It all started on a day like any other. Sitting at my table, looking at the stars, reading an old story about old English countryside, with all its problems and such. I had discovered the book not long ago, at my eighteenth birthday. It was good, and the atmosphere suited well to my rank as cadet. I was on the repair crew and i did not hate that, even if i had only few friends. People were being nice, they helped out, but there always seemed to be something to them, something holding them back and not considering as one of theirs. Like many evenings, I was in my room, looking out the window, gazing and reading at the same time. The flight had been calm, I've never seen a ship that had such a peaceful flight. Everyone was sleeping, except me, who decided to get up early to end the book and to pass a wonderful day on the ship when suddenly, a voice was heard in the empty room. I closed my book, looked around but nothing that could talk could be seen, except maybe for my cat who was sleeping on a soft blue pillow. I put my reading pad on the table, walked around to check if anyone had entered the room, but nothing was there. I sat down, continued reading, ignoring the voice. Something finally gave the final blow to my concentration : my cat was now moving around the room, nervous looking around, scared of something. My first reaction was to get up but it would reveal to be my first mistake. Suddenly, the ship went trembling, shaking, making me almost fly from one corner to the room to another, pieces of metal began falling from the roof of my room hitting my head, hurting my and make me fall on the floor, and then debris came hitting my head, and i lost consciousness.
After oh well, I wish I knew how long, i got out of my unconsciousness. A pile of debris was on my head and in a minute, all of it was pushed away and some small coughing sounds could be heard. Looking around, i could see the damage that had been done in my room, and i could imagine the destruction all over the vessel. With a little effort, i had my door to open and i started to walk around the ship, only to see horrific faces. The first alive person that i saw was an engineer, repairing some circuits. He didn't even look at me, his concentration was immense. A few steps further made me come face to face with the captain, a highly respected person on this vessel. He turned to me, asked me if i was alright. I replied with a small nod, and after a minute he told me: "Listen, Derian, i know you're still a young officer, but i would need your help here. Everything, except survival systems and minimal lights have fried. We need some people to get this vessel up and running." I told the captain how bad i was at fixing things, so he commissioned me to do some cleaning on the same floor, trying to find people alive after this tragedy. While walking to my room, i realized that the voice that i heard had stopped and just as i told myself that, it restarted again. I could not understand what it said but the tone of the voice was dark, gloomy, almost dead. I sat down on the floor, trying to understand what it said, or at least make it stop. The voice stopped and nothing that i heard, i could understand. I got up, staring walking but found myself having trouble to walk without loosing balance. I sat down on the ground and stayed there waiting for me to get a grip on myself. When i finally was stable again, I got up, looked around, trying to find where this voice could come from but nothing. The corridor seemed darker than usually, the lights were not coming back and i was sitting on the floor, trying to get my stability back. I got up, started to go around the rooms to see if anyone was still there when the ship began shaking again. I began running around to every door, trying to find other persons that had survived to this second serious shake but the more i got near my room, the more the scenes were horrible to see. Parts of the ceiling had fallen, some circuits on the wall had exploded. Not a lot of people that i found were still ok. On the two hundred that were in the same corridor as i was, only two persons, counting myself as one, are still alive. I reported this loss to the engineer that was trying to repair the circuitry but as i walked away i heard him mumble : "This is not good, the circuits are completely fried in this part of the ship, i wondered what happened..." From this sentence, i could already understand the gravity of the situation. The only way we could repair all of this was to land somewhere, on a planet, with earth-like conditions and those are pretty rare in the universe. In the sol system, there were two of them since the teraforming project on the red planet, these are the only ones we know. Let's just hope someone brings back the scanners inside this ship, or we might be at the mercy of the first thing that would come near." This little mumbling made me tremble for anything could happen in the void. This black sea hold many mysteries and finding Atlantis in this endless desert would be a miracle but we weren't that lucky lately. Only last week, we had damage to the lower decks when some asteroids ran right into the ship. We had some injured, luckily, it could have been worse. The luck always comes in bad luck. While i was counting the persons that were out of duty for ever, i was shocked at the damage and the lives lost after an event that went so fast. While on duty to collect the crew, the captain greeted me and asked me some questions that i found more than unusual :
-How's everything?
-Not got, i replied, up to now, we have 2 survivors on a number that you wouldn't like to hear.
-Listen, i have an important duty for you. While we were still functional, our scanners picked up a small planet close by, probably somewhere we could do repairs. I would like you to investigate if you don't see any inconvenience.
-It would be a pleasure sir to go and explore the universe, let's just hope it is our promised land or all may yet be lost.
-You can depart when you want, you'll get to the planet in a day or so. I hope you will give us good news.
While he was talking, the same voice, echoed through my thoughts, fading a small smile that i had of going into this important mission. The voice echoed during all the trip, when i finally came in sight of the planet, it stopped and destiny prepared a path for my arrival, a path that i would never thought possible.
Chap 2 Travel
It's been a day now that i traveled from the ship to the designated planet. Far from anything I knew, i was handling pretty well the situation. I began orbiting safely the unknown world, looking down at its colours. It seemed a fine place to go, did a few scans to make sure all was fine to go down. The results were positive and as i finished reading the last information, the voice started to sound again in my head, making me get back from the consoles. Strangely, i sat down in a chair near the command post and just as i made sure all was alright, the tiny ship started to shake. I grabbed a table, looking outside, looking at the colours of the planet getting a bigger part of the window. The descent was terrible : i was moving from left and right, seeing the front of the ship burning up and i waited for all of it to stop with all the calm that a donkey would have if he would see a carrot. After long seconds, waiting for something to happen, the vessel hit an object. I don't know what it was but the collision was pretty violent for an impact that wasn't right in front of me. I was thrown upon the control panel. Something had happened to the ship, something unusual. I got off the panel and looked on the left side, only to discover the left wing was missing. I placed my self correctly on the seat, taking the control of the ship, or at least what was left of the control. A second impact was made and this time, the ship began going slower. Fortunately, or unfortunately, i had fallen in a body of water and when my speed got down to zero. After a few seconds at the surface of what seemed to be a lake, water started to enter in the cockpit. I desperately tried to make the ship go back to the surface, but the main circuitry was fried. The task was not easy: i had to go to the rear part of the ship, change to the secondary circuits, go activate the reactor, come back, turn on the floating compartments and pilot successfully out of the water. I went on the back section and looked at the reactor: all was pretty terrible. The power was out, the systems were disconnected and worse, the secondary circuits were under water and most of the wires could kill me if i would activate them. I had one last hope: try the overhead panel at the front part of the ship. Again, it would not be a breeze to get out of this carcass alive. I grabbed some gear to help me stay afloat and swim and hurried to the front. I opened the hatch without any problems and as i left the ship, the water finished filling the carcass, leaving the only chance of survival of my friends sink. When i got to the surface, i realized i had crash landed on a "good" planet : the environment was acceptable to support life, the air was good and that i was in a lake near the shore. I swam to the shore, got my gear off, put it in a tree just in case i would need it again sometime and started walking; trying to find food or at least something so i could survive here. Destiny threw me here at his own will and i had to prove i could do this challenge. I was lucky enough to find pears in a tree. Even though i saw it wasn't the season, i took some and began eating. I knew it would be enough for now, but i had to find a more permanent solution to this problem. While trying to figure out where i should start looking for food, the voice came again in my head, saying words i could not understand, talking louder than the times before, giving me a headache. I started to run around, anywhere to get that voice out of my mind, but i could not, it was stuck there, not willing to let my soul free from the voice. After a minute of running the voice finally stopped and i sat down on the ground, in pain, trying to understand what could be happening to me. Why was it coming to my mind, telling me this unknown message, giving me trouble keeping my own mind set to anything? The night was falling slowly in the steppes. I decided there was nothing more to do than to sleep in a tree, somewhere relatively safe as long as i don't fall. I got up in a tree,not too far from the ground, sitting and looking at the night come down and the stars come gently lit the night. It took me time to find sleep on this unknown land. When my eyes got off the sky, the only thing i saw for the night was the last day once again, a little bit more nightmarish than what i saw but everything was there, even the voice that tortured my night, even worse than during the day, completely bursting the dream apart and rebuilding it around it, making every little event grow around the voice. The night passed slowly and when i woke up in the morning, my survival got my attention as i walked towards woods not really far away, hoping for anything that could save my life.
Note : I would like it if someone could write parts in this text, creating the character he wants that would go well in the story. If you're interested, e-mail me at jojosh_00001@yahoo.com .
Last update : June 19th 2004
