She woke up with a headache. It was horrible, mind-numbing. The flashing light on the other side of the window was blinding. Fuck. Panic started flowing in. Breathe. Breathe. Count to ten. One, two, three, for, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Breathe. Breathe.
Her head was better, but it could be due to a different kind of pain, somewhere in the right part of her throat.
Concentrate.
She looked around. She was in some kind of small, enclosed space. Probably made of metal, with a misted up glass panel in front of her face. It was cold, too cold. She moved her hand to check her ribs and found wires stuck to her chest. Then the sound reached her, alarm blaring. Right, the flashing light outside was red. She tried pushing the lid of whatever medical pod she was in. It didn't give in. She felt around for any kind of emergency opening seal. It was on the left, a ditch in the cover with a metal bow which she pulled.
The pod gave a hiss and opened.
She sat up hastily removing all the wires and stickers from her naked body. She looked around. Bave, metal walls and floor, with crates of various size and shape fastened to them
with belts and holding nets. Some kind of holding space.
She tried to get up, but a wave of vertigo forced her back to the pod. Breathe. Count to ten. Breathe. Try once move, slower. Vertigo hit her again for a few seconds, but this time it was weaker, bearable. Two more breaths.
Where was she? Who was she? She smelled smoke.
"The five extinguishing systems are down. Please evacuate the ship."
Great. She took a few shaky steps and got to one of the walls.
"Life support systems failing. Please evacuate the ship."
There was a door a few more meters to her night. And a few dirty work jumpsuits hung on the wall between her and the door.
"Thanks the Spirits," she muttered.
The pain and the vertigo started to subside with her next steps. She grabbed a jumpsuit at random and then she was at the door. She hit the unlocking mechanism and it worked. Whatever has happened the power was still on and hopefully would stay that way till she managed to get off this cursed piece of junk. It was definitely not an Alliance vessel, most probably not even a human-made one. If she only knew how to get to the emergency.
"The blue floor lightning will guide you towards the nearest exit," for once the metallic voice of the cheap AI was helpful.
She looked around once more. Yup, there were the lights pointing the way. Definitely the right way as she saw smoke coming from the other end of the corridor. Holding the suit with her left hand she used her night one to support herself as she hobbled along the glowing signs. In a few seconds she was in a large room, some hybrid between a galley and a lounge, messy, with weapons and mods lying on the tables and stuck on the shelves. And there was the airlook. A few move steps and she was inside, pulling the jumpsuit on. It stunk. Once it was on, she faced the airlock terminal. Simple, a bit primitive even. Probably cheap. But it was showing environmental readings outside- planetside, 15°C, breathcable atmosphere. She decided to don the environmental suit anyway, hoping it may prove
useful later. She did a short sweep of the airlock, grabbing a rattling toolbox, the only useful item in sight. A loud beep sounded as the outer doors opened, this ones not only hissing but also creaking loudly. The brightness of the sun blinded her, wherever she was it must have been the middle of the daya The ground was green, probably covered in some kind of grass, just two meters below.
She jumped.
"Hey, human, wake up!" The voice was fast and nervous, very Salarian.
"I'm telling you she's dead!"
" I just seew her breath!".
Yes, breath. He inhaled deeply and groaned in pain. The right side of her chest was killing her.
"Help her up."
She tried to sit. Her side hurt. Her leg hurt. Her head pounded and spinned.
She lost consciousness once more.
NOTES
This story took me a few months to write. Most of it is already completed, sitting on my tablet and waiting for editing, occasional rewrites and inserting some additional scenes. I'll be posting chapters irregularly due to work overload and my ADHD making me do (or write) other things.
"The Mark of the Past" is set in the same universe that "Her Funeral" takes place, but reading one is not necessary to understand and enjoy the other. You may expect one more story between those two, which is already written, but in need of re-read and editing.
And if you happen to notice any mistakes, be them in grammar, lore or anything else do not hesitate to message me. If you'd be interested in helping me upgrade my work by beta'ing it then please, pm me as soon as you can - I'd really appreciate some help from a native speaker, for my English needs a bit of dusting up ;)