<USS Avalon> Log-Voices of the Damned

Voices Of the Damned

-Dodge Thomas, Hobbes Harvey, Leila Criswell, Anilla Aguatequa, and Sirius 
Black.



Her eyes sparkled like jeweled scarabs in the desert sunset--a glittery, 
iridescent green inlaid with gold, turquoise and lavender highlights. Hair like 
the darkest night fell in cascades over her shoulders, spilling down her back. 
She smiled, showing teeth as white as the snow capped glaciers of the arctic.

?Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard American Airlines Flight 191, outbound 
from the Chicago O?Hare International Airport. Before we take off, the flight 
attendant staff and I would like to go over a few safety protocols with you. To 
begin with, I would like for you all to make sure that your seats are in their 
full and upright position with the tray table placed in their receptacle and 
locked tightly. Also, please make sure that all carry on luggage is either 
firmly secured under your seat, or locked in the overhead compartment.?

Again, the flashy smile. ?This is Miranda. She will demonstrate how to use the 
oxygen masks in case a cabin depressurization occurs during flight.?

Miranda demonstrated how to use the rubbery masks while the other woman, 
Lindsay by name, talked the passengers through the various safety precautions, 
emergency exits, and floatation devices. Most of the passengers seemed bored, 
but five--three men and two women--sat rapt at attention. They took in every 
detail of her speech, which made her a bit nervous, but then, she was used to 
ogling eyes.

?The staff of American Airlines would like to thank you for choosing us as your 
travel companion. Before we depart, I would like to remind you once more to 
please keep all electronic equipment turned off during take off, and thank you 
for flying the friendly skies.? She smiled, and a few people clapped half 
heartedly.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

?Nice weather we?re having, eh Johnston??

?Oh yea.? 

?Could use a little wind, though.?

The two men in the control tower glanced out the window, where the wind had 
obligingly obstructed their view with a ménage of leaves and a few stray twigs.

?Oh yea.? Johnston clapped one hand over his free ear and spoke into a 
microphone attached to the headset he was wearing. ?Roger, American 191, you 
are cleared for takeoff, runway thirty-two-R. Have a good one.?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

?This is your Captain speaking,? the smooth voice of Walter Lux announced over 
the intercom. ?Thank you all for choosing American Airlines today. As we take 
off, we have a special treat for you. My Co-Pilot, James Dillard, has informed 
me that in just a few seconds you will be able to see just what we see, via the 
aircraft closed circuit television system.? The captain cut out, and the view 
from the cockpit switched on the televisions all over the plane.

The DC-10 accelerated, gaining momentum, then finally lifting off the airstrip. 
Slowly, gracefully, it climbed up into the semi-clouded sky, seemingly aiming 
for a ray of light that had found it?s way through the dismal gray.

At six-thousand feet, the captain executed it?s first bank, designed to help it 
gain altitude and set the aircraft in the proper direction. From the cockpit 
and the cabin, the takeoff had seemed completely normal.

_________________________________________________________________________________

?Johnston?? the other air traffic control person asked shakily. ?Do you see 
what I see??

Small pieces of the No. 1 engine, the one on the port side, began to dislodge 
and fly apart. Seconds later, as the aircraft began to bank steeply, it?s left 
side dipping down, the entire No. 1 engine pylon dropped off the wing.

Acting exactly like it was supposed to, the severed engine flew up and over the 
left wing before arcing downward and slamming into the runway below.

___________________________________________________________________________________

?Ladies and gentlemen, I?m going to have to ask you to please remain calm. I?m 
sure it?s just a little turbulence, that?s all. Please stay seated.? Lindsay 
pleaded, her eyes full of fear and her hair tousled out of place. She looked at 
one of the passengers, and forced herself to look away. It was like gazing into 
the eyes of death itself. She looked once again, but was surprised to find her 
stare met with deep pity, an almost profound sense of guilt, and an urging to 
do something to stop the impending doom that was leering down on all of them.

She felt foolish asking, but she did so anyway. ?Please, sir. Can you help us? 
Can you help me??

The man looked at her sadly, tears welling in his eyes as he watched her begin 
to slip towards the left side of the plane. In slow motion, he watched her lose 
her footing and fall over three passengers seated by a window. A woman 
clutching a baby seated in the center row of the ill-fated craft screamed and 
pointed. 

He watched the horizon rapidly rise up, blotting out the gray skies with a 
parking lot and a housing park. The plane shook violently, dislodging luggage 
from the overhead compartments and throwing towards the side of the plane, 
which had assumed the position of ?down.? 

There was a brief, fleeting moment of stillness, where silence had lease and 
people did not shout or scream or cry. Their deaths had suddenly and 
unexpectedly found them, and they were making hast to be at peace with 
whichever deity they chose to call on for help. 

In the seconds before impact, the man once again saw sky, although instead of 
being above the ground, it was below it. He felt awkwardly aware of the carnage 
that was about to present itself to this unprepared city, and he saw with guilt 
the terror stricken eyes of the flight attendant who had told them how to act 
in such an emergency. 

The oxygen masks popped out of their tiny compartments in an almost comedic 
fashion, first flying up towards his face with the initial charge, then falling 
back to the side.

The DC-10 plowed into the housing district at a nose down attitude of 21 
degrees, with a port bank of 112 degrees.

There was a terrible crash. Flame burst out of everything, charring, singeing, 
melting flesh and bone. Glass and fragments of metal seat and hull plating flew 
at the man, who instinctively covered his face before shouting at the top of 
his lungs:

?Computer! Freeze program!?

Bodies froze awkwardly in the air, people?s terrified expressions forever 
engraved upon their faces. A few women who were still harnessed in their seats 
hung their, their hair defying gravity as it stood up and about their oddly 
contorted bodies.

All but two, who?s hair immediately drooped.

?You know, we could have been killed.? One of them protested.

?Ah yes,? Dodge answered them as if her were talking to himself, ?but then, 
technically, you were.?

Hobbes Harvey gave him a semi interested look. The whole simulation had taken 
him from his intra-psyche journey with his imaginary friends long enough to at 
least pay attention. ?Elaborate.? He said simply.

?Every man, woman, and child on that aircraft, all two-hundred and seventy of 
them died in that crash. The American Airlines Flight 191 disaster was widely 
considered the greatest aviation disaster in the country of America for several 
decades.?

There was silence and the group moved out of a tear in the craft, to stand on 
the deceivingly placid grass six or seven feet away from the crash-in-progress.

?You see,? Dodge continued calmly, ?that craft was run by a series of 
engineers, engineers who failed to keep up on their maintenance. They didn?t do 
their duty, and two-hundred and seventy people plus two innocent bystanders 
from the housing park died.?

The group walked around to the front of the plane, where it was currently 
halted in it?s endeavor to bury itself. ?Take a step back and get a good look, 
because if you neglect your duties onboard a starship, even the smallest thing 
like failing to clean a plasma conduit or overlooking a faulty relay until next 
time,? he paused, ?then this could happen.? He snapped his fingers.

The holodeck simulation resumed, and the crashing plane rapidly augured in, 
crumpling in on itself and spewing debris and flaming wreckage all over the 
place. Someone behind him screamed and the plane was instantly upon then, a 
vision of deadly neglect and burning jet fuel bearing down on them, threatening 
to crush them--

And then it was gone. The grassy field they were standing on drifted softly in 
the north eastern wind, and the tiny ray of sunlight that the now vanished 
plane had been aiming for centered on the group, closed slowly, then vanished 
altogether. Seconds later, the entire simulation ended.

Dodge stared at the group stoically. ?I hope this will be a lesson well learned 
on the holodeck, and not needed in reality.? He stated grimly. ?I trust that 
you will all apply yourself to your maximum ability, and in situations that 
call for it, more. We will no doubt be encountering life threatening situations 
in the near future, and I personally don?t want to end up a name on a plaque.? 
He smiled for the first time since the simulation began.

His ensigns didn?t appear to know how to react, at first smiling awkwardly 
back, then looking down at the ground before nodding agreement. 

A pang of guilt stabbed at Dodge and he thought about the stewardess, so 
beautiful?a shadow of a dream?a woman once loved. ?I am sure that should that 
time come, I will be more than proud of each and every one of you, as will the 
Captain. I only hope to achieve as much gratitude in his eyes as you have in 
mine. Thank you all. Dismissed.?

The group stood for a second, still a bit unsure. Then almost instantly, they 
dispersed. The new ensigns were ready for almost anything the books could throw 
at them now, and Dodge was sure that deep down, they were ready for anything 
reality could throw their way too. He only hoped he was up the challenge as 
well.



---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!

Other related posts: