ToniTaylor
Really Really Experienced
- Joined
- May 25, 2016
- Posts
- 427
"Splash"
CLOSED
Toni emerged from cryogenic hibernation with a foggy brain and unsteady body. Her disorientation wasn't aided by the persistent, ear-splitting emergency claxon. Dressed still in only her paper privacy hibernation gown, she raced to the bridge. She entered to discover that the ship was just minutes from entering the atmosphere of an unidentified planet. The interstellar transport wasn't built for this. It would be torn into shreds. All aboard her would die.
She began the abandonment procedures. Luckily the ship's AI had already determined an imminent threat and had begun the procedure's initial steps. Ejecting the Hibernation Compartment thus became an easy, quick process of tapping a few screen icons, turning a key, and giving a command. Listening to the AI count down to separation, Toni raced for the Hiber-Comp to join her fellow crewmen. But the ship entered the upper reaches of the planet's atmosphere, jostling. The ship's AI was concerned more about the many, not the few, or one: it shut the pressure doors fearing a decompression event. The abandonment procedure was continued without the officer who had begun it being safe in the Hiber-Comp. With a jolt the explosive disconnects separated the shuttle from the greater ship.
Toni dropped to her knees, screaming out in panic and anger. Without her, Toni's crewmates would be unable to exit hibernation. Where ever they landed, they would certainly die. After a moment, she stood and rushed again to the bridge. The ship was trembling, then shaking, then threatening to tear itself apart. In a flash she programmed a ComPad to track the location of the Hiber-Comp. Toni ran for one of the small escape pods adjacent to the bridge. She attempted to buckle herself into the restraints as she gave more commands to the pod's own AI. But she was too slow: the pod shot away from the ship under the power of a single, short lived rocket. She was slammed against the interior wall.
When she regained consciousness, Toni gasped for air. The pod was filling with water. She panicked, of course: the waters of the lakes, seas, and ocean back home were poisoned, some of them to lethal levels. She curled into the fetal position, grabbed at something for support, and rolled herself over. She came up with her head in a larger space of air. Toni struggled against the door, which wouldn't budge. The pressure difference between inside and outside was too great. She waited for the pod to fill entirely to try the door again. Would the pressure of this body of water crush her? She couldn't know how deep it was. Would the poisonous liquid itself kill her? Sooner or later it would, experience told her. Would the door even open once she'd allowed the craft to fill?
Toni took one last deep breath as the water level rose. She closed her eyes, fearing blindness. Submerging, she braced her back to the wall and pushed her feet against the door. It flew open with ease. She reached out, feeling for the opening, then shot out and up. She kicked with all her might. When she broke through the surface, the paper gown that had already been tattered was now stripped from her.
http://66.media.tumblr.com/ebcdd8da6201d715f692ec46184067c2/tumblr_o3m6u46Lot1ufcnzeo1_500.jpg
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