A/N: A very different Chuck and Sarah in a very different story, a planetary romance. And, yes, it will be a romance.
This was triggered by reading posts about exo-planets, something that has always fascinated me.
I then thought back to my youth, when I devoured the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and those that followed him including Lin Carter and even Michael Moorcock. The idea of a man from Earth travelling to another planet, however that was achieved, and finding the girl of his dreams was the perfect fantasy for me, as I was still a few years from meeting the girl of mine.
So, here's my AU Chuck tribute to that. Timelines are different to canon. It's set in 2022, but Chuck is only twenty-eight.
Beta done by MarkeyDeSad. I didn't expect him to have the time to do it, but he did. Thank you so much, my friend. He has just released the third chapter of his "Let the Music Play" which is so good. Go and read it now!
Before anyone comments, I know that even the Earthside parts are unrealistic, but, hey, this is fiction.
Exo
Chapter 1: New World
Chuck couldn't believe his luck. He, like probably hundreds of thousands of others, had put his name into the online draw to win a chance to visit the NASA and see, first hand, the images being received from the James Webb Space Telescope. Amazingly, he'd won and was now on his way there.
The prize included transport from anywhere in the United States. The actual visit was on the day he normally took off during the week, Friday, which was just perfect, as he only had to take time off on the Thursday for traveling and a good night's sleep before going there. Taking a flight across the country and the overnight accommodation in Baltimore just added to the experience. He had often wondered why the Space Telescope Science Institute was located in Baltimore, but now he just didn't care and was looking forward to going there.
Of course, that meant he'd had to cancel his Thursday evening fencing session, something he'd not done since he first started learning ten years ago back in 2012, at the age of eighteen when he went to college. He would also have to cancel the jiu-jitsu session on Friday evening, which was a shame, because he was becoming quite proficient. He'd taken up the latter of these because of the bullying he'd suffered at school. When he went to college, he'd expected to leave all that behind, but found that college students could be just as jealous and cruel as those at school. The fencing was just for fun, but he'd surpassed everyone's expectations on that.
Still, space exploration had always captured his imagination and now he was to experience it firsthand.
The experience was really about visiting the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Seeing the images at the center was not really as good as seeing them posted online. However, for Chuck, experiencing the excitement in the room when they found a new Exo planet was unexpected. That excitement raced through the consciousness of everyone there, and was breathtaking.
Chuck had been shown to one of the monitors, sitting beside the woman who normally worked there. She was an attractive brunette in her mid-thirties. He felt his usual discomfort about sitting so close to someone like her. His nervousness around women had stayed with him since that awful experience at college with Jill Roberts. However, Eva Davison was very kind and showed him the controls she used to home in on the images.
Chuck was so in awe of the technology and what could be seen.
When someone on the other side of the room cried out about the planet, Eva homed in on it for them to see. Here was a planet that could possibly support life. It was orbiting a Sun-like star 100 light-years away. How it had been missed before was surprising. The planet lay within the star's habitable zone, hence the excitement.
When Eva was called to look at something, Chuck used the controls to expand the image, to see the planet closer.
Whether it would have happened anyway or something that Chuck did was a moot point. The display flickered and clarified. A light seemed to shine from the planet's surface and washed over Chuck. Before he knew it had happened, he fainted.
Chuck woke in a very different environment. He was lying on his back on some spongey material. He started to get up and realized he was naked, something he rarely was and never out in the open. He covered himself, but could see that he was on his own, so that wasn't really necessary.
His last memory was sitting looking at the planet that orbited a distant star. Was he dreaming? A dream of being on that planet? If he was, it felt very real.
He surveyed his surroundings. He was in the middle of a large expanse of this sponge. What he now realized was moss. In the distance to his right, he could see mountains. To his left, and closer, what looked like a forest of some sort.
If there was plant life, he knew there would also be water, something he would need before too long.
It would take some time, judging on the distance, so he quickly stood to head that way. He was surprised when he rose a bit quicker and higher than expected. It reminded him of the books of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs he had read when younger. The gravity here must be less than on Earth.
He grinned and wondered if he would also be able to jump large distances too. He tried and, although it was further than he could on Earth, it wasn't ridiculously far like it had been for John Carter on Mars. Obviously the gravity wasn't that different to that on Earth. However, he still would feel stronger and lighter on his feet, literally. This would be more manageable.
He set off for the forest.
After walking for what felt like an hour and a half, Chuck concluded this was not a dream, but a weird reality. He was stuck here and would have to cope with that.
As he got closer to the forest, he could see the trees did indeed look like ones on Earth. He also saw animals. These were deer-like creatures. Their faces a lot less attractive, with the tusks protruding from their mouths, but grazing as there were on the moss, they felt familiar.
He knew, at some point, he would need to eat and probably have to catch and cook one of these. The idea of killing something made him feel a bit queasy but he would have to toughen up or he wouldn't survive here.
He would also need something with which to kill the creatures. He hoped that he would find a branch in the forest and a means to sharpen the end of that.
He was approaching the nearest trees, when he heard a disturbance amongst the deer. He looked over and saw a large black creature leap out of the tree line and run toward the nearest deer. The creature had the shape of an incredibly large cat, and ran like one. He imagined a saber-toothed tiger would be built like this, but there was not just the longer tooth with this one, All the teeth looked longer and sharper.
The deer scattered but the black creature obviously knew which was slowest. When it pounced on that deer, it easily brought it to the ground and ripped its throat out. That had an effect on Chuck. He threw up. He'd watched nature programs on the television but being somewhere where it actually happened was something else entirely; even more so because he was both unarmed and naked.
The forest no longer seemed a place of refuge, but the home of these black creatures. However, he needed a weapon, so he would have to venture in.
Finding a branch that he could use proved to be fairly easy as the branch ends of the trees tapered to a point. However, getting to one was much harder. First, he had to climb up the tree and onto the first branch. The tree bark was thankfully not smooth, so gripping it was easier than it would have been, but that also meant he soon had bleeding finger tips from trying to use sharp edges to lever himself up. He also got cuts on his inner thighs. He found keeping his privates away from harm became very important. He really needed something to shield them.
Once he was on the branch, he had to maneuver himself along it to where the useful part was. The end of the branch did taper down to that sharp point and was straight. However, he needed to separate it from the rest of the branch. That would be much harder.
He finally reached it. The branch did not bend so should be useful once he had it. He rested while he considered this problem.
He was getting tired and thirsty. Hunger had not started yet, though, which was just as well, as he had yet to secure food..
As Chuck lay on the ground, with his back hurting like hell, he wished he'd found another way of tackling the problem.
Wrapping his legs around the branch, reaching forward, grasping the branch and sharply pulling upwards was quite obviously a mistake. The branch had snapped, but his legs had slipped. He lost his balance and realized there was no longer anything for his hand to grasp to steady himself. Tumbling forward he twisted round, subconsciously protecting his groin. When his back hit the moss, he discovered it was less spongy than he had originally thought.
Thankfully, with the reduced gravity, he broke nothing.
He pushed himself up and looked at his prize. The broken branch looked perfect, but when he picked it up, he could see that it wasn't. The end, though pointed, had too much flexibility in it. Shit!
He would have to find a broken branch that had already dried out. Either that, or wait for this one to do so. He didn't know how long that would take, so waiting did not seem the best option.
He got up and carried the branch, just in case he found nothing better.
Half an hour later, he found what he was looking for, a long dry branch end that had hardened. It was just right to use as a spear and the end felt suitably sharp. He now had a weapon.
As he set off, he still carried the old branch, as he thought it might be good to have a spare when it dried out.
Thankfully, during his search, he'd encountered none of the black creatures. In fact, he'd not encountered any creatures at all. However, he'd found a variety of plant life.
Using large leaves from one plant, along with vines from another, he created something that tightly covered his genitals. That felt better. So, semi-clothed and maybe somewhat inadequately armed for battles, he felt better equipped to face this world.
Ten minutes later, he made an even more important discovery, water. He heard it first, and realized he had been walking up an incline. The sound of moving water was wonderful. He hastened toward it and soon found the stream. He bent down, cupped his hands and scooped some up.
He just assumed he could drink it and was lucky to find it tasted like fresh water from home. He hadn't realized just how much he needed refreshment.
He looked up and saw that he wasn't the only one needing it. The small animal that approached about ten feet away looked like an ugly rodent. The stream curved around away from Chuck just before where the creature was lapping up water, so it couldn't see him.
Chuck decided to try his weapon. He pulled his arm back and quickly threw his spear. He was lucky and the end pierced the creature's hide easily, in the middle of its back, killing it instantly.
Chuck ran over to it. Although feeling nauseous, he picked it up. So, he had meat which hopefully he could safely eat, but realized he had no means of skinning the animal or cooking its meat. The spear was just a sharp weapon and would not be able to slice. He looked down at the creature and knew this wouldn't work. There was no way he was going to rip it open with his bare hands and certainly no way he could eat raw meat.
He pulled his spear from the inedible carcass and cleaned the end on its hide before throwing it to the ground.
So much for a meal. He walked away dejectedly.
He had been wandering rather aimlessly when he heard something rushing in his direction. The trees near him were wide enough for him to hide behind, so he did that.
He felt the air brush passed his hiding place as what looked like a human ran passed. Shortly behind, one of the black creatures followed, growling. Chuck reacted instantly and threw his spear at the creature. Another lucky shot pieced its body and pinned it to the ground. He now only had his rather useless branch, but still rushed forward intending to hit the creature with it. However, this proved unnecessary, as the creature was now dead.
Once again, the sight of the spear through a body and all the blood, made his stomach lurch, but he had felt the need to do this and desperately tried to control his gag reflex.
Then, a sudden realization took his mind off it. The creature he had rescued may be less than friendly, so he quickly retrieved his spear and looked up at it. What he saw took his breath away.
The most beautiful woman he had ever seen faced him holding a knife, with obvious determination to defend herself from this new threat.
She had a pale skin, amazing blue eyes and the most glorious blonde hair. She was slender and quite tall, maybe only six inches shorter than him. Her body and upper arms were covered in a tight-fitting black bodysuit of some kind. Her long legs were completely bare, but she had sturdy looking shoes on her feet. She also wore some sort of backpack.
He dropped his spear and just gawped at her. If this planet was inhabited by beautiful people like her, it was a wonderful place!
When her flier had been hit by the xynth, S'ra knew she wouldn't get back to the city in it. That huge flying predator hit the side of the flier, crushing that part of it and disabling the whole craft. Thankfully, the collision killed the xynth instantly, so at least she didn't have to worry about that.
However, not being able to fly the rest of the way left her with two problems. The main one was that she wouldn't get her warning there of the huge approaching Frakku horde, the purple savages that had already laid waste to the towns she had flown over. It also meant that she would also have to make it home on foot, a long journey. There was one good thing, it delayed the discussion with her parents who wanted her to wed soon, while still deemed of child bearing age. They had this discussion whenever she was home, hence her preference to stay away.
Before anything else happened, however, she needed to land safely. Of course, that shouldn't be a problem. She was the best flier in the country. Walking seventy miles was another matter, especially across the terrain between here and her destination. The only weapon she now had was her trusty blade. Her rifle had dropped off the flier on the impact earlier. Although she was great at hitting her target when she threw the blade, once she did that she would be weaponless, so that wasn't appealing.
She kept the flier going as far as she could, to minimize the remaining journey, then brought it down to land. Once down, she packed food, water and other things she'd need in her backpack. With her blade in its sheath at her side, she was as prepared as she could be.
She set off, knowing this was at least a four-day hike.
She should have walked around the forest but that would have extended the journey by at least one more day, so she started through it. She regretted that decision after only an hour, when she heard the growl of the ixtag some distance behind her, unfortunately a further growl was closer, so it must have gotten her scent. The black predators roamed these forests and were the greatest source of danger in them. She started running, but knew it would probably catch her fairly easily; she wouldn't be able to out run it.. With only her blade, she doubted she would survive the attack, but she would go down fighting, as her father had taught her.
She had only run for a short while when she heard something completely unexpected. The cry of the ixtag in pain, then silence. She stopped, gripping her blade and turned. What she saw took her breath away.
The ixtag had what looked like a spear in its back which had obviously killed it, the end passing through the body and pinned it to the ground. Kneeling by it was a mostly naked man. His hair was an unusual color, dark brown. She had never seen anyone with hair that color before, in fact she had never heard of anyone with it. She had only seen men with blonde, red or white hair. When he looked up at her, his eyes were almost the same color, maybe a little lighter. Brown hair and eyes would make him stand out anywhere. His features were also attractive. She felt drawn to him, not just because he had clearly saved her life, but also there was something about him. Something different, not just the hair and eyes. Where such thought came from wasn't clear. She was normally much more objective.
He had pulled the spear out of the carcass, but had dropped it when he looked at her. His expression was one of awe.
She knew she was attractive and many men had sought her out, but none had been welcome. However, none had looked at her like this savage did. She had gripped her blade, ready to fend him off, but that didn't seem likely now.
"Who are you?" she asked.
His brow creased. He replied in gibberish. That made her frown too. They didn't share a language. She didn't have time for this, so decided she needed to continue her journey. Turning she started to walk away, but soon found he had followed her. She stopped and looked at him.
He was taller than her, which itself was unusual. His athletic form just garbed in what she had assumed was a loin cloth, but could now see was just a vetia leaf held up by a vine. It must have been recently put on, as that would not last much more than a day.
On closer inspection, she found she really liked his face and the stubble forming there. The fact that it was stubble indicated that it too must be fresh. It was almost as if a civilized man had been stripped and left here.
She explained why she was hurrying away. "I have to hurry back to my city and can't stop."
He frowned, then spoke in that gibberish again.
She remembered he didn't speak her language. She pointed in the direction she needed to go and used her fingers to indicate walking.
He grinned at her, obviously understanding. His teeth were in excellent condition. Both the state of his teeth and his understanding indicated he wasn't a total savage. He nodded and repeated her action after pointing between them. He obviously wanted to walk with her. She found herself comfortable with that. He could obviously use that spear of his, and would provide some additional protection against threats. She nodded and started walking again. He walked beside her.
It was a long walk and his bare feet would definitely suffer, but maybe she could help him with that.
The two of them couldn't converse, but maybe she could teach him her language to get to that point. She was fascinated by him. What was his story? How could he throw a spear that penetrated the tough hide of an ixtar, something she had never seen before? In fact, the spear had penetrated it twice to have come out the other side. That was very impressive. He must be very strong.
If nothing else, he would be an interesting companion. She glanced at him again. An attractive one, as well.
Surprise, surprise. This beautiful woman didn't speak English. Neither could understand the other.
Chuck thought this was just like John Carter had experienced on that imaginary Barsoom. He wondered if this beauty would fall for him, like Dejah Thoris did in Burrough's Mars books. He loved that idea already. He had never been near such a gorgeous woman.
Then, she turned and started walking away. He couldn't let her just leave him, so he hastened after her.
She stopped, turned to him and spoke again, longer this time. He obviously understood none of it and told her so.
Then she pointed in the direction she had been walking in and moved the fingers on her other hand. She was clearly indicating walking in that direction.
He grinned, nodded and repeated her action after pointing at each of them.
She nodded. He hoped that meant she accepted him walking with her. She set off and he walked beside her.
Being alone on this planet had made him feel depressed, but that was no longer the case. In fact, it was much better than that. He was walking beside the most attractive woman he had ever seen and she wasn't rejecting him. The fact he didn't feel uncomfortable was a bit of a surprise, but he guessed the whole situation was so weird that such insecurities were washed away. Of course, he hadn't suggested she date him, which probably would not go down well, but that whole idea was rather pointless anyway when they couldn't even understand each other.
Maybe when they stopped next, they could continue to communicate with sign language. It would be wonderful if he could learn her language and be able to talk to her.
He looked over at her. She looked back and smiled. God, that was a gorgeous smile. He smiled back even more determined to learn her language.
A/N: Well, they've met and are at least companions. We'll see how things go from here.
For ease of understanding, I have S'ra talking in inches, feet and miles when conveying distance measurements, and seconds, minutes, hours and days etc. for time measurements. She, of course would use local terms, but that can be confusing to read. Note that on this planet, a day is twenty hours, each slightly longer than ours. 50 longer minutes in an hour and same for seconds in a minute.
What do you think of the story so far? This is much like the books my dad introduced me to when I was twelve. Anyone who read "A Princess of Mars" or even watched the movie "John Carter," will see the similarities. The book was initially published as a serial, starting in the February 1912 edition of The All-Story. It then bore the title "Under the Moons of Mars". So, it may seem a bit dated, but is still very enjoyable. Sorry, but Tars Tarkas and his species will not appear in my story.
Planetary romances are not so popular now, but I still love them. Hope you like this one.
What do you think of it? Let me know in a review.
Glossary
I thought it might prove useful to include a glossary of the words for what Chuck encounters; words S'ra will share with him. This will build as the story progresses.
Frakku – purple-skinned savages
Ixtag – black-colored predator that live in forests
Vetia – leaves of this plant very flexible and used by Chuck to cover himself. Sap burns people from the planet but didn't affect him
Xynth – flying predator
