Private In Dreams of Rust and Void

[Ives]

Ives woke up to darkness and the quiet sound of gurgling to his right. A moment later he was pushing himself up to his feet. A pain in his back and the blurriness in his vision vanished before he'd even fully registered them. He knew that sound well, and it made the adrenaline spike in his system.

He didn't stumble in the dark for long to find the source of the sound. Beyond a door, barely broken open enough for Ives to squeeze through, he found the cockpit.

One survivor inside--Rattatki, male, shuttle pilot. The faint glow of sparks and emergency instruments on the dashboard cast a red glow over pilot, and into the night beyond the canopy. Large chunks had broken away and were missing.

Ives met the pilot's eyes. He was pleading silently with silver eyes--Pt was responsive--through barely contained fear.

An arm-length shard of jagged canopy glass had embedded itself in his chest. It had stained blue with blood.

Ives settled against the console next to the driver--Pt was still breathing, airway unobstructed--and took the man's hand into his own.

The skin of the pilot's hand was scarred, consistent with old shock-boxing injuries--pulse present but faint. The way the pilot moved...Ives checked the man's back. The shard had pierced clean through, into the cushioning of the backrest, and pinned him in place. Removing it would be extremely dangerous.

Ives shifted back against the dashboard. He exhaled, thinking beyond instinct for the first time since he'd regained consciousness.

The shuttle had been descending into atmosphere. There'd been a bright series of flashes, some turbulence. Ives had been standing at the time, and there'd been a handful of other passengers on board.

Ives grimaced. Passengers meant more injured.

Jett Aurin

 

[Jett Aurin]

Ives​

Horrible, horrible dream.

Jett opened her eyes. It wasn't a gentle awakening. It was sudden, like she had just caught herself dozing off and her body snapped her back to life. Of course, it had probably been an hour or two since she closed her eyes.

It was dark.

Worse still, she felt a stiff pain in her body. As if she had just felt the consequences of a full workout session all at once.

She groaned when she took a stand and reached out into the darkness, finding anything at all to hold onto. What she touched, however, was soft and lukewarm. She knew that feeling anywhere.

"A body..." She whispered for her own sake.

Jett tried to move forward, only to be thrown back by turbulence. She fell and then smashed into another row of seats. "Guh!"

She managed to right herself again and carefully moved towards the only source of light that wasn't outside a viewport - the cockpit.

"Hello?" She called as she approached the door. She swore she heard something. Or someone. "Is anyone in there?"

Already, Jett felt that familiar fear. The sense of being watched, but only in her blind spots. A surreal instinct that screamed: don't turn around.

 

[Ives]

Ives thought he saw movement in the darkness. Before he could confirm, the shuttle lurched. The pilot's hand slipped from his, and from where he was leaning against the dashboard he was flung violently against the cockpit's viewport. The existing cracks in the glass widened, and for a moment Ives was certain the entire thing would give way.

Instead, it held. But he didn't find the relief he might have hoped for. Pressed against the viewport, he could see the world beyond the shuttle for the first time.

There was no ground.

Rather, he couldn't see it. A dense fog swallowed the world beyond a stone's throw of the cockpit, and instead of solid ground the space below dissolved into that deep black void.

The wind whistled through the gaps in the viewport. It wasn't the sort of howling gust he'd have expected if they'd still been mid-flight--or mid-crash. The shuttle hadn't landed yet, except, it wasn't moving either.

"Hello?" The voice barely registered.

Ives lifted himself off the viewport, gently. He was careful not to stress the glass too suddenly. He slid back onto the dashboard, holding onto it tightly this time.

"Is anyone in there?" That same voice called again.

"Yeah, are you hur--" Ives began, but another lurch from the shuttle interrupted him.

It wasn't as bad as the previous one. A minor shove, at most, and the shuttle had settled again. Except that lurch had pulled the floor beneath him along.

Downwards.

Ives took a sharp breath, eyes widening.

The shuttle had come to a halt, but not in a stable position. Whatever was supporting the shuttle threatened to give, which made the inside of the cockpit a death sentence wherever it would make impact.

He turned to the narrow opening in the doorway, where the broken door had left a gap. It was dark, but he could make out a silhouette there.

"How many more made it?" Ives asked.

His hands were covered in the Rattataki's blue blood, and he hadn't really noticed the faint lines of red blood running down his temple. It would likely be visible in the dashboard's dim, red glow. The pilot sat slumped over the glass shard in his chest, still as could be.

Jett Aurin