Survivors - Past and Present
by Nicol Leoraine
and Anon
aka VirtualQueens
Chapter 3
"Uh-oh." Tom muttered, looking around at the growing dust storm. He felt Chakotay stop behind him, and heard the other man cough as the dust swirled into his face. The wind had created a shrieking choir, one that was soon joined by the crackle of energy as it leapt from the clouds in search of a path from the sky. Tom raised a hand to his eyes, shielding them from the wind and dust, but it was a futile effort. He thought he heard someone shouting nearby, but the sounds of the storm overpowered any mere human noise. A brilliant blue bolt struck a few inches from Tom's feet and he staggered backwards, falling to the ground as more bolts jumped from the orange clouds. A bolt brushed his back and Tom screamed, feeling his body fill with far more energy than any human form was ever meant to hold. The energy dissipated rapidly, sinking into the ground that he lay on, but the pain didn't stop, and Tom quickly realized that breathing had become impossible. In some distant corner of his overloaded mind he felt a strong hand circling his arm and chest, pulling him away, but like the rest of the world if faded into blackness.
His eyes were red rimed and painful, tears pouring down his face as they tempted to wash out the foreign dust. Hacking coughs cleared his chest, and a pair of willing hands helped him sit up, as he regained his breath.
"By the spirits, Paris." Chakotay growled when Tom finaly stoped coughing.
"When I say back to the shuttle I don't intend for you to stand around admiring the scenery and wander on back whenever you feel like it!"
Tom simply stared, his mind slowly churning.
"I didn't hear you Chakotay." he said finaly, looking around him. They were back in the shuttle, and the rear hatch was open just enough to allow air in.
"It's Commander to you Paris, not Chakotay. And I suppose you 'didn't hear me' the same way you 'didn't hear me' on your first mission for the Maquis. " The contempt in the older mans voice was unmistakable.
Tom didn't say anything, just gave a well practiced shrug of indiferance. After a few tense minutes of silence Tom's head was clearer and he struggled to stand. Insted another coughing fit drove him into a miserable heap on the floor, as he alternately coughed his lungs up and clutched his acheing ribs.
"Paris!"
He waved one hand in Chakotay's general direction, but verbal comunitation was out. Suddenly he felt a hand on his back, and another hovered before his face, holding a bottle of water to his lips. He drank greedily, only stopping when the commander pulled the bottle away.
"You alright?" Chakotay asked, setting the bottle down next to him. It was small and bore the red lable of emergency rations.
"Yeah I'm fine...Commander." Tom couldn't quite keep the sarcasm out of his tone and he mentaly sighed when Chakotay's lips thinned. The two stared at one another, and would have continued to do so had the hatch not suddenly shut. Desperate to keep their air supply the two men lunched at the hatch and pushed it open. But instead of swirling dust and the sounds of the storm there was only silence. Hesitantly Chakotay pushed the hatch fully open and the two stared out at the world. The dust still stired slightly, driven by a small breeze, but it wasn't like the howling tornado from earlier. The sky though...
Tom wasn't sure he'd ever seen such a storm. Its color was something between deep orange and brown, glittering with the richest blue Paris had ever seen.
"Its so..."
"Incredible? Amazing?" cut in Chakotay, his voice sounding as odd as Tom's.
"Both, I think." muttered Paris.
After a moment Chakotay let out a breath and glaced at Tom. The pilot was pale and didn't look too steady on his feet but other than a few bruised ribs and maybe a mild concusion Chakotay didn't think he was too badly injured.
"We should look for Kim and Torres." Chakotay said finaly.
"Think they made it to the caves?"
"Maybe. The storm seems to be over, at least for a while." Chakotay forced Tom to the ground, and handed him the bottle of water. "Stay here and yell out if you see it starting up again. I'm going to try hailing Voyager again."
Tom waved Chakotay off, eagerly gulping the water. A few minutes later Chakotay returned shaking his head in response to Tom´s inquring look.
"Didn't work. Nothing works, comm, phasers, tricorders..." Chakotay trailed off as he stared out at across the gently rolling hills.
"Think B'Elanna and Kim could have survived outside the caves?" Tom asked after a moment.
Chakotay shrugged but his face was grim. "The storm hit us first, they might have had time to get to some sort of shelter."
Privately Tom doubted it, but he didn't say so. Instead he just coughed agian, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He froze for a moment, looking at the dark material he'd coughed up but quickly realized it wasn't blood. It was just... dust. Alien dust. Tom coughed again and tried not to think about what the large amounts of foreign dust in his lungs might do.
"They might have made it to valley," Tom said, looking ahead to the slight dip in the land "that might have protected them." After another moment of silence Tom said in the quitest possible tone "and by the way, thanks for pulling me inside."
"Wouldn't have been any good, returning to Voyager without our pilot. I'm sure Captain Janeway wouldn't have been very pleased about that."
"Unlike the rest of Voyager." muttered Tom. If Chakotay heard the bitter words, he said nothing.
"Alright, we've determined that we can't contact Voyager and none of our technology works. We need to find the others and find someplace to protect us from the storm. The shuttle held out through one storm but I wouldn't risk my life on it not turning into a lightning rod during the next one."
"I won't argue with that."
The two men gathered up more emergency rations, as well as the supplies they'd grabbed previously, and set out at a quick pace, the storms swift approach fresh in their mind. The angry looking sky didn't help ease their fears and both Paris and Chakotay looked fervently around, as if the storm was hiding behind a stick or rock.
"Damn it, the storm's erased their tracks." Chakotay muttered, glancing at his own line of clear tracks that went back to the shuttle. The pod was now a fair distance away, only a dark smudge against the landscape.
"I think I see the entrance to the caves!" shouted Tom, pointing to the massive cliff face before them. A mile or so to their left the glittering blue city twinkled enticingly but Chakotay ignored it, jogging into the sparse forest of wide leafed trees that grew at the base of the cliffs.
Just as suddenly as he'd started though, Chakotay stoped, tilting his head to the side. Tom, a few feet ahead of him was doing the same, muscless tensed as if he expected to be attacked. The air had changed substance as they'd entered the forest and Chakotay had a very bad feeling about what the drop in pressure meant. He spun slowly around, and was greeted with the sight of a huge brown thunderhead, crackling with bolts of blue energy.
"Run!" yelled Chakotay and Tom wasted no time thinking. He just ran, Chakotay beside him. But the storm was quicker. Resolutely promising himself that he'd never go on another away mission Tom stumbled over a stick, quickly regaining his balance. The caves were close, maybe a hundred yards, but at the same time they seemed to be impossibly far away. Chakotay pushed himself faster, feeling the back of his uniform crackle with static electricty. Tom was still ahead by several yards, running flat out. A lighting bolt struck a few feet in front of Paris and he darted to the side, hitting Chakotay. The two tumbled to the ground as the storm raged overhead, and more bolts found their way to the forest floor, and the two helpless men.
When they fell Tom knew he was dead. The fall forced the air out of his lungs and his screaming ribs banished all ideas he had of inhaling again. Instead he watched as bright spots clouded his vision, distantly wondering how he could see anything with his eyes clenched closed. He was unaware of Chakotay falling to the ground next to him, unconscious, or as the storm grew. All he could see, were the spots of light, now growing to into a solar system of stars, and space, with it's noiseless vacume, offering no sound to his ears. The stars were swirling together, melding into a huge sun. But the sun didn't shine like it should. It was a black hole, demanding its light, and Tom, weary beyond anything he'd ever known, simply watched his world disappear. As the last little fleck of light fadded, Tom had one final thought.
'I don't wanna die.'
Neither Tom or Chakotay noticed the dark figures that had watched them fall, and neither man could hear their soft whispers now, or see the weapons they held in their callused hands.
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A/N-Nicol: Okay, folks, the fourth is already written, but we would like to see some reviews, before we post it-)