April 2nd
Quentin
“To tell you the truth, those Qarri were giving me the creeps,” Scarlett said as she shivered. We were watching an old movie about some aliens invading Earth, which meant pretty much most science fiction movies from the fifties.
“That they do,” I replied before looking over at Gruma who was brushing her hair. “Good thing we’re nearing Besmen. After this, we’ll be back on Earth.”
“Thank God for that!” Scarlett shouted with sheer joy. While she told me before that she was still nervous, it was still relatively safe. Compared to slaver empires and random disasters, that is.
We continued watching the show before Harry barged through the door and shouted, “Everyone, to the escape pods! Someone has sabotaged our fuel tanks!” Right as he shouted that, the ship violently rocked.
As Harry and Gruma ran to the air lock, I grabbed Mr. Black as Scarlett grabbed Dr. Octavia. It didn’t take long for us to congregate in the airlock with our SADs. The ship’s rocking worsened, hastening our actions.
“Harry, Gruma, get in this escape pod! It has the highest chance of hitting a major settlement on Besmen!” I shouted as I hurriedly typed in the coordinates. I would have to thank Harry later for teaching me. They nodded before getting into the pod. As the door shut, I slammed my fist down on the escape pod. Right as I lifted my hand, the ship rocked again, sending me to the floor through its sheer force. Their pod shot down, which meant part of my job was done.
“Ship, set a crash-landing for a major city on Besmen! We need to be able—” I started before I was rudely interrupted by a snap next to my ear, which rung for a bit. I turned to see that it was Scarlett.
“Earth to Quentin, we need to escape!” she shouted before pressing the button on another escape pod. I looked around to see that Mr. Black and Octavia were nowhere to be seen. She looked at me and said, “I took some initiative. Now then, let’s get into our escape pod before it’s too late!”
We turned to run towards an escape pod, but it appeared that we wasted too much time. The violent shaking wouldn’t relent, making it impossible to get off the ground. It only took a nasty rock to send us careening into different escape pods.
“Emergency release procedures activated!” the ship shouted before shooting out our escape pods. I barely had to time to see Scarlett’s escape pod shoot out of the ship before I noticed a nasty explosion fire off from the ship. It then went silent as it glided towards the planet below. I gasped, but at that moment, a mysterious gas filled the pod. It didn’t appear to harm me or weaken my breathing, but it made me feel very tired.
Speaking of tired, I was sure a little nap wasn’t going to be too harmful. Worst case scenario, it was carbon monoxide poisoning. In which case, it’d be a peaceful death. My eyes closed shut as I fell deep asleep.
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My consciousness slowly returned to me as the mysterious gas seemed to disappear. Once I was fully awake, the pod’s hatch opened to reveal a mysterious new planet. I climbed out to see a beautiful sight surrounding me. Alien trees with broad leaves of red filled my view as several flying reptiles passed by my view. Those flying reptiles seemed to be between the size of birds and bats.
One of the flying reptiles landed next to me and flicked its tongue. I just stared at it as it quizzically looked at me before flying away. If it was to have a name, I’d call it a Dwarf Dragon. I probably just committed an act of cultural appropriation, but it was only because I didn’t want to call it a flying lizard until I figured out its name.
That left me with the matter at hand. I was stranded on Besmen, far removed from everyone else. Scratching my chin, I pondered aloud, “Perhaps tracking down the others would be possible through my SAD. Or maybe I should locate the spaceship. I guess there’s only one way to find out.” I turned on my SAD and asked, “Can you locate the others for me?”
The machine made a weak beep before answering, “Due to the lack of satellite networks near this planet, my range is severely limited. However, I was able to locate Scarlett’s position. Would you like me to guide you to her?”
“Yes, please,” I said to it, ignoring the fact that I didn’t need to say “please” to a machine.
“Go north for five hundred feet,” the machine ordered. I nodded and proceeded to walk forward five hundred feet. “Look to your right,” the machine said. I did as it told and was staring face-to-face with Scarlett. I jumped back in startlement, making her chuckle.
“Boo!” she shouted as she continued laughing.
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I looked at my SAD and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me she was right there? You could’ve said she was close by!”
“You wanted me to lead you towards her, so I gave her exact position,” it replied in a matter-of-fact voice. I should’ve known better. My CS 2301 professor always told me that computers were dumb. They did exactly what you told them to do, nothing more and nothing less.
I looked back at my foxy girlfriend and quickly composed myself. “Scarlett, how long have you been here?”
She tapped her chin before answering, “It depends. If from the moment I landed, about five minutes. If from the moment I stood here, five seconds. You see, I planned to scare you. Not in the way I did, but I was going to do it somehow. Probably by dropping down from a tree or popping out of a bush.”
“I can see that you recovered from learning you can’t become human again,” I said as it seemed she was happier than usual. It was something barely visible, but I could see a light in her eyes that was missing before today.
She placed a hand on my shoulder and said, “I am human. I just can’t look normal again. It’s not the answer I wanted, but it’s something I can get used to. With a definitive answer like that, the foxwoman staring back at me through the mirror became recognizable as myself. And you showed me that I wasn’t hideous, but rather beautiful. Something that finally clicked when I took a few seconds to think about it. All I desire now is to be reunited with my family. Even if they can’t accept what I became, they’ll at least know what happened to me.”
“Good to know,” I replied with a smile as I ran my hand through her hair. A smile graced her muzzle as she started stroking my short hair. I stopped and asked, “Do you have any plans? I was planning on finding the remains of our spaceship. From there, we can attempt to defend it until we get Harry to help us. It may take a while considering our SADs have a limited range.”
She shrugged and said, “It’s not like I have a better plan. It’s definitely better than attempting to bumble our way to a major settlement and freaking them out.”
With that said, I set my SAD to track the ship, only to for it to send a weak ping from the northwest. “I’m sorry, Quentin, but the signal is too weak,” it announced. However, before I could start heading off, Scarlett tapped me on the shoulder. I could see that her ears were twitching towards the east.
“There’s a thunderous horde coming over from the east. I don’t know if they’re Taraxians riding horse-like creatures or a stampede,” she explained before jabbing her claws into a tree’s trunk. She quickly climbed up it, her claws keeping her safe. By the time I could hear the horde, she was already sitting on a branch above my head. She hung upside down from the tree with her hands outstretched. “Grab on! I’ll get us to safety!” I obliged and grabbed her arms.
She grabbed my arms as well and swung us onto the large branch she was hanging from. No sooner did she do that than a massive swarm approached us. Looking down, I could see that it consisted of what must’ve been hundreds of small mammalians that looked like a cross between a rat and a cat. The swarm was snarling everywhere as they sniffed the air. All at once, they set their sights on us. A ferocious shriek echoed throughout the forest as the creatures attempted to jump at us.
Despite all the dangers I came across, this one was a primal fear. The thought of being devoured by animals was horrifying. I quickly fired my neurons as I brainstormed. “We need some area damage attack to kill multiple of them as well as send fear through their ranks,” I pondered aloud as Scarlett also tapped her chin.
“I remember reading something from a book that Amanda gave me,” she said as she maneuvered to the other side of the tree. She kicked off her socks and shoes before jabbing her foot claws into the tree. With a backup, she was free to grab a knife from her waist and started cutting the branch next to her. It was at that moment that I remembered how strong we had to be. She easily pulled me onto the branch, which meant she could pick me up without too much of an issue. I wasn’t that heavy, but it was still impressive.
Despite only having a knife, it didn’t take too long for her to cut through the branch. She let gravity take effect as she slid back over to me. I could hear the branch snap against the ground before buzzing echoed across the forest. She shocked me by picking me up in a bridal carry and jumped across the branches on the trees. In that sense, we were fortunate that unlike Earth trees, the branches here were extremely thick and close together. Screeching came from where we were as the insects seemed to be killing the mammals. As that chilling thought went through my brain, I noticed Scarlett smiling at me.
It was slightly embarrassing to be in this position. Normally, men carried their girlfriends like this. It being the other way around right now was weird. I shook my head. We were both strong despite not looking the part. It made sense that she would be able to carry me without me being a wimp. There was only one question left in my mind. “You read that book when you were nine?” I asked.
She nervously chuckled. “Yes. I was too young to understand the nuance and just thought it was a cool action novel about a girl defeating all her opponents and getting the boy. I thought it would’ve been cool to be in games like those. Looking back, I should consider myself lucky I didn’t end up in a gladiator arena.”
“You should,” I replied as we soon reached a clearing. Since there was no sign of the swarm, we descended the tree and continued walking. Scarlett winced every so often and I could see that it was whenever she stepped on thorns or a pointy rock. “Don’t you have paws?” I asked as I remembered my dogs would get hurt, but not too badly.
“Yes, but I don’t intend to let them swell up. I still want to wear shoes,” she replied before watching her step. After a few minutes, she said, “I hope you don’t get angry, but I lost our direction. I have no idea where we’re going.”
I froze in my tracks before sending a glare towards her. Her ears pinned against her head as her tail fled between her legs. She combined that with a human facial expression of fear as she shouted, “I’m sorry! Hordes of man-eating animals made me more concerned about leaving than knowing where we were going!”
I sighed as I slumped my shoulders. “I’m sorry. I’m just really on edge now. It’s not your fault. However, until we find the ship, it’s going to be survival. We must be ready for anything.”