When Time Runs Out CH2

So, tell me: Why is it when you are put into a worst-case scenario, rock bottom is still two or three feet below that. Yet still, manages to come and bite you. Being face to face with this creature, gave me enough to question if the bottom had been hit yet.

Taking a step to the side, the worm followed my movements. Having no eyes, it was safe to assume that it was feeling the vibrations from my feet. Moving as slowly as I could, I pressed the button on my arm to send a direct alarm to Wallace.

His voice came through my helmet’s speaker. “Ryan? What’s wrong?”

Slowly, taking care to not to make movements that would jeopardize myself or the boys, I spoke, “We have a problem.”

“Gathered that. Do I need to come out?”

“If you can somehow manage to get out here without upsetting-” The sound of a pistol, careened past my ear. The worm ‘head’ exploded. Wallace was shouting in my ear. Horror took over. The body, splitting in two, made a low hum. “Fuck.”

Having no time to think, I ordered the boys to get into the ship, as a third worm appeared. There were no orifices to stick a grenade in (not that I had a grenade anyway), no nets to just capture the aliens, no good ideas coming to mind.

So, running opposite the boys; I made sure to make as much vibration as I could muster. The two from the original alien, followed me, but the new one took off after the boys. Taking my pistol, I turned the setting to non-lethal and shot. The third worm was now after me as well.

“What the hell is your plan, Ryan?” Wallace’s voice was finally registering to my ears again.

“Really don’t know right now.” Jumping to avoid the body of the worm that just appeared in front of me; I took a sliding dive to avoid the next one coming head on at me. “Did... They get back...”

Wallace confirmed that the boys were back on the ship before I finished my sentence. Now, to focus on staying alive for as long as I could.

High ground was my best option. Unfortunately, the only high ground near me was the top of the ship. Taking a sharp 180 in direction, I made a break for the rear of the ship. Taking a flying leap for the top of the thruster, landed and now dangling from the inch thick piece of metal. Lifting myself up, I got chest high before the constriction around my leg happened.

The worm yanking me down, caused me to yelp. The force causing something to pop. Kicking myself free, I managed to scramble to the top of the thruster, but putting weight on my leg caused me to double over. Wallace’s voice blaring in my helmet, I couldn’t make out what he was saying. The heads of the worms starting to feel their way over the ship.

And here it was, I had thought that the twenty-four hours before this, had me at a loss of what to do. Now, I really didn’t know. The rest of the team was safe. That is what mattered.

Scrambling to the center of the roof, I found that the worms weren’t long enough to reach me there. Wallace’s voice became comprehensible again. “For Heaven’s Sake! Ryan!”

“Could you not… yell at me like that.” Trying to laugh and play off what happened. It came more choked than I would have liked.

The sound of relief came from him. “Is everything okay out there?”

“…Define okay…” Leaning back on my elbow, I assessed my options. Busted leg: can’t run fast. Worms: feeling their way on the ship only gave me a foot on either side closing in fast. ‘Okay’ was probably the farthest descriptor I could use.

Wallace cursed, knowing that I wasn’t going to make it off the top of the ship without some miracle.

It’s amazing how quiet your world gets when your fate catches up with you. Everything moving like a slow-motion movie. Like you’re watching it happen from someone else’s view.

“Commander Ryan, do you copy?”

What?

That wasn’t Wallace’s voice in my helmet. There wasn’t a way for that to be anyone else. This was too far in this quadrant.

The voice repeated itself, recognition took over. “Commander Walker?” This didn’t help my confusion. Two shots came from a fighter, that were a bit close for comfort. “Hey! Watch it!” Rolling on my belly, to avoid the wing tip that came just inches by where my head had been.

“My bad.” Walker’s voice came again. “Glad that you’re okay!” Landing his craft, caused the worms to disappear into the sand, but who knows when they would be back. Crawling over to the side of the ship he had landed on, I watched as he popped the windscreen and ran over. “Is anyone hurt?” He looked up at me, unable to hide the relief in his face.

“My hip is dislocated.” Looking down at my leg, the pain had started to make itself known.

Walker put his hands on his hips and released a sigh. “You have a knack for getting into trouble.”

Giving him a rude hand gesture, I flopped upon the ship, with no more energy to give. Walker made a call to the cruiser, I presumed he came from, and Wallace took care of the recruits. Next thing I knew in the delirium of pain, was Walker beside me. Trying to roll over on my back, Walker carefully guided my body.

His blue eyes filled worry. Reaching out, my hand met his helmet. He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his chest. “I finally get to be your hero.” He laughed, but it wasn’t happy. His eyes were glazing over and breath ragged.

Squeezing his hand, I was quickly reminded why I wasn’t moving. “Hey, I tried following orders this time. I was doing good too.” We started laughing, then he quickly grabbed my hips and shoved my leg back into place. A string of curses came out of my mouth that had him laughing. Scowling, I rubbed my hip. “Teach me to be the damsel in distress.”

Seeing the under belly of the cruiser enter the atmosphere was awe inspiring, short lived as I was brought back to just be thankful that Walker had somehow found us. Which hit me- “Hey Seb, how did you find us? How-” The look he shot me shut me up.

His eyes softened and apologized. “You called me Seb.” His smile glowed as he slipped his arms underneath me and lifted. My squeak caused him to laugh more.

Annoyance, was all I felt as I put my arm around his neck for support. “That was what you got from that?”

He just smiled and got me off the ship’s roof.

____________________________________________________

Once in med-bay, Walker was hounding the poor medic about my dislocated hip. Which I was quick to remind him, that HE was the one who put my leg back. The poor doctor was on the young side and I suppose had never seen Commander Walker this way. Once the doctor was satisfied everything was in place (Still had to be under supervision and not put weight on my leg), I shooed him out before Walker could start up again.

Walker looking at the door that had just been shut in his face, seemed to be at a loss for words. I, however, was not. “What the hell, Sebastian?” Jumping around, his dumb look just pissed me off more. “Leave the poor kid alone.”

Scratching his neck, he came over and dropped himself into the chair next to me. “Marie, I almost lost you today.” My hand went to touch his face, and he put his on top of mine. His eyes were still so hurt. Pulling out a small device from his pocket, he pressed a button on the side and a blue light lit up. Upon closer inspection, it was an interference module. “I saw the footage of your training vehicle being tampered with. There wasn’t enough time to notify anyone. I just pulled my crew together and we went after you. By the time we got to your last known coordinates, the ship wasn’t there. It was several hours later that strange signal popped up.” He kissed my hand before continuing. “It was the only chance at hope, but it still wasn’t easy to track.”

All these years; and I still didn’t know how to handle this man. After fighting in the war together, he had admitted to feelings for me. The problem was, I didn’t know how to handle that. I froze. I had no family, save for one person whom I hadn’t seen in years; no concept of what affection was. Yet here was a man, from a rather well-off family, saying things I had only ever saw happen to others. He took my freezing as I wasn’t interested, and I never knew how to face him again.

Here he was again, in front of me, after having the choice to knowingly let me and my crew die, still made the choice to come save us -me- personally. His feelings had never died for me, and the one person I was never strong enough to get over; was standing in front of me again.

Kissing my hand again, he kept his eyes on the floor. “I know, you don’t feel the same way, Marie. I just- There's never been-”

Bursting into tears, I grabbed his shirt and yanked him into a kiss. It didn’t take him long to reciprocate, but he did pull away first. “I thought-” He continued into a stammer, as he sat in his seat. He then, realizing that I was crying, wiped my face.

“It’s the pain catching up.” Wiping my face with my sleeve, I sniffled. Our eyes went to the IV bag of pain killers still attached to my arm. I then, turned my gaze to the interference module Seb still held in one hand.

He caught my thoughts before I spoke. “The person who tampered with the ship was the Ghost.”

Feeling the blood drain from my face, the Galactic Overseer, only ever sent out Ghost for high profile targets. Now, the question was, who was he after? Me or Aurtur Srade’s boy?

“Can we not worry about that right now?” Seb broke me out of my thoughts before I could get too far.

Opening my mouth to dispute him, the words just wouldn’t come. I was stuck with the reality that I didn’t want to talk about that either.

He turned the module off and shoved it back in his pocket. Cupping my cheek, he ran his thumb along my face. I had never noticed the streaks of yellow in his eyes before. Putting his forehead to mine, he breathed deeply. “Why did I not try again?” He whispered.

Closing my eyes, I took in his sent. He always somehow smelled of evergreen trees. Getting a bit choked again, I managed to get out a joke. “Because I have never been easy to do anything with.”

Letting out a sharp laugh, he agreed with me and put his head on my shoulder. Wrapping my arms around him, I rubbed his back. “I’m sorry for not being honest with you sooner. I just- I’ve always been alone and I thought that- I don’t know what I thought and then-”

Sebastian shut me up with a kiss, only to be interrupted by the door opening.

A voice spoke. “You know, it’s about time you two worked things out. She got mean every time I mentioned you.”

Walker, leaning back in his chair, gave a smirk. “So, why didn’t you tell her to talk to me?” My only guess was to make Wallace uncomfortable.

Being his dramatic self, Wallace used extravagant hand gestures to feign being offended. “And you think I didn’t? Every time I did th-”

The pillow I threw hit him square in the face. “Could you not gild your tales?”

Wallace yet again feigned offence and the three of us burst into laughter. “You haven’t changed, Brent.” Walker got up and the two men grabbed the other’s hands as old friends.

“Nor you,” Wallace’s cheeky smile becoming more prevalent. “Now that the skeleton has been dealt with, how do you want to deal with Bignt?” His eyes weren’t thrilled to be having this conversation.

Glancing over at Walker, I saw the dark look come across his face. As much as I wasn’t a fan of the kid’s father, I needed to talk to him directly before I made any decisions. “I take it he was the one who took the shot?”

Scratching his ear, Wallace nodded. “Yeah, checked the terra suit cameras.” Then crossing his arms, he leaned against the wall.

I needed to deal with this sooner than later. Pulling the IV out of my arm, I made my way to the crutches on the wall. The two men started to objecting to my actions. Walker came behind me to support me by my waist. Looking over at Wallace, he was blocking the door.

Sighing, I tried to continue to the crutches, but Walker’s arm around me prevented me from getting far. “Bignt is Aurtur Srade’s son.”

Walker’s arm loosened enough for me to get to the crutches. Wallace’s brow furrowed. “That explains a lot of his behavior. He’s been awful quiet since Walker rescued us.”

I nodded and Walker told Wallace to leave us. Turning to face Sebastian, the dark look he had as he pulled the module again, set the pit in my stomach into movement. “Srade’s boy?”

“Sebastian? What’s the matter?”

Limping back to him, I watched as the thoughts ran across his face. He ran his hand through his hair. “There’s no way…” Watching Sebastian, I started recognizing the realizations of one’s own denials. “Srade would sacrifice his sons for the Overseer…”

Placing my head on his shoulder, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. “I’m just so tired, Seb. I just want to retire and live in peace.”

He pulling back, he started pushing my hair out of my face. It’s been easy to get lost in his eyes, to the point it terrified me. He finally gave a sad chuckle. “I’ve lost enough time with you because of our pride. Besides, I always said I would follow you to the edge of the Unknown.”

Accidently laughing, I couldn’t help but smile. “You shouldn’t say things like that.”

We laughed together and he kissed my forehead. “Yeah, I’m not the Hero of the Falls.”

Rolling my eyes, I quickly reminded him of the fact that the court martial for my actions was only dropped because there was a mutiny when it was found out that I was arrested. Limping my way to the door.

“Yup, who do you think leaked that information.”

I lost my balance and fell. Sebastian came over and helped me up. The bomb that he had just dropped on me had me questioning my comprehension of what he had said. Once it finally became understandable in my head, I formed words. “That was you?!”

All he did was shrug, “And Wallace.” Helping me up, he continued. “We can talk about this later. Let’s go deal with the new recruit.”

Limping into the room, Bignt and Wallace stood up from the table and saluted Walker and me. We saluted back before we all sat the table. Going through the motions of viewing the footage.

Walker shot a dirty look to Bignt when the footage showed our little squabble. I kicked Sebastian under the table to make the point to not worry about it. He shot a look at me and I shrugged. It wasn’t a big deal.

We got through the footage and I could see the steam coming from Walker. “What do you have to say for yourself?” Rapping upon the table, he leaned back and crossed his arms.

Bignt just looked at the floor. “I don’t know…”

“You don’t know?” Wallace piped up. “You’ve been disrespectful to Commander Ryan out the gate and you almost get her killed because YOU chose to fire YOUR weapon without authorization.”

Let’s be real he was from one of the high-class families that thought of the rest of the world beneath them. I knew his father, only because when I announced my retirement, he approached me about the one person who believed I could change my life. Zane Srade, apparently Aurtur’s great -however many times- uncle.

Zane was the man who somehow pulled strings to get my punishment from incarceration to incarceration or join the army, with an emphasis on join the army. At the time, they didn’t have a way for time to not be a problem when being shipped out to other planets; so, they offered that your family could be put into cryo sleep until you got out. Zane took that position and before he was put under told me: “I want to see the amazing woman you can be.” Talk about a fast way to traumatize.

When Aurtur approached, all he asked was that he be there for when his uncle came out of sleep. I never did give him an answer, I just said I would think about it. Now, looking at Bignt all I could see was a young Zane looking the way I did in handcuffs and jumpsuit.

Finally, I chose to lean forward, the poor kid gave me a pathetic look, the same one I made to Zane. “You know of Zane Srade?”

All three gave me a look of surprise. Bignt answered. “Dad said he was some long-lost uncle...”

I nodded, and leaned back. “Yup, apparently so. Here's the thing though.” Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself. “He quite literally was the only person on New Earth that thought I had anything redeemable about me. Myself included, in the not believing part.”

The boy’s eyes widened, causing me to laugh. “Kid, we all deserve a chance to change. Some people it takes a lot more than being told you’re a little shit to get it through our heads. I’ll take a chance hope you learned your lesson. Deal?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Bignt nodded and kept his eyes to the floor.

“Go on. Understand that this kind of treatment will never happen again.” Looking over to Walker and Wallace to find their jaws just about to fall on the floor, as Bignt left quickly.

Walker and Wallace just stared at me before Walker spoke. “You’ve never talked about why you were made to join the army.”

Looking between the two men, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Seriously you two?”

“Oh no, still angry, that you chose to let the kid off easy. I’ll trust you know what you’re doing. Still not happy.” Wallace being his usual self, raised his voice at me. “But that kid screws the freaking pooch, and you give one tiny tidbit of your past! Something, that we!” Pointing between Walker and himself. “Have heard jack SHIT about! And... AND WE have followed you forever!”

“Faced death together.” Walker added in agreement.

Wallace pointed again at Walker, “Multiple times!”

“Can we not?” The statement came out flat and the two men doubled down on their point. Folding my arms, I looked at the wall. “I was stealing medical supplies, money, and food for the younger kids in the haven. Zane saw me sneaking around and followed me. He started taking care of us. I kept stealing what we needed because I refused to believe he had good intentions. When I got caught, they tied several thefts to me. Zane pulled strings and made it so that the kids would be taken care of and it was either to get locked up forever, or join the army.” I snorted. “Zane didn’t give me much choice.”

The stare the two men had was unbearable, so I chose to start getting up. Walker stopped me at the door. “What happened to the other kids?”

“They got the help they needed and are long gone.” Pulling the door open, I had to get away from everyone.