Subordinate Doctor Wendy moved away from her tool cabinet and walked towards the corpse laying on the stretcher that was spread over the table. Its skin had remained just as ghostly pale as the very moment they had brought it in for her to examine.
Poor soul, she thought, remembering the time she saw her before their departure back on Earth. Though, watch her from afar was more the phrase. Yet even though it was a bit above a fleeting glance, it was enough that her face registered in her mind. Her smile too.
When the door behind Dr Wendy slid open, Fourth Doctor Charlie walked in, with his wife by his side.
He asked when he came to a stop next to her, still trying to fit his gloves on, "Do you already have a diagnosis Dr. Wendy?"
"Yes. The lady," she referred to the corpse, "died as a result of—"
"Let me help you," Fifth Dr. Raul - Charlie's wife - chimed in, as she proceeded to aid her husband with his gloves.
Their eyes met and Dr. Charlie smiled at her, "I don't think I'll ever be good at this."
"Because you never pay attention every time I show you how."
He opened his mouth to say something complimentary but then remembered Dr. Wendy's presence and cleared his throat instead.
"Forgive us Dr. Wendy, please continue."
Dr. Wendy took the briefest of moments to nod at that, "...Certainly," she said before moving away from the couple and taking a step closer to where the corpse lay. She extended her hand to it and told them, "She suffocated. Just like the other ten."
"Which brings the death tow now up to sixteen." Dr. Raul remarked.
Despite it not being a question, Dr. Wendy still gave an affirmative response.
"Yes."
Charlie passed a hand through his beard, scratching it, "Well, at least our day isn't off to a boring start. Let's finish up with the remaining five, yeah?"
The two women voiced their agreements.
"We'll go get the carts then," Charlie said, sharing a knowing look with his wife, then a brief nod, before leaving the morgue with her in toll.
Wendy couldn't stop her eyes from lingering on him as he did so, noting the proximity between him and his wife as they walked out and, against all odds...
envying it.
A sigh left her, taking with it the strength to continue watching the couple. She closed her eyes for a moment, before directing her attention back to the corpse.
SEVEN HOURS AFTER
100 couldn't believe what he had just heard, "She suffocated?"
"Yes."
"That's... a really agonising way to go out."
94 was gentle as he fluffed his pillow, giving it nearly the most perfectly meticulous of touches, before planting the back of his head on it, "Tell me about it." Maybe it was the fact that they were military men, or maybe it was because they had been forcefully exposed, but the concept of death didn't seem to carry as much weight as it was supposed to. Not anymore. Not since their time on Mars, because it was there that they learned to numb it, treating it like another topic, casual and inconsequential.
All of a sudden the lights on the ceiling flickered, then went off entirely before coming back on again.
94 gave them a slow, weighed look, like he was considering what to say. It felt like a life time ago when the engineers started working on the ship and its electrical short falls. Unfortunately, there was no real way of telling how much progress had been made so far or how much of the work was remaining, not whilst in confinement.
"Seems progress is being made,"
100 stretched on his bed and proceeded to close his one good eye, intentionally ignoring the jest in favor of savoring the feeling of his muscles finally being made use of after so long, "It just has to. It's not like we can survive without the ship powering back on anyway."
"Yeah... What time are we supposed to meet the men, again?"
"Four hours from now, after... Lunch? This would have been supper back home,"
It was far from being a surprise when the power cut a second time before returning once more, giving off the impression that it was undecided on what to do.
"If there will be a proper lunch," 100 turned to his side, grumbling the thought to himself without daring to open his eye.
ELSEWHERE, BUT STILL ON THE SAME SHIP
Sherry bellowed out a tired, worn out sigh. Her muscles screamed at her to rest, even for just a moment.
"Repetitive, isn't it? And draining."
The question suggested Shriti already knew the answer. Some accent lingered in her words when she spoke, a gift of the homeland. It had been a few hours since the two of them had gotten to work, and the fatigue was finally catching up.
Sherry nodded, "Very much," before taking out a damp blue cloth from her pant pocket and using it to wipe the sweat off her forehead and eyebrows.
It was after the bolt had turned two more times that it gave out and budged under the strain, completely incapable of coming loose. Shriti tested the wrench that was clenched around it one last time before finally unlatching it and pulling it free, "Well," she took in a long, single lung-full of air, straightening, "I have some juice in my bag if you'd want to... to cool down a bit."
Pulling herself from under her own set of pipes and sitting up from her mat, Sherry gave a nod and immediately began dumping her tools in the box next to her. It was an inhumane decision, putting everyone to work immediately after waking up from stasis. Who did that? The supervisors apparently, without even the slightest regard for their workers' wellbeings. Her body hadn't even acclimated to the planet's atmosphere yet, she assumed it was the same for everyone else. But like that could ever stop her bosses from thrusting her engineering responsibilities upon her. They were lucky it was an Oxygen leak, stuff that threatened everyone's chances of survival; she wouldn't have accepted to fix the faulty pipes otherwise. Besides, they couldn't fire her, even if they wanted to.
"Care to share what's on your mind?"
Sherry extended her hand to receive the bottle, snorting a chuckle at the remark, "Sweetie, I don't think you would like to hear what's on my mind right now."
On her face, Shriti forced an expression of disappointment, mocking of course, and her hands flew over her chest, "Oh really? You think your thoughts are that disturbing, do you? Honey, you should see mine."
Against her better judgement, some of the juice that was in Sherry's mouth fell to her lap as she let out a short boisterous bellow of laughter. By the time she caught herself, it was a little too late. The only thing she could do was swallow the remainder and wipe the rest from the one side of her lower lip where had it had slipped from, "You have a knack for knowing just what to say to lighten someone up."
"I'm serious though," even though Shriti did sound convicted, there was a smile on her face that said otherwise, "The whole world is in danger when I begin thinking."
"Right," Sherry took another swig from the metal container, making sure to drink in measured gulps so as not to choke herself, or repeat what had just taken place. At least Shriti was kind enough not to make a big deal of it, "Hey, is there any more of this juice stuff with you? I might actually manage to finish the work with it around."
"Of course, I have like nine more bottles of them in my bag."
"Nine? Girl how big is your bag?"
This time it was Shriti's turn to laugh, almost sheepishly, "What? Ten bottles of juice aren't impossible to fit in a compacti - kit."
"Oh my God, you're a miracle worker. No, a magician. You should cast your magic and get the ship working again so I can go back to sleep."
"I'm afraid my magic doesn't operate like that. But if we were talking about the captain... then maybe–"
"Oh my God!" Sherry barked, bringing her hand to her mouth to hide her knowing, conspiratorial laugh from the rest of the world, "You dirty minded little witch."
Shriti's cheeks pinked just a bit before the laughter overcame her too. It was not until a not so young gentleman approached the two of them from the room's entrance that their seemingly unending banter came to a sudden halt. They were unaware of his presence and it was the clearance of his throat that alerted the both of them of it.
"Seems work is going excellently in this part of the ship," the remark was meant as a tease, but his tone betrayed neither sign of lightheadedness nor seriousness. It was perfectly flat and neutral. He stood at the doorway with his hands folded behind him, his witty blue eyes scanning the entirety of the room before coming to rest on its only two occupants.
Shriti was the first one to react, loosening her shoulders, which had gone stiff the moment she heard the voice, before throwing her head back. The feeling was an odd mix of disappointment and relief upon realizing just who it was she was about to address, "Arun, my God! You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought it was the chief."
"Exactly why you guys need to be more careful with how you conduct yourselves during service hours. Do I need to remind you of how important thi–"
She rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, cutting her older brother short and effectively putting an early end to one of his speeches - an earful, which had the nasty habit of being not only repetitive, but unnecessary and very much boring as well, "I know, I know. You've already explained to me only a million times before. We were just taking a much-needed breather. Surely, we can at least be afforded that after being put to work literally minutes after leaving stasis?"
"I concur," Sherry said in support, lazily raising the pointing finger of the hand she was using to hold the bottle from which she continued to drink.
"It's been hours since we started working on the pipes."
Arun didn't respond immediately. With his little sister making this much sense, arguing with her would be folly. Regrettable by all means, "Just be careful how you carry yourselves in these places. I won't be the one who'll walk into either of you like this the next time."
"My God, you worry too much Aru. This is not home anymore, loosen up a bit."
Arun gave his sister a look at that last part, rising his brows lightly, "Loosen up?" He thought to himself, almost letting out a derisive scoff, "I'd like to hear you tell that to the chief."
"Why do you tempt me so, dear brother? What are you even doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be with the others working on power restoration and whatever else got broken?"
Just then, as if to reinforce Shriti's question, the lights in the room flickered, coming on for a moment before going off once more. A tease of power. This should have left the entire room dark had it not been for the backup bulbs making sure everything remained illuminated.
"My shift ended almost two hours ago. I had nothing to do so I thought I'd stop by and make sure you weren't doing something that would potentially harm your careers."
Sherry's eyes widened at that and her lower lip slid open, going just a bit lower than it had been before. She placed her drinking container next to her and fixed Shriti's older brother with a long look, disbeliving everything he had just said, "Hold up, you guys are... working in shifts? Like, shift shifts?"
Arun smiled at that, smug in a way that rubbed salt into her wounds, "Perks of having the job on a non-interning basis."
"The hell? How is that supposed to be fair to the rest of us? How come you're getting breaks whilst they're having us work overtime like we're–"
"Interns? Yup, better get used to it. You can only change things by convincing the chief and his senior engineers that you're worth hiring. Employment is the only way to enjoy the job... Or survive it, by the current look of things."
The two girls looked evidently taken aback, not only by Arun's derisive tone but also by his words. Before any of them could say a word, however, the smile on his face grew and he snorted, clearly amused, much to their evident surprises, "Relax," he said to placate the both of them, "that was a joke. No one's working overtime. I can't believe you actually bought that," another chuckle, "I was actually sent here to tell you that the day's shift is done, for all of us."
Shriti looked at him dead in the eyes, "Arun, what is wrong with you?"
He smiled even wider now, then waved at the both of them.
"Bye," he said in a sarcastic yet delighted manner before turning on his heels and walking away.
Shriti threw her head back as he departed, groaning, "Older brothers."
IN THE OUTLANDS, SOMEWHEREELSE
Liam Louis was in disbelief as he stared at the scenery that surrounded him. It was all earth; dry and jagged, with barely any hint of life to it. In the distance, just at the foot of the horizon ahead of him, was a line, hand-thick, of dark greenery.
He looked at the pod beneath him and took a long reassuring inhale. He had woken up suffocating and disoriented, lungs pulling desperately hard for air that was barely there and mind struggling to come to grips with the entire situation. The breath he took in now was more to calm himself than anything else. Had he not remembered of the latch that was attached to his side of the pod door in time, he probably wouldn't have made it out. Funny how easily he would have died right there, how easily he'd have ceased to exist. Where even was he? Where was everyone else?
What had happened?
The mission, as he remembered it so vividly, was to get to Proxima B. Was this it?
As if that was where the answer was, he found himself staring at the sky. What he found there should have taken his breath away, but it didn't. That still did not make it any less bizarre, however.
Two suns. Not one. But two. The on the left was bigger than the other one and easily distinguishable from its vividly defined brightness and color shade. Proxima b was rumoured to be exactly like this. Maybe... maybe this really was it after all.
He sighed, allowing himself to believe the thought. But, what was he to do now? Start walking? In which direction?
The terrain was stiff and rough; no clear paths could be formed in it that he could follow or use to extrapolate ideas from.
He stared at the pod, finding most of its underside and corners badly bent and ill-shaped - blunt trauma from the drop no doubt. Yet, the structure managed to hold despite that. Must have been made out of some really good material to not fold like tissue upon contact, knowing the force it must have gone through. It was a good thing it withheld though because, had the material been any less dense, it would have surely ruptured upon impact. Liam almost shuddered imagining what that would have done to him.
He took another look around. Land stretched out in all directions as far as his eyes could see, disappearing into the horizon except in one particular place, where it was disturbed by thin, pale green.
Not only was it the color of life, but it was also the only area in sight that promised a change to all the barren monotony. He flexed his shoulders, preparing, before he began to walk there.
THE POD
The lady looked exhausted. Her head sagged even lower than her slumped shoulders, facing the ground. Her breathing was slow now but still a bit desperate.
"Feel better to have the right kind of air in your chest don't it?"
"Very much," she said, taking in a breath without ever lifting her head, "Thank you, again."
Andy was more relieved with her presence than he was worried about her condition as he watched her. He was glad he came to her in time and managed to save her, else he'd have lost not only the life of a fellow survivor but possibly his only reprieve from boredom on this god forsaken rock. What an agonizing thought that was, "Thank you," he told her, "Until only a few minutes ago, I thought I was all alone in this place. Might have been only an hour, but I could feel the insanity already creeping in."
She passed a hand over her face, clearing the waterfall of hair from her face and slowly tucking most of it behing her shoulders, "Alone...?" She lifted her head to finally look at Andy with her piercing grey gaze, "But, where... Where is everyone else?"
"Somewhere north of here from my judgement. Can't really say I'm 100% certain though, seeing as you're the only one I've come across since I came to," he was keenly aware of the suit she had on. It contrasted against his only in color and body feature accommodation but otherwise looked 100% identical, that piqued his interest, "Allow me to admit however, that I am surprised to have an engineer of all people out here. Weren't you guys like, tucked deeper inside the ship?"
"We were. Something must have happened during the disengagement. Something that stopped it from going as planned."
"I thought the ship's systems were specifically designed to prevent something like that from happening?"
"Minimize the chances of, not completely stopping. But seeing as we're both still alive, I'd say it worked well enough, at least, given whatever was behind the whole mess."
"I see," Andy told her, "Do you think a few more minutes would be okay before... Y'know?"
"Yes, actually. Guess it didn't help that I'm clusterphobic as well. Shitty way to arrive on your first exoplanet I'll tell you that."
"I know exactly what you mean. Guess I'm lucky I didn't asphyxiate myself."
"Yeah. Miriam by the way."
"Pleasure, I'm Andy,
ELSEWHERE
The numbers that were displayed on the screen were a little too high for Jardon's liking, both as a Captain and otherwise. Regardless of the cause, the amount of people lost was still too much. Not only did the revelation sadden him, it left a very bad taste in his mouth as well and a in his throat that refused to go away no matter how many times he swallowed.
"Any way to locate where some of them might be?"
"Negative," Judy told him, "Not without wide range aerial coverage." Drones essentially, which their side of the ship was yet to deploy.
This was what the two doctors had wanted to inform him - the captain - about when they had appeared in the med bay earlier. For all the people that Judy's replicas had managed to rescue, there were still a handful of them who were still no where to be found on the ship, meaning they somehow fell out when the two parts separated. Only lord knew whether or not they survived that fall or where they landed.
Jardon passed a hand through his hair, further digesting the sight, "And you say this happened during the decoupling?"
"Yes."
His eyes moved away from the screen and took in the sight of both doctors behind him and his mechanical assistant standing beside him, "Any idea why?"
"Judy," Raul called out, deflecting the Captain's attention, "I believe you're more suited to respond to that."
"Right," she said, pretending to ignore the fact that there was no real reason for the third doctor to say what he said. Then, she plugged her fingers into the holes that were on the side of the console and begun the transfer of data. She began to explain as the images on the screen changed, switching to various depictions of the ship and its systems, both internal and external, "The problem traces its origins to just as we made it out of our hyper jump."
When a new set of images rolled in, the setting changed, now portraying what the exterior sensors were picking up at the time - a rather peculiar image of a large greying cloud with potent radioactive readings. Some stars shined even through it's thick, wispy waves others were completely blocked by their opaqueness.
"My God, is that a solar storm?"
Judy seemed barely fazed, "Yes," she said, "The biggest one ever recorded. We were lucky our pulse shields dealt with the worst of it, they were still ill equipped unfortunately and came short. The few hits that the storm managed to get through were enough to interfere with a lot of the ship's operations. Most of the core systems were jeopardized as a result, myself included. I spent the entirety of the trip after then using what little was left of my working functionalities to correct all the malfunctions. I was only partly successful. It's actually part of the reason why I downloaded myself into this physical body, to minimize the damage done to my frameworks whilest maximizing my usefulness. It is truly unfortunate that I couldn't upload myself to the servers on the other half of the ship in time. Naturally, I wasn't supposed to have faced that challenge but the storm had fried key circuitry and pretty much confined me to our side of the descent."
"How long do we likely have before the soonest fixes are done?"
Her hands detached from the console's crevices without any noticeable sound and she turned to face the captain, "About three hours for the least damaged equipment."
Jardon's mood seemed to alleviate slightly at the sound of that, lifting the lump that had made his oesophagus heavy moments prior and allowing him to breathe better now that word of work had finally been mentioned, "A bit fortunate looking at our circumstances. How soon can we get a big enough team ready for search and rescue?"