A Call From Across The Universe (ONC Entry)

Chapter 02

Okay, assess the situation. The angle of my ship's nose is pointed diagonally downwards, this seatbelt is the only thing keeping me in the chair. If I drop now, I'll either miss and fall, or hit the console and the sudden shift in weight may unbalance the ship and cause the whole thing to fall.

Could I climb out the other end? No, I don't know enough about the terrain, that might also tip the ship.

How far of a drop is it anyways? The blizzard was obscuring my helmet's optical sensors. On my left, something was dangling off one of the consoles. Seemed broken. It was probably useful for something but... I don't think this ship is gonna see another day in the sky. Sorry. I ripped it off the console, and then dropped it into the abyss.

......Hm, in retrospect, I probably should've known that was gonna happen. I mean, I see that in the movies a lot. However, this isn't a movie. I'm in the middle of a blizzard, I can barely hear anything, why did I think I'd be able to hear that?

I heard a popping noise in my head. I hope that wasn't important. My whole head doesn't feel right, is this related to the anomaly from before, some of my augments are disabled as well. I'll have to check in with a medic when I get back. Come to think of it, what happened to the ship's canopy?

"Nevermind, refocus."

I can't drop down, I can't climb the ship. Oh! My suit! It has jump-jets for terrain navigation, oh and the ship had a personal grappling hook for emergencies!

I reached around the back of my seat, feeling around for a recession in the- "AHA!" I grabbed a handle and pulled, I could see the top of a case- which immediately opened and out fell a bunch of the case's contents down into the white void below, never to be seen again. Including what was probably the grappling hook.

"...Well that's just not fair." I sighed, almost resigning myself to my almost certain doom. I mean, it's not like I knew I was gonna use the grappling hook, but it was better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

At least I still had the jumpjets. My suit diagnostic indicated they were still operational, maybe I could jump forward and hopefully not fall to my death. No, that wouldn't work, I'd need a moving start and if I carelessly move, then the ship falls, and I die with it.

Alternatively... I could eject the seat and fly forward. Although, since I'm not really sure what's in the ejection path, I might splatter against a cliff. This was risky, and even if I don't mimic a bug on a windshield, there are at least a dozen other ways I could die or be horribly maimed and then die, but slower.

"You spend all your time thinking about what to do, you'll probably die before you've made a decision."

Why am I hearing her voice in my head now? Anomaly. Probably. Something's broken up there. But the voice in my head is right, I can't exactly spend all my time here waiting and thinking about what to do. If I'm gonna do something, I better do it sooner rather than later, because I get the feeling that lady luck is getting a little impatient with me. Or at least, the creaking of my ship is what I imagine to be her "hurry up," signal

I took a deep breath and made my decision. I gripped the emergency release lever by my seat and prepared myself physically and mentally. Mostly because... the thing they never show you in the movies, is how much this is gonna hurt. I released the latch and my ship jerked forward as my seat shot out from the ship into the blizzard! The force of the ejection violently forcing my head and neck to curve inwards into my stomach.

It's kinda funny how the need to survive makes you forget how much you hate ejections. At least it can't get any worse. Wait. Shit.

"Why did you just think that?"