"Low oxygen alert."
"Low gravity alert."
"Power failure imminent."
Annabelle's head was swimming, her vision was blurry. Consciousness slowly wormed its way back as a scanner floats by.
Floated? The thought wanders through her addled brain in search of a connection.
Floated. She blinks, mulling the word around in her brain. Floooaaated, that's a funny word. Then, like a lightning strike, everything came rushing back. The running, the screaming...the Aurora. Abandoning her post at Tactical Operations and sprinting for the lifepods. She blinks several times as the red lights in the lifepod begin to glow and strobe and muted sirens begin to sound.
Pawing at the handle nearest the bottom hatch she slowly pulls herself to it, groaning as her left flank protests in pain. As she looked out at the planet below, she watched the Aurora list to one side and begin careening towards the planet.
Glancing around the cabin Annabelle suddenly realizes she isn't alone. There was a man in one of the two seats, a long and deep gash in his head. He was wearing an Alterra identification. Slowly drifting over and stopping her drift by placing her hand on the wall, she squints at the badge.
"Xander Kent." She says aloud, her voice surprisingly hoarse and she coughs. She felt for a pulse.
Dead.
"Great." She mutters to the empty lifepod.
"Low oxygen alert." The lifepod's system chirp in its droning monotone.
"Low power alert."
Fumbling in her pockets, she retrieves her PDA and with a flick of her wrist it snaps out into a square frame and the holodisplay illuminates. She blinks in the sudden harsh blue light and squints. She drifts her finger across the screen accessing the lifepod's primary functions.
"Descent thrusters offline, oxygen production offline, CO2 scrubbers offline, power flow is non-existent. Easier to ask what the hell is still functional on this heap, eh Xander?" Annabelle looks up from her PDA and smirks. Xander was his characteristically quiet and stoic self.
She tucks her knees in and then slowly extends her feet to the wall and walks herself up the bulkhead and turns in place coming to rest against the access panel. Popping the set screws she lets the panel drift away and looks at the damage.
Blown relays, a shorted circuit board and...
"What's this?" She muses aloud and twists the fuel line maintenance cutoff valve, and flicks the circuit breaker. The light's blink to life filling the cabin with soft white light.
"Someone didn't follow the checklist." She smiles over her shoulder at Xander.
"I gotta tell you Xan, I love the strong, silent type." She mutters and plucks her PDA from the air.
"Descent thrusters offline, no bueno, but we've got air and scrubbers." She glances over her PDA at Xander.
"Or well...I guess I've got air and stable orbit. You've got no need for it. So we do the only thing we can do, we wait. Rescue teams will find us soon." Annabelle looks through the hatch the Aurora begins to glow as it enters the atmosphere of the planet down below.
"I hope."