Virgin Flight, by kuonji (G) [Virgin challenge]
Title: Virgin Flight
Author: kuonji
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: G
Challenge: Virgin challenge
Spoilers: none
Summary: The Beginning.
I imagine flashfic deadlines to be something like microwave popcorn. i.e. Continue until kernels (stories) no longer pop up every few seconds. Am taking shameless advantage of such...
Virgin Flight
by kuonji
She was ready. After the months and years of preparations, she would soar through the skies of their world and then beyond to fulfill the purpose for which she had been born. Not a test flight this time, but into the fray. Into the claws of the enemy who would tear her and hurt her, and although she would be healed by the hand-chosen crew, no one would be there to soothe and encourage. Doctors only, not her mother, not her family.
She touched the shining hull and laid her cheek upon it.
She was not ready.
***
They had come to her at first with words of desperation. We need you, they said. You are the only one who can save us, they said. Go to someone else, she answered. Someone else can save you better than I.
Then, they had come with words of duty and responsibility for her people. We will die without you, they said. The extinction of our people will be on your head. She had laughed at them. Those who are worthy will not fear, she said. Those who are not, I will grieve.
Then. Then, they had sent the engineers, and they had plead with her. She will not live without you, they said. She will be a dead thing and ignorant people will control her. Without you, she will always be only a slave, they cried.
And she had listened.
***
The ceremony was over.
She stood on the platform with the others, clutching the medal she had received today in her fingers. She would not wear it.
She remembered again why she had stopped. When her children kept dying around her and she could do nothing. And although the people her children protected were mourned, so few grieved for the ones who were sacrificed. Not enough, was all they said, sadly.
More, they always wanted only more.
The sublight engines roared to life, followed by the rockets that would take her and her burden away from the safety of the atmosphere. The engines burned with a quick bright light.
So eager. She was still naive and untouched, she thought. She did not yet understand, and although she had given her all the defenses and tools that she could, she did not have the heart to explain to her child the frailty and horror of what was to come for her.
"Go," she whispered as she lifted into the sky. "Your sisters will join you soon."
And she grieved at even that.
The Beginning.
Author: kuonji
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: G
Challenge: Virgin challenge
Spoilers: none
Summary: The Beginning.
I imagine flashfic deadlines to be something like microwave popcorn. i.e. Continue until kernels (stories) no longer pop up every few seconds. Am taking shameless advantage of such...
Virgin Flight
by kuonji
She was ready. After the months and years of preparations, she would soar through the skies of their world and then beyond to fulfill the purpose for which she had been born. Not a test flight this time, but into the fray. Into the claws of the enemy who would tear her and hurt her, and although she would be healed by the hand-chosen crew, no one would be there to soothe and encourage. Doctors only, not her mother, not her family.
She touched the shining hull and laid her cheek upon it.
She was not ready.
***
They had come to her at first with words of desperation. We need you, they said. You are the only one who can save us, they said. Go to someone else, she answered. Someone else can save you better than I.
Then, they had come with words of duty and responsibility for her people. We will die without you, they said. The extinction of our people will be on your head. She had laughed at them. Those who are worthy will not fear, she said. Those who are not, I will grieve.
Then. Then, they had sent the engineers, and they had plead with her. She will not live without you, they said. She will be a dead thing and ignorant people will control her. Without you, she will always be only a slave, they cried.
And she had listened.
***
The ceremony was over.
She stood on the platform with the others, clutching the medal she had received today in her fingers. She would not wear it.
She remembered again why she had stopped. When her children kept dying around her and she could do nothing. And although the people her children protected were mourned, so few grieved for the ones who were sacrificed. Not enough, was all they said, sadly.
More, they always wanted only more.
The sublight engines roared to life, followed by the rockets that would take her and her burden away from the safety of the atmosphere. The engines burned with a quick bright light.
So eager. She was still naive and untouched, she thought. She did not yet understand, and although she had given her all the defenses and tools that she could, she did not have the heart to explain to her child the frailty and horror of what was to come for her.
"Go," she whispered as she lifted into the sky. "Your sisters will join you soon."
And she grieved at even that.
The Beginning.