Star Wars: Marooned

Star Wars: Marooned (Part 1)

Something wet dripped on Serrin's face. It annoyed him, but he was too far away to wipe it from his forehead. He floated in darkness, so it seemed, and the distant hum in his ears scratched at him. Breathing was difficult, and he felt like he was going to suffocate. Serrin struggled upward through the darkness. He knew he was close to panic, but he had to keep control. Time was passing quickly, and soon he would be unable to wake up.

That was when he slammed back into himself, aware, he tried to open his swollen eyes, but they felt glued closed. He reached up with his hand close to his body and felt his eyes. They were covered in hardened gel.

Another drop hit him on the top part of his forehead and rolled down. He felt like screaming for an instant, but he quickly choked it back down his sore throat. He lifted his other hand to help the other in freeing his eyes. He tore the visual probes from the gel and wiped the hardened substance away as best he could for the moment.

When he first opened his eyes he could not see, but his eyes focused after a few moments and took in the tiny bit of light coming from across the compartment. The glass in front of him was cracked, and condensation gathered at the top of the cryocell. It was very cold on the outside of the glass. Serrin was disoriented. What was going on? The glass of the cryocell was not supposed to be cracked, nor was it supposed to be cold. Something was wrong.

Serrin tried to remember if the cryocell had an emergency release on the inside of the tube. After feeling around, he realized there was nothing. Why would an Imperial prisoner need an emergency release anyway? The walls of the cryocell were too close for him to break the glass in front of his nose. There was barely any room for him to get his hands up by his face. He kept the oxygen respirator on, and calmed his racing mind.

The man turned inward, feeling the calm and peace, he imagined the outside the cryocell designed to hold prisoners in cryogenic sleep for interstellar travel. Letting his mind move over its surface, he found the controls to the opening mechanism. He remembered where they were seeing them before he was placed into stasis. Using his mind he imagined pushing the controls. Long moments ticked by in silence. Then the controls came to life.

A weak alarm sounded with a yellow flashing light on top of the cryocell, but it quickly wobbled and died. A woman's voice spoke, "Emergency. Cryocell 2 released." As the voice spoke it became slower and slower, and the yellow light dimmed until both quit from lack of power. Servo motors whirred to life and the hatch of the cryocell began to lift upward. Halfway up it halted.

The frigid air hit Serrin's naked body causing him to inhale short, quick gasps. The air must have been below freezing. He pulled the medical sensors off of his chest, out of his ears, and the respirator off his nose and mouth. He pulled the holding straps off of his waist and legs. He slid out of the cryocell to his knees on the cold floor. Serrin could not get his breathing to stabilize.

The freed prisoner looked around at his surroundings and noticed two prostrate Imperial Stormtroopers lying on the floor down the hall of the prisoner cellblock. The man's survival instincts kicked in, he lifted himself up and stumbled their direction.

With each step, he had to peel his foot from the cold floor. When he reached them, he worked the white armor off of the one that looked closer to his size. He removed the armor and pulled the black body suit from the frozen body. The man was dead, but the freezing temperatures kept his body from deteriorating.

Serrin put on the black environment suit then he quickly fixed the armor into place. After pulling on the Stormtrooper's boots, he put on the helmet. He checked the suit's power systems and noticed the suit's energy was 53% full. Thankful, he switched on the environment controls and set it for sub-freezing temperatures. Immediately the suit warmed Serrin's body. He felt dizzy and sat down against the wall of the cellblock and breathed in warm filtered air for quite a while.