“Good to see you up, Xard,” Nathym greeted the man now sitting on the edge of his bunk when he returned from the other room. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I was hit with a meteor,” the redhead huffed. “My hand seems to be healing, but it hurts like zjik. And my body's aching all over. Head’s getting better, but everything’s a little blurry at the moment.”
“Well here, this will help with your hand,” The Engineer grabbed a pack off the wall and chucked it over. “It’s a salve imbued with Alk’s blood. Should numb the pain while it heals.”
“And I’ve brought news. The scans finished up. Good news first, we got a ping on the Nathyum… that still sounds stupid to me. We know where the power source is. It’s not too far, and should be a relatively short trip on the hoverpucks. Bad news is that the atmosphere is worse than we suspected, and definitely deadlier, almost like it’s eroding.”
“This planet may not be far from becoming entirely barren and inhospitable. While that’s not particularly a concern for us right now, it does limit potential trips and experiments in the future. There may not be much to salvage, and it’ll likely kill any plans for a base here, or a resort like Kada wants.”
“What that means for us, though, is what we already knew. If you go outside, you need to keep your helmet on at all times and keep your suit from getting damaged, not that it’s easy to tarnish. Direct skin contact should still mostly be fine as long as you’re not exposed for too long. However, it basically just means that our survivability as Fiends here isn’t as optimistic as I would have liked in an emergency, but hopefully it won’t become an issue.”
“Likewise, I’ve also been unable to find life of any kind, even under the surface, at least as deep as the sensors will go. So whatever sort of creature or society existed is likely long gone. I doubt we’ll see any aliens today. And I’m going to go ahead and guess that you’re not planning to come on this expedition, Xard.”
“No, not at the moment at least,” The Artillery laid back in his bunk as the pain in his hand started to fade.
“Yes, I agree that it’s the best call,” Nathym nodded. “You should stay here and rest. But when you’re up for it, I’d appreciate it if you could head into the lab. Keep an eye on the monitors for us in case something unexpected happens. I also have a list of tests to perform while we’re here if you don’t mind running some. It’s pretty much all automated, but there will be a checklist of tasks to help it along.”
“Sure, I don’t mind, just give me a few minutes,” Xard waved his undamaged hand. “And I’ll get to work on building some energy back, just in case.”
“Of course, and do keep an eye on Ahvra as well,” her ‘assistant’ requested. “You can let her rest for now, but when you’re up and about, give her one of these injections. It should start waking her up naturally, so she won’t feel as zjikky as the rest of us do.”
“Right then, I guess it’ll just be you and me, Senli. Or are you having second thoughts? Something seems to be bothering you.”
“Oh, uhh, it’s nothing specific,” the girl wondered what her face looked like to cause him to worry. “But the planet did speak to me. It said this place is really dangerous, though it didn’t explain why. And it wants us to leave as soon as we can.”
“Hmm, it’s probably talking about the environment,” Nathym speculated. “But we shouldn’t have any issues there. Still, we won’t linger longer than we need to if it can be helped, and we’ll take every precaution we can. Thank you, Senli, please continue to keep your ears open for any more advice. That said, if you’re worried, you’re welcome to stay back. I don’t mind heading out on my own.”
“N-no it’s fine,” the girl insisted. “I came all this way, so I’d hate myself if I chickened out now.”
“Alright, we’ll head out in a few minutes,” the team leader gave his directive. “But first, we should eat something. You may not be hungry, but this will be our last chance for something solid. Our suits have tubes for food and water, but it’s not exactly pleasant, and we can’t remove our helmets out there to eat normally. Getting something down will also help ease the queasiness from the trip.”
The two of them took off their helmets and ate some nutrition bars at the small table together. They tossed one to Xard as well, but he merely caught it and set it by his side as he draped his good arm over his eyes. It wasn’t the best meal, but it was surprisingly easy to chew and moist in the mouth, as if the bars were specifically designed to be consumed with as minimal effort as possible.
And what Nathym had said was true. Senli’s stomach immediately felt a lot better, and her overall condition was a bit more stable. Then with their helmets put back on and a scan of their suits to ensure pressurization, the two of them finally headed outside to the surface of P2.
First, there was a brief glimpse through the window in the airlock, but all they could see was more of the green ground. “Oh wow, the sky’s red,” was the first observation Senli had made once they made it out of their bunker. She hadn’t really noticed during their descent because of all the chaos.
“Well, not entirely,” Nathym looked a bit higher as the looming red shifted into the black void of space with stars twinkling in the distance. “That’s definitely because of the thinning atmosphere.”
“I can’t even tell if it’s supposed to be night or day,” the girl glanced around, looking for a sun. There wasn’t one that she could spot, at least not like how it was on Rathe. There were stars brighter than the others, and what appeared to be a couple of moons, but none of it was really allowing for much illumination, yet they could still see well enough. Maybe their helmets corrected the brightness a bit.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Well, we haven’t even been gone an hour,” Nathym looked at the time, or at least what it would be back home. “Though time almost feels irrelevant now. We didn’t do enough study on the time cycles here to understand what constitutes an hour or even a day or week. Let’s try not to stay here long enough that it becomes an issue.”
The man held up his arm and tapped a few buttons on the wrist panel—essentially a built-in tablet that let him control all the functions. A few orbs detached from their mobile home and flew over to the two of them.
“Are those some of Chorus' cameras?” Senli inquired. “Is this going to be turned into another show?” She was suddenly starting to feel a bit shyer than normal.
“Yes and no,” Nathym gave the quick answer and then elaborated. “They’re basically more of the same cameras, but I brought these along myself. They’ll be performing scans as we progress, and I want this entire adventure documented for later research. If our producer is able to utilize it for content, then good for them, I suppose. But I don’t care either way.”
“Of course, anything relating to Project Fiendless would have to be stripped until it’s launched. That has to remain confidential, as the waiver I made you sign states. It’s too bad I’ve never been able to recreate the curse inflicted on Eleen Drazah that prohibits her from leaking details about that woman. I’d very much like to do the same with us and speaking to outsiders about the project. But everyone’s kept their lips tight so far, and if this mission is a success, it won’t be a problem for much longer.”
“Will it actually do everything you say?” Senli found herself asking unconsciously, immediately regretting her words. She didn’t mean to cause any discourse or doubt in their present circumstances.
“Yes it will,” The Engineer answered with confidence. “Or else my life’s work will have been a waste. And it’s not just everything I’ve told you so far, there’s so many small things too that will change the world. It won’t stop there either. Really, it’s just the beginning. Once it’s in place, there’s limitless possibility and potential for growth.”
“Drim may hate Fiends, or rather how they’re created. But with each new one we have access to, or rather, their blood, that’s all the more good we can do. Though it’s only a matter of time before it’s used against us. So we need to complete our project before someone else does.”
“And don’t feel bad about asking questions, Senli,” the man gave her a smile through his helmet. “That’s how we get answers and improve. If you have any more, I’ll be happy to oblige on the way. But we should get moving. Maybe the warning from the planet was a bit more serious than I thought. I don’t know about you, but the longer we stand out here, the more an eerie dread starts to set in.”
“Perhaps it’s because we’re so close to our goal, but now I can’t shake this feeling that something’s going to go wrong.”
“I get what you mean, but don’t go doubting everything now,” the girl refuted. “Or you’ll start making me worry too.”
“Of course,” Nathym didn’t argue, and he set down two hover pucks. The pair hopped aboard and they finally started their journey.
“Ugh, was that food like super heavy or something?” Senli whimpered mere minutes into the trip. “I feel so sluggish.”
“It’s the gravity,” her companion elaborated. “While not too much more than Rathe, it’s still noticeable over time, and is why these traveling pucks are so important. It wasn’t enough to warrant special training, but everything will take just a bit more energy than we’re used to.”
That wasn’t the only observation they made during their trek. The planet's greenness became obvious rather quickly. It wasn’t due to any foliage, but the ground itself was entirely green, almost like a rust covering the planet. In fact there was almost no plant life at all. And when they did finally come across some of the aforementioned coral, Nathym asked that they stop briefly to inspect it.
“Is it saying anything?” Nathym asked as he took some scrapings from later study. “I’m not hurting it, am I?”
🪸…🪸
“No, it’s not saying anything at all,” Senli did her best to hear a whisper. Normally, when an object realized it could hear her, it was basically impossible to keep them from running their metaphorical mouths. “I think it’s dead.”
“That would explain why it’s so dry and seems so rotten,” The Engineer deduced. “It doesn’t seem too far off from our coral, though. Makes me wonder if most of the world was originally covered in water. But I’m no biologist. Better saved for Ahvra when she wakes up.”
Though speaking of water, it wasn’t much longer until they actually came across some. They had to traverse through a massive crater to get to their location because going around it would have taken that much longer. And at the very center was a still pool of water, practically a puddle. Like the coral, Nathym briefly hopped off to collect a sample, filling up a vial from his suit’s built-in pack.
“Just from a quick scan, this definitely isn’t potable, even for Fiends,” Nathym shook the vial a bit. “In fact, I’d say it’d be worse than the deadliest poisons.”
🏞️Don’t listen to him, I don’t stink. Come now girl, give me a drink.🏞️
“Uhh, I think the water might just be straight up evil,” Senli came to a quick conclusion. “It really wants me to drink it.”
“Hmm, evil water, how about that,” the man stowed the vial and they continued towards their destination. It wasn’t much farther, and when they approached, their helmets focused in on the signal they were tracking, putting markers on the shimmering rocks in the distance.
“Wow, so it’s actually here!” Nathym’s words were almost breathless, clearly astounded as they approached. He hopped off the puck, unable to contain his excitement any longer, running the last few hundred feet towards the sparkling gems at the mouth of the dark cave. “This is it! The key to all of our hopes and dreams!”
Senli wasn’t in as much of a rush, so she continued to hover along beside him. But once she hopped off back onto the ground, another warning echoed into her ears.
🟢You see that cave, don’t you dare go inside! Down in those dark depths, only death doth reside.🟢