Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 2
Uninhabited Island / Underground tunnel/ Circle Cavern
Galactic Standard Time / 1710
Sara smiled as she looked up at the sky, feeling good. The pod had been delicious, they had to take them back to the Federation. But since she and Paige had the first of the two watches they would both be well rested when morning comes. And that was something that they all needed. Because this place was strange and deadly! From the spider to the vine beast, she couldn't understand anything. Anything she thought she knew about evolution, this planet had the rules. . The way those vines attacked them, how the vine beast might have been their source! And that wasn’t even talking about the insectoids Jinn, Al, and herself had run into the other day! Were all of them from the same hive or were they like different subspecies of bugs?
And that wasn’t even thinking about the powers that Paige and Jin had. As she thought about Jinn she shook her head, no matter what she did Jinn was someone who was completely….. different. Back on the ship, she had seen him looking with wonder at things that were so common. And with Paige’s exclamation and the reveal that created, she still wondered where Jinn came from.
Still, he was strong, he was tough and he knew how to lead a combat patrol. He even moved first when they heard Roy scream. No matter what or who he was, he was a hero in her file. Still, he was mysterious, and just where had he come from? She looked at the stars, wondering what sun shone down on Jinn when he was young. What challenges did he face, what made him who he is?
She shook her head, trying to get back on track. This wasn’t the time, she had to handle the job she had right now. She had to stay on guard, she just thought about how the creatures were all strange, why did she let her mind wander?! Oh, now she remembered.
She turned her head and saw Paige look around, a scowl on her face. Sara had taken advantage that Paige was here, trusting in her powers. The scientist in her was beating her head against a wall in her brain. They couldn’t let Paige’s abilities be their only defense. They had to be proactive, they couldn’t just their guard down.
As she looked around, trying to figure out just what she could do, she heard a giggle. Next to her Paige looked at her, and smiled. “Let me guess, those nerves of yours are because of where we are and doing?”
“No! It was because I let my thoughts run wild! I, I should have paid more attention!” Sara said as she looked away. She couldn’t let the fact that she was even thinking about how to use Paige’s abilities. That wasn’t right, at least to her it wasn’t. and with Paige’s history and what led her to the Spirit, that just spat at it.
“It’s this place, I just can’t understand it! There are so many things about this planet, the life we found here! I mean the insectoids my group found the other day. Then there’s the vine beast and the spiders. I mean just one of them alone could be the project of a hundred-year research grant alone! If the scientists back home ever heard about these things, I mean. Current research would have identified one of them alone as the Alpha species of this world. A planet with all of them together within the same ecosystem? They would have to make a new university just to study that alone!” Sara said and Paige looked at her with a grin.
“Any scientist in particular you’d want to show this place to?” Paige asked and Sara just laughed.
“There were a few. And some I wouldn’t want to even think about finding out about this place,” Sara said bitterly. She just couldn’t help but think about one of her former classmates, he had a lot of strange ideas. And what had been discovered in his labs, how he was trying to play god with life, create new species from the old. And that thought led her to think about what those people who hunted her wanted Paige for.
Sara was a medic and a biologist, one who had learned it most of her life. She knew about breeding traits into genetic lines, and had seen nightmares from it. The times and tragedies when sentient species or cults tried it. Wars against those who thought they had the right to do that, who tried to breed slave soldiers. All she knew, was one single simple thing. Nothing good could have come from the people after Paige, none at all. Plus she still didn’t know anything about Paige, anything at all. Well, no better time to find out about her than here and now. “Say, Paige? Where do you come from?”
“I….. I don’t feel right saying the name of my world. Nothing against you, but what you don’t know can’t be tortured out of you and all. Just covering my bases. I gave myself a total makeover before I got onto the Spirit. I don’t want any tracks leading back to my birth world,” Paige said as she looked away.
Sara felt her heart freeze before she felt her head nod, yeah she could see that. If those people were as bad as she thought they were, then that was reasonable. If they had anyone among the passengers, the wrong word at the wrong time could lead them to her.
“Okay, so how about a similar question? How was it growing up with your abilities? I bet you were a killer at cards!” Sara said with a grin. She let her mind wander, remembering many times she could have used that ability over her life.
“Yeah, not really. I only got them a few months or so before I ran,” Paige admitted.
Sara nodded, but only for a minute before she heard what Paige said. Then she turned her head and looked at her friend and Sara’s mouth dropped open in shock as she spook one word. “What”
“Yeah, it was weird. I just was trying to help find a missing child who had been attacked by a local beast. I was just one of the volunteers, feeling so much terror. There had already been a few deaths due to them that season, but never a child. I was just looking around and then I felt something, some feeling that wasn’t mine. I followed it and there they were, the missing child crying. I was even on the news for a few days, the face of the rescue! I guess that was how they found me,” Paige said and laughed a little.
Sara didn’t say anything, her thoughts traveling at the speed of light. The very idea that the people who were after Paige were on the same world was possible. But there were a lot of things wrong with that. How did they figure out that she had abilities in the first place? She could have been lucky, or maybe she had heard something. if she had spoken about what she felt maybe. But how would they even know Paige had that Ability?
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Paige looked at her friend as she just stood there. Something was going on in her brain, something that Paige couldn’t see. Sometimes she cursed her abilities, how they let her see beyond the norm. They caused her to think about what could be behind what she saw. Her abilities let her escape from her hunters, even seeing them coming for her. But she had to admit that there was something there, something that she couldn’t see.
During her escape, there was something about her hunters that bothered her. No matter how she thought about them, she always felt that there something that she just couldn’t see. But then she hadn’t had much time to even think beyond running. Only when the ship she was on broke the atmosphere of her world did she stop and crash. The captain and crew were even worried she was sick, only after the medic looked her over did they let up. She had told them she was escaping someone who wanted to own her, and they had stayed quiet after that. Still, she had gotten onto another ship once the first ship reached their destination. After a long journey that took at least a third of a standard Solar Year, she had found the Spirit.
After getting a job abroad, everything went well for her. She had been able to slowly learn how to use her abilities, and she was happy. She had slowly but surely built up enough credits to her name that she was able to start to chart a future for herself. She had even found a place to hide away, everything looked perfect and she was happy again. But then they woke up here. “What do you think happened to the ship? How did we end up here?”
“No idea, but I do know we were in deep space last I checked. And the route had been mapped a lot, the captain wouldn’t take us on a new path! So something happened, something that we couldn’t get a message out to any allied ships. And then there’s this place,” Sara said as she looked around, a frown on her face as she swept her gaze around.
“Yeah. You’d think they would have found someplace like this. I mean, a planet like this? Unless the government was keeping it quiet people would talk. And even if they were keeping quiet, we wouldn’t be here,” Paige said softly as she looked around. The small hill that the cave mouth was set in was in a large clearing, and the temperature was perfect. So far, the weather had been perfect and the skies were clear. A Megacorp would have sent in mercenaries, killed all the creatures. Once that was done, they could this place into a vacation planet before anyone knew about it.
“Yeah, I know. But still, there has to be an explanation for this place you know?” Sara asked softly and Paige nodded, her thoughts running along the same lines. The one thing that she knew was that there was always a reason, the trick was finding it. She had learned that the hard way a long time ago, every action reacted.
She sighed and looked around, and then she went still. While Paige couldn’t see anything, she sensed something. There, to the right of them was where the feelings were coming from. Unlink animals, this one was something more. There was a spark of something, it felt like hope. For a few seconds, she didn’t understand. A beast here would feel only hunger like the spider had, but this was different, it was like….. she went still as she slowly looked at Sara, trying to figure out what to do.
“So, after we get off shift, I think I’ll sleep better than I have in a while. All I need is to lay back and sleep. I wonder how the Chief is handling everything back at the Capsule. I wonder if the passengers have made a demand for a new room yet,” Sara said with a smirk. However, when she saw Paige’s eyes, she knew something was wrong.
“Maybe. Say, remember back on the ship, when that pickpocket ran into the chief? How the Chief chased him all around the deck?” Paige asked as she walked to the left, hoping Sara would figure out what she meant.
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Sara looked at Paige as she slowly walked to the left of her, towards the wood. She might not have been someone who had a lot of experience, but she could catch things fast. Paige was worried about something, and that story was a way to let her know. The only reason that Paige would do that, was because something would hear it if she spoke plainly. But then why would she be worried about a beast hearing them and understanding it? She wouldn’t, and that was enough to let her know someone was watching them.
With Roy’s experience at his Capsule, there was a chance this was more of those people. If they were willing to kill a baby, then who knows what they would do to two women alone? So then they couldn’t take the chance this was a friend, they had to act like it was an enemy. All they had to do was move slowly until they could strike. Thank the stars for Paige’s abilities, and she was worried about using them for this. But thankfully,
“I wasn’t there when it happened. What way did that thief try and go to escape the Chief?” Sara asked idly and Paige’s shoulders relaxed a bit.
“I was there, looking at the chase from the right. Now the thief went forward. With how the right passage was me pushing a cart, there was no way for him to get by me,” Paige said as she nodded.
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In the bush, the being watched as the two women walked closer to him. The being frowned, something about this was wrong. The two looked okay, healthy, and were a lot taller compared to the little guys the being had run into before. Something else was bothering him, something obvious. As the being’s mother used to say, the being might be smart but dumb. After all, most things that were there sometimes…… they weren’t wearing armor. The two women weren’t wearing any armor of any kind. They were just wearing jumpsuits, good ones. The kind that were……
“New comers,” The figure whispered in shock.
“Now!”
At the cry, the being looked up and saw the two women were now pointing their weapons in the being’s direction! As they fired at where the being was hiding, the being went still before he felt flames on his head!
“AAAAGGGGHHH!”
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Sara watched as a humanoid figure burst out of the bush they fired at. As the two of them watched, the figure pulled off a green cloak, revealing a human! He was tall with short brown hair. He was wearing a strange outfit. He had on black pants and a blue shirt, both were patchworked. The patches were what looked like hide, marks that someone had done repairs in the wild.
Both girls only watched as the man tried to put out the fire on the cloak for a few moments. But then Sara shook herself and looked at the man with a glare as she pointed her rifle at him.
The man only sighed as he finished he turned towards the women, smiling. The Smile died and he went still as he looked down the barrel of Sara’s riffle.
“Who are you, where did you come from and why are you spying on us!” Sara growled as she slowly moved her finger towards the trigger.
The man only held up his hands and smiled shakily at them. “Names Burt. Survivalist, sharpshooter, and guide. I’ve been stuck here for about three months now. And I came from Trenolia. Excuse my question, but…. Did you crash here recently??”
“I’ve never heard of a planet named Trenolia, where is it?” Paige asked softly.
“Not a planet ma’am. It’s an island, a Freeport under the control of none of the powers of the Sea Realm. So you are from the Galaxy then. I thought you were newcomers,” Burt said with a shake of his head.
Sara only looked at him, a terrible feeling going through her. If there were survivors that had named a place, that they had created societies, then how long were they here? Just with one sentence, this one man had shown that everything was worse than she feared. This was so bad…..
“How have you people survived with monsters like we’ve faced here?” Paige asked in shock.
Burt only nodded as he smirked at them. “Well, we were able to create ways to keep them from us. And the beings in this place are but a sample, there are species here that are dead beyond our prison. But we should go, I ran into a powerful creature down there……..”
Sara only smirked and laughed a little at Burt’s reaction. Part of her was hoping that he meant the creature Jinn had fought off, if so then they might be good. If that coward was what was considered strong, then they had a chance. But then it might have been a niche predator, something that was strong against some things. If that was the case, then they might be in real trouble.
“If you mean the thing down there, we chased it off. If you mean the giant spider back that way, we killed it. Well, we set a trap to kill it ,” Paige said swiftly, a small scowl on her face as she looked at Burt.
Sara looked at her friend, barely keeping her feelings off her face. From what she knew, Paige was a happy and friendly person. So why was she…… Suddenly everything made sense, and she cursed herself for not thinking about it first. She felt something from Burt, something with her ability. And that meant that she had to go hard. Then that meant that Sara was the ‘soft’ option, and that was something of a problem.
“You did? Well, that’s great! And bad, kinda bad. If something that can take the ability of that thing…. Hope you’ve burned the body,” Burt said softly as he rubbed his chin.
Sara just shook her head. “It ran away, escaped really. We tried to track it down, but it escaped.”
“Oh, that’s bad. It’ll come back to take this place. I hope you weren’t planning on making a den down there,” Burt said softly as he looked towards the hill and the cave mouth.
Sara only laughed a little as she shook her head. “Unless it attacks us before we leave in the morning, it can have it. We’re just staying here until we head down towards the coast. There’s another capsule we need to get to.”
“Oh escape capsules. Must have been a large ship, how many crew did you all have?” Burt asked and Sara grinned at him.
“A few hundred thousand. And about three million passengers total,” Sara said absently. As Burt nodded he stared at her for a few moments before his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.