Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

37. Hell Freezing Over

Pain permeated through her body with every sluggish heartbeat, culminating in a rhythmic throbbing within her skull.

Something was wrong. No, everything was wrong. Everything hurt. Everything was pain.

Over the ringing in her ears, she could hear voices. They sounded like fleeting echoes. It was hard to make out what they were talking about but it seemed to her like she had heard the conversation before.

"Communications blackout?"

"Negative, Sir. Just a recall with no information as to why."

That second voice sounded familiar, but strangely distorted. Electronic. The other, she realized now, she had only ever heard in her dreams.

"A recall?"

"Yes Captain. One at a time."

"But other than that, there is nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Accurate, Sir."

"Guess we'd better face the music and figure out what's going on. We're almost home at least. It will be alright."

But nothing was alright.

With a hoarse groan of pain, she tried to force her eyes open. For a moment, she thought she was seeing two figures – one of them appearing strangely headless - standing with their backs to her in front of a large window with a view on the great expanse of outer space. But they were whisked away with the next wave of pain that surged through her head.

Null was on the floor, her cheek pressed against cold steel tiles and her sight partially obscured by her hair. It took her a few moments to realize that this was not the only reason she couldn't see properly. Her right eye was blind.

She wanted to get up, but she couldn't move. She wanted to speak, but neither her voice in the real world, nor the one in her mind, seemed to obey her will any longer.

"So what are we going to do with her now?"

There were voices again now, but this time, they were really there, and not just echoes of a memory. She didn't want to hear them. She wanted to hear only one. But that one remained strangely silent.

"Orders remain unchanged. Take her to the brig... Admittedly, I am somewhat more inclined now to believe that this is truly Amy Larsson," a deep, male voice said.

"She broke into your office, Sir! I can't believe that you'd let that slide!" A female voice, she sounded angry. "Why don't we-"

"We're not discussing this again, Major General."

"But Sir-"

"That is enough, Xenia."

Footsteps approached her, heavy boots clanking on the metal tiles. Somebody bent down and brushed the hair from her face with a surprisingly delicate motion.

"She's... I think something is wrong with her, Sir."

It was the voice who had spoken first. Male. Somewhat familiar. Worried.

"The EMP shouldn't have knocked her out like that."

Her pulse hitched briefly, as if it tried to race, but her heart seemed incapable of increasing its pace. Instead, a leaden feeling seemed to spread throughout her body along with the panic that now took hold of her, as she realized what had happened.

She had been hit by an EMP. They had been hit by an EMP. Along with the realization, the memories came back now. She began to understand the pain now, too. Everything was offline. The life support was affected as well. Her heart was beating at an excruciatingly sluggish and erratic pace, pumping the blood too slowly to properly maintain the rest of the body for long. The mere act of expanding her lungs to draw a breath felt like an almost insurmountable task. And the pain in her head – it was excruciating, a strange mixture of searing hot needle pricks and liquid lead.