Title: Snowblind
Author: Anna McLain
Rating: G
Spoilers: None
Archive: Yes, but please tell me first.
Feedback: Pretty please? I love constructive criticism, so don't be afraid to be truthful and detailed. Sgmiii@aol.com
Disclaimer: All characters and situations included in this story belong to Tribune Entertainment and the venerable Majel Roddenberry.
NOTE: This has not been beta read. This is my first foray into the universe of Andromeda. Let me know if I got it right. Thank you for your time!
The icy cold gnawed at her body like feasting rats. Where she wasn't numb there was pain, overwhelming pain that made her head swim. Near tears, she stumbled through the blinding snow, searching for the building she had left what felt like moments before. Oh, why did she have to be so emotional? Why did she have to run out of the conference like an emotional child? And why did Harper have to make such cutting remarks? She hated that, particularly when they were true. Trance stumbled, fell face first into a powdery drift. The snowflakes swirled up and around her, nearly burying her body when they settled again like falling leaves. She sobbed. Despair howled inside her.
Then she had a thought. She sat up and with numb fingers, she fumbled through the pocket of her formfitting violet outfit. Ah, there it was! She knew she had one. She pulled out a tiny coin, the one the Volarian ambassador had given her for luck. She laid it flat on her open palm and stared at it, concentrating. After a moment, it began to spin, faster and faster.
A few moments later, it gave off a spark, then another, then flashed into a blinding blue light. She grinned, dropping the coin that whirled fast enough to create heat, onto the ground. It burrowed through the snow, melting it until it came to rest a foot down on a small flat rock.
Trance carefully lifted the rock, cupping the heat toward her body with one palm. Warmth swirled around her on the breeze until she stood chilled but warmer, in a pocket of slightly warm air safe from the blizzard. The sharp edges of pain slowly started to fade. She giggled with relief. She'd almost forgotten the trick her Grandfather had taught her. 'An easy way to light a fire,' he had said when she was five.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"Trance!" Harper's voice sliced through the howling wind. "Trance! Come-on babe! I'm sorry already! Come back!"
Trance grinned and set her light down on the ground.
Suddenly, Harper appeared out of the white wall around her.
"You found me!" she cried and threw her arms and long tail around him.
He shrugged, returning the embrace. "Wasn't hard, what with that searchlight ya got." He peered down at the tiny ball of brilliance. "Say, where'd ya get that any-" She shivered. "I'm freezing to death, Harper."
"What? Right. Here, take my coat, well part of it. You're small. We can both fit." He held open the Volarian fur coat, obviously about five sizes too big for the diminutive man.
She slipped one arm in a sleeve and wrapped the other around his waist inside the coat. He did the same and pulled it closed around them.
"This way," he said, holding up a rope tied to his waistband. "Didn't want to become a Harper-pop, y'know?"
She smiled, still shivering as the icy wind nipped at her legs. Together they slipped and stumbled back to the nondescript building that housed the Ambassador, his delegation and the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant. Once inside the door, they clung together, reluctant to give up contact to the open air. Harper broke the silence. "We should...y'know...get you to a doctor. You gotta have frostbite on your...tail or something."
She smiled her face close to his. "It wasn't all that cold."
Confusion infused his face. She leaned close and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you. You're one of my best friends." With that, she slipped out of the coat and bounded through the door and down the long hallway toward the sounds of distant arguing.
He gave her retreating form a quizzical look. "Isn't that what you tell your plants?"
To Anna McLain's Fan Fiction
Home