Tragic Heroines

Posted on Fri Jul 24, 2015 @ 9:14am by erie'Riov Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian

852 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Promenade
Timeline: During the shaking-->Now

Amanda Lanos had been on the promenade, shopping for ingredients for the night's meal with Rianni, when the whole place started shaking. She didn't know what was going on, but a blind woman could see that the crowd on the promenade was panicking. Bracing herself against a bulkhead, she covered her head and waited for the shaking to stop.

Tasha McCrory, age six, was running an errand for her mom, bringing home peaches for a cobbler to be that night's dessert. She'd gotten the peaches, and a green apple for herself, and was heading home when all of a sudden the floor underneath her was trying to throw her into the sky. Trying to hold her parcel and balance herself proved to be impossible for her and she soon found herself slung against the railing. She clutched the railing with one arm, trying to hold onto the peaches with the other, screaming, "Somebody help me! PLEASE!"

Amanda raised her head when she heard that poor child screaming, the danger to herself be damned, she had to help. Dashing across the promenade, even with it shaking under her, she came to the child's position, "Okay, sweety, hold on, I'm going to help you." She said comfortingly, "I'm going to put my arms around your waist and pull you back onto the deck, okay?"

"O..okay." Tasha sobbed, terror had made her stammer, causing her to feel a surge of shame after all the time she'd spent working to rid herself of the stutter.

Balancing herself in such a way where she could both rescue the child and not fall herself should the station tremble again was proving to be a precarious task, especially with the station starting to shake again. Grabbing the little girl around the waist she pushed back from the railing as hard as she could, rolling back to the bulkhead. She felt the impact when they hit, bracing the little girl with her body so she would absorb the impact for both of them. The durasteel wall knocked the breath out of her, but she could tell the child was safe, nothing else mattered.

"Are you okay?" Tasha asked through tears. She didn't really know who this lady was, but she'd put herself in danger to keep her from falling, and that made her special, "Please be okay..."

Her breath back, Amanda was finally able to speak, "I'm fine, baby." She said with a smile, pushing herself to her feet and taking the little girl's hand, "Come on, let's get you somewhere safe."

Johnny Wisnewski, 'Ski' to his friends and customers, was in intense pain. Not only had he hit the deck hard when the station started to shake, but the contents of his hot dog cart, 'Perfectly Polish', had spilled all over him, scalding him over ninety percent of his body. Now, now he heard a creaking, breaking sound, the kind of sound that could only mean his cart was going to break free from the moorings that held it in place and shoot across the promenade like an out of control truck. As he tried in vain to lift himself from the deck, the station shook again and the cart began to roll, hurtling towards a pretty young woman with waist length brown hair holding hands with a little girl. Using every bit of strength in his body, 'Ski' screamed, "Look out, lady!" before collapsing to the deck and taking his last breath.

Amanda barely heard the man yell, but she could hear something barreling down on them, and turned to see. The massive cart was hurtling towards her at high speed, and she needed to get the little girl, Tasha, out of the way. Pushing Tasha back towards the deck she was able to clear the child, but not herself, from harm's way. The impact when the cart hit her was the worst pain she could remember, she could feel and hear her ribs cracking and then she was flung from the cart when it hit another victim, sending her hard against the railing she'd just rescued Tasha from. She felt herself beginning to slip, thinking of the hundreds of decks between her and where she would eventually impact, and tried desperately to brace herself and pull back onto the deck, but her broken right arm wouldn't allow it, and, finally, she lost her grip and slipped towards the abyss. Her last thought before the fear made her heart stop was "Rianni."

Current Time:

Ensign Kevin Mueller, MD, had just arrived a few hours before the shaking started, DS5 his first assignment of his internship, and he was already considering resigning his commission. He stepped over bodies every few feet, shuddering a little when he saw what had happened to the man he'd bought his lunch from, until he came to the splattered remains of what had once been a very beautiful young woman. Taking out his tricorder he scanned her retinas, reading the results aloud though nobody was there to hear him, "Lanos, Amanda, substitute teacher. DOA. Record time of death and forward to operations."

-End

 

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