Petrichor - b blake

01

CHAPTER ONE
in which the pod is built

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The cool, metal walls of the Ark numb Flick's thoughts. Her head was swimming with thoughts. Abby Griffin told her 100 criminals were sent to Earth, no, 100 kids were sent to Earth. Flick almost didn't want to believe it, but with Jaha in charge, there was no doubt in her mind that it was true.

She pushed open a door, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "Someone call for a mechanic?" Flick spotted Abby Griffin and sighed. "You're the one who called in the work order?"

Flick walked further into the control room, as Abby turned to face her. "We need to talk."

Flick raised an eyebrow and set her bag down. "Look, I told you I'm not gonna say anything, okay?"

Abby nodded towards another corridor. "I believe you, and you're not in trouble. Follow me."

"Not in trouble yet, you mean," Flick muttered, following Abby down the hallway. "This level is off limits for people like me."

"Not anymore. You know that we sent the hundred down to the ground. What you don't know is why." Abby walked into a room, turning on the lights on the way in. "The Ark is dying, Felicity. Life support is on its last legs. I have ten days to prove that Earth is survivable or they're gonna start reducing population. Three hundred and twenty innocent people will be killed."

Flick's eyes widened and her lips parted in shock. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You're the youngest zero-g mechanic on the Ark in fifty years."

Flick shrugged with a smug look plastered across her face. "Fifty-two, but so what?"

Abby motioned to a scrap pod to the side. "You have nine days to get this ready so I can survive a drop."

"God, what a piece of junk." Flick whistled lowly and inspected the pod. "They must have found this thing when they salvaged Mir-3 in 2102." She quickly looked to Abby. "You want me to get a 130 year old escape pod ready to stand up to the inferno of re-entry in nine days?"

Abby crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Can you do it or not?"

"Hell yes, I can do it. But I'm going with you. You're not the only one with someone you love on the ground. Those are my terms, take it or leave it."

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The best news with the scrap pod was that most of the parts were salvageable when it was initially stripped down. Now all Flick had to do was find the new parts and reconnect all the wiring. Simple stuff.

Abby stepped into the room and looked down at me. "How soon can you get this thing ready to drop."

"I'm still scraping up parts to fabricate a pressure regulator. We got two more days, right?" Flick asked, splinching two wires together. She hummed in approval and moved onto the next set.

"Can we launch without that part?" Abby asked.

Flick couldn't help the snort that came out after hearing that. "We could, but we'll be dead before we get to the ground. And I mean bad dead. Ruptured lungs, air bubbles in the brain. Painful shit. We need that part." Flick slid out from under the pod and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Why? Did something change?"

"Clarke's wristband signal went out."

Flick's eyes widened slightly, fearing for the worst before she shook her head. "But that doesn't mean anything, right? She took it off like the rest of them." One look at Abby and Flick nodded slowly. "I can get a pressure regulator today."

"How?" Abby demanded, crossing her arms with a raised eyebrow.

Flick smirked and wiped her forehead again. "The less you know, the better."

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Flick huffed in annoyance as she screwed the radio into the dash of the ship. Nygel was a little snake.

"How dare she suggest I sleep with someone to get a part. How dare she talk about my mother like that."

Flick was muttering angrily to herself, almost not even hearing Abby walk in. And in her hands was a pressure regulator.

"Shit Abby! How did you get that?" Flick grinned and walked over.

Abby shook her head and handed it over. "Don't worry about it. How fast can you install it?"

"A few hours, maybe less." Flick shrugged and got to work installing it.

Abby shook her head and began pacing. "We might not have that much time."

"Abby, how about I pace in the operating room next time you're working?" Flick asked sarcastically.

Before Abby could answer, her assistant Jackson's voice came through her walkie talkie. Flick tuned out the conversation, working faster.

"How much longer?"

"Twenty minutes."

"They're gonna be here in five. No matter what happens, you launch that pod. Do you understand?"

"I'm not going without you!"

Abby shook her head. "Only one of us needs to get to the ground, Felicity. The second you find those kids, you radio back. Three hundred innocent people will die if you don't."

"You could die too!"

"Then I die. Tell Clarke I love her." She smiled sadly before leaving the room.

Flick shook her head and took a deep breath. After connecting a few more wires, Flick slipped into her suit and checked the wiring again.

"Shit, maybe move the radio to the A-strut quick?" Someone started pounding on the door. "Or maybe not, that's fine."

Flick pushed the pod to the launch strip and quickly got in. Blue button, orange button, flip the switch. The pod fired out of the air-lock and into space. Only around an hour after launching into space, Flick held tightly to the oh-shit handle as the pod hurtled closer towards Earth.

Something snapped and Flick's eyes widened. "Oh shit!"

A crash is the last thing Flick hears and feels, her vision going dark.

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publish date: 3-15-2021

edited date: 11-22-2021