Chapter 3–Not Alone...
Hannah thanked God that she wore a singlet under her uniform. Climate control systems had been offline for hours. The cockpit was hot and stuffy and Hannah was swimming in her own sweat. Flight Lieutenant Squire had already pulled his boots off and ripped off his uniform shirt, eager to cool down as much as possible. The Matterhorn's VI had restored basic system functionality to the SSV Vancouver saving the hundreds of lives on board, but it wasn't able to restore their VI.
So here they were, stuck with minimal systems while the Matterhorn VI maintained two ships; waiting on the engineers on the SSV Vancouver to repair and reboot their VI.
Squire fanned his face with his hands, circulating the hot air. He looked over at Hannah who was in the middle of tying her hair up with one of her boot laces. Desperate times, he reasoned.
"You know," Squire towelled himself off with his shirt and tugged on his singlet to air himself out; "this reminds me of the Patashi mission."
Hannah chortled; "Patashi was much hotter than this. This is like a Thailand heat - it's horrible!."
"Thailand?"
"Yeah, on Earth?" Hannah pulled the boot lace from her hair and set about tying her hair in a bun; "real humid - you practically wear the heat."
"I've never been to Earth." Squire mumbled and rubbed the back of his neck to hide his embarrassment.
"Truly? You should go!" Hannah sat back into her chair for a moment before swivelling her chair around to face Squire. Her face was half hidden by shadow but he could make out her bright smile; "though it pales compared to the wonders out here."
"What's it like? Earth."
Squire hung on Hannah's every word. She described the lush rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside in Italy - pastures of green, yellow and brown; of the sun scorched Australian country - a place that can get so hot, entire communities still live underground; New York - home of the old United Nations head office, before it became the Systems Alliance; and London - Hannah's birth place. A hodgepodge of history and advancement. Giant cathedrals hundreds of years old, a once towering clock called Big Ben dwarfed by skyscrapers and a season where snow falls from the sky and covers the ground in a blanket of white for months on end.
"Wouldn't that hurt?" Squire furrowed his eyebrows at Hannah; "Snow is just ice, right?"
"No. Yes, but no." Hannah exhaled, she was terrible at describing things to people; "its ice, sure, but it's different. Think shaved ice, Squire. Lots of it."
Squire nodded slowly as he tried to imagine shaved ice falling from the sky. Hannah watched as his nose crinkled and his lip kinked. She snickered at his expression.
"Julian" He clarified himself when Hannah's face contorted with confusion; "my name."
"I know what your name is" The navigation system flickered to life, bathing Hannah's face in a hue of blue, orange and yellow. She peeled herself out of the chair and walked over to the manual override node to key in codes again.
"I've never heard you use it, I'm worried you don't even know how to say it."
"Juli-" Large hands landed on the wall beside her head, closing her in. She straightened herself a little as she pivoted on the spot. He had her pinned against the door. His toffee eyes held her captive in his gaze; her breathing hitched in her chest and her tongue darted out across her lips before she could stop herself; "-an"
They had been dancing around each other for months. What had started out as harmless battlefield flirting had become something more to him. He had tried hard, so hard, to deny his feelings for Hannah. She had a family waiting for her, but he could only take so much. He could still remember the night several months ago when he bumped into Hannah in the service shafts. She pinned him against a wall, kissing him with such passion and ferocity that he wanted to take her then and there. Instead she had broken off the kiss, told him to trust her and open their private channel; that she had a surprise for him. Listening to her get tormented by Malcolm had surprised him but seeing her in the cockpit soon after, locking the door behind her and making love against it had been the real surprise. He knew - by her own admission - that despite all the rumours surrounding her and Malcolm, they'd not been intimate in a long time - but he and Hannah had slept together many times.
Could he hope she felt the same as him? God, he hoped she did.
"Once chance. You know what I want, Hannah; but I won't play second fiddle. If you say yes then we do this right but if you say no, then I walk away," Squire held himself steady, careful that he didn't touch her, careful that his voice didn't rise beyond a whisper; "no hard feelings, strictly plut-"
Hannah lunged at him, crashing her lips into his. Squire barely had enough time to catch her and pull her flush against him without falling over. He slid his hands under her shirt savouring the softness of her naked skin against his fingertips. She moaned into their kiss, tilting her head back to give him better access to her mouth which he greedily accepted, his tongue massaged hers as he made short work of her pants. She broke away from the kiss first to help him out of his singlet. Squire could barely mask the smirk forming on his face in response to Hannah's soft scowl. She was too short to remove it. Putting her out of her misery Squire pulled the singlet over his head and tossed it aside then kissed the down-turned corners of her lips as he removed the final pieces of her clothing.
Squire took a moment to appreciate her figure: slim but not too skinny, toned arms and shapely legs, unblemished sun-kissed skin hidden under the darkness of the dimly lit cockpit, breasts that fit perfectly in his hands and a wonderfully round ass. Taking a deep breath, Squire committed the image to memory. She was...
"Stunning" His voice was husky and full of desire.
Hannah smiled shyly, her lips puckered and swollen from the kiss. Squire imagined Hannah astride him and his pants became far too tight. Hannah kept him pinned under her gaze as she drops to her knees before him, taking her time to undo the buttons and zip. Squire groaned at the sight of her, she was making him ache with desire as he sprang free of his underwear. Hannah kissed a dewy bead from the tip of Squire's cock and he inhaled sharply. She didn't give him the chance to prepare for her assault. She grabbed the base of his shaft firmly and licked her lips as she pumped him. Sheathing her teeth behind her lips she drew him into her, her tongue winding around him mercilessly torturing him as she bobbed tip to shaft meeting her hand in the middle. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down. Squire closed his eyes and surrendered to her rhythm. Unconsciously he thrusted in time with her. He carded his fingers through her hair to steady himself. Hannah moaned at the touch. The vibrations resonated with his cock and her movements. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down.
"Unh, Hannah..." He warned her, curling his fingers in her hair and doubling over slightly; "careful.."
He felt her smile around his shaft as she picked up the pace and increased the suction. Up. Down. Up. Down. He felt her draw him deeper into her mouth. He fisted his hands in her hair and bit back a moan. His head was nudging the back of her throat. He felt himself twitch and stiffen. He warned her he was close, he didn't want to be undone here, but she kept going. She pumped her hand in time with her head bobs, her tongue massaged the underside of his shaft and teased the sensitive spot beneath his head. His hip thrusts became more frantic. He was helpless. He needed release. He needed her. He had her. He had her mouth. He was in her mouth. In. Out. In Out. In. Out. Hannah shifted her hand from the base of his shaft and gently squeezed his balls. Squire cried out, pushed himself deep into her mouth and came.
Vaguely he felt Hannah stroking his thighs as she swallowed him. Shakily he released his death grip on her hair as she pulled away from his cock. He watched awe struck as she climbs up off the floor, licking her lips and looking every bit as impressed as he felt. She pushed him backwards until his knees collided with the small cot forcing him to sit down. Without hesitation Hannah climbed on top of him and kissed him hard. He could taste himself on her tongue and he stirred to life again. Hannah grinned against their kiss. She fumbled with him as their tongues warred against each other. Squire's moan evolved into a primal growl when Hannah impaled herself on him. She was so wet and tight that Squire had to lock an arm around her hips and grasp her shoulder to hold her still. He didn't want to come again so soon. Instead, once he was used to her surrounding him, he relaxed and surrendered himself to Hannah.
oOo
"wait.. what is that?"
Hannah pointed to a particularly bright star. Squire stood beside her, still shirtless while buttoning his pants up; her bra strap between his teeth. Squire wiggled his eyebrows at Hannah as she snatched her bra from him mid eye roll. Within seconds, a cluster of ships dropped from FTL travel and opened fire on the Fleet, focusing their fire on the ships closest to the relay. The two watched in horror as the SSV Vancouver's hull was torn apart. The Matterhorn VI reappeared at the VI terminal, restarting various systems aboard the vessel and announcing to the ship that they were under attack and that the primary drive core was still malfunctioning. Hannah listened to the re-established communication channels; the Fleet was still crippled from the from the relay hack and she knew they wouldn't be able to fend off the attack.
Their tryst all but forgotten, Squire leapt into his chair and ordered the VI to compensate for the core and get them moving. Hannah hastily threw her uniform on, tossed Squire his shirt and plotted their flight home. Captain Singh stormed into the room, demanding a sitrep. The two didn't bother to stop what they were doing as they briefed the Captain on the situation. Before Hannah could give the Captain her update, the communication channels filled with static.
"நீங்கள் சிடபிள்ல் ரெகுளூஸ் i3-RWA இன் நேரடி மீறலில் உள்ளீர்கள்." தண்டனை மரணமே.
The channel was cut before anyone could respond. Captain Singh stood behind the duo as they tried to reconnect to the ship. Ignoring the hails, the ship once again opened fire on the fleet. The SSV Denali and Victoria captured one of the alien ships in a pincer manoeuver; together the ships breached the hull and sent it colliding into the inactive relay. Another larger ship dropped out of FTL just behind the SSV Denali, everyone watched on in stunned silence as the ship's core charged up and fired an energy beam that tore through the SSV Denali and SSV Victoria. Hannah raked her fingers down her cheeks and screamed, Squire looked at the Captain whose wide eyed, shocked expression mirrored his own.
"Get us out of here - NOW!" Captain Singh yelled over his shoulder as he left the room.
Squire leaned back into his chair as the flight assistance programs disappeared behind manual controls. Entwining his fingers and pushing his palms outwards in front of him to crack his knuckles, Squire flipped switches and pressed buttons as an ancient looking boxed screen whined on start up - a blue and brown split screen slowly came into view. The ship's VI appeared to warn him that an FTL jump was impossible.
"Then swap the cores— ugh, must I do everything... Bridge to Engineering!" Squire swore under his breath, as he pulled a sharp turn to flee the firefight; "Come in Engineering!"
"This i- -ns. - su-ai-d he- -r. - FTL Jum- - half - -w!"
"Engineering, swap the drive cores. We need to get out of here! Engineering?! Hello? Damn it!"
Open communication channels flooded the Matterhorn with the static and screams of those aboard the other vessels. One by one the channels fell to static and until the Matterhorn was silent. Hannah's hands hovered over the holographic keyboard frozen in place, her gaze fixed on the nav screen. She typed the rest of the navpoints out, pouring all of her focus into each press of the keys.
In that instant her entire world had changed. Squire flicked switches, turned dials and pushed the manual controls away to restore the flight assistance programs. His voice calm and even as he spoke to each section of the ship. Hannah couldn't hear the replies but assumed by his demeanour that everything was fine. She looked down at her hands, caressing her palms, feeling the rough skin, digging her nails in and dragging them along the deep flexion creases. Pain was bad. Pain meant she was awake. Pain meant that her friends - her fleet - had just been decimated. Pain meant ... Pain meant they were not the only species alive in the galaxy.
It had been years since the discovery of the Prothean Ruins but there had been no evidence of survivors. They had found other relays and planets with half crumbled mega cities - evidence of once great civilisations fallen to time - but never had they found sentient life. The first ever contact with an alien species ended in the death of hundreds of her comrades. Had the aliens been watching them? Did they know about Earth? Lunar base? The colonies?
A warm wetness kissed her fingertips. Squire's hands pulling apart her own dragged her from her thoughts. Blood slowly pooled around the cuts from her nails. She could barely feel the dull ache.
"What were they?" her thoughts fell out of her mouth before she could stop them.
"I don't know, but you're in shock. Look at me and take deep, slow breaths.. like this.." Squire held Hannah's gaze and breathed slowly and deeply, he tried to keep his grip gentle yet firm to help anchor her to the moment. After his third demonstration of slow breathing Hannah joined in. Confident she could breathe unsupervised, Squire tended to her injured palms. Just as he had finished tying off the last bandage Hannah began to tremble: lightly at first then full tremors. Tears pooled inner eyes, threatening to fall as shook before him.
"Hannah, can you hear me? I will help you to the bed, okay?" Squire gently lifted her to her feet, still maintaining eye contact.
Hannah blinked and Squire could see that she was no longer there. Giant teardrops cascaded down her cheeks, joining at her chin to drop onto her shirt. She grit her teeth to bite back her voice and shook her head. Squire let her fight back against him, not once letting go of her. She thrashed around in his grip, pleading with the VI to do something - anything - to save the others. Against his better judgement Squire sat on the cot in the cockpit, still damp from their earlier exertions, and pulled Hannah into his embrace.
oOo
The ships appeared out of nowhere. What the hell are those? The ship opened fire on the fleet, destroying the SSV Vancouver. Hannah stood alone watching as her fleet, her family, her friends were rocketed from the hull breach. She called to them in silence, holding her arms out for them as they floated off onto the starry abyss. A brilliant light caught her eye. No. Don't. The large star ship that had dropped out of FTL - Not again. Not my friends. Please! - shot a focused beam of energy at the SSV Victoria and SSV Denali. She could hear their cries for help over the communication channels. She held her arms out for her friends but they rocketed out of the breached hill away from her. Why can't I reach you? Why didn't it target us instead? Her boots magged up as part of the hull disappeared in another brilliant light. The crew members of the other ships floated around the beach, just out of reach. Just reach down towards me and grab my hand! They floated around her. Lifeless eyes white and glazed over.
Why had it been them? I'm so sorry. Why had she been spared? I don't know, I'm so sorry. Why did she try to restart the relay? They were our orders. Please forgive me. Why wasn't her ship as damaged? Our VI prioritised us. It shouldn't have. It should have been us. Why wasn't it us? Why wasn't it you? It should have been us. I Did this. It should have been me.
She bolted upright. Her chest heavy and hollow and full of bitterness, hatred and self loathing. Her stomach tight, head pounding, heart torn apart, lungs on fire. Voices echoed in her mind - "it should have been me." Her voice mirrored her thoughts.
"None of this is your fault, Hannah. No one could've known this would happen." Squire sat beside the cot on the ground facing away from her. His arm twisted to hold her hand, his fingers victim to her vice-like grip "We survived. We will warn the Alliance and give back ten times more than what we got."
She twisted onto her side and snuggled into his back, falling back into a restless sleep.
"As if I will let you die." Squire whispered to himself.
oOo
The docking station had barely secured itself to the airlock when Captain Singh and XO Hartley ran through decontamination, followed by the rest of the fleet. Squire and Hannah pushed through the crowd of service people eager to be off the Matterhorn. All around them their peers were carrying people off on makeshift stretchers or leaning on one another for support as they hobbled through decontamination. White sheets laid out near the dock covered the bodies of those who didn't survive the journey. Scorch marks marred the crisp white paintwork of the ship's hull - proof that the attack was real.
"I didn't realise the ship was this damaged." Hannah tore her eyes from the scene to keep pace with Squire; "Good thing we could get away."
Squire's kept his eyes trained forward as his lips pressed into a thin line and his grip on her hand tightened. Hannah wondered if they had not been able to get away? was he blaming himself for the damage to the ship?
"Yeah, it's a hell of a thing" was his only comment, keeping silent as they walked to the Alliance HQ.
The problem with Hannah was that she knew what to say and when. Hannah felt guilty about the attack at the relay; she blamed herself for her friends dying; she blamed herself for not catching the Cyber attack sooner; she blamed herself for not forcing the Matterhorn VI to restore the life support systems on the other ships.
Not that she would ever admit to any of it.
The SSV Matterhorn was the only ship to make it back from the relay activation. The Alliance Brass had ordered the entire ship's company to undergo psychiatric evaluation after they had submitted their reports. Hannah felt responsible for the deaths of her friends and the destruction of the fleet and she'd be damned if she let them put her on psychiatric leave or worse Cat-6 her. So for her mandatory evaluation she was the picture of health.
Maintain eye contact "I am devastated by their loss, but that is the reality of war" I will find these bastards and avenge my friends.
"The mission went perfectly. There was no way anyone could've known" The relay needed to be overridden, that was not standard, I should have known!
"Our VI did everything it could for the other ships but their systems were too far gone." Why didn't the surviving crew members get into a shuttle? We could have intercepted them and withdrawn!
Hannah stepped out of the office into Arcturus Station's artificial afternoon. The sun lingered in the sky as clouds rolled past. If she closed her eyes, she could almost hear birds chirping, could almost feel the wind in her hair. The datapad given to her by the psychiatrist flashed green. She had passed her evaluation and was fit for duty. Over by the lake she spied Squire sitting alone, his head resting in his hands and her heart froze. Did he fail? When she blinked, she was standing beside him looking out over the lake. He didn't shift from his position. Hannah knew he was suffering–they all were–but she had no idea how to help him through the pain. Knowing there were no words, she sat beside him and placed a hand on his knee. The gesture was small, but she hoped it would offer comfort. Squire grabbed her arm and pulled her onto his lap, his eyes were red and his face was blotchy. Hannah climbed into Squire's lap and pulled him into her. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, a strangled cry escaped his lips as he sobbed.
She gently stroked his hair, gently crooning in his ear that everything was ok now, they were safe. But deep down she knew it was a lie. She rocked him back and forth while stroking his hair and allowed herself to cry silently into his hair.