The Big Sleep

The ships structure has been struck by a space rock shattering the flight cockpits main window.The pilot is dead from decompression and Jvril must take control. She fights with the cockpits damaged flight controls to recover the ship out of the a tumble. Surviving thos ones going to tough and come hell or highwater she will be riding this one out to the end.

Sirens wail through the bowes of the ship like the screaming sounds let out by a creature on its death throw. The trajector display is still working and shows the ship is heading straight towards the Nether cube station. Finally she can sigh a relief the ship spinning tumble has dampened to flat level. Just when it appears the ship is under control, another chunk of space rock ploughs itself into the ships superstructure. The ships fire fighting system comes into life spraying fire retardant gas.

"Give me a damaged report!" she shouts into the ships broacast comms.

The comms audio opens up with a crackle, then next a gurgled computer voice speaks.

"Catastrophic damage. A second impact occured on the lower deck. has crushed the lower deck,"

Jvril calculates the odds of survival from continuing on through space is Nil since the stardrive is off-line. She checks for an estimate time of arrival to the Nether vube station. Three years at sub-light. Look for a lesser option, and there it is in the scanner. A pearly white world suspended silently in the void of space.

The ships becomes a bright fire ball as it ploughs through oxyegn clouds. The ships splinters and explodes but not before Jvril has time to abandon the flight controls and get into an suvival pod. The pod crash lands in a field of ice venting pinkish cloudy plumes of hot gases over the ship.

She stirrs from a unconscious with a lingering headache from a concussion suffered on impact. It is only for the cockpits protective cocoon and the absorbing properties of the snow which has saved her. Laying motionless she waits for the interior display to boot back to life. A sigh of relief finally the display illuminates flashing an ominous message. Cocoon has three days of power left. Switch to alternative fuel water for the overdrive reactor.

Jvril selects water input. The computer responds positively uninterruptable power online. What happened to the ship she wonders.

"Status update for the ship named the Arcaneas."

" Beep! Beep!" The computer gives her the final sitrep of the Arcanea.

"Gamma, Epsilon and Delta decks destroyed".
"Ships brain suffered fatal anuerism." The display flashes.
"Breach to Cocoon shell. Engaging automatic safety interlocks. Confirm they are holding. Meantime to failure seventy two hours. Preparing overide to release survivor into Statis cypt "

The Cocoons interior screen displays the surrounding world outside. A world covered in ice and snowing profusely. Soon she realises the snow building up bury the Cocoon. Her fates seems imminent sealed to be frozen inside Cocoons stasis crypt. Once frozen she will remaing in statis for as long as the planet snows. One year, one hundred or a millenea or more; who knows!. The snow keeps falling and within hours the survival cocoon becomes immersed under the white blanket.

There is now some movement on the floor that captures briefly here attention. A yellowish mist suddently appears in her eyes and smells sulphur in the air. All artifices of trickery to distract her attention. A terrible pain is jabbing into the side of neck. Then the pain subsides followed immediately by a great drowsiness. The big sleep commences and In her last thoughts she wonders who will miss her and whether a rescue mission will ever be mounted.