Morning came quickly for Madeline but slow for the Numiteru, both being used to vastly different day-night cycles.

It was also time for breakfast, and a momentous hunger suddenly struck Madeline; her last meal was on the Silutek, which roughly translated to star glider.

She wasted no time; taking a large flat stone, she dumped it unceremoniously on the fire and watched as the damp soil curled and crumbled away. It would do as a makeshift grill, but she was confident the leaves would be chewy and unfulfilling.

“No matter, woman, you’re in survival mode now; satisfying is for later,” Madeline told herself.

It was not only Madeline who was being proactive, inspired by her confidence and determined not to be dead weight or passive observers. The Numiteru started to gather more of the plant Madeline had singled out the night before.

Madeline smiled, “They just might make it after all.”

That had to be the most boring thirty minutes of her life. Chewing those flavourless leaves, chewing and chewing. The only thing that made the experience even remotely memorable was the envy Madeline had felt at the Numiteru.

For their part, they had enjoyed their breakfast, comparing it to a crispy vutle leaf, whatever that was.

***

Fortunately, that was over now, they were back on the move, and Madeline was once again the subject of awe. Casually lifting fallen logs out of the way, helping Tarin and Tarit over large boulders. Tazil, due to his smaller size and lower weight, found it easier than his parents.

After another compliment, Madeline realised that she needed to be careful; all this praise could quickly lead to a bloated ego, which was the last thing she needed. She had heard the stories of humans landing on theoretically less dangerous worlds than Earth and meeting grizzly ends.

More wildlife showed itself during their trek, and Madeline finally noticed that all land animals had six legs, just like that gecko iguana she had encountered yesterday. She wondered why that was; you would think the lower gravity would lead to fewer legs than Earth, not more.

Then again, evolution never had a plan; she supposed that was just how things went on this planet.

Another annoyance reared its head during the journey. The Numiteru had already used up their entire supply of food. As it turned out, the less intense and more plentiful environment on their homeworld had meant they had never needed to evolve the complex energy storage mechanisms that, pretty much, all Earth life had.

This meant they, and most likely all the other survivors, had the marvellous quality of needing to eat at least seven times a day, and that was merely to avoid starvation, not to remain healthy.

Madeline had let out a long breath after that revelation. She had only been spared that agony yesterday because of the survival rations and the family toughing it out.

“No matter, I will adapt,” Madeline told herself, unsure whether she believed it. They should have mentioned it earlier; she would have gathered more supplies, but what was done was done; no point complaining about it.

“Next time, don’t keep that kind of information from me,” Madeline explained, keeping her voice level.

“We will,” Tarin, Tarit and Tazil replied.

***

Noon came and went, and they were finally approaching their next destination. At this rate, she would never save them all, and Madeline felt she just needed to come to terms with that.

“You’re not Superman; you can’t save everyone; just focus on what you can do,” she told herself. “If you can just save these three, you will have done great”, she added. This had become a mantra she repeated every time some new obstacle presented itself.

On the bright side, no predators yet, or rather none that could threaten them. A small frog-like creature had pounced on an even smaller lizard about a mile back, which had shocked the Numiteru somewhat.

They just weren’t as used to seeing the rules of nature as Deathworlders were. No brutal nature documentaries on habitable worlds, she supposed. Not that Madeline had been entirely unaffected, she did feel bad for the animal that had been eaten.

Madeline was brought out of her thought by a troublesome log. Tarin and Tarit would struggle to climb over it, so she tried to lift it.

She failed; it was simply too heavy; Madeline could move it, get it about thirty centimetres off the ground, but by that point, her arms screamed in protest, and she gave up.

“I don’t suppose you two could give me a hand?” asked Madeline, holding out very little hope.

“No, but we can lend you two pairs of tusks”, replied Tarit, with a faint bellowing sound.

They told Madeline to start lifting again, and once she had gotten the log going, they placed their two bottom tusks underneath the fallen trunk and heaved.

The log moved higher and higher, to Madeline’s pleasant surprise, until she had enough leverage to remove it from their path. She felt pain in her shoulder and knew she had just pulled something that was going to suck.

Madeline looked at the trio and smiled, habitableworlders they may have been, but they were not entirely helpless.

In the distant past, The Numiteru had used their tusks to dig around for roots and tubers during their planet’s dry season, or what passed for a dry season anyway. When it came down to it, sun-baked mud was sun-baked mud no matter what world you were on, and it did require some strength to crack.

As a response, the Numiteru had developed exaggerated shoulder muscles. Hence their hunched-over appearance. And while gram for gram, Madeline’s muscles were far stronger; the Numiteru made up for this in quantity.

They could move about twenty kilograms with their necks alone, true even an out-of-shape human could do that if they wanted, but almost none of them could do it with their neck. While none at all could do it with the twisting motions, the Numiteru utilised.

“Thanks,” said Madeline, a smile on her face

“Don’t mention it”, said Tarin.

Roger pinged a few more metres along the trail they were making; the quartet were almost at the second lifepod. Madeline glimpsed some white through the trees. Filled with new energy, everyone made a bee-line for their destination.

Careful not to leave them behind, Madeline finally reached the pod, and her heart sank. The parachute and thrusters had been deployed just like her own lifepod.

Swallowing hard, Madeline decided she would not assume the worst and approached. Rapping hard on the door, Madeline called out, “Hello, my name is Madeline; I’m with some other survivors; you’re gonna be fine.”

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There was no reply.

Madeline banged on the pod’s side again, and once more, she heard nothing, no hushed whispers or quiet whimpering.

Tazil approached, Madeline’s worry was infectious, and he managed to squeak out, “There’s an emergency release on the side there.”

Madeline followed his outstretched finger and found it.

“Everyone stand back”, she ordered and was dutifully obeyed.

She took in a deep breath and pulled the release mechanism. Explosive bolts fired, and the door was blown off its hinges.

Without wasting a moment, Madeline peered inside and, after just a second, could look no more.

They were dead, entirely broken by the shock of their descent and sudden landing. The aliens’ segmented bodies were hanging from their restraints, like a man dangling from a noose.

Madeline looked at Tarin, Tarit and Tazil, and they knew what had happened without saying a word being spoken. The logical part of Madeline’s mind knew that they should gather up the supplies in the pod and make for the next destination, but that seemed too callous to her.

She allowed time for the shock to wear off; the first death on this world was something they knew was a possibility, hell pretty much guaranteed. Even so, it was still a lot to take in; this was supposed to be a luxury cruise.

“What do we do?” asked Tarit.

Madeline rubbed her forehead; once again, she knew the logical choice, just move on. She would not entertain it. However, they were not animals, and their situation did not eliminate that fact.

“Does anyone know their funeral customs?” asked Madeline.

“What are they?” asked Tazil; Madeline realised that only she had seen the bodies.

Madeline could not quite remember the name of the species, Filad, Filig, or something like that. They were insectoid in overall appearance, similar to a devil’s coach horse, only with four pairs of legs rather than three.

Their exoskeleton was a beautiful iridescent green, and their eyes, even dead, shone like rainbows.

Madeline described all this to the group, and Tazil said, “Fupilick, I go to school with one.”

“Do you know what to do?” asked Madeline.

Tazil searched his memory; it was a rare thing to ask another about what they did with their dead, but Tazil was an unusual boy, and there was pretty much no question he would not ask.

“Yes, it took a bit of prying, but Zizi told me they are interred in mass graves,” said Tazil.

“So we just need to bury them together?” asked Madeline.

“No, they are buried alongside thousands of other individuals, so their ancestors can lead them to the next life”, explained Tazil.

“We have no other choice; if we leave them above ground, they will just decay into nothing or be picked apart by animals by the time rescue arrives”, stated Madeline. “If they’re buried, the damp ground might just preserve them long enough to get a decent funeral”, she added.

It was unlikely; their bodies lacked much of the rigid materials like collagen and keratin that Madeline’s had; even so, a minimal chance was better than none.

With no tools, Madeline resorted to large branches to scratch out a grave; the Numiteru lent their tusks to the task, though they needed frequent breaks.

As Madeline pulled up a stubborn root, her hands caked in soil; she heard a branch snap. It was faint, and at first, she was going to put it down to a freak occurrence. There was no doubt many large herbivores in this forest; Madeline supposed it would spot the pod and the aliens surrounding it and meander away.

She was just about to get back to work when she heard another noise, this one closer, and there was far more than just one, and Madeline was no longer willing to ignore it.

“We’ve got company”, she called out.

Madeline ordered everyone to hide behind the pod, though it was only slightly larger than the one Madeline had descended in. It was just big enough to hide all four of them, as long as the Numiteru smushed themselves together.

Carefully peering around the circular object, she scanned the forest for the slightest hint of movement.

She was counting on her, apparently, superior eyesight to allow her to see them long before they saw her. Madeline entered a stillness she did not know she was capable of, and it greatly unnerved the Numiteru; they had all seen the images from history class.

Tazil could remember the video they had watched. The Watuluk, holding still, ready to pounce on its victim, though they had not shown the Coup de grâce.

On the other hand, having Madeline stand between them and whatever was approaching was incredible, like having a tyrannosaurus rex as your guardian.

Then she relaxed, all tension vanishing, “We’re fine”, she explained, walking into view of the new arrivals.

Tarit, Tarin and Tazil did the same cautiously as first, and their hearts nearly exploded with joy. They were other survivors from the attack, two dozen of them at least.

Leading the group was a two-meter tall bipedal, semi-mammalian, semi-reptilian creature that Madeline recognised as the cruise liner’s doctor. She had spent more than enough time conversing with him during quarantine.

Diduk recognised her; his facial chromatophores shone a calming blue, indicating happiness. “I should have known you would have survived, Madeline.”

Diduk was an Etulana from a Class 8 habitable world, making him the second hardiest species on the ship.

Class 8 (H) and above were those beginning to approach Deathworld status but did not quite make the cut; diseases were just not lethal enough, and the weather was just not as extreme. They were by no means paradises. Even a Deathworlder, even a human, could be killed on a Class 8(H) if they were not careful.

From what Madeline understood, it would be like trying to survive in New Zealand, generally pleasant, but you still needed to keep your wits about you.

Madeline held out her hand and shook it; as part of his training, he needed to learn about everything about the different greetings of other species.

“Just you four?” asked Diduk. He glanced over Madeline’s shoulder and saw the bodies of the Fupilick. “Shit, not again”, he whispered.

Madeline nodded mournfully, “we were burying them before you arrived; if it is not too much trouble, we could use some help”, she explained.

Diduk agreed, and the more physically able amongst them finished the task. Once it was complete, a few token words were said, and their attention turned to saving the rest.

“How did you find all of them so quickly?” asked Madeline.

“Luck mostly, the pods landed within just a few hundred meters of one another, so it took us less than a day to gather everyone”, explained Diduk. “Unfortunately, just as many were dead as alive. I would wager we’ll not find many more before the air filters break down or they run out of food”, he added.

Madeline rubbed her face; she was overjoyed that so many had survived but was heartbroken at the thought of those people dying in a cold metal box, gasping out their last, or feeling their stomachs devour themselves.

“That being said, with you here, we may just have a chance”, stated Diduk.

“What’s your plan?” asked Madeline, desperate to cling to any hope.

“You and your kind have an endurance that borders on the godlike”, stated Diduk, pointing at Madeline with his clawed hand.

“You’re exaggerating,” replied Madeline, rubbing the back of her neck, trying hard to hold back her blush.

“I know it does not seem that way to you, but to us, it is the truth”, explained Diduk.

He pulled out his P.D.A.; it was far bulkier than hers, marking it as an industrial model meant for business instead of personal use. “Look!” he said.

Madeline gazed at the screen; it gave far more information than her own, and she could see all the life pods.

Just as Diduk had said, she could see the Numiteru’s and her pod isolated to the south, whereas there was a large cluster of them to the east, which had been Diduk’s group.

There was one major group to the Northwest; Madeline saw twenty-three life pods clustered within two hundred metres of one another.

Madeline knew what Diduk was getting at.

“You want me to run all the way there, gather up the other survivors and meet you halfway,” stated Madeline.

“More or less yes,” replied Diduk, tapping the sides of his P.D.A.

“You do realise I’m not a professional athlete; I’ve never even run a marathon, even a quarter marathon,” she explained.

“What’s a marathon?” asked Tarit.

“It’s a race where you run twenty-six miles for fun”, answered Madeline, not taking her eyes off Diduk.

“Twenty-six miles for fun!” Tarit and a dozen other people blurted out in unison.

“You don’t need to run it; you could make it there in under three hours at a brisk walk”, stated Diduk. “What is most important is that you won’t have us slowing you down”, he added.

Madeline drummed her fingers against her legs; she did not doubt that she could do it. Even though she disliked the idea of having so many lives resting on her shoulders.

“Where exactly are we going to meet up?” asked Madeline.

Diduk pointed to another spot on the map, “there is a river here, not too wide, so no gigantic predators, I think, and we will have access to fresh water.”

“What about shelter?” asked Madeline.

“I’m sure we’ll throw something together. We managed last night with no frostbite in anyone’s toes”, stated Diduk.

Madeline was sure you needed freezing conditions to get frostbite, but she was not a doctor, so she just accepted it.

Jumping up and down, Madeline did her best to stretch, tugging at all her limbs until she felt limber enough. She may not need to run, but she was going to do so regardless; every second was critical.

“You got this,” said Tazil, patting Madeline on the back.

Madeline smiled, stating, “Someone’s been reading up on human slang.”

Tazil shrunk away in embarrassment; it was considered bad form to use another race’s mannerisms without first knowing another for an extended length of time, and you were only supposed to do it in private. Not offensive exactly, more along the lines of putting on airs

Not that humanity had cared; it regularly stole words from other races; it was steadily becoming so comprehensive that many linguists thought that humanity’s major languages would become one of the lingua franca of the galaxy.

“You get all that, Roger?” asked Madeline.

“Yes, I have plotted the route for you”, replied the V.I.

“Ok, all goes well. I’ll see you tomorrow,” said Madeline, and without another word, she ran into the forest.