Calloor crosses his arms. “All I will get is a direction, now we’re on the ground. And if they are on the other side of the planet—”
“Their beacon should still be working. Why isn’t it?” Beacon’s stay on for thirty days, then are on for an hour every day until the battery finally dies. I glanced at our beacon. Was it silently sending out an alert?
“I don’t know. I was about to start scanning for life just before we were hit.” Calloor stomps off to the front of the ship.
I doubt he was going to do any scans that weren’t directly part of his orders. He does the bare minimum to get by. If he didn’t run scans, we don’t know what life is out there, humanoid, or other.
I unclip. Ava reaches out to pull me up. But I shake my head. I don’t like to rely on anyone. People only help until it’s no longer convenient.
“Come on, Leah, I won’t bite.” Ava smiles.
I struggle up out of my backward tilted seat. The four security guys are all standing around, armed and ready to go. No one is hurt, so there’s nothing for me to do. I’m almost disappointed. At least if I was being useful, I’d be distracted. People who are useful are less likely to be kicked to the side and forgotten about.
“Grab whatever med supplies you think we’ll need and can carry.”
“I know what to do.” Not that I’ve ever crashed before, but I know the procedure. The emergency med kit bag is stowed and ready for use. We don’t need it if we aren’t leaving the ship, and I don’t want to leave. “We’re staying with the ship, right?”
“Yeah, unless Calloor finds their life signs.” Ava draws in a breath and shouts, “Anything?”
“No. I don’t think so,” Calloor calls.
“They're alive or they aren’t. The planet is uninhabited, they are the only people here,” Ava says.
Unless the company lied, and someone else calls this planet home. It wouldn’t be the first time the company has made a claim then been caught out, but that was decades ago.
“The readings are weird…I think the systems are malfunctioning. It said thirty humanoids, but now there’s nothing.”
“People don’t just vanish.” But they did die. Are we too late to save Daley and Sawle?
“Great our equipment is fucked.” Ava yanks on the lever and opens the back door.
Cold air cuts through the ship. The ship is a small vessel—not as small as a survey ship—but she can carry a heavy weight. The idea is that the recovery vessel can pick up the survey ship and bring it into the belly. The belly that we landed on and is probably now crumpled beneath us and the only reason we’re alive.
Something shrieks and groans.
Ava peers out the door. “We’re bailing out. Now!”
I grab the emergency med kit bag and strap it onto my back. Two of the security guys deploy the emergency ladder and disappear over the side. I edge closer to the door. Beyond our ship is a forest made up of tall, twisted, frost tipped trees. We tore up a strip of forest with our landing. It’s an ugly scar of splintered wood, dirt, and rocks.
Before us, this planet had been untouched.
To my left are mountains, wrapped tight in the electrical storm that hit us. We were lucky not to slam into the rocks. Or were we unlucky to survive?
The ship jolts and tips. I glance down. We aren’t on a snowy field the way I first thought. We skidded through the forest and onto a frozen lake. The hot ship is going through the ice.
“Get out, Leah.” Ava gives me a push and I start down the ladder.
The ice shatters. I slip and fall, and I’m swallowed by the frigid water.
Chapter 2
The current is strong,and I smash into the side of the ship. I scrabble at the metal, trying to find something to hold on to, so I don’t get swept away under the ice. But my fingers are useless against the pull of the water. My lungs burn and I’m not sure which way is up, or which is down, or where the ship is. I’m panicking. Air bubbles slip pass my lips. Where is the surface? How will I get through the ice?
In the darkness something glowing moves.
I’m dying. People always say there’s a light.
The glow grows bigger. It’s not a light, but a creature, and I’m going to be dinner.
