She opened her eyes, but saw nothing. Was she blind? She tried to remember, but her thoughts were clouded. She raised her hand from her side and held it in front of her face. Yes, she could make out the faint outlines of her wriggling fingers. She sighed in relief.
A brilliant light flared suddenly to life nearby. It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the long-absent illumination, but she eventually discerned an old woman holding a smoking taper beside a small oil lamp atop a dresser on the opposite wall of the rock-hewn chamber. The old woman approached.
"I am relieved to see you finally awake," said the old woman in a kindly voice. "Can you remember your name?"
"Y-- Yes. I am Lieutenant Josephine Schmidt of Banshee Squadron."
The old woman smiled with relief. "Good, then the poison has not damaged your memory."
Jo struggled to sit up on the cot on which she lay, but quickly realized how weak she was. Her arm gave way and she flopped back to the thin mattress. "What happened? Why do I feel so weak? How long have I been here?" she asked. "Where are the others? Are they all right? And who are you?"
The old woman's smile grew wider. "I see your curiosity is as strong as ever, despite your physical weakness. To answer your questions, I am Ereshkigal. Some of the citizens here look to me for guidance and leadership. As for what happened to you, you are indeed a very lucky girl. Vile creatures known as Aqrabu attacked you just inside the underground entrance and would have killed you, but a passing hunting party intervened, fought off the beasts, and brought you to me. I removed as much of the Aqrabu poison as I could, but you have been unconscious for two days."
"And my friends? Where are--" began Jo, but her vocal exertions sent her into a fit of coughing.
Ereshkigal stepped over to the dresser and returned with a wooden cup filled with water, but when she turned to face Jo again, her smile was gone, replaced by lines of pain and grief mixed with trepidation. "I am afraid that I am the bearer of very bad tidings," she said heavily. "Your friends were not as fortunate as you during the Aqrabu attack." She paused a moment to give Jo time to brace herself. "They fought bravely against the Aqrabu, but in the end..."
"No! I don't believe it!" said Jo as forcefully as her condition allowed. She struggled to sit up again, but the old woman placed a restraining hand on her shoulder.
The lines of pain on Ereshkigal's face deepened. "It grieves me to have to tell you this, but your friends are dead. There was nothing I could do."
"No, no!" repeated Jo desperately. "They can't be dead! I don't believe you! You're lying!" she shouted, then lapsed into another long fit of coughing. Ereshkigal waited patiently for Jo to recover. When the coughing finally subsided, Jo was no longer hysterical. She sagged back against the chamber's rock wall, her face drained of vitality, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Are they truly gone?" she whispered forlornly, her eyes silently begging the old woman to tell her that this was all some kind of horrible joke.
But that was something Ereshkigal could not do. Instead, she placed a comforting hand on Jo's forearm. "I am truly sorry, Josephine Schmidt. I wish there was something I could have done to save your companions, but you are the last of your group. You must be strong."
Jo sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I want to see their bodies," she said.
Ereshkigal shook her head sadly. "There is nothing left after an Aqrabu attack," was her grim reply. "Besides, you must rest and regain your strength."
Jo exhaled in a great ragged sigh and closed her eyes for a few moments. She felt utterly spent; the terrible news had leached away all her volition. In her innermost being, she still couldn't accept what the old woman had told her; all her friends dead? Lee, Sam, Max, and Alex. Even Captain Cross and the kid-genius Dexter. All dead. Eaten by some sort of horrible monsters. Only she was still alive. Why? Why her? This entire nightmare had started as a simple space survey mission. How could events have degenerated to quickly and completely that she now found herself the sole survivor of her entire squadron, stranded on a benighted planet on the other side of the known universe with no way of getting home? It was too much for her mind to accept; her injured psyche would not allow it.
She opened her eyes again and saw the old woman still sitting by her bedside watching her. Whatever else may have happened, Jo owed her a debt of gratitude at least. "Thank you for saving my life," Jo said. "I don't know how I can ever repay you."
The old woman smiled, and for a fleeting moment, Jo thought she could see a hint of something lurking behind the carefully constructed facade of sympathy and compassion in her eyes; something sinister. In less than a heartbeat it was gone however, and Jo couldn't tell if she had actually seen it or just imagined it. Ereshkigal smiled and said, "I am sure I will be able to think of some way you can repay me."
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