Author's note: MOAAUUHHH (translation: MORE!!!)

Chapter 11:

Fallen Angel

12:18pm Ops Booth, Police Plaza, Haven

"Where am I?" Corporal Chix Verbil levered himself up onto one elbow as the emergency pod's door slid open with a hiss.

"You're in Haven's shuttle port Chix," whinnied Foaly as he bowed his head and stepped carefully into the small confines of the escape pod.

"What am I doing here?"

"Good question, I was about to ask you the exact same thing," Foaly pulled out a palm pilot from his coat pocket and began to navigate through its program list. "But from what I can deduce you separated from the Icarus at nine sixteen and flew straight down to Tara-might I say that that wasn't a very good idea-where you were picked up by a stealth cruiser and towed down here. Now what the hell happened up there and why is the Icarus now on a crash course with Earth?"

"What?" Chix moaned in his half conscious state "why don't you ask Ash these question's, he would know the answers."

"We would ask Captain Vein but he was knocked out when he splash landed in the Pacific Ocean-a much better landing place than yours was might I add. So right now you're going to have to concentrate and answer my questions before I'm forced to pull out a buzz baton!"

"Okay, okay," Chix held up his hands defensively and waited for the centaur to calm down before he lowered them again "the shuttle got taken over by somebody and we lost control of everything. The commander and Holly got left behind because they got locked out of the emergency escape pods; I think they must have used the manual override to launch the pods."

"Do you know who was behind this; did you get any clues at all?" Foaly was frantic now "you have to tell me Chix-was there anything at all?"

"No, they never told us who they were," the sprite frowned and flared his wings "they must have been a very good computer programmer though to get through all of your firewalls and stuff."

"You're absolutely sure that there was nothing?" Foaly reached out and started shaking Chix's shoulders "this could all depend on your answer."

"There was nothing and I suggest you calm down before you crumple my wings," Chix scowled as Foaly shook him even harder.

"I think that's enough from you now, get down to the infirmary and make sure that you don't have a concussion or something-all though I'm sure that it would make no difference what so ever."

"Right oh boss man," Chix heaved himself up and walked towards the door but before he got there he paused and turned around "do you know if they're all right? Trubs and Holly?"

"To tell you the truth Chix I have no idea," Foaly rested his head in his palms "they've been lucky on every other mission but I think that they might have just run out of luck."

"I'm sure they'll be fine, maybe just a little fracture or something-nothing big, they won't be dead, or in coma's or-" a medic ran up and took Chix by the arm and led him away before he could continue, but for Foaly it was already too late. What if they were dead? They were unlikely to survive-either of them-and even if they did who's to say that they wouldn't be paralyzed or brain dead? How would he live if that happened?

"Hu-Hu," Foaly's train of thought was interrupted by a small cough by the doorway; he looked up to see none other than Wing-Commander Vinyáya looking down at him.

"What do you want Commander?" Foaly growled.

"Sorry for interrupting you Foaly but I wanted to know if you were alright?" Vinyáya took a step closer and knelt beside the centaur "I was walking past and you seemed to be quite upset."

"Why would I be?" Foaly stamped his back hooves angrily "my best friend is probably floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean-dead- and I can do nothing about it! No Commander, why would I be upset?"

"Maybe now isn't the best time to talk but wouldn't you be of more use up in the ops booth?" Vinyáya examined her communicator for a moment then continued "the emergency surface teams have been called out-it's the Icarus." Before Foaly could ask anymore questions Vinyáya had disappeared around the corner and left him alone. Foaly pulled out his own communicator and quickly hacked into his operating systems up in the ops booth, Vinyáya had been right. At twelve o' five Ascension Island emergency base had received a distress signal from the Icarus somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Three shuttles had been dispatched to the site and had found…..One critically injured unconscious male elf and…..Information censored, please enter clearance level one pass code to continue. Foaly was a clearance level one but he had never bothered to memorize the pass code (it was stored as a short cut on his own computer in ops) so he would have to get back to the ops booth to find the code.

"Hey Foaly!" Lili Frond was running down the corridor towards him "have you heard what's happened to the Icarus yet? It's all over the news."

"No I haven't heard what's happened Frond and I don't really care either-I don't have the time for this," Foaly moved to barge past the Corporal but she held her ground.

"The emergency crew just arrived up top, they've launched one of their supersonic cruisers down-something big has happened. Their going to be here in less than two minutes," Frond's usually perfectly place hair looked suddenly disheveled and her composure had broken like glass "you don't think they could be dead, could they?"

"Impossible," Foaly said but he was already craned over his communicator as he searched for the quickest route to the other side of the Tara shuttle port where the emergency craft were kept.

"That's good," Lili straightened her uniform "for a moment there I thought that it might have been serious-like a disaster or something."

"This is bigger than a disaster Frond," Foaly pushed her out of his path with his forearm and charged down the corridor to a fire exit off to the left. When he was through that he galloped down what seemed like an endless maze of corridors until he reached a keycard locked door. Quickly he drew out his swipe card and shoved it into its slot, there was an affirmative sounding beep and the door slid open-Foaly didn't bother to retrieve his card before he jumped through the door and into the emergency services side of the port.

This side of the Tara shuttle port had been specially modified to the needs of the emergency crews-it feeds directly into Haven General Hospital, Police Plaza and Haven Central Fire Station. In times of an emergency from the surface the port can either receive or launch shuttles quicker than any other port on or under the surface. The largest emergency that the port had ever faced was the Port Davidson Nuclear explosion of '84 that killed three LEP officers and seriously wounded five others. They had all been transported down to Tara (even those who had passed on) in under seven minutes which was an amazing record by itself never mind the fact that they saved the lives of everyone who had survived the blast. This emergency was slightly different but it still had the same effect. Foaly watched in amazement as a sleek black shuttle shot into a landing bay and come top a stop two meters away from the end barrier. Fairies came running out from every possible hiding space and set about their jobs like a hive of bees. From the corner of his eye Foaly noticed a group of warlocks emerge from a red door marked Haven General and run towards the shuttle as they struggled to get their gloves and coats on. A medic ran out from the shuttle to meet them and whispered frantically into the head warlock's ear. The shock was evident on his face and he quickly explained to his companions what the medic had said. Foaly caught the words 'no hope' 'dead on impact' and 'ten percent chance of survival.' His breath caught in his throat as the warlocks entered the shuttle and came out a few seconds later with a stretcher. They disappeared through the door to Haven General before Foaly could ask get a good look at who was on the stretcher but he knew that whoever it was very near to death. He heard a distant voice shout for a defibrillator as a second stretcher was brought out-there was a sheet over the body that lay there.

"Excuse me?" one of the medics had come over to Foaly "do you need any help?" The medic's face was white as a sheet and his jumpsuit was soaked through with blood but he seemed alright.

"I'm Foaly, chief technician for the LEP," Foaly pulled out his ID card and shoved it under the medic elf's nose "I need to know what happened to our officers."

"Let's go sit down over there," the elf pointed to a row of seats against the far wall "then I'll tell you the whole story." Foaly trotted numbly over to the seats behind the elf something told him that his life was about to be turned on its head.

"We got the call at twelve o' five as you probably already know," the medic took a deep breath and continued "when we arrived at the crash site we go t a surprise. The shuttle, the Icarus that is was completely intact-not a scratch on it; it should have been smashed to bits."

"Did you find out why it was intact?" Foaly interrupted.

"No, we didn't stick around very long because of what we found in there," the medic was now looking decidedly green as he stopped and bowed his head.

"What did you find?" Foaly cued after a while although he had a feeling that he already knew.

"A mess," the medic said simply "we found a male elf-the Commander-barely alive and unconscious clinging to the Captain."

"And she was-"

"Dead," the elf sat beside Foaly stared at the blood on his hands "I tired to resuscitate her, we had the defibrillator right against her heart but it was useless. The blood loss was too much, even when I was blocking it, we lost her."

"Holly's gone….that's, that's impossible," Foaly knew it was true but he couldn't believe it "she always pulled through, she can't be."

"I'm so sorry," the medic straightened and stood up "I have to go to the debriefing now."

"What was your name? I think I've forgotten," Foaly stood with the elf and wiped his eyes.

"I never told you it," the medic smiled "my name's Patrick, Pat for short."

"Nice to meet you Pat although I wish it could have been under better circumstances," there were still tears rolling down Foaly's cheeks as he went back to the door he had hurried through to retrieve his swipe card.

"Me too," Pat waved as he disappeared through the Haven General entrance door and turned left "if you want to know where you officer is he's in room 01 in the critical condition wing, it's a right from here and follow the signs."

"Thanks Pat, I have a feeling we'll meet again sometime," Foaly shook his head as he turned right and wound his way through the maze of corridors and patient rooms that was Haven General until he got to room 01. The room was empty apart from a guard who was dismissed with one swipe of Foaly's hand. Foaly approached the bed cautiously, afraid of what he may or may not see. He picked up the chart from the end of the bed and sat down in a visitor's chair as he read it. Burns to thirty five percent of his body, head trauma, blood loss, collapsed heart valve and a compressed lung-it didn't look good-chance of survival, ten percent. Foaly couldn't stand it, he had already lost one friend today he wasn't about to lose another.

"Trouble," Foaly stepped over to where the Commander lay and placed a hand on his uncovered forearm "I don't know if you can hear me but if you can I need you to pull through this. I can't bear to lose two in one day, not you and….and…..it's just too much, I think I would go mad if that happened." Foaly paused and studied the elf's face; he looked peaceful in his sleep, as if nothing in the world could affect him.

"Just pull through, alright?" Foaly imagined his friend's response, it would be somewhere along the lines of 'when have I ever failed to pull through?'

"Why wouldn't I pull through Foaly?" A voice asked, Trouble's voice-maybe Foaly was hallucinating now. "Foaly?"

"Great, now I'm imagining things," Foaly chuckled half-heartedly and turned to leave.

"Foaly! Don't go," A hand shot out from under the bedcovers and grabbed Foaly by the wrist.

"Trouble?" Foaly turned to the elf that was holding his wrist "you're alive!"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Trouble squinted at Foaly and frowned "have you been crying Foaly?"

"Do you feel alright?" Foaly asked, trying to change the subject.

"Why have you been crying?" Trouble persisted with his questioning "what happened?"

"You were on the Icarus, it crashed," Foaly began simply.

"I know that," Trouble propped himself up on one elbow but dropped back almost immediately when he was swamped with pain "I meant what happened after that?"

"You were pulled out of the Atlantic Ocean by Ascension Island's emergency services crew and brought down here."

"That makes sense, I think," Trouble frowned as he tried to concentrate "what's wrong with me and…what happened to….Holly?" His eyes opened in shock as he remembered the last moments before he had passed out.

"I'm sorry Trouble, she was beyond help," Foaly felt tears welling in his eyes "she was gone before they got to her."

"So she's….dead," Trouble bit his lip as tears ran down his face "there was nothing that they could do?"

"No, nothing," Foaly could see that there had been something more than just a working relationship between the Commander and his Captain, it was all too clear now "I'm so sorry Trouble."

"It's alright Foaly, I knew that she was going-there was just nothing that I could do," Trouble lay back and sighed.

"So she-"

"Excuse me sir," there was a nurse stood by the door holding a tray that contained a few vials and syringes "but the Commander shouldn't be awake yet, his body needs time to recover he needs to be sedated."

"That's fine with me nurse…." Foaly had stepped back from the bed.

"Malorey," the nurse flashed him a kindly smile and continued "Malorey Hutchkins, you can stay with the Commander if you like."

"Thank you Malorey," Foaly sat back down in the visitor's chair he had been in before "I appreciate it."

"That's okay; relax now Commander," Malorey was now leant over Trouble with the needle in one hand and another vial in the other "this is going to take two shots."

"Fine with me," Trouble muttered and lay back against the pillows behind his head "promise me one thing though Foaly."

"What would that be?" Foaly leant in to hear Trouble's answer as Malorey injected the contents of the first needle.

"Make sure that they don't carry out the recycling ceremony until I'm out of here," Trouble's eyes clouded and he lost consciousness as the contents of the second vial entered his bloodstream.

"I will Trouble, I will," Foaly dragged his chair across to the hospital bed and rested his head in his hands as the tears that had been waiting to be shed began to fall.