Date point: 4y 11m 0w 3d AV
Frank Clark sat in his pilot’s chair with a wide grin on his face. It was his shift to pilot, and the driver got control of the radio and air conditioning, or in this case Frank had control of the gravity power on the flight deck, which was set at a light .5G’s. Frank’s shift was also almost at an end which was why he was smiling so broadly. He was excited to get back to his bed.
Ordinarily Frank’s only escape from the regular 1G gravity was when he was in his quarters; a small 6×8 room with a bed, small dresser and some room under his bunk to store his bag. He kept the room at 68 degrees and .3G’s. Hardly the luxury suite, but not bad considering he’d expected to be bunking with someone.
They each had their own room, with extra rooms to spare actually, four more rooms to be exact. These evidently were made for the four officers of the missing ships, should they be found. The rest of the survivors would make do with the cargo bay it seemed.
Small personal touches had been added to each of their rooms, for instance Robert had a work bench and a space for small tools, even though he had a fully stocked tool set and work-shop near the super-capacitors at the back of the ship.
Frank’s personal touch was a small library.
Professor Ericson had evidently guessed that Frank hadn’t been keeping up with the internet on all the different alien species in the galaxy, and had tried to make it so Frank could rectify that.
Indeed, he spent most of his time reading about the different life forms they might encounter, reading a book that had apparently been created by actual human abductees.
Other books that he read dealt with things that didn’t always really make sense to him, but he’d been given homework to understand it, by all three of his comrades.
Robert wanted him to learn about the WiTChES system and how to do regular maintenance on it and the life support, as well as basic electronic repair on other systems. Ted wanted Frank to learn about how to use the Mass Spectrometer that was in the small lab Ted had been assigned. Ted said that he’d need Frank to be able to test samples if he was unavailable or asleep. Lastly, Jason wanted him to study dog fighting maneuvers, mainly how to break from contact and also how to get behind an opponent. He didn’t think he’d have to do any of these, seeing as Jason would take over in the event of an emergency like that, but he did as he was told.
“Time for homework, Old Man.”
Jason had just walked onto the deck through the open door, yawning and wobbling slightly as he felt the difference in gravity.
“Jesus, I don’t know how you’re comfortable in gravity like this. It feels like I might float away.”
“Old bones, kid. Old bones. They feel stronger in the lighter gravity.”
Frank walked down the length of the cramped corridor, passing rooms of various uses on either side. Coming to his room, he stepped inside, sighing appreciatively at the lower gravity compared to the hallway.
Sitting on his bunk, he looked at his dresser, holding his small collection of books on top of it. It had been arranged for him before he’d set foot on the ship, even going so far as to place the books he’d brought from home. Looking at his copy of Moby Dick, noting that it was much smaller than any of the large text books that he’d been reading usually, he figured he’d take a break from homework and read a few chapters.
Grabbing the tiny volume, Frank opened it to the first page and was surprised to see what looked like a post-it note fall out of it onto the floor.
Bending to pick it up, he saw that it had a cramped scrawl on it, with handwriting that he didn’t recognize.
“Frank, behind the dresser, third panel up, two left from the corner. Under the bed, center panel. Push panel.”
After reading the note several times, Frank again stared at his dresser. Standing, he pressed his head against the wall to look behind it.
Making the decision to do as the note said, Frank pushed to dresser out of the way, exposing the wall behind it. It looked entirely unremarkable.
A sense of foreboding brewing, he bent down and, still holding the note, he placed his hand on the panel the note described, then pressed on it.
A false front popped down, revealing the shotgun he’d been forced to bring by the handler at his house, along with all the ammunition he’d brought for it. Looking quickly at his door, making sure he’d closed it, he hurriedly put the face plate of the hidden compartment back on, then moved the dresser back to where it had been.
Frank leaned against the wall, a pit forming in his stomach. Neither of his weapons had seemed to make it onto the ship, at least upon first inspection of his belongings after first warping out of dry dock. He’d hoped that maybe they’d forgotten; that maybe Frank didn’t need to worry about possibly having to deal with someone who wanted to kill them.
Remembering that the note had specified a second panel, this one under his bed, Frank got onto his hands and knees.
There under his bed was another wall that looked entirely ordinary. Already knowing what he would find, he pressed on the center panel. Sure enough, the front fell away, exposing his 1911 pistol, several magazines which were now loaded when they hadn’t been before, ammunition and holster. Closing it back up, Frank stood and then retook his seat upon his bunk, pressing his face into his hands and feeling suddenly sick.
“What the fuck have I gotten myself into?”
Jason sat at the helm of the ship, bringing them ever closer to their second destination.
They’d been to one other place, a moon orbiting an unnamed gas giant. It was the last known location of two of the survey ships, which traveled together per standard operating procedures to make a harder target. After that stop they’d failed to check in at the three day mark, like they were supposed to.
There had been a certain novelty to being on the moon. Walking around, making fun of Frank, as he hopped slightly in the .1G’s and giggled to himself when he thought no one was looking. But, the trip seemed to have been pointless. They’d found the first two ship’s landing sites, a few holes from core samples, and that was it. No indication of where they could have gone from there. There were at least a dozen systems in the immediate galactic neighborhood, and they could have gone to any one of them.
The kid hadn’t picked up anything that sounded like a distress call or remote beacon, and couldn’t make heads or tails of where the Captain’s might have taken their ships next.
For all intents and purposes, the ships were simply gone.
Jason had been trying to think up ways he might go about tracking the ships, but had so far come up blank. The only thing for it was to try going to the last known location of the other two ships.
It wasn’t too far from the first stop, only about a day’s trip from where they were, so he’d taken the ship to the closest space lane that was headed that direction and set out.
Leaning back into his chair, he pondered on how comfortable the chair was. Indeed, most of the ship seemed to be of a certain fine quality. Though the construction may have been rushed, Byron had a good building crew, and the ship was a testament to that.
It was a pity the thing was so ugly.
Date point: 4y 11m 0w 4d
Robert was working on some basic life support maintenance, aided by an electronic blueprint and an overly detailed spec sheet, when he heard a peal of laughter farther forward of the ship. Standing and wiping dust and some grease from his hands onto his workpants he started forward through the cramped access hatch to investigate.
He came out into the mess area, essentially just a glorified metal picnic table, to find his three crewmates enjoying a rare shared meal together. It wasn’t often that hunger hit them at the same time, given that they were all working odd shifts, depending on the needs of the ship.
“Who’s flying the ship? Are we about to crash into a star?” asked Robert, though he knew the answer.
“Auto-pilot man. Aint nothin out here to hit that the auto-pilot can’t manage, and we got a few hours to kill before we get to the next planet.” said Jason, motioning for him to sit down.
“Frank here was just regaling us with some of his youthful stories. He just told us one of how he watched two drunken pastors fighting over who would get to preside over a certain Mrs. Evan’s ‘confession’.”
Ted said this with a smirk, as though there would’ve been no ‘confessing’ involved at all.
“Who won that by the way?” asked Jason.
“Oh, her husband won that one, once he heard what the brawl had been about.” laughed Frank.
“C’mon kid, you got any stories? We got time to kill.”
Awkwardly, Robert turned away from them.
“Not really. Only stories I’ve got would be from my last job and high school, neither of which were particularly pleasant.”
“Oh, c’mon kid,” said Ted, “I’m sure you’ve got at least one story for the group!”
“I said, no!” snapped Robert, suddenly angry.
“Whoa relax Robert, I didn’t mean anything by it.” Ted apologized. “You really have that hard a time of it?”
“NO…I mean…yes…look I just don’t enjoy thinking about it alright?”
“Alright kid, calm down.” rumbled Frank, sensing the need for the situation to be defused. “You don’t gotta tell us anything if you don’t want to. Long as you do your job, we can’t complain.”
“I…thanks.” Robert replied, somewhat taken aback at Frank’s words, and surprised with himself that he suddenly didn’t want to just be that guy who ‘did his job and got paid’ and never learned his coworker’s names.
In spite of saying he didn’t want to talk, he found himself sitting at the table and opening one of the military style MRE’s that were their main food supply.
Robert found himself asking, “So what kind of other stories do you have, Frank?”
“Oh, all kinds. When you get up there in years you look back and realize you’ve seen a lot of weird stuff, and not all of it good.”
“Such as?”
Frank mused for a moment.
“Saw a kid mugging this old black guy in Houston once. Real old too, must’ve been in his eighties. After he was done mugging him, he kicked the guy in the knee, just for good measure, right? Well, right after he does that, and the old guy goes down, ten kids come screaming out of some alleyway and jumps the mugger. All of ‘em must’ve been less than fifteen. They all surround the guy, kickin and screaming, with him on the ground, till the guy’s not movin no more. They take the old timers wallet back and help him up, dust him off and help him get to a police officer for help.”
“What’s weird about that story? Sounds like a normal helping of street justice to me.” remarked Ted.
“The weird part is, some of those same kids were on the news later that week. Couple of them broke into some rich couple’s house trying to rob it. Guy comes downstairs after hearing the window break, right? One of the kids shot him; right on his front room rug.” Frank shook his head. “Didn’t make no sense to me, how a kid could be so good one day, and so terrible the next.”
A chill shot through Robert. He’d seen a face flash through his memory. A face he’d tried to block out of his mind for two years now. He knew a person like that. Everybody had loved him, and hated Robert. But, that was only because he’d been popular and Robert hadn’t. The boy had made sure Robert’s life had been miserable, and that he didn’t have anyone close at school. He was the reason he’d worked so hard to graduate early. His tormentor had been a star student, helping in all the volunteer events, captain of the basketball team and becoming a state track star. He made straight A’s in any class he took and was on a first name basis with all of the teachers.
But it was only when Robert was around that he showed the kind of person he really was.
“You alright kid? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” asked Frank.
“What? Oh, I’m fine. Just…remembering something I’d rather not.” he found himself saying, despite his brain telling him to shut up.
“You can tell us kid. We’re crew mates; now that we’re all stuck in this tin can together. That means something.”
“I…I just had a really bad problem with bullying in high school is all. Your story reminded me of him.”
“Really? This guy shoot someone?”
“No, nothing like that…he just…he was really good at playing the good guy. But, whenever I was around, it was like he took all the bad that he’d bottled up and let it out on me. He made life a living hell for me.”
“Physically? Or emotionally?”
“Both.” Robert breathed.
In spite of himself, in spite of all that he’d done to forget about it, he was speaking to Frank about the person he’d hated more than any other. Frank just sat there, patiently, as though nothing would have made him happier than to listen to what he had to say. Robert saw that Frank wanted to hear what he had to say.
That’s when the flood gates opened.
“His name was Isaac Santos.”
Robert’s face flashed darker than all three of them thought it ever could have.
“He had everyone in the whole school so convinced that he was the perfect kid. But, he made sure that I always looked like an idiot, anytime I tried to make a friend. He’d become friends with anyone I spoke to and warned them to stay away from me. He’d intimidate people he couldn’t make friends with. Made sure no girl would come near me.”
His hands were gripping the lip of the table. Jason noted that his knuckles had gone white.
“Him and his buddies would gang up on me, anytime they caught me alone. I’ve had my ass kicked more times than I could tell you. They got good at making the bruises not show.”
“None of the staff did anything to help?”
“Help me? He was the golden boy! Anything I’d done to piss him off meant I deserved what I got.”
There were now tears in his eyes. All three men sitting there were thinking that Robert had probably never told anyone about this; had probably never had anyone to tell it to.
“So I fought back. I was too awkward to do it with words, so I learned to fight. I spent every second of spare time at a fight gym I spent an hour walking to every day. I went every day for years, but it didn’t make a difference. It didn’t matter if I knew how to fight if he had three guys to hold me down.”
“Why the hell would he do all that?”
“Any time I tried to ask him, it just made the beating worse.”
The tears suddenly stopped.
“I fucking got him though.” he said, suddenly savage.
“I didn’t have friends to hold him down for me, but I had brains. I knew electronics, because the only friends I had were books; and knowledge is power. I made a stun gun using some old TV capacitors and copper wire to transform the voltage. I followed him home one day, waiting for my chance. He cut through an alley and I hit him with it. I didn’t stop punching him until I couldn’t lift my arms anymore.”
His breathing was ragged now; uneven and labored. His skin had gone a pale blotchy color.
“He never told anyone who did it. I still don’t know why. I should be in jail, even now. But, he never told anyone.” Robert gasped.
Silence rang around the room. Nobody spoke or moved; silent, except for his ragged breathing.
“Kid…Robert…you can’t let stuff like that bottle up inside of you. Take it from an old guy whose seen too many ‘tough guys’ refuse to talk about the things that haunted them. It’ll tear you apart from the inside out and leave you wishing you were dead.”
Jason cleared his throat, “I’d better be getting back to the flight deck.”
He excused himself.
Ted as well said, “I need to check on some samples we took from that moon.”
When he’d left, and only Frank and Robert remained at the table, they sat in silence. Several minutes passed, Frank watching Robert’s breathing slowly return to normal.
“Your turn.”
“Pardon?”
“I just told a story. Now it’s your turn.”
Letting out a sharp laugh, Frank smiled.
“Alright kid, ever heard about a drink called Soju?”
Ted followed his commander into the control room.
“Heavy shit, man. You think that kid’s stable?”
Ted looked seriously at the Captain as he asked the question.
“He’s stable. Don’t get me wrong, the kid’s totally fucked because of it. I doubt he’ll ever get over it, given the reaction we just saw, but he’s not gonna fly off the handle and shoot you with one of those toy T.A.S.E.R guns.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Just don’t come crying to me if you get hit with one.”
“Let me worry about that.”
As Ted departed, Jason looked out the front window of the ship and then at one of the many screens. Leaning over, Jason pressed the ship-wide intercom.
“We’re coming up on the next planet. Frank, I want you ready to go in the Megatron suit. We’re gonna take some core samples here, while me and Robert take a look around; you’re gonna need to set up the drill.”
A moment passed before he heard a reply of, “No problem. I’ll be waiting by the airlock.”
Releasing the intercom and staring at their destination, Jason had a thought.
“Computer, I’d like to record a message for Dr. Jennifer McAllister. I want you to send it the next time we check in.”
“Standing by to record message.”
“Dr.? It’s Nolan. There’s something I need you to do some background work on. It concerns one of my crew.”
Several minutes passed, and the planet had become large in the viewing window by the time Jason finished the message.
As they passed in close proximity of the planets moon, Jason pressed the intercom again, “Alright everyone, suit up. No EVA suits, it’s a temperate world. Computer says it’s a class ten. Be on guard for the local wildlife and predators.”
On a large outcropping of rocks, sitting on the barren moon, amphibious eyes tracked the movement of what looked like it might be a ship, reflecting a faint light from the system’s nearby star.
The ship he was sitting in was fast, made for only one occupant, with minimal weapons and shields; it was meant to follow prey so that the pilot could relay their location.
Looking from the small shimmer of light crossing his view, down to his sensor array, he saw that the object barely even registered as the size of a small rock. It would easily have been dismissed by even the most sensitive scans as just that, just another rock in space. But the actual object wasn’t that size; that much was clear. Something about it was messing with the sensors.
He watched as the ship descended upon the death world. Just like the others had. It went for the same spot as well, just north of the planets equator, near the edge of a large yellow area bordered by a rocky expanse.
Pressing a button on his console, he said, “Rylek, I’m going back to the city. I have a message for Captain Kingruta. I found another one of those human ships. This one is alone.”
Frank was whistling to the tune of hydraulic and pneumatic noises, his three inch thick, insulated copper-core, power cable trailing along behind him, going from the base of his exo-suit’s spine and leading to the capacitor banks in the ship. In his arms he was happily carrying three hundred pounds of steel drill, strolling alongside Ted, who had just pointed to where he wanted it set up, next to what looked like a bush with blue leaves and red squirrel tails sticking out of it.
“We’re going to be taking a core sample here, because the last team never relayed their findings about this world.”
“Whatever you say, Ted.”
Heaving the drill up, with the sound of hydraulics straining against the weight, though he never felt more than a light pressure in his hands, Frank kicked out the heavy metal tripod of the drill’s legs and sat it down on the ground. Staying true to the training he’d been doing for Ted, he quickly adjusted the legs so that they were level with the ground and the drill was at a perfect 90 degree angle from the surface.
“Thank you Frank, I can take it from here.” he said. “I’ll call you back when I’m done. Shouldn’t be more than an hour or so; we’re not drilling too deep.”
“Anything else need doing?”
Frank didn’t want to be free-loading while work was being done.
“Nah, not really. The Captain and the kid are out looking for clues of anything bad happening here, or a hint as to where they might have gone next. You can have a look if you like, but you’ll have to take off the suit.”
“I think I’ll do that, then.” he said, stomping heavily upon the rocky ground, back towards the ship.
“Hey kid!” yelled Jason. “You find something!?”
“I think so! C’mere!”
The kid had been running at a light jog over to Jason, so he figured he’d found something and had already started towards him.
When they met, standing alongside a gorge with an odd looking yellow river in it, Robert said, “I think that they may not have been the only group to land here. And I think we may not be the only people looking for them.”
Staring at the kid, Jason said, “Show me.”
“These footprints were made by someone wearing some kind of EVA suit.”
Jason and Robert stood near a patch of what passed for mud on this planet. It had an ugly yellowish tinge to it that didn’t sit right with him. It smelled…wrong. But, the mud wasn’t what he was looking at; it was the set of five footprints sunken into it that he was interested in.
“Look.” he said, pointing. “I can’t think of any alien species that has a footprint like that, and it sure isn’t human. This world is also a class ten. We’re totally fine here, but most other species would die just by breathing the air.”
It was true, the air, while usually fine, occasionally changed direction with the wind, and with it brought a disgusting smell that he associated with rotten eggs. The stench was powerful, and had threatened to overwhelm him several times. Any alien would have died of suffocation by now.
“Why the hell would any alien come here? This place is hell to them.”
“Only reason I can think of is the same one you thought of. They were here because of our missing ships.”
“What kind of aliens would want to track a couple of human ships?”
“I don’t know kid. Whoever they were, they’d be stupid to try to take a group of eighteen humans head on, and they’d be nearly impossible to get a lock on in the sky, but something happened to them. This is good kid. This is our first solid clue about the missing crews. Someone knew they were here, and they were following them.”
“So, do we have a heading?”
“Not a heading, no. We’ll be staying here for now. I want to take scans of these prints and see if we can match them to a suit through our database, and from there, maybe a species. If we do, we might get a better picture of what’s going on out here.”
“Find anything?”
“Not a thing. Just a bunch of sulfur patches and what I think was the result of a goat and a ferret fucking.”
“Charming, Frank. Anyways, I’ve finished the core sample. Went down about five feet. This planet is a complete wash.”
“I could’ve told you that.”
“True, but, by the actual numbers, this place wouldn’t grow even the meanest plants from home. Ground is full of ammonia and sulphur deposits, all the way down the core sample. No way the survey team would have stayed here long. No reason to.”
“Well, we have a reason to stay here.” said a voice.
The Captain and the kid had just walked out from behind the side of the ship, hearing the last snippet of Ted and Frank’s conversation.
“You found something?”
“We found something.”
“Tell me everything Craytic.”
Craytic assumed his most professional and respectful tone before answering. It wasn’t often he would get the chance to speak with his Captain directly in his study.
“It looks different than the first ships we saw, but this one did the same thing to the scanners. They even went to the exact same spot the first two did.”
“Are they looking for their ships?”
“I assume so, sir. There isn’t much else on that world. We only have a position there on its moon because that section of the system has the least amount of solar wind. It makes it easier for us to scan the rest of the system. We don’t actually have an interest in the planet. ”
“Have they left yet?”
“I left Rylek there to watch the humans. He can’t get as close as i can, but his ship is fast. If they did leave, he’ll have followed him.”
“I’m sending three vessels to your lookout immediately. If they’ve left, I want you to contact Rylek and get me their location.
“Yes, Captain Kingruta.”
Just before he was going to exit, as he’d obviously been dismissed, the Captain said, “Good work Craytic.”
Then the Captain turned his chair around.
Pleased with his good fortune, and now doubly pleased at the rare praise from his superior, Craytic hurried back to his pursuit craft in one of the many hangars. He would hover around a hundred miles above the surface of the world. His ship was the most valuable out of the pursuit vessels that they had built, and he had killed several people to pilot it. His small ship had a cloaking device, which had allowed him to successfully track more ships than any other of the Rising Plague pirate crew. He just had to get back fast enough. Rylek couldn’t be trusted with something so important for long.
“Just a matter of time now.” he said, smiling widely. “I bet I’m going to be the one to bag a Deathworlder.”
The Chehnasho Captain Kingruta leaned back into his chair.
He wasn’t really a Captain anymore in the idea of him being in charge of a ship. His fleet had grown far beyond a handful of small ships and one main vessel. In truth, he actually hadn’t been on a ship for nearly a full rotation.
However, despite the size of his current fleet, it had previously been heavily cut down by that filthy red-haired human and a couple of stinking Gaoian’s. Being forced out of his former territory had been an absurd humiliation. Even now it rankled him.
But, since coming to this section of the Far Reaches, he’d made his peace by finding a very lucrative venture instead.
Better yet, if things went to plan in the next few hours, he’d soon have a human or two working on that venture for him. That would be a sweet victory to savor.
Calling his second in command, he said, “Bilgrath, I want three ships, each with fifteen men aboard, with full survival gear. They’re going to a class ten world. They’re going to be hunting humans.”
Listening to the bewildered splutter on the other end of the line, he managed to hear, “Sir, we’re going after humans? As in plural?!”
“Yes, that is what I just said you idiot. I don’t want any mistakes, Bilgrath. You’re going as well. I want you to bring heavy pulse guns. I’ve done research. A few shots from a mounted gun and they’ll be put down. Just avoid hitting them in the head. A headshot can kill them.”
“I…I understand sir.” said Bilgrath, sounding very much as though he didn’t want to understand his orders.
“Take their ship as well. Any ship that doesn’t show up on scans is a ship that we can use.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Make this happen Bilgrath, or I’ll throw you down the pit with the next batch.”
“I-I understand Captain.”
“Good. Now go capture me a human.”
Frank, Jason and Ted were all sitting around a fire they’d made in the middle of the small camp they had set up. It was nice to be outside of the cramped quarters of the ship, even though they’d all fought tooth and nail for a seat upon it.
Ted had gathered what passed for wood on this world and, after making sure burning it didn’t release anything toxic, had started a small fire.
Robert was inside the ship, hiding in his workshop, running the boot scans through the database of alien knowledge that the ship possessed, trying to find a match, or at least what might have worn the boot that made the print.
The rest of them were engrossed in their new favorite past-time, since coming to know each other. That being, listening to all the crazy shit that Frank had seen before.
“…and so, we’re trying to get this patient to stay still and sedate him, but the intern gave him the wrong syringe off of the cart I brought them. Instead of a heavy sedative, this kid pumps enough adrenaline into this meth-head to turn him into the Incredible Hulk! Now, when you get injected with adrenaline, one of the side effects is a steel hard-on. This guy eventually breaks the straps we’d put over him, punched the intern in the face, tore off the hospital gown and ran to the nearest open window. He fuckin superman flies out the window, soars over some little family on their way to say goodbye to their father, butt-ass naked with steel rebar between his legs, and lands in the dumpster!”
Ted was holding his stomach he was laughing so hard, eventually wheezing through his fits of mirth.
Jason, tears streaming from his eyes managed to ask, “What happened to the guy?”
“The guy was so damn crazy by that point that we locked him in the dumpster until he came down off his high. When we opened that thing up, there was just this little guy, maybe 160 pounds, naked as the day he was born, just lookin up at us like we’d been sent from heaven!”
“Oh, my god Frank. I can’t wait to get old and have shit like this to tell.”
“You’ll get there. I never met another old guy who didn’t have a good story or two.”
“Hey guys!”
All three men turned to look at Robert, sprinting towards them from the cargo bay of the ship.
“I did it! The aliens who were here were Chehnasho! The boot print is from an Extremis Survival Suit made specifically for Chehnasho mercenaries!”
“Holy shit kid! That’s good work.” exclaimed Jason. “We’d better get back to a relay to send this info back home. Alright guys, douse the fire, we’re leaving.”
“Hey, can I just have a minute out here before we have to spend another couple of days locked in the ship? I never got to be out here like you guys. I was stuck inside, and the sky on this planet is nice at night.”
It was true. When the sun on this world had gone down, a dazzling aurora lightshow had appeared, filling half of the night sky, and giving everything a pleasant emerald hue.
“Alright kid, you’ve got until the ship is prepped and ready to leave. That’s around five minutes. Frank, warm her up for me, I’ve got to record the message and data we’re going to send. Ted, is all your equipment stowed in the ship?”
“Yes Cap’n. I’m ready to go. Frank brought the drill inside and I took some scrapings off the core sample. I’m ready.”
“Alright kid. Five minutes.”
“Thanks Captain.”
Striding away from Jason, Robert walked away from the light pouring out of the cargo bay, striving to find a spot with the least amount of light pollution.
Finding an open area near a rocky outcropping maybe fifty yards from the ship, he stopped, hands in his pockets looking up at the stars.
Space really was beautiful.
Having just solved a mystery for them, and bringing them a step closer to finding their ships, he wanted to embrace and remember the moment. Robert had rarely been congratulated for his work before.
He watched the shimmering green sky as several meteors streaked through the atmosphere of the planet. The crunching feeling of something that looked like grass was under his feet, and he mused that no person had ever stood where he was now. The wind had died down at night, and the sulphur smell wasn’t nearly as strong now, he thought he might smell something like cinnamon on the air. The whole world was completely silent.
Still looking at the stars, he said to no one in particular, “I think I may actually be beginning to enjoy this.”
That was when the first heavy pulse caught him in the stomach.
Feeling like he’d just been tackled by a man twice his size, he felt all the air rush out of his body, driving him to his knees.
The next three pulses hit him directly in the chest simultaneously.
Robert blacked out.