Chapter 1 – Crashed

Sitting in my ship, I leaned back in the pilot seat. The everyday antics of space travel again boring me, just like they did every time. The idea of being able to travel throughout the universe used to excite me. Now it just bores me; it became very common, a very every day thing for me.

Being in a tiny ship with bad food for days on end wasn't exactly my idea of fun, even if it had been exciting the first time. But now it was natural, and getting old fast. Maybe in a few years, they would invent another way to travel—and that would probably get old fast too.

There was nothing for me to do, but I didn't really feel like staying in one place. I believed that, being who I was, I would get a job as soon as I returned, so I might as well just wait out in my ship. Maybe something would pop up. Something that had to be done. Something that would get me out of this ship and into the world again.

For some reason, I felt like there was something missing. I mean, like there was a gap in my memory. The ship's clock told me it was somewhere in July; I didn't pay attention. Last time I had checked that clock, it was late March, and I was going to Phaaze. How had...that much time gone by? And so fast too?

Closing my eyes, I almost fell asleep, when there was a beeping noise from the screen. Opening one eye, I scowled and stared at it. There was a distress beacon, and the ship system said, "Deacon received." Staring at the screen in shock, I watched the ship set the course itself to the spot on a strange planet where the distress signal had come from.

I continually hit "abort," but the ship didn't seem to be listening. "Hey!" I yelled. "What are you doing?! Stop!" But nothing seemed to work. I hit the sides of the ship, yelled at the console, and even considered shutting it down, but the ship kept going.

The planet was large, one of the biggest planets I had seen that I knew could hold sentient life. It had large continents, with a desert, and large polar ice caps. I could see a large mountain range cutting all the way across one of the large continents. That continent was covered in forests and plains. And I was heading right for that one.

"Fuckers!" I yelled, slamming my hands on the console. I was going to crash because I couldn't control my ship. Even my reckless driving was better than how it was going right now. "Stop it right now, you pathetic excuse for a ship!" Was I really yelling at it?

I didn't know what to do. Should I go and put on my suit, and wait for the crash? Or should I continue to try and put this ship back into my control? Whatever happened, I decided I was going to get this ship back into my control first.

I was getting frustrated and didn't have much time to think. Impact would be in less than five minutes. Grabbing hold of the wheel, I tried to turn it around, back into the air. All I wanted was to get the ship away from the ground.

Now I was hitting random buttons, trying to make an attempt at stopping this pathetic excuse for a ship from hitting the ground at a speed of over a thousand miles per hour. I closed my eyes as I watched the ground rush up to meet me.

It wasn't the actual crashing itself that hurt, more so as the ship exploding afterwards into a million little, pointy pieces. All I could do was lay there and wait for the pain to go away so I could move....

--

I felt like I was floating in a sea of clouds. I knew I wasn't dead or anything, but I felt like I was only half conscious, floating right on the edge. But I thought I heard someone talking above me. For some reason, I didn't care. I just laid there, on the ground, floating in between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Some of the words came to me. "She...ok?" someone was saying. Either they were talking to me, or someone else was there.

Another voice said, "Not...sure....Get...help...?"

The first voice answered, "What...?"

"...Point...." The second voice sounded upset.

As I regained consciousness, I was able to pick things out. The first person to talk was a woman. She sounded young. The second person to talk was a man who sounded younger than the woman, but not by much. I listened more closely.

"She's bleeding a lot," the woman said, "isn't there anything we can do?"

"I don't think so," the man said. "There's no one here. I don't even know why we are here."

The woman sighed. "Maybe we should just get here out from under there." I liked this lady, she wanted to help me. I can appreciate that one hundred percent.

My eyes were still closed, so I couldn't see who these people were. Maybe I didn't want to. Maybe I did. But I was so comfortable, believe it or not, so I layed there with my eyes closed, pretending to be out.

I felt strong hands grab my arms and pull, dragging me out from under the debris. Keeping my eyes closed, I felt those same hands check for a pulse. They found one, and moved. The woman's voice said, "Her ears...they're so...small."

"The people I grew up with had ears like that, don't you remember?" the man asked, sounded surprised and slightly frustrated.

Finally, I opened my eyes. It was then I realized how groggy I was. Nothing really made sense as the bright light flashed in front of my eyes. The first thing I noticed wasn't really the best thing. "Your ears are really big," I said bluntly, staring at the woman in front of me.

She looked insulted and...strangely familiar. Her long brown hair was braided from the the middle of it all down and two thick strands framing her face. Her deep blue eyes, like an ocean, were wide and angry, probably from what I had just said. I felt strangely safe when I looked into them, like all of the troubles and worries I had just melted away. She was shorter than I was, but I was tall, so that was to be expected. But she had a warm smile on her face, and her long ears weren't that strange the longer I looked. She wore a white and purple dress, with lots of gold. She had gold shoulder blades, a tiara, and bracers. She had a gold belt with a piece of cloth hanging from it. The cloth had a symbol on it, a symbol of three triangles in a formation above a red bird like thing. It looked so familiar. She was beautiful, and I couldn't keep my eyes off of her.

"Are you okay?" the man's voice asked. I looked over at him, angry to have to take my eyes off of the woman. "Can you understand me?"

He was shorter than she was, that was the first thing I noticed. He was familiar as well. Unlike the woman, he had blonde hair that was parted to one side, and fell over his forehead. His blue eyes were very unlike the eyes of the woman. His eyes were very cold and business like. He wore a silly green hat, along with a green tunic. Under the tunic, I saw that he was wearing chain mail and a long sleeve, white undershirt under that. He wore white leggings along with that, and brown boots. His gauntlets were leather, and he was wearing black gloves underneath. He had a long sword on his back, and a shield, along with other various weapons. His belt held what looked like a money bag and a bag of something else. Despite his cold eyes, and weaponry, he had a very friendly air about him.

"Yeah...." I mumbled, starting to sit up. My head spun as I got into a sitting position, and regretted it instantly. Maybe I should've stayed on the ground.

"Are you okay?" he repeated.

"Why do you care?" I asked, rubbing my throbbing head.

"You were under all of that debris," the woman said. "And it looked like it had crushed you. We were worried, so we thought we might help." She looked frustrated at my lack of relief that they had come to help me.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, thanks for pointing out the obvious," I said. Getting to my feet, I wiped some dirt off my shoulder. "So, if that's all, then I'll be going."

"Wait!" the woman said when I started to walk. "Where is this?"

"Like I have any idea. I thought you might've known."

The man shook his head. "We just woke up here. We have no idea where we are. We thought you might know."

"Well, I haven't got a clue," I snarled. I was angry, and I didn't want to be mean to them. For some reason, whenever I was mean to that girl, I felt bad. "Looks like we're in the same boat here."

The man nodded. "I'm Link," he said, holding out his hand to shake it. I grabbed his hand firmly.

"Nice to meet you, Link," I said, giving him a small, business-like smile.

"I'm Zelda," the woman said, smiling brightly. She and I exchanged the same greeting as Link and I had. The names rang a bell in my head, but I couldn't remember where I had heard them before.

"What's your name?" Zelda asked.

"I'm Samus," I said. "Samus Aran."

They both looked at each other, and then back at me.

Zelda said, "That sounds so...familiar."