Camp Sunrise: One Way Ticket Home
Posted on 19 Mar 2023 @ 8:09pm by Chief Petty Officer Ibis Xeri & Major Porter Wallace
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: Korix, Camp Sunrise
Timeline: MD08 Early Afternoon on the island (Following Camp Sunrise: News Worth the Pain)
1416 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure
Wallace ran. The pains, the aches, the exhaustion lay abandoned somewhere behind him and his legs moved as fast as they had when he was a healthy, fully fit Marine. However, not with the same coordination. Coming over the last sandune that bordered the shanty town, he tripped and flew head first down the slope. Skidding, tumbling, and rolling to a stop near the bottom. The adrenaline surged through him making it seem like a minor fall and he threw himself to his feet, continuing his run.
Ibis, Olivia, and Ikemba were sitting outside their shanty. Ikemba had Jimoh’s dulcimer out on the ground, plucking strings while Ibis and Olivia sat, grinding oats into rough flour with some flat stones. Ikemba saw him first, laughed at the sight of Wallace’s windmilling arms and legs and pointed. Olivia and Ibis looked up from their work. Olivia’s face immediately darkened, that morning’s conversation not forgotten. Ibis looked terrified.
He skidded to a stop in front of them and the exertion hit him full on. Instead of shouting the news as he’d intended, Wallace fell to his back, arms raised above his head, as his lungs filled over and over again, chest falling and rising.
Ibis dove to her knees next to him, searching him for something to explain his hysteria, uncertain if he was having some kind of heart attack or if he was trying to warn them. “Wallace!”
Wallace tried to speak, but his body still called for more air. He began to feel stupid, particularly since the panic on her face was growing by the second. He wished she still had her telepathy or, at the very least, some empathic ability so she could feel the excitement he was feeling. Walking here would’ve been the wiser course, but upon the news that they were going home - no, not just home, that they were going to live, the children were going to live - running had seemed the only sane option.
She put her hands over his shoulders where he lay on the ground. “Are you okay? Is there danger? Are the Z’ala coming to the camp? Did something happen at the temple? Are you having a psychotic break, Porter?”
“Ibis…” Sucked in a breath. “...a ship…” Sucked in a breath. “...a Federation…” Sucked in a breath. “...ship. In…” Sucked in a breath. “...orbit…” Sucked in a breath. “Starfleet…” Sucked in a breath. “...Starfleet!” Wallace grabbed Ibis, still hovering over him, and pulled her down so his lips could meet hers, knowing that the rotting taste in his mouth must be horrendous, but not caring. He held her there only for a second, the only length of time his burning lungs would allow.
He’d never kissed her before, not full on the lips like that, but as he did, she absorbed the news and her terror seemed to evaporate into sheer elation. “You’re serious!” She gasped as their lips parted. She grabbed his shirt in two fistfuls and shook him, screaming “You’re not lying to me, Porter?! You’re not hallucinating this?! There’s a ship! In orbit? Right now?!”
Olivia looked on as the adults seemed to be catching some kind of delirium.
He nodded and collapsed back onto the sand. “Water,” he croaked.
Ibis waved for Olivia to bring the pail they’d carried back and Olivia brought it, Ikemba trailing behind her to fall over Wallace where he lay, like it was some wrestling game. Ibis took the little scoop from the pail that they used as a ladle and messily handed him the sloshing drink, half of it all over his shirt before it was to his mouth.
Wallace drank around his need for air and between both, he tried to fill in the details of what Pauua had said. The signal had first been received early that morning, luckily when the sympathizer was in the communication tower. Her quick action ensured that none of the other Z’ala were aware of the ship’s arrival and that the message was redirected to the free Irix out in the ocean. Hopefully, the Z’ala would never be the wiser.”
“The biggest issue for us is that we’re sitting on a massive deposits of kelbonite and so the ship’s scanners are basically useless—”
“I know! I know about the kelbonite scatter!” Ibis had spent a lot of time trying to figure a way to create a signal flare for just this moment, but there was just nothing available to her that a ship would see or if it was something they could detect, it wasn’t anything they would know to scan for. The Sunrise had been destroyed outside of the system so there was no trace of them at all that would even tip off a ship in orbit as to their presence. She looked up at the sky and growled with frustration at herself for losing her telepathy.
“— But, the Irix are going to help us. There’s a ship they have.—”
“The Irix don’t have any ships!” Ibis knew only the ruling Z’ala had any aircraft. “How did they get a ship? Pauua?”
“— Just for getting up into orbit. We can get to it, but they’ll need our help first. The slaves are going to rise up—”
“They’re going to get slaughtered!” Ibis had no more idealism about the slave uprisings. They’d always ended with blood in the water.
“—All of them this time, not like last time. They’ve got ideas, but no one has any experience blowing things up.”
Ibis put a hand on her forehead, processing all of the outrageous news. “They want your help with a sabotage plot?”
“It’s bigger than a sabotage plot. They want to burn the whole thing. They want to blow the mine, hit the Z’ala’s lagoons, and try to take out that Pyrryx up on the volcano. Then scatter into the oceans to join the free Irix.”
Ibis stood up to pace back and forth and just think. If the Irix were planning a full scale revolt and break-out for all, there was less than nothing left for them on the island anyway. There wouldn’t even be a mine left to earn their rations from. It was too dangerous to stay since with the island burning, any Z’ala that came across them would just slay them for existing. The decision was made for them. Her arms flopped to her sides as she arrived at the same conclusion Wallace already had. “We have to help.”
His breathing had returned to near normal and he’d pushed himself up to a sitting position. “It’ll be my pleasure to help blow those bastards to kingdom come,” Wallace said fiercely, an ugly look in his eye.
Olivia looked horrified, unable to fully comprehend what they were both going on about, only that it sounded like the end of the world. Ikemba was still laughing and rolling on Wallace, swinging from his neck, only really understanding that something sounded especially exciting.
Realizing the children were still watching and listening to them, he softened his tone. “And to get you and the kids off this planet. That’s a dream come true.”
“Us. To get us all off this planet.” Ibis said firmly. She knew Wallace too well. Once there was combat and fire and knives were all out, he’d get wrapped up in the moment and lose his head with the smell of smoke and blood that was a Marine’s calling. She grabbed the laughing boy by his collar and lifted him to make room to wrap herself around Wallace and hug Ikemba sandwiched between them. “You let the Irix fight for themselves. We leave together, Major.”
Wallace wanted both: the release action would bring him and to be with his family as they left the rock. Before Korix, battle’s siren song would have been too strong to resist. Now, these three people were his whole reason for living. “I’m just helping with the planning. We leave together.”
Trying to include her, Ibis reached out for Olivia’s hand to pull the reluctant teen a little closer and grinned, shedding tears of relief now that everything was going to work out in their favor. Finally. “Then I’m in.”