Grounded By Laura H
My response to the lay/lie challenge.
Title: Grounded
AUTHOR: Laura H
EMAIL: BobaFxxx@aol.com
CATEGORY: Angst, character death
SPOILERS: Very vague spoilers for Kobols Last Gleaming
SEASON / SEQUEL: post S1
PAIRING: None
RATING: PG-13
CONTENT WARNINGS: kinda dark, implied violence
ARCHIVE: Anywhere that wants it, just let me know where its going.
DISCLAIMER: They ain’t mine, but I’m taking them to play with for a little while.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Unbeta’d response to the Lay/Lie challenge. I haven’t specified any particular character or situation so this fic could be interpreted in a number of ways, but I did have a when, where and who in my mind when I was writing it.
~
All she could do was look at the stars.
They were different from down here. Distant, diluted through a poisoned sky. When she was flying amongst them, she could forget how far off they were, forget that they were balls of gas and fire billions of light years away. She sometimes felt like she was swimming though them, no viper, no flight suit or helmet, nothing between her body and the tiny pinpoints of light that would dance on her skin, like filtered sunshine through the ocean.
Down here, though, they became balls of gas again, some of them dying, some of them dead. She couldn’t help but look at them.
She tried to remember the sensation. How did it feel to fly? But the memory eluded her and all she could feel was the stone at her back.
The sky was blacker in space. She thought of the nights when, as a kid, she had lain like this on the roof of their apartment block, her head cushioned on a bag of bird feed. While she was growing up, the haze of smog and light pollution had created in her mind a night sky of jade and amber, like a Delgado painting, randomly strewn with a handful of stars. For her the night time had never been dark.
It hadn’t been until her first flight in the upper atmosphere that she had come face to face with how vast and black and endless it was. That initial glimpse into its depths had engendered a feeling in her that bordered on panic, and no matter how many cockpit hours she clocked this sensation never left her, nor did she want it to. It gave her an edge, a constant alertness and she had welcomed this.
Now, there was no panic, just a numbness that she hoped wouldn’t last long.
The sky seemed too close, filling her vision, until it was enveloping her. The clouds of radiation gave it a crimson tinge, making it look almost artificial, but still the stars pushed their way through, persistent, eternal. Tears gathered in the outside corners of her eyes, spilling over, cutting their way through the grime and blood that covered her face, trickling over her temples into her matted hair.
A coldness was creeping over her and she wondered how long it would be.
Dimly, she was aware of a hand touching hers and she remembered him reaching out from where he had fallen beside her, curling his fingers around hers, stroking slowly, soothingly with his thumb. The movement had stopped some time ago.
She had always thought that when death came to claim her, it would happen up there. Space had been the stage upon which she danced with her mortality and so it was strange that it should be here, on the ground with the unyielding rock biting into her back, that her time in this universe would come to an end. She would never make that final flight.
The cold was taking full possession of her body, only her lips were warmed by the breath that still managed to drift in and out of her mouth. But these breaths, she knew, were too few and too shallow. For a moment she considered trying to stand up, moving on somewhere, getting out of the open, but any effort she made to move her body proved fruitless and her mind was foggy and tired.
The sky was closer now, shutting her in, enshrouding her. Its burning, red haze was just inches away. All she had to do was reach out her hand and she could touch it. And suddenly she could move, the numbness was gone and she could feel her fingertips brushing against the glow of the night. She pushed upwards, forcing her way through the fog, determined to get to where she was supposed to be. A cry escaped her, strong and loud, a final warrior’s yell and then she was airborne, beyond the atmosphere, through the crimson clouds, amid the stars again. She spun and soared amongst them, her skin sparkling as their light reflected off her face and arms and legs. The stars surrounded her once more, burning bright, alive.
All she could do was look at them.
~fin~
Title: Grounded
AUTHOR: Laura H
EMAIL: BobaFxxx@aol.com
CATEGORY: Angst, character death
SPOILERS: Very vague spoilers for Kobols Last Gleaming
SEASON / SEQUEL: post S1
PAIRING: None
RATING: PG-13
CONTENT WARNINGS: kinda dark, implied violence
ARCHIVE: Anywhere that wants it, just let me know where its going.
DISCLAIMER: They ain’t mine, but I’m taking them to play with for a little while.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Unbeta’d response to the Lay/Lie challenge. I haven’t specified any particular character or situation so this fic could be interpreted in a number of ways, but I did have a when, where and who in my mind when I was writing it.
~
All she could do was look at the stars.
They were different from down here. Distant, diluted through a poisoned sky. When she was flying amongst them, she could forget how far off they were, forget that they were balls of gas and fire billions of light years away. She sometimes felt like she was swimming though them, no viper, no flight suit or helmet, nothing between her body and the tiny pinpoints of light that would dance on her skin, like filtered sunshine through the ocean.
Down here, though, they became balls of gas again, some of them dying, some of them dead. She couldn’t help but look at them.
She tried to remember the sensation. How did it feel to fly? But the memory eluded her and all she could feel was the stone at her back.
The sky was blacker in space. She thought of the nights when, as a kid, she had lain like this on the roof of their apartment block, her head cushioned on a bag of bird feed. While she was growing up, the haze of smog and light pollution had created in her mind a night sky of jade and amber, like a Delgado painting, randomly strewn with a handful of stars. For her the night time had never been dark.
It hadn’t been until her first flight in the upper atmosphere that she had come face to face with how vast and black and endless it was. That initial glimpse into its depths had engendered a feeling in her that bordered on panic, and no matter how many cockpit hours she clocked this sensation never left her, nor did she want it to. It gave her an edge, a constant alertness and she had welcomed this.
Now, there was no panic, just a numbness that she hoped wouldn’t last long.
The sky seemed too close, filling her vision, until it was enveloping her. The clouds of radiation gave it a crimson tinge, making it look almost artificial, but still the stars pushed their way through, persistent, eternal. Tears gathered in the outside corners of her eyes, spilling over, cutting their way through the grime and blood that covered her face, trickling over her temples into her matted hair.
A coldness was creeping over her and she wondered how long it would be.
Dimly, she was aware of a hand touching hers and she remembered him reaching out from where he had fallen beside her, curling his fingers around hers, stroking slowly, soothingly with his thumb. The movement had stopped some time ago.
She had always thought that when death came to claim her, it would happen up there. Space had been the stage upon which she danced with her mortality and so it was strange that it should be here, on the ground with the unyielding rock biting into her back, that her time in this universe would come to an end. She would never make that final flight.
The cold was taking full possession of her body, only her lips were warmed by the breath that still managed to drift in and out of her mouth. But these breaths, she knew, were too few and too shallow. For a moment she considered trying to stand up, moving on somewhere, getting out of the open, but any effort she made to move her body proved fruitless and her mind was foggy and tired.
The sky was closer now, shutting her in, enshrouding her. Its burning, red haze was just inches away. All she had to do was reach out her hand and she could touch it. And suddenly she could move, the numbness was gone and she could feel her fingertips brushing against the glow of the night. She pushed upwards, forcing her way through the fog, determined to get to where she was supposed to be. A cry escaped her, strong and loud, a final warrior’s yell and then she was airborne, beyond the atmosphere, through the crimson clouds, amid the stars again. She spun and soared amongst them, her skin sparkling as their light reflected off her face and arms and legs. The stars surrounded her once more, burning bright, alive.
All she could do was look at them.
~fin~