OOC: Hopefully this will serve as some sort of ending for this chapter, later episodes may be posted...they might not; it's been a busy six months. I apologise for the lateness, but the reports of my death have been greatly exagerated...mostly exagerated...somewhat exagerated.

Epilogue: nightmares.

Kiana knew immediately something was wrong as soon as she left her quarters. Emmergency power was online and the cool gentle bathing light of the Aurora's standard operating mode had been replaced by the harsh red glow stigma of Red Mode; power must have been lost; the ship couldn't have been attacked she would have been woken up by the ships alarms and there was no sign of an infection; all doors were still operational to the best of her knowledge. She looked to each side and saw nothing in the darkness.

The Lantean Officer slowly backed back into her quarters and sighed a breath of relief as the doors closed in front of her soundly and with a further flick of the wrist she activated the ships internal com-link system.

"This is Second Captain Kiana to the bridge, I repeat this is Kiana, Commander of the Air Group to the bridge can you hear me?" No reply.

Now she began to worry.

She gracefully moved to her desk through the dim red light and with a vulture like claw snatched up her uniforms communicator and pressed it.

"Verro, Its Kiana...Verro...Verry are you there." The Second Captain sobbed into the communicator before finally losing what little control she had "Verro get off your lazy ass and get up!"

Sobbing was mixed with heavy breathing as she threw the small trinium device into the corner of her quarters. She stood there for what seemed like hours as she desperately tried to collect her tempest thoughts. Slowly she bent down and pulled the lower part of her uniform over her legs until the cream trousers covered all but her feet. Once again she bent down and reached under the metal mattress that was standard in all Lantean facilities and pulled out her boots and force pistol.

Without thinking she slipped the boots on and activated the force pistol with her mind. To her delight it glowed the familiar blue of Lantean technology which showed that it was working properly...finally something was.

She brought up all the courage that she could summon and walked out of her quarters once again. This time she didn't dare to look back in case the urge to run back into her quarters. Slowly she walked through the corridor, making sure to stay dead centre in case the ship had been boarded and a group of attackers were lying in wait to ambush survivors.

The ship was cold and her footsteps were light on the ground; not a completely good sign when one considered that artificial gravity and life support were in one subroutine. Something was definitely wrong. She found the corridors control panel and waved her hand over it. She found only horror on the other side.

The corridor had been warped and the plasma conduits were leaking out onto the very deck and the floor was covered by a sickly green liquid but that was not the worst thing; the ship had been ripped in half! The ships emergency power kept the atmosphere from leaking out into the emptiness of dark space but she could clearly make out the constellation of Echthelion on the other side of the force field. She put her hand on the force field and allowed herself a faint smile as the ships energy flowed down her hand; a warning to her to not press any harder.

Suddenly the door behind her slammed shut before Kiana could even move. Like a lion she ran from the edge of the ship towards the door. Trying everything she could, standard waving, unlocking she even resorted to hitting the controls she settled with hitting the (now red) crystal with all the might that she could conjure but even then it would not open.

"Open, you infernal machine!" Kiana exclaimed as she pulled out her force pistol from the brown synthetic leather holster that hung on her hip. She rubbed her thumb up the force pistols curved handle. Her heavy breathing almost drowned out the high weapons high pitched buzzing; a sign that an overload was imminent. She fired the pistol and watched as the blue energy discharge drained into the wall and further through into the ships systems, She bit her bottom lip as instead of changing mode the doors crystal simply died.

System after system died, lights, ventilation, artificial gravity and her heart only raced faster as she heard a low pitched buzz that only signalled the collapse of the shield. Time slowed to a standstill and her heart slowed down to a painful halt as the shield gave way and the compartment in which she floated was exposed to the vacuum.

Nothing.

"I'm alive!" The air didn't rush out of the room. Kiana wasn't killed by imploding cells caused by frozen liquids or by the loss of oxygen. Though she still floated in mid air, was cold and was bathed in darkness she was still alive. "I'm alive..."

She turned around, pushed off the wall and floated over to the edge of the abyss; just managing to stop herself before she fell out of the ship. The feeling of the vicinity around the cold vacuum of space against her hands naked skin was not unlike that of what it felt like to touch wraith flesh, cold and sickly. She pushed her hand forward another inch.

Suddenly the blackness of space wrapped itself around her arm. Kiana tried to struggle against the blackness but it wouldn't release its grasp. With her free hand she tried to grab onto anything in the corridor but she couldn't grasp anything. She was dragged outside.

....

Kiana pulled her eyes open faster than a lightning flash. Her hair was wet with the sweat of fear and she was still out of breath, even as she pulled herself up. Her hand was like a hammer as it hit the light button that was common on bedside cabinets. Now that her quarters were lit up she could see that some of her silk pillow was wet as well. Her hand found itself gliding towards her communication pendant...the same one that she had thrown in her nightmare. She tapped it gently.

"Verro, Verro are you awake?" She spoke softly into the small metal device. On the other end she could hear sheets rustling a horse like cough.

"Kiana its two in the morning and I've got a shift in three hours. Did you crash the ship again?"

"Eurrgh...Verro I had that dream again. You know the one that I've had every night since the survivors were evacuated from that Ancient Alteran ship?"

"The one where you get dragged into space by a black hand? The one that's kept you up for three weeks? Yes I believe there is a page about it in the Atlantis archives. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Talk to me." She pleaded.

"No, go back to sleep Kiana." He replied over the comm. Link to a fully awake Kiana. She settled back into bed but before she could grab a pad to read she was surprised by Verro's voice.

"Mess hall Epsilon; ten minutes."