The Fallings

Zach -'the captain so scared of command'

The volcanic planet was the worst place Zach had ever been to, and perhaps it always would be. Twenty years later he would look at the WELCOME TO HELL scrawled on the wall of the base he was captain of, and think you don't know anything.

It was hot in the room. Much too hot.

"Zach," Captain Johnson said. "We've got some bad news."

"What?" eighteen-year-old Zach asked. He realised uncomfortably that everyone in the room was looking at him- and there were a few people not there who should be.

"Where's my sister? Where's Kara?"

"Well, you see-" Captain Johnson explained, "-the cable snapped-"

"It was old," said a random rebellious crewmember. "Needed replacing."

"Shut up! But she's down there, Zach. Her and a couple of the others. "

Zach waited.

"...and...we can't get to her. You know the rules. We all need to get out before the next explosion, or everyone's life is very seriously at risk."

Silence.

"I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" He was terrified now, but trying not to show it. "She's my sister, and I'm not leaving her behind."

There was an explosion somewhere in the distance.

"I really am sorry, Zach. But people die on these missions." Never had Zach felt simutaniously so much hate and so much sympathy for someone. He wouldn't want to be a captain, after all, and have to tell somebody that. "We can't reach her and we have six people up here and down below there's only her and two others. Six versus three. You must understand."

Zach did and he didn't, and he was scared and he couldn't just stand there. "We have to try. Please, Captain. She's all I have." Cliche but true. He was willing to beg, to try anything. To go down there himself. She was his sister, and she was only fifteen.

"I'm sorry," came the answer. One of his more sympathetic crewmates, a girl of about twenty-one called Nellie, put her hand on his shoulder. He shook her off.

"The comms-"

"They're down," said the communications officer, a man called Rat. "I'm sorry."

The room was growing hotter and the situation worse. Nellie was wiping tears out of her eyes, crying quietly. And then there was another explosion, closer this time.

"Please! There must be something! More cable."

"There's more in Base 56/TA- but the link is down and the people there died, remember? It's not safe. Not safe in the slightest. And even if you did- there just isn't time. Buckle yourselves in, everyone."

Some people started to that, and Zach just stood there helplessly and the thunder rolled outside. It was raining ash out there now.

Rat yelled above the noise, "Comms are back up!"

Zach raced to the nearest one, and shouted into the reciever. "Kara! Kara! Are you there! Can you hear me? Kara!"

"I'm here," said a weak voice. "We're going to die, oh god, Zach-"

"No you're not," he shouted, as an explosion shook the room. Captain Johnson was climbing into the pilot seat. "Just hold on! I'll get you, alright?"

A crackle and then nothing. And then-

-for a second it was so hot he thought he was dying, and there was horrible screeching in the air. It seemed to go on for a lifetime, and suddenly the lesser heat came back. But people were still screaming.

Something had happened. Something had exploded. And there was a dead body lying feet away from him. For a second everything went quiet- he had seen dead bodies before, but not like this, not blackened and burned and missing pieces. It was the Captain.

Zach panicked. And then he stopped panicking. And he ran. Maybe they'd all die anyway, but he had to save Kara.

"The other rocket!" someone who might have been Nellie shouted. "It's still there- Zach, you can't save them! I don't want to leave them either, but you have to-"

But he didn't hear the rest. He could see the other base in the distance and he ran towards it, over cracking ground. Kept running and running and running, and burst in through one of the doors, which was hanging off its hinges and fell to the floor.

He knew he was covered in burns, and that he might even die. Everything hurt, but he barely noticed. So far, anyway. But there was a cable- there was a cable somewhere-

He picked it up and then screamed into the comm on the wall, hoping Kara would hear. But it wasn't working.

Now what?

The nearest enterance to the caves below was outside- wouldn't it be filling up with lava now, or something? But he had to try. He connected the cable up to all the right places- the first thing he'd learnt to do- and started feeding it through. He screamed into the comm again several times, and hoped and prayed that the others in the other rocket would wait for him. They probably wouldn't. But he needed to hope.

"KARA!" he screamed.

There was a crackle from the comm. "Zach- it's too hot down here- it's too hot-"

"Hold on! I'm sending down a cable!"

The base started to shake.

"You have to tie it to the lift! Can the others help you?"

"One of them's dead..."

"The other one. What's his name? Who's down there?" He'd used up all the cable.

"There was me...and Olle...he's dead...and Joe."

"Hey," came Joe's voice, very weak, over the comm.

"Both of you!" Zach yelled. "Tie the cable!"

"Joe's bleeding," Kara answered, panic still in her voice. "He can't stand up-"

"Do it yourself, then! Please, Kara!"

There was a whine of feedback from the comm, and Zach thought he heard the rocket taking off- but he couldn't be sure. It might just be something falling down or collapsing or something.

Kara's voice came back. "I've done it! I've done it!" she screamed. "Take us up!"

Zach turned on the machine that would bring up the cable, and slowly, so slowly, it came up. He prayed the rocket would wait. Literally prayed, though he wasn't religious. Prayed for hope, for intervention from a passing god, anything.

The capusule attached to the cable came into view, and then came all the way up and Kara stumbled out, sobbing. Joe was right behind her. She fell into Zach's arms, crying on his shoulder.

"Oh my god I was so scared I thought we'd all die thank you-"

"We have to run." Zach interrupted. "To the backup rocket. And they might have taken off without us."

"What?"

They ran from the base, over the ground that was starting to boil, half-convinced they'd all die any minute. Zach carried Joe, and ran over things in his head. Was there one more rocket, perhaps? This was a well-funded mission, and perhaps the budget had been stretched...

oh please oh please oh please...

The rocket was still there, and someone was screaming. They ran to the ladder, and someone reached down to take Joe.

The noise was unbearable. Zach dragged himself up into the cockpit, taking Kara with him. He staggered and nearly fell over, then someone slapped him.

"You stupid bastard!"

He couldn't take it and fell into a chair. Kara fell into the one next to him.

"Where's Joe?" she asked, still slightly hysterical.

"Taken to the medical bay," someone said, at the same time Rat, the communications officer (and, now Zach thought about it, a good friend of Joe) said to Zach, "Nellie went out after you!"

"...What?"

"And she didn't get far! Got hit by a rock, killed instantly- you idiot-"

Zach flinched. His vision started to blur and he thought he might be sick. He leaned back in his chair.

"-she's dead, and it's indirectly your fault, and I shall report this when we get back."

He didn't care about that. He did care about Nellie, though- she had been so nice- not the sort of person who ought to die like that...

"I want to go home," Kara whispered.

"Don't worry, you will." he whispered back.


Back on Earth, a day or so later. Zach and Kara waited in a cold white waiting room. They waited five minutes and then ten.

Rat came out.

"Your job is safe for the moment," he told Zach cooly, "on the grounds that we should have taken off and left you and we didn't. Largely thanks to Nellie, who is of course now dead."

Zach nodded glumly.

"As for Joe," Rat said, turning to look at Kara, "He's fine physically. Still grieving, though," he added, turning to Zach.

"What?"

"Nellie was his older sister. Didn't you know?"

He turned and went down the corridor and left them behind.


"I'm not going! I'm not leaving him!"

Rose was still kicking and screaming and shouting. Zach advanced towards her with the sedative.

"Then I apologize," he said, and he stuck it in her arm. "I have lost too many people today- I am not leaving you behind."

He slung her over his shoulder, and felt a grim sense of satisfation. He sometimes wished someone had done that to him- taken the decision away.

Only sometimes. Not, of course, when Kara was around him. Then he'd feel guilty for even thinking he'd rather have been forced into leaving her.

But...

There was not an easy answer to the question can she be sacrificed for the greater good? He knew that. The right choice seemed obvious, of course-

-but not when the chooser was you.