder ?'

She ignored the voice, looking towards the sun before tracking back to the ship drawing an imaginary line. She could see the lengthening shadows from the tops of the surrounding dunes, and the elongated needle-like shadow formed by the antenna rising from the wreck ... Something wasn't right ... She again checked the location of the rapidly setting sun, then looked at the ship once more, straining her eyes on the on-coming gloom.

'You really want to freeze to death !'

She could feel the poncho beginning to stiffen as the day's sunlight began to fade. In minutes, ice crystals would begin to form and unfortunately, her protection was superb against the relentless heat of the sun's but useless against the cold that replaced that heat as duck fell ... She was beginning to shiver now, as the temperature dropped rapidly, but she couldn't take her eye's off one small section of the ship.

Everything told her that is was OK, the mind playing tricks, much as eighteenth century Earth explorers saw an oasis in the desert, a mirage, sanctuary, a trick of the light. But she couldn't deny her own eyes ...

There was light coming from the ship ! ..........

[Elena de Luca]

How could there be a light ... The ship had no power no means of producing the thing she was looking at now. She needed to think, but she urgently needed the cover of her room, otherwise she would die standing in the freezing sand beneath her feet ... She looked left and right, trying to decide on a course of action, but with her extremities beginning to feel the cold, she had but one ...

Making a mental note of the location of the light, she kept in the lengthening shadow of the dune, and ran towards the opening in the side of the ship. She slowed as she approached, keeping, hopefully, out of line of sight of whoever was inside. She dared not touch the outer skin now as it was already passed the point of freezing, so, climbing inside carefully, she dropped the meat she had collected and took out the knife she had fashioned ... Taking a freezing breath, she made her way to the room she used, listening intently for the slightest sound.

In almost total darkness, she climbed below her makeshift tepee, she pushed herself against the bulkhead, knife held out before her, and waited ......

Not for the first time, she was grateful for the relative shortness of the night. Sleep had eluded her as the first of the sun's made it's appearance. The symphony of noises from the expanding defrosting metal of the ship would cover anyone approaching her, so she was tensed for long moments, before she finally inched her way to the entrance of her abode ... The room was, as far as she could tell, was as it was when she left on her foraging venture. Tentatively, she moved to the doorway and peered along the corridor, 'nothing out of place there' she decided. She needed to retrieve the meat she had procured before it was scorched by the heat of the rapidly rising temperature of the ships superstructure.

Listening intently, she made her way back to the rip in the ships skin and picked up the still frozen pieces of meat. She had decided she would store the meat in the Sick-bay on this level, taking portions as and when needed. She had hoped to return to the carcass to acquire more today, but she had other things to look into .....

'Who do you think our guest could be, a survivor from the original crash, doubtful of course, unless they live for centuries. Wait, maybe they were stranded here just like us, now that could be interesting, though, it does beg the question as to why they are remaining hidden. Not to mention how they seem to have light .... Makes you wonder .....'

She put the meat into storage then retraced her steps to the entrance she used. The heat of the second sun was making itself known now, so she remained inside. She took the knife and scratched an outline of the area she knew, along with her guess at how much of the ship still lay unexplored. She marked the section she had seen the light.

'It is impolite to call on people unannounced you know. Maybe you should leave something here that would be seen, one of those calling cards maybe, and then they could maybe do likewise ? .... The downside to that plan is obvious. They would know you were here, and could come looking for you. At least at this point neither of you seem to be impatient to meet .....

"Two decks up, maybe sixty meters to the stern." she said quietly, before making her way to the access tubes.

~~~~~

The light was much better here, in fact, it was 'too' bright as the direct sunlight lanced in through the sections of hull that had been breached. Marking the access tube, she began to make her way aft.

'Aft ... Not to the back .. Interesting how you keep renaming things.

She had traversed maybe fifty meters along the corridor when she looked at the deck. Why was it causing her concern ? ... Then it hit her ... There was very little sand !

"No, wait, that would be about right. The breaches would allow air-flow, they would be susceptible to high winds that would clear loose sand and pack it toward the ends of the corridor." Pleased at her analysis, she continued ..... She reached a gap in the bulkhead and risked a look. She was higher now than she had ever been since waking, and could see much further. She wished she hadn't bothered, as all she could see for as far as the eye could see, was sand, sand, and more sand.

'On a calm sea, the eye can see the horizon approximately twenty seven kilometers away. So, if this place is the approximate size of Earth, we have some walking to do'

"Earth ?" she said, turning away from the gap. "Is that where I come from, another planet, or is this Earth ?"

She put the thought aside. Regardless of where she was, she was in danger, her aim was survival, and that took ultimate precedence. She continued along the corridor, glancing into any open rooms as she passed. All seemed to be accommodation, single bunks, storage space, bathroom facilities. Checking her mental 'map' she decided she was almost at the section where the light had been seen. She inched toward the next room, listening intently for the tiniest sound that would give her possible adversary away ...

She stopped instantly as a shadow moved in the next doorway !

Listening intently, hoping to ascertain where the person was within the room. She looked at the dust-laden sunbeams as they entered through the breaks in the bulkhead. The shadow moved once again, but this time she knew the owner was only meters from the doorway ... Readying herself, she raised the knife to waist level, point forward, then, taking one final breath, she inched toward the doorway ..........

[Elena de Luca]

She could hear movement. Her mind was in turmoil as she approached the door, How, how could there be anyone else here. Why, why would they not have revealed themselves, what reason would they have to remain hidden, tormenting her daily ... All these questions flooded into her mind and she had to consciously fight to put her questions to the back of her mind, something she had never had to do before as her training always took prescience !

'Now how would you know that ?'

She didn't answer the question as she watched the shadow moving beyond the doorway. Sunlight was streaming into the corridor, reflecting off random surfaces. She ignored her fears and raised the knife a millimeter higher, then, stepped into the room ....

Her attacker jumped forward, reaching out to take hold of her. Instinct finally took hold and she thrust the knife forward, hoping to incapacitate her foe. She felt the blade rip through material and something else, but she was suddenly thrown away, back into the corridor. Sand whirled around her, manic reflections forming shadows, attackers, enemies, things that wanted to harm her ... She shielded her eyes against the burning sun and sand, holding the knife before her in blind panic.

"WHO ARE YOUUUUU ! " she screamed over the din, before her 'fight of flight' reflex took over her body. She stabbed at the figure in the doorway, who seemed to be taunting her hidden fears. The noise was deafening now, and she couldn't hear her own screams as she fled along the darkened corridor, her attacker surely in pursuit. The sand was burning her skin now, her clothing little protection from eons of expertise in the art of decay ... She needed to find somewhere safe, somewhere she could hold and fight back against her unknown attacker, because every fiber of her body told her if she should loose, she would die !

Some hitherto hidden 'second-sense' told her to move to the right instantly, and not a micro-second too soon, as a large piece of metal buried itself into the bulkhead less than a centimeter from her face. She slammed herself backwards, hoping to avoid a recurrence of the attack. She feared she would be deafened permanently from the roaring around her, she was loosing consciousness quickly as the lack of breathable air diminished, replaced by the wind and trillions upon trillions of grains of life-sapping sand. She could feel her grip on her knife failing, and feared her attacker would be able to reach her easily without any means of defending herself. The lack of oxygen finally won over. But then, as suddenly as the cacophony had begun, it began to subside .....

~~~~~

She cowered in the corner, listening intently to individual grains of sand moving beside her. The corridor was in semi-darkness, the numerous hull breaches now filled with sand. But that wasn't her concern at this moment as she listened for the approach of her attacker, who would surely come to finish his task.

She had no clue as to how long she remained secreted in the corridor, almost covered in the now cooling sand, but eventually she knew she must move ... Lifting her head, she cautiously scanned the corridor in both directions. She was alone ... She pushed sand away and tried to stand, but pain lanced through her right thigh and she dropped back to the deck in pain. Moving more sand, she could see the knife she had been carrying ..... She could also see it was buried to the hilt in her thigh !

Confusion surged through her mind ... Why would her attacker leave her alive if all he wanted was her demise, and why would he cause her arm while allowing her to live. To prove he had some form of 'hold' over her well-being, her survival, over her very life ... She looked at the knife, and it's location in her thigh. From the lack of blood loss, she was sure the blade had not severed any major artery, so maybe her attacker wanted to play some more, thus allowing her to live ?

Using her left leg, and both arms, she managed to raise herself off the deck. She dared not remove the blade, as even though she was sure it had not cut into any vital blood supply, she couldn't be sure it wouldn't as she tried to remove it. She had little choice but to get to the Sick-bay and take it out there. At least then she could do something to prevent herself from bleeding to death.

Wary of being attacked once again, she inched her way back .......

~~~~~

On the Bio-bed, she put everything she needed to help her, then, taking a breath, she pulled herself up beside the supplies. It took all her will-power not to scream in pain as the tip of the knife, protruding from the back of her leg, scraped against the bed, twisting the blade. Packing cloth around the site, she put a small piece of metal into her mouth and bit down. Then, not wanting to prolong the inevitable, she griped the hilt in both hands and pulled the blade from her leg !

She worked quickly, pouring what she had decided was some form of antiseptic liquid over the wound and rubbing it around the back to enter the exit puncture. Fighting her urge to shout, she quickly bandaged the wound and cleaned away any residual blood, at least that way she would know if it continued to bleed ... Feeling dizzy and nauseous, she dragged herself back to her room and climbed into her protective cocoon. She held the knife before her, listening for the return of her assailant until exhaustion took hold and she slipped into a fitful sleep ..........

[Elena de Luca]

It was still cold when she climbed from under her protection, the first of the Sun's had yet to fully rise above the horizon, but she knew she needed to eat, and replenish the liquids lost throughout the night quickly. She dare not be lax while her attacker could still be aboard the ship.

She cautiously made her way back to Sick-bay where her supply of meat was stored. By the time she had retrieved several portions and made her way back through the hulk, the first Sun had warmed the metallic hull plating to almost boiling point ... Dropping the meat on the hull, it only needed seconds to cook and she flipped it quickly. Moments later she had three pieces of medium-cooked steak.

'Where are the roast potatoes, veg, and gravy when you need em' 

Once done, she wiped the juices from the hull section that had become her cooking area, then retrieved her knives. Taking a breath, she began to retrace her steps to where she had been attacked the previous night. There was no sign of her attacker, in fact, no sign that there had been anyone else inside the ship at all, and that was frightening ... As she approached the room she slowed to a halt, unsure of herself once more, but knew it was enter or go back and wait for the attacker to come to her.

She stepped into the room, knife at waist height and ready, but the room was empty apart from tattered clothing on what were rails, moving slowly in the breeze from the rupture in the hull. She picked at the clothing, refusing to believe it was that that had spooked her the previous night. There 'HAD' been someone inside the room, he had attacked her, otherwise, how did she receive the knife wound to her leg ?

'No ..... You are not alone here'

Fifteen minutes later she had found nothing useful, so, either there was nothing to be found, of her attacker had got what he came for and had left. She doubted that option instantly, no-one could survive outside the wrecked ship, so they must be inside and hidden, only venturing out when needed. So maybe he had food supplies, water, and maybe weapons that worked ? ... Questions ran through her mind in quick succession, but none came up with a convincing answer, so she had no choice but to continue her search, and that meant venturing even deeper into the hull than ever ... She marked the wall where it wouldn't be seen by the casual on-looker. 'No need in advertising my hide-out' she thought sarcastically before moving further down the darkened corridor .....

~~~~~

There seemed to be less corridors running off what she called the 'Main' thoroughfare of this part of the ship, so she decided it was narrowing as she moved further forward, which seemed logical. She reached a section with a cross-corridor and looked left and right. She marked the hull and made a mental note to investigate the other corridors later, but for now she needed to press on ... Maybe thirty meters further she felt sand under her feet and the angle of the buried hull steepened, 'There must have been a breach here' she decided, and moved forward cautiously ... She stopped dead in her tracks, listening intently !

There had been a noise, she was positive, nothing loud enough to be obvious, but enough that it reverberated through the empty corridors like someone dropping keys in a tunnel. Her heart raced as she held her breath, not wanting anything to block the sound should it reoccur. The light was fading this far into the ship, and she flattened herself against the bulkhead, not wanting to be a target silhouetted against the light.

There ! ... She heard the sound again. Someone was ahead of her, she was convinced of that now. So, back glued to the wall, she began to inch forward once more a knife in each hand.

'You know he could be just around that next corner, yet here you are marching into danger'

She didn't reply to the comment, knowing full-well that it was correct as she continued forward ... The corridor split into two here, with a set of double doors facing her, one off it's fixture and twisted back on itself:

אסטרומאטריכאל 

She didn't have time to investigate the room but from what she could see it looked like a computer complex, maybe scientific, astrometrics maybe, she simply wasn't sure. All she knew was everything seemed lifeless. She took the right corridor and continued on, but had gone only a few meters when the sound came yet again ... This time she was almost expecting it and knew she had picked the right corridor, her attacker was ahead, and hopefully unaware of her approach. Something made her stop, a confused look forming ... Pressure ... She could feel it, a distinct increase in pressure, like when you know a tunnel ahead as collap ...... That was as far as her thought got before the sound reached her !

It was deafening, a tearing, ripping of metal against the whine of air being forced through an aperture too small for the volume escaping. She raised her hands a fraction of a second before the wall of burning air and sand that would have blinded her instantly slammed into her, tossing her body back along the corridor like a discarded rag-doll. She dragged herself into the doorway she had seen and waited for what seemed an eternity ...

Was there an explosion, was it something else, she had no way of knowing until she could gather her strength and go look. Could her attacker have been waiting for her to approach so he could kill her without having to face her, had she hurt him during their fight and he wasn't capable of fending her off in another bout ? ... All these questions ran through her mind as the noise finally subsided, the rush of air and scorching sand dissipated and she could climb out from her sanctuary. She had lost her knives, and she scrambled to find at least one of them, finally succeeding. Looking down the right-hand corridor, the air was thick with cloying dust and sand particles. She pulled her tunic up to cover her mouth and moved forward once more.

The cause of the devastation was instantly evident as she reached the curve ... Whatever the reason, be it natural, or an premeditated explosion, it had collapsed the corridor fully as thousands of tonnes of sand had flooded in through the rupture like liquid, burying everything in it's path, before finally reaching a point that even so much weight couldn't force the sand further. She stood, leaning against the bulkhead, realizing she could go no further on this side of the ship. Her main worry was how had her attacked fared ? ... If this was caused by the logistics of natural corrosion, the hull simply giving way to the tremendous weight exerted upon it, was he now buried and dead, leaving her safe to survive alone, or ..........

 

[Elena de Luca]

'Why is it that you can't see the startlingly obvious when it's falling around your head. Thousands of tonnes of sand drop on you and still you ponder the idea of venturing yet further into this rusting husk of a ship. You said your, attacker, was ahead of you in the tunnel, right, and here you are looking at enough sand to ... What's the use, it's obvious you are going to do as you please, so why listen to me ... Although, if I wasn't here you'd have no-one to confide in.'

"CONFIDE IN !" she shouted, frustration finally getting the better of her nerves as she slammed her fists into the warm sand, "You pick, nag, chastise, not ONE WORD of encouragement, no praise, no ......" she stopped ranting, listening intently. She had heard a sound, she was sure. Kneeling, she listened again, this time without the distraction of conversation, and yes, there it was again, a scraping sound !

'Well well, seems dropping thousands of tonnes of sand on this guy isn't enough to kill him off. Who would have thought he could still be coming for you. That must be annoying.'

She inched back along the corridor, trying to watch every grain of sand as she retreated. Something told her that it was impossible, there was no possible way her attacker could have survived after being buried under that much weight. Yet the scratching came once again ... Uncertainty, fear, and finally panic, began to course through every fiber of her body. She wanted to run, to turn away and flee to safety, but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide from the menace stalking her, goading her.

She sat in silence, watching each minuscule grain of sand as it succumbed to gravity and rolled downwards. Everything seemed to be moving in some bizarre slow-motion as she tried to tell herself that the scratching, clawing sounds from beneath the sand was the ship, the torn, ruptured metal, settling after the collapse. But it was always there in some dark part of her confused mind that it was indeed her attacker, clawing his way through to reach her once more, and to finish what he had set out to do. Almost like a glacier, inching it's unstoppable way to the sea, she moved away from the curved wall of sand. Knowing that should she make a sound, disturb the sand, anything, her presence would be known, and her attacker would know she lived ...

'You seriously cannot believe he is still alive, kicking and fighting his way from under that avalanche ? ... Oh, yes, the scratching, the scraping, that is a little worrying I have to admit, but then, if you chose to ignore the sounds, you could just get to your feet, retreat back to you little sanctuary, or wow, even be brave and go into the other corridor for a little look ... Ahh, getting to you're feet. Finally, so what's it to be, shall we toss a coin, oh wait, this is the twenty forth century, we don't have coins. What's that thing the used on Earth: Enny Meeny Miny Moe ?. Though you might want to contemplate the possibility that the attacker survived by getting out the other side of the collapse ... No ?'

Ignoring the persistent self-doubt, she got to her feet and with a final look at the tonnes of sand, she turned away and went to the other corridor. She had gone only meters when her sense of self-preservation made her jump to one side. She spun quickly, raising her one remaining knife towards her attacker, but there was no-one there. The corridor was empty ! ... Confusion lanced through every fiber of her mind, she was sure he was there close behind her ready to strike her down once and for all. So where was he, where was her tormentor ?

"WHERE ARE YOU !!!" she screamed, waving the knife ineffectually to and fro, hoping beyond hope to cut some vital artery in her unseen enemy. But it wasn't to be. She slumped to the floor, exhaustion overwhelming her in seconds, "You are here. I know you are. Why not come out, fight me, finish this ?" Tears began to flow freely down her cheeks, as she hugged her knees against her chest. She cried now uncontrollably, unable to stem the flow, unable to stop the wracking sobs that were coursing through her body ...

She had no idea of how long she remained huddled against the wall, but eventually the sobs subsided and her body regained control. The tears had dried long ago. She was tired, tired beyond anything she had experienced before, even when she was protecting T'vana ... A sudden realization that a name had sprung to the forefront of her mind made her sit up and concentrate. Who was T'vana ?

'Aww, you remember her then, that is a good thing. I do wonder how she is doing now.'

"She is ..... Dead. I remember her, I couldn't save her, or her brother." she replied.

'Dead ... Hmmmmm'

"Don't, don't bring back those memories. I loved that little girl, she would have been a Daughter to me if I could have saved her from that murderous Father of hers, but he chose to sacrifice his chi ....." she began to explain to no-one ...

~~~~~

She had no recollection of how long she sat talking, but somehow s realized that the light was fading again now, and she knew she could not, dared not remain once the sun's began to set. She would freeze to death within the first hour if she didn't leave, quickly. She had cried out all her fears she thought, and now she could put all her efforts into survival ... She would kill her attacker if he still lived, and she would find T'vana, even though everything she had come to know convinced her the child was dead, she would not, could not, accept it, because she had suddenly come to the realization that it was her desire to look after T'vana that was keeping her fighting on, and making sure she would survive ..........


 

[Elena de Luca]

The sand burned her hands, it burned her knees and feet through her clothing, but she pushed on, her need to reach the top of the dune outweighing any survival instinct. Her attacker was there, just over the rise, only meters away from her, so push she did. Every footstep plunging into the burning sand every grasp of sand burning the skin from her body, but she could not falter now. her attacker had made a fatal mistake, he had come out from hiding while she was awake, and now she was pursuing him into the desert and beyond if need be, but she would face him, and either kill or be killed. At this point, she really did not care anymore ...

Every time she looked up at the crest of the dune, it seemed to be further away, but that was an illusion, and she fought on, higher and higher. At one point she saw her attacker, struggling as she was, the sand falling beneath his hands and feet, preventing his escape from her wrath.

"RUN !" she shouted, laughing uncontrollably at his meager efforts to escape her, "You tried to kill me, and now it is 'MY' turn now ! ... Climb killer, I'm coming for you."

The burning sand was becoming a problem. She stopped to peal off the burnt flesh from her palms, looking down at her legs and feet, she could see the charring of material, it was smoldering, and close to combustion. That forced her to climb once more. She was only fifty meters from the rim of the enormous dune when she heard the sound ... Puzzled, she halted and listened intently. A breeze began to build, that would hinder her pursuit, but her determination could see no bounds so she began to climb yet again. But the sound came once more, a rushing sound, deep, rumbling, something you 'feel' before you hear it. The sound became a noise, then a roar as she continued to climb. The air coming over the dune suddenly began to cool, until after a moment it was almost at freezing point. She couldn't understand it, the sand was burning, yet the air frigid, how could that be ! .....

Her foe was only meters ahead now, but she couldn't ignore the air, the cold, the sand, but most of all she could not ignore the noise. The roaring sound was almost deafening as she halted her climb and looked up at the rim of the dune above her. Her heart almost stopped at what she witnessed next.

A wall .... A wall of water .... Fifteen, twenty meters high, crested the rim of the dune she was climbing. It rose and rose, almost defying gravity as it built in height suspended over the fragile edge it was trying to overcome. She stood, disbelief in every fiber of her being, but then ......

The water won it's battle, and millions of tonnes of freezing liquid began to fall down the far side of the dune, and directly at her. The wall of water slammed into her body, throwing her back down the dune into the sand below. She tumbled hand over hand, first choked by the water filling her mouth and extinguishing any life-giving oxygen, but then her mouth filled with burning sand, her eyelids forced, open by the shear weight of liquid and sand were scorched until her retina's melted, blinding her. But her mind held the images, and faithfully brought them to the forefront of her mind, allowing her to 'see' her own eyes being burned from their sockets !

Her body was thrown like some discarded rag-doll, first covered by the falling torrent, next buried in the burning sand. Then the wet cloying sand entered her mouth and thrust itself down her trachea, into her stomach and lungs. Her ability to breath life giving oxygen into her body was removed, so she knew she was dying. Her body tumbled and suddenly she sensed light, salvation. Reaching upwards, she used the last vestiges of energy and thrust upwards, toward salvation in her hunger for survival. But it was short lived as her lungs ceased functioning, full of damp, rancid sand. Her last conscious thought before dying was about T'vana .....

*****

Her eyes sprang open and she gasped for air. She was in her sanctuary, her own room on the derelict. She breathed so deeply she almost passed out, but she was alive, and that was what counted, counted beyond anything she could had envisioned. The sun reflected through the breaks in the hull of the ship as it had always done. Her mind was struggling hard to comprehend her situation. She had died on the dune, she knew that beyond doubt. She could not take her eyes off the doorway, and the sun's rays streaming through the gap, illuminating the microscopic particles of dust in a rainbow of life giving energy. The realization of her encounter suddenly took hold ... It had been a dream, a nightmare, a nightmare beyond anything a sane mind should be able to concoct.

But then, she lowered her gaze and froze. Panic rose so quickly she had no means to control the sudden onslaught of terror.

Her body was covered in damp, cloying sand ..........

[Elena de Luca]

She fought hard to control herself, knowing somewhere deep inside that she would have handled this in a calm, logical, not to mention stable, way. But she wasn't herself, and she had known this since regaining consciousness. How was she covered in sand, wet sand, she had dreamed the tsunami, that was clear, but it was the most vivid and realistic dream she had ever experienced.

'So, on top of everything else we are now sleep-walking .. Brilliant !'

"SHUT THE HELL UP !" she shouted, trying hard to control the shivering.

'You need to find dry clothes, and quickly. There should be uniforms laying around, you need to change into one of those before you either freeze to death, or cook in your own clothing in the sun. Up to you of course, no pressure'

She hated to admit it, but she was right. Fighting against the panic that she may encounter her attacker at any moment, she tentatively left her room and made her way to one of the crew sections. She finally found a uniform. It was black, one piece, and made from some form of fabric she hadn't seen before, or at least, she couldn't remember seeing it. Irrationally coy, she undressed ...

Standing naked, she lifted the garment. It somehow felt 'warm' to the touch, the gossamer-like fabric seemed to 'hum' as if sentient, but she knew that was ridiculous and donned the garment quickly. Zipping the almost invisible fastener, she stood and looked down at herself. She was about to head back to her safe haven when she noticed a small light. At first she thought it was in the room, but she realized it was on her arm, just above her wrist ... It was the suit !

"What the ...." she said, looking around as if someone was going to suddenly appear. She ran her finger over the light and it immediately changed. A small green light, maybe a millimeter in diameter seemed to be pulsing in time with her own pulse rate, she had no idea as to why the suit would monitor it's occupant, she couldn't find any way to deactivate the light, but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Over the next few minutes, she examined the suits, quickly realizing it would be very useful against her assailant. She took a second suit and made her way back to her room, stashing her 'back-up' in one of the lockers before moving towards the breach she used to go into the sunlight. For a few seconds the suit seemed to be analyzing it's surroundings, It began a subtle change from the Matt black, to an almost incandescent silver where the sun was touching the material. She could 'feel' the suit working on some sub-dermal level, then the heat of the first sun seemed to diminish ...

'Ahhh, the suit is protecting you from the heat. So maybe it does the same once the sun's have gone down. You should check that out the first chance you get. Of course, if that little gizmo on your arm is linked, that all your attacker needs to do is put one on himself, and ...Voilà !'

"Ever the optimist." she said, feeling the suit working ... She made a decision. She would eat, there was plenty meat left in the lockers, she would cook some, then, she would go back into the ship an explore the section she had ran from the day before.

*****

'So we are going ahead then. You're not going to question 'HOW' you woke covered in wet, cloying sand from head to foot, no, well maybe we'll need to revisit that little issue once you have stopped to think ... Oh, and not one to be pessimistic here, but do you really want to risk going down there ?'

Ignoring the question, she began to move down the corridor. There were rooms off either side, they looked like crew quarters at first, but as she moved deeper into the ship, it became evident that the rooms were living area's ... She entered one room and realized that it was similar to 'family' quarters on a Star Ship ...

'So we now remember Star Ships. Things are really looking up'

She opened a wardrobe and found more clothing, but this time much too small for an adult. This was children's clothing. She dropped the dress and moved to the next room. This too had children's clothing. She estimated the children to be aged between six and early teens. So why the hell was some medical experimentation vessel carrying children ! ... Then it occurred to her, the clothing, the rooms, the fact she had totally ignored the skeletal remains in the medical bays. Nausea engulfed her at the thought these barbarians were using 'Children' to further whatever they were doing.

She couldn't comprehend how anyone, any race of sentient beings, could use children !

Maybe it was something akin to 'premonition' for want of a better description at this point. She looked around the room seeing nothing out of the ordinary, if that were possible, but then her eyes fell on the table ..... For long moments she couldn't figure out 'why' the table was worth the scrutiny, but then it dawned on her. The room, the desks, chairs, beds, the carpet, in fact, everything, was covered in a layer of dust. Apart from the child's doll ! ..........

[Elena de Luca]

She stood for long moments, looking down at the dust laden table, the plates covered in sand, the cups that had, at some point in the past held a nourishing liquid, but now had a thick coating of slime o the surface, and ...

The Doll !

Eidetic memory, 'ha !' she thought as she looked around the room to see if anything else had been moved, or disturbed. She looked down at the deck, trying to figure out if there was a second set of footprints that would account for the dolls' cleanliness and location, but there were only her foot falls in the dust and sand. So how ... How had the doll appeared on the table ?

'Is it possible you moved it when you came into the room, you were definitely distracted with the suit ?'

She moved over to the door, listening intently, as if she would suddenly hear a sound that would explain everything. But there was nothing but the breeze outside the hull of the derelict vessel entering through the numerous ruptures. She went back to the table and sat down. She wanted to pick up the doll, to see if there was some sort of name, or anything that could help her identify the child that would have cherished her, but she couldn't bring herself to reach out and take it.

Suddenly the room began to spin, she felt vomit rising in her throat, and a lancing pain drove into her skull. She collapsed sideways, falling to the floor in agony. Slamming the palms of her hands against her temples she squeezed as if trying to resist the pressure of the pain by inflicting more of her own. But her arms began to shake and they dropped away from her head. She lost the battle against the nausea and managed to turn her head as she vomited freely. Cramping spasm's wracked her body for almost five minutes, before finally subsiding. The pain in her head eased, and she fell back exhausted on the warm deck. She closed her eyes, trying to stem the motion sickness as the room began to settle. Eventually, unconsciousness took her ....

ooooo

Opening her eyes, she tasted the stale vomit that had crusted around her mouth and down one cheek. Tentatively, she lifted herself onto one elbow, fearing a second bout of nausea, but she remained unaffected, so sat up and took one of the water bottles from her belt. She poured some onto her hand and wiped away the mess from her face before taking a drink to rinse out her mouth before spitting it out. As the last effects of her sudden attack wore off, she climbed to her knees, then used the overturned chair to help her to her feet. She could tell that it was passing late afternoon by the shadows formed by the primary sun, so once sure of herself, she decided to return to her quarters and clean up. She turned and stopped dead in her tracks.

Her heart began to race uncontrollably, fear and horror rising within her as the 'fight or flight' response almost caused her to jump back ... The doll. Previously lay in the middle of the dust-laden table, was now sat upright, and was looking directly at her !

[Elena de Luca]

She couldn't take her eyes off the doll. It was as if it had her mesmerized, held in some unearthly state. She knew she had to get away, get out of this room, and away from the doll. Her mind raced, how, how could the doll have moved, maybe she had indeed moved it when she was searching, but she couldn't remember ...

The shadow in the corridor was very low now, she she had no options left. Trying not to look at the doll, she ran from the room and made her way back to her room. Every second she heard something, a sound, bulkhead plates contracting, deck's cooling, but every sound was her pursuer, her attacker, getting closer and closer. He would reach her in seconds !

Panic raged through her, she dared not look behind her for fear the outstretched hand of her attacker was millimeters from her shoulder. The darkness and cold was closing in on her now, within seconds she would begin to feel the effects of hypothermia. Reaching her room she dove into the corner, pulling the protective blankets around her, the cold numbing her fingers. The suit was keeping her body warm, but she knew that her hands would suffer irreparable damage if she couldn't warm them quickly.

She sat huddled for hours, watching the sheets move in the breeze, knowing her attacker was outside, waiting his chance to come for her, to take her life once and for all ... Finally, exhaustion overcame her need to stay awake, and she fell into a fitful sleep. Her eye's darted left and right as she dreamed of her assailant, ripping the covers away, plunging the knife deep into her chest. Blood, blood, covering her hands as she tried to stem the flow from the puncture in her heart. But it was no use. Her life giving blood left her body rapidly, and she finally succumbed ......

ooooo

Warmth ... She could feel the warmth of the sun's on the blankets covering her. But she knew it was an illusion. She took long moments, remembering the knife, the blood, unable to open her eyes for fear of what she might see. Moving her hands, she could feel her fingers as they inched upwards from her legs. She could feel her stomach rising and falling as she breathed. She moved upwards, feeling the curve of her chest ... Finally, she found the will to open her eyes. The fastener on the suit was open to her navel, naked underneath, she looked down, there was blood. But not what she had expected. There were scratches across her chest rivulets of dried blood had run from the scars downwards. There was blood beneath her finger nails, and she realized what had happened. During the dream she had clawed at the imaginary incision, hoping to prevent herself from bleeding to death, the scratches were a result of the vivid nightmare !

Relief flooded through her .....

She climbed from her covers, and began striping off the suit. Nude, she walked into the next room and crouched in the water pooled in the corner. She washed the dried blood from her chest and stomach, before cleaning the remnants from her hands and finger nails. Returning to her room, she used one of the medical salves to coat the scars before dressing in the suit once more .... The Doll !

The thought hit her. She would need to investigate the ship further, and she couldn't avoid the room where the children's clothing was found, nor the fact that the doll was there. Taking supplies to the rupture she used as a way in and out of the ship, she allowed slices of meat to cook on the section of bulkhead she used as a makeshift hob ... once she had eaten, she returned and filled her water bottles, then headed back into the now foreboding ship.

It took her almost thirty minutes to reach the room. She had halted, holding her breath at every creak and moan of the expanding metal around her, fearing her attacker would step out at any moment. But she reached her goal and stood in the corridor, trying to convince herself it was safe, all the while knowing it was ... Turning the corner, she entered. The room was as she had left it, the light from the corridor giving her ample illumination. The clothing was still hung in tatters, the room full of sand, the only difference, was the table ... It was empty !

'See, you imagined the whole thing. There was never any need to fear, never any cups or plates, no partially eaten food, and certainly 'NO DOLL' ! ... You had some sort of episode, some sort of reaction. Maybe it is the air, or maybe you didn't cook your meat through and suffered hallucinations from the food poisoning ?'

"No, maybe. I don't know." she said, confusion running through her mind like the breeze, "It was there, I'm certain."

'So how is the table covered in a smooth layer of dust. Surely it would have been disturbed by anything that had been on there and moved ... Besides, who the hell would have moved it anyway, you ?'

"Me .... No, but ....." she closed her mouth, wondering if she had indeed imagined the whole thing, but why the scratches, why the blood on her chest and stomach, under her finger nails. Could she had had such a vivid and realistic nightmare that she inflicted injuries on herself as a result ? ... No, she wouldn't have done such a thing, there was a reason, and she would come up with it in due course, she knew she would !

'You seem unable to convince yourself, ahh well, shall we continue our little adventure ?'

She looked around the room one final time, hoping to find something she had missed on her previous visit, but there was nothing more to see. She went over to the wardrobe where the children's clothing was hung and took out a dress, the material frayed and discolored, but nevertheless still almost intact. She pictured the little girl wearing ti, running around the ship, or incarcerated in the small room, she would never know which. Returning the dress, she left the room behind and moved further down the corridor.

Had she turned back for one last glance, she would have seen the doll, sat in the middle of the table, watching her leave ..........

[Elena de Luca]

~ ONE MONTH LATER ~

She had searched through what she thought was approximately seventy percent of the downed vessel. There were sections she couldn't access, due to either structural issues, a bulkhead collapse, or sand invading to the point it made passing impossible. Thankfully, at least from her point of view, she had suffered no more problems with her intruder. He had, for want of a better explanation, vanished ... She was sat in the main Sick-bay, the one 'without' all the cadavers. Marking another notch in the bulkhead wall she counted thirty six, since she had begun keeping a record of her stay, so she had been on the ship for well over a month now. Turning she looked at the plan of the ship she had stuck on the opposite bulkhead, the green sections were ones she had been into, green with a red line meant there was things that could be useful to her, red meant no access. There was quite a lot of green, but a lot of red too, and that was worrying her a little. While she figured the ship could have been on the surface for as little as six months, it could also have been here for hundreds of years !

'Any further thoughts on how we can get into those blocked off area's, because frankly, I am getting a tad disillusioned with going from room to room and finding nothing worth keeping. You should try to build some sort of dredge, or hey, one of those twentieth century vacuum cleaners, what were they called again, yes, Hoovers ?'

"Hold on !" she said, suddenly confused, "How the hell do you know about the twentieth century, and just who's twentieth century are we talking about here, mine, because even I don't know if i know, hell, that is confusing."

She didn't wait for a reply as she picked up her bag of tools and headed back into the depths of the crashed ship. Her trip down took her thirty minutes as she had to by-pass numerous blockages and collapses, but she finally reached the last room she had searched ... She moved onto the next door, this one, not surprisingly, was locked. She took out what she needed and in moments had opened the door a few centimeters. In the dim light, she could see it was yet another living quarters. Bracing herself against the frame, she pushed the door open fully, then took one of the metallic wedges she had fashioned and hammered it into the gap between door and frame. She had been locked into one room for almost eight hours once when the door took it upon itself to slam shut behind her, so she wasn't going to get caught twice.

'Ha, yes, I remember that. Quite amusing.'

She ignored the comment. The room was a standard family living quarters, like each of the others on this level, clean, untouched by the outer atmosphere, no hull breaches, the room was as it had been left a moment or an eon earlier. She made her usual circuit of the quarters, checking in draws, cupboards, everywhere, but again it was fruitless ... She sat on the bed in what she thought was the child's room and thought for a moment.

'I still say there has to something, one item or console on this wreck that still has some power left in it. Maybe you should start checking more secure areas of the ship.'

"Bottom draw."

She shot off the bed, throwing herself against the wall, eyes darting around the room in shear panic ! ... She had heard the voice, the whisper, right beside her, she was certain. 'Oh God, what if I am finally loosing my mind' she thought as bile began to rise in her throat, the acute stress response, or the 'fight or flight' reaction people get in a sudden anxious situation, was trying hard to make her run from the room, but something else was holding her in place, preventing the signal from her brain to reach her leg muscles.

"WHO'S THERE !!!" she yelled, trying to keep every square centimeter of the room in her line-of-sight, "Come out. I know you are there."

The moments passed .... She heard nothing from the whispering voice, no-one came out from hiding, she was alone in the room, but that didn't mean her assailant, quiet for so long, wasn't waiting for her outside the bedroom. Finally, she managed to ease herself away from the wall and allow herself to look at the room once more, and yes, it was empty. She moved to the bed and lifted out the metallic bar she used for opening the doors from the bag. slowly, she approached the living area, weapon ready, but again the room was empty. 'I heard it' she thought, trying to convince herself the voice was real, so where is he hiding ?

She sat down, convinced the voice was no more real than any of the other 'noises' she had heard throughout her exploration of the ship. Finally calming herself, she retrieved her pack and moved on to the next quarters, but something told her she needed to go back and look at the room more thoroughly. She backtracked and reentered the quarters, not knowing what she was looking for. Once more she looked at the living area, then the main bedroom, the bathroom, the playroom, and finally she went back to the child's bedroom ...

Her eidetic memory allowed her to 'remember' the room as it was on her first visit. Apart from the bed covers being ruffled where she had sat on them, the room was exactly as it was previously. She turned to leave when something caught her eye ... The bottom draw on the bedside cabinet had been moved. Earlier it was closed, but now ...

She walked to the cabinet, kneeling down slowly, not wanting to disturb anything. The draw was open less than a centimeter, so she couldn't see inside. Heart racing, she moved her hand closer and closer until it touched the handle. Taking a breath, she tentatively took hold of the metal and began to open the draw. Her eyes, and her mind took in the contents, the white nightdress's, folded neatly. She could see the intricate embroidery around the neckline, white on white. A small hairbrush, two or three headbands pushed in front, but her mind also took in another object. Her head began to spin, nausea rising, she knew she was about to pass out, but had no control over what her body and mind was doing anymore. As blackness engulfed her, the last conscious thought was of the object atop the nightdresses ...

The doll ..........

[Elena de Luca]

She opened her eye's, confusion ran through her for a few seconds, until she remembered what had caused her blackout ... She lay on the floor, mentally checking she was alright to move, but no matter how hard she tried, she remained locked to the carpet. Minutes passed as she fought the fear holding her, and eventually, she lifted her head, then rose to a sitting position. The draw was there, still open, still filling her with terror !

'Get off the floor. You cannot stay here, so pick yourself up ... NOW!'

She lifted herself to her knees, then stood up, inching backwards until her back hit the bulkhead wall. She finally moved forward, eyes never leaving the draw, but once she reached the cabinet, there was no doll, no sign of it. The nightdress was there, white, pristine, unruffled, but no doll ... Her mind was in turmoil, she 'KNEW' she had see the doll, knew it was there, in a room it had no cause to be in, no way of getting into the draw, unless .....

'Be careful where you let this take you, all manner of things could happen if you go down the route you are heading.'

"BE QUIET !" she shouted, slamming her palm over her mouth to prevent any other words from emerging. Her eyes darted left and right as if her assailant had heard her outburst and was, even now, coming for her. She listened intently, fear rising as every panel stretched and groaned as the sun expanded the metal. She was convinced the man was close, maybe right outside the door. She looked around the room, panic gripping her every thought. She needed to hide, to conceal herself from her foe. She ran to the bathroom, eyes never leaving the door, but she was no better off in here, she was trapped, her killer would come for her now ... Every one of her senses seemed to be hyper-activated. Light seemed too bright, smells, she could smell the sweat, stale urine, vomit, mixed with talcum powder, soap, toothpaste. Strawberries, lime, vomit, sweat, sweat !

He was there. outside the room, inching ever closer. Her mind was fighting the fear, but loosing. Everything told her she should survive this, but she couldn't convince herself of that fact, and thus, she fell deeper and deeper into the chasm engulfing her fears.

'There is no-one there, you do realize that ?'

Hours past ... Days ... Seconds ... She had no sense of how long she remained hunched in the corner of the shower unit. She had lost all feeling in her hands through clutching the knife, the feelings in her legs had gone so she slowly rubbed life into the aching muscles ... Eventually, she managed to stand, the sounds had diminished now, the odd scrape, or ping of expanding metal, but no foot-falls, no approaching assailant. She climbed out of the shower and slid along the wall, eyes locked on the room beyond. Finally, she convinced herself to move and she took a step towards the living area, then a second, then ......

The room was bright, too bright !

Lighting illuminated the wall hangings, a decorative fixture shone onto the table in the middle of the room. The carpet was clean, no sand, no dust from years, centuries of neglect. A console on the wall was giving out some muted information. She walked over and looked at the screen where a young woman was reading from notes in front of her, she was smiling as if nothing had happened. She looked around the room, panic rising once more. A light was flashing 'Notifications' ... She reached out, hand shaking, and placed a finger millimeters from the screen then touched the light:

'בית הספר מבוטל. ילדים יישארו עם הורים .. מידע נוסף כדי לעקוב אחר'

She had no idea what the message said. Was it a warning of what was to come, a welcome message ?

She spun as the door opened suddenly. A woman and a young girl, six or seven years old, entered. The woman and child were laughing, why had neither of them seen her, she was there right in front of them ? ... They sat on the settee, the woman tickling the child playfully, then she noticed the screen flashing and walked over to read the message. She asked the child something, but the little girl just shrugged. They spoke for several minutes before the girl got up. As she ran into her bedroom she looked in her direction. It was a fraction of a second and maybe she was mistaken, but she was convinced the little girl had looked right at her ! ..........

[Elena de Luca]

She looked at the little girl, intending to follow her into the bedroom, but the woman moved and she turned ...

"Elena."

She stopped in her tracks, fear and confusion coursing through every fiber of her mind. Who had spoken, what, her name, was it Elena, how could she know ... She turned back to the darkened bedroom, but could see nothing, she spun to confront the woman, but she had vanished !. Running headlong into the bedroom she was almost sick with panic. The room was empty ...

"You are not going to the entertainments suite until you finish your meal."

Elena ran back into the living area. Three people sat around the table, the woman, the young girl, and a large male. He was chastising the child for not finishing her meal, she walked to the table and waved her hand in front of the woman, who completely ignored the interruption. She told the male not to shout at the little girl, but this too was ignored. They can't see me she realized. So what was she seeing, a ghost, an echo of the former residents, but more importantly, 'who' had called her name ?

Her mind whirled in confusion, pain lanced through her temples forcing her to kneel. She was convinced she was going to die in this room, on this desolate planet, alone ...

"Eat your food Chyirr." the woman was saying as Elena tried to rise off the deck, "We shall go to the Entertainments lounge if you do as your Father asks."

The first drop of blood landed on her hand. she stopped struggling, looking at the vivid red orb on the back of her hand, the second landed next to it, then a third. Suddenly it became a stream of droplets, each landing on the one before. She lifted the bloodied hand and wiped it roughly on the carpet watching the expanding pool below her, another wave of panic rushing through her. Turning to lay on her back, she tilted her head to stem the flow before she lost too much. Moments pasted as the bleeding subsided eventually stopping altogether.

Climbing to her knees, she looked at the empty table ... The room was as it was before, dust and sand covering the surfaces, the meals on the table decayed and blackened. She rose to her feet, making her way to the door of the quarters. Suddenly she was on the ship, in space, crew moving throughout the vessel, in the well-lit corridor, people moved about their duties, Humanoid in appearance, they seemed to be content. Elena stood in the doorway, ignored by those passing. The woman and little girl were approaching, Elena stepped into the corridor, unconsciously moving out of the doorway as the two of them passed. She watched the two enter the room, and again the fear rose as the child turned to smile at her before the door closed ...

Elena couldn't move. She looked at the closed door for what could have been hours, before her motor functions returned. She took a step, realizing the door was now open. It had been all along she realized, had she had witnessed some form of flash-back ? ... She had no time to debate the thought, it was dark, and that meant certain death if she couldn't get back to her room. The deck-plating was already iced over, making movement impossible, sh had no option but to go into the room ..........

[Elena de Luca]

She had to work quickly as any hesitation now would surely kill her. She fashioned a makeshift hide from the tattered remains of the sheets and blankets she found in Chyirr's room.

"NO, you have to stop calling her that, it was a figment of your imagination !" she scolded herself.

She dragged everything and anything that would prevent the ice from reaching her body during the brief night hours. Clutching the protection around her she huddled in the furthest corner from the door and in complete darkness pulled the covers over her head ... She listened to the metal as it cooled, snapping, seemingly ripping itself apart as the molecules changed their structure. She fought hard to analyze what was happening around her. It stopped her thinking of the little girl, Chyirr, and her Mother, dead for so long, yet here, in this room, only minutes ago !

The covers were almost rigid now as the cold took full control. She seriously doubted she could get from under the blankets no matter how much effort she exerted ... Her thoughts strayed to her name ... She knew now that her name was Elena, Elena de Luca, but that was all she could gleam from her still faltering memory, but it would come back now, all of it, she was convinced. Breathing shallowly, she began to drift into a light sleep, her mind finally allowing her to relax enough ...

ooooo



Her eyes shot open

There was complete darkness in her little cave of frozen blankets as she looked left and right in the small space between her and the frozen material. There ... Something caught her eye, to the left, no, in front of her, it was so difficult to tell as she strained to keep a visual lock on the minuscule difference in illumination. She was convinced it was some trick of her mind when the 'light' disappeared. But seconds later it was there again, this time right in front of her face. She struggled to drag her left arm upwards under the frozen cocoon, trying to reach the light. Her fingers touched the blanket, it was warm. A small patch, no bigger than a, than a, small child's hand !

Her mind swam with fear as her fingers ran across the small warm piece of material. How ... How could this be.

The heat was rising, she could feel it on her face now and tried to lean her head forward to get closer, but the frozen blankets around her shoulders wouldn't give. Her right arm was trapped beneath the blankets at her side as she used her left hand to feel the warmth. She put her palm against the little warm patch and could feel a hand, a tiny hand, only millimeters from hers, on the other side of the blanket ... Outside.

"Elenaaaaa." the whisper caressed her very soul.

Her heart froze in shock as she heard her name being called. She fought the terror rising within her, putting a little more pressure on the hand touching the know hot patch of blanket. She could feel the little girl trying to reach her hand in return. The patch was now almost a meter in diameter, sweetly scented steam rising from the warm blanket as the ice melted away, she could feel Chyirr pulling at the outer covers now, trying with all her might to free Elena, her pulling became almost frantic in her haste to move the covers, then it suddenly stopped !

Elena sat in the pitch-blackness of her cocoon, confusion, fear, trepidation running through her. She could no longer feel the little girls hands on the blanket. She tried to shout her name, but nothing would come out, then she heard the voice:

"What did I tell you about getting out of bed !"

"Please Daddy, I have to help her."

"You are a disobedient child, and you know what must happen."

"Please Daddy, no ....." the girl whimpered.

Elena frantically clawed at the blankets, quickly returning to their frozen state now the child had released her grip. She shouted at the man to leave the girl alone, but it was to no avail. She heard the crack as the mans palm connected with the child's face. Chyirr cried out in shock and pain. Elena again screamed for the little girl to flee, run, run !

"Daddy Daddy, she will die if I cannot help her, Please help me to save her Daddy." Chyirr sobbed.

"No, you will go to your bed now."

"PLEASE DADDY !!!." Chyirr begged, but then fell silent for a moment. Elena listened but could hear nothing, until the girl screamed, "NOOOOOOOO !"

It was then that the blade lanced through the frozen blankets and through her shoulder. It slammed into the bulkhead effectively pinning her to the wall. She could feel herself loosing consciousness as blood loss took effect. She tried to pull the wide blade out, but it was buried deep into the metalwork at her back. Her last thought was of the man beating his Daughter for trying to save her ..........

[Elena de Luca]

Elena had lay against the bulkhead, unable, or unwilling to move, for almost two days by her reckoning. She was dehydrating rapidly, and had suffered frostbite from the cold. hypothermia had set in now, and she knew she had little or no chance of surviving much longer. Her main regret, was two-fold. She couldn't save the child from the savage beatings of her Father, and she couldn't save herself from dying on some unknown planet, her family no knowing where she had gone, or if she had survived.

She forced her eyes open. Naturally, there was no blade through her shoulder, no blood seeping into her clothing, no child crying for help. She had known for some time that she had been hallucinating, the voices were inside her head, not in some long forgotten vessel. The girl, the family, long since gone, if they ever existed at all. She couldn't hold on to consciousness despite her efforts, and again she slipped into a fitful restless sleep ...

Hands shook her. For a moment she envisioned the ship finally collapsing beneath the weight of the sand crushing the life out of the metal. She was thankful that her ordeal wasn't to last much longer. She could feel herself being moved by the sand as it penetrated the corridor, it would take her soon. She gagged, unable to breathe as the sand entered her mouth, forcing itself into her throat and stomach. She made one last effort to fight off the inevitable before her lungs were rendered useless. Light vanished and she succumbed to death.

"Get an airline in before the lung collapses."

"She's giving up."

"No !"

She felt something against her face, cold hard, and painful. Then again, the stinging sensation increased this time and she could feel a cold fluid on her lips. For a third time the pain lanced through her face and neck, before her mouth was covered, but this time she could almost 'taste' the substance as it entered her throat. The cold, aqueous air rushed to fill her lungs and she began to breathe for the first time in what seemed forever. Again her body was moved as the cloying sand took her once more. She knew it was only a respite, a delay towards the inevitable death that awaited.

Light .... Her mind somehow registered light, where from, how, turmoil within every thought, again light, this time sustained, bright. Shadows moved within the light, dark, foreboding shadows touching her, forcing her body to comply. If her lungs would have allowed it, she would have screamed in fear and frustration at her helplessness.

"Respiratory failure. Cardiopulmonary failure !"

For not the first time in her life, she readily accepted her death. Had she been able to remember what she had achieved, she was confident that her life had not been one of waste and folly. She hoped forlornly, that she had made an ever so small difference, but a difference non the less. Her eyes were allowed to close and the light vanished, the shadows were no longer haunting her last seconds, and she took her last breath before sinking into the nothingness of the afterlife .......

Three Weeks later:


"Lay still." the nurse instructed as she checked her readings before lifting her head and putting a second pillow under it. She gently lowered her head and smiled, "You have given us quite a shock Colonel." she finished before moving away. Elena closed her eyes, trying to understand what was happening. Someone took hold of her hand and she opened her eyes once more.

"Welcome back my child." Sato said, relief flooding every word.

"Wha ......" Elena tried to reply.

"Don't try to talk, you have undergone reconstructive surgery and you need time to heal naturally." Tetsutaro said reassuringly.

"Wha ..... Happ ....." Elena croaked painfully.

"You're shuttle disappeared. It was thought to have been destroyed when you contacted the Ttreek. They double-crossed you and fired on the shuttle before leaving the quadrant. You crashed on an uninhabited moon. Thankfully, one of the Ttreek was captured and we managed to get information on what happened, before the man took his own life. It unfortunately took much longer than first thought to locate you."

"How, how lon ....." she said, feeling herself slipping into sleep once more, but squeezing the hand of the man who adopted her long ago.

"Approximately, ten and one half months." Sato said, placing his other hand on top of hers.

'Almost a year. I was gone for almost a year !' she thought, her mind almost unable to accept what her Father was saying before she thankfully slipped into a deep deep sleep ..........

~ The End ~