He'd lost track on how long he'd been drifting, nothing but him, his gunship and the void. He had fuel, more than enough, just nowhere to go. His logs stated that he'd been out there for 6 months, the nightmares made it feel longer, the terror filled screams from the Serenity as the gauna breached her hull. Jonas shivered, taking a minute to shake those memories away, he put his helmet on the co pilot's seat and began his daily routine. Glancing at the O2 gauge as he passed,he noted that the recyclers had worked through the night and shia'na now was back upto Seventy percent of optimum.
Step one: check supplies; Moving over to the storage locker behind the cockpit, upon opening it, he found nothing but bad news. Only half of a combat ration, one litre water, fuel levels at fifty percent and ammunition count at only ten percent. Well at least Shia'na would last longer than he would, he had only two days of supplies, so around a five to live, She had over a year.
Step two: Check sensor data-logs for the time he was asleep; the usual, ice, rock and background radiation. Nothing unusual, he was about to turn away when something caught his eye. Curent Sensor Data: Ice, rock, Caution: Abnormal Radiation detected, refined metal alloy. 'Refined metal alloy? That's a new one.'
Opening his cockpit's blast shields he finally became convinced that the Isolation had gotten to him... 'A metal man... ok it's settled, i've finally lost it... Wait... is that a cockpit?' Jonas scrambled across the cabin to his grab his helmet but unfortunetly tripped and ended up with his head in the footwell. After picking himself up and putting his helmet back on, jonas tried the comms,
"This is Jonas Reed to unknown ummm mech... thing? Is anyone alive in there?" He knew that he shouldn't be getting his hopes up but, well, People. An actual hance of living breathing human beings (he hoped). He was so exited that he didn't actually register his helmet's translater marking the filter as Japanese.
He was surprised to hear the voice of a teenage girl in reply.
"This is cadet hoshijiro, who is this? Tell me who you are and state your intentions."
Jonas was honestly stunned beyond words at the harsh response he'd gotten.
"I just said my name... Well, anyways, do you need any assistance? My scans arn't showing much power on your... craft." There was a half minute of silence before her answer came. "We are stranded and out of suplies and water, my fellow cadet is going through dehydration can you assist?" Hoshijiro was both nervous and happy, an unknown craft off of the Tsugumori's bow,but this pilot is offering aide. "You guys stuck out here like me, eh? I'm almost out of supplies too, but we can split it three ways, ok? Be there in five."
Thoughts were spinning through hoshijiro's head at breakneck speed 'Who is this guy?' She hadn't realised time passing until she heard knocking. "Shit..." Jonas cleared his throat, "Would you kindly get dressed And check your suit seals? I can't give you water if im out here... and you guys don't have an airlock." Her only response was a high pitched "Eep" and muffled curses. Jonas could only smirk. After getting inside the re-pressurised the cockpit it was quite cramped and silent, very silent too silent.
Jonas removed his helmet so Hoshijiro would see that he was just like any human. Passing over her share of the water jonas decided to start a conversation.
"So hoshijiro was it? How come there are two of you in here? It's only got one seat?" She was drinking eagerly but froze when he spoke and tilted her head to the side in confusion, "Nani?" This time Jonas froze, 'wait no no no damnit!' Raising his hand in the one second gesture, After putting his helmet on he asked again. This time she nodded and with a awkward smile replied between sips, "Oh sorry, combat with a gauna, tanikaze here protected our squad after our gardes were disabled, but my engine malfunctioned, i had to eject and it's explosion sent me out here. He killed it then followed my last known trajectory to try and save me. He ended up stranded out here like me." Her smile faded after that last bit.
"How about you Jonas san?" Jonas couldn't catch his cringe in time. "Well, I'm from the Serenity, the seed ship from Luna. I was one of it's early warning flights, It was destroyed, I was two days behind them when they were ambushed, those damn gauna ripped her apart, killed all ships that managed to launch. I got there in time to see Serenity's engines go critical." Hoshijiro was stunned into a mournful silence. Once again it was Jonas was broke said silence, "Well let's wake up sleeping beauty here, eh?" Jonas passed her tanikaze's share. She held the bottle to his lips and he sputtered and then forcefully grabbed it and guzzeled it, "Hoshijiro?" Tanikaze was obviously coming back online as he very quickly noticed the man hunched over in the back. "Who is that?" He asked simply pointing at jonas weakly. "His name's Jonas." She introduced calmly with a faint smile, "He's stranded like us, but he shared the last of his water with us." Jonas put a hand out to shake. Tanikaze seemed hesitant but returned the gesture. They sat, well floated, and talked for several hours.
"Jonas San why don't you remove your helmet?" Sounded Tanikaze's voice from his position floating above him. Jonas scratched his 'chin' and chuckled. "I... uh... don't know japanese that well..."
The two before him stared blankly. Hoshijiro seemed to remember the occurence from earlier and just looked at him for an explanation, "My helmet has a translator ok? I only know very basic japanese without it." They both seemed to catch on.
For the first time in months jonas had seen another living human and he had to wear his bucket to understand them. They sat in silence for the rest of the day Jonas and Tanikaze sitting with their backs to hoshijiro as she photsynthisised in the cockpit.
Eight hours later Jonas awoke to an unusual sight:
Hoshijiro had apparently fallen asleep some time after him and Tanikaze, before she finished her photosynthesis, suffice to say he got quite a view until he averted his eyes and woke her. His new found translation method seemed to double up as fairly decent protection from embarrassed women too.
She didn't even look at him for two hours and even Tanikaze himself was suffocating in the tension. "Anyone got any ideas about water?" Jonas supplied, Tanikaze seemed to like the prospect of conversation but only a minor twitch came from hoshijiro. "We can't just make water." She stated despairingly.
"Well I might be able to, might." Tanikaze stared at Jonas like he had two heads. "What? Shia'na runs on hydrogen." Now it was both of them. "Dont you need fuel to get shia'na well anywhere?" Hoshijiro stammered. Jonas looked at each of thembut received only a firm response from Tanikaze, "No, we need to think of something else."
Jonas slumped, "Only trying to help." They remained in silent thought for quite a while.
Oddly it was hoshijiro who broke said silence. "Jonas? Could you show us shia'na?" Jonas perked up at this, even through his visor they could se his grin, "Be more than happy to." After securing their helmets they had to wait for the atmosphere to cycle out, "What can you tell us while we wait?" Tanikaze queried, obviously bored.
Jonas had to think before answering. "Well she was originally built as a mining support ship, but when serenity lost her previous early warning flight i was reassigned and Shia'na was re-fitted with sniper class weapon systems. A year or so later and here I am." As if on cue the console bleeped and the hatch opened allowing them to exit onto the hull of the garde.
They were about to jump across when a brilliant halo of garde hurtled out of the void casting everything in a brilliant blue aura as the formation decelerated and by supreme coincidence ringed the two motionless craft. Jonas just stared on in awe. The other two were hugging each other and crying.
"This is leuitennant Samari of the defence force, Nagate Tanikaze, Hoshijiro Shizuka, anyone in there?" The halo accelerated to come even with the floating craft. "This is tanikaze, We're safe and sound. Our new friend here has helped us survive."
Samari observed the unknown craft sceptically, "That thing safe take back to sidonia?" Jonas jumped back to Shia'na before replying. "The serenity was destroyed, i have no more supplies and i shared my last with those two. I have fuel and i can match your pace, I give you my word of honour that I will not do anything that would endanger the Sidonia."
Samari seemed stunned, but became firm for her reply. "You better not." She dispatched supplies to Jonas via other pilots and then after the tsugumori was settled into the formation, they departed, with Shia'na matching pace in the centre of the ring formation.
It was several hours before they reached sidonia, Samari was expecting awe or joy on jonas' face, she was shocked speachless by the mournful, silently sobbing visage that greeted her request for video comms.
[ Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter, hoping to release a secon one soon.]
[ J-R Signing Off]