Don't Eat the Butterflies

PrologueAll the safety drills had been forgotten; panic reigned supreme. Frantic, screaming passengers and more than a few crew members fought and trampled each other in a rush for the escape pods. K'taik'kh, a young female of not quite thirty-nine seasons, pushed and clawed her way through the chaos as the stricken luxury liner Asai'ka Iss'a drifted, its engines dead. The emergency alarm blared loudly, ceaselessly, terrifying and disorienting, doing more harm than good. Most of the...
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PrologueAll the safety drills had been forgotten; panic reigned supreme. Frantic, screaming passengers and more than a few crew members fought and trampled each other in a rush for the escape pods. K'taik'kh, a young female of not quite thirty-nine seasons, pushed and clawed her way through the chaos as the stricken luxury liner Asai'ka Iss'a drifted, its engines dead. The emergency alarm blared loudly, ceaselessly, terrifying and disorienting, doing more harm than good. Most of the lights had gone out within seconds of the initial explosion, along with the life-support systems and the artificial gravity. What little air remained was heavily mixed with acrid smoke, the sharp, toxic stink of burning wiring and synthetics, and the sour reek of fear.K'taik'kh searched desperately for an open pod. Many had already sealed and launched, and her escape options were dwindling rapidly. In the absence of gravity the heavy cape of her ornately-embroidered and feathered formal outfit floated behind her like a cloud, snagging on broken pipes and lighting fixtures. She cursed her decision earlier that evening to wear it. An oddly detached inner part of herself found itself astonished at the strength of her desire to live; after all, only a short time ago she had been planning to kill herself. Yet now, with death staring her in the face, instead of eagerly embracing it, she strove for survival with every fiber of her being, fighting her way along walls, ceilings, and floors to reach one of the few remaining open pod doors.Another passenger, caught in the grip of panic, snarled and shoved her violently out of his way. The action sent her bouncing weightlessly but painfully along the bulkhead, through an open hatchway and halfway down the unlit service passageway beyond. As she struggled to reorient herself, a voice called out to her, barely audible through the din."Girl! Over here!"She turned in the direction of the voice, and as her eyes adjusted to the smoky gloom, darker even than the larger room she had just left, she could make out a pod door, marked by a feebly flickering emergency light. Of course! There would be separate pods, set aside for the crew, smaller and more spartan inside. The hatch on this one was trying to seal, and the owner of the voice was straining to hold it open."Hurry!" he rasped as the panel inched shut. "Drral, help me!" Another figure joined him, slowing the door's relentless progress only a fraction. K'taik'kh dug her claws into the acoustic wall covering and propelled herself toward the doorway with every bit of strength she possessed. The heavy cape snagged again, and she tore loose the jeweled clasp that secured it at her throat and let it go without another thought. "Girl! Hurry!" The pod door was halfway shut now, and the two males, crew members by their uniforms, were slowly losing their battle to keep it open for her. Frantically, she pushed and pulled herself toward it, heedless of obstacles. Her shoulder thudded painfully against a valve- wheel, a protruding bolt tore her sleeve and gouged skin and fur from her arm, and then she was bumping and scraping through the diminishing doorway, knocking the other two aside. She felt the closing door slap against her boot, catch at her tail, and barely managed to pull herself in before the hatch slipped shut, the locking lugs engaging with a solid clunking sound. Before any of them could extricate themselves from their undignified pileup against the far wall, they were flung back and crushed against the panels by the force of the little pod's launch. For several breathless, agonizing minutes they continued to accelerate before the booster engines shut down, leaving them to float freely about the tiny cabin.One by one, they pulled themselves over to the single viewport to stare out at the doomed Asai'ka Iss'a growing rapidly smaller in the distance.