Emerald Flight: Flotsam

- 1 -

Captain Christine Devereux awoke in darkness.

She was first aware that she was cold. That alone would not have alarmed her. Finding that she was lying on the deck raised her level of concern considerably. She turned her head, finding only a single faint source of light. It was her clock, illuminated by its own internal source of reserve power.

Devereux remembered returning to her quarters after her shift had ended. She tried to focus on the clock, but found the image blurry. Through sheer force of will, she managed to determine the time.

One hour. Whatever's happened, I've only been out for about an hour.

She tried to rise, but her arm refused to support her. At first, it tingled as though numbed from the pressure of her resting on it. Then the pain started, worse than the usual pins and needles from a reawakening limb. This felt like she imagined a metal stake and hot pokers might.

After several attempts, she pulled herself into a sitting position on the deck. She wondered whether she had any analgesics in the lavatory storage. Using a combination of her uninjured arm and leg muscles, she slid slowly across the deck, feeling out with her hand for something that might tell her where she was within the confines of her cabin.

That's assuming that's where I still am.

Her fingers encountered a metal post. It was surprisingly cold to the touch. Running her fingers up along it, she guessed that it was one of the two supports for her desk. When they reached the underside and then the edge, she was certain. Slowly and carefully, she rose, using the edge of the desk to pull herself upright.

Blindly, she groped along the desk's dark surface until she found one of the tablets she knew had to be there. It activated upon her touch, momentarily blinding her in the near-perfect darkness.

The tablet's glow cast an eerie illumination across the interior of her quarters. Strange washes of color danced along the bulkheads.

Nothing appeared to be damaged, nor did anything appear to be displaced. Whatever had happened to her did not seem to have affected the contents of her quarters.