Curiosity Kills Part 3

Posted on Thu Apr 23rd, 2020 @ 11:58pm by Lieutenant Aemilia "Millie" Stepanova
Edited on on Sat Apr 25th, 2020 @ 7:49pm

Mission: Shore Leave

Millie stepped out of the shuttle carefully, the rain dampening her face and hair. It was a warm rain, at least. She shone her torch off into the distant jungle. Trees towered above them, with leaves almost as big as her torso obscuring the sky above them. Several of the leaves lay on the ground in the unnatural clearing the shuttle made on its way down. Millie made a mental note that the leaves were sturdy, and seemed to be holding a pool of the rain water. That may come in handy...we need water.

She turned, shining the torch at the shuttle itself, and her heart sunk. There was no way the shuttle would ever make it off the ground again, even if they had a team of engineers with them. The back half of the shuttle had been shorn off--if Millie had to guess, the size of the local trees had something to do with it. As she walked around the shuttle, she noted the massive tear through the hull where one of the nacells had been ripped clean off the ship. She turned, shining her torch off into the darkness, hoping to see more of the shuttle around them, and saw nothing but broken branches and raindrops.

Millie closed her eyes for a moment. Her head was pounding harder than the rain was. Her whole body ached from the landing, and she couldn't tell if her mind was spinning from her injuries--or if it was just trying to wrap around the predicament that she and her friend were now in.

A noise snapped her eyes open. She shone the torch into the dark forest, but between the rain and the darkness beyond it, she couldn't find the source of the sound. Millie gripped the knife tighter and took several steps forward into the darkness. "Anyone there?" she called out hesitantly. Her query was met with nothing more than the patter of raindrops.

With one more look back to the battered shuttle, Millie stepped out into the darkness. She stepped over downed branches and the smaller trees that the shuttle had demolished on its crash landing, shining her torch through the mess and looking for anything that belonged on the shuttle. More than anything, we need medical supplies. The crash had happened so quickly that she didn't remember much about the way down...just the deafening crash as they burst into the forest, and the momentary glimmer of fear in Patricia's eyes just before.

Millie stayed within the damage path of the shuttle, shining the torch through the rainstorm ahead of her. She leaned a shoulder against one of the trees, willing the pounding in her head to stop. For a brief moment, her eyes watered, and she just as quickly brushed it away, mixing it with the raindrops running down her face.

We don't have time for this, Aemilia, she told herself. With Trish injured, she was going to have to be the strong one. The words of Edruj played over in her mind as she stumbled her way through the forest in the dark. Mind and body of a warrior. She wasn't sure if the shuddering in her body was from being rainsoaked or from shock, but she certainly didn't feel much like a warrior right now. And---she'd killed someone. Something. She didn't know what it was. But she'd killed it. Not on a holodeck with a pretend enemy, but a breathing, living being.

In her moment of mindfulness, she touched the tiny chain around her neck. She usually kept the small crucifix hidden under her uniform. Her fingers, gently pulled it out from under her tank. If there was ever a time for faith--

Her foot slipped as she stepped over a down branch, and she reached out to grab ahold of anything that would break her fall. She grabbed out in the darkness and grasped a thick vine--one that suddenly moved in her hands!

Millie quickly released the vine, falling the rest of the way into the mud. She moved quickly to her feet, the torch lying in the mud. Through the shadows it cast, she could see something slithering through the undergrowth. Inwardly, she recoiled, taking a step back. But then, she stopped.

Food.

She pulled the knife from her belt, slowly stepping forward, slowing her breathing like Edruj and Banks had both taught her. A quick jump forward, a stomp of her boot, and a thrust down of the knife--