#forced to watch whumptrope

[whumpapalooza]

@whumpcember '24 - Dec. 12

Prompt: "I have nowhere else to go"

COSMIC SERVICE INTERNSHIP - AEGIS

Blare had worked her ass off to get where she was. Being at the helm of Aegis was an honor and a joy. But sometimes, it sucked.

She watched four blips on the radar move achingly slow across the map. Her crew was on the planet below, navigating an icy wasteland, and she couldn’t get to them. She couldn’t clear a path for them. All she could do was urge them on and keep them updated from her safe position in orbit.

“This route isn’t going to work,” she said over comms.

“We’ve already gone in the crevice,” Slipper pointed out. “We would have to leave to pick another path.”

“What are you seeing, Blare?” Glen added.

“Updrafts are surging faster than we thought,” Blare said. “Hail is coming down hard.”

“Yes, thank you,” Tabby snarked in reply. “We hadn’t noticed.”

Brando’s voice cut in suddenly. “Fuck in a void!”

Tabby huffed. “Brando, that’s why you’re supposed to wear goggles!”

“Guys, I can’t pick you out of there with a tractor beam and I think an avalanche is imminent,” Blare insisted. “You need to get out of there.”

“And go where?” Brando demanded. “There’s nowhere else to go!”

“Would you stop fucking shouting? She just said there’s an avalanche on the way.”

“Blare, can you –“

And that’s when the comms cut out.

“Oh, no. No, damn it, no.” Blare tried to reestablish connection. She called each of her crewmates individually, and tried Aegis’s comm. But she couldn’t reach them.

Four blips on the radar stopped moving. Blare couldn’t get to her crew. She couldn’t know if they’d stopped for shelter or if they’d been caught in a disaster.

Being at the helm of Aegis was an honor. But sometimes, Blare thought helplessly, it sucked.