It’s been three days and they haven’t been doing much exploring. It was too risky anyways since they aren’t trained explorers. They were astrophysicist after all. The stars and the great big blackness of space was what they studied, not creatures and other sorts of creepy crawlies.

Still, they were scientist and they were a naturally curious bunch. When they weren’t in their ship, they were off down in the ground scanning away to their hearts content.

“And here’s another insect to my growing collection” Scipio whispered as he picked up the writhing creature with his omnitool tweezers. A hundred samples and counting. What little cargo space they have for space samples has now been taken over by specimens after specimens

It was a wonderland all for them to explore and no one to compete with. “Titus would be so jealous when he finds out I discovered a hundreds of new species”

“We discovered new species is what I think you meant” Maarena lectured while she analyzed some samples in the table they have set below the crash site.

There was a lot of discover here. Even in this small 30 meter radius circle around their crash site, the place is teeming with life. Unfortunately, they won’t be able to explore more. They just weren’t equipped to explore and it would be a fools errand to pursue thing for glory when it might cost your life. They hated their xenobiology teacher buy they didn’t ignored his teachings.

“Sorry. Anyways, how’s things looking on the gene sequencer? Shame we don’t have the fancier equipment Titus and his team have” Scipio said as he got up and stretched a bit. He wasn’t used to working down in the ground and it showed with how his back aches.

“It’s… Earth life or at least a near perfect parallel evolution in action. The only difference is that they use the energy we found here and how they looked really.” She said as she shifted her omnitool to that of a microscope.

Scipio often wonder how his ancestors had to deal with things before the advent of omnitools.

“This energy is amazing but I can’t isolate it properly. It doesn’t react to anything except bio-electricity and we don’t have the instrument available to mimic that here”. She stared closely as this energy seemed to piggyback along the simple nervous system of this mammalian creature they vivisected.

Pulling away from her samples for a bit, she turned towards Scipio before she said “I think… we should instead call a research team here instead of a rescue mission”

“Woah there. Remember the face” He cautioned as he pointed at his face. He smiled, trying to mimic the face they saw together. “Big sharp teeth the size of mountain ranges. Eyes that looked like they were pits of lava? Ringing a bell?”

“Maybe its just the stress of it all. Maybe we just… just hallucinated and remember how humans always said Pluto had a heart on its surface” She replied but she herself was unsure.

“I think we should get off the planet really. I… really feel uncomfortable once we knew that this energy passes through metal and we been soaking in it for days...” He replied as he sat down

“Yeah but look at this. You can even hear how the creatures healing already!”. Over in the table was the poor rat like creatures wound sealing itself in real time albeit a bit slowly. It was like watching a stop motion video.

“Yeah… pretty much like how it was in the zombie movies...”

“Oh don’t be a wuss. It’s not like all the animals I euthanized came back from the dead plus its harmless so far. Besides, we’re already too exposed to it and our craft doesn’t offer that much ‘protection’ to this thing”

“Yeah that’s the thing. Think they’ll quarantine us before they rescue us off this planet?” He asked.

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“Maybe but I can’t wait to rub all of our findings at Jayaala’s face”. She was excited and Scipio couldn’t help but smile as well.

For a while they sat there, exchanging notes and cataloging every new finding they have (backing that up with actual physical copies and extra hard drives just to be sure) before they call it a day.

“You see how the tree’s seems to be dimming down? It’s as if the plant life has a day and night cycle” Maarena said as she climbed up the make shift ladder they had made. Cutting the wood of the nearby metallic tree’s had been hard but it was easy to shape into a workable ladder especially when the wood splinters can work as nails.

“Yeah… but shouldn’t plants with bio-luminescence dim their lights when its night time… so does that mean were sleeping in the day and working at night?”

“Well there is no sun so lets just call the dim period as night then since there is a near eternal night with that cloud cover up above” Maarena pointed out

The night sky was filled with the roiling clouds of the planet, illuminated by the same mysterious energy they have observed down on the ground. The blue light cast an eerie glow now that the canopy was no longer illuminated by the plants. Like tiny twisted hands reaching to the heavens, the leafed branches rustled from the whistling wind

“It never fails to creep me out” said as he looked at the land before them. Its as if the land was illuminated by moon light when the only source of light was from the glowing sky.

Capturing a picture of the moment, Maarena nooded in agreement as she gestured for them to get in now that it was getting dark or at least dark by this planets standard.

Decontamination was a pretty easy thing to do plus one should do if they don’t want any mud tracks inside the ship.

“Hurry up, dinner in a few minute” Scipio shouted as he knocked on the bathroom door while he passed by

“Yeah in a minute” She replied.

Their ship had been kind of their home for a most of their time as a couple. It was one field work after another so it was pretty lived in with posters and pictures hanging from the wall. It would have been a tragedy if their crash had been more violent.

Humming to himself, he opened the microwave oven door and pulled out the dehydrated meals they had packed. A dextro meal for him while a levo meal for her. It’s a bit inconvenient at times with how different their biology is but its something one would have to get used too

“Smells delicious” whispered Maarena as her hands wrapped around his waist.

“It better be since we paid the extra credit for the extra flavor”. He replied as she pulled away.

Their dinner wasn’t the ideal dinner but what matters was that they have each other plus the view near the window was great.

“Say, how many meals do we still have before we run out?” She asked after taking a sip of recycled water. Taste horrible but it’ll do.

“Since we’re only doing two meals a day… maybe two more weeks” He replied as he savored every last bit of his meal, trying to scrape every last bit of it from the plastic plate. His stomach protested from the lack of sustenance but he had to persevere.

“Not that much huh...” She asked. They were saving up on everything. From power to water. Even if it pained her, they were in a dire strait.

She sighed as she looked over the window, her reflection illuminated by the soft light of the sky while their ship was plunged in darkness. It’s only the slight hum of life support that reassures her that everything is still working.

She turned her head towards him as he felt his taloned hands upon hers. “We’ll get through this. I promise” He said to her with that same smile that had her falling for him.

The edge of her lips quirked upward as she lifted his hands, holding it as both of them leaned against one another. They leaned for a chaste kiss, not wanting to break out into hives, before going back to their meal in relative silence.

As he was about to finish his plate, he saw a faint flicker of orange in the distance. A soft glow illuminating the area in that part of the forest. It wasn’t that far, maybe a few clicks?

“Hey do you see that?”

“A forest fire?”

“Maybe”

Maarena shrugged. “We’re inside a space ship that’s rated for space as well as re entry. Nothing to be worried about. It’s not like any sapient being is around here”

A flash in the distance was their only warning before the sound reached them. The deep rumbling sound of the explosion. The following series of gunfire, deep booms that shook their hearts, echoed in the forest.

Scipio could feel it in his teeth, how the very earth seemed to rumble with each gun fire. It wasn't like mass accelerators, it was more primitive yet oh so loader. His hackles raised as his heart raced. Maarena was equally tensed as the fight went on for what seemed to be an eternity before the final roar of the battle, the brutal sound of a saw against metal silenced it. The horrible sound of metal rending filled the air before it too was silenced

As the birds flew away and the fires glow slowly moved towards their direction, it was clear now that they were not alone

“Honey, grab the gun”