Aridius stalked the organized lines of trees in search of human habitation. Now that she knew what to look for, she spotted occasional tree-mantises. Most were smaller than the first one she'd encountered and spent their time in silent repose. One had caught a large bird of black and white plumage and bitten off its head. It gently held the corpse, the only movement the slight twitch of its mandibles and it nibbled on pink, stringy flesh.

She spotted a group of shaggy brown animals rooting about on the ground. Aridius had mistaken them for sheep at first but once she got close she realized it was a troop of eight or so boar. They were larger than she expected and green moss seemed to grow within their brown hair. Rather than grass, they were eating clumps of fruit that had fallen. They didn't appear to notice her so she backed away, not wanting to anger the beasts.

Abruptly the orchard ended, giving way to a young-growth forest full of small trees and brush.

"I think I went the wrong way," Aridius muttered. Rather than go back the way she came, Aridius turned left and followed the treeline. Walking the periphery of the grounds might help her encounter a road. Ahead of her a long, slender creature looking like a cross between a weasel and a fox darted from the woods into the orchard. Its fur was a brilliant red with a few accents of yellow and blue, reminding Aridius of a tropical bird.

It was followed by three more of its kind, smaller with dull rust-covered fur. As Aridius approached, they darted back into the woods.

One of the larger, older-looking trees had roots that formed small archways and a creature had burrowed a hole down below. Aridius stopped to peer within. Was this the home of the weasel-like creatures or had they been raiding it?

She leaned against her impromptu staff and walking stick. "NOVA what do you know about the fauna of this world? Specifically a sort of re---aaaaaaah!"

Sharp teeth snapped into the flesh of her calf. Twisting, she found the bright red one attached to her leg. Up close, its head was far more like that of an eel with backward curving teeth that had punctured clean through her suit. Blood blossomed on the silvery-gray fabric.

Aridius yelled, dropped her stick, and grabbed at the monster. It lashed about in her hands, its muscular body powerful for its size, and rough claws scratched at her legs. She tried to yank it away, a horrible mistake. A wave of pain hit her as it bit in deeper, her head swam, and Aridius stumbled.

Another furry torpedo launched itself from the ground at her. Bent over as she was, it could reach her face, and that is what it aimed for. Time stopped flowing and Aridius saw an open mouth with rows of curving teeth all leading to a black pit of a throat. She raised her hands reflexively to protect her face, ignoring the one at her leg, and the beast collided with her arms.

Dizzy and unsteady, the impact caused her to fall onto the soft grass. The beast snapped onto her arm but adrenaline was now pouring through Aridius' veins and the pain was muted.

'There are two more,' she thought in a panic. Aridius rolled onto her stomach, pinning the beast on her arm beneath her. 'They're smaller than you. Use your size.'

She rested her weight on the arm and the small creature under her. Its lower half went wild, slapping her face with its tail. Aridius wasn't good at violence. Her eight years in the American Colonies Navy had been spent ferrying grunts and supplies to the front lines and she got her animal protein from a gel-pack as Washington intended. Yet the pain and panic overwhelmed her and she ground the creature's skull into the ground until there was a satisfying crunch of small bones and it went still.

Aridius grunted and pushed herself to her feet. Another beast had sunk its teeth into her right bicep and she slammed her side against a tree, leaving dark bloody smudges on the bark. After too many slams, it fell onto the ground.

Only the bright one left. Her pant leg was soaked in blood. It dripped on the grass as she grabbed at the creature's head, slipping wet fingers between its clenched jaws and prying them open. When Aridius had almost worked it free, the beast released its bite and tried to for her hand. She'd anticipated this and gripped its neck as hard as she could. Lifting it up and away from her face, she tried to choke it.

There was a sudden blur and Aridius was holding only half a beast.

Stupidly, she looked around, trying to find where the other half had gone. Then she spotted it: a tree-mantis nestled among the clusters of small apples. The bottom half swung from its neatly folded claws as it nibbled on the flesh. It had snatched it so quickly that Aridius hadn't even seen it.

There was no sign of the last weasel-like creature. Aridius looked at the dead thing in her hand, its yellow eye burned with hatred she didn't know animals could possess. She tossed it away with disgust and limped over to her staff.

"I, uh, I'm alive but bleeding. Lots of blood," she told NOVA. "Attacked by red weasel-foxes. Took a chunk out of me."

Aridius used the staff as a crutch and forced herself to make slow, wobbling steps away from the forest edge.

"Find somewhere to rest," NOVA replied. "Can you tell me how serious your injuries are?"

"Hard to tell. Think I'm in shock."

Aridius panted. Her body was soaked with sweat and her limbs trembled. She grabbed a pear in passing and bit into it and sucked at the juices. Her stomach couldn't handle food but she was suddenly, desperately thirsty.

As she walked, Aridius left a line of bloody footprints and discarded pears. After a few minutes, she dropped beside a tree, pressing her back to it.

"Okay, this is the best I can do for now," she told NOVA. "I don't feel like I'm going to lose consciousness and don't see any animals nearby. I'm going to examine my wounds."

The one on her arm had stopped bleeding entirely. Flexing her fingers, she didn't feel any loss of strength. It was difficult to examine the one on her side. She hissed, sucking air through her teeth, as she lightly touched it. There was a strip of flesh and fabric gone but the blood felt tacky.

Lastly, there was her leg. The fabric had torn and she widened that hole along the outer seam until she could pull her foot out and then roll the pant to her knee. Her calf had been mauled, the skin was in strips, the flesh half hanging off of her, and a trickle of blood ran down to her ankle before dripping onto the grass.

Aridius' stomach clenched and she twisted her head to the side. Her bile rose and fell. Had there been anything in her belly, she'd have thrown up, but instead she spit out mouthfuls of stomach acid.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I have no idea how bad that is but it looks awful."

Her hands had stopped shivering as she walked but they started again as, with as much tenderness as she could muster, she pressed down on the hanging flesh and wrapped her pant leg around it. She tightened it as best she could. Afterward, the dirty bootee flopped against her leg.

Aridius laughed. Something about the sight struck her as funny. Probably because she associated booties with babysitting her nephew.

"Still there, NOVA?"

"I am."

"Are the pathogens on this planet dangerous for humans?" She'd never taken a class in xeno-microbiology but one of the few things she knew was that many viruses, bacteria, and parasites from other worlds didn't transfer to Earth species.

"I am afraid several of them are. The human population is widespread and, depending on the variant, an infection might be more dangerous to you than a local."

Aridius closed her eyes, they stung slightly from her perspiration. "Three bites. Three possible infections. Two of the bites are relatively clean but the third one on my right leg is nasty. There's a good chance the flesh become necrotic."

"What about blood loss?"

"Unknown. It looks like a lot but I don't have a lot of experience with injuries like this. Maybe half a liter? But I'm awake and lucid and the bleeding has stopped. Walking again might be a problem."

"I see," NOVA replied, emotionless as ever and indifferent to her state. Aridius suppressed her irritation; she knew it was the pain and stress messing with her head. "We can proceed with the upgrade now if you wish. It may improve matters. You are highly likely to pass out for two to four hours while it installs."

"That... that makes no sense. Explain this to me in short, easy terms. I can't do tech talk right now."

"Prism, this planet, is home to technology far beyond any humanity has encountered. The 'Voice of Planet' is a global AI. The upgrade is not merely to your cybernetics but to your mind and body."

Aridius had never heard of anything like that. Obviously, in a lab or medical bay you could alter people but not sitting in the middle of a garden with no equipment.

"How is that possible?" she asked.

"Our scans have not yielded the exact mechanism but CM Bradley suggested nanomachines."

Yes, Luke would suggest invisible nanomachines. Picomachines at that point.

"No, I'm not going to risk passing out right now. I'm going to rest here for a while and then see if I can continue on. If I have to do this upgrade, we'll wait until it's closer to sunset."

"I understand. I'll continue my work."

Aridius sat against the tree in silence, focusing on her breathing. While she'd never been attacked by a wild animal before, Aridius had survived worse injuries. It was amazing how much damage such a small creature could do, however.

"NOVA, why is my skin gray?" She stared at her leg. The skin was swollen under her improved bandage, the pale ashen gray of her skin becoming dark charcoal.

"A benign mutation in your melanin. As your pod was not hard sealed like the others or placed in full containment, your body was exposed to more void energy--"

"What void energy?" A void, by definition, had no energy.

"That is another one of CM Bradley's terms. There are several unknown energies that permeate this planet and the space outside of it. Void energy is what Bradley believes caused our psychosis."

Aridius hummed thoughtfully to herself. Radiation exposure could cause mutations in cells but those cells wouldn't be reproducing while she was in stasis. If that were the case, people could come out of decade-long freezes riddled with cancer.

NOVA was either lying or obscuring relevant facts. Capt. Abrams and CM Bradley outranked Aridius and could order NOVA to hide information. MDR Fitchburg could declare her medically unfit for duty but the procedure there would be to tell her.

There was also the possibility that NOVA was unshackled and lying for her own reasons. The idea of malevolent AIs was mostly a product of trashy sci-fi but if she'd been damaged in the crash or tampered with...

Right, right--Aridius had forgotten NOVA wasn't human and didn't have a human mind. Any member of the engineering crew would have enough knowledge to tamper with NOVA's 'memories.' If Aridius was onboard, there were several ways to verify this hadn't happened or track down any changes, but that wasn't the case.

"NOVA, run a level 2 diagnostic on your memory banks," she said.

"As you wish, Helmsman Vaynshteyn. I estimate this will take... ninety-three hours. Do you want updates?"

Aridius' eyebrows rose in surprise. The last diagnostic had taken twelve hours. "What the hell happened? Why would it take so long?"

"A large amount of information has been added to my archives and some components have been removed from the ship. I am sorry for any inconvenience. Shall I proceed?"

"Please do. And keep me updated."

She spent another hour in quiet contemplation. Her leg throbbed, the pain rising and diminishing in waves. Eventually, she found herself yawning. Grabbing her walking stick, Aridius rose and tried to walk. Her right leg wasn't cooperative and she couldn't put much weight on it, but moving wasn't impossible.

Slow and steady. Very very slow. With lots of little rests.

This path turned out far more productive, however. Wind blew through the leaves and Aridius caught a whiff of smoke. She shuffled faster and soon spotted a crude earthen town. Finally, the rows of fruit trees ended in a wide road made of packed earth.

Before her lay a small town in the middle of a lake. It rose above the water on what looked like constructed mounds of earth with a wooden palisade at least three meters high running around the entire thing. Besides the town proper was a massive dome of polished black stone that glimmered in the sunlight; it was atop this that the earthen tower set, a far cruder structure that almost looked to be made out of packed mud.

This wasn't what she'd imagined when NOVA said this world had 'technology far beyond any humanity has encountered.' This was ancient Earth levels of development.

Following the road, Aridius came to a lowered drawbridge. Much like the road, it was wide enough for several wagons to travel side by side. A watchtower peered from behind the palisade but as Aridius approached no one stirred within.

"Hello?" she called. No one answered and no guard came into view.

"NOVA, I've encountered a village sitting in a lake. It looks pretty big but I don't see anyone." Or hear anyone, Aridius mentally added. Shouldn't there be people?

"Please proceed with caution. Try to find a temple; they can provide shelter and medical services."

Aridius inched closer and peered through the open gates. At the end of the road was a town square with a fountain. There were about eight houses in view. Most had gardens about twice the size of the building while a few had shops in the front. Given the size of the island, there might be forty houses in all. Distressingly, several fences had been torn down and doors were broken through. Wagons were overturned and their goods, mostly food, spilled across the road.

The largest house was a three-story building far at the other end of the plaza. Its white walls were clean and vines decorated in bright yellow flowers hung from its upper windows. While it looked like someone had pounded against its red doors, they still held fast.

Something about the sight struck Aridius as off about this and she stepped back behind the gate. Tilting her head, she heard a distant rumbling like stone grinding against stone. She peeked in again, confirming no one was around, and made her way to the guard tower. The door was unlocked and was a cramped space with supplies, a round table, and a spiral staircase.

At the top of the tower, Aridius could see more of the town. There was more destruction but smoke was coming from the large building, which she assumed was an inn. Crouching low, she scanned the area, looking for the source of the rumbling she heard.

What she spotted made no sense.

It was stone. Brown stone with the torso, arms, and head of a man but its body floated above--yes, it was floating, that wasn't a trick of the light--a perfectly round sphere of stone with which it rolled forward.

As Aridius watched, it rolled around the empty town, passing a smithy and temple and then heading for the plaza. She pressed her belly to the floor of the watchtower as it rumbled under her and then looped back into town.

It made this circuit several times, which Aridius assumed was a patrol.

"NOVA?" she whispered when it was far enough away.

"How may I assist, Helmsman Vaynshteyn?"

"Why am I looking at something that looks like an earth elemental? And I don't want to hear about 'nanomachines.'"

"One moment." Several seconds passed. "Could this be a robot designed to look as though it were made of rock?"

"Its upper half is floating above its lower half. I could stick my fist between them."

"That could be magnets."

"Magnets... right." Aridius lay on the wooden floor of the guard tower. It smelled of sour beer and apple wood. "This is turning out to be a very long day."