Burnt to Ashes
Disclaimer: Andromeda is owned by tribune, the story's mine and the song lyrics here and there are from Nullarbor Song by Kasey Chambers (the song used at the end of Roswells four aliens and a baby)
Spoilers: Lava and Rockets, it's set after that.
Apologies to anyone who was reading Deviation, but it coincided with school and I couldn't continue it. This story however shouldn't be too long, a few chapters, I hope, and the schoolwork's easing off a bit.
Summary: Rommie leaves the Andromeda and goes in search of a new home. With a few surprises! Please read and review!
Last night I woke
with the stars looking back at me
Swallowing the sky
I felt no anger, I felt no shame
I felt no reason to cry
She'd done it. She had left, ran away. Left her home, her ship. She didn't take the Maru, Beka would never forgive her for taking her ship.
She slipstreamed for as long as she could, until she knew she needed to stop for fuel. Then she found some backwater drift and that led her to her present location. Staring out a window, looking at the stars.
She couldn't stand it any longer. Dylan and that women, how could he? How could he blindly disregard her feelings for him? Didn't he know, have even the slightest hint of how she felt?
He was her hero, but he was everyone hero. And she wanted him to be her's.
She'd left him a message, just saying that she was resigning her commission, that she didn't want to be part of the mission anymore. She made it clear it was her choice and that he was to accept it and not to come after her.
She considered staying here, a place called Nullarbor drift, a place where no-one knew who or what she was and no-one cared.
She had a pilot's license, she could qualify for a cargo or passenger ships pilot job. Ferrying passengers and cargo from the station to the planet and back. Nothing difficult.
Maybe she could make herself a new home. A place where she didn't feel love, and maybe, where she wouldn't feel pain.
. . .
When the fire burns out here
It's brighter than the city lights
Warmer than a heart of gold
And dingo's howl just to break the silence
The sun comes up just to break the cold
About a month later
She was well used to the piloting by now. Mostly it was cargo, to and from the second habitable planet in the system.
The planet had a lot of desert and a lot of poverty. Slavery was a common practise, if you weren't a slave you'd probably starve to death. In slavery you at least had a chance of food.
Sometimes she'd have to wait for hours before her return flight to the station. Mostly she'd just sit and stare out at the desert, watching and listening. It was so silent.
Sometimes she'd have to stay on the planet for the night and fly the next morning, depending on her schedule.
There were always fires in the desert at night. Bright flames shooting into the sky.
And she'd sit and watch the sun rise.
It was on a cargo run back to the station that it happened. The internal sensors had been malfunctioning, she would have to get one of the companies engineers to take a look at it.
Thinking about that made her think about Harper, she missed him. He was so very good at fixing her. She missed his annoying jokes and comments. She missed them all, well, all except him.
She didn't even want to think his name. For fear that it would reawaken something inside her, something she just wanted to kill.
She didn't want to love again, in any shape or form. She was afraid that if she did, she'd only hurt again.
When she realised something was wrong, she put the auto-pilot on and went to check it out. The ship had been modified to allow both passengers and cargo. She had no passengers today but she did have a big shipment of cargo.
She walked around the bay. Examining the cargo. Everything seemed normal. Her own scanner showed nothing. She turned to head back to the cockpit.
There it was again, a small movement maybe. As she walked to the other side of the cargo bay, her scans became clearer. The cargo she was carrying was interfering.
There was a heartbeat, faint but a heartbeat nonetheless. Her hand on her forcelance, she slowly made her way forward.
The heartbeat was coming from a small cargo box near the back. She undid the latch and slowly, cautiously opened the lid. She was confident that she could incapacitate the person if they attacked her.
She moved the lid off and peered inside. She was surprised by what she found. The light illuminated the human form. The small face was smudged with dirt and hidden behind dark hair.
Rommie found herself looking at the small, unconscious form of a child.
I close my eyes
I think of running water
I think of running away
But the fires burnt to ashes
And it's darker than before
But I can see as clear as day
. . .
What did you think? Good enough for a review?
I was just checking my lovely TV guide to see when Andromeda was returning in the UK and Ireland, they've delayed it a week so we'd be behind the US. Curiously the episode are being shown in the following order, taking into account every second episode is supposed to be a repeat of the previous, with the exception of the first. Episode 1, eps 2, eps1, eps 1, eps 2, eps 4, eps 3. I'm hoping they made a really bad mistake, it's a bit bizarre.