Angels and Wormholes

Survivors

"What's going on?" Nigel asked, shouting and struggling in his chair. "Where are we?"

Cassia sighed. "Looks like you got hit by a panel that got blown out. You got a pressure cut on your head and prob'ly a concussion. Your vision'll be back in ten minutes or so. In the mean-time, just try to relax. You lost a bit of blood."

It took Cassia another minute with the vacuum to finish up cleaning the cloud of blood, tracing the tube towards each red droplet hanging in the air. She re-holstered the tool and headed back to the pilotting console, where she flicked on the console. "I'm running full ship diagnostics." The data popped on screen, along with a series of warnings.

"So how's the ship doing?" Nigel asked.

"Not great. We're in pretty bad shape."

"How bad?"

"Well... They took out the power core."

Nigel's eyes opened wide. "We don't have a power core? Shit!"

"Relax! We'll figure it out."

"What..." Nigel's faced contorted. "What're we supposed to do without a core? We're screwed!"

"We've still got some charge left."

"How much?"

"Four percent."

"Four percent?" Nigel shouted. "That's not enough for a single jump! Four percent -that'll run the recyclers for what, a couple weeks?"

"We don't need to worry about that -recyclers are offline."

"Great. So we're stuck here -no core, no food, no water. Not enough power for a jump."

"Don't worry -we've got backupon the way. We just need to sit tight 'til they get here."

"IF! If they bother coming for us."

"For what it's worth, I trust them." Cassia's eyes turned back to the console, and she began tapping away.

"Let's hope you're right."

"I did my research. They'll come." Cassia's eyes remained on her screen as she entered commands.

"I guess worrying about it isn't going to change anything."

Cassia's console beeped as she entered in a series of commands. "So what're you workin' on?"

"We got one more thing to deal with."

"What's that?"

"The monkeys."

"What about 'em? They're on the other side of the hole."

"Yea -for now."

"You think they'd follow us?"

"It depends. Maybe. If they've already checked out this side, then probably. But I'm more worried they might already have ships on this side. If they knew about that hole before we got there, they could've already sent scouts through. There could be cloaked apes out here already."

"So what do we do?"

"Well, here's the problem. We used a partial map -that means there's gonna be some variability in the trajectory. So even with the key we gave the Muramasa, we can't be sure how close they'll pop out. Could be hours before they reach us, or days even -weeks if their operator screws up the calc's. And if there are any apes around, they'll prob'ly find us first if we use the beacon."

"How can you sound so calm? Please tell me you've got a plan."

"I just did a scan for habitable planets nearby -we've got one in range. It's in the Gold' zone, and it looks like there's water."

"Gold' zone?"

"Goldilocks zone -close enough to the star to support liquid water -safe for life."

"So you want to land us on an alien planet?"

"What's the problem? We can handle reentries."

"Yea, but how does that help us?"

"Those Swarmer ships aren't atmospheric capable. We'll be safe on the planet -plus it solves our water problem."

"Okay. We've got enough power left to make it?"

"Yea. We'll have to take it slow, and save some for the landing. But yea. And as soon as we land we can fire up the beacon."

Cassia punched in the coordinates for the nearby star and rocketed the Astrid in that direction. She was careful with the remaining charge. With luck, few adjustments to their trajectory would be needed. Every change in course would drain some more of the precious little battery charge that remained, which they needed to land safely on whatever alien surface lay waiting ahead.

They drifted for a long time without talking. Nigel broke the silence. "I still feel a bit out of it."

"Well you lost a lot of blood."

"What?" He looked over.

"Yep. I didn't want you to freak you out earlier. But I was a little worried for a second."

Nigel lay back in his seat, closed his eyes, and sighed. "What am I doing here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not cut out for this."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You're new."

"To hunting, yea. But what I mean is, I've been running these jobs for five years now. Pilotting, maintenance -starships. It's not for me. I don't even like space."

"You might've picked the wrong job then."

"You know what I did before I came to Blue Sky?"

"What's that?"

"Gardener."

Cassia laughed. "Really?"

"Yea. Can you believe it? Anyways, hard to find a job gardening 'round Blue Sky." Nigel forced a short laugh. "Funny thing isn't it? I end up Blue Sky -a planet with no plants."

"Well there's the resorts. You could try there."

"I tried. It's impossible."

There was a long silence.

"So." Cassia looked over to Nigel. "Why did you come to Blue Sky?"

Nigel took a long breath. "I used to live on Triumph."

"Triumph?" The name seemed familiar. "That's a colony?"

"Yea." He nodded. "We were invaded."

Cassia now recalled -the attack on Triumph Colony years ago had led to an influx of hundreds of refugees to Blue Sky. Nigel must've come with them. "Sorry -I remember hearing about it now."

"It's okay."

"Well you made it out, at least"

"Yea." Nigel half-heartedly laughed. "But for what? This isn't what I'm supposed be doing with my life. Maybe it would've been better if I didn't make it."

... How could it be better to be dead? Cassia thought to herself, but refrained from asking.

"Well," she started, "everyone's gotta find their own way. In the mean-time, we've gotta worry about landing on that rock." Cassia pointed to the console, which now displayed a detailed, long range scan of the planet. They were less than an hour away from the alien surface, where they would attempt a landing with the crippled Astrid. Once they touched down, they'd have water, and they'd be safe from any Mangeroma that might come for them. Cassia hoped that it was worth the risk of landing on an unexplored planet. With any luck, there wouldn't be any dangers awaiting them on the alien terrain.



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