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______________________________________531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0RWqoVZbN5
Darkness, pain, the feeling of loss, hunger as well. Then consciousness Painful consciousness.531Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkJFFhoCdjU
David tried moving his body, but immediately regretted it as the feeling of pain came full throttle. He could barely breathe because of the pain at his side, the pain around his facial area was something else and he smelt...something burning, something meaty.
As his eyes adjusted he could see a hole going out to the sky. A blue sky with a twinge of purple. A moment of confusion passed through Davids mind as he noticed he was sitting upright and the hole wasn't in the ceiling but in the wall, then David remembered he was in a flying ship, so that seemed much less weird. After his sight and some of his memory returned, his sense of hearing came back and with that an annoying voice repeating David, David. After the fifth time he decided to answer the voice even if not turning his head towards it.
"I can hear you, Boyle, you sorry excuse of a doctor" David grumbled through gritted teeth
"Aye don't be like that lad, it's important to know you can still hear out of your ears and see out of your good eye." Boyle answered in a less boisterous voice than usual
~good eye? ~ Slowly David moved his hand towards his eyes. He closed one of them and all he could see was the dark. Slowly, as panic rose in his chest, he touched his left side of the face and felt a stabbing pain as he winced. The wince causing seizures of pain across his body.
"Maybe instead of the weasel we should start calling you half face or the one eyed cooked one!" Boyle tried guffawing but was seized by a series of wet coughs.
David not appreciative of the doctors light tone and tried to aim a sharp retort at him. But turning his head made everything swim in his eye and he had to swallow down the sickness that was rising inside of him. When his vision steadied he could see the fat doctor, as well as the metal pole that was sticking out of his chest.
"Boyle..."
"No tears lad, I've lived a full life. Sired many children, made many a maiden blush." He tried to laugh but it came out more of a croak.
"No, you blabbering idiot. You're our only doctor and here you are on your last breathe. Surface, I'm surprised you've managed to survive for so long with that thing sticking out of your chest."
"Hit...an artery. The bar is stopping the bleeding, but don't think it'll last long. Vision fading, breathe slowing down. I may be a second rate doctor but I know when death is about...How about being nice to good ol' Boyle to make his passing better?"
"Not a priest, find someone else for a blessing to the afterlife." During the conversation David begun moving his hands slowly, trying to gain leverage to stand up. First slowly, and then faster and faster as his body got used to the pain. Once he got on his two legs he fought for his footing as the ship shook and lurched to the side. Explosions sounding outside the ship as steam burst out of the various pipes surrounding David and Boyle.
Boyle grunted as the bar shifted in his body and the blood started to come out faster. "Not a blessing, but either kill me or give me a falling drink" he said in clipped tones.
David checked his side but could not find his knife; he looked around and saw a broken piece of metal, sharp enough to be used for some stabbing business. "If I do kill you, I'll take everything in your pockets. Just thought I'd let you know as professional courtesy."
Boyle made a sound that was half laugh, half grimace. "You're a right bastard." He said as he clawed at his neck, pulling out a necklace with a pendant. "As a last request, instead of pocketing it, can you get this to my daughter...in Havenport?"
David snatched the pendant looked it over and put it into his pocket. "Nah, but I'll be sure to get the best price, when I sell it at the closest traders." He said as he stabbed the metal shard into Boyles heart, right between the ribs, quickest death that he could provide. David felt as the doctors life bled out him, his last painful breathes stopping, the eyes losing their shine, the head falling down as no force was holding it up anymore.
David knelt near the body and checked the pockets, taking out a few coins. "Cheap bastard, how were you planning to pay your bets?" This reminded him that they were playing cards, all three of them. As he looked around for Jack he saw the mingled mess that used to be his body. ~must've taken a direct explosion~ Shrugging David looked around the room to see if he could find the coins that were on the table during their game, but the place was too much of a mess to even find your brains, as Jack would attest.
David went up to Jacks body and looked at the pockets or at least what was left of them. He managed to find some coins in the meat of the leg which he pulled out. Luckily most of the meat was burned so it didn't leave any residue on the coins themselves.
As he got up and left the sickbay David was feeling much better, at least physically, with his body used to the pain and his vision not swimming as much he felt prepared to face just what happened to the ship.
Upon leaving the he was greeted by much of the same view. Steam leaving metallic pipes, burning the air itself. Crew members groaning in pain or lying dead in their own pool of blood. Made David feel right nostalgic for his youth. Of course what difference did it make whether it was a flying metal ship or some forgotten streets of his youth?
He quickly made his way across towards the bridge, carefully avoiding the eyes of his crew mates and ignoring he screams of pain. ~nothing can be done for the poor bastards~. Luckily the bridge was pretty close to the sickbay, in case the captain got a case of near death. Or if anyone got bored after bridge duty and wanted to play cards with the good doctor, although it was never the same after the Captain banned betting drugs, still didn't stop Boyle from making his sickbay into a gambling parlor.
The more David walked the faster he got used his loss of vision and depth perception, he did almost hit some of the debris a few time because he couldn't gouge the distance or see something sticking out unless he turned his head the whole way, but he thought he could get used to it. No other choice but as far as he saw it. Which wasn't very far, the burn got his good eye.
Amongst the shouts and cannon shots he finally reached the bridge and opened the doors, or broke them down as they were stuck, he was greeted by an orgy of sounds. Shouting, screams of pain, orders being bellowed. And there he saw her, Captain Rodgers. One of the most devious smugglers to grace the skies of Astaria, rumor has it that she could outfly anyone due to her skills as both a pilot and navigator.
That's why David decided to join her crew; he served under captains who had a similar reputation that was disproven on their first flight. But with Captain Rodgers he found that the reputation did live up. That's why he served on THE FLYING FISH for 5 years, longer than on any other ship, and why he has been having this gnawing feeling in his stomach when the Empire managed to catch up with them, did their luck finally run out?
"Cap'n" David called out to the figure at the steering wheel. She barely nodded to him as another shot rang and ship was shaken.
"May they all fall. Why are we so slow, their ships are should be the slowest in the skies of Astaria, slower than ours at least." The sentence came out rushing out of her mouth. David was surprised usually she was composed in control. He looked around and saw the most likely reason for her anger and distress. Ryker was lying in a pool of his own blood. The second mate of the ship, confidant of the captain and the longest serving crew member as well. Good poker player as well, owed David some money; though it was the toughest poker game he ever played. Looks like a pipe fell on his head. ~Disappointing cap'n, you should concentrate on the living~.
Rodgers gave an exasperated sight. "Weasel, where's our good doctor?"
"Dead"
Rodgers cursed again as she lurched the ship to the right. Thanks to the telescope near the wheel she was able to see what was happening behind her, dodging some shots but she had to also concentrate on the way forward. Usually someone else would be looking into the telescope, but most of the bridge was either dead or too busy containing the damage.
"Weasel, go to the falling engine room and see what's wrong with this heap of junk. I want us flying as fast as possible, as soon as possible, before we all die!" Rodgers exclaimed hitting the wheel. "Last time I do a weapon run into the backyard of the empire, any other wannabe rebels will need to find someone else, no matter the price" Rodgers muttered underneath her breath
David smirked and saluted the captain and turned himself around. He was close enough to Rodgers to hear her and he knew she was lying to herself, the captain was one of the greediest people David had the pleasure of knowing. The engineering was a trek away from the bridge but he made good time. Avoiding all the debris and steam coming from the ship, ignoring all the explosions he heard rocking the ships, from the few holes he took a look out from he could see they were above one of the cracks leading to the surface, a dangerous place to be when on a ship with dying wings.
He nodded towards some of the surviving crew members who were trying their best to patch up the damage, but they could all do so much. None of them really reacted to Davids makeover. He wasn't sure if he was offended or preferred it that way.
He finally reached the engine room and almost chocked up on the smoke coming out of there. With stinging eyes and a brave heart he went inside, he could see a few fires that no one was really trying to put out, most of the people concentrating around the void engine.
"Who's that?" Came a gruff voice from Davids side as he saw Marek walking up to him. This was his kingdom and he would usually throw someone out if they didn't know the first thing about the engine. David imagined that might be hard now with only one hand remaining out of his two.
"It's me David" David answered pointedly ignoring the bloody stump.
Marek made a noise that was half nod half grunt." What do you need weasel, we're a bit busy now."
"Captain wants to know why we're so slow. And honestly so do I." David managed to get out inbetween caught. He was both angry and in awe that the engineer managed to hold the conversation as usual with this smoke.
"The engine is overheating, I'll leave out the technical details but the first shot took us hard, the engine has been working hard just to keep the ship flying. We're trying to reduce the heat." Marek shook his head grimly. "I'm not sure we can make it, Most of the equipment is destroyed or overheated.. The only reason we're even moving is because I've got a few boys spinning the cranks manually."
David cringed, spinning the cranks was one of the hardest things to do, especially when everything was dying around you and you had to keep putting more force just to keep moving. David was unsure on all the technicalities but as far as he knew the void engines allowed the ship to float by powering it. The rest was handled by technology inside the ship, when that stops working the crew has to resort to manually moving the ship. Like spinning the propellers using the cranks.
David was about to retort but the ship suddenly shook violently and turned as if it was pushed by an unmovable force from behind. David fetl his world shake and the next thing he knew he was staring at mountains, as he was about to fall. He grabbed the ledge as fast as possible before actually falling.
Before he could shout for help the ship lurched and spun, David lost his grip and fell towards the white topped mountains, the last thing he could hear was his own voice wordlessly screaming, the last thing he could see was THE FLYING FISH aflame as it hit more mountains, David had no time to contemplate how it felt to lose his home of 5 years, any rivalries or friendships that he built lost forever or the fact that he will never again feel a touch of a person or the joy of swindling someone from their hard earned money. Before any of that realization hit home, David was plunged into darkness and sweet, sweet silence.
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