For This Alliance May So Happy Prove
Chapter 3

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to The CW or to NBC.

Nox and the bridge crew had quickly realized that just as the ship's electricity itself had failed, so too did any independent battery-powered device. He hefted the useless flashlight he knew by touch, and for a moment wanted to throw it somewhere. I am the Iksen, he reminded himself. I must behave appropriately in front of my people. He temporized by dropping the useless device and nudging it against the wall of the corridor.

The corridor they were in lined the ship's inner wall, with the only available light trickling in through the ship's windows. Nox remembered the nearby emergency-aid box mounted by the bulkhead just aft of the bridge. He shouldered his way over, crouched down, and mostly by touch, managed to locate the catch for the cabinet. He swung it open and his hand touched a bottle.

Of course! Water!

Nox grabbed it and jubilantly jumped to his feet, holding the bottle up to the window so he could see the Kwandon text, which did say the bottle was water (and not disinfectant for cuts). He uncapped the bottle, poured a little into his hand and rubbed his face. Blue light suffused the area as his face lit up, and the bridge crew cheered!

"Let's do another check while we have time. Does anyone need to use the emergency supplies for anything?" Nox asked as he carefully recapped the bottle. He knew all the bridge crew were qualified for basic medical assistance, but the near-darkness of the bridge would have made it impossible. Now, though, with light, the bridge crew could occupy themselves for a few moments carefully checking each other over for injuries under soft blue light that suffused the area from each Atrian.

After the shuffling and moving ceased, Nox urged, "Let's be careful about the water! We can't count on any spares being available. We need to get to the Common Hall and find people along the way. We'll try to get as many of the pods as we can in the crew and passenger quarters of the ship, but I will need some runners to scout ahead of us to the level below and gather people. There's over seven hundred of us to move to the Hall, all right?"

Buoyed at being able to stop, check up on each other and most of all, having some source of light, the bridge crew began fanning out along the hallways. Two able-bodied bridge crew members found another bottle of water in an intact emergency provisions cabinet at another bulkhead further aft. As soon as they had it, they shouted that they would be taking the emergency ladder below. Nox bellowed back, "Be careful and safe! Remember, to the Common Hall!"

The remainder of the group made their way from pod to pod, knocking on doors as they did so. Every so often, one or two people would rub their faces with water, illuminating the area and serving as beacons to keep the motley crowd now forming along the halls from becoming lost.

Sabik, the science officer, limped slightly behind Nox. He said, "Did you know even the mag-locks no longer work? The only fail-safes now working are the mechanical override-locks."

"What?" blurted Nox. He turned, trying to make out the other man's face.

"It's true. When you were gathering up some of the crew near the bow, the operations officer was helping me get out into the hallway back by the bridge bulkhead. The pad didn't work at all, and he panicked for a second until I said to try the manual release anyway."

Nox remembered now the circular handles on the inside of every door in the ship; barely-noticed hand-operated locks which could be used in emergencies. The ops officer must have been able to turn the release before he'd returned with the other officers and out of habit, Nox hadn't thought to question why the doors still worked.

"What you said – 'nanites'? Could they really be this effective? Saturating the ship so thoroughly? So soon?" Nox frowned.

In the semi-darkness, Nox could just make out the helpless look on the other man's face. "I wish I could tell you more. But obviously, we have a ventilation system on the ship, and insofar as the ship's construction is concerned we have very minor leak-points at the airlocks where some air could escape. It's not fatal of course, and regeneration of our atmosphere can be done any number of ways. But if air can get out, then air can get in, and once in our ship and in the ventilation systems – the end, sir."

Nox grunted. He looked up, and as the group passed by another bulkhead (with someone making sure to check for the emergency supplies) he noted the section number. His hearts raced. He and his family lived in this section!

He bellowed, "Maia's in there! Let me through!"

Everybody understood what their Iksen meant, and parted before him along the corridor as he raced to the door to his pod. He banged against it several times and bellowed again. "Maia! Can you hear me through the door?!"

When nobody answered, he grabbed the manual override and strained against it. Two crew members leapt forward to help, and their combined strength was able to turn the handle. The locks creaked and protested all the while, which filled Nox with a sense of foreboding. If there were any structural damage to the ship, the frame could be twisted just enough to keep the manual locks from disengaging smoothly at points along the ship where the twisting was most pronounced. People could be trapped in their rooms!

They shoved against the door, rattling it against the frame and dislodging it in doing so. Relief surged through Nox as it swung open, and he barked, "Water!"

The blue glow from his face showed an unconscious Maia and Nox's daughter, Sefi. The little girl's eyes were fluttering open, and she moved her head to see Nox better. They were slumped against the far wall, and as he rushed to his wife and child, he could see nasty bruises on their foreheads, undoubtedly from the ship's collision throwing them about the room.

But where was—?

Nox ruthlessly clamped down on the fear threatening to rise within him. Focus, he thought. I have my wife and my daughter and they are alive.

"Father!" His daughter's weak voice filled him with relief as he carefully reached out for her. Sefi was at least able to talk; maybe she hadn't had a terrible head injury and the bruise didn't indicate a concussion.

"Sefi, do you feel any pain? Do you think you can move?"

Carefully, cautiously, she tested that her hands and feet could move, then shakily rose. Nox offered her a small drink of the water, then turned his attention to Maia and carefully checked her for any broken bones; none seemed obviously broken. At that small piece of good news, Nox let out a gasp, realizing belatedly he'd been holding his breath the entire time. He gently clasped her hand. "Maia? Wake up! Please!"

Her hand reflexively gripped his, and Maia's eyes slowly opened. She groaned and looked around. "Omon? Sefi?" she muttered.

"I'm here, Mom!" Sefi leaned down and reached for her mother's free hand, but she became agitated, gripping Nox's arm.

He could see the fear and panic in her eyes. "Where's Omon?! Where's our son?!"

"Shh. Calm down, Maia. We'll find him, but we need to get you up, all right?" said Nox, trying to keep his voice low and even.

Maia's expression tightened into grim determination as her husband and daughter helped her get to her feet. Slowly, haltingly, they moved into the corridor (and just in time too, for Nox's luminescent markings had begun to fade), and they joined the now long snaking trail of people making their way to the Common Hall.

/\/\/\/\

Bad news greeted Nox as the chief engineer Lenka and her crew joined him just outside the wide doors to the Common Hall. They smelled faintly of oil and coolant, and from someone else's luminescent markings, he could see a small smear of black along her chin.

"Iksen! The engine coolant loop is leaking; we were able to evacuate in time and manually close off the engineering section, but I'm worried that the fumes could make their way through the ventilation shafts," she said, frowning as she did so.

"How long do we have?"

"The leak's comparatively slow, but even with that and the fumes being lighter than air, I wouldn't give more than one shift cycle. Maybe two."

"All right. For now, help me get the doors open and everybody into the Common Hall, please," Nox commanded.

After sliding the ponderous doors into their recesses, Nox quickly gestured at the Hwatab elders to go in first with him. "We need to find a table. Did anyone get the flame pots and oils?"

"Yes," replied the elder from the Iwabas tribe.

The Hall was normally kept wide open, and tables were conveniently stacked in one corner, with chairs in the opposite corner, so the only major danger was someone accidentally tripping in the murky semi-darkness of the Hall. Some light crept in from the high narrow windows near the ceiling, and the occasional luminescence bobbing around as someone moved through the crowd helped, too.

Meanwhile, Nox and the Hwatab elders grabbed one of the tables and shoved it against a wall of the Common Hall, ignoring the anxious chatter that swelled in volume as people slowly shuffled into the cavernous room. Luckily, the containers of ceremonial oils for the summoning of Jesytur were undamaged, and Nox and the four elders began setting up the three flame pots, which were normally used only when an Atrian died. Once the pots on the table were lit and the light from the flames began suffusing the Hall, the confused babbling died down. Nox yelled, "Your attention! Your attention, please!"

He would not let himself get distracted with the gnawing in his stomach. Omon had to be safe in an out-of-the-way maintenance closet in the ship; there were just only so many places he could be, and now that almost all the ship's population was in one place and accounted for, they could start a comprehensive search and have everybody found before daybreak – although, he admitted to himself, he had no idea what this planet's rotational period was. The science officer, Sabik, would know.

But everybody's eyes were now on him. His voice didn't waver as he spoke. "The immediate problem we have is that Lenka, the engineer, has informed me that the ship's engine coolant is slowly leaking and evaporating in the engineering section. This ship may not be safe for us and we may need to evacuate while it is still night-time on this part of the planet.

Nox squared his shoulders. "Now, how many of us are there? Is anyone seriously hurt?"

The ship's doctor, Lixan, pressed forward through the crowd and stood beside Nox. He said, "By what luck I have no idea, but the worst we've had is a broken leg and while it looks like we've had some concussions as well, nobody's dead, as far as I can tell. But we've been checking names against the only hard copy of the ship's manifest. There's twenty people missing."

The room exploded in alarmed shouts. More people than just his son?! Nox nearly swore out loud. Instead, he slammed the table, his jaw muscles working as he forced himself to think. The roaring in his ears seemed to get louder as his hearts beat a little faster.

After a moment, Nox took a deep breath, willing calm upon himself. He looked up and bellowed, managing to just be overheard. "Lenka!"

The lean engineer, who'd been in urgent conversation with her assistants, looked up and slipped past people to the semicircular space in front of Nox. "Yes, Iksen?"

"You know the ship best. Organize a search party and find those people!" Nox ordered. "My son is one of them!"

She nodded, went back to her assistants, and was already picking people from the rear of the crowd to join her. Meanwhile, Nox continued. "I also need a small search party to accompany me out of the emergency airlock of this room. We have to scout the immediate area to see if it is safe to evacuate at night. Kastor—" He looked up and saw the man in the nearby crowd.

"Good. I need four more volunteers."

After the search party was duly formed, Nox looked at Sabik. "What do you think about the locks?"

"Lenka would know better, but if I recall our emergency protocols, airlocks fail to an open condition in the event of total power loss. The idea being that we would at that point be abandoning ship by any means possible, so normally the interlocks that keep you from having both doors open at the same time should be defeated." Sabik took a sharp breath and leaned against the wall. Lixan, spotting this, ran up and steadied the man. As he touched Sabik's side, the science officer winced. "What the—? You've probably got a cracked rib!" To Nox, he barked, "I'll handle things here. You find out what's outside."

Nox nodded, but glanced at Sabik first. To the search party members, he said, "Help me get the inner lock open."

Again, as with his pod's door, Nox heard the grinding of the locks being withdrawn as they took turns rotating the door's manual release. Kastor and another man were at the release handle when the locks finally retracted with a loud clunk, and Nox, to his surprise, had been clenching his fists for – well, he didn't know how long.

They pulled, slowly swinging the ponderous inner lock door open, enough to let the six people through; one of them brought a flame pot into the airlock chamber to provide some light. Once again, they laboriously turned the manual release handle, this time set in the wall rather than in the door. This was because the outer airlock door slid into a recess in the ship, to make it easier to go in or out. The locks retracted smoothly, but as the team began pushing at the door to slide it, Nox could hear the unwelcome grinding and screeching before the protesting door finally retracted fully.

He looked out—

And saw a lamp on the ground shining next to a being who looked like an Atrian.

"Knoswalan," whispered Nox.

Author Notes:

I want to thank my very helpful betas and idea-bouncer-offers: For Revolution, IronAmerica! For Star-Crossed, justvisiting80 and Sibuna'sDivergent!

(Derivation of Nox's Sondiv expostulation: Peterson (the designer of the language) tells us that "seaweed" is "knos". "flood" is the literal rendition of "nwalan". I combined the two words to create "seaweed-flood". Atrians, being a more aquatic species generally than humans are, probably conceptualize their more mild epithets in such terms, and so it probably constitutes something in between an actual swear-word like "shit" and an expostulation of shock, like "Jesus!" or "The hell?")