Vivis sighed as she looked around the clearing, taking in the shield and the crater. So far, there the shield was still holding. Since the group made it back inside, there hadn’t been another attack. But she knew that meant nothing. The monsters they killed might be from groups or packs for all they knew! There was just something at the back of her brain, a strange kind of pulsing that was there. She looked at her internal bio-scan and saw nothing. Whatever she was feeling, it might only be in her mind.

“So, what do you think? How long until those things grow again?” Zevortro’s voice said from behind her.

She turned to see her friend looking out at the forest, trying to see through the shield at the pod trees.

“Maybe tomorrow or the day after. I mean that’s good for us, right?” Vivis asked with hope in her voice.

Zevortro only shook his head, a scowl on his face. “It just doesn’t make sense. I mean that in the most scientific way possible. It just doesn’t make sense how it can be so good for us and grow that fast!”

“Just another mystery about this place then?” Vivis asked, trying not to sound as scared as she felt. Already the mysteries were piling up. From the monsters to the Powers some of the others gained, this planet was maddening! She was almost expecting an even worse horror to come out from the trees soon.

The look that Zevortro shot her almost made her swallow in anger or fear. The look in his eyes was of someone who knew something was wrong here. “There has to be a reason! If those Pod things can reproduce that fast, why was this whole clearing free of them? The seeds alone would have covered everything here! Were they eaten?”

Vivis suddenly understood what he meant. And that thought was slowly making her feel so worried about their chances to survive. “Yeah. That’s right. Why is this circle clear of them?”

It was all that Vivis to keep the shudder she felt coming down. The more she looked around, the more that this place was wrong. If the native plants could reproduce as fast as the Pods, then why weren’t there more of them here? There had to be something that kept them from growing, something that she just couldn’t see. It was all she could do to keep from hoping against hope that whatever it was, wasn’t deadly. For all she knew, there was something beneath them, waiting to swallow them all.

With that thought, she looked around again. Before the shield had been reassuring, a sign that they were all safe here. But now, she had a strange feeling that the shield was keeping them in, not keeping the monsters out.

“You okay?” Zevortro asked with a note of worry in his voice.

She nodded and sighed, shaking her head. “Yeah, just a bad thought that wouldn’t go away.”

Zevortro looked at her and then shrugged. She almost chuckled. That was him alright. The two of them had known each other for months now. Zevortro wasn’t some deep thinker, but when he saw a problem or something he didn’t know? He’d chase it down and tear it to pieces to find out the truth. The number of times she’d seen him pouring over a text file to understand something.

“HEY! I NEED SOME HELP NOW! I FOUND SOMETHING!” the book of Jones’s roar caused her to look up. He was waving his hands like a madman, and she looked at the shield’s readings. It was still as strong as ever, so what was wrong?

“What the nova does that fool think he’s doing!?” Bryke snarled from the bodies.

“Yeah! I mean in the name of the Stars, how much more trouble could Jones make now?” Zevortro asked dryly.

The one thing that Vivis knew, was that no one here trusted Jones not to find or make trouble. Maybe the fool broke his leg. That would keep him out of their way for a while.

“I think we’re going to find out soon,” Vivis muttered. As everyone in the clearing watched, Terra climbed up from the capsule. Vivis could tell she was angry from the way she stalked over to Jones.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“Someone’s getting the bad jobs for a while,” Zevortro said, amusement in his voice.

As soon as Jones saw her he started to gesture to something at his feet. Vivis saw Terra go still and then fall, looking at it in shock.

“This is gonna be either really good or really bad,” Bryke said dryly.

It took all Vivis had not to snort as she heard Zevortro hit Bryke’s head. As if they need anyone to say that. They all knew the score, and they all knew how this planet had been treating them. That meant that the answer was going to be both.

Terra looked down at the patch of purple metal, not believing what she was seeing. There was something about that shade that bothered her. It was there, something about it that she just couldn’t understand or remember. It was out of reach, taunting her but she couldn't see it. Then she did, and then she went still. The answer she found shocked and confused her, why hadn't...... They hadn’t looked into the ground beneath their feet. They had just acted under the assumption that everything was fine! That was an error in judgment that might have gotten people killed in the past!

“So I knew I had to call you ma’am! This is important, right?” Jones said respectfully.

That caused her to almost snarl. She knew that Jones was a lot of things, but respectful wasn’t one of them. The way that she had seen him act back on the Spirit was all the answer that she needed to know. The times she had seen him take to task people who were under him for tasks! And with the shadow of what had happened to the team he went out with.

“Yeah it is,” Terra said as she looked around. She dropped down and felt the metal, frowning as she did. The metal felt hard, like that piece of hull she felt during a workshop back on the Spirit. It had been a lecture for Deckhands about what the engineering staff did. The only reason she remembered it was because it was last week for her. But what she couldn’t get was why the metal was there. It would have taken so long……. She went still and slowly stood up.

“What is it?” Jones asked as he watched her.

Terra ignored him as she looked at the crater. Then she slowly turned to gaze at the trees, and then she looked down. A strange and terrible thought suddenly came through her mind and made her freeze. "No."

“Terra?” Jones asked as she stood there.

Then without a word, she started moving. She ran to the crater and moved down, dashing into the capsule. She slammed open the door, startling Duncan who had been nodding off.

“What, Terra? What is it?” Duncan muttered.

Terra swallowed, knowing how her question was going to sound but she had to ask it. “Did we find any shovels or anything that can help us dig in the supplies?”

Duncan blinked and looked at her as he straightened up. “Yes. I was shocked when I found them but we do have them. Why?”

Terra looked at Duncan, and she still couldn’t say what was wrong. It was so out there, so insane but it fit. By the stars did it fit with what they knew? She was hoping that she was wrong, but she had a feeling that she wasn’t. “A discovery. Something that might make this place very bad to stay here longer. We might have to send out teams to find a place to make a camp. So we can evacuate this place.”

“What!?” Duncan asked in shock. Then he looked at her and almost fell out of his chair. “Wait! The civilians will never do that! They need more, someone else to help sell it!”

“You're right. I’ll grab sir Bradford!” Terra said with a nod.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Around the crater, most of the deckhands had gathered. Something was going on, something that had spooked Terra. He didn’t know what was going on, but Zevortro was going to be here to help. From what he heard, most of the others thought that Jones had done something. That man was not well-liked by anyone.

Terra had been down in the capsule for ten minutes when she came out, leading both Duncan and Sir Bradford. Sir Bradford was helping Duncan move, and Terra had four shovels in her hands and four on her back. She moved up the walls of the crater, nodding as she saw the deckhands.

“Good! You’re all here! I need eight of you all!” Terra called up as she

“Chief Duncan, can she order us around like this?” One of the other deckhands called down.

“She’s my new second in command! And she’s got a good reason for all this! At least she thinks so!” Duncan called up as Sir Bradford climbed up.

“Good reason or not, I want to see it! I want to know what reason you have!” Bradford declared and looked at Terra.

Terra only grabbed his hand, but stopped, moved away a step, and dropped the shovels from her back. “In a second sir. I want you four to grab a shovel, make a line, and dig out from the crater to the shield! Dig two feet down, a foot apart. Make it down two feet and nothing there, move past the one closet to the shield, and start digging again!”

Bryke looked at Terra, not sure what the woman was thinking. What could they find around the crater that they missed? But then he realized something that made him go still for a second. Then he looked around before he grabbed a shovel. He kept his gaze on Terra as she walked away before turning toward the others. “You heard the boss, time to move some soil! So I’ll go eight feet out!”

Walking over As he got to work, he heard three others move. As he pulled up his first shovelful of soil, he heard someone walk over to him.

“Mind telling me what’s got you so worried?” Zevortro asked with a sharp tongue.

Bryke looked up at him and scowled. “What are the rules of crash landing? What are we supposed to do above all else?”

“Make sure you’re landing…… oh. We never checked the site beyond a single visual sweep, didn’t we?” Zevortro said, his voice full of fear.

Bryke nodded as he dug into the earth. “Yeah. I think Jones found something that sparks whatever idea that has Terra so crazy. And I don’t think it’s going to be good for us if she’s right.”

“What could he do? What could……. Oh, Nova!” Zevortro said, his voice horse.

“What?” Bryke asked, his voice hard. He kept digging, but then his shovel felt something, something that felt metallic. He listened with one ear as he dropped down.

“Bradford fell backwards! I think he passed out in shock! I guess Terra’s worry was bigger than I thought!” Zevortro said with a shocked voice.

Bryke ignored him and moved his shovel slowly, revealing a purple metallic shard of metal. With a scowl he looked at it, trying to think. Terra must have found this over there. But why was it here too? This was artificial, and it was around most of the clearing. That had to be the reason the Pod trees hadn’t grown here. He touched it and to his shock, it felt a little like hull plating.

“Hey! I found something here!” The person next to Bryke cried out, shock in their voice.

Bryke ignored them as he moved the dirt away, looking at the purple shade. This had to be hull plating, but how had the escape capsule made a crater? The capsule would have crashed into this if it was as deep as a foot. What could have let them make a hole in the hull plate……

When Bryke figured out what Terra had feared, he saw his vision go dark.