Chapter 1 Lost
Date: Unknown,
The darkness of space seemed so bleak to Cali right now. The darkness was only canceled out by the light emanating from a nearby blue planet.
"Is anyone out there?" he said softly into the microphone attached to his headset. "This is a distress call." There was sadly no answer. He clicked a few buttons on the control panel on the helm of the ship he was piloting.
"Is there anyone out there? Can you hear me?"
He waited for a second…
"Yes, we are receiving your transmissions. This is Sergeant Bill Grey of the Cornerian army. State your purpose this sector."
"This is Cali Windrunner of the cruiser Tempest 2, the ship is in need of emergency assistance. Requesting landing rights on the nearest planet, with medical and fire suppression crews available upon landing."
"What happened to your ship? Is the fire controlled right now?" Grey asked
"The ship was thrown off course during an accident; I don't know exactly what happened. Upon finally regaining control of the ship, I found myself in the middle of a meteor storm. The ship got pounded and I have lost all but minor control of the lateral wings. As far as the fire goes, call it preemptive measures."
"Standby" Grey commanded
"I didn't know there was life out here." Cali said to himself.
"Your request has been granted. Medical crews will be waiting. We will guide you down. Slow down to half impulse and turn to heading 298.09. How many crew members are there?"
"Thank you, I am the only crew member, but I am unable to slow down or make the necessary heading adjustments. I have only compression thrusters to slow me down, but they won't do any good in the atmosphere. "
"Then we'll guide her down using tow cables. Stand by for attachment."
The ship shook a bit as the cables were fixed to the hull. The lines went taught and the ship changed direction. Cali braced himself and locked in the restraints on his seat. The ship started to shake wildly as it entered the atmosphere of the large blue planet. Pieces of the ship could be seen breaking off as it flew into the different layers of the atmosphere, forming a large fireball. All of the ships let go of their tow cables in fear of being damaged.
"I can see the aft section of the ship starting to break apart, be prepared to eject." Grey called out as he flew next to the cockpit window.
"I can't do that."
"Why?"
"I am carrying 4 other passengers that are in a state of cryo-stasis. I have to take this thing down as carefully as I can." Cali said making a few adjustments on the com-panel and pulling back on the main control stick to try and get the ship to drop in nose-up.
"Shit, the landing gear isn't going down. Looks like I will have to slide her in."
The ship shook horribly as it rumbled through the air over many tall skyscrapers. He spotted the air strip about a mile or two away and knew that he wouldn't make it. The ship was hitting the tall trees, snapping them like twigs. The ship wasn't very large, only about 80 meters long and 25 meters tall and no more than 20 meters wide. In a situation like this though, size made no difference when it was moving this fast. The belly of the ship made contact with the ground and gouged out a massive ravine as is slowed down to a stop, resting on its nose.
"Get the Medical teams to the crash site as quickly as possible. Until then, squad, we need to get down there and check on them."
The other ships all radioed in and confirmed the command and landed by the creaking shell of what was once a rather nicely designed ship. Bill jumped out of his craft with his weapon drawn. He didn't really know what he was dealing with, yet. He pulled on the outside hatch and backed up as it fell to ground with a clank. He looked at his squad and gave the signal to have 3 of them enter and clear the room.
"Clear, sir" said one of them.
The interior was badly damaged. Com-panels and other instruments thrown around the ship made it look like someone threw a bomb into it. Grey noticed 4 cylinders on the far back wall. He climbed the now steeply angled floor to reach the tubes. He wiped away some of the debris from them and saw what looked like a female wolf inside. His concentration was interrupted when he heard…
"Sir I found the pilot. He appears to be dead."
"Damn," he said as he hopped back down to see Cali badly cut up and blood coming out of his mouth.
"Let's get him and these others out of this thing before it collapses. I'll take this one and you men get those tubes open and get those people out of here." Grey said as he reached down and pulled up on Cali's shirt. A movement made the Sergeant suddenly drop the body. Cali grunted as his chest hit the panel. He coughed u pa bit of blood as he struggled to get his bearings.
"Get the medics!"
"I'll be fine…" Cali said, "But you can't… (Cough) Don't move the tubes. They have to… (cough) be moved carefully."
"We don't have much time here. This ship is going to fall apart soon." He said helping Cali stand.
"I can tell," Cali said as he wiped blood away with his left arm, "That makes no difference. They are in cryo-stasis, I need to shut down the system before they can be moved, otherwise, they will…" He couldn't say the last word.
"Ok, can you get the system shut down?"
"Yeah, but I need to find something first."
"Such as?" Grey questioned.
"My other arm." He said pulling his half right arm up.
"Oh god. Where are those medics?"
"Don't worry it comes right off all the time, or rather it has been lately." The Sergeant looked closer and saw some sort of mechanical implant on the nub of the forearm.
"Ah got it." Cali said as he clicked it to his arm and the Sergeant watched as the arm piece melded right with his skin.
"Amazing." Grey said.
"Not half as amazing as the fact that the power is still on in here." Cali said as he stood over one of the back panels. He pressed a few buttons and all of the tubes slowly lowered to the ground and gave a mild hissing noise.
"The medics are here, Sir," said one of the watchmen outside the ship.
"Tell them to bring stretchers, or anything that can haul a body." Cali yelled, "Come help me… I'm sorry; I don't know your name."
"Sergeant Bill Grey, I told you when we first made contact."
Cali brought his right hand up and rubbed his hair back, ruffling his pseudo-mowhawk. "Sorry I must have hurt my head when I crashed." He said sounding somewhat destroyed, like it was a worthless endeavor to even keep going.
"It's alright, you have done very well considering. I really shouldn't be letting you do this, you shouldn't be moving right now until you have been checked out."
"Yeah well, no offence, but who would take care of my family? You?"
Bill just stood there with a mildly lost look. No one had ever really snapped at him like that before.
"Sorry, would you just come and help me; I need to get these tubes open."
Bill obliged and walked over to one of the tubes. Cali threw him a metal pry bar that was on the floor.
"Just pop the tube open a little bit and let the air escape then open it all the way so I can grab each one."
Complying with the direction he opened the first tube and a tall female wolf fell out. As he laid her down she started to stir a bit.
"Where…where am I?"
"It's all right mother, we have landed and everyone is being woken up." He said holding her head up. She slightly smiled and closed her eyes as she passed out. The medics quickly picked her up and placed her on the gurney and took her out to the waiting transport craft.
"Can you guys continue? I need to go sit down," Cali asked. He stepped out after receiving a nod from the Sergeant. He sat down on the destroyed door watching for a minute as his family was brought to the transport ship. He put his hands over his eyes and dropped his head. He wiped his eyes and looked down at his right arm. He rubbed it a bit and matted the fur down a bit.
"Everyone is out and we need to get you onto the ship too."
"Alright, thank you for all your help. I can't believe it."
"Can't believe what?"
"Everything, I mean, for one I never expected to come upon life out here, nonetheless have it look like me, then my ship crashes. We now have no home, money, food or anything. All of our work has been destroyed and who knows if I can recover any of it…"
Bill noticed that Cali was starting to get really agitated and saw that his fur was standing straight up.
"MEDIC!!" He called out as he watched Cali start to black out.
"Damn" Cali sighed as his eyes closed. His body fell forward and in only a moments time he was completely out of it.