TODM- First draft 2007.

“There had been a huge rumble that spread throughout the entire ship. At the time I didn’t understand what had happened. I was so young. I figured…it was a bump in the hyperspace or something…”
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Stepping into an orange mist that rose up from the dusty ground, a lone figure stood examining the waste that lay before it. A strong scent of copper filled the air as the figure began to walk amoung the wreckage. Every step that was taken arrived at many corpses, all that were battered at the cost of an unknown bloodshed. The figure than stopped, basking in the smell and silent chaos that eminated from the recent carnage, laughing as it carried off alone into the unknown. Suddenly, without warning, a sharp surgical charge forced it’s way from below, wafting amoung the dead, bringing light to what had occurred, fueling a rage…-
Pandora awoke with a start, wiping cold sweat from her brow and looking around for whatever had jarred her awake. Her answer came with another shake from the vessel, this time also awakening the alarm system on her father’s ship to scream at her in defiance.
Slightly irritated, Pandora rolled over, wishing to fall back to sleep, covering her own ears in layers of soft fluffy pillows.
That stupid alarm, Pandora thought angrily, always going off at the slightest disturbance. I was having such a strange dream…
Cursing the pilot, Pandora closed her eyes once more, trying to recall what she had seen. It was so sinister…and she couldn’t help but be drawn to it. It had almost felt like she had actually been there, like it was actually-
Real. Pandora finished, pressing two fingers against a lightly throbbing pain on the side of her head.
The alarm continued to scream, this time accompanied by another rumble and hurried footsteps outside her door. Pandora sat up eagerly, a small twinge of fear spreading through her body. Surely they would have been out of this by now…
More footsteps ran by, this time Pandora didn’t stop to analyze it. Sweeping her bare feet across her bed and touching down on the cold chrom floor, she threw on a light blue night gown that matched perfectly with her sparkling blue eyes. Decision made, Pandora flung open the door and dashed out into the hall.
There were few people running, all in the same direction as more hurried others began to scramble out of their rooms, a look of utter confusion on all of their faces.
“What’s going on?!” One shrill women asked seemingly to the flashing red light of warning in the bending halls. There was no reply, however, as more people were swept up in the chaos of those abandoning their shelters.
Pandora stood in the middle of the hall, as people pushed by screaming. The sound echoing in her ears, as another jar from the ship caused a frantic scramble of electrical current to crawl amoung the walls. And just was her heart suddenly sped up, pounding her veins with adrenaline and fear, the lights went out.
“What in the bloody hell is going on?” She managed to shreik as one last body brushed past.
With the darkness came silence. Her skin crawling and heart pounding wildly in her throat, Pandora gradually shuffled away in the direction she knew to be the main deck.
She began to shiver, as her bare feet tredged the chilling floor. Holding her night gown close to her small body she froze, her eyes catching a flicker of electric output as the power struggled to work. Shaking her head of the vision she thought she had seen in that breif moment of light, she took another step on her journey for answers.
Something warm and sticky crawled between her toes. Pausing again, Pandora tried desperately to see what she had stumbled apon. She tried not to let her mind wander to far, closing her eyes and nibbling her lower lip, she couldn’t bare to handle what she knew in her pulsating heart to be true.
And than she heard it. The sound of a powerful weapon, than followed by a resounding thud somewhere in front of her. She could barely breathe as the air ran from her lungs in terror as she quickly dropped to her hands and knees. Her body shook uncontrollably as she once again felt the same warm and sticky substnace under hands and legs, it’s identity now brutally confirmed.
The ground around her felt like it was falling away beneath her, as she desperately tried to regulate her breathing and calm down. Her lungs were working furiously against her and Pandora feared with all certainty that whomever had fired that weapon could hear as well as she, the blood pounding in her ears, throbbing away at any courage she once had apon folded out before Pandora, her head unwillingly met the hard floor, and she was greeted once more by darkness.
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For the second time that day, Pandora awoke with a lingering dream. This one wasn’t any different from the last either. Someone was dead, she didn’t know who or what. Everything was dark and strange and…oh wait.
When she opened her eyes she found herself to be in a place of unfamiliarity. It was near empty, with almost no home décor to speak of. What was present in the small rectangular room, was none all to drab. She had awoken on someone else’s lumpy mat and cluttered around her were boxes full of unknown contents that altogether made her uneasy.
And that’s when the headache arrived.
Instinctively, she brought a shaky hand to her head, only to feel the stickiness again. Looking down on her hand as she drew it back and disentangled it from her hair, she saw the deep shade of red that had once been on the floor of her father’s ship.
She took in a deep rattling breath as she realized she was no longer on her father’s ship, The Messenger. Not to mention the fact that she was covered in someone else’s blood.
The thought alone should freak her out to no end, but she couldn’t help but feel far to tired to focus on the entirety of the situation. Since Pandora was a young girl the littlest things could spawn a tantrum that the whole planet could feel. Once when she was playing in the quiet meadow behind her home, she had only just been running through the tall grass when her childhood friend Max, who was hiding at the time, snuck up on her and pushed her screaming to the ground. She screamed for what felt like hours until her mother finally came running and gracefully scooped her daughter in her arms. He mother was the only one who could ever calm her down.
To now sit silently after all that had happened in what seemed such a short time, frightened her a little. She knew that the person she left back on The Messenger would not nearly be as calm as she felt now.
As she sat silently in the room, her mind wandered freely. What had happened? Why was she still alive? Does her father yet know of what occurred only so long ago? Would he come for her, or had he already?
She knew deep down there wasn’t much to rely on when it came to her father. He was selfish, a big talker who only protected his own interests at hand, which apparently did not include Pandora or her mother. For as long as she remembered, her father’s priority was first and foremost: politics. He would spend nearly all day spent in his private chambers, in complete secrecy, with only his most trusted assisstants. This left only Pandora and her mother together, shut out of her father’s life. Always hoping that on day he would let them in.
Pandora thought that it would always be just her and her mother. Thinking back on it now, she tensed, clenching her fists and pressing her lips together to form a tight line of distress.
She would never forgive her mother.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard stubtle footfalls arriving closer to the door that held her in the room she waited.
Come to think of it, did I even TRY the door? Pandora closed her eyes and groaned to herself. Obviously the strain of whatever seemed to be happening to her lately had caused her to lose all common sense. Or, you know, common sense would be to assume the door was heavily bolted or barraged to keep even the little tantrum girl she only just used to be inside…
I could have atleast tried…She mumbled, while the footsteps stopped outside her door.
“Oh hell…” Escaped her lips as she turned, annoyed as the door opened with ease, apparently with no hinderance whatsoever.
The door swung open slowly, and there left standing was a young man who appeared to be the same age as she. He had shaggy sandy blonde hair that stretched past his eyebrows only just hiding the very top of his eyes, which surprisingly enough, carried a boyish innocence that was left dancing in their deep blue hues…He held himself with a casualness that was almost arrogant, a sly smirk playing across his lips as he gazed at her.
“Funny, I’d imagine my first princess to be somewhat more…graceful perhaps?” He closed his eyes a moment and shook his head, still smiling.
A new realization hit Pandora, as fear began to trickle quickly down her neck.
Startled, she babbled,”If you touch me…I-I swear I’ll-”
“What? Call Daddy on me?” He laughed a little as she shut her mouth and looked at him questioningly.
“Besides…” He began reaching into the pocket of his vest and pulling out an exotic looking fruit, “you’re not really my type. I prefer the low maintenance kind of girls.”
“Okay so…” Pandora paused as she watched him take a bite out of the bulbous purple fruit, the site of the citrus reminding her stomach that it had yet to be fed.
“Hmm.” He swallowed,” Wondering why I suppose? Actually, you weren’t originally part of the plan. Imagine our surprise when we hit your father’s ship and found you aboard. Honestly, we never thought he’d be that stupid…especially after all the threats we made. He must not have cared for you that much, to leave you so unprotected like that. Ah well, that just means more of a reward for me.”
This was all news to Pandora as she stared at him, wide-eyed. “I didn’t hear about any threats.”
...

((2006-2007))