I carefully avoid touching anything else for fear of accidentally putting myself to sleep. I'll admit that I have begged the universe to let me have a break from the terror, but this is not the time. I'm breathing heavily and shaking. Each breath is like being stabbed with thousands of knives and so I focus on getting my panic under control.
As I do, I rethink the nickname I gave these cryocoffins now that I'm in one and feeling far safer than I did just moments ago.
It helps that I was the one who put myself in here. I look out to the other women in their chambers. They look exactly the same. Long hair draping over their upright bodies. Eyes closed like they are sleeping peacefully.
I can still feel shudders, even now that I'm in my chamber and held in place.
Several long minutes later, just as my breathing is no longer elevated so the stabbing pain happens at a more controlledspacing, the shuddering gets far worse. Rather than intermittent explosions, the shaking is constant and is steadily increasing in violence.
When a giant fissure opens up in the ceiling of the long cryochamber hallway, I understand why.
The outside of the ship is on fire.
Considering we were just flying through space and there is no oxygen to burn out there, we must be crash landing on a planet. I have a moment to appreciate my penchant for science fiction movies helping me make that deduction before my mind shuts down that train of thought in sheer terror.
The fissure widens, mostly staying along the ceiling.
The cryochambers are holding in place, but have started to shudder. When the opening extends down the wall toward one of the chambers, whatever was holding Navy's chamber down loses the battle to stay affixed.
She hurtles toward the jagged edge of the hole and it shatters the protective covering, then in another blink she disappears out the burning opening.
It feels like a shot to the heart, and I let out a keening cry.
Although it all happened too fast for me to see exactly what happened, I'm certain Navy is dead. I assume these chambers were designed to withstand damage, but that clearly exceeded their parameters.
Tears stream down my face when I realize I'll never know the woman's name. Or anything else about her.
Losing her is like a gaping wound in my mind.
She may not be the only one to die.
My chamber isn't shaking yet, I assume because of the relative protection of my slightly offset room, but others are moving more violently. Olivia's chamber shoots out the opening and I cry out again in anguish. The fire clears a moment later.
I'm pretty sure hers was still intact as she flew out.
"Please, please let her be alive," I sob out.
I can only hope that the chambers were made to survive a crash landing on their own.
Soon after, the ship spins and I catch glimpses of heavily forested land, then the sky, then back to the land. I make myself stop looking because the force of the spin and the rapidly changing colors is making me sick. Still, I have to keep opening my eyes to check on the rest of the women.
One by one, more of the chambers break loose and fly out of the opening.
The only chamber, aside from my own, that is still in the ship is Silver's. It's currently wedged against a jagged edge of the ceiling or it would have already been ejected.
I have this inane moment of panic at the thought of her leaving me alone, then our plummet comes to a sudden, violent halt.
Silver's chamber crashes forcefully to the floor.
I'm dazed for an unknown amount of time following the impact. Even with the chamber to protect me, it felt like my brain tried to flatten out when the ship met the unforgiving ground.
I take a quick stock of how my body feels. My ribs and knee still hurt, but I assume the nanites have been at work because the pain levels are diminished.
I don't seem to have picked up any additional injuries.
When I look back out, I see that Silver wasn't as lucky.
Her chamber is on its side, the protective glass shattered and she looks like a rag doll, bent at the waist and partially hanging out of it. The glass is cutting into her stomach and blood is seeping from a large gash in her forehead, mixing with the silver of her hair.
