Howard awoke to bright sunlight filtering through trees, and the singing of birds. For a moment he wondered if everything had all been a dream but there he was, still strapped to the seat of the shuttle. Broken auburn tree branches covered the front view, but the familiarity stopped there.

The fishtail shaped leaves were a shimmering teal color and the sky beyond them was a soft amethyst broken by the blinding blue sun.

There were two possibilities that came to mind. Either they had somehow gone back in time, or the more likely answer, this was a completely different planet.

“Howard?” James asked as he shifted to unbuckle himself, “Are we really alive?”

“If I was dead I doubt I would be anywhere near you,” Howard told him.

James chuckled lightly. “Yeah, makes sense.”

As they talked everyone else started to wake up.

“What happened?”

“Did we escape?”

“I think we crashed.”

“Where are we?”

Jonathan stretched. “An alien planet perhaps?”

“Very funny,” Natalie snapped, “Even if we did crash, there is no sign of alien life and it would be far too convenient for the air here to be breathable, much less the water drinkable and the plants nonpoisonous.”

“I would rather have convenience than a slow death,” James pointed out.

“The analyzing systems here still work,” Leon said, looking them over, “I might be able to analyse what the air is made of at the very least.”

“There is gravity here,” Miranda noted, “but I still feel light.”

Natalie jumped to test it out. “There is definitely more gravity than the moon. I would say that gravity isn’t too far different from Earth.”

“Hey guys,” Selina brought up, “Where is Sanders?”

Now that they probably weren’t going to die in a few moments she had gotten her stage presence back and called attention to something worrying.

“He didn’t die did he?” Miranda asked nervously, “Did James kill him when he woke up?”

“And where would I even put the body?” James asked, “Besides, Howard was awake before me.”

“I didn’t see him strap in before we went into… that,” Natalie muttered, “Which means we might find him anywhere in the ship.”

“Or not on the ship,” Leon said, “He may be out gathering some intel. I believe there were some suits here.”

“Suits, oxygen… We need to check on the food, water, and oxygen in storage!” Miranda exclaimed.

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James carefully slid from his seat to the wall of the shuttle. “That is going to be a pain. We landed sideways so it will be difficult to navigate in here.”

Everyone else followed suit and slid to the new floor while Leon stayed buckled in to operate the systems and search for hopefully breathable air.

“I wish we had crashed upside-down,” Natalie muttered under her breath as she lifted herself up into the passageway, “Then things would at least still be maneuverable.”

“Don’t say that,” James said as he helped her up, “I am glad there was an angle we could slide down and we didn’t land completely on the side.”

“Bad news,” Jonathan called back, “The floor is wet so the water is draining from somewhere. Most things are up right now so we might have to climb to get there.”

“Is there any way we can push this thing over so it is level?” Miranda asked even though she was the one having the easiest time climbing through.

“If you want to go outside be my guest,” Natalie huffed and leaned against the wall.

Howard moved carefully so he wouldn’t step on her and discovered the floor was indeed wet, but it was in trickles so it didn’t appear the leak was that bad.

“Looks like the food evacuated the pantry,” Miranda said from the cafeteria doorway, “We might have to go spelunking to get it.”

“Do you think Sanders actually went outside?” James asked.

“Who knows,” Natalie replied, “Why does it matter?”

“I am looking at the spacesuits right now and none of them are missing.”

“There is no way he is stupid enough to go outside without one,” Natalie scoffed, “Maybe he is fixing something in storage or engine.”

There was a creaking sound as the world started to slowly tip again.

“Oh no,” Howard grimaced and braced himself. It looked like Miranda was getting her wish.

The shuttle righted itself with a hard slam, sending those who had been trying to climb through crashing to the ground.

“Ow,”

“At least the floor is the floor again,” Natalie muttered, rubbing her hip.

“What caused the ship to fall?” James asked.

“Who knows,” Jonathan mused happily, “It likely wasn’t us because we were all walking on the walls so it would have fallen the other way.”

“Guys!” Leon called from the control room, “You won’t believe this! I just saw Sanders outside and I swear he pushed the ship over!”

“There is no way that is possible,” Natalie scoffed.

“He is coming in the airlock now. Why don’t we ask him?” Jonathan suggested, looking at the area in question.

The inner door to the airlock opened and Sanders stepped in wearing his usual suit and not an ounce of protection. “Oh, you are all awake,” he said, “Good morning.”

“Don’t ‘good morning’!” James protested, “You did something, didn’t you?”

Sanders paused. “I did many things. Which one are you getting at?”

“How about we start with the obvious,” Natalie said, “How are we all still alive?”

“Starting there?” Sanders asked, “Well I suppose it would be the question on your minds. I can explain but I am not sure you want to hear the answer.”

“I don’t know about anyone else, but I do,” Leon said as he arrived.

“I am also incredibly curious,” Jonathan added.

“Very well,” Sanders replied, looking at all of us, “Simply put, I cheated.”

“Cheated?” Natalie asked, “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“I remember one of you asking me what I got out of coming on this mission,” Sanders continued, “The answer is that I came to fix the problem I solved. You see while I was touring Earth I may have used portals to go home too often while pretending to live there. Instant travel is rather addicting.”

“Back up a bit,” James broke in, “Do you honestly expect us to believe that nonsense? You are making yourself out to be some kind of superpowered alien.”

“I don’t know about superpowered but that is more or less correct,” Sanders told him, “There is a lot more to the supernatural than what makes it into popular movies.”

“Right, and you used those supernatural powers to tip the shuttle?” Leon asked.

Sanders turned to look at Leon. “You saw me do it,” he pointed out, “This world has fairly potent magic so I just-”

“You just switched genres,” Selina interrupted, “If you are going to lie choose one or the other.”

“I told you that you probably didn’t want to hear it. Since you clearly can’t handle the explanation then I will stop there and let you think what you wish,” Sanders said with a wry smile.

“Actually, I do have one major question,” Selina said, “If you are an alien, why were you so rich and working for the government?”

“Well they knew, of course,” Sanders replied, “It is kind of hard to hide when my DNA is so much different.”

“You were paid for being an alien?” Leon asked, intrigued.

“Not quite. I started a business using knowledge Earth doesn’t have and it was very popular. Ah, but I was careful not to bring anything too strange to light.”

“Where were you sleeping at night?” Jonathan asked, “When I tried to find you, there was no sign.”

Sanders chuckled awkwardly. “Well, I went home at night.”

“Hold on a moment,” Natalie broke in, “You mean to tell me that you just kept doing the very thing you think caused the anomaly in the first place while we were up close with it?!”

“My apologies,” Sanders repeated, “but I kept my promise to make sure none of you died.”

“We are going to need some time to process,” Howard finally said. He didn’t care what Sanders was or how they got where they were, but if things continued like this there was likely to be a murder attempt soon.