Tiny Dots On An Endless Timeline

Skip

Alarm bells were sounding off relentlessly, as Skip looked at the display he could barely believe what he was seeing. He smashed his hand down on the panel to silence the klaxon and bolted from the command deck. Mumru's silken presence slipped into his mind, the swirling vortex of umber another alarm bell of fear. Skip shot through the corridors until he was down by the airlock doors, he heard voices, raised in fear and panic inside, but the decontamination and repressurization were still in progress, he was helpless, trapped on the other side. His eyes darted anxiously to the status display, three minutes. He had always considered himself a logical and methodic person, but that was his family on the other side of the door, and they were screaming. He had never known three minutes to be an eternity, but it certainly felt like it was now.

The seconds marched on before him like a million tiny tortures, he couldn't see, he could only hear the muffled sounds of yells and distress, his ears were tucked in tight against his head, laid flat in distress. Mumru's presence in his brain, comforting in its familiarity, but terrifying in its own fear. Skip planted both hands on the door frame and waited, his mind racing through what should be done. He knew he didn't need to speak for Mumru to hear him, but with the humans on the ship, it had become second nature.

"Mu, get Prox station on the comms, and tell them that we might need to make an emergency medical stop." The deep umber cloud of Mumru's fear deepened in his mind, but Skip knew that his pilot and navigator was doing as he had asked. Mumru never failed him, not even when things were hard. Skip trusted in the Coruso. Skip trusted all of them, if he didn't they wouldn't be here. The ansible next to the hatch rang out and Cookie's raspy gruff voice seeped and oozed between his labored breaths.

"What is... happening? Is... The alarm–"

"I don't know yet, 30 seconds before the door, sit tight, stay where you are I will let you know." Shot Skip cutting off his chef.

"Himey-"

"I said I don't know damnit, sit tight!" Silence. Skip's eyes shot back to the door just as it finally slid open. What he saw he had trouble taking in.

Asimov was stood behind Jax, his arms wrapped around the Human who was bleeding profusely from his right arm, a nasty gash in his suit had been patched hastily with sealant tape, but the blood was dripping out of the ends of his gloves, his face shield was cracked, and the man was struggling against the grip of the android.

"I WILL FUCKING KILL THAT FUCKING MONSTEROUS BITCH" Screamed Jax, through gritted teeth. Himey stood protectively before Becbee, her teeth bared, sweat plastering her pink hair to her cheeks inside her helmet. Skip had never seen Himey look the way she looked now.

"You're gonna fucking kill her? She's crew Jax, she's your fucking family!"

"That thing is no fucking kin to me," Spat Jax, his muscles straining in his neck as he tried to get closer to the Vidhvan, murder written so plainly on his face that Skip could see it even though the damaged glass. Becbee, for her part, was huddled on the floor behind Himey, her hands clasped over the head of her helmet. Skip's eyes darted to Nimoy who was standing in the middle of all of this, his expression hidden by the reflection of the lights, turning his face shield opaque, Skip couldn't see his ears. He gestured to Nimoy, but Nimoy didn't move.

Skip surveyed the whole scene again, and he saw that Himey was brandishing a weapon at Jax, "Well, she's kin to me, Jax, if you kill her you have to go through me, is that what you want? You want to kill me, Jax?" she threw down the cutting tool she had been holding and stepped forward, her face shield pressing against his, his arms reached for her, gripping her arms tightly in his muscular hands, Himey didn't even flinch. "Well, Uncle Jax, are you going to kill me?" she said calmly, despite the fact that her eyes were swimming with tears, and Jax's grip immediately loosened, he stepped back into Asimov, whose grip became less restrictive and more of an embrace. Skip felt that he was watching Jax deflate like the air let out of a balloon at the end of a party.

Asimov didn't miss a beat, he just walked Jax out of the hatchway and down towards the medical bay. Himey sank to the floor and began to sob, Nimoy was to her in a split second, his arms around her, lifting her from the floor he shouldered past Skip, their eyes meeting in a look that clearly said, "We will talk later," even without their inherent telepathy. And then Skip was alone in the hatch with Becbee. He could hear her in his mind, but so faintly that he could not make out the words. He dropped his mental shields and was bombarded. Her tiny voice in his head bouncing around.

I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!

He put up his mental barricades, but not to full strength, he went to her and knelt before her. Her hands were still firmly clamped above her head and he sent a calm wind into her mind, to let her know he was going to touch her. She stiffened when he put his arms around her, but then relaxed as he lifted her, curling her against his chest, her arms wound around his neck and he carried her trembling form out of the airlock and into his quarters. Laying her on his bed and beginning the slow arduous process of getting her out of her suit. He didn't ask her any questions and she gave him no answers, but into her mind he sang a lullaby of his homeworld, one long since forgotten, but remembered in this, her hour of need. By the time she was in the thin jumpsuit meant to shield the skin from the temperature changes in open space, her trembling had ceased, and while she still would not open her eyes, she no longer looked like she was ready to implode into herself.

Skip pulled her back into his arms, cradling her like the child she resembled. She hung onto his shirt, her body trembling again, but this time not with fear but relief. Her little psychic hands pressed against the walls of his mind and he let her in. He saw what had happened, and the circumstances surrounding it, and he felt the well of empathy inside him deepen, expand out until it was larger than himself. This poor child, because she was a child, despite her age, and skill. She was a child who had been loved and cherished, and held, and protected, and the person who had been those things to her had been taken brutally, and she had been alone until he had come. And he had brought her into this place where she faced danger from the people inside this ship. Skip didn't know what to do, he could not erase prejudices that were mistakes of perception and lived experience as much as he wished he could, but he was this little creature's family, and he had to protect her.

What to do...