Caroline watched the last ship burning with a sense of
relief washing over her. They had done it, freedom beckoned, and they could
finally go home.
Home.
She tried to remember the last place she had called home
that had not been a birth on a warship. Maybe it was her parent’s house back on
Shire but she had not been there in years. Her thoughts turned to her mother
and the sister she hadn’t seen in fifteen years of the garden, the trees
blowing in the wind that was like a sigh across the water meadows.
She wanted to go home now and she
wanted to take Jonathan with her. She felt the beginnings of a smile touch the
edge of her lips and despite her professionalism ordering it to stop she let it
spread quickly.
“Caroline, I’m sorry.” The familiar voice of The Watcher
returned now but it was lacking its usual sting of smug arrogance and was
leaden instead with a thick sadness. “I tried to warn you, tried to protect you
but… I have failed and your actions and choices meant this future was
inevitable.”
There was a pause before his voice turned to spiteful bitterness
“You should have come with men. You were supposed to chose me not him.”
“What do you mean? What was inevitable?”
Her plea was met with stony silence. Suddenly her heart was racing as she
started trying to look for something, anything she might have overlooked or
missed.
“Jonathan, I need a fall sensor sweep of the area. Something
feels wrong.”
“Yes Captain.” He ran over to the sensor station and began
following her orders, his brow furrowed in thought and she could see him using
his fighter pilot training to look for anomalies beyond the sensor’s scopes.
“Helm, bring us to point seven five and increase speed.” She
did not know what The Watcher had meant but she did not want to find out. She
had to get her crew to safety, they ahd been through too much to lose it all
now.
“Anything on sensors?”
“No Captain.” Jonathan was staring intently at the screen desperately searching
for something, anything when suddenly his eyes fixed on something and widened. “Captain,
enemy ship is powering up engines, they’re moving for an intercept course.”
“Gunnery control, target that ship.”
“Yes Captain!”
Caroline whirled around again to watch the approaching
derelict, great holes were already rent in the side of the hull and burning
atmosphere spilled from unseen ruptures. The impact of the firepower was doing
nothing to slow her approach. It looked like the N’kell had forgone shields and
were piling all of their power into the engines to try and ram the Indomitable.
“Helm, hard to port. That should bring us clear.”
“Aye Captain.”
It was too late though, and her planned timely manoeuvre
failed to escape the sudden burst of speed from the hulk that slammed into the
hull of Indomitable with a sickening crash and tearing noise.
“Shields collapsing!” Ethan reported clinging to his consul “hull
breaches on all decks!”
“Helm hard over! Get us off this thing.”
She turned to look at Jonathan, his eyes filled with concern
and fear but his features set in a steely resistance. She felt a smile touch her lips and she
caught his eye before mouthing “It will be ok.”
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him smile slightly and she felt herself
relax from stress and focus on what needed to be done.
“Ethan, what state are ---”
She never finished the sentence as a further impact caused
part of the ceiling to collapse and a great medal support girder fell across
her pelvis and she felt the bones shattered like a dinner plate against the
wall. The pain that lanced through her was indescribable and she heard herself
scream. Within seconds Jonathan was at her side attempting to lift the metal
from her, his face flushed scarlet with the effort and his muscles straining.
She heard Ethan take over command
issuing orders and assessing damage. She wanted to bite out at Jonathan to do
his duty as First Officer, save the ship and look after the crew but the pain
was so intense she could not think clearly and all she managed was a sharp “Leave
it!” Her left hand lanced out and grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard as she
could.
Lieutenant Carroll rushed up carrying the field medic box and Caroline felt a
slight pin prick in her shoulder followed by a wash of cold through her body
that doused the fires f pain and she began to relax again.
“Jonathon, you need to get everyone off, get them to safety.” He voice was dry
and raspy but she squeezed his hand tighter. “Promise me.”
He kept a steady stare at her but did not reply.
“Captain” Ethan knelt beside her, his features similarly
softened as he addressed them both. “The breaches can no longer be contained and
reports from the engines are not good. We could be looking at a reactor breach.
Can I give the order?”
Without hesitation Caroline nodded and Ethan charged off
shouting fresh orders at the bridge crew who sprang into an energised response
passing instructions. She was proud of them, she had trained them well for
situations like this.
“Can we move her?” Jonathan looked over to Carroll who had just finished a
medical scan and was in the midst of
putting the scanner back in the box. Her expression was grim and she almost
unnoticibly shook her head but Caroline had seen it and it confirmed her
thoughts and fears. She sighed and even through the pain killers her chest
burst into flames again. She struggled to look at the medic and with an immense
effort managed to croak, “I’m dying aren’t I?”
“Captain, I –“
Caroline closed her eyes and shook her head signalling
Carroll didn’t need to speak and instead turned to Jonathan. She felt her heart
swell fade into the pain at the thought of losing him which gripped her, she
could never imagine not seeing him again, growing old with him, taking him home
to Shire, sitting under the autumnal trees or the light in those blue eyes that
appeared every time he saw her. She had had such great plans for the future, of
spending time with this man and now they were all laying shattered in her mind
with only one fate ahead for them.
“Freya” her voice was almost a a whisper “you have to go.
Leave me here.”
“You know I can’t.” he squeezed her hand tighter and she
could see tears welling up in his eyes whilst his voice fought back the grief.
“You will, you have to get the crew to safety. They look to
you Captain.”
The ship shook again and more debris fell from the ceiling landing
around the emptying crew pits. Jonathan turned to Ethan and called over the din
and confusion. “Abandon ship, get them to the Swiftsure!”
“Yes Commander.”
“Your turn. You must leave me.” She tried to put as much
force into her voice as she could but he was unmoved.
“Would you leave me if our positions were swapped?”
“To do my duty? To save the crew? Because you begged me to?
Yes… What happened to that cocksure pilot who was always diving into trouble? I
haven’t got long left. I don’t want our last conversation to be an argument.”
He half laughed “Like our first?”
Through the pain and growing darkness she laughed
remembering the docking bay, Captain Wright insisting that they would work well
together. She had been right though.
“I love you.” He whispered and she could see the pain and
emotional torment that ravaged him.
“You know I love you too which is why I can’t let you die here
with me. GO now before it is too late.”
He lent over and she felt his lisps on her cheeks, the soft
prickle of his stubble and warm moisture of his tears. She bit back her own and
squeezed his hand.
“Go… leave me. Be the best man you can be…”
She watched him stand noticeably reluctantly letting go of
her hand and take a slow step backwards. She felt another sharp pain in her arm
as Carroll gave her another dose of painkillers.
“How long?” she whispered to the medic.
“Hard to say Captain but not long.”
“Get him out of here, you’ve done all you can.”
Carroll nodded and grabbed Jonathan’s arm and despite her
smaller stature gave him a solid push towards the door where Ethan was stood anxiously.
Her heart breaking she turned to look at the starfield, the
glare of the system’s sun catching the edges of her vision as great golden arms
stretched out in flares of erupting gas. She took a deep painful breath and exhaled
in a long sigh.
Her mind was clear of all the usual chatter and life
stresses, reports that needed filing, rotas, petty politics and all the rest of
the nonsense. There was only her and her most important thoughts. She closed
her eyes and she was under the autumnal leaves falling from the tall oak trees,
the soft smell of foliage and moss underfoot as the sunset’s last warmth touching
her cheek.
“Caroline?”
A familiar voice cut through the scene’s serenity and there he was. Jonathan
was wearing dress uniform, his boots a mirror shine, his trousers pressed into
fine creases and his three awards shined on his breast.
Caroline looked
into his eyes and saw the warmth and love, the soft smile that touched his
lips, the one he reserved only for her. She stepped towards him and fell into
his arms pressing her head against his chest and squeezing him tight feeling
his arms wrap around her around her and hold her as tightly.
She opened her eyes and the woodlands scene had dissolved
into a candle lit ballroom, he took her hand and rested his other hand on her
back as they started to slow dance to the gentle piano music in the background.
“I will always love you.” He said.
She felt her heart swell with a happiness she could now
fully embrace and she allowed herself to grin int a way she had not in almost
two decades and her walls disintergrated and she rested her head on his shoulder
again.
“I will never leave you.” She whispered “I will always be at
your sides and in your heart.”
She closed her eyes and listened to the music slowly die
away and all faded to black.
