Wormholes and Wanderlust

Chapter 5: Stranded

Izabella's perspective...

My limbs felt like lead as I tried to find my footing on the trembling floor of the unfamiliar craft. Through the slim windows, a dizzying array of colors whirled in a kaleidoscopic frenzy, evidence of our wild ascent into the unknown. The craft convulsed beneath us as the Reaper's explosive did its damage. My team and the human, Grant, were strewn about, as disoriented as I was by the violent shudders.

Suddenly, the craft lurched into a perilous free fall. Our weightless forms hovered above the floor as the cabin plunged downwards, the once vibrant colors outside now swallowed by an impossible night. It made no sense; only moments before, daylight had reigned supreme.

"Katherine!" My voice was ragged as I called to the dragon, who was somehow managing to maintain her awakeness amid the chaos. The others had succumbed to unconsciousness. "Help them!"

With a grim determination, Katherine propelled herself from the wall, catching Calliope in a protective embrace as she floated, untethered, through the cabin.

Mimicking her actions, I reached out to steady Elizabeth, securing her drifting form. Aria and Grant floated nearby, adrift in freefall. "We have to do something!" Panic edged my voice, slicing through the din of alarms and the ominous groan of the stressed craft.

Emergency lighting flickered to life, casting a garish glow as a compartment door slid open, revealing what appeared to be an escape pod. "It looks like an escape pod or something!" Katherine's voice carried over the tumult, her words punctuated by the urgency of our plight.

The pod was clearly designed for two, yet that limitation was inconsequential compared to the lives of my friends... and Grant, whom circumstance had made an unlikely ally.

"Come on!" I shouted, strapping Elizabeth into the pod's seat with quick, practiced motions. "I'll get the human! You get Aria!" I instructed Katherine, my voice resolute amid the cacophony of alarms and the roar of damaged engines.

We moved with desperate speed, driven by the primal need to survive and protect our own, human and anthro alike. Lurching against the wall as I caught Grant in mid-air, I noticed his eyes flutter open, a mix of disorientation and alarm. "Move!" I commanded, urgency tinged with fear in my voice, nodding towards the escape pod. He quickly grasped the situation, and together we maneuvered through the weightless chaos of the cabin.

Katherine arrived just as swiftly, clutching an unconscious Aria. We squeezed into the pod, the confines immediately feeling oppressively tight. The hatch sealed with a final mechanical hiss, muting the sounds of the chaotic hangar outside. Now, all I could hear was the creaking of the pod and our frantic breaths, reverberating in the compact space.

The pod's launch was abrupt, the g-forces pinning us awkwardly against its walls. Unsecured, Grant, Katherine, and I found ourselves in a tangled heap, the pressure on our bodies intense. My vision narrowed, and then darkness enveloped me.

I was startled awake by a shrill, piercing tone. Peering through the pod's small window, I was met with an expanse of inky darkness. It was night, and the gentle sway of the pod told me we were at sea. I found myself on the pod's floor, cramped and disoriented.

A frantic tapping on my tail grabbed my attention — it was Grant, struggling for air beneath Katherine and me. "I-I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" he gasped, panic in his voice.

Scrambling to my feet in the confined space, I bumped my head on the low ceiling. The pod, barely four feet across, was spherical and stifling. I strained to maneuver, my thick tail sweeping the interior as I shifted Katherine's heavier frame off Grant. As he gasped in relief against the pod wall, the sound of his labored breaths echoed, amplifying our sense of confinement and urgency.