Passengers (PM First)

[TheRPGuru]

It was a perfect moment really. There on the greenhouse worktable, Jake couldn't have picture it going any better. They let themselves go, together. Two bodies acting as one to create the ultimate pleasure between them. Sarah was so tight around him, yet so wet that his thrusts where not a struggle. Her body wanted and accepted him at any pace he wanted. When he thrust hard and fast, her body opened and invited him. When he slowed and held himself deep inside of her, to just enjoy the way she wrapped around him, then her body tightened up and squeezed him.

Jake kissed her, nuzzled her all over. He just wanted to be consumed by her, to have her soft skin caressing him all night long. The weight of everything around him disappeared and it was just him and Sarah. Their soft groans, moans, and whimpers. The wet sounds of his hips meeting hers, or their tongues playing with each other. The creak of the table that rocked gently with the motion of his hips.

Gone was the emptiness of the last five years. Gone were the worries of the ship. Gone was everything, because ultimately nothing else mattered. It was all out of his hands. There was nothing they could do but try and live the best life they could on this ship. This union of flesh was enough to block it all out for a time.

Yet Jake's stamina wasn't limitless and his cock swelled within her. He grunted against her lips as the tingle of orgasm started to work through him. "Sarah I close." He warned, though he didn't know why. Force of habit probably. He learned a long time ago, you warned a girl when you were close. Especially when you were buried inside of her bareback. He pulled his head away to look into her eyes, those wonderful beautiful eyes. "Damn minx, why you gotta go and make me crazy for you?" He said with a smile, slowing his thrusts so he wouldn't quite go over the edge yet.

 

[MadMissJ]

"Damn minx, why you gotta go and make me crazy for you?"

“Every boy thinks that when he loses his virginity. You all go crazy for the first girl who lets you see her naked.” This made her grin again, and though she’d been content to let him drive the bus, as it were, when he was close, Sarah decided that she’d finish it the way she wanted. Sarah had to brush her hair back from her face, random tendrils sticking to the temples of her damp brow. And for the briefest second, they were apart gain, but there she was righting herself on the table, kneeling to put her elbows on his shoulders and wrapping her legs around him, higher this time. Sarah was slim but strong, she’d had to be in the best shape possible according to her contract to go to Eden, and she used Jake as leverage, reaching between them to try and pull him inside her again, her first attempt had him skidding through her damp petals, the next, she could tease herself with the head of his cock at her entrance, lowering herself while he stood.

Sarah seemed to revel in how she could push herself up, the lean muscle of her thighs working with her hands pulled up for her to fuck him now. Though she needed the added help of him supporting her. She could look at him squarely now, eyes dusky with desire, her tits dragging across his mouth as Sarah started to feel the buildup. His stiffness, settling again and again inside her. The angle was everything, here was where she wanted frantic, she needed something uninhibited, she didn’t want to be careful, she wanted that silky slap against her, and she needed relentless motion.

She didn’t have to say a word as the coil of her orgasm wound itself up, tightening around him. Her mouth supped on his one minute and a moan traveled across his lips the next. She’d tried to stay quiet but her gasping, her shuttering, the panting and sweating took her. And she strained against him, and when she came it was fierce. Her teeth against his earlobe, her arms around his shoulders, her pussy, her thighs everything was impossibly tight around him, as she held Jake inside her.

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake's eyes widened in surprise at Sarah's movement. Shoving him back with a strength he didn't think she had in her. Her legs tightened around him as she rose herself up, holding onto him like a porn star from the early 2000's. Jake smiled as she reach between them to try and stuff him back inside of her. His hands gripped her hips and held her, giving her the support she needed to fit him into her warm eager tunnel. Jake sighed happily as he sunk back inside of her and smiled at her bold new position.

Sarah huffed with heavy breath as she working herself up and down on him. Jake could feel the surprising muscles in her legs working on him as she humped herself against him. Her breaths became heavier, Jake's hand tightened on her ass to hold her as best as he could as she worked herself toward her own orgasm.

Sarah's breath and moans increased, and Jake gritted his teeth holding on just long enough for her to reach her peak. He felt her body suddenly quiver around him, and Jake threw his arms around her pulling her tight against him. Sarah's tunnel quivered and milked around him which pulled his own orgasm from him. His shaft hardened and jerked inside of her as he came deep inside of her. His orgasm made the first orgasm from the blowjob the other night look whimpy. His cock jerked inside of her, pulsing with thick waves of his seed filling her.

Jake staggered backwards, weak from his orgasm. Blindly he grasped for the chair, and jerked it under him as he collapsed into it with Sarah on top of him. He panted and giggled with her, his cock still pulsing lightly inside of her.

"Wow." He panted, swallowing hard. "I dont think my knees work anymore." He said with a laugh.

 

[MadMissJ]

Sarah was more than happy when Jake found the chair. There was a sort of magic that pulled you through to an orgasm. It could be the most contorted, uncomfortable, crazy way to get there and you’d never notice, but as soon as it was over and the feeling came back into your limbs, the reminder that it was a workout settled in. Still, she was grinning against his skin, her arms instead of being active, merely linked behind his back in lazy repose. Her legs were jelly, her toes barely reaching the path through Jake’s newly remodeled greenhouses. Her lover was still inside her, and it made for a comfortable perch, in the humidity among the plants.

And here was where she found that softness again. Kissing his skin in the afterglow, one fingernail running along his spine between his shoulder blades.

"Wow."

“Yeah.” She confirmed, leaving a little love bite on his shoulder where her chin rested.

"I dont think my knees work anymore."

“Well geez, the entertainment on this ship is pretty shoddy. Here I was hoping that I would pass the years in luxury but one go round and my sex bot broke.” Sarah tried to get to the end without laughing, but she couldn’t. Her chuckle whispered against his skin. But she didn’t look up to face him, not yet. She’d been gone, not herself, well, unfortunately maybe herself now. Sarah had once had purpose, it was what pushed her to excel. In the here and now she had Jake, who wanted her pretty face, her companionship. Maybe more than that, he needed it. And she had a ship full of frivolity. But not a reason to enjoy it. She briefly thought of the medicine bottles that were accessible by the doctor bot who did her bidding. Motivation was a strange thing. Sarah had had lots of time to sit and think of a reason Jake had gone through five years on the ship alone. He’d said his first two had been just trying to figure out what was wrong with his pod, to try and fix it. But he’d had it right when he’d put the manuals in her med lab. She would try and follow in his footsteps. She was bright, more than. If she could find it, Sarah knew Jake could fix it.

“I was gone.” It didn’t need to be said really, they both knew it. But her arms wound around him and brought their naked flesh much closer and her lips to his ear with her hug.

“I’m sorry. But…I don’t know who I am here, sometimes.” Any of the time, she corrected silently in her head. Sarah gave him another kiss against the shell of his ear. “Maybe we could have met on Earth, do you think?” Because the scenario was much too raw to talk about them meeting on Eden. “Maybe I could have had my headlight go out in my hover car.” Here she nuzzled him, like a sleepy cat who had found the last few rays of sunshine.

 

[TheRPGuru]

On one hand Jake was happy for what had just happened. He hadn't seen Sarah in two weeks, and he had begun to fear just how badly that incident in the observatory affected her. It was clear that the event had hit her hard, and he didn't know how to help her. On the other hand Sarah's words hit Jake like a huge red flag. It was like she was just doing it because she didn't know what else to do with herself.

Here he had hoped she had come to her senses, at least come to terms with where they were. Where she was. He had given her space to come recover, to think and figure out how to best deal with it. For two weeks she had been gone, only to come back to take him for sex. Great sex. But he had not seen it for what it was. She was grasping at straws, grasping for some stability or normalcy in her new life.

Jake closed his eyes and gave a fake smile at her joke. Guilt flooded him, her body suddenly didn't feel so good against his....actually it did, but there was a sour aftertaste to it. Her sorrow, her confusion, her fear....all his fault. All of it. He had been selfish and horrible and instead of live with it or kill himself...he basically killed her. Robbed her of that fabulous life she had planned for herself on Eden.

"Sarah." He told her softly. "It's okay." He ran his hands over her back, gently.

He knew what he had to do. The only way to close the hole between them, to provide his guilt closure, to at least give her a "why" to what happened to her. It would ruin their relationship, but at least it would get rid of the final secret between them. But he was not going to tell her anything near sharp pieces of metal while his fucking balls were exposed.

"Why don't we go to the pool, take a dip, clear our heads, then have dinner." He left out the part about going back to his suite and fucking in his bed all night long. He might feel guilty, but he still have blue balls the size of goddamn melons.

 

[MadMissJ]

They’d done the dinner thing, a bit sedate but Sarah hadn’t minded it. They’d played in the pool, she felt a bit like the kid that she’d never been. Splashing round in the water, splashing Jake, laughing, trying to do a handstand in the water. Just…play. That’s what it was, and not just any kind of play. Foreplay. She could swim to the end of the pool where it bubbled out into space, another place that again, made their large ship seem infinitesimally small. She’d waded around in the bubble, and waited for Jake to come to her, the droplets of water dripping from her nose, her ears and down the water clumped tresses of her hair. The water was warm, and the stars were out, like always.

She should have been exhausted, but she had wrapped herself in an absurdly plush towel that whisked away moisture almost instantly and she held hands with Jake as they padded around the sectors until they were at his room, and he pulled her inside.

But now her breathing was just sharp bursts on her up strokes, slender, talented fingers gripping at Jake’s ankles while her knees were at his own. She was the reverse cowgirl so she supposed that Jake was meant to be the bull she was breaking. In the background, she could see that the lights of the ship around the room were trying to brighten, the ship had an annoying way of trying to keep a twenty-four hour circadian rhythm, as a biologist she knew why and also that it was important, as a woman who was trying to fuck to forget the last few weeks it was a bother. She didn’t want the headache gray of daylight. The insistent control the ship had over them.

She wanted Jake. Sweet Jake, who’d touched her and made something come alive in her. Each place he put his hands, the energy sizzled. The talented, competent man. Thoughtful, but lonely. But she didn’t have the time to think on that, when she shuttered above him, shivers like electricity traveled even to her fingertips and toes. And she yelled, up to the ceiling, something that was akin to a victory cry, throwing her head back, her long hair tickling against his chest.

Afterward Sarah didn’t have the energy to roll over, she just rested her cheek on her arm that was laying along his shin.

“Oh....God…” She panted, then smiled.

“So, what is the score now? Have I caught up?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake suppressed his feelings of dread regarding the whole Sarah situation and just tried to enjoy the evening with her. In that regard, he was successful. He and Sarah had a great time, dinner, swimming, sex, and more sex. They couldn't get enough of each other it seemed. At the end of the night Jake lay on his back watching Sarah ride him for what had to be the climax of the evening in more ways than one. When her orgasm hit her she tossed herself back on top of him, laying there breathing heavily.

Jake smiled and let his fingers play across her skin lightly, her weight was comforting on top of him. It made her seem more real somehow. He expected to wake up at any moment and still be islolated and alone on the ship, or better yet, wake up out of proper hibernation and be on Eden. Neither of those things were likely to happen.

"I think it's twelve to fifteen in your favor." He teased to her question. He lifted his head and gently kissed her shoulder, "Stay with me tonight?" He asked her, with a stiff yawn. The evening had drained him in so many ways he could hardly keep his eyes open.

* * * *

Sarah wasn't with him when he awoke. He got out of bed slowly with a groan, feeling unrested as if there had been something wrong in his sleep. He showered and dressed, then padded his way down to the cafeteria. Sarah was probably up early and messing around in the med-bay, so he just went about getting himself breakfast. After last night, he didn't mind the oatmeal breakfast, something light would be good after such a night.

While he ate the lights flickered and dimmed almost to darkness before seeming to reset. He looked around and held his breath as he waited for it to get worse, but nothing further happened. It was enough of an event to spook him into not wanting to finish his breakfast though. Instead he tossed it in the bin and went to make sure Sarah was okay.

Medical was dark when he got there, but there was the flicker of light from inside like a screen was on. He opened the door and asked, "Sarah? Are you alight?" He clicked on the lights to reveal her sitting at a counter staring at the little screen.

"Why are you sitting in the dark? Did the lights go out on you?" He asked.

 

[MadMissJ]

“No, I was just running through some information.” She said distractedly, “I don’t think that big rock was a coincidence. I know that sounds crazy, but I couldn’t let it rest…it just keeps going around and round in my head. This ship isn’t meant to take that hit, any hits. It’s for smooth traveling. There are too many weaknesses in its hull to withstand something like that more than once. We have a side of windows bubbling out into space, for God's sake” This seemed like a good enough explanation to her, after all, Jake was the engineer of this current two person team and would able to tell her that.

“You said that nothing malfunctioned, but I’m not sure that’s the case. There are so many places on this ship that are closed to us. Where only the staff and bots can go when they aren't in stasis. So, I’ve been running video of what we can see, I have years and years of data, Jake. Just running through the software is easy enough on what you’ve got here, I am trying to see if blinks, blanks, interruptions all fall under the same times and isn’t just haphazard events. I thought I’d start in Day 100 of the year 91 from Eden. Set a point 0.” But her eyes were on the screen. “Once this scan has a date, I get a time, I can look at all other cameras on the ship, confirm disruption, collect the video from just before and just after, make a note of it, and carry on. So far there has been only two blips that I’ve been notified of. One, Year 90 from Eden, One Year 85 from Eden. But only one Jake…” Blue eyes finally lifted from the screen to look at the man that she’d left in his bed for a hunch. A hunch that had taken her the night and most of the simulated morning to punch and press into what he’d set up for her. To read it. To watch it.

"And I was curious and went to my date Year 85 from Eden, and I watched. Then I went back further, and I watched. And back, back, back. Watching you, watching me. Touching my pod, my name plate...looking at the control panel. Everything."

Sarah stood, pushing herself off the stool she’d been using to perch on, putting the work, the notes, the things that kept her brain spinning and busy to the side. But the Doctor, the kindly man in the long white coat, wheeled in to join them, he’d be doing his initial scan of the bio signs in them. Looking first at Subject Two, then to Subject One, giving him a smile and an extending of his hand.

“Hello, Mr. Smith. What seems to be bothering you today?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake felt the pit of his stomach drop to his feet, blackness filled his entire core as Sarah explained what she had been doing so early in the morning. It had never occurred to him that she would use the camera system to go back and investigate. That the ever curious and hungry for knowledge Sarah would go back and find the truth for herself. He realized that while he slept, she sat in the darkness and watched the man she just took into her bed murder her before her very eyes.

Her tone was careful, and even as the spoke, and it made it worse for him. Some emotion he could understand would have been better, rage, hatred, sadness, something. But Sarah just simply spoke in a careful but ultimately flat tone about what she had watched.

And Jake stood there like a stone. So much that he didn't even notice the doc-bot wheel up to him. He just watched Sarah, swallowing hard and trying to think of something to say. Some reasoning, some excuse. But what excuse could he possibly give her for robbing her of her very life? There were no words that could make this right, no words to even slightly justify what he had done. He had been a drowning man, and rather than die alone he pulled her down with him. She had been innocent, she had nothing to do with him, yet he FORCED that upon her.

Murderer.

That was the only word that ran through his head.

Murderer. You fucking murderer. You deserve to die. To die alone.

He looked down at his feet briefly, "Sarah....I..." he started, but again....what could he say? Sorry for killing you? Sorry for robbing you of all your hopes and dreams.

"I was so alone.....for years....isolated and haunted...I fought it...you saw how long i fought it..." He whispered, untrusting of his own voice. "The solitude broke me...and I committed the ultimate atrocity. But you saved me Sarah. I never knew how amazing of a person you would turn out to be....how wonderful you are...your life returned mine...I know that doesn't excuse or justify what I have done, what i have taken from you...I just..." He sighed and let his body just droop.

 

[MadMissJ]

Sarah didn’t want to hear it. There were her arms again, fingers white with the amount of pressure it took to start to pinch herself to try and get away from this nightmare. She knew that Jake would want to somehow rationalize it. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel pity, she’d watched him with his bottles, his tears, his anguish. Hadn’t she already theorized that the mental state of Jake after five years of isolation was much better than any prisoner in solitary confinement?

But she’d also been able to see when he read her files. Hear him musing about her life, about her, talking aloud and he wondered what she’d been doing in her previous life. He knew everything she’d told him well before she had. He’d seen her school records, her PhD thesis, where she’d worked, what she’d worked on, her application for the voyage, everything. There were five thousand people onboard and Jake had chosen her to live out some fantasy life with. And he’d done it, at least he’d tricked her into it. And as his shoulders drooped Sarah almost told him it was alright, that was how badly he’d twisted her up. She almost rushed forward to hold him, but fortunately, she’d already taken care of the situation long before he’d come up on her working.

So, when the law inforcing bots came forward through the door she didn’t have so say much.

“Jake Smith, you’re to come with us. Multiple counts of breaking and entering, disturbing the peace…”

As they came forward, Sarah couldn’t look at him, so her eyes drifted back down to the pad in her hand, forcing a tight line of her lips. An artificial indifference. She wouldn’t say anything, she wouldn’t look at him, it would only be a few moments until she got her space from Jake. Or as he’d confessed to, her murderer. But as they went to restrain the man, some of the words they were telling him caught her attention and made the blonde look up with surprise.

“You will be kept, until such time that the Captain gives his orders…”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake didn't fight the bots that bound his hands and escorted him to the jail. He merely hung his head and went without a word. The devastation on Sarah's face was too much to bare, he deserved this and so much more because of what he had done to her. He always knew that this could happen, would happen. If he was completely honest with himself, he felt better that the truth was out in the open now. The final crushing secret between them was out and now it was time for him to suffer to the fate of his actions.

The jail was a simple cot, electric sliding bars for a door, a toilet, and a device that delivered bowls of oatmeal at regular hours. Jake spend most of the time lying on the cot and staring at the ceiling. When his oatmeal came, he ate it as punishment as if fate knew how much he hated oatmeal.

Days turned into weeks. Still Jake remained in jail. Of course, the bots would do nothing with him because they needed captain's authorization in order to release him, yet there would never be a captain. Jake realized that there was 88-years and change until the crew woke up, and Jake would rot in the cell on oatmeal for the rest of his life. Fitting punishment for murder he supposed.

As weeks, became months, Jake started to wonder if Sarah was okay. If she would ever come to see him. She never did.

Jake lost count of the time he spent in the cell, but he took notice that the oatmeal system was starting to go wrong. At first the oatmeal stopped coming out hot, it became delivered in ice cold water making it even harder to eat. Eventually the oatmeal came raw, no water of any kind. Jake realized he would die of dehydration before he would die of age. He just hoped that Sarah was okay.

One day the power on the ship went out completely again. Not even emergency lights came on. The ship seemed to shut down completely. Jake sat up in a panic, not for himself, but for Sarah who would be terrified and could be anywhere on the ship. He counted in his mind, trying to judge how long the power was out. Five minutes. Fifteen Minutes. An Hour.

An hour in complete darkness, before there was a loud hum as if the entire system suddenly rebooted itself and power returned. Jake jumped in fright as there was a pop and hiss as the door to his jail cell short circuited and slid open. He got up immediately and fled the cell, no longer willing to just sit there as the ship's systems broke down while he was trapped in to rot. He would find the source of this problem and he would fix it, not for himself, but for Sarah. He would not leave her to die with him on a doomed ship.

Jake made his way through the ship looking for something to point him in the direction of the problem. He was nearing the main lobby when suddenly a loud voice boomed through the shipwide intercom.

"ATTENTION! This is Captain Kirk Sutherland. Who the hell ruined the greenhouse on my ship!? If you can hear my voice, proceed to the main lobby immediately!"

Jake's eyes opened wide. Someone else had awakened. Would Sarah have done this? No....the voice said captain. Even if she wanted to wake someone, it was impossible to get into crew hibernation without clearance. That blackout must have caused another hibernation malfunction like Jake's some years ago.

He ran as fast as he could to the lobby. There standing somewhat doubled over was a tall black man, dressed in his captain suit. He was coughing uncontrolably as Jake approached. As Jake approached he heard a door open behind him which would be Sarah also coming to see this new awakened man.

The captain straightened and looked at the two people coming towards him. "I'm guessing based on my greenhouse that something went wrong some time ago." He told them. "How long have you been awake?"

Jake cleared his throat. "Six years."

The Captain shook his head. "It's supposed to be impossible. Hibernation pods are fail safe." He looked down at his hands, which shook uncontrollably. "How early are we?"

Jake closed his eyes for a moment. "85 years out."

A look crossed the captain's face as he realized the situation the three of them where now in. Then he doubled over coughing violently. "Goddamnit. Pod didn't even wake me correctly." He muttered.

When the captain straightened again he looked at both Jake and Sarah. "Let's get to the bridge and see if we can figure this mess out." He turned and began to lead them away.

 

[MadMissJ]

She’d known it was a mistake almost immediately. Sarah, for as smart as she was hadn’t had a manual to read on what the repercussions were for winding up the security bots. She had manuals on the technical workings of the ships, maps and even access to plenty of places. But almost as quickly as she’d made the decision to punish Jake, she wanted to take it back. And she’d tried, that had been her focus for months.

There was no registry or way to drop charged because she’d not called them for murder, what she’d done was what any smart lawyer would have, pin the things that were plain as day on him. Like Al Capone on tax evasion. But no matter what she argued with the bots in charge of keeping Jake under lock and key until the Captain came out of stasis in eighty-five years, there had been no human compassion in them. They were made to mimic people, but they were programmed for justice. And nothing would sway them. So, she was left to come up with another plan, though she had no idea what that would be. Sarah stayed in her lab, and read the books that Jake had put there. Somehow there must be a way to break into the feed of the cameras so she could at least see how he was doing. And if she could do that, there would be another way to access Jake. It took Sarah a while to notice her loneliness, even more time for her to register that things weren’t right on the ship. She was prone to obsession and hard work, when the day and night lighting stopped it went right over her head.

She couldn’t see him, that weighed on her. She was neither family nor staff. If it had been a four-month voyage what was the point in letting the accuser see the accused? She’d tried daily after a month had gone by, going so far as to try and bolt passed security and calling his name. Surely in the four weeks that he’d been locked up he had to think that she’d just left him there to rot. She called his name again, but nothing, she had no idea where exactly in the ship they would be keeping him. She could only hope that he was alright.

Because things on the ship weren’t.

No matter how many times she watched the videos with Jake at the small boxes and keyboards around the ship she had no idea how he was making sure that the ship was alright. She’d ventured out of her lab, and stood over a small readout window, wondering even if she could press the buttons in the order that Jake had, if she’d even understand what information it was giving her. She was now at the point where she’d been alone longer than Jake and she had been on the ship together. It was quickly becoming apparent that all the power from the ship was being shifted from leisure to emergency. The greenhouses, the medical bay, the pods and little else was up running. She’d been trying to her best to get into the room that would house the controls to the ship. With Jake’s trusty mallet and crowbar no less. Sweat stung her eyes and hunger roiled around in her belly, but with the crowbar wedged into the door’s opening, the blonde lifted the mallet and swung it wide, hitting the crowbar and then further denting the door before she had to lay it down next to the holopad that was providing her with light for her task.

She was wiping her sleeve across her brow when the voice came over the intercom. The Captain. The CAPTAIN. And her heart leapt into her throat as Sarah took off at a run, she was so far away, but in a minute, she would be able to explain the problems to him and he would free Jake. But by the time she arrived, there were two people in the lobby. Another malfunction? The Captain was awake, but there was Jake. She hadn’t slowed down, and had quickly forgotten the grease that would be on her cheeks and hands and or the tears in her eyes that mingled with it.

“You’re alive!” Sarah was aware of the conversation that would be taking place, she’d had the same one with Jake. And she interrupted it anyway for a tearful greeting and wrapping her arms around Jake, then reaching up to touch his face, aware of her sniffing back sobs and soft laugh of reassurance.

“I couldn’t see you, I tried, I tried to free you as soon as they had taken you away, I’m so sorry, Jake…I’m so sorry.” She looked back to the captain and then back at her fellow passenger, fingers lingering on his face, finding the lines and features that she’d almost begun to forget. “I’m so sorry, Jake.”

If she wanted to do anything further the cough snapped her out of the tears and apologies. And Sarah focused on the new person with them, smearing the tears away from her lash line with her dirty fingers.

"Let's get to the bridge and see if we can figure this mess out."

Sarah nodded and followed, knowing what scene they were walking into. Seeing as she’d just come from there. The panel closest to the door had been taking out of the wall, the wires that connected the ship to the door had been disabled, the manuals, her written instructions for herself and several writing implements were on the ground, next to the mallet she’d tossed aside when she’d heard the voice overhead.

The crowbar was firmly wedged between the first set of doors and the inside mechanics, several pieces of metalwork that Jake had formerly overseen were in the gaps she’d created making sure that she didn’t lose her progress once she found the trigger for the inside lock of the doors and could release it. To her own eyes, it looked desperate, garbage stuffed into cracks and openings just wide enough to be able to slip her hands inside, that’s where the grease had come from.

“I’ve already been trying to reach the bridge.” Sarah confessed to the men, more than embarrassed as the drawings of the internal mechanics that was stuck at eye level for when she attempted her lock picking blindly.

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake didn't know how to react upon Sarah throwing her arms around him and apologizing. His first thought was regret, he hadn't shaved or showered in months and he probably stank like nobody's business, plus the bushy beard he had grown. He didn't feel like he deserved such apologies, but then he remembered that Sarah condemned herself to a fate similar to his by locking him up. She would have been just as alone as he had been, perhaps she came to understand what had drove him to awakening her in the first place. Perhaps not. Either way he was free and it didn't matter because they had other things to worry about at this point.

Jake grabbed Sarah's hand and urged her along to follow the Captain. As they made their way to the bridge Jake saw that something was wrong with the man. He walked poorly, and his breathing was struggling, every few hundred feet he had to stop and cough up a lung before he could walk again. The whole time he muttered curses at his pod.

The door to the bridge was another matter, tools, panels, grease, all scattered on the floor in front of the door. Jake eyed Sarah as she must have spent quite some time trying to get into the bridge.

Captain Kirk paused and turned back to them. "Sorry you had to deal with this." He whispered. Then waved his wrist band in front of the door which opened immediately. Jake and Sarah followed him in. "Now I have to boot the diagnostics up and see if it will tell us what is going wrong here." He told them moving to a display in the center of the room.

With a few keystrokes the hologram screen booted up brightly, a blue print of the ship appeared before them, completely covered with bright red errors. The Captain coughed violently and looked over the data. "Good lord....look at all these errors. Something is wrong in the engine system, it's like....it's working too hard. It's pulling power from other systems to try and keep itself running."

Jake looked at the man, who seemed more pale than anything else now. "How do we fix it?"

"We have to get to the engine room and manually repair it. There are spare parts for everything on this ship. Gotta see what's wrong first though...." His voice became hoarse, then he coughed again and collapsed to the floor.

Jake pushed away from Sarah to rush to the man's side. But upon fingers to his pulse Jake found nothing. Blood started to seep from the Captain's nose and ears. He looked up at Sarah and shook his head. "He's gone....I guess the hibernation pod didn't reawaken his organs correctly or something. His body couldn't recover from it at his age." He looked down at the man with a frown.

Suddenly the power went out again, this time with a violent shake of the ship. Unlike before the power returned quickly, and Jake looked at Sarah. "We need to get to that engine room." He told her, reaching down and pulling the Captain's access wristband off and putting it on himself.

He stood and grabbed Sarah's hand, "Come on. I might need your help!" He said pulling her out of the room.

 

[MadMissJ]

As they walked, Sarah was becoming increasingly aware of what a state their Captain was in. The pallor of his skin, his cough and the fact that he was cursing his pod. Sarah could see all the signs of an improper wake up. She didn’t need Jake’s hand to make her follow, but she held it anyway. They couldn’t look well, Jake was looking like some of the first people who’d ventured out into space, she couldn’t look much better what with her pathetic attempts to right what was going on all by herself.

However, she wished that she could go back to the minute before the Captain had opened the doors and set them on a course that involved red flashing lights and increasingly alarming error messages. Sarah herself had, had doubts if when she gained access to the bridge that she’d be able to figure out what she was supposed to do. But this was plain as day, no experience needed. The men behind her talked about the engine room, the need for the ship to repeatedly pull power to it. Like the heart in the beginning stages of death, pooling its resources. She turned abruptly as the sound of the Captain collapsing hit her ears. Sarah scrambled back, away from her reading and fell to her knees next to the man.

“We need to get him to the medical bay.” Sarah urged, putting her hands against his breastbone, looking toward the captain’s face. The dribbling of blood from the corner of his mouth meant that the coughing he’d been doing had ruptured something. His larynx, the sensitive lining of his lungs, something along the way. And the blonde put her ear to the man’s chest, only to have Jake shake his head at her.

“We need the Med-Ba…” But Jake was slipping the bracelet from the Captain’s wrist and taking her hand. When the lights again blinked out of existence and the emergency lighting failed to flair, Sarah hesitated. Whatever waited for them wouldn’t be pretty, if what she suspected was true and the huge rock had done irreparable damage to the engine room.

“Jake, we need to think about this.” Sarah spoke as she ran to keep up with Jake. “There has to be someone far more fit on board to help you.” Though as she said it, she realized that if the pods weren’t in working order, or couldn’t be depended on to wake a person correctly, all that awaited them was another corpse. They could literally be running above a level full of coffins instead of pods. “You don’t know what is going to be going on in the engine room, it could even be torn open, we don’t know what is beyond those doors.” This was where her mind arrested her gumption, and she put a hand over the wrist band that she knew Jake was aching to press forward with its permissions. He wasn’t just going to start up a stalled hovercraft, this was a ship, a huge ship with huge engines and all they had was a key and the cooling form of the former Captain.

“You have to be careful.” Of course, her plea was accented with a sharp screeching sound, and suddenly she felt the gravity give way for a moment like it had months ago, in the observation room, her feet feeling like they were lifting off the floor, just moments before gravity, much heavier than it should be, slammed them back into the ground, Sarah struggling against a wall to pull herself up when the ship seemed to want to absorb her into the flooring. It felt like the literal world was on their shoulders for one long, moment her chest seemed to lack the ability to expand, her eyes closed, then the ramping up of the lights again and gravity returned to normal.

Sarah gulped and looked back toward the door.

“Okay. Okay…what do I do to help you?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake fought down the very panic that seemed to bubble frantically in Sarah. She spouted questions of possible scenarios at him as he led her towards the engine room. All of her suggestions weren't feasible, there simply wasn't enough time and there was no way to tell if they could even be done properly. They needed to get to the engine room and they needed to try and fix what was wrong now.

Jake picked up the pace, only to have gravity give out on them momentarily. They slammed back to the ground as if fate itself was trying to prevent them from saving this ship. The air rushed violently from his lungs as he slammed into the floor on his back. He gasped for breath as he hurriedly helped Sarah to her feet. The reality of how short their time was hit her then and she asked him how she could help.

They were in front of the engine room door now, a feint beeping could be heard from inside the bulkhead door. Jake turned to her. "Just gave me extra hands if I need it." He told her.

With a wave of his wrist the door opened and instantly they were blanketed by a wave of incredible heat. Jake gasped as the sudden heat robbed his breath. In the center of the room was a tower of a machine, a reactor control computer. The tower was comprised of segments, and at the top of the tower the last segment was clearly fried. It sparked and whined in the heat of the room. The rest of the tower seemed to beep and hum in agony as it struggled to compensate for the broken piece.

"There!" Jake cried pointing at the top. "The tower must have shorted out or dislodged or something." He looked around the room and pointed to large cabinets around the back of the room. "There must be replacement segments in those cabinets. You look for the replacement while I try to remove the broken piece." He told her.

Jake grabbed the tower, wincing at the heat of the machine. It was burning up, making it nearly impossible to hold onto without burning up his hands. Jake ripped off his shirt and tore the fabric into pieces to wrap around his hands so he could climb to the top of the tower. It was only a couple feet to the ceiling, but the heat burned at him without him touching it. He had to be careful not to let his now bare body touch the tower or he would be burned.

At the top Jake looked for latches, and worked frantically to try and unlock the tower segment.

"WARNING WARNING! TEMPERATURES AT CRITICAL MASS! WARNING WARNING!" An alarm began blaring in the room.