The BLTS Archive - After The Expanse
by Lady Ithilrien (lady_ithilrien@yahoo.co.uk)

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Archived to EntSTSlash on 6/3/2003.  Archived at EntSTCommunity with
the author's express permission.  

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It was over.

Malcolm lay deathly still on the floor, listening to his heart beat
and his breath rattle in his badly wounded chest, feeling his blood
pumping from the freshly ripped wounds in his body, and watching
Trip's face a few feet away. He had no way of knowing how badly the
engineer was injured, but from the growing red stain in the floor
around him and from the blank look in his beautiful blue eyes, Malcolm
knew that death was not far off.

It was almost eerie to Malcolm, being there as a victim. He had
learned to accept the fact that not everyone would survive from this
journey. One day it would be over. He just had not expected it to be
over so soon. How many times he had escaped from death's grasp. How
many lives he had destroyed in order to save his own people. But this
time there was no escape. He and Trip had become victims of the war.

He saw dark shadows dancing at the edges of his vision, and knew that
he didn't have much consciousness left in him. He pulled what little
strength he had left in himself and pushed it all into his arms,
determined to comfort Trip at their last moments.

Moving his right arm slowly across the floor, he pushed himself just
a few inches forward with his left, and reached out. His eyesight
growing darker with every second that passed, he searched the floor
with his fingertips until they found what he was struggling for. As
his fingers found the warmth of Trip's and wrapped themselves around
the older man's hand, the darkness overtook Malcolm, and his eyes fell
shut.

And then there was only silence.

The battle was over.

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The End