"Hey, you almost hit me when you dropped that!"
"Oh, sorry, Travis. Really, I'm sorry. Can you lift me a little higher? I can hold the lip here and hoist myself, but a little help would be, uh, helpful," Jennifer said.
He hoisted. She grabbed and pulled herself up. Suddenly, she was in the vent.
=/\=
Similar conversations went on in three other cells. More – actually.
=/\=
"Unh!" Melissa managed to get herself into the vent. She sneezed.
"Bless you!" yelled Doug, looking up, "You all in?"
"Yeah. It's dusty in here. And it's not very high. I have to crawl like a snake."
"Well, think positively," he said, "I'll be here if you need to turn around."
Think positively. Ha. If he only knew the context when she'd last been told to do that.
=/\=
They crawled. And were joined by some others, for the other species in their unit knew about the attempt, knew they were leaving the galaxy, and wanted in.
They wanted to see their families again, and return to their old lives, if they could. Or maybe they were tired of endless couplings with mates who could sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Or perhaps they just wanted a change of pace. Three male Xindi, including Emmiz, joined them. A female Andorian – Leveqa. One Klingon female, the slightest of them. None of the others could fit into the vent. Two female Vulcans and one male also joined the ranks.
Hoshi was farthest along and so she ended up leading the way. There really wasn't much of an indication as to where to go. It's not like there was just some big arrow painted inside the vent, so she followed sounds of hydraulics.
Behind her, the others struggled with getting past the openings. Every vent opening was wide enough to go all the way from side to side, so there was nowhere to get purchase. You had to crawl over it, and when you were more than halfway beyond it, your feet would flop down and you'd end up kicking them to move along. Deb almost lost it when she felt a hand on her foot while she was doing that. She looked down through the opened vent. It was a Klingon, greybearded, "Steady," he said, "I won't let you fall, human."
"Uh, thanks," she muttered, her heart finding its way back into her chest.
They crawled on.
=/\=
Kick Kick Kick Kick.
"I'm so afraid. For them – for us. I know this is the right thing to do but it's still scary," Lili said, shuddering a little.
YOU ARE READING
Together {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}
FanfictionTheir lives seemed perfect – or, at least, close enough. They were happy, and together. And then they were forced to do things that they didn’t want to do – and then discovered that they did want to do them. How could they go back, and save what the...
