The Price of Sight

[jammi]

Two hours later

It was cold. So cold. I shivered now, the blood crusted down my front. Id occasionally wretch up more, but Id mostly stopped. That was something. It was getting hard to breath as well. Id had to take two or three deep breaths just to undo my harness and that had made my head spin.

After Id regained consciousness, the scene out of the cockpit window had changed. Id drifted away from the battle site. The rocks were different, and I couldnt see any ships, friendly or Hessian. I was going to die...

With my ship dead I couldnt send a signal, and the air was going. The heat was too... With blue, shaking hands I fumbled with the holster attached to my leg. With numb fingers I withdrew the gun and stared at it. Could I do it?

I was fated to die a slow, excruciating death in the empty wastes of space. Could I end it? Stop the suffering? I clicked the laser pistols safety catch off, and placed it under my chin, shutting my eyes. I was shaking all over, and not just from the terrible cold.

I couldnt do it. With a snarl of rage I threw the weapon across the tiny cockpit, watching it spin through the thinning air to bounce off the thick view-screen shielding and settle against a wall.

Minuet by minuet dragged by, the air becoming harder and harder to breath with each expiring second. Now my lungs laboured to simply keep me conscious, black tingeing the edges of my vision.

Then something moved. I heaved my eyes open again to peer out of the cockpit. There was a ship nose to nose with mine. A Rhienland ship. A Wraith? I did not know or care. There was no more air. I slumped forward, drifting slowly forward.

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