One Rotation

Casualty

She suddenly hits the window, and rebounds.  The window is not built for this kind of impact, and a small crack forms.  I tell Ryan and Lucas to escort the prisoners to the emergency pods, and they happily oblige.  They leave, and the others stay with me.  Ava hits the window again, and the glass shatters.  Ava is forced through the window, creating a suction.  The hole is small enough that we don't get sucked out, but large enough for Ava to fit her head inside the ship.  She gets a few breaths of oxygen,  and wakes up again.  The glass from the window explodes everywhere, and three hit Ava. 

She screams as the first one hits her.  The first one is the smallest.  It hits her neck, and sticks into it.  The next one cuts her cheek, but slides past her and leaves the ship.  The final one hits her eye, and sticks.  Ava screams, and cups her hand to her eye.  Blood wells out, and she grabs the piece of glass.  It immediately cuts her hand, but she doesn't pay any attention to it.  She rips the piece of glass out, and lets go of it. The glass flies out of the ship, and Ava cups her hand to her eye. The lack of gravity liquefies her eye, and it begins to drip down her face, and between her fingers. 

Oxygen continues to leave the ship, so I know that our levels are getting low.  As if it read my mind, a siren wails, and I know we have to go.  We quickly make our way to the emergency pod, and get in.  Alex closes the door behind us, but stays on the other side of the door.  I try to open in, but he holds it shut. He talks into the ear piece, and I know that what he says means almost certain death.  "I'm going back to get Ava," he says, before turning on his heel, and flying back into the body of the ship. We press a button, and the pod is cleaned of any outside contaminants.  We decide that we will wait for ten minutes for Alex.  He doesn't show, so we detach the pod and fly away from the ship.  We are barley twenty feet away when Alex appears.  He is dragging Ava, and yells when he sees that we left him.  He pulls out his gun, and puts it to Ava's head. Olivia screams, and presses herself up against the next window.  Alex pulls the trigger, and the bullet hits Ava's head. 

Ava goes limp, and Alex pushes her away.  Ava floats away from the ship, and keeps moving farther away from us.  Alex then looks at us, and puts his hand on his neck.  He pulls at his neck, and the "skin" peels off.  Instead of seeing Alex, we are looking at John. John is the man who supposedly died during the planetary alignment.  He is one of Mike's men.  He smirks at us, and puts the gun to his head.  He pulls the trigger, and kills himself. John collapses to the ground, and floats out of the old ship.  I scream, and pound on the window. Ally grips my arms behind the shoulder, and pulls me away.

 My ear piece crackles, and we hear Mr. Nostra.  It sounds like him, but he is hoarser than usual.  "Sorry," Mr. Nostra says, "I've gotten a cold, but that is not why I've contacted you.  We have gotten notice that the emergency pod has been activated.  What happened?"  I explain to him what happened, and he is quiet for a moment.  "So Alex, Ian, and Ava have fallen?" He says.  "Yes, Ian tried to kill Ava.  I killed him, and then Alex ended up killing her, and then killed himself."  "Well, I guess that it wasn't really Alex.  It was John, one of Mike's men. He must have been wearing a Protume mask this entire time."   There is a slight pause before Mr. Nostra replies.  "Did you say a Protume mask?"  "Um.... Yeah," I say "How do you know about those?" Mr. Nostra says, his voice hard.  "Uh, it was just a guess, I'm not sure, and it could have been something else."  I cannot believe that I was that stupid, I could have just let Mr. Nostra that Jim is alive. I think to myself.  Mr. Nostra tells us to relax, and that he would look into it. He signs off before I have time to object, and I sigh.  I strap myself into my new seat, and lean my head back against the soft headrest.   It takes a while, but I finally fall asleep.  I have terrible dreams, but they feel like so much more than that.