Author's Note: Here's more! (Yeah, this has been finished for quite a while….my airbrained thirteen year old self forgot to update it….I think…I can't really remember!)

Chapter 10:

Deep Impact

12:00 The Icarus, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, Earth.

It can be said that every field officer in the LEP has been in at least one crash in their lifetime. For Commander Trouble Kelp this was more than true, infact he had been in thirty-five crashes to date (he was trailing Holly's record by five) and had always said that he after a while they were all the same. Head ons, wrap arounds, shuttle meets a tunnel wall, wheelie bike meets crazed gnome driving pizza delivery van-just about everything, all the same in the end. ('You can only crack your skull open and get whiplash so many times before it starts to get predictable.') But he had to admit that this crash was the stand out in his career.

******

12:03 Emergency Services Shuttle Base, Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean.

"Quite today Pat," the chubby gnome leant back from his workstation and propped his feet up on his keyboard "not even a false alarm."

"If you ask me it's too quite Ronnie," the elf named Pat stood to refill his cup of sim-coffee "it must be the LEP's day off."

"They never have a day off," Ronnie swirled the dregs of his coffee around the bottom of his mug as he thought "wasn't there supposed to be some sort of launch on today?"

"Yeah, that mad centaur is up to his usual tricks," Pat handed his colleague the coffee pot as he walked back to his desk, shaking his head "I get the feeling something really big is going to happen really soon-and its going to have something with that launch."

"Stop being so superstitious, I've never heard of a rule that says something has to be an emergency every day." Ronnie scratched an eyebrow absently as he downed his new cup of coffee.

"You didn't read the manual did you?" Pat called up the daily systems check as he talked "It was near the end, in all the stuff about legal liabilities and stuff."

"You having me on now, I actually did read the manual this time and there was no such section in it." Ronnie swung his feet down off his desk and walked over to the only window in the control room "nice afternoon, do you reckon we'll be able to rack off early tonight? There's a crunchball match on today-Haven verses Atlantis semi finals."

"Who are you going for in that one then?" Pat swung himself round on his swivel chair and dragged Ronnie's chair over to rest his feet on.

"Atlantis, definitely," a glaze covered Ronnie's eyes and he launched into his usual lecture "even though they've lost Birch to a busted lung I'm sure that their going to win this time round-"

"If you're going for Atlantis then I'm going for Haven, and I think I'll bet on it this time as well," Pat pulled out his wallet to see how much gold he had left after his latest spending spree "I'll put a fifty on them I think; maybe I might be able to pull out a seventy-five."

"Why is it that you always go for the team that I'm not going for?"

"Because, Ronnie mate I hate to break this to you, but you are the worst gambler in the world-and under," Pat ducked as a coffee cup was hurled at his head.

"That isn't fair!" Ronnie wailed "I bet right once."

"Once in a million," Pat put his hands up defensively as Ronnie turned purple in his rage "watch it mate, no throwing things around in here-we may get an alert at any time."

"Does that include throwing you out the window?"

"It should do-" Pat was interrupted by an urgent beeping on one of the computer consoles, he sprang to his feet and ripped a readout from one of the laser printers "it's an alert-probably a false alarm." Just as he said that another alarm went off, and another and another until the noise level was almost unbearable.

"Or maybe not," Ronnie shouted over the noise as he plugged his ears with his fingers "I think this could be an actual emergency!"

"Right," Pat punched an ominous looking red button on one of the consoles then dashed over to what seemed to be a more high tech version of a fireman's pole "suit up Ronnie, we got ourselves a live one."

******

12:09 The Icarus, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, Earth.

Commander Trouble Kelp woke, that was a miracle in itself. The first thing that he felt like doing when he woke was throwing up but he didn't even have the energy to do that. After a while he managed to crank open one eye, he shut it as soon as sunlight, bright and clear, blasted his retinas. With a groan he opened it again and sat up slowly wincing as the vertebrae in his back and neck grated and slipped. A yellow gel filled the room. That was good-it meant the canisters had fired their load of impact gel as they should have. His eyes widened suddenly as he examined the shuttle closer-it was completely intact. After a drop from space it would have been a surprise if the reinforced flight deck had survived, never mind the whole shuttle. Then he noticed it, blue sparks running across the hull of the Icarus, straightening out pressure creases and putting out spot fires. On closer inspection still there seemed to be red sparks melded into the blue, the ships electricity had bonded itself with Holly's magic……Holly? Trouble spun his head around as fast as he could without becoming a paraplegic and searched the cockpit for the major. She was sprawled across the weapons console behind her chair, the crash webbing that had been keeping her in her seat had been frayed and tore under the pressure pulling on it before the impact gel had been fired. Gingerly Trouble pulled a small knife from his boot and cut himself free of his crash webbing, struggling slightly against the impact gel that flooded the room he waded his way over to Holly. The first thing that he noticed when he drew near her was the sheer paleness of her face. Wrapping his arm around her back he moved to haul her from the console when he noticed something warm and wet that was running down her back and across his fingers. Removing his hand he found it coated in blood and quickly pulled her from the gas screen that she had become lodged in to the floor, rolling her over as he pulled a pressure bandage from a pocket on his utility belt. It was worse than he had thought, it had now become apparent that she had been impaled by the fractured gas screen and more than one deep wound was now bleeding profusely.

"Hang in there Holly," he whispered as he covered the wounds with the bandage and tried to stem the blood flow "it's going to be alright." He could feel his own life slipping between his fingers but all that mattered at the moment was Holly. If she died and he lived he would never be able to forgive himself, he would rather die with her.

"T-Trouble," he must be hallucinating, creating voices to comfort himself "Trub?"

"Holly?" Trouble quickly pulled the elf into his lap, remembering to keep pressure on the wounds in her back.

"I'm dying, aren't I?" Her eyes were dull, skin cold "don't lie to me."

"No, you'll be fine-just stay with me," Trouble felt completely helpless for the first time in his life, his hand shook as he cleared a few locks of hair from her face "the emergency services people will be here soon, just don't give up."

"Don't lie to me, I know that I'm going," she took a deep, shuddering breath and continued "just promise me something."

"Anything, I'll promise you anything," he could feel tears, warm and thick, pooling in his eyes.

"Keep going when I'm gone," Holly could feel tears in her own eyes "don't give up, never give up. Haven needs heroes like you, don't just fall to bits over this-I've seen that look in your eyes before on suicidal widows just before they jump into a magma flare-your worth more, I'll see you again in the end anyway."

"But Holly, life isn't worth living without you I-I can't go on without you," the tears were running down his cheeks now.

"Why?" Holly used the last of her strength to reach up and wipe the tears from his face.

"Because……because I'd miss you too much," Holly could see the lie in his eyes, he was avoiding something.

"I've known you too long to know when you're not telling the truth-the absolute truth-who am I going to tell anyway?" She laughed slightly and regretted it when she had to stop to cough.

"Your right," Trouble admitted as he leant her forward to pat her back "I'm not telling the whole truth because I'm afraid."

"You're afraid of what?" Holly turned to face her Commander and saw the truth shining through his eyes.

"I'm afraid that I love you," he grimaced and turned his face away from Holly's widening eyes "sorry, I didn't mean to blurt it out like that-just forget that I said it, I shouldn't have-"

"I love you as well," she grinned elfishly and cupped his face in her hand, turning it back towards her "I wasn't sure until now, I couldn't quite track down what the feeling was but now I realise, I love you."

"You do?" Trouble's eyes widened in surprise "you don't need to say that because-"

"I mean it, why would I lie?" She was drawing closer; her eyes had regained their usual spark.

"Well then, that's all the more reason not to give up just yet, you'll be fine-just hang on a little longer," although he sounded confident he could feel the doubt clouding in his heart-he knew she wasn't going to make it out of this one.

"Now it's you that's lying-though I have one last wish," Holly was close enough for him to smell now, almost close enough to-

"What?" Trouble whispered, afraid of what she might say.

"This," she reached up and wrapped a hand around the back of his head, bringing him down towards her. Their lips met as electricity spread through his body, he gasped and pulled back.

"What's the matter?" Holly asked, her eyes had dulled again and Trouble could feel her hand slipping from his hair.

"Nothing, that was just…..indescribable," he laughed sadly and leant down to kiss her again.

There was something wrong, Trouble pulled back from her lips and noticed that Holly's eyes were closed.

"Holly?" He whispered as he shook her by the shoulders "Holly?" There was no response so he wedged his fingers under her jaw, there was nothing. Quickly he grabbed up her wrist and covered it with two of his fingers, searching frantically for the pulse that he had failed to find in her neck, there was none. He placed his ear over her chest and listened intently, there was no noise, no movement-she was gone.

Trouble collapsed back onto the floor, his vision slowly turning black as a continuous whining noise took up residence in his ears. There was nothing worth living for now; nothing would ever be able to replace her. As he took one last look at the outside world through the windscreen he could have sworn that he saw a silver streak breech the horizon and float lazily across the sky in his direction. But then again he thought as he lost consciousness it was probably just his imagination-no one would be able to help him now.