SWNOVELS Chapter Please pick her up 4th September 2060
SEG002
Dark winds howled around them, and the trees creaked in protest. Ginny clung tightly to Gabriel’s arm. Rain began to crash down on them, and lightning lit up the sky.
“Hey, guys?” said Vicky, using her comms-link to be heard over the immense noise of the storm.
“Yes, Vicky?” said Gabriel.
“I suggest,” said Vicky, “that because of the severity of this storm, that we bring the starship to our location.”
Gabriel felt that Vicky was probably right. The storm was greater than he could have imagined, and although Ginny had said that she wanted to experience a SEG002 storm, he felt that they were taking an undue risk.
“What do you think, Ginny?” Gabriel asked.
“I guess so,” Ginny said, with a tinge of disappointment in her voice.
As she spoke, a crack of lightning smashed down onto a nearby tree. The tree shattered, spitting bark fragments. Riven through to its base, the tree crashed down.
Gabriel could see it falling towards them. Flames were licking along its length.
He grabbed Ginny and tried to roll out of the path of the falling tree.
He kept rolling.
But Ginny had stopped.
She had stopped abruptly.
She began screaming.
Gabriel struggled to his feet. The storm winds were whipping around him.
The full weight of the burning tree was laying across Ginny’s legs.
She was flailing her arms. She was desperately trying to pat out the flames.
Gabriel scrambled round to the top of the trunk. He wrapped his arms around the flaming trunk. He could feel the heat through his spacesuit. He straightened up, exerting every ounce of his strength.
The tree did not move. He couldn’t lift it even an inch.
And he could see that if he tried rolling the tree, it was going to cause her even more injury.
“Vicky,” Gabriel shouted. “For God’s sake ... do something.”
He stopped trying to lift the tree. He leaned down and grabbed Ginny’s arms. He tried to pull her from under the burning tree. The weight on her legs was too much.
He couldn’t pull her free.
Ginny was screaming incessantly ... her head was shaking from side to side ... her arms were slapping at the flames that were sheathing her legs.
“Vicky ... Vicky?” Gabriel screamed out.
“Ship ... get a heavy lifter here to our location ... right now,” Vicky almost shouted.
“There’s a prob…,” the ship-board computer replied.
“Right now,” shrieked Vicky.
“On their way.”
Instantly two box-like devices floated towards them. Each was about the size of a microwave oven. Each was equipped with claw-like appendages. Driven by Vicky’s silent instructions, the devices attached themselves to the trunk of the tree and began to lift it. The flames from the burning tree licked up the metalled sides of the two lifters.
“They’re not strong enough,” Gabriel said hopelessly, amidst the sound of the storm around them and Ginny shrieking. But slowly, inch by inch, the tree trunk was levered upwards ... enough for Gabriel to pull Ginny free.
“Ship, get over here,” Vicky said, “and get whatever meds you have for compression injuries and burns available.”
“On my way.”
“You are going to have to pick her up and carry her into the ship, Gabriel,” Vicky said.
“But what about her injuries ... won’t I make them worse?”
“Her suit has been damaged, Gabriel. The hermetic seal has been compromised. She needs to be back on the starship right now.”
Ginny was moaning now. Slipping in and out of consciousness.
“We have no choice, Gabriel. Please pick her up now.”
“Ok ... where’s the ship?”
“Right here,” the Ship replied.
The starship was hovering perhaps twenty feet away, swaying in the turbulent storm winds.
“Pick her up now, Gabriel,” Vicky said, urgency in her voice.
“Can you give her some pain relief before I move her?” Gabriel said.
“If she was wearing a STU such as myself, then yes, that could have been provided, but as it is, you need to get her into the starship. Please pick her up, Gabriel.”
Gabriel put one arm under Ginny’s shoulders and another under her knees. She shrieked.
“Pick her up, Gabriel,” Vicky said.
Gabriel lifted Ginny off the ground. The storm winds caught him as he straightened up, and he swayed alarmingly, almost losing his footing. Instantly the two small lifters moved to either side of him, offering him something to lean against. Together they moved over to the starship, and Gabriel stepped up, into and through the air-lock door.