<USS Avalon> "The Fall From Heaven" Pt. 2



“The Fall From Heaven” - Part Two by Junior Lieutenant Savannah Eckstein



The smoke caused her nostrils to flare and for her throat to spasm in a raspy cough. The cough jolted her back to consciousness, or at least to the brink. She couldn’t move and she was instantly alert. Slowly her eyes began to open and take in the surroundings. There was dust or steam or some sort of fog that covered the area. She thought that she was blind.

Savannah Eckstein tried to move, but couldn’t. She attempted to move and arm and it screamed for release. Savvy cried out through angry tears as she came to terms with her broken arm. Compensating with the other she winced in agony again. Shouting an obscenity at her situation, Savannah cried more. The tears poured over her filth-covered face.

“Jared!”

There was silence.

“Sam!”

There was more silence.

There was an enormous pressure on her back. The weight of a thousand ships laid upon her with overwhelming force. She tried with all her might to move her legs, but the familiar pain and agonizing stress followed soon after. She was in a major predicament. Praying that someone had gotten their distress call, Savvy tried to close her eyes and relax.

She tilted her head to the left and gasped in terror. A mangled arm lay less than a foot from her face. The stench of burning and seared flesh entered her nasal cavity, but she fought the instant response to vomit. There was a fear that she’d never felt before. Her eyes started up the arm to see who it belonged to, but she didn’t want to know. Her brain struggled with the idea of death and wanted to know the identity, but her heart and soul shouted against it.

Savannah saw the face. The tattered face with abrasions and what seemed like an endless amount of blood covering it. The friendly smile that once resided there now tossed away without a second glance. The love that had been there. The dedication, strength, and determination that had been there. She sighed and felt more tears flow. The life that had been there. “I’m sorry, Jared,” she stammered through perpetually falling tears.

Recounting the accident in her head, she knew that it had to have been something she did. Shuttles just didn’t fall from the sky; no, Savannah thought, I got ahead of myself and killed him. It was in that moment, that isolated moment, that she realized that she’d killed her brother.

She turned her head away from his lifeless corpse. Her breath caught in her throat as she found herself staring into the open eyes of her sister. Another blank _expression_. Savannah cried out, just to cry out, and closed her eyes as bit her lip as more water left her eyes. Savannah forced herself to look at her sister’s body. Another reminder, she thought, of my mistake.

Oh, why did Sam have to die? She asked the question to herself so many times in that first five minutes, but could never answer herself. “You had so much life left to live.” Savvy knew that a life as prosperous as the one Sam wanted to live should have been allowed to thrive and to grow, but Savannah had taken that away from Samantha Eckstein. Now, while feeling like a murderer, she suddenly felt like a criminal.

How could she have done what she’d done? Why did she do what she did? To prove a point? She would gladly have taken the abuse and lost a peg of respect from both her siblings to have them back. No, Savvy thought internally, they were just having some fun. I didn’t see that and, because of my ignorance, they are dead.

It was an unsettling thought. Savannah’s mind wrapped itself around the memories of her fallen companions and began to reminisce about the times in the past that she had spent with them. All the ones that she went through, and hated thoroughly, suddenly took on a new meaning and grew to a different level of importance and meaning. Life without her siblings became hard to bear and the eye ducts opened to let it all out.

For the first time she noticed the shuttle and its integrity, or lack thereof. The sides had buckled and slanted in. The beams that support the roof had collapsed and fallen in on the helpless crew within. She was now laying beneath one. The power to the consoles were still flicking as if wanting to work, but there wasn’t a chance she could reach them without working limbs. The situation, unless the distress call was received, became hopeless.

Closing her eyes, she thought about them.



*********



At some point she blacked out, or must have, because the next thing she knew there a bright light being shined into her eyes. Again, Savannah was up instantly and looking around. “Hello?” Her lip quivered nervously; she knew that help had arrived. The entire event still seemed surreal, but the horrific picture of her lifeless family brought her back to reality.

“Ms. Eckstein?”

“Yes,” she said quite relieved.

“We’re going to get you out of here, all right? You just stay where you are.” The young man must have been in his late teens. He looked about eighteen. He just had that aura about him that was a man taking his first step into the real world.

She shook her head as best as possible, “No, check my family first.” It sounded hollow and she mentally cringed again. Family. Dead people weren’t family. “I want to know that they’re all right,” Savvy said knowing that they weren’t.

The young man shook his head, confirming her worst fears. She whimpered again as the tears fell again. She had cried during her first time of consciousness. Savannah had sobbed openly with the intent of expressing her grief. However, in that shred of moment and in that brief head bobble, it all came back. She would never understand emotions. And, she realized, that probably was a good thing.

“Where are the others?” Savannah looked around as best she could and found no other bodies. Some rescue team. “Are you alone?”

The young man sat cross-legged next to her and brushed the hair out of her face. It would’ve been romantic had it not been for the steel girder resting across her spine. He smiled at her, “I was walking through the mountains on one of my ‘personal walks’ and I saw your shuttle streak through the sky and land. I was nearby and got here first. I hear that Starfleet is sending some people.”

Starfleet. Her head swivelled again to gaze at her deceased brother. How he had fought for the organization and how much he was dedicated to it. Starfleet lost a valuable officer and probably a damn fine Captain - another thing that Savvy could blame on herself. Blinking away pools of water again, she turned back to her rescuer. “How did you know who I was?”

“The main computer is still somewhat functional, I was able to make out or destination and the occupants onboard.”

“Snoop,” she said with a small smile, “who are you anyway?”

He ran a hand through tussled hair. It was obvious that he ran to the shuttle’s fallen location. “My name is Alec. Alec Veniton, the third.” A British accent, forced or otherwise, floated up with his numeral designation. “It’s nice to get away from England every once in a while. This is the perfect place, so I come here.”

Savvy blinked, “where is ‘here’ anyway?”

Alec smiled down on her again. His presence was soothing and the trauma of the event and the consequences thereof seemed not so bad and harsh. Whether he was trying or not, he brought her hope. “We’re in the middle of Argentina, the Andes.”

“I always wanted to come here, to South America I mean. This, unfortunately, was not the means in which I wanted travel by.” She chuckled slightly and a horrible pain vibrated throughout her chest. Broken ribs. Add it to the list. “What do you do, Alec Veniton, the third?”

“I’m a doctor at Starfleet medical. Introduction to Basic Medicine. Just started a couple of months ago. I would treat you, but I’m not certified and would probably do a lot more damage then good.” He ran a hand across the back of his neck. “I already tried lifting the bulkhead - I can’t.”

It was all right that he couldn’t. She was still enjoying his company. Well, enjoying it as much as she could given the death of her siblings. “It’s fine, being here is good enough. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I think I’m going to sleep now, I feel sleepy.”

“I know medicine enough to tell you that you need to stay awake.”

“I’ll be all right.”

“Ms. Eckstein!”

“Please...call me Sa...van...ah....”



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