A Breath of Mars [Open Novella Contest]

04 | Pandemonium

The dark and infinite world behind her eyes did little to console Daria as she steadily regained consciousness. Sounds sailed through her mind like voyages, nothing distinguishable or coherent. Her limbs felt as heavy as led and her head was like a beating drum. A warm hand caressed the nape of her neck, supporting her.

"Captain?"

It was nothing more than a whisper to Daria. Her fingers twitched as she struggled to command her body, to somehow respond to the voice.

"Ria?"

Neiko?

A hand on her cheek had Daria striving to escape the darkness of unconsciousness. She had to see Neiko. Neiko was here!

Daria's eyes slammed open in panic as she crashed back into her body. She flung herself upright into a sitting position. Nausea immediately invaded her stomach and her head began being pummelled mercilessly. Light-headedness made her veer sideways. A hand on her shoulder steadied her. Daria squinted her eyes shut in pain.

"Put your head between your knees," came a throaty voice from somewhere beside her. Daria obeyed, sticking her head between her legs and breathing deeply. When the Nausea and giddiness subsided, Daria's vision had cleared also. Only to reveal Kasen cross-legged in front of her, Ravi behind him, Seren beside her with Aine beside him. No Neiko.

Everything flowed back into her mind like a title wave. The mission. The ship. The crash. Daria promptly tried to rise to her feet, but only managed to get halfway before dizziness overcame her.

"Hey," Seren called. "Hey!" he said more sternly when Daria ignored him. "Take it easy. You probably have a concussion."

Daria blew off his words and stretched her hand out to Ravi, who was by far her tallest crewmember. He threaded his fingers threw hers and pulled her off the ground. Daria grabbed his arm for a minute to orientate herself.

"Keep an eye on her," Seren instructed Ravi, then moved over debris to get to someone else.

Daria touched her ear gingerly, her fingers slick with rosy blood. A dull buzzing emitted from her comm. It had malfunctioned somehow on their decent to Mars, leaving her ear a bloody mess. She extracted her comm and chucked it across the nearest table. It was useless to her now.

They were in the flight deck, or what was left of it. One section of the wall was indented as far as a bed was wide and most of the control panel screens had been smashed. Everything that had been loos in the room was littering the floor in junk piles. Only one light remained in the deck, it's dim rays barely enough to see to the corners of the room.

"Is everyone okay?" Daria asked Aine as she finally let go of her death grip on Ravi. "Is anyone hurt?"

Aine shook her head sadly. "I don't know."

Daria's eyes roamed the room. Ravi, Seren, Aine and Kasen were alright as far as she could tell. She spotted her general technician, Farren, murmuring to a bloody-legged Pike in a corner. Probably a flesh wound. Tallie was over helping Seren lift one of their ambassadors, Viva, onto her feet. The middle-aged woman had taken a hard nock to the hip, possibly a shattered pelvis. Xen, who she had yet to formally meet, was slumped against the far wall near the exit. When she spotted the little, bald man's chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm, she relaxed. Only unconscious, not dead. Xen was a quiet, small Asian man, her second ambassador and close in age to Viva, but that was as far as her breath of knowledge spread.

Zarel Watari, her navigator, smiled dourly at her through his unkempt beard. A hand lay across his chest protectively, shattered ribs at best, punctured lung at worst. That left only one crewmember–