Free-Flight

Saving Spensa

Spensa

The world faded into darkness. I felt like I was being twisted inside out, torn apart by the vacuum of space. But no, this was the nowhere. The eyes...they were staring at me. White-hot beams of light trying to penetrate my soul. No ship to protect me, no other voices to distract them—just me and those awful eyes. It was pure agony.

I tried to focus on the faint coordinates in my head, left from when the secret weapon hit me. I hoped I could make it to Detritus and that it didn't drop me out into empty space. If it did, there would be no one to save me this time. I would suffocate and die.

Doomslug let out a scream, and the next thing I knew, I was falling. Gravity. That meant atmosphere. But I still couldn't breathe. My lungs screamed for air. No! Why couldn't I breathe? Suddenly, I slammed into the ground and my vision went black.

Jorgen

"Spensa? Are you alright?"  

I heard the robotic voice echoing from somewhere in the nearby caverns.

"Did you guys hear that?" I asked Nedd and Arturo, worried that I might be hearing things.

"Yeah," Arturo replied. "It sounded like M-bot."

Scud! I ran in the direction M-bot's voice was coming from. Was Spensa really here?

Suddenly, I froze. Spensa's broken body lay motionless on the cavern floor. A drone hovered above her and Doomslug let out a concerned trill.

I ran over to her and pressed my fingers against her neck. Panic swelled in my chest. Scud, she couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. 

Luckily, she still had a pulse. But she wasn't breathing. I leaned over her and began to perform CPR. She had to live. I just got her back. I wasn't going to let her die.

I leaned down and placed my lips against hers for mouth-to-mouth recessitation. A tingle shot through my body and my heart skipped a beat. Stop it, Jorgen, I had to tell myself. You're saving her, not kissing her. At least, I HOPED I was saving her. If I didn't...

I went down for another round, and thankfully, Spensa started gagging and caughing. Good. That meant she was breathing again.

"Spensa..," I said, relieved. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"Jorgen?" She asked dazedly. 

"I'm here," I reassured her, cradling her in my arms. "Let's get you some help." Amazingly, she didn't protest. But that might have been because she had blacked out again.

"Nedd, take the drone," I instructed, Flightleader mode turning on. "Arturo, take the slug."

"I can take myself, thank you very much," M-bot said as Nedd reached for him, sounding quite offended.

Arturo picked up Doomslug and we made our way through the caverns, following the marks Arturo had left along the path so we could find our way back. 

I looked down at the girl I was carrying. Scud, she was beautiful. Even with the cuts and bruises she had all over her skin, she was still stunning. I'd forgotten how pretty she was in all the weeks she was away.

"Do you need me to carry her?" Nedd said, interrupting my thoughts. I realized I'd slowed down a bit, lost in her beauty.

I shook my head and picked up the pace. "No, I've got her," I assured him. It had been so long since I'd seen her. Nothing was going to take her away from me now, even if it was one of my best friends. 

Soon, we reached the surface and Nedd called a transport. 

Shortly after I'd made my discovery with Gran-Gran,  Cobb had requested my presence at Alta base. He had filled me in on how Spensa had come back, but war followed her. He told me how the delver had disappeared and she had followed it. She hadn't been back for a few days and they feared the worst. Spin had been here, but I hadn't been there for her. I'd nearly worried myself sick. If I had missed my last chance to see her...Then Cobb told us about the Hyperdrive slugs, and I knew immediately that that was what I'd been hearing. So naturally, I'd volunteered for the mission. My worry for Spin had been eating away at me, but I pressed forward through the caverns. It was my duty. Then suddenly, she was here and everything else melted away. Spin was home, safe.

And we were going to save her.

A/N Hey! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of Free-Flight. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it since I don't have much time to write and I don't know where the story is going. Thanks for reading!