A Parents Worst Nightmare

Posted on Tue Sep 14th, 2021 @ 3:43pm by Patricia Crow

Mission: Collision Course
Location: Quarters

Patricia had just settled down with a holocatalogue of the lastest releases in self defense technology. As she turned the electronic pages she sipped her coffee. Everything was quiet and peaceful. Kieran had long since been put to bed and she had kept an eye on the chronometer. Chance's shift was due to end pretty soon. As she began reading the details of a new long range scope the entire ship buckled. She flew off the bed and into the wall, landing with a thud. She could taste blood but a quick check told her she'd merely bitten her tongue and not through it.

Her stomach turned as the ship grappled with its own inertia. What the hell just happened she wondered but that thought was cut short when she heard Keiran crying for her. Clawing frantically to get to her feet she got to her bedroom door but it wouldn't release and she had to manually pry it open. Entering into the living room which looked like a tornado had hit it, she carefully stepped around broken glass. As she made her way to Keiran's room she found the door as unresponsive as her own.

"I'm right here, I'm going to get the door open."

"Hurry!"

She reached for the door and pulled her hand away. It was hot. It was then she began to smell the smoldering fumes of a slow burn working its magic on wiring. She moved to the dining area and picked up a chair, smashing it against the wall in order to get something to use for prying. Returning to his door she continued to let him know she was ther with him as she dug in and began seperating the doors.

When they did budge a few inches the heat hit her in the face. From the direction it seemed his door panel had sparked the fire and she could see a blanket on the floor had caught some of the sparks and was slowly beginning to catch. She forced her shoulder into the gap and put the searing pain aside as she forced the door open another foot and a half and moved into the room.

"Okay big man."

He pointed to the blanket. "We're on fire!"

"No no, it's nothing." She grabbed one of his shoes and beat the blanket until it was extinguished. "See?"

He moved quicky from his bed with a favorite toy in tow. "Are we safe?"

She nodded. "Yes, but we need to tell Engineering about what happened so they can take care of the parts we can't see. There's a lot of glass on the ground in the living room so come here." She waved him over and picked him up. Her shoulder reminded her of the burns but that was for another time.

Crossing into the living room she was mostly successful in avoiding the glass and when she wasn't she didn't let him know. Getting to the front doorway which she had to pry open she found organized chaos in the corridor. Numerous injured people had left their quarters and several people she recognized as medics were attending to them.

"Where are we going to go?" Keiran asked.

"We're gonna go see your grandparents." She hoisted him again with a grimace and headed down the hall.