<USS Avalon> Log-Silent Night
- From: Dodge Thomas <dodgethomas2000@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 04:03:38 -0700 (PDT)
Silent Night
-Dodge Thomas
?We lost the signal.? Two voices thousands of light years apart said together.
?What!?? The unified response came seconds later.
Dodge Thomas? face fell in much the same way that Lindsay Kaiser?s did, though
they were apart a great distance.
?They?re on their own, Ensign Idan.?
?Then we?re on our own Ensign Criswell.?
And all was quiet.
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A gentle snow fell from the midnight-stained firmament, settling tentatively on
the glacial surface of Vargas Two. Generally, a bitter cold wind gouged at the
surface, preventing the acclimation of snow drifts, but as of recent there had
been little wind. A single structure stood like the bones of an ancient
creature. A single window in the quantum research facility, which had been
named ?Haven? by it?s previous inhabitants, glowed warmly in the night.
Three disheveled humanoids huddled together in the relative warmth of the fire.
For a while, no one spoke, opting to conserve their energy for warmth. But
eventually, after Leila Criswell left to check on the transmitter, returning
with discouraging news as she had, it became necessary to speak.
?You know.? The voice of Carson Fuller rang out clearly over the simple popping
and crackling made by their fire. ?We?re going to die.?
?Don?s say things like that! Dodge, tell him.?
?Tell him what? He?s right you know. We?re going to die here. Without that
signal, the Avalon is going to assume we?re dead.?
?So, we?re as good as dead.? Carson sank further into his nest of wadded
cushions, blankets and thermal ponchos. Their environmental suits had long
since run out of power.
Criswell sighed. ?Maybe we shouldn?t have destroyed the generators.?
?Yea, and maybe we should have let that?that creature infest us!? Fuller?s
muffled voice issued from his heap of material.
Dodge pulled a sofa cushion under his backside and tried to constrict himself
into an even tighter ball. ?The fire?s dying down?somebody?s going to have to
get more material to burn.?
The blaze in question spat angrily for a second, some molten isolinear chip or
piece of carpeting momentarily voicing disdain for it?s cremation.
For a while, three pairs of eyes rested on the fire.
?Yup.?
?I?ll go.? Leila stood up, scraps of fabric falling all around her.
?No?sit down. You went last time.? Dodge stood. ?I?ll go.?
?What?s the point? We?re going to die anyway. Why prolong the inevitable??
?Because, the inevitable is never inevitable. That?s why.? Dodge glared at the
heap of blankets and such that had spoken while pulling on a third thermal
parka. ?At least this way we have a chance.?
Leila perked up. ?Yea. You know. I?ve been thinking. Maybe the people from
Dallas? station will come looking for him. Ya think??
?Maybe.? Dodge gave her a feeble smile. ?But unless we want them to find three
perfect ice statues, I better get out there and find some stuff to keep us
warm. Otherwise, we?re all dead.? He stared at the fire one last time, then
left Haven?s rec room.
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Snow drifts had built up in the passageway since the last time Dodge had seen
them. Quick glances into the various doors that stood ajar revealed much the
same thing. Beds and chairs, tables and desks, all covered with a thin but
thickening layer of powered precipitation. The body of Lieutenant Clair Dumont
lay supine on the floor. A good deal of her torso was missing, starting about
mid-chest and ending suprapubicly, just above her belly button.
Dodge stared for a moment at the woman. In the chaos and confusion of the past
day or so, none of them had taken the time to cover her naked body. Dodge
stepped into the room and pulled a sheet off the untidy bed, shaking the snow
out of it. Quickly, he stepped over, folded the linen in half, and covered her.
Even mutilated as she was, she managed to achieve an air of serenity.
He glanced at her face, quiet and beautiful, almost sleepy in appearance. Her
icy blue eyes stared back at him vacantly, the lids drooped down about a
quarter of the way. For such a grotesque appearance, her face was peaceful.
Dodge realized that the creature, in it?s fury, must have torn the body apart
before Commander Dallas could set it alight. He reached out to close her eyes,
like the heroes always do in stories. But something within stopped him. He was
no blind hero, no nameless savior. There should be no victory in the act.
He knelt down and kissed her softly on the forehead, closing her eyes as he did
so.
?Thank you.?
She did not answer, of course.
?Dodge, I never knew how sentimental you could be.?
Dodge pulled back, quickly. ?Oh. Hi.? He stood up and straitened his uniform.
Carson Fuller leaned casually against the wall, wrapped in bundles of
protective material. He too stood erect, sensing awkwardness.
?I, uh, wanted to apologize for being such a jerk back there.?
?What? Oh. It?s okay, really.?
?No, it?s not.?
?You know, the sad thing is,? Dodge continued on his own train of thought. ?We
really are going to die here. I hear it?s one of the better ways to go,
hypothermia. You get sleepy, then you just don?t wake up.? He took a deep
breath as if her were going to continue, but he remained silent.
?How long until we?re reported as missing??
?Officially? Ten days without contact and Starfleet will officially regard us
as missing. Then the Avalon will be pulled from it?s set task to come rescue
us.?
?We?ll be dead by then, you know.?
?I know.?
?I think Leila knows as well.?
?Yea. She probably figured that out as soon as our little signal cut out.?
?Oh yea! The signal.? Carson spoke with renewed energy, but not much. ?What
about that??
?Well, you see, that?s where I screwed up. I packed everyone who knew anything
about that signal into a shuttle craft and then crashed it on this god-forsaken
ice cube. Now, our lives are in the hands of a junior engineer and your
girlfriend, Miss Kaiser.?
?She?s not my girlfriend.?
?That Idan girl doesn?t know a thing about trans-axial signals. Selan was our
expert on that subject, and she?s dead. They?re all dead.?
?We?re not dead.?
?Not yet, but soon.?
Howling wind tore at the complex and it shuddered physically. Dodge shuddered,
but not because of structural stress.
?Without shielding or structural integrity fields, this place is going to get
torn apart by that gale.?
Dodge sighed, his breath a visible puff of feeble life, fading as he soon
would. ?It?s getting colder. We should try and find some stuff to burn.?
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Lindsay Kaiser awoke from a sound sleep, drenched in sweat. She had been torn
away from a vivid dream, one who?s images failed to linger in her mind.
She stepped out of bed, the sheets sopping wet, and climbed into the shower.
Pulsing waves of heated mist, almost steam but more liquid, pummeled her body
gently but effectively. Sweat washed away instantly, as did dead skin cells,
the ever-present dirt that seemed to find it?s way onto every ship, and trace
amounts of bodily secretions.
Lindsay remained blissfully unaware of the cleaning process, comforted only by
the soothing massage that the sonic shower gave. She leaned her head back, her
hair dripping wet as she pulled it away from her face. A long, shuddering sigh
issued from deep within her larynx. It felt good, so she sighed again, not as
long nor containing any hit of a shudder, but still purifying for the soul.
For the second time that night (although she was consciously unaware of the
first), her thoughts drifted to Carson and the rest of them. They hadn?t
checked in, but that wasn?t abnormal. Chances are, they were occupied making
repairs and the like. A mission like theirs was classified low priority and as
such, the Avalon was not going to be directly involved. It would be an
?illogical? waste of Starfleet resources, as that Selan Vulcan woman would say
in her pompous, self righteous way. Sometimes she really loathed Vulcans.
Commander Sierra had been on her about progress reports and the like.
Eventually, Lindsay?s thoughts left Carson and the rest stranded on the icy
world of Vargas Two.
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The last, dying flickers of fire twitched helplessly, burning down then
vanishing into a thin stream of smoke.
?That?s it then. We?re dead.? Leila sighed.
The three of them huddled together near the now smoldering pile of charred
rubbish in a futile attempt to conserve body heat.
?Maybe we should write a letter or something.?
?You think?? Carson was his unlovable self once again.
?There?s no functional PADDs left around here anyway. And I?m not going to
look.?
The temperature had already dropped several degrees within the last few minutes
due to the increasing amount of hull breeches in the structures that provided
what little shelter the three castaways had.
?I?m getting tired.? Leila said softly.
?Me too. I suppose there?s no point in telling you to fight it off.? Dodge
sighed. He had been doing that an awful lot lately. ?Even if we did manage to
beat off hypothermia for the next ten days, there?s no way we could fight the
starvation.?
?Not to mention dehydration. How ironic: to die of thirst on a ball of ice.?
Carson would have spat, but the sputum froze to his lips. So he grumbled
instead.
?It?s okay to sleep if you want Leila.?
?You know, Dodge, I always admired you.? She spoke softly, resting her head on
his shoulder. ?I hope wherever we go when we die, well, I hope you?re there.?
A delicate scent, implacable but definitively feminine struck Dodge?s nose and
for a moment his heart skipped. ?Good night Leila.?
She mumbled something that neither of the men could understand, then shifted to
a more comfortable position and closed her eyes. The group sat in silence for a
while. Dodge listened to Leila as her breathing became more normalized.
?I think she?s asleep.? Carson said after a while.
Dodge opened his eyes partially to regard the man.
?Yea. I think I?m on my way as well.?
?Yea.?
?It?s a sobering thought to know just how close you are to dying.?
?Yea.?
?I never really liked your cooking.?
?That?s okay. I never really liked your cat.?
?Who? Oh, Ed. Yea. He?s a freaky guy. Well, this?ll make three less ?organics?
that he has to deal with, eh??
?Sure it will.? Carson closed his eyes.
?You?re a good man, Mister Fuller. I would have liked to get to know you
better. I think our friendship would have been a good one.?
Carson grunted an agreement.?
Eventually, Dodge noticed that both Carson and Leila were breathing shallow,
translucent clouds of breath appearing at regular intervals from both of them.
He allowed himself to give into the relaxing numbness, as if he were about to
go into surgery. Slowly, his eyes drifted out of focus and he began to see
little things, tiny sparks of light and dark shadows moving around him. He
opened his eyes wider, but the images didn?t clear. He heard soft grunting
sounds and quiet shuffling noises. The sensation that he was upside-down tugged
at his mind, but that was the last thing he remembered before giving in to the
cold.
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Heaven was warm and soft and quiet?and warm.
It also smelled like a barn.
Dodge opened his eyes, and they gradually began to focus. The floating
sensation he had quite been enjoying began to slowly wear off. The room around
him spun for a few seconds, then became more distinct. He heard voices coming
from somewhere below his feet (he was lying on his back). Feeling curious, he
tensed his muscles and, upon finding everything to be in order, he sat up,
sharply.
Then everything snapped out of focus and he collapsed back down on whatever it
was he had been lying on (it was soft, at least), completely unconscious.
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