Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 4
Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405
Galactic Standard Time / After 1320
Terra
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As she fell, Terra felt the wind against her body. For a moment, memories came for her and she almost grinned. But then she remembered where she was, and that feeling died. As she looked around, she saw she and Bryke were falling through a void, a deep dark void.
“How long have we been falling? It feels like days!” Bryke cried out, fear in his voice.
Terra was about to call up her internal time nanite but then they hit water. She dropped her weapon for a moment, but then she grabbed her rifle before she put it on her back. As she struggled to the surface, Terra felt the emergency nanites in her lungs activate. As they started to generate oxygen, she had to hope that Bryke had the same type. Otherwise, he might be dead. She looked and saw Bryke sinking beneath her, and she swam towards him.
With each moment that he fell father, Terra felt her fear grow, she was why they were here. Because of her attack, her target had exploded and the floor had been destroyed. If Bryke died because of her, then she didn’t know what she’d do.
Finally, after what felt like forever, she reached him. Grabbing him, she turned and started to kick. As she swam upwards, she felt something, something below her. It made her swim faster, holding Bryke to her body. The feeling wouldn’t go away, and every second made her worried that something was after her. She moved upwards until she breached the water, gasping for breath as she hit the air.
Looking around, she saw that she was in a chamber that was at least two hundred feet wide. There was a large wall to her right and to her left was a small island ten feet wide. Looking down at Bryke, she saw him breathing, but he was still unconscious.
Looking at the island, she started to swim, keeping Bryke upright as she moved through the water. To her shock, she reached a gentle and smooth slop five feet from the island. She pulled herself to her feet and walked to the island proper, finding more smooth material. Clicking her lights back on, she looked around and saw smooth grey tile-like martial all around her. Putting Bryke down, she put her hand in front of his face.
As soon as she did that, Bryke started to cough. He looked up at her and smirked a bit.
“What, were you worried about me?” He asked weakly.
“Worried I was going to have to make it out of this place on my own!” Terra said with a smirk on her face.
Bryke tried to get up, but he fell back and sighed. “Sorry, but I’m gonna need a minute or so. That was some splash down.”
“Yeah. I can only hope that we can get out of here when we find a way out of this,” Terra said, she felt nothing but sorrow. She had no idea how they could leave, especially because this was the ceiling.
Bryke looked up and chuckled as he lay there. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a few tricks that I can use. Just let me rest a bit, and then I’ll help.”
“With the two of us, we’re going to be out soon. But this place is so big!” Terra said, chuckling as she looked around, trying to understand what this was. As she let the lights on her shoulder shine onto the water, she frowned as she thought she saw a ripple.
“HEY!” A voice called over the water.
They both looked around, but they couldn’t see anything. Was that from above, was that from this place? Was it echoing
“CAN YOU HEAR ME TERRA!?” The voice bellowed again.
Terra grinned as he recognized the voice, grinning as she cupped her mouth. “YEAH, I CAN HEAR YOU JESSIE! WHERE ARE YOU?”
“WE’RE OVER HERE!” Zevortro’s voice came over the water and Bryke started to laugh.
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“YOU TWO OKAY?!” Jessie asked in a scream.
“YEAH, BRYKE IS DOWN BUT HE’S OKAY! WE NEED TO FIND EACH OTHER!” Terra answered in a yell.
“STAY THERE! WE’RE GOING TO FIND YOU!” Jessie howled.
Terra grinned at Bryke, they had friends. That meant that they weren’t alone!
Bryke only laughed a little as he sat up. “Knew those two would have come for us. I never doubted it!”
“Yeah!” Terra said with a laugh. “Jessie never leave a comrade behind!”
A splash behind caused them both to turn, their eyes wide.
“What was that?!” Terra asked as she looked around, trying to find the source
Bryke got back to his feet shakily as he cursed. “I dropped my rifle! Thank stars I still have my pistol!”
Terra said nothing, moving her body around as the lights panned around.
“WHAT IS IT!?” Jessie's voice echoed around the space.
Terra kept her eyes on the water, and finally, she found a ripple. She swallowed as she thought she saw a shadow go deeper under the water.
“SOMETHING’S OVER HERE! IT’S HUNTING US!” Terra bellowed and fired at the water. Nothing happened and she heard another splash to their right.
Before she could turn, Bryke fired his pistol.
“NOVA! Terra, freeze the water!” Bryke snarled as he looked around.
“What!? Oh. Yeah!” Terra said with a smirk. She took a deep breath and aimed her rifle, hoping that this would work. “Shot Enhance; Ice”
A moment after she called up her power, she fired a blue-covered bolt that hit the water and froze it for a good ten feet. She turned and fired another bolt, this time to the right. Turning to her left, she fired again, and then as the ice formed, she smiled. If everything worked as she willed it to, then whatever was down might be frozen.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING!?” Jessie called out.
Terra grinned as she froze in the last direction before looking around. Now the entire area around the island was covered by ice. That should keep the thing from getting them.
But then they heard the sounds of cracking ice.
“No, no way,” Bryke whispered in shocked horror.
“It can’t be,” Terra said, and they both turned to look at the ice. As they watched, the ice slowly started to crack, and within moments the ice broke up.
“SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT’S HAPPENING!” Jessie bellowed again.
“MY ICE BROKE UP!” Terra bellowed back. As she looked at the ice, she frowned as she realized something. The ice wasn’t staying still, it was all flowing to the right. That had to mean something, but what?
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Jessie
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Jessie scowled as he looked towards where Terra’s voice had come from.
“Ice, what ice? Her ability? Why’s she use it and on what?!” Zevortro demanded.
Jessie nodded, and he wanted to ask Terra what she had done. If she had remembered the old lessons he had given her during their time together, and he hoped she did. The one thing he always taught her was to be creative, that was what beat the enemy.
“I don’t know. But where are they? And what broke the ice?” Jessie muttered to himself as he calmly tried to figure out where they were.
“We should be nearer to them, right?” Zevortro asked quietly.
At this, Jessie only shook his head. “If we were lucky, yeah. But even a foot off would have made us fall away from them on the way down. I think they’re over there.”
Jessie pointed to their right and scowled as he looked at the water. He couldn’t understand why this was here, it didn’t make sense! Just where had all this water come from, and the island they were on? If this was the ceiling, then just what was this for?
“We could use that trick you used to get us down here to try and find them,” Zevortro said.
Jessie heard the question in Zevortro's voice, and he winced. He knew when he used that technique that Zevortro would have questions. But the fact that his friend was in danger was enough for Jessie to break his cover. He knew there would be questions the others would have for him, but he was okay with that. Maybe it was time to share a few of his secrets after all.
“I’d need to stand somewhere to use my lights. And I can’t see anything around here to land on from here. So maybe we can swim in a direction first?” Jessie mused as he looked around.
“So I was right, you have had these powers for a while now,” Zevortro declared.
Jessie looked at him and sighed. “Yeah. And before you ask, I have no idea how I got them. It happened during a crazy portion of my life. And I thought everyone had that flame within them.”
Zevortro only looked at him for a few moments, his mouth dropping open. After a moment, he shook himself free and looked at him. “So you have no idea how you gained that ability?”
“No, and I didn’t know I had them until maybe a year later. At least a year,” Jessie mused and Zevortro only shook his head.
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Zevortro
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Zevortro looked at Jessie for a moment, trying to understand just how that was possible. He could understand that his friend was different. The path he had walked was not the one that Zevortro had gone down. But to have not noticed that he had abilities for a whole year? That said a lot, and none of it was good. If the process of getting powers was different off this world, then what about this place changed it? If they could figure that out, then they might be able to figure out a lot of things, maybe even get home.
But for now, all that mattered to him was survival. “Okay. Got any other tricks that might be able to let us find them?”
“Some, and I’m using them now. If I’m right, they're about fifty feet away from us that way,” Jessie said pointing to the right. He looked towards the water and scowled. “And here’s the proof!”
Zevortro looked at the water and saw the pieces of ice float by them. Without a thought, he dashed to the edge and put his arm into the water. He felt what he thought he would and then he staggered back.
“What is it!?” Jessie asked as he looked around.
“The water has a current! That means that thing could be living in this!” Zevortro said as he looked at the water, his light shining down.
“Wait, what!? How does a current mean life!?” Jessie asked.
Zevortro only looked at him, a bitter smile on his face. “My grandfather had a saying, with water, movement is life. It keeps the water from going bad I guess. But this means that this whole thing? It could be anything at all from a pool to a big fish tank!”
“But this is upside down, how could it still be in one piece!?” Jessie said, a scowl on his face.
Zevortro looked around, his mind going back to the time he had spent aboard the ship. As one fact from a week before they jumped came back to him, he nodded. “Yeah, about that. See, back on the Spirit, they were starting to experiment with gravity. Create ways to make the ‘wall’ a ‘floor’. That was considered cutting-edge. What if whoever made this, is so beyond the edge in some places we can’t even see it?”
Jessie looked at him, and in his eyes, Zevortro could see shock and something else. Something about what Zevortro had said bothered Jessie, but Zevortro had no idea.
“So some kind of animal could be stalking them!?” Jessie said, anger in his voice.
“Yeah, and that’s really bad. In a lot of ways,” Zevortro said with a scowl as he looked around.
“And why is that so bad?” Jessie asked sarcastically.
Zevortro was about to answer him when they heard a cry from above. It wasn’t sentient, it sounded like an animal. They heard the sounds of large wings as something flew by overheard, something big.
“Because it knows that things out of the water are food!” Zevortro said, his voice hard.