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Breathing is Important
Title: Breathing is Important
Fandom: Original Fiction - Lizards ‘verse
Series: Kat’s Therapy Journal - 11th Brathos, 5436
Prompt: Asphyxiation
Medium: FIC
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 996
Summary: Ontferia Historical Record: 2nd Brathos, 5436: Commandant Katrin Cam’ree and Lieutenant Colonel Tracy Prinz encounter mechanical difficulties en route from Regalia to Ontferia. Their ship is intercepted by mercenaries from the Tradeska system and they are taken hostage and ransomed back to Ontferia.
Content Notes: No standard notes apply
11th Brathos, 5436
Subject: Breathing is Important
I’ve been on ships that have had mechanical problems in the past. I’ve always been lucky to have a crew that could get things back in working condition in quick order. Everyone’s luck runs out eventually, it was only a matter of time until my number was up. Or maybe it was your husband’s time, since he was on the ship with me. Well, both Tracy and I had an unlucky day. He insists, by the way, that it would have all been fine if we’d taken the Horny Lizard instead of the runner, and I’m, inclined to believe him.
You wanted me to write something about the experience while it was still fresh in my mind.
Tracy and I went on that run to Regalia so that I could sit in on a boring government meeting that accomplished nothing, it was a waste of our time. Since they didn’t let us take the political refugees we had gone there to collect, we had some extra room in the hold of the runner coming back. We swung through the marketplace and did some shopping before we left and loaded the cargo bay with some luxury stuff. We got some some fancy fabric, perfumes, toys and gadgets that would have been a hit in the marketplace, so it wouldn’t have been a total waste. But we lost the ship and the cargo, so the mission was, in the end, a complete waste of our time and resources!
On the way back, the engines went dead. Not even a sputter of warning, they just cut out. We were drifting. No life support, no communications, no power, nothing. As I’m sure you know, Doctor Ellie, space is very cold, and the temperature began dropping immediately. We tried fixing things, but neither of us is an engineer, and we had no working diagnostic tools. I don’t know what details Tracy told you since we came back. I can’t speak for his emotions at the time, he’s one of the people I really can’t read very well, but I know I was pretty scared. This was the real deal. Imminent death.
It was a question of what was going to happen first: would we freeze to death or would we run out of air?
We ran some calculations by hand, and figured out the air situation was the more serious problem. At least it was just the two of us. Had we actually brought those refugees from Regalia with us, we probably would be dead, and I wouldn’t be rehashing things here for you to read.
It was getting harder to breathe. And it was so cold, I was losing feeling in my fingers and toes. But the inability to draw a full breath was frightening. I don’t think I had truly experienced that since my days in flight school. We ransacked the cargo hold, looking for air tanks, a portable communicator, anything that might help us. Knowing how much I hated the dark, being one of the few who knows about my phobia, Tracy let me carry the emergency torch. He also stopped me when I started to get frantic and held me until I calmed down again.
Sitting on the ice cold decking, I pulled out the trauma kit, trying to force my brain to work. The lack of oxygen was making me loopy by that time. I found a handful of stasis drugs in the kit, the ones used for deep space missions when there isn’t a full system in place, meant to last a few days to get a critically injured crewman to safety.
When I held them up, Tracy knew what I was proposing. It was risky, neither of us have used them before. Either one of us could have been allergic, the batch could have been bad, there were a number of known complications to the drugs, they were meant to be used in extreme emergency.
We had no way of calling for help and we were running out of air and slowly freezing to death. It was an extreme emergency, in my book.
“Coward’s way out,” Tracy said to me, not wanting to take the drugs. That was one way of looking at it. Being unconscious would mean not suffering through the last torturous choking breaths.
But it would also keep us alive, possibly a day, even two.
And Sandasin’s First: “Stay Alive.” It wasn’t really a consideration, the syringes could be the difference. (Well, as you know, they were the difference.) I admit that I coerced Tracy by reminding him of Sandasin’s rules.
We went back to the cockpit and wrapped ourselves up in all the emergency blankets and clothing we had been able to find in the hold and crammed ourselves together in the corner behind the pilot’s seat to share body heat. I was mentally berating myself for not buying any textiles or fur or leather goods when we were shopping, but I hadn’t expected to be freezing to death on the way home.
As I was about to inject Tracy with the serum, he said “I don’t want to do this, it feels like giving up.” He looked so like the little boy I had known that I had to hug him and kiss his forehead and ruffle his hair. Then I gave him the shot. Decision made.
I took the other shot, then pulled the blanket tight around myself as we stared at each other and waited for the serum to work. I could feel - or imagined I could feel - everything slowing down inside me, I got very sluggish and it didn’t hurt to breathe anymore. I hope you won’t be jealous or anything Doctor Ellie, but I held your husband’s hand under the blankets.
You know the rest, how we got “rescued” by those mercenaries. And we’re both alive and well to tell the tale.
Fandom: Original Fiction - Lizards ‘verse
Series: Kat’s Therapy Journal - 11th Brathos, 5436
Prompt: Asphyxiation
Medium: FIC
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 996
Summary: Ontferia Historical Record: 2nd Brathos, 5436: Commandant Katrin Cam’ree and Lieutenant Colonel Tracy Prinz encounter mechanical difficulties en route from Regalia to Ontferia. Their ship is intercepted by mercenaries from the Tradeska system and they are taken hostage and ransomed back to Ontferia.
Content Notes: No standard notes apply
11th Brathos, 5436
Subject: Breathing is Important
I’ve been on ships that have had mechanical problems in the past. I’ve always been lucky to have a crew that could get things back in working condition in quick order. Everyone’s luck runs out eventually, it was only a matter of time until my number was up. Or maybe it was your husband’s time, since he was on the ship with me. Well, both Tracy and I had an unlucky day. He insists, by the way, that it would have all been fine if we’d taken the Horny Lizard instead of the runner, and I’m, inclined to believe him.
You wanted me to write something about the experience while it was still fresh in my mind.
Tracy and I went on that run to Regalia so that I could sit in on a boring government meeting that accomplished nothing, it was a waste of our time. Since they didn’t let us take the political refugees we had gone there to collect, we had some extra room in the hold of the runner coming back. We swung through the marketplace and did some shopping before we left and loaded the cargo bay with some luxury stuff. We got some some fancy fabric, perfumes, toys and gadgets that would have been a hit in the marketplace, so it wouldn’t have been a total waste. But we lost the ship and the cargo, so the mission was, in the end, a complete waste of our time and resources!
On the way back, the engines went dead. Not even a sputter of warning, they just cut out. We were drifting. No life support, no communications, no power, nothing. As I’m sure you know, Doctor Ellie, space is very cold, and the temperature began dropping immediately. We tried fixing things, but neither of us is an engineer, and we had no working diagnostic tools. I don’t know what details Tracy told you since we came back. I can’t speak for his emotions at the time, he’s one of the people I really can’t read very well, but I know I was pretty scared. This was the real deal. Imminent death.
It was a question of what was going to happen first: would we freeze to death or would we run out of air?
We ran some calculations by hand, and figured out the air situation was the more serious problem. At least it was just the two of us. Had we actually brought those refugees from Regalia with us, we probably would be dead, and I wouldn’t be rehashing things here for you to read.
It was getting harder to breathe. And it was so cold, I was losing feeling in my fingers and toes. But the inability to draw a full breath was frightening. I don’t think I had truly experienced that since my days in flight school. We ransacked the cargo hold, looking for air tanks, a portable communicator, anything that might help us. Knowing how much I hated the dark, being one of the few who knows about my phobia, Tracy let me carry the emergency torch. He also stopped me when I started to get frantic and held me until I calmed down again.
Sitting on the ice cold decking, I pulled out the trauma kit, trying to force my brain to work. The lack of oxygen was making me loopy by that time. I found a handful of stasis drugs in the kit, the ones used for deep space missions when there isn’t a full system in place, meant to last a few days to get a critically injured crewman to safety.
When I held them up, Tracy knew what I was proposing. It was risky, neither of us have used them before. Either one of us could have been allergic, the batch could have been bad, there were a number of known complications to the drugs, they were meant to be used in extreme emergency.
We had no way of calling for help and we were running out of air and slowly freezing to death. It was an extreme emergency, in my book.
“Coward’s way out,” Tracy said to me, not wanting to take the drugs. That was one way of looking at it. Being unconscious would mean not suffering through the last torturous choking breaths.
But it would also keep us alive, possibly a day, even two.
And Sandasin’s First: “Stay Alive.” It wasn’t really a consideration, the syringes could be the difference. (Well, as you know, they were the difference.) I admit that I coerced Tracy by reminding him of Sandasin’s rules.
We went back to the cockpit and wrapped ourselves up in all the emergency blankets and clothing we had been able to find in the hold and crammed ourselves together in the corner behind the pilot’s seat to share body heat. I was mentally berating myself for not buying any textiles or fur or leather goods when we were shopping, but I hadn’t expected to be freezing to death on the way home.
As I was about to inject Tracy with the serum, he said “I don’t want to do this, it feels like giving up.” He looked so like the little boy I had known that I had to hug him and kiss his forehead and ruffle his hair. Then I gave him the shot. Decision made.
I took the other shot, then pulled the blanket tight around myself as we stared at each other and waited for the serum to work. I could feel - or imagined I could feel - everything slowing down inside me, I got very sluggish and it didn’t hurt to breathe anymore. I hope you won’t be jealous or anything Doctor Ellie, but I held your husband’s hand under the blankets.
You know the rest, how we got “rescued” by those mercenaries. And we’re both alive and well to tell the tale.