Chapter 3
Disclaimer as first chapter
Notes: ok don't like this chapter a great deal, its ok but not my best in my opinion. Trin forced me to write it though so here it is. Oh yeah, injuries described in this chapter so if you're a bit squeamish you have been warned LOL
Note 2: yeah yeah get on with the story but just wanted to add a mega thank you for all the positive reviews, yes even the death threats ;)
Ok now the story...
*******
Trance looked over Harper's mangled body, the copper smell filling the dusty air causing a wave of sickness to flow down to her stomach. Swallowing down a lump that was wedged within her throat, she slowly approached the bloody body of her best friend. Reaching gingerly forward, being careful not to disturb the debris that encircled him, she delicately pressed two fingers to his neck.
Thump...Thump...
A feeling of felicity filled every fibre of her being only to be dimmed when the pulse was weak. Misery started to seep into her once again as she knelt down, placing her cheek above his mouth, too scared to touch his chest and do further damage, and only felt a ragged shallow breath every other second.
Standing up once again, blood staining her hands, she moved away, turning around in attempt to block the image. There was a pulse and he was breathing. He was alive. But both were weak and getting weaker.
Turning back around to a sight that would haunt her mind in the future to come, she assessed his injuries, but without their backpacks, she would be able to provide no help.
A large pile of debris covered his left leg from the knee down. She knew that it would take a miracle to make the leg one hundred percent again, even with the advanced medical equipment on Andromeda. His other leg wasn't in much better shape, as it appeared to have two new joints in it, one with the added attraction of a peep show to the bone inside. His favourite blue top that he had purchased a few weeks back on a drift they had visited, was now stained crimson and ripped into jagged strips, revealing a battered, deep purple mid-section and chest. Across his forehead there was a jagged, livid gash, oozing slightly with blood. To add to the gash, a violet, deep bruise covered the right side of his face, causing his eye to be swollen shut.
But by far the most life threatening injury she could see was to his neck, more specifically his dataport*. It appeared to have taken a large amount of force as the area around it was sliced and ripped open, revealing a slightly metal tinge underneath. Blood dripped from the raw flesh and bubbled from the outer connection point.
If the damage to the outer part of the dataport were as bad on the inside or worse, it wouldn't take a genius to know that it wouldn't matter if he breathed or his heart beat, the Harper they knew would be lost forever. The fragile dataport connections intertwined themselves into his brain. If some or even one were damaged, there would be possible irreparable damage to his mind.
At times like this, she wished Rev Bem was here so he could call in a favour with the devine, as when she looked at the odds, there was only a minuscule chance that Harper would be just like he was before this ill fated trip and not much of a bigger chance that he would be alive at the end of this.
Leaning heavily against a boulder, she slowly sunk down to her knees. She couldn't believe this was happening all over again. Things had been going so well: they were all alive and on Andromeda, the Commonwealth was slowly but surely growing. All had been going to plan and in a flash it was gone, spiralling downwards into oblivion, soon to be crashing and collapsing all over again. She would be back to where she started. She knew that her heart, never mind her mental well being, would never survive if she had to relive it all.
She thought over the possible outcomes.
The miracle to save his left leg was about as unlikely as Tyr not thinking of his own survival. So if she even managed to save his leg, there would be months of painful rehabilitation and even then it wouldn't be fully healed. He'd always walk with a slight limp and he wouldn't be able to do all the running and swinging about he does. Trance knew it would be a major blow to his confidence.
The worse outcome by far that she saw could end in the unthinkable. The damage to his dataport could have a number of effects. There could be permanent or temporary brain damage - from having a little twitch, to not being able to talk, to becoming a living dead like state. The damage to the dataport might not be repairable, so it would have to stay clamped onto his neck, haunting and taunting him every time he saw his own reflection. Trance knew in her heart that it would kill him inside if he were unable to use it. Never once had Harper had second thoughts about the dataport once he got it: from the first time he used it and crammed every piece of knowledge he could find into his memory, to the present day when he preformed feats of engineering and even impressed some of the most intelligent perseids.
If he did 'take things into his own hands', she knew exactly what would happen, as she had lived through it before. Beka would shut herself off to the world, never forgiving herself for what had happened to Harper even though it was not her fault. Rommie would become distant; Dylan would lose a large bit of his optimism towards his forming Commonwealth. And even Tyr, even though he did not show it to a great degree, would be affected.
Lying down upon the cold, unforgiving ground, curling up slightly, she cried silently to herself as she watched the future unravel and crumpled before her, finally falling in to a fitful sleep.
TBC...
*Ok so nothing about how a dataport works and every thing you read is just my best guess :)
There will be much more Harper in the next chapter, I promise. As much as I like Trance as a character, I much prefer to write Harper LOL
Psst reviews make me write faster ;) I an unsure about my work, so if you DO like it PLEASE tell me!
Disclaimer as first chapter
Notes: ok don't like this chapter a great deal, its ok but not my best in my opinion. Trin forced me to write it though so here it is. Oh yeah, injuries described in this chapter so if you're a bit squeamish you have been warned LOL
Note 2: yeah yeah get on with the story but just wanted to add a mega thank you for all the positive reviews, yes even the death threats ;)
Ok now the story...
*******
Trance looked over Harper's mangled body, the copper smell filling the dusty air causing a wave of sickness to flow down to her stomach. Swallowing down a lump that was wedged within her throat, she slowly approached the bloody body of her best friend. Reaching gingerly forward, being careful not to disturb the debris that encircled him, she delicately pressed two fingers to his neck.
Thump...Thump...
A feeling of felicity filled every fibre of her being only to be dimmed when the pulse was weak. Misery started to seep into her once again as she knelt down, placing her cheek above his mouth, too scared to touch his chest and do further damage, and only felt a ragged shallow breath every other second.
Standing up once again, blood staining her hands, she moved away, turning around in attempt to block the image. There was a pulse and he was breathing. He was alive. But both were weak and getting weaker.
Turning back around to a sight that would haunt her mind in the future to come, she assessed his injuries, but without their backpacks, she would be able to provide no help.
A large pile of debris covered his left leg from the knee down. She knew that it would take a miracle to make the leg one hundred percent again, even with the advanced medical equipment on Andromeda. His other leg wasn't in much better shape, as it appeared to have two new joints in it, one with the added attraction of a peep show to the bone inside. His favourite blue top that he had purchased a few weeks back on a drift they had visited, was now stained crimson and ripped into jagged strips, revealing a battered, deep purple mid-section and chest. Across his forehead there was a jagged, livid gash, oozing slightly with blood. To add to the gash, a violet, deep bruise covered the right side of his face, causing his eye to be swollen shut.
But by far the most life threatening injury she could see was to his neck, more specifically his dataport*. It appeared to have taken a large amount of force as the area around it was sliced and ripped open, revealing a slightly metal tinge underneath. Blood dripped from the raw flesh and bubbled from the outer connection point.
If the damage to the outer part of the dataport were as bad on the inside or worse, it wouldn't take a genius to know that it wouldn't matter if he breathed or his heart beat, the Harper they knew would be lost forever. The fragile dataport connections intertwined themselves into his brain. If some or even one were damaged, there would be possible irreparable damage to his mind.
At times like this, she wished Rev Bem was here so he could call in a favour with the devine, as when she looked at the odds, there was only a minuscule chance that Harper would be just like he was before this ill fated trip and not much of a bigger chance that he would be alive at the end of this.
Leaning heavily against a boulder, she slowly sunk down to her knees. She couldn't believe this was happening all over again. Things had been going so well: they were all alive and on Andromeda, the Commonwealth was slowly but surely growing. All had been going to plan and in a flash it was gone, spiralling downwards into oblivion, soon to be crashing and collapsing all over again. She would be back to where she started. She knew that her heart, never mind her mental well being, would never survive if she had to relive it all.
She thought over the possible outcomes.
The miracle to save his left leg was about as unlikely as Tyr not thinking of his own survival. So if she even managed to save his leg, there would be months of painful rehabilitation and even then it wouldn't be fully healed. He'd always walk with a slight limp and he wouldn't be able to do all the running and swinging about he does. Trance knew it would be a major blow to his confidence.
The worse outcome by far that she saw could end in the unthinkable. The damage to his dataport could have a number of effects. There could be permanent or temporary brain damage - from having a little twitch, to not being able to talk, to becoming a living dead like state. The damage to the dataport might not be repairable, so it would have to stay clamped onto his neck, haunting and taunting him every time he saw his own reflection. Trance knew in her heart that it would kill him inside if he were unable to use it. Never once had Harper had second thoughts about the dataport once he got it: from the first time he used it and crammed every piece of knowledge he could find into his memory, to the present day when he preformed feats of engineering and even impressed some of the most intelligent perseids.
If he did 'take things into his own hands', she knew exactly what would happen, as she had lived through it before. Beka would shut herself off to the world, never forgiving herself for what had happened to Harper even though it was not her fault. Rommie would become distant; Dylan would lose a large bit of his optimism towards his forming Commonwealth. And even Tyr, even though he did not show it to a great degree, would be affected.
Lying down upon the cold, unforgiving ground, curling up slightly, she cried silently to herself as she watched the future unravel and crumpled before her, finally falling in to a fitful sleep.
TBC...
*Ok so nothing about how a dataport works and every thing you read is just my best guess :)
There will be much more Harper in the next chapter, I promise. As much as I like Trance as a character, I much prefer to write Harper LOL
Psst reviews make me write faster ;) I an unsure about my work, so if you DO like it PLEASE tell me!