Max Headroom: Desdinova

-CHAPTER 01-

They spaceship landed in a field of something that bore a striking resemblance to grass.

It wasn't grass, Bryce told himself. Grass was something that grew on Earth and was green. This was orange, and the blades were a little coarser.

Jenny looked at him for a second. Then she turned and looked out the window at the not-grass that was growing around them.

"Think it's dangerous?" she asked.

"One way to find out," Bryce told her. He headed into the ship's cargo hold and opened one of the cold storage units. Selecting an orange and a sausage, he returned to the main cabin. He peeled the orange and tore free a segment.

"No need to use a full orange," he said, sniffing the slice to make sure it was still good. Nodding he took one more slice then handed the rest to Jenny. "Hang on a second."

He tossed the spare segment into the orange not-grass and waited. The segment did not dissolve or disappear, which was good. But there was still one more test to perform. He looked around for something sharp. Then, finding nothing bit his tongue, just hard enough to draw a little blood. He politely spat some on the sausage, then tossed it outside. After several minutes, nothing happened.

"Okay, we know that's safe," he told Jenny as he opened the door, went outside, and retrieved the items, which he put into the ship's waste disposal unit.

"Man-eating grass? Really?" Jenny asked.

"Let's not make assumptions about anything until we've learned all we can about it," Bryce told her.

Jeremy and Alan were the next to awaken, followed by Susan, Laura, Nicholas and a number of others whom they hadn't been introduced to yet.

"M-m-morning, folks!" Max called out cheerfully to them. "Welcome welcome welcome to Desdinova!"

There was a cheer from the group. Then Nicholas looked around and spoke

"Where's Bennett and that Japanese lady?"

Alan searched the cryo units. Some of them turned out to have a leaky seal which had resulted in the deaths of their inhabitants. He looked up at Bryce and the others.

"Bennett's dead," he reported. "Along with the Japanese woman, and three of the kids from Nicholas's class."

Nicholas went over and looked at them. "Terrance Clary, Rick Stubbins, and George Izzard." he told them.

Max noted the names in the ship's computer.

"So, first order of things we need to do is bury our dead," Bryce said. "Then we need to use the medical equipment that was packed on board to find out if anyone is sick. We should quarantine any such persons until they have recovered. We don't know what a sickness that came from Earth will do to the ecosystem. And we need that ecosystem to survive."

"Aren't you being a little over-cautious?" Alan asked.

"If we had moved to New York, or Lisbon, or Kuala Lumpur, then maybe this would be overly cautious," Bryce conceded. "But we're ten million light years from Earth. What we have in our cargo hold and what's out there right now is all that stands between us and the Grim Reaper. So unless you're in a hurry to meet him, then no I don't think so."

Jeremy and Alan exchanged glances.

"Kuala Lumpur?"