The escape pod dropped shortly after Sara awoke. That wasn't supposed to happen. Still disoriented by her time in cryo, Sara had some difficulty reading the screen. She steered it towards what the pod identified as a blinking light. Sara braced for impact.
Escape pods are notoriously safe. The whole point is careening straight into the ground without dying. The most dangerous parts of a spaceship during a crash are the rockets and the life support systems, and a spaceship without rockets or life support is called an escape pod.
Sara woke a second time, and realized the crash had knocked her unconscious. Fearing she might have a concussion, she ordered a medical diagnostic.
The pod was non-responsive.
Sara tried the latches on the door. It didn't open. She tried the latches on the secondary door. It also didn't open. That wasn't supposed to happen. She tried the tertiary emergency door (though to be fair, everything is an emergency once an escape pod is involved). After a few minutes of battering, kicking, and general panic, she pressed it open far enough shimmy out.
The sky was full of black, wispy clouds, the trees were contorted and bulbous with strange red shapes, and there was a strange jelly fish-looking creature floating around the air. This was not what it was supposed to look like.
This planet had been terraformed somewhat, and Earth creatures were modified in order to adapt more quickly, but this life looked... indigenous.
Sara was, or was supposed to be, prepared for this. She was a colonist. Her job was to colonize. She wasn't sure what was going on or where everyone was, but her basic mission hadn't changed. Sara took stock of her situation.
Her pod was damaged beyond repair. Worse than it was supposed to be, actually. Weird. Sara could still salvage it for scrap. Scrap would be vital for a stand-alone colony, which Sara hoped she would not have to build.
She checked to see if anything wasn't broken. About all she had was rudimentary mining equipment, a radar, a pistol, and some flares. She looked over the damaged equipment and pried out the Combinator. It was damaged, but with some effort she got it to turn on. She sighed in relief. In her years of training, what was emphasized above all else is the Combinator is by far the most essential piece of equipment. Sara felt a bit of pride at its survival, even if she barely knew how to use it.
Sara stepped out of the pod and made another discovery, she was barefoot.
Sara walked painfully. The blinking light she'd steered the pod towards (a beacon, it turns out) was still over a mile away, and it was getting dark... er. Sara heard a strange sucking, hissing sound and looked to see a spider-like creature the size of a watermelon. She pulled out her gun.
Two things happened. The creature leaped at Sara, and Sara shot it. Then a third thing happened. Rather than drop dead, which is what happens to Earth creatures that have been shot, this one glowed white and exploded, leaving behind vaporous purple goo.
Sara decided not to dwell on it, and increased her pace. As more spiders appeared, and other, larger creatures, Sara walked faster.
oOo
Low on spirit, and lower on ammunition, Sara eventually reached the beacon. It stood high up in the air, and directly below it was a metal hatch. As creatures continued appearing, Sara pulled at the hatch. Feeling déjà vu, it didn't open, this time requesting a password. Panicked, Sara pressed numbers at random.
"Incorrect," a voice came. "The password is '7747'."
Dumbstruck, Sara punched in the password and the hatch opened. Sara jumped down immediately, and the hatch closed behind her.
It was bright. Very bright. Very, very bright. The architect had evidently desired not a single speck of tile unexposed to light. The room was small, but large enough for a single person to rest comfortably. On one side he saw a bed with some shelves, the other held a large screen. Leaving somewhat bloody footprints to the bed, Sara checked the shelves to find enough granola and water to last weeks.
Sitting on the bed, Sara read the screen.
"Welcome to the Sector 6-F safe house. This counter was last reset 91 days ago. Darkmoon is in 6 days. Please press the big red button to activate the beacon and notify Victoria of your presence."
Sara leaned and pressed the button. Nothing happened for a few minutes. Suddenly the screen turned black.
"Hello? I someone there?" a voice spoke. It was female, and a little posh. "The room is set up that if you speak I'll be able to hear you."
"H-hello," Sara ventured.
The voice sighed quietly.
"It's good to hear another person's voice," the voice said. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," Sara said. "My, ah, my feet are bleeding a bit."
There was a pause.
"6-F should have a first aid kit with some disinfectant and bandages. You'll want to rinse off the blood first with water."
"Thanks."
"You're perfectly safe where you are. That safe house is built with illunite-reinforced titanium. Nothing can get through that," the voice paused again. "Almost nothing."
"..."
"If you stay where you are I can bring you some supplies," the voice said. "Do you need anything?"
"Shoes," Sara said without hesitation. "And some ammo, if you've got it."
""You've got the standard issue pistol, right?"
"Yeah."
"I'll bring you a proper gun."
oOo
It was the dullest, most uncomfortable day of Sara's life. Victoria assured her the central base had entertainment beyond instruction manuals for sophisticated equipment, and lamented that the bare bones setup of a modified hole in the ground didn't even have that.
Then night came and she missed when it was boring discomfort.
There was clawing and scratching and howling and... and whispering. Quiet echoes that were sounds no animal should make. While listening, Sara started identify unique types, and hoped she would never need to see them.
But she stayed, stayed in that small room bored and scared and growing sick of the taste of granola. The bed was nice, though.
Then there was a rap. A rapping at the reinforced hatch, followed by a voice.
"Sara," said Victoria. "It's me, ah, Victoria. I'm coming down."
Sara at once felt relief as she fell to the bed. She hadn't realized she'd been standing, and now her feet were hurting again. The hatch opened and for the first time they saw one another. And Sara saw, well, body armor. The kind of body armor you expect from a bomb technician, or maybe an astronaut. The kind that masks any physical characteristics of the wearer. Yet Victoria moved with the grace of a ballet dancer, dropping directly from the ceiling onto the floor with nary a sound.
Victoria held out her hand, which Sara took, only to be pulled in for a hug.
"I was beginning to think I was the only one left," Victoria said, her voice briefly shaking.
Sara was at a loss for words. Victoria wasn't.
"Sara?"
"Hm?"
"Do you like beef?"
"I, yes."
"Good," Victoria broke from the hug and pulled a ration from her pack. "Because this is a beef ration. It cooks itself. It takes about 10 minutes."
Sara eyed the ration as Victoria prepared it. This meant cutting it open, pulling a string, and waiting.
"We talked a bit earlier, but now that we're together, we can take our time and I can answer any questions," Victoria said. "Though I should warn you I'm also in the dark about much of this."
Victoria touched the side of her helmet. "N-no pun intended."
oOo
They got the obvious questions out of the way first. There were no known survivors save themselves; the few people Victoria had spoken to were now giving radio silence. Data logs Victoria had recovered called the creatures 'Nazkin,' and their origins were unpleasant and neither wished to dwell. With immediate safety resolved, and her food heated to perfection, Sara had one more question.
"What's Darkmoon?" Sara asked. "The timer said 'Darkmoon in 6 days.' Five days, now."
Victoria paused contemplatively.
"I'm sure you've noticed the creatures come out at night. Darkmoon is basically this planet's version of a solar eclipse, except it lasts longer," Victoria preempted the obvious follow-up question. "About 36 hours of night."
Sara swallowed nervously.
"I schedule my excursions around it," Victoria smiled. "Don't worry. Even including the time to get back, we've a few days to spare, so take you time."
"Thank you for this," Sara looked down. "You're very kind."
"I'm not exactly being selfless," Victoria's hand touched against Sara's without looking. "It's been months since I've even talked to another person, let alone..."
Sara withdrew her hand.
"I, I can't imagine," Sara smiled politely. She started feeling nervous, but thought of a distraction. "Could I see your face?"
Victoria blinked. "What?"
"Your visor's opaque, I feel strange having this conversation not knowing what you look like," Sara said.
"Sorry, it's been a while," Victoria's visor grew clear. Sara's mouth widened.
"You're prettier than I would expect from someone who hides her face," Sara said.
Victoria laughed. "Thank you." She couldn't think of a comeback until it wasn't worth it anymore.
Sara began eating. She felt warmth down to her core, and relief that the nightmare was over, or rather, lessened. She started looking at Victoria's face, and noticed she would stare back serenely until noticing Sara's gaze, then break away. Sara began to suspect how she'd been staring before making the visor transparent, and also how long she'd been alone on this world. Victoria's armor looked heavily customized, and possibly built from scratch. How many years of training it would take to make something like that? What were the odds that Victoria had that kind of training in advance?
"So what did you do," Sara asked, between bites. "Before you went into cryo?"
"I was a professor," Victoria said. "I taught students how to build the necessities of life using barely more than a Combinator."
"Autumn," Sara said.
"Yes?"
"Professor Autumn! I recognize you now," Sara choked out. "One of my friends had classes with you."
Victoria grinned. "Oho, what did they think of my class?"
"He, ah, he didn't like you very much," Sara blushed. "He thought your class was too hard."
"The Combinator is a sophisticated device," Victoria said. "With enough inputs and the right recipe you can make practically anything, at least indirectly. It took me six years to get a masters degree in its operation. You can't really fit all that into a typical single semester course."
"But you tried."
"But I tried."
Sara realized she was out of food, but still felt hungry. "So, ah, I heard rumors you were a lesbian."
"Can't see why there would be rumors," Victoria said. Sara sighed in relief. "I was quite open about being gay."
Sara's cheeks reddened.
"Yeah, funny how things work out," Sara said.
"I'm sorry?" Victoria said.
"Nothing."
They waited in silence a few minutes.
"Well, time to set off," Victoria said. "We've a few hours until dark, and it would be a good idea to make some headway before we hunker down for the night."
Sara froze.
"You think we could stay here for the night?" Sara asked. "You said we had time to spare."
Victoria looked around. "I guess. I don't see any reason why we would need to stay here. Are you hurt?"
"No, it's just," Sara couldn't say she was worried about 'hunkering down' in some pit Victoria would dig, wanting to make it to the base in one go. Victoria stared at her a minute.
"Alright, we can wait," Victoria said.
"Great," Sara brightened up, then started feeling guilty. Victoria was providing for her, and in the long run likely saving her life, and all she could think about was what Victoria could possibly ask for in return.
Sara looked at Victoria.
Besides, it wasn't as though she'd never thought about... Sara swallowed uncomfortably. She had been a college student. And the age distance wasn't that much.
"Sara?" Victoria said. "Are you okay? You've got a weird expression on your face."
"Fine," Sara began blushing profusely. "I'm fine."
oOo
A/N: I like how this turned out. When I was playing Darkout I started writing a narrative about my character, as I am wont to do in sandbox games, and I started to realize she was lonely, so I wanted to give her a friend. Then I made her a lesbian for some reason. I do that too.
Anyway, I'd appreciate any and all feedback so please leave a review, they really make my day. I haven't decided whether I'm going to continue this, or if it'll be a oneshot, but if people like it, who knows.