Fiolas took the lead with the beacon and they worked in the confines of the hallways to orient themselves with the beacon and where they were in relation to it. The panel with the tracking signal worked but was one of the most primitive maps Keisha had ever worked with. She was impressed Fiolas could figure anything out in relation to it. The reworking of the beacon had taken significantly less time to put together than Keisha had thought and now they needed to decide if they were going to venture out and find the cargo hold, or camp out for the night here in relative safety and give themselves an entire day to find the cargo hold.

"We have roughly half a day left which we could use to scout out the whereabouts of the hold. It can't be too far, we detached it right next to the hole in the web." Fiolas was in the middle of arguing with himself, "It could also be in an extremely dangerous place in regards to the beasts and then we would find ourselves out there in the pitch black with no way to guide us back here." He started chewing his lip again. Keisha had heard him going back and forth for a while now.

"One problem at a time remember?" Keisha said. "We have to get to that cargo hold and time is a big factor in saving all of those colonists' lives. By risking ourselves now, we could save thousands. By playing it safe for us we put them all at risk. For all we know they're planning on landing tonight."

"For all we know, they may have already landed and died!" Fiolas practically yelled. She had never seen Fiolas this worked up. This entire disaster he had been cool and collected. Calculating their next move and now they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't.

"There's no way for us to choose this," Keisha said. "We're rolling a die."

"What?" he looked at her as though she had lost her mind.

"There is no good option here and both of us are going to be wracked with guilt if we choose the wrong one. So we're going to take the choice out of our hands and put it into the hands of fate." Keisha stood resolutely. "As the senior officer here, that is the decision we're doing." She hoped she looked more confident than she felt.

The silence dragged out a bit more before Fiolas finally said, "Fine. We can't keep sitting here arguing about what we're going to do. Do you even have a die?"

"Yes, it was a gift from my dad." She pulled a crystal blue die with six sides out of her pocket. "Evens we stay and prepare for a big trip tomorrow, Odds we go out there and scout out the hold and if we can get there before dark, we do."

"Deal, roll it on the table in the mess hall. It could get lost on the floor in here." They went around the corner and opened the doors to the mess hall and Keisha rolled the die.

"Five," Keisha said. "Let's move out."

Outside the ship, they decided to stick together this time. Knives out while they walked, Fiolas leading the way, and Keisha kept an eye out behind them. Fiolas still had the plasma gun, but without a way to charge it, he figured they only had a couple of shots left. The beacon worked perfectly and led them straight to it. Though they took several turns from a straight path to it to avoid the trap door spiders they had seen.

They found the trees to be the safest way to avoid them and they reached the blinking light of the cargo hold after only an hour and a half of walking. Keisha had been marking the trees with her knife as they went so if they couldn't get there they had a way to get back to the ship. The only problem was it was stuck in the upper canopy straight above them. They would have to climb to reach it, but if it wasn't compromised they would be able to sleep in the container for the night.

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"Any ideas?" Keisha asked. Fiolas looked tired, and she wondered if that's how she looked. They still had the rope but had used all their climbing anchors on the tree they came down from. "Let's find the lowest branch first." They walked around the base of the enormous tree, they wouldn't even be able to touch hands if they both tried to hug the tree.

"We have to get up there somehow. We don't have time to get back before dark now." Fiolas grabbed a stick and tied one end of the rope to it and tossed it over the branch. They decided Fiolas go first so he could pull Keisha up and had more upper body strength. In this manner, they made it up to the first branch and worked their way up until the branches became close enough together they could start pulling themselves up. The day was getting late and the gray light was getting darker.

"We need to get into that cargo hold before we rest." They were both winded and tired from climbing. The idea of sleeping unprotected out here was unthinkable. Keisha didn't want to think about what they would do if the cargo hold had been compromised. Exhausted, they planned out their next two climbs. They had made it so they were just a few more climbs to the cargo hold. They didn't know what was waiting for them at the top and they wanted to be able to get to the hold without having to talk. The route they took led them up to two side branches that were supporting the cargo hold.

The hold had been jettisoned while they were trying to take off and had fallen with the main door jammed against a huge branch and the auxiliary door on top. They reached the branch supporting the cargo hold and Fiolas took the first leap over and landed with a huge thud. The sudden sound disturbed the peace of the forest and Keisha could swear she saw monsters moving all around them. She jumped over and tried to land as quietly as she could. In the stillness of this planet, it resounded like a gong, telling everything exactly where they were.

"Get in the cargo hold now!" Fiolas whispered as loudly as he could. He was looking at something behind her and Keisha didn't wait to find out what. She ran to the hatch and started turning the round handle but it was stuck tight. She heard the plasma gun go off and heard an unnatural scream. She chanced a look over at Fiolas who now had his knife out and was swinging it towards the huge monster dangling from a single string. It didn't seem as though the string should be strong enough to hold that thing.

It looked as though Fiolas had hit the thing in the abdomen and it was only a small puncture wound on it. The beast was scrambling and every time Fiolas hit it with the knife the thing shrieked and would swing back and forth like a pendulum. Keisha kicked the round door handle with all her might. Another kick. She heard Fiolas yell. Another kick. This time the handle moved ever so slightly. Another kick. The handle became unstuck and she flung the hatch open.

"Fiolas!" She looked over just in time to see the monster grab Fiolas and sink its teeth into his thigh. Keisha watched horrified as Fiolas went limp in the creature's front legs. "NO!" The creature paused wrapping Fiolas in its terrible string and looked at her with its endless black eyes. She needed to make a decision fast. Either save herself now and get into the cargo hold and finish their mission or try to save Fiolas, if he wasn't dead already and most likely die in the process.

She jumped in the cargo hold. She couldn't let anyone land here. Fiolas would want her to save the thousands of settlers who were on their way here. As she grabbed the handle to close the hatch she saw the thing finish twisting Fiolas up in its thread and dragging him up into the canopy. She closed the hatch and dropped to the floor.

With the hatch closed, it was pitch black inside the cargo hold and Keisha let her shame and disgust envelop her. How could she let that thing take him? It was his worst nightmare come true, and she had just watched it happen. Her body reeled from the scene that had taken place and she relived it over and over again. Time meant nothing in the blackness of that place. Keisha collapsed on what she thought of as the ground and let the waves of grief sweep over her.

She wasn't sure how long she sat in that state, letting the blackness of the hold seep into the darkness of the one memory of Fiolas going limp into the beast's clutches. After what felt like ages Keisha remembered what she needed to do. "One problem at a time, right Fiolas?" she said to herself and switched her torch on.