Chapter Seven: Detour?

  The corridors blend together, Fragment says we are close, but as we approach a fork in the path it pings me with a distress alert. “Leod, there is a colonist down the left path who is in critical condition, their suit is broadcasting a SOS signal and it is unlikely that they will make it without aid.” Frak! Of course, right as I am almost safe, another gorram choice… Smeg!

  I jump up and down in place for a second, trying my best not to lose the momentum I had gained, “How long until we reach the shuttle bay?”

  Fragment answers smoothly, “At your current pace it would take approximately six minutes from this location.” I nod, the timer reads 09:42. Before I can stop myself, I hit my arms and legs a few times, causing pain to pulse through me, but so does adrenaline. With a primal growl I take off running down the left path, the guide line under my feet changes from orange to blue as it redirects me to my new destination.

  Craaaap… I round a corner, and I begin to hear someone struggling, gnarling, gasping. One more sharp corner and I see a collapsed intersection, the ceiling has fallen, the lights are flickering, and the blue line is flowing right to it. Reaching the guidelines end point I slide to a stop, 08:57, in front of me is a woman whose fiery red hair was hard to distinguish from the blood that was pooling around her. She is wearing the same suit and glasses as me, but unlike me, she is pinned to the floor by a thick metal beam from the ceiling that has gone through her stomach and appears to be digging into the metal flooring beneath her.

  She looks up at me, dazed, exhausted, and clearly in pain. Her eyes go wide with hope when she realizes I am real. A readout of her vitals appears on my HUD, all of which are spiking wildly and red, along with a name, Colonist Synthia L. Hayes. “Hey uh, Synthia, I, I’m going to get yo...” but as I am kneeling down the ship jerks violently causing another ripple through the metal walls and the ceiling. Synthia’s screams echo down the hall as the beam piercing her begins scraping against the floor as the ship shifts around us, leaving a smear of blood as it drags her along with it. I roll to the wall and huddle against a large piece of debris as best I can while part of the floor collapses behind me.

  The tremors begin to calm, but the floor is still shifting and falling in behind me. I rush up to Synthia, who is lost to agony, screaming in pain and not responsive. Luckily the AR interface gives me something else to focus on by highlighting her wounds, providing advice on how best to dress it and stop the bleeding. The damn thing was even considering my current supplies, being the slime and my towel, within its recommendations.

  08:10, I tell her it's going be ok, my hand on her shoulder as I speed read through the stomach wound advisories, getting more nervous the more I read. As the ship finally calms again the beam settles back into the floor, pushing all the air out of Synthia’s lungs in a desperate hollowing gasp. Now a little more cognizant she feebly pushes against the beam with both arms, affecting it not at all with what little strength she has left, she gasps and growls with the effort.

  I am useless in a medical situation, thank Axiom for Fragment as it had synthesized all of the AR’s instructions and was now giving me bullet pointed directions. I grab my towel and scrap off most of the remaining slime it held, then I begin smearing the slime onto her wounds, saying, “Synthia, my name is Leod, this goo stuff does wonders for wounds and should help stop the bleeding and numb the pain.”

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  She lets out a sigh as the slime seeps into her wounds, her gaze beginning to focus on me again. She starts to speak, coughs up dark red blood, which I wipe away with the towel, she grins weakly, “Syn. nobody calls me…” then another rough cough cuts through her features, more blood… she takes a moment to still herself, then adds, “Thanks Leod.”

  07:34, I nod to her, “No problem.” I smile. By now Fragment has finished analyzing the beam's new position and the surrounding debris and it uses the AR interface to project an overlay image of me using a nearby steel pipe as leverage to lift the beam and free her. I take a quick few breaths look down at Syn, her violet eyes desperate, and say, “Syn uh, this all,” I gesture at the beam and to her stomach, “is really, really bad,” she lets out a snort, and then a groan of pain, I continue talking, “but we are lucky that the beam settled at a new angle rather than being stuck in the floor, it means we have some wiggle room.” I give her hand a brief squeeze and try to smile, saying “I'm going to use one of these handy pipes to get leverage and get you out of there.” I hand her the towel saying, “You can use this to staunch the bleeding around the beam as I work. The slime will help, the thing is soaked in it.” I stand, “As soon as you are free we are going to have to sprint to the shuttle… so, sorry in advance for the bumpy ride,” I finish with a wink and check the timer, 06:59. I look at her trying to project confidence in my plan, “Are you ready?”

  Syn clenches her jaw gritting her teeth, then spits out some blood and nods.

  Using Fragment’s calculations and positioning I place the pipe at the most efficient fulcrum point and then count down from three. At one I put all my strength into pushing down, the skin on my hands cracking open from the effort, the cut in my leg throbbing, but I ignore it all, everything I am is focused, determined to free this woman and make it off this ship.

  At first the beam only gives way a little, Syn begins to scream as it begins to move jerkily. Fragment starts singing its little tune again, maybe for her, maybe for me, it helps though as I grunt and shift all my weight, straining with everything I have, and finally the damn thing begins to slowly lift. Once the thing starts really pulling through her, Syn tries to help, her jaw locked in place, she pushes against the beam, trying to force herself to slide off of it.

  Just as she is about to be free from the beam another tremor strikes, this one twisting the corridor around us like a metal can being crushed. The beam breaks off from the ceiling, twisting Syn’s body as it falls to the ground, her choked screams fill the air as the ceiling collapses further. I try to dive out of the way but a light fixture smashes against me, I hear the snapping of my arm more than feel it as I am thrown to the ground. Another twist, and the duct system falls out of the ceiling, smashing into Syn and crushing her chest causing her screams to cut off suddenly.

  I am unsure how long it takes before the ship calms again, I’m just laying on the ground, staring at the… body of the woman I had tried to save. Her face is calm now, her eyes open, but the light is gone. Fragment is pinging me over and over, it is speaking but I can’t hear it, text floats all around me but I can’t read it. Eventually I try to get up, it takes me a moment to shift the rubble off of me with just the one arm, my left arm is hanging limply, a cartoonish bend in the bone under the suit is something I actively refuse to think about.

  I pull myself over to Syn, my hands still bleeding from the fresh cracks in the skin. I knew it was too late, the heads up display showed that Syn’s was gone, but I had to see… had to be sure. I wasted precious moments just sitting there and it was only the voice of the ship, not Fragment’s, that brought me back to the moment, “Colonist 01683 Synthia L. Hayes , deceased. AtMaN successfully housed in Purgatory systems before gray matter shutdown. Time of death 14:25, 10/06/3382 EST.” The timer blinks 04:13.