Chapter 1

That's a big star

The sun was setting on another long and boring day stuck on this unfamiliar planet. Ava was sitting at her desk, positioned in front of the make shift window that had formed when her ship crashed landed. It was a decent size and merged with the giant opening that was her doorway. The dangling red, blue and green wires swayed as the cool breeze began to pick up. Ava pulled her long brown hair up to help cool her sweaty neck. A notebook sat open in front of her.

She wanted to document her mission, now that she was the only one left she felt like she had to, but there really was nothing going on anymore. There were a few lines here and there about the new plants and animals that were discovered and what had happened to her and her crew to make this planet her new home. But besides that there really wasn't much else. Except maybe talking about Wesley, the robot Ava built after the crash. Except he did pretty much the same thing she did, nothing.

Luckily Ava began working on him while she and her team were on course for their mission. Ava tried to model him after the curiosity rover but with so little working parts after the crash she had to make some modifications. The white robot had a small black neck made up of a skinny rod and some wires and decent tracks that made him move easily in the sand. Westley also had a rectangular body with a storage area that could fit any of the edible vegetation they saw. His black claw like arms fit nicely into his body but she wished she had made them longer. He had one eye lens that took up most of his square head and a row of blue lights that were his mouth. She looked over to him and watched as he used his tiny arms tried to use a palm frawn as a broom, basically pushing the sand around.

Eventually she went back to the notebook and wrote "The useless robot has decided to clean the sand. I'm doomed to die here."

Looking back out the window Ava took in the different colors of the sunset as she thought about what else she could jot down. She twirled the pen in her fingers like a mini baton. As the sky began to turn into a deep purple she thought maybe she could draw out the new constellations she saw. She turned the page and began drawing the landscape in front of her. Ava was never really that great at drawing but at least it was better than helping the robot sweep up the sand.

She stared at the small cliffs that were in front of her window, using the pen to scratch down what she saw. Ava looked up in time to see a shooting star fly across the sky. She smiled and began closing her eyes.

A large booming sound made her open her eyes again. Something was falling towards the planet and it was huge. Ava jumped out of her seat and ran to the doorway. She stood watching it, whatever it was, fall. A few times she wondered if it was going to land on the spaceship that she turned into her new home. Finally, with another loud boom, it landed behind the trees to the right of her house. Ava shielded her eyes from the sand that was kicked up by the falling space craft.

Westley made a lot of angry whirs and beeps behind her and began sweeping around her feet. The crash was pretty close by Ava thought to herself. She stared at the spot a few seconds more before running back into the spaceship.

"I'm going to see what that was." She told the robot grabbing her canteen and throwing on a jacket.

Wesley stopped his vigorous sweeping and looked back at her. He made a whir noise that sounded like "What?"

"I'll be fine I promise." Ava told the robot. Its head only came up to her knees so it was easy for her to step over his square body. "Stay here and wait for me. Get the med kit out just in case."

He followed her a short distance making all kinds of different beeps and whirs. As soon as she entered the forest he made a sad boop and stared at where she had disappeared.

It had been a while since Ava had ventured into the forest. The trees seemed so close together that the knotted roots took up most of the forest floor. The sky grew darker and the moonlight barely made it through the thick foliage above her. She might have to go the long way around the forest on her way back home.

Soon small pieces of bark and splinters littered the forest floor. She knew she was on the right track. The small pieces became logs, then branches and it made it harder for Ava to get over them. As she walked the crash site got closer and she could see that whatever had landed was huge and wasn't shaped like any spaceship she had ever seen.

She walked out to the new edge of the forest and was surprised at what she saw. The spaceship, if you want to call it that, destroyed the trees from the forest's original edge to about 20 feet back to where she was standing. The moon above her shone brightly on the ship before her. It was silver and black with two giant red wing like things sticking out of the back of it. Ava walked around the ship carefully trying to find a way inside.

As she made her way around she noticed the it had feet, claws and a face. Like a lion. Ava stared at it. The ship stared back with its yellow eyes. She didn't know how long she stood there. Did it act like an actual cat where you had to let it smell you before letting you inside?

"Holy shit." She breathed. Hesitantly Ava stepped towards it.

That's when the mouth of the lion shaped ship opened, making Ava jump 10 feet. She waited not knowing if she should walk in and investigate.

After deciding that knowing what is in there is better than not knowing Ava walked toward the mouth of the ship. She saw a hallway that led to deep into the ship and someone dressed in a black and white space suit slumped against the wall.

"Fuck." Ava whispered and climbed up the small incline to reach him. It was hard to see if he was breathing by just looking at him so she crouched down and held her hand in front of his nose. Waiting for the exhale of air to tickle her fingers. Thankfully he was breathing. "Alright let's get you out of here."

First she grabbed his left arm and tried to lift him up. That's when she saw a gash on his right side. It was like he was cut and electrocuted at the same time. There were three decently sized cuts that started at the bottom of his ribs and went at a downward angle towards his hip. Around the cuts looked like black scorch marks. It only took seconds for Ava to process what it was and rip off her windbreaker. She turned it inside out and tied it tightly around his waist. Hoping that it would at least help until she got back to the ship.

As she was tying the knot for the second time to help keep it secure she heard a sharp intake of breath. Ava looked up and locked eyes with the guy she was helping.

"I'm here to help." She told him gently, taking a step back to give him some space. "Can you walk ok?"

He took a minute to process the question and nodded.

"I'll take you to my place and fix you up there. It is a bit far and it might take a while because of the forest." Ava grabbed his other hand as she spoke, and noticed he had a robotic arm that reached to just above his elbow. She ignored it for now and helped him to his feet.

"I'm Ava by the way." She wrapped his metal arm around her neck. "What about you?"

"Shiro." He breathed

"It's going to be ok Shiro." She told him, knees shaking from the extra weight she carried. Slowly they made their way out of the Lion and back to her home.