Seeing Green Episode IV: Close Encounters

Chapter Nine

"Arena," Kara muttered to herself. "Episode eighteen. I love this one."

She glanced at the time in the corner of the screen. Two thirty in the morning?! I should get some sleep! But this is one of my favorites. Captain Kirk finds himself alone on a strange planet, facing off against a Gorn, the reptilian Captain of another ship. Both unarmed, but physically outmatched, Kirk relies on his wit to survive. Kara sighed dreamily. He was resourceful and made use of the abundant minerals on the surface of the planet. He created black powder by combining sulfur and potassium nitrate. Using diamonds as bullets, with a bamboo casing, he created a sort of weapon.

This got Kara thinking about her own situation. Obviously I can't injure Ursa...but what about me? What if I put myself in danger? She wants to keep me alive. If I could start a fire, she'd have to save me. Then what? She'd be forced to put me in a less secure location, maybe? This could work, but how do I start a fire?

Kara turned the iPad over in her hands. The battery!

She began tearing open the back and exposing the battery's negative and positive electrodes. Now I need something that will conduct electricity.

She grabbed one of the paperclips, the one without the colorful plastic coating. She opened it up and touched each end to the electrodes. After a minute, it began to get warm. She crumpled up a piece of notebook paper and held it to the paperclip and waited. She waited for several suspenseful minutes, but it didn't get hot enough to ignite.

I need something finer, like steel wool.

She looked around the room and her eyes landed on the hairbrush laying next to her on the bed. It was loaded with her hair because she had been using it to pass the time. One hundred strokes a day, just like a princess. She pulled off the wad of blonde fluff. Steel wool.

She touched the wad to the electrodes, and immediately it began to glow red hot. Giddy with excitement at her success, Kara squealed. Soon the paper went up in flames. Kara realized she was quickly going to run out of paper. She pulled an empty drawer out of the dresser and pushed her little paper fire into it. She added her pencil for tinder. I need more than that. There's a smoke alarm upstairs. I need to create enough smoke to set it off, sending Ursa down to my rescue.

She pulled out another drawer and did her best to smash it to pieces. Adding little by little, the flames climbed higher and higher. She put the whole thing near the door, and fanned the flames with her pillow. The heat was increasing and beads of sweat formed on Kara's forehead and upper lip. The room was filling with smoke. Kara's eyes stung, but she continued fanning and adding wood, hoping enough smoke would slip through the spaces around the door before it was too late. She tossed her last piece of drawer on, covering her nose and mouth with part of her sweater. This is insane. This is suicide. I just wanted to do something without superpowers. To prove to myself that I can get myself out of trouble without my powers. Just like Ollie does.

The wooden door itself was blackening and beginning to burn. Kara coughed and gagged on the increasing smoke. She continued fanning weakly, feeling light-headed. I'm going to pass out if I don't get out of here. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Kara backed up as far as she could, steadied herself, and charged like a linebacker into the burning door. A crashing sound emitted as she blasted through the door. Her body rolled a short distance before landing at the bottom of the stairs. Coughing and sputtering as she gasped for air, Kara thought, I did it! I almost killed myself but I did it!

She began to weakly crawl her way up the stairs with what little energy she could muster. Her body throbbed in protest, the shoulder she had lead with badly injured.

"What in the name of Zod!?" Ursa cried from the top of the stairway. "You crazy stupid--"

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Both women winced in pain and covered their ears as the smoke alarm finally went off.