TITLE: Cloaked in Darkness
AUTHOR: Mercury's Winter mercurys_winter@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13 for owies and a couple of minor swears
ARCHIVE: Yes, ask first please.
SPOILERS: Ourboros, Tunnel, and Wheel for now I'll update if there are any more spoilers.
DISCLAIMER: This is all in fun, no money is coming my way, Andromeda and its characters belong to Tribune Entertainment.
COMMENTS/FEEDBACK: Yes PLEASE! It's the only reason I write! Love it? Hate it? Let me hear about it!
SETTING/SEASON: Season 3 Takes place after "If the Wheel is Fixed"
SUMMARY: With Trance's knowledge of the future, the crew has defeated the tunnel aliens but did she make the future better by trading places with her younger self...or worse?
A/N: This fic (the first two chapters anyway) were originally posted exclusively at Gordon AI's Andromeda site: http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/gordon_ai about the time SlipStream went down. Despite our agreement of exclusivity, he has graciously agreed to let me post it here. THANKS GORDON! :D (Maybe he thinks if you all bug me enough for more, I'll actually finish the darn thing ;-))
*******************
Darkness. Trance's world had been reduced to an all-encompassing darkness punctuated by dark swirling clouds of green and purple. Floating in the dreamy silence she tried to focus on the gauzy forms but as soon as her wandering gaze located one it would flit away only to reappear instantly in another location. By varying degrees consciousness began to reassert itself on her inert form and she realized with self-depreciating mirth that it was dark because her eyes were closed. With great effort she cracked her left eye open and was confused when the darkness did not recede. She felt the first inklings of panic flutter through the pit of her stomach. Her right eye wouldn't obey her command to open so she reached a shaky hand up to her head to find out why. Her fingers met a wet, sticky substance that could only have been her own blood. She groaned as awareness seeped into her followed quickly by an all-consuming agony. She clenched her jaw against the swelling tide and waited. Slowly the pain began to recede but not before leaving her breathless from it's power.
She became aware that she was lying on a hard surface but couldn't recall where she had been before...before what? Her mind was covered in a fine layer of fog; she kept a tight lid on her panic, confident that everything would become clear if she just gave it a little time. Trance struggled to a sitting position as her healing powers began to work their magic. In the total darkness, she found herself wondering if she had 'died'. The thought brought a rueful smile to her lips; Harper would have been scared senseless if he had come across her lying dead on the floor...again. Something nagged at the back of her mind but when she tried to concentrate blinding pain stabbed through her head. Frustrated, her ragged breath coming in small gasps, she turned her attention outside and began the task of examining her body to determine the extent of her injuries.
Her hair had come unclipped and lay about her face and shoulders in a fiery cloud. Her right eye was indeed swollen shut and caked with blood from a large gash on her forehead. Smaller cuts and scrapes peppered her cheeks but were of little consequence, her body's accelerated healing would have no problem with such minor injuries. Traveling down her body, she found her clothes ripped and torn and although she her muscles and joints ached as if she had been dragged through the slipstream drive of a freighter, she could find no more damage until she came to her right thigh. In the darkness, her fingers grazed a piece of metal imbedded in her leg. She gasped as a hot sliver of pain instantly traveled through her tortured nerves. When the pain had ebbed to a dull throb, she hesitantly probed the wound. Her fingers curled around warped steel, she unconsciously closed her eyes, trying to see with her mind's eye what her hands were feeling. The metal protruded from her leg approximately six inches how much lay buried within her she could only guess. The wound at its base was clean, void of jagged edges or a lateral tear. Trance squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she prepared to do the only thing she could, remove the splinter herself. Gathering her courage, she mentally counted to three and yanked the metal out of her leg. With an unimaginable force of will she bit back a scream of pain as she felt cold steel graze against bone.
Immediately she tore a scrap of leather from her outfit and used another to secure it over the site. She was lucky, the invading metal did not puncture the artery in her leg. She let out a shaky sigh and leaned her head back against the smooth, cool wall. It was so comfortable the way the wall curved slightly, almost perfectly conforming to her position, propped up as she was. The nagging sensation returned, this time it was more of a persistent tugging. Something was pulling at her, urging her to get up and...and what? She banged her head against the smooth wall in frustration trying to knock the fuzz out of her brain. She stopped when she began to see points of light dancing in her vision, she didn't think being unconscious again would be a good thing.
With a grunt of determination she struggled weakly to her feet, almost not making it as her injured leg buckled and refused to obey her body's demands on it. Leaning heavily on the wall, her head spinning from the blow she had received, Trance fumbled in the dark for a tiny flashlight she kept in a pocket near her katanna blades. After what seemed like an eternity, she grasped the fragile instrument in fingers that felt strangely numb. "Come on, don't be broke, don't be broke." She whispered. She held her breath and flicked the switch. A pale, sickly yellow light burst forth. It was terribly weak but Trance still had to squint her eyes against the sudden illumination. She realized that she was staring directly at the light surprised that it actually worked. Turning her head slightly she got her first look at her surroundings. Curved walls, grating on the floor, blank computer station, "Andromeda." Trance sighed with relief. She wasn't on some strange alien planet, she was home, on the Andromeda. She had to stifle a hysteric giggle of relief. The light began to wan as she let her eyes roam the corridor. To her right was nothing but black corridor for as far as the meager light could reach see. She turned to her left and nearly dropped the flashlight, the hallway was completely blocked by rubble.
The torch began to flicker as she stared at the mountain of ruin in the middle of Andromeda's normally spotless corridor. Memories strobed through her mind in time with the blinking of the flashlight. Dark, engineering. Light, explosions. Dark, enemy. Light, running. Dark and more dark. The flashlight winked out permenantly and the inky blackness settled in her heart like a lead weight.
Gulping air faster than she needed it, Trance began to hyperventilate. She felt slim tendrils of panic worm their way through her insides. "Andromeda?" She called. Nothing. "Rommie? Anybody?" Trance stood there in the dark trembling, waiting for an answer. None came. She knew she was letting panic win as her mind raced to make sense of the images she had seen. Not knowing where she was going, she turned to the right and began to hobble down the corridor as fast as her injured leg would allow. Still surrounded by the fathomless dark and filled with a dreadful, panicked urgency she made her way until her foot caught a large piece of rubble and she was sent sprawling to the floor. Tears of pain and frustration welled in her dark eyes as she pounded her fist on the deck. She lay there, her body wracked with silent sobs.
Softly she felt the now familiar mental tugging. "Go away." She whispered. The tugging became a pulling, filled with an ominous force. It was obvious her own mind wouldn't let her just lie there and wallow in self-pity. Trance groaned and rolled onto her back swiping angrily at her tear-filled eyes, embarrassed at her weakness even though there was no one to see it. The pulling in her mind became more frantic and for the first time since she woke up she felt the cobwebs begin to blow away and allow her to think clearly. She closed her eyes, took a deep, ragged breath, and concentrated. Reality wavered and soon she was inside her memories, watching them play out before her as if on a holo-disc.
*************
TBC
AUTHOR: Mercury's Winter mercurys_winter@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13 for owies and a couple of minor swears
ARCHIVE: Yes, ask first please.
SPOILERS: Ourboros, Tunnel, and Wheel for now I'll update if there are any more spoilers.
DISCLAIMER: This is all in fun, no money is coming my way, Andromeda and its characters belong to Tribune Entertainment.
COMMENTS/FEEDBACK: Yes PLEASE! It's the only reason I write! Love it? Hate it? Let me hear about it!
SETTING/SEASON: Season 3 Takes place after "If the Wheel is Fixed"
SUMMARY: With Trance's knowledge of the future, the crew has defeated the tunnel aliens but did she make the future better by trading places with her younger self...or worse?
A/N: This fic (the first two chapters anyway) were originally posted exclusively at Gordon AI's Andromeda site: http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/gordon_ai about the time SlipStream went down. Despite our agreement of exclusivity, he has graciously agreed to let me post it here. THANKS GORDON! :D (Maybe he thinks if you all bug me enough for more, I'll actually finish the darn thing ;-))
*******************
Darkness. Trance's world had been reduced to an all-encompassing darkness punctuated by dark swirling clouds of green and purple. Floating in the dreamy silence she tried to focus on the gauzy forms but as soon as her wandering gaze located one it would flit away only to reappear instantly in another location. By varying degrees consciousness began to reassert itself on her inert form and she realized with self-depreciating mirth that it was dark because her eyes were closed. With great effort she cracked her left eye open and was confused when the darkness did not recede. She felt the first inklings of panic flutter through the pit of her stomach. Her right eye wouldn't obey her command to open so she reached a shaky hand up to her head to find out why. Her fingers met a wet, sticky substance that could only have been her own blood. She groaned as awareness seeped into her followed quickly by an all-consuming agony. She clenched her jaw against the swelling tide and waited. Slowly the pain began to recede but not before leaving her breathless from it's power.
She became aware that she was lying on a hard surface but couldn't recall where she had been before...before what? Her mind was covered in a fine layer of fog; she kept a tight lid on her panic, confident that everything would become clear if she just gave it a little time. Trance struggled to a sitting position as her healing powers began to work their magic. In the total darkness, she found herself wondering if she had 'died'. The thought brought a rueful smile to her lips; Harper would have been scared senseless if he had come across her lying dead on the floor...again. Something nagged at the back of her mind but when she tried to concentrate blinding pain stabbed through her head. Frustrated, her ragged breath coming in small gasps, she turned her attention outside and began the task of examining her body to determine the extent of her injuries.
Her hair had come unclipped and lay about her face and shoulders in a fiery cloud. Her right eye was indeed swollen shut and caked with blood from a large gash on her forehead. Smaller cuts and scrapes peppered her cheeks but were of little consequence, her body's accelerated healing would have no problem with such minor injuries. Traveling down her body, she found her clothes ripped and torn and although she her muscles and joints ached as if she had been dragged through the slipstream drive of a freighter, she could find no more damage until she came to her right thigh. In the darkness, her fingers grazed a piece of metal imbedded in her leg. She gasped as a hot sliver of pain instantly traveled through her tortured nerves. When the pain had ebbed to a dull throb, she hesitantly probed the wound. Her fingers curled around warped steel, she unconsciously closed her eyes, trying to see with her mind's eye what her hands were feeling. The metal protruded from her leg approximately six inches how much lay buried within her she could only guess. The wound at its base was clean, void of jagged edges or a lateral tear. Trance squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she prepared to do the only thing she could, remove the splinter herself. Gathering her courage, she mentally counted to three and yanked the metal out of her leg. With an unimaginable force of will she bit back a scream of pain as she felt cold steel graze against bone.
Immediately she tore a scrap of leather from her outfit and used another to secure it over the site. She was lucky, the invading metal did not puncture the artery in her leg. She let out a shaky sigh and leaned her head back against the smooth, cool wall. It was so comfortable the way the wall curved slightly, almost perfectly conforming to her position, propped up as she was. The nagging sensation returned, this time it was more of a persistent tugging. Something was pulling at her, urging her to get up and...and what? She banged her head against the smooth wall in frustration trying to knock the fuzz out of her brain. She stopped when she began to see points of light dancing in her vision, she didn't think being unconscious again would be a good thing.
With a grunt of determination she struggled weakly to her feet, almost not making it as her injured leg buckled and refused to obey her body's demands on it. Leaning heavily on the wall, her head spinning from the blow she had received, Trance fumbled in the dark for a tiny flashlight she kept in a pocket near her katanna blades. After what seemed like an eternity, she grasped the fragile instrument in fingers that felt strangely numb. "Come on, don't be broke, don't be broke." She whispered. She held her breath and flicked the switch. A pale, sickly yellow light burst forth. It was terribly weak but Trance still had to squint her eyes against the sudden illumination. She realized that she was staring directly at the light surprised that it actually worked. Turning her head slightly she got her first look at her surroundings. Curved walls, grating on the floor, blank computer station, "Andromeda." Trance sighed with relief. She wasn't on some strange alien planet, she was home, on the Andromeda. She had to stifle a hysteric giggle of relief. The light began to wan as she let her eyes roam the corridor. To her right was nothing but black corridor for as far as the meager light could reach see. She turned to her left and nearly dropped the flashlight, the hallway was completely blocked by rubble.
The torch began to flicker as she stared at the mountain of ruin in the middle of Andromeda's normally spotless corridor. Memories strobed through her mind in time with the blinking of the flashlight. Dark, engineering. Light, explosions. Dark, enemy. Light, running. Dark and more dark. The flashlight winked out permenantly and the inky blackness settled in her heart like a lead weight.
Gulping air faster than she needed it, Trance began to hyperventilate. She felt slim tendrils of panic worm their way through her insides. "Andromeda?" She called. Nothing. "Rommie? Anybody?" Trance stood there in the dark trembling, waiting for an answer. None came. She knew she was letting panic win as her mind raced to make sense of the images she had seen. Not knowing where she was going, she turned to the right and began to hobble down the corridor as fast as her injured leg would allow. Still surrounded by the fathomless dark and filled with a dreadful, panicked urgency she made her way until her foot caught a large piece of rubble and she was sent sprawling to the floor. Tears of pain and frustration welled in her dark eyes as she pounded her fist on the deck. She lay there, her body wracked with silent sobs.
Softly she felt the now familiar mental tugging. "Go away." She whispered. The tugging became a pulling, filled with an ominous force. It was obvious her own mind wouldn't let her just lie there and wallow in self-pity. Trance groaned and rolled onto her back swiping angrily at her tear-filled eyes, embarrassed at her weakness even though there was no one to see it. The pulling in her mind became more frantic and for the first time since she woke up she felt the cobwebs begin to blow away and allow her to think clearly. She closed her eyes, took a deep, ragged breath, and concentrated. Reality wavered and soon she was inside her memories, watching them play out before her as if on a holo-disc.
*************
TBC