Operation Darkness
The Wrong Path
By Sylvana Lorrdain and Dour Watcher
-------

Slowly, I walked up the ramp of the Red Home.  With determination, I took
my place at the dorsal gunnery turret I was assigned.  Methodically, I
went over the switches and dials, strapping myself in as I told myself
that I would hit every mark I would sight.

Another part of me said I was wrong.

I did not worry about whenever it was we'd have to land.  Over the past
several months, I'd developed a unique technique to, well, put myself
under, so to speak, as soon as it was certain we would be trying to land.
 And to awaken instantly at touchdown.  It had worked wonderfully the 
last time I'd tried it... well, the first time it had actually *worked*,
but that didn't matter.

Something told me that I wouldn't have to worry about landing ever again.

Without warning, I found myself in the air, blasting away at enemies that
looked like flying sea-rocks.  Their black holes were visible to me, and
I was able to get past them....

Most of them.

My throat could produce no sound as I watched the plasma attach itself
to the transparisteel.  As it ate through the glass, I quickly punched in
the codes that would cut my pod off from the rest of the ship.  "Don't
let them win," I said with insane calm as I shot off my comm unit to
avoid any protests that might come my way. 

I turned and watched with morbid facination as the alien stuff ate
through, dripping onto my legs and body, searing me as though it were
magma tearing through the fibres of my being.

My eyes closed.

The fight was suddenly non-existent, the hatch override being typed in
and the turret opened.

Looks of  horror crossed Becki and Mike's faces as they saw a flightsuit
filled with silver and moon-blue flowers draped over my chair.


****

*I could just go over there, take care of her, and she wouldn't even know
what had happened when she awoke....*

A scream came from the bed, and I looked over to where Sylvana was
sleeping fitfully.  Her body thrashed violently a moment, then lay
deathly still before her eyes shot open and she sat straight up, looking
about the room in horror.  

As much as I wanted to, I did not allow myself to be seen by her
searching eyes.  She stopped a moment, gazing at the place where I stood,
as though something in her recognised there to be someone in that empty
corner.

Then tears trailed  her cheeks and she curled up on the bed to cry
bitterly.  I wanted to reach out to her, to tell her that I was here, and
I wouldn't let anything hurt her.  It was more than a request of a
friend, more than a job now... it was personal.  

Mumbled words wove their way through the air to me, spoken in a soft,
heartbroken voice.

"I'm certain to die...."

She must have had another nightmare, a vision.  I prayed silently that
there was a way the path she'd followed in her dream could be avoided....
 That it was the wrong path.