It took Tahlia far longer to calm herself than she had hoped for, slowly uncurling herself from the ball she’d managed to wrap herself up in, wincing a little as she untangled herself. She had to find a way out of this. She had to analyse that data she’d collected. She’d felt so good about this job going into it and she couldn’t let those 36 deaths be in vain. Taking a deep breath, she rubbed her eyes, trying to force the tears to stop. Taking a deep breath, she got to work.<br/><br/>The pod didn’t move, nor did any of its tools. Instead she was encrypting a message and triggering certain emergency procedures that would allow anything with a Geminese Naval signature to pick up the signal, and nothing else. Very few people outside the various governments and ITC knew that they’d perfected this technique, but Tahlia understood the reasons for its secrecy. And even though it would take a good hour or more of her precious 12 hours of air, it should be enough. An hour for the signal to reach the colony. She hesitated, doing the math in her head. She’d been in the pod two hours when the attack happened. Wasted a half hour getting her mind under control. Another hour and a half to finish her alterations to send the distress signal. That would leave only six hours for them to reach her, assuming they had to send a ship from the colony. It was cutting it close, but it could work.<br/><br/>Half an hour later, hands still shaking, she noticed a shuttle getting closer. She froze, staring at it though she knew they couldn’t see her inside of it.<i>please don’t shoot me. Please don’t shoot me…</i>she thought to herself, barely breathing as she watched for some kind of reaction.<br/><i><br/>
"ITC pod, this is Peter McCandless of the GMS Manticore, we witnessed your ship's destruction and are here to render aid. Please respond."</i><br/><br/>A sob of relief escaped her, as she dove for the coms controls, pulling her own work away from it, no longer necessary. She had to fix some of the wiring before she could reply, hoping that he wouldn’t think she was just an empty craft and leave, rushing so bad that she was worried she’d screw something up. “Oh god oh god oh god….” she gasped out, an old colloquialism from pre-space earth that had stuck around long into the future. “You’re not… I thought there might have been two…. You’re not with them…” she was so filled with relief that she was shaking, barely able to form coherent sentences. “Sorry… sorry… just relieved…” she managed to get out, taking several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. “This is Tahlia Faye of ITC.” she didn’t bother with her employee codes, in this instance it didn’t matter. “Please… I saw you searching the debris… did anyone…. Am I…” it was a struggle to even finish the sentence out loud. “Am… I the only one left.”