CHAPTER 7

2237

Rogue Planet Exoginos

Ethan opened his eyes. He felt blood rushing to his head and his hands were throbbing uncomfortably. He could only see red. He tried to sit up but something held him in place. Ethan tried to look around but his movement was restricted. He had no idea where he was or how he ended up there. Everything hurt. It gradually dawned on him that he was hanging upside down, strapped to a chair. He reached for the buckle, which was digging painfully into his chest. He pressed the button and the seatbelt unbuckled, releasing him from the chair. He fell toward the ground face first but was able to soften the fall with his hands. Pain shot through his shoulders and he winced through his teeth. He rolled onto his back and looked above him. There were others, a few people waking up and trying to get loose of their seats. There were dozens more who weren’t moving. He hoped they were merely unconscious but feared some of them had not survived the crash.

Ethan rolled back onto his front and pushed himself to his feet. He staggered and then fell. He reached out, desperately trying to find anything to hold him up. His hand touched the wall, and he pushed against it with the little strength he had remaining.

Riley, he remembered. Details were returning to him. Keravnos. He rubbed his eyes in an attempt to clear his vision but it made no difference. He widened his eyes. “Bethany!” he shouted.

Ethan stumbled around, calling out to Bethany and Isaac. When that failed, he called Sayeed, but there was still no response. He helped the conscious passengers out of their seats, preventing them from falling as he had. Each time he passed somebody lifeless, he checked their face with dread, praying it wasn’t one of his friends. Once everyone was out of their seats, there were seven survivors, all civilians. He led them out of the wreckage. It was viciously cold outside, with wind powerful enough to knock a person over. Ethan looked up at the sky and his jaw dropped. It was a view unlike any he had ever seen. There were two suns in the sky, one just behind the other. They both looked as though they were about to set. Streaked across the two stars, Ethan could see the ring of the planet. After staring up at it for a while, Ethan looked around. They were in a forest of blue and various shades of purple. Hundreds of stasis pods were scattered around the ground of the forest. Ethan hobbled over to one of the stasis pods. He wiped the window with his hand to look at the person inside. They weren’t moving. He tapped the glass to view the status of the user. They were deceased. He checked a few more pods, each with the same result.

“Hello!” a voice called from behind.

Ethan recognized the voice and quickly turned. “Isaac? Is that you?” he called back.

“Ethan?”

Ethan ran toward the source of the voice and found Bethany and Sayeed carrying Lily, along with Isaac, Evans, Anderson, and twelve other survivors. The others were civilians but they were all armed. They must have taken guns from the soldiers who hadn’t survived. They all looked the worse for wear. Lily’s leg was badly broken.

“What happened to the ship?” asked Ethan.

“The reactor went offline,” replied Isaac, “then we hit a storm.”

“We didn’t hit a storm,” Anderson interjected. “You didn’t see it. Whatever that thing was, it came at us.”

“You keep saying that,” said Bethany. She pushed past him and continued into the wreckage of the ship as the others followed. “We need to rest here tonight and hope it’s warmer tomorrow. First, we need to move the bodies.”

Ethan watched as Bethany went about the horrible business. Eventually, he approached her. She didn’t acknowledge him and continued, pulling at the bodies on the floor and trying to drag them out.

“Beth, look at me,” said Ethan.

Bethany finally stopped and looked at Ethan. Her left eye was bloody and, through the blood, Ethan could see tears forming.

“It’s okay to cry,” he told her.

Bethany shook her head and walked to Ethan before letting herself fall into his arms. She buried her face in his chest and wept. Ethan gently put his arm around her and held her. The others continued removing the bodies from the ship. When they were done, Isaac removed a layer of thin metal from the wall and, with some help from the others, made a makeshift wall. It would keep the cold out, in addition to anything else that might be outside the ship. When they completed their work, Anderson summoned everyone to him.

He exhaled warm air into his hands and rubbed them together. “We could be all that’s left, or there might be other survivors out there. For now, we can’t know. When the sun rises, we’ll search for the other parts of the ship. We’ll find any survivors, and then we’ll go after Riley.” He held up a tablet. “I have his signal right here. We’ll follow it and find him. Then, we’ll figure where we go from there. Any objections?”

There was silence, which Anderson took to mean everyone agreed with him. They all settled in a corner of the hull, staying close together to keep as warm as possible. Isaac didn’t sit and kept searching through the debris in the hull, hoping to find material to build a fire, but he could find nothing flammable. As he searched, he looked up and saw something promising. He pushed at his cracked glasses and smiled.

"Sayeed! Give me a hand here."

Sayeed curiously approached Isaac, and together, they began tearing pieces from the wall.

Bethany sat next to Lily, holding her gently and trying to keep her warm and comfortable. Lily’s head rested on Bethany’s lap and she shivered constantly. Bethany didn’t dare to think about what would happen to Lily if she was forced to endure the cold overnight. She carefully lifted the cloth to look at Lily’s leg. It looked bad and she feared the wound would be infected by morning. She had no idea what types of life forms existed on the planet, nor the effects they could have on the human body. A tear rolled down Bethany’s face. Lily had always looked up to Bethany and Isaac as though they were her parents. They had known Lily throughout her entire life and watched her growing up. They were never entirely comfortable with her treating them like parents, but they knew how she felt for them and they felt the same way for her. For Bethany, Lily was more than just a fellow survivor; she was family. Ethan was also family, despite their frequent disagreements. So was Sayeed, even if they had a habit of talking down to each other when they weren’t running for their lives.

There was a thud and everyone looked over at Isaac and Sayeed. On the floor between them, there was a device that Isaac had crafted with Sayeed’s assistance.

“What am I looking at?” Anderson asked, staring at the duo with suspicion.

“Wait for it,” said Isaac.

As he said it, Bethany felt something warm and almost jumped off the floor she was sitting on. “Isaac!” she beamed.

Isaac and Sayeed grinned proudly as they presented their heater to the others.

“Good work, guys,” said Ethan, giving them a thumbs up.

With the heater to keep them warm, what would otherwise have been a hellish night was instead relatively comfortable. Bethany was the first to wake on the following morning. She was unsure how long she had slept, but it didn’t seem like long enough as she struggled to get up. The heater was flickering and had almost exhausted its power supply. The plastic wall Isaac had created was torn open on one side, and the cold was pouring in. Bethany touched Lily’s neck and was relieved to feel the warmth. Lily tossed and turned, clutching her knees to her chest. Bethany gently lifted Lily’s pants leg to check on her injury. It looked terrible, as expected, but didn’t appear to be infected. Bethany carefully placed Lily’s head on the floor, then stood up, stretched, and went outside. To her surprise, both suns were out, but neither the cold nor the wind had subsided. She went back inside, knelt beside the heater, and struck it a few times. It stopped flickering for a moment, then continued. Bethany turned it around and checked the battery. She pulled a wire from the side of the heater and touched it to the battery. It sparked but only faintly. Bethany sighed, then walked to Isaac, who was sleeping with his head on Ethan’s stomach. She tried to nudge him awake but he didn’t respond. Bethany hit him a few times and he finally woke up. He yawned, stretched, then took his glasses out of their case and put them on. He looked up and saw Bethany standing before him. She offered her hand, which he took, and she pulled him up to his feet.

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“The heater’s dead.” said Bethany, “We need to get moving.”

Isaac sighed. “Wake the others while I get more batteries.”

Isaac left the tent, while Bethany woke everyone else. Before long, Isaac returned with more battery cells. He replaced the drained battery, and the heater became functional again.

Anderson called everyone together. “The suns are up, yet the cold remains,” he said. “This planet doesn’t want us here, and this is its way of getting rid of us. We need to get moving right away and we need to find Riley, wherever he is.”

“How can we even know he’s alive?” a woman asked. “We only have his mech’s signal, not his. He could already be dead.”

Anderson turned to look at her. “You’re right, we can’t know,” he said. “You’re welcome to park your ass in this metal coffin and wait for the storm to go. Maybe you’ll get lucky. Anyone who doesn’t have a stupid question, grab your gear and follow me. We’re climbing the mountain. There’s no food and no water, which means you need to pray to whichever gods you believe in that there’s something worth eating on this planet.”

“Aye, captain,” they answered.

They tore the plastic sheet into smaller pieces, giving each person something to wrap around themselves. Ethan, who had been absent since waking up, returned wearing a functioning exo-suit. He hauled an empty stasis pod into the tent, ripped the cover open, and then attached two belts to it. When it was time to leave, he placed Lily in the pod in a seated position, then he attached the belts to himself. When Ethan moved, he dragged Lily along behind him. Sayeed carried the heater, and the others stayed near him to share the heat. Anderson regularly looked at his tablet, leading them in the direction of Riley’s signal. Evans was the only member of the group unconcerned with the cold, one of the perks of being a robot. They hadn’t traveled far when it began snowing. It was unlike any snow seen on Earth; it was blue and the flakes glowed dimly. Isaac held out a hand and let the snow land on his palm. It tingled and felt strangely warm. He thought he heard something and held the snow by his ear to listen. Isaac could have sworn he heard it clink. He didn’t have to wonder for long. Moments later, the snowfall intensified into a harsh blizzard, and everyone could hear the clinking.

They stayed near the treeline. Anderson occasionally glanced at the trees with suspicion, which was enough motivation for the others to stay away. Suddenly, the Captain stopped and stared at the plant life. He must have heard something. Anderson looked back along the path but there was nothing to see. He signaled for the others to keep moving, and they walked on. As they passed their leader, Ethan approached him, still dragging Lily.

“Did you see something, sir?” asked Ethan.

Anderson scoffed. “Those trees have eyes,” he answered and continued walking with the others. Ethan followed him. The trees started crackling. Everybody stopped at once and looked over at them. There was another sound in the distance but Ethan couldn’t hear it well enough to interpret. He took a few steps toward the trees and the sound grew louder. His eyes widened as he realized what he could hear. Ethan backed away until he rejoined the others and aimed his gun toward the trees. There were footsteps, hundreds of them. Anderson ordered the armed men into formation. The civilians struggled to form a line; few of them had ever fired a gun or experienced combat before. Anderson winced as he watched them. They were all he had, and he would have to make the most of them. He positioned them along the outer edge of the treeline, looking over their guns toward the source of the noise.

“Why aren’t we running?” asked Ethan.

“Whatever is out there, we’re in its territory,” answered Anderson. “If we panic, we die. I’m not ready for that just yet.”

They waited, expecting something to appear, but the sound of footsteps faded, along with the crackling trees. Anderson ordered them to keep moving but warned everyone to keep their eyes sharp. They walked on through the blizzard. About an hour later, they reached the foot of the mountain. It was impossible to see its peak through the blizzard. Fortunately, the incline didn’t appear too steep.

When they were about to start climbing the mountain, a deep growl came from among the trees. Before anyone could react, a dozen wolf-like creatures with thick

white fur and six legs poured out of the woods. Anderson gave the order to open fire on the creatures but the bullets seemed to have no effect. Either that or the civilians were missing their targets.

“They’re not falling, sir!” Ethan shouted.

“Don’t stop firing, damn it!” Anderson yelled back.

The six-legged beasts ran so quickly that they were soon past the humans and entering the trees on the opposite side of their path. Anderson and his men were surprised that the creatures didn’t attack. They aimed again and were about to open fire when something else hissed in the trees behind them. The men turned their attention to the new noise, ready to shoot. The creatures howled as the hissing grew louder. Whatever was approaching, it was knocking trees over without slowing down.

“Fire!” Anderson ordered.

A gigantic, slug-like creature slithered out from the woods, moving quickly toward them. The humans spread out and opened fire. The slug raised its head and made a hooting sound. It brought its head forward with its mouth wide open, then released a powerful blast of air, knocking people over as though they were made of paper. Only Ethan, in his exo-suit, stood his ground. When the blast stopped, he continued firing at the slug. The slug retreated, raised its head, and hissed as Ethan’s bullets punched holes into its body. Its hiss was high-pitched and harsh. Now focused on Ethan alone, the slug released another blast of air at him. Ethan jumped into the air, still firing, then activated the speed thruster of the exo-suit. The thrust sent him toward the mouth of the slug. It opened its mouth to swallow him. Ethan threw a grenade into the slug’s mouth, then immediately fired another thrust to push himself away. As Ethan landed on the ground, the grenade exploded inside the slug, tearing it to pieces and splattering its transparent blood in every direction. The survivors raised their guns and cheered.

“Don’t celebrate too soon, morons,” Anderson ordered, “we’re still in trouble!” He turned and aimed his gun at the six-legged beasts.

The wolf-like creatures started slowly walking toward them. The smallest member of the pack appeared to be the leader. They seemed calm and stopped a few feet away. The leader raised his head and howled, while those behind bowed.

“I can’t believe it,” said Isaac. “I think they’re thanking us.”

“Did you hit your head when we crashed?” Anderson blurted. “I say we light them up.”

Isaac stepped in front of the group with his arms spread wide. “No!” He turned and advanced slowly toward the dogs. When he was close enough, the leading beast snorted and touched its head to Isaac’s chest. Isaac rubbed its head, and it allowed him to. The onlookers gasped. Bethany joined Isaac and rubbed the animal’s fur. Anderson finally lowered his gun. He let them enjoy their moment with the animals before resuming their ascent. As they climbed, the dogs followed at a distance, as though they were guarding the humans to thank them for dealing with the slug.

The higher the group climbed up the mountain, the stronger the blizzard became. Isaac had replaced the heater’s battery three times and stopped as he did it again with the last one. After a brief pause, they continued on their journey. Sayeed was the first to notice clear weather in the distance. He passed the heater to the nearest person and ran. The others initially wondered what was happening. When they looked ahead, they saw the break in the snow and ran to catch up. Ethan stepped out from the blizzard into a warm, dry area on the mountain. He looked back and saw a wall of snow extending up into the sky.

The others crossed into the dry area, one by one. Bethany allowed herself to fall onto the grass with a sigh of relief. Some of the others joined her, rolling in the grass like children. Anderson didn’t participate. He was already scanning the area and looked back toward the blizzard.

“Well, that’s something,” he said, brushing a hand over his facial hair. “I hate this planet. As much as I’d like to raise a glass and give thanks for the change of scenery and climate, we’ve got no time for that. We’ve somewhere to be; if you ain’t hauling ass, you get left behind, period.”

They murmured, then got back to their feet and continued up the mountain.

About an hour later, the group reached a wide, flat area. As soon as they arrived, Bethany felt uneasy. The wind was unusual, rapidly changing direction. It stopped for a moment, then started moving horizontally. An eerie hum filled the air, then it fell quiet. The humans stopped and looked at each other. Anderson shrugged and took point, with the others following. They didn’t walk far before they saw a bizarre object. It was a massive metal sphere, hovering above the surface. As they moved closer, the sphere dissolved into a pool of liquid metal and almost immediately reformed into a pyramid. It was a pyramid for a few minutes before it dissolved again and formed back into a cube.

“This kind of thing probably inspires your curiosity, but the answer is no,” Anderson growled as he turned to Isaac and Bethany. “We don’t have time for this, and we don’t know what that thing is capable of, so no.”

They continued walking around the edge of the structure, but nobody could take their eyes off it.

Anderson suddenly stopped walking. “What the hell?” he blurted. “What the hell is this?” He raised his hands and stared at them. They looked strange. “What the hell?” he repeated, but his voice was not his own. It was Bethany’s.

Bethany heard her voice and looked back, only to see herself talking. She stopped and stumbled back. “What the hell?” she stuttered. “What’s happening?”

They soon realized that they had swapped bodies. Maddened, they ran at each other, desperately trying to get their bodies back. Ethan and Lily were unaffected and watched with confusion as Bethany and Anderson swiped at each other, along with other members of the group.

“What’s going on?” Lily asked.

“I’m not sure,” Ethan replied. He disconnected Lily’s pod from his exo-suit and tried to get closer.

“Don’t Ethan,” Lily warned. “I think it’s that thing. If you get any closer, the same might happen to you.”

A loud bang came from the structure. Lily and Ethan ducked and shouted at the others to stop fighting. Ethan turned his attention to the structure, aimed his gun, and fired multiple explosive rounds at it. The projectiles sank into this structure and disappeared. For a few seconds, nothing happened, then the structure shape-shifted rapidly. It changed into an orb and stopped. As it stopped, the people ceased their fighting. One by one, they got back to their feet, restored to their bodies. There was blood on the ground and some had not survived the ordeal. The sphere clanged loudly. When they turned to look, it was no longer there.