Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / 1130

Terra sighed as she looked around the barricades. Some of the deckhands were finishing setting up a reader for the sensor towers, and with that, it was done. This place wasn’t a real base, but at least with this, it was better than a crash site. So far they had been attacked by creatures twice, and both times the attackers had left on their own!

The idea that both of them could think at a sapient level was something she wouldn’t have believed. She had seen a heard about a lot of strange things in her time. This plant seemed to be the strangest place that she had never heard of. It had only been two days, but it seemed like months. And part of that had to be fear of the unknown, but they could handle this, at least she hoped.

“Ma’am?” A voice behind her caused her to turn her head. Standing there was one of the deckhands who had been working on the sensor tower unit, a strange look on his face.

“Yes?” Terra asked and the deckhand looked down at a hand unit, a frown on his face.

“It’s the solar collectors on the towers…. They’re working good, better than they should,” The deckhand said as he looked down at his handheld unit.

Terra looked at him, a frown forming on her face. She looked at him and tried to figure out why he said what he did when the meaning hit him.

“How much better and how are the batteries handling it?” Terra asked and the deckhand looked at her before shaking his head.

“The ‘We’re in a desert at high noon’, kind of good. I don’t understand half of these readings. And the batteries are fine, we’ll just have to run the lights all the time,” The deckhand said and Terra felt a headache form behind her eyes.

“Great, just great,” Terra muttered as she turned her head and looked at the sensor towers. Leaving them on would attract wildlife here, she just knew it. But if the batteries were overfed they would explode, and that would be even worse for them. No matter what, Terra couldn’t think of anything to do that could change this situation, all but one thing. She looked at the towers, trying to think of something else before she sighed and looked at the deckhand.

The deckhand looked at her, a frown below his red eyes. He had the tanned skin of a desert worlder and the white hair to match, in the long messy style she had seen a few times.

“Okay, your name?” Terra asked and the man saluted her.

“Bob ma’am. Third class in the Security division’s mechanics,” Bob said and Terra nodded.

“How long until an overload in all of them?” Terra asked and Bob looked at his handheld unit and sighed before he shook his head.

“If I’m reading this right…… about five hours. We could run some cables to the capsule, maybe turn off the generators….. even then we might cause an overload. We need something else to draw power from them, that’s the only way to stabilize them,” Bob said and Terra sighed

Turning to look at the forest, for a moment she thought she saw a flash of black. She looked at where it might have been, calling on a stain of nanites in her eyes but found nothing. Cursing her nerves, she looked at Bob.

“Keep an eye on those readings, if it gets worse tell me. I’ll go and see what Chief Duncan wants to do. And pull everyone back to the behind the towers, let’s not get in their way.,” Tara said and Bob

As he turned and started to call out to other deckhands, Terra turned and looked at the forest around them. Ever since she had looked over that flash of chitin, she had expected them to attack any moment. The only thing that made her feel calmer was that the sensor towers. Once they were set up, anything the size of the lizard things would be seen before they attacked. But now she had to deal with this!

For a moment, she wondered if something was acting against them, how else would this happen. But then she frowned and looked at her hands, a sick feeling going through her. On any desert planet, she would have been red and pealing with how long she was outside, and it would be hotter. But her hand was normal and the breeze was nice and cool. She swallowed and looked up at the sky, noting the sun reaching the top of the sky.

As she looked up, a thousand thoughts went through her head, some of them died and others grew. All she could tell was that this planet, this island was unlike anything that she had ever heard of. No rumors in the Spacer’s Guild about the Void even came close to the reality she found herself in.

With one last look above, Terra turned and walked towards the escape capsule. If anyone could be able to make sense of this, maybe Duncan would.

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Jones looked up at the sky, his mouth moving silently as he mumbled the Order’s teachings. He was trying to remember something. The passage with ‘The Land of Deliverance’ was something he had only seen once. It had been on a scroll he had found while helping to repair damage from a fire. The scroll had been damaged, but he had been allowed to study it. Stopping for a moment, he looked up at the sky and smiled. The old captain had always taught Jones everything about the faith. For a moment he wondered if the old man knew that Jones needed to know what was on that scroll.

But the old man’s efforts were for nothing. He hadn’t been allowed to get nanites until days before he left to spread the word. And that meant that he didn’t have a recording of the scroll. So he was bound by his natural memory, trying to remember anything that might help him show the way. Jones felt a rush of anger well up as he realized that no matter what he tried, he just couldn’t remember anything!

But then he went still as a stray thought went through his head. He had absently thought that maybe this was part of the prophecy. He remembered the word ‘Unknowingly’ had been among the scraps he could read. If it was talking about him, then his efforts to try and remember it was a fool's quest! He would remember them when it was their time, and not before.

How could he have forgotten that fact? How could he have grown so arrogant that he thought he could change the fate the founder saw!? He almost bashed his head against the side of the crater, but when he turned towards it, he saw stones fall down the side. In moments Terra had made it to the bottom, and without missing a step walked towards the airlock. As soon as he ssaw her, he felt something was wrong with how her face looked.

Before Jones could even open his mouth Terra spoke. “Keep the watch, Jones. If anything makes it by us up there, you’re the last hope.”

He stared at her, his mouth dropped open in shock. She nodded and walked into the airlock, moving into the capsule before he could even say anything.

He stared at the airlock, his mouth finally closing as he felt a spark of anger. This was why he hated the unenlightened, they were so abrupt! She just flew past him, not stopping to even talk to him. He just shook his head, turned around, and started to walk again. He might not like his job but he would do his mission, that was his creed. But nothing in that said he had to not insult her in his head, did it? As he walked he imagined calling her everything he was thinking of, and a goofy smile formed on his face.

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Duncan sighed as he looked at the readings from the sensor towers in his ‘office’. So far they saw everything around the crater, and they saw nothing. But he just hoped that they would see something before whatever was out there attacked again. He was sure it would happen, but when he wasn’t sure. From the worms that attacked on the first day, to the lizard things to the flyer, it painted a terrible picture.

He had to hope that the party he sent out made it to their goal. Their goal had to be in good enough shape to help them. Even if they could only make a few things there, they could still use it as a base. The basic way to survive was to find shelter and food. They had food and a better shelter was the priority as he saw things. And with the creatures this place had, that was a tall order to be sure.

And with his injury, he couldn’t exactly lead the charge. But thankfully he had learned to delegate, and the Yard-Ship was the perfect base. If it was even halfway operational, then by the Void they could weather anything! He knew enough about military history to know the tactical ability Yard-Ships represented. Even if it wasn’t working at all, they could still use it as a base if they could get it partially operational. And if not, they could create a barricade there to make it secure.

He had to hope that the Captain was still alive, and if not her then the third officer. Anyone who could take over for him, let him hand over the command. He was doing okay, but he had enough of being in charge for a long time, it was why he was taking a vacation for a few years. After too long, this gig just started to get to you.

The sound of the door opening caused him to turn and see Terra walk in, a slightly worried look on her face. Duncan expected her to come to see him once the towers were all in place, but her look told him all he needed to know. If he had ever learned anything about reading people, then she was here because there was a problem.

He just looked at her before he sighed and dropped his head into his hands. “What’s wrong now? Did the trees at the edge reveal to be able to move and want to kill us for their dead? Did the bat thing come back and dance the macaroni? No wait, don’t tell me.”

“The solar collectors on the towers are working as if we’re in a desert,” Terra said and Duncan blinked.

He looked at her, a strange feeling going through him. He just stared at her, for a few moments he wondered if his ears were working right. Then he thought about what that meant, how much trouble that would bring them. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to think how this would impact their survival. The problem wasn’t the charge, it was storing the power. If they could bleed away some of it, then there would be nothing wrong. It wasn’t like they had anything on hand to power that could handle the load…. Or did they?

A moment later the door behind Terra opened, revealing Jesiie poking his head in. “Boss, get this! We’ve got twelve laser towers, military-grade at that!”

At this declaration, all Duncan could do was blink as he looked at Jessie’s grinning face. For a few moments, he just stared, trying to understand just what he had heard. Then he realized what he heard, and started to grin. Laser towers were something invented to protect bases and complexes on wild planets. And military level had ground-type unity shield generators. And they were best used on worlds closer to the sun or……desert worlds.

“Hello power drain! And the shield will be just what we need!” Duncan said with a laugh.

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Terra sighed as she looked at Jessie as he finished setting up the first laser tower. Duncan had let her decide where they would start to set the laser up. She had decided to have the first face where she thought she had seen something. At least with this, her nerves would calm down a little. So she had grabbed Bob, three guards and kept the others at the barricade

The laser towers were five feet tall and two feet wide. They were supposed to be top technology, but if it would be effective, that was something else. This place had already challenged so much of what she thought was true. Something like the bugs having shells to keep the laser from killing them would be par for the course.

“You know, Al would have finished this in minutes,” Bob said softly as he leaned away from the laser tower.

Terra felt a laugh bubbling up from within her chest and barely forced it down as she smiled. Al was someone that most of the deckhands who had been bunking in the same section knew by sight. He was always working on something on his holo terminal. And to add to his mystery, he always did it when his back to the wall. Adding to it he never sat where one of the cameras in the common area could see what he was working on.

But as she thought about it, an old question came from the darkness of her mind. There were a few people who followed the same religion as he did from the few tattoos he had, but he always prayed alone. Last she checked, it was their unity that was a key feature of it. There were a few ‘flavors’ of it that saw lone ingenuity as a key instead, but he didn’t seem like one of them. The few times she had heard him, he talked about the same mainstream tenants of the main religion. All in all, he was a mystery, just like his friend.

“Yeah, and Jinn would have cut the trees down with one slash!” One of the guards said and Terra felt a headache form behind her eyes.

Duncan had told everyone who saw what Jinn could do to keep it from the passengers, and so far it had worked. She understood the order, don’t get them worked up until they are in a better location. Still, she had to wonder how he and Sara had gained their abilities. She had only heard of something like that in old legends back home. If it was like the legends, she hoped it ended in a positive manor at least.

But if she was thinking about Al, she had to think about Jinn. He was the opposite of Al, who had eyes that ignored everything, Jinn seemed to be watching everything. Adding to his mystery, he didn’t know things about the general interplanetary culture. The excuse that he those who wanted to ignore the greater galaxy made some sense. But she actually wondered how that was possible in this era had to be asked. And the way he was so ignorant, she would never think that he and Al could ever be friends, but they were to her surprise.

A cry from the forest caused Terra and the other deckhands to look, seeing a small green bird flying from a tree. Looking at the trees, Terra saw more of the birds take flight and started to get a terrible feeling. At least on her homeworld, birds would only cry out when they took flight if something startled them.

“Bob,” Terra asked with an urgent tone of voice.

Bob heard it and noticed how she said what she did. That was enough to cause him to swallow as he turned back towards the tower, moving his hands faster. As he finished setting up the last few connectors, he swallowed. “Yeah, boss?”

“Are you almost done?” Terra asked softly as she looked towards the forest. From what she knew, the towers could fire a much more deadly beam than their handhelds. If that was true, then they would deal an attack them much easier than the deckhands could. And if the insectoids attacked, they would die fast if the deckhands were lucky.

“Just finished boss, I think I’ll go work on the one on the other side of the crater,” Bob said as he slowly got up.

“Yeah, everyone move back towards the crater, slowly. Don’t act like there’s anything wrong, just move slowly. That’s an order!” Terra said as she looked at the forest. As she slowly moved backwards, she kept her eyes locked on the trees, trying to see if there was anything on them.

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Within the woods, the watcher growled at one of the ten others it had led back here. It hadn’t sent it into the trees and the climber had scared off a tiny flyer. That was the last thing they needed! If the small big ones came out here, the death cries when they killed would alert the others. A single misstep at this stage and the attack would fail.

As the climber glared right back at it, it released a scent of challenge. The watcher insectoid ignored it, growling a little as it gestured at the clearing. The other insectoid glared back, released another challenge scent. When the watcher ignored it, it sent another claw into the tree, using it to pull itself higher up.

As the two insectoid glared at each other, the others behind them kept their eyes on the prey.

When the group had reached the clearing, they saw the meat doing something outside their den. Sometimes the prey would try and create traps to protect themselves, but this wasn’t like that. The insectoids all wanted to be the one to lead the charge, to have the chance to be granted the right to evolve. But these things weren’t like their smaller cousins, they couldn’t be.