Stranded

“Come on, Nyssa,” she sighed aloud, “you have been through much worse than this.  You can cope!”

Could she? Nyssa wondered.   Yes, her father had been killed by a tyrant - there was still the Doctor, who had almost died but her and Tegan helped him to survive - she was mistreated by a giant amphibian, and what seemed to be their cousins, and her Planet was destroyed to atoms but there was the TARDIS to give her a home - then she was almost killed though not by the Master - she still could not fathom why he had not destroyed her when he had the chance.  Adric died and Tegan was left on Planet Earth because the Doctor took off thinking she had stepped inside the TARDIS already … Now even the TARDIS and the Doctor were lost to her: “Right,” Nyssa squared her shoulders as she took a long panoramic look at the scenery.

Stark white hills of snow with green ice tarns and streams sparkled in the strange crystal sun.  A waterfall cascaded frozen down one hill, even the droplets were stuck mid air as they were about to splash into the pool below.  How beautiful and unusual.   Shame she would freeze to death before she could fully isolate the phenomenon.  

2

Grunting he twisted his body out of the wreck that was their spaceship.  Blood and sweat mingled down his face. staining his white jumper collar.  Dammit, he growled as he kicked the remains.

Bending down on his knees he helped out another man, his brother in law.  With huge effort he helped a third until he was told by his relative by marriage to recover.  Five minutes then, he agreed.  The brother in law and another crew member continued helping others out of the twisted wreck of the space ship.  The man sighed and rubbed his face.  At least snow cleans, he picked up a handful and used it to rub his face to clear the gore - thankfully, all he had attained was a minor scratch.

Some he had noticed were worse than him with twisted limbs aching and yelling in agony.  

“Four serious casualties - no deaths,” his brother in law reported.  “How are we going to survive is beyond me.  We have supplies enough for a month - one month and I would have been in the arms of my beloved wife!”

“At least you have a beloved wife,” the man snarled.  

“Where are we?” the brother in law asked.

“At the backside of nowhere!”

“It wasn’t your fault!”

“No? Are we talking about the ship or …”

“Both.  You can’t let every disaster affect you so much.”

“It seems I am to be in the middle of all of them though!”

“You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself.”

“I have to go and inspect the land.  You stay with the wounded,” the man said.  “There may be other tribes here, though what could survive in this forbidding tundra …”

“Well, I hope you take care.”

The man rolled his eyes.  Take care, take care indeed! Grinding his teeth he got up and nodded at the men: “Do as Dr. Schmidt commands you.  Sergeant Holst,” he snapped, “you be his second - make sure people obey the Dr!”

Sergeant Holst nodded and stood next to the Dr: “Ja Wohl!”

“Don’t be so archaic Sergeant!” the man sighed as he turned on his heel to wander the icy wilderness.

3

Nyssa’s cocoa had frozen solid in the mug now.  She threw the mug to the ground, then she kicked some snow over over the fragments to make sure no one gets hurt as she walked along the side of the stream leading up to the green waterfall - tiny spits of froth were about to mingle with the emerald droplets, pale and glinting.  Nyssa wished she’d had her science equipment so she could analyse whatever it was that kept the water in suspended animation.