The temperature inside the cockpit was far above uncomfortable, with his shoulders held painfully tight against the restraints as Nick was lifted off his seat; the angled force told him Jarett had successfully altered their trajectory, but he could still feel their acceleration in his intestines as they pressed against his spine.
"30 seconds," Jarett grumbled over the intercom, barely audible through the rattling.
Nick jumped as Jacq's sweaty hand clamped down on his wrist. He forced his head to the right to see her other hand trying to crush the restraints over her shoulder. Her eyes made asterisks in her skin as they closed in on themselves, face glistening and hair frayed above where her head pressed against the back of her seat.
"10 seconds…" Jarett practically whispered through the speakers.
Nick tried to focus on breathing deeply, meditating, denial, anything he thought might point his reality in a staying-alive direction. Four innocent people were about to die, not including himself -- which he didn't. He'd always wondered why the lower classes didn't try and level the playing field sooner, and now he knew: when one lower class person wondered, they made everyone around them a target. He should have known better than to keep trying. At least the body count would be lower this time.
The engines roared and the temperature spiked as Jarett fired them beyond their maximum capacity.
Hep cringed at the screeching and rattling as the inner workings were turned to slag and ejected with the last of their C12.
The result was a noticeable evening-out of the g-force, and Nick almost felt like they were flying again. The first hit sent a jolt up his tailbone that may have taken a couple centimeters off his height, raining a dozen tiny glass chunks on them as thousands of cracks clouded the windows above. The cockpit rumbled as metal shrieked, the ship jerked and buckled, their momentum shifting laterally. What natural light made it through the fissured windows began to flicker as they hit something again and were thrown tumbling back into the air, dropping more little pieces of hardened glass to flicker and float in dizzying circles around the room.
Reality came and went in patches as they ricocheted off a few other surfaces and Nick lost all track of what was up and down. He did his best to keep his teeth together lest he shatter them against each other or bite off his own tongue.
They jerked harshly to the side behind him, and he just managed to shut his eyes and turn his head as the glass shards darted for the wall he was strapped to. He heard them smack the metal like bursting light bulbs, catching one right on the side of his chin. He grunted against the stinging spreading through his jaw as warm blood trickled around the small shard, still stuck in him.
They held in place long enough for Nick to realize they were right-side up, the loosened pieces of glass falling to the grating below before the ship slowly rolled onto its side with one final boom. Sweet steam with the murky tinge of burnt oil began to waft through the door directly opposite Nick, grey and black intertwining in their own breeze.
He dangled above the cockpit with his arms and legs out before him, save for his right hand, which Jacq still held like a vice. He reached up to pull the glass shard from his face. "So much for shatterproof," he grumbled, tossing the bloody bit into the grating below. The cut it left behind dripped slowly onto the back of the pilot's seat, beading before slipping down the side, drawing a red vein down the multifaceted surface. He grinned, though it made the wound sting -- He'd just fallen from the atmosphere, and he'd suffered worse injuries while shaving.
He looked to his right to find Jacq in the same condition she'd been in before landing -- eyes shut tight, and pale. "Hey." He tapped her on the shoulder with the back of the hand she held. "We're alive."
She blinked her eyes open while Leru -- seated opposite them -- got to her feet, and helped Jarett out of the pilot's seat. "That wasn't actually that scary," Jacq laughed. "I'd do it again, given the chance."
Nick smiled and nodded. "But now the problem is, how do we get off of the ceiling? Should be easy, relatively speaking."
Jacq stared at the four or so meters between them and the opposite side of the room, grip tightening on his wrist. "Right."
"Thoughts? Ideas?"
Jacq looked from the far wall to the pillar, to the still-folded seats beside her. "Uh…"
"I think you've got something here." Nick raised his right arm, and her hand along with it.
Her mouth fell open as she yanked her hand away. "Oh, yeah, I was- that was to…"
Nick offered her his open hand as she trailed off, waiting until she placed her hand in his. He took her wrist with his left hand, positioning her fingers so they wrapped around the edge of his palm -- she was slender as splinters, and what wasn't bone felt to be all skin. "You can get a better grip on a larger hand if you hook your fingers." He tapped the top of her hand where it poked out of his.
"Ok…" She flushed and looked back at the distant wall below them, where Leru now watched with the rest of the crew. "But we- EEP!"
Nick undid her five-point harness in a single motion, and she swung out in front of him with her hand firmly in his.
She stared at the ground, still two to three meters away as her breath came in panicked bursts.
"Hey-" Nick called to her just as another drop of blood fell from his chin, straight toward her head. He swatted it out of the air with his free hand, slapping it onto his jacket. The sound of the slap got her attention as he grabbed a wad of his shirt and pulled it to his chin.
"Don't drop me." Her eyes were twin moons in the orbit of her heart-shaped face, hair falling away from her slender cheeks.
"You're ok," he called over her panicked breathing as he dabbed at his chin. Directly below them was the angled surface of the pilot's seat. Below that and just a little to the right, Leru was finding a good foothold on the uneven surface that used to be the wall. "Do you know how to fall?"
Somehow, her eyes widened. "What? Why."
"Because you can't hang here forever." She was light enough he may have been able to hold her there for an hour or two, but he had a feeling if he told her that then that's exactly how long they'd be there. Instead, he recited the steps Leru had taught him long ago, as they practiced jumping from Perseveranc's catwalk into each other's arms.
Leru smiled as she found her footing, looked up to him, and nodded.
He looked back to Jacq, and nodded. "Go ahead and repeat that back to me."
Jacq swayed with the force of her craning neck as she looked around, but didn't answer.
He shook her gently. "Come on -- you've got the easy job."
She looked back up at him and swallowed. "Arms and legs crossed, teeth together, chin on chest…"
"And when I say 'go,' be sure and let go. Ready?"
"And if I do that, you're sure this'll work?"
"Yes, now quit stalling."
"You promise I'll be okay?"
Words froze in Nick's throat as he stared down at Jacq, mouth half open. He clenched his jaw as his brow began to knit together. "I promise. On three." He counted down, swinging Jacq towards Leru with each digit. On three they released, Nick holding on just enough to twist her in the air, sending her falling backwards into Leru's waiting arms.
"Good catch, and excellent form!" Jarett patted Jacq on the shoulder as Leru set her on her feet.
The child brushed them off as she wandered beneath the pilot's seat, but even Nick could see the grin between her burning cheeks.
He made his own way down in a similar fashion shortly after, holding onto the straps of the harness that had held Jacq and swinging himself down into Leru's arms.
She held him there, smirking as he uncrossed his limbs. "I thought you didn't make promises anymore?"
"That hardly seemed like a good time to explain..."
She kissed him as his feet returned to the ground, twisting as she stood him up to face her. "You didn't explain -- you changed." She embraced him, then took a step back.
It was Nick's turn to flush as he scratched his chest, stumbling awkwardly on the uneven, lumpy floor.
Jarett watched him with arms crossed and a lopsided brow. "That was adorable, Cap." He placed a hand over his heart. "I didn't know you were capable of personal growth."
"Oh, go eat your seat." Nick waved him off as he turned to the fractured windows that domed the side of the room.
"Damn right." Jarett knocked on the pillar above him. "My seat."
Nick kicked at one of the membranes that had been sandwiched between the glass panes, loosening more of the little chunks as it burst outward. It fell less than a meter onto large grains of yellow-orange sand, leaving an opening big enough to jump through. He landed with a thud, catching the barest glimpse of a shadow on the ground in front of him before being bludgeoned across the side of the head.