Chapter 3 - O Brave New World!
Day 2
Unknown Planet
Diana opened her eyes, not sure where she was. Her memories were fuzzy until she saw the black curls of his head resting on her shoulder. It all came back to her when she saw half of Clark's face and hands covered by bandages. She remembered removing him from the command chair and taking off his uniform.
In the first-aid kit of the Javelin she found a pot with aloe-vera cream and gauze and she used them to treat Clarks burns. He was sweaty and shaking in fever, so she gave him an antibiotic shot and wash him with cold water to lower his temperature, then she covered him with his cape. After checking on Bruce to see if the stasis pod was functioning properly, she went back beside Clark and fell asleep, exhausted. How many hours went by she didn't know, but by the color of the sky she guessed it was breaking dawn.
Getting outside the Javelin, she had confirmation: both suns were rising on the horizon. She got to her knees
"Good morning, Eos, Rhododactylos one. I salute thee," she said as a prayer. "Thank you, Athena, for letting us see another morning miracle and for the life of my friends and mine."
She didn't have the time to look around during and after they crash-landed, but now an exploration was mandatory. Priority One: fresh water supply.
She went back inside to grab two Jerry-cans and the scanner. Before they crashed she remembered seeing with the corner of her eye what seemed to be a pond east to the forest in which they were in, so she headed that way. She probably would have to travel this route with Clark, so she'd better walk.
As she was moving through the forest, it caught her attention the color magenta of the vegetation, with stems, branches and trunks of a dark bloody red. She put her hand on them to see how they felt to the touch. They were much like Earth vegetation, only different in color. Or so she thought.
She moved towards what looked like an aloe vera plant, to see if it could help treat Clark's injuries. At first she was startled because the plant moved as she approached. Not taking any chance, she draw her xiphos sword and touched one of the leaves with it, which shook on contact and tried to grab the blade. When she retired the sword violently, she cut the tip of the leaf-tentacle, and it fell to the ground. The gel pouring out of it began dissolving the vegetation as it touched it.
"Acid gel!" she said. "Sorry, Kal, no cure here." Had her sword not been forged by Hephaestus' magic, its steel would have melted just like the grass. Diana thrust the blade into the ground to remove the rest of the gel.
As she was getting away, a winged blue squirrel with a beak for a snout flew low over the plant. In an instant, an appendage was projected by it, capturing the animal, dragging it into its entrails. All the leaves-tentacles closed on the unfortunate screeching beast, all the body of the "vegetable" shook as it was digesting its victim.
"Gaea!, is all the plant life in this planet as friendly," she wondered. After a brief examination, she concluded that the creature was probably an animal camouflaged as a plant. Or maybe a combination of both.
To avoid further incidents until she get to know the flora and fauna better, she decided to go round the forest, by the outskirts. Clark and Bruce were in a closed chamber, so Diana was relieved none of the wild life could get to them. The estranium hull and bulkheads were strong enough to stop anything that would come against them.
A mile and a half later she encountered the pond. It was a delicious spot and it even had a little cascade over some rocks at a side. Drawing the scanner she tested the water. Nothing unusual, just regular H2O.
It was a beautiful spring-like day, so she took off her clothes and decided to go for a swim. After a while, she went back to the rocky shore to clean her armor. With her back to the suns, facing the shore, distractedly singing Coldplay's "The hardest part" out loud and swinging her hips as she washed her uniform.
"...Silver lining the cloud. Oh and IIIIII! I wish that I could work it... WOAH!"
A huge shadow obstructed the sun's light from behind. Turning instantaneously she saw a tremendous beast, about fifteen feet tall, rising from the water, purple in color, with orange spots on its back and the mouth ended in a beak, same as the ill-fated blue squirrel from before. As she began to move towards her sword, the animal, after giving her a careless look, turned its head to a tree on the shore. Once the animal reached the tree, it began nibbling its leaves. Once it got a mouthful of leaves,t moved in Diana's direction, chewing leaves and lowering its head, looking at the Princess with dreamy eyes. The Amazon extended slowly her arm and began caressing its forehead.
"Well, big friend, hello to you too. At least, some animals in this place seem a lot friendlier." A wide smile replaced her surprised expression. The beast moved its head to the tree again, and after another mouthful, returned to claim Diana's attention. Wonder Woman was pleasantly surprised her empathy with animal life worked even here, light years away from Gaea, the Earth "You seem to know which plants are edible, so I will ask you later to point them to me, okay, uuhm...Argos," she added after remembering Odysseus dog's name.
Waiting for her clothes to dry, Diana played with Argos, climbing to his head and letting the monster drop her into the water. Every time she surfaced, the beast splashed the water all around him in excitation.
"I'm sorry, my friend, but I have to go. I promise I'll be back tomorrow to play with you, okay?" she said stroking his head. Argos' expression turn into one of sadness "Oh, please! Don't look at me like that." Her arms tried to encircle Argos' neck, unsuccessfully. "I have another friend who needs me, but I'll return, really." She started dressing and Argos moved to the other side of the pond.
As the beast was sinking back in the water, Diana secured the scanner in her belt and with a two gallon Jerrycan filled with water in each hand took off towards the Javelin. She noticed the sky, now that the suns were up, had the color of lilacs. That was probably because the red sun was eclipsing almost totally the white dwarf, tinting everything with a warmer light.
Clark was already up and moving around, making breakfast when she landed near the Javelin.
"Kal, you shouldn't be up," she told him with a worried expression.
"Aah, bon jour, mon petit Christine" he responded with an exaggerated french accent. "There is no Kal here. You can call me Erik." He was showing the covered side of his face to her.
"Erik, Chris...oh! I see. And where is your organ, monsieur Phantom of the Opera," she retorted.
"Very good! You've got me on the spot! Ha, ha... Ow,ow!" he touched the right side of his face in pain. He wasn't new to pain but he wasn't accustomed to it either.
"Kal, oh Kal. You should be resting. Let me see." She touched his forehead checking for fever.
"I'm okay. I have no fever, thanks to your ministrations. I made us something to eat. There were some supplies left in the food and beverage machine storage. We have some bread, jam, peanut butter...there's green tea for you and coffee for me, is it okay," he asked.
"It's perfect! You've been a busy little bee." She sat in the picnic like display he prepared. "Still, I think you shouldn't exert yourself this much."
"Nonsense, Princess." She gave him a warning look. She hated him calling her Princess "Sorry, Di. I'll be fine. Even under this red sun I'm five times stronger than the strongest of men, and heal five times faster, too. My kryptonian physiology is of great help in this conditions, and my people thrived under a red sun. I think I can manage."
"I'll be the judge of that. I'm the nurse. After breakfast I'm going to change your bandages." Her tone was adamant.
"Okay. In the mean time, let me tell you what I've being doing: I've downloaded every data Bruce collected on this planet, via the Javelin sensors, to a tablet and have been studying it." He moved beside her with the tablet in his hand and began to show her "Looks like 'Fred' is a..."
"Fred?" She looked at him with curiosity.
"'Fred': this planet," he said affirmatively, pointing a finger to the ground.
"'FRED'!" She was astonished "Couldn't you find a more suitable name other than 'Fred'?"
"'Fred' is as good a name as any! What's so marvelous about the name 'Earth', anyway? It sounds like a disgusted expression: 'Have you seen her hairdo. Eearth!'" he defended himself. "Now, seriously: this planet was discovered by Bruce, right?"
"Right" she said.
"I am NOT calling this place 'Wayneworld' or something that contributes to enlarge our friend's oversized ego, are you following me?"
"Hmmm." She still could not believe him.
"So I figured," he continued "why not paying homage to a great man and Bruce's surrogate father, Alfred Pennyworth, Al-FRED: 'Fred'. I think Bruce would agree, don't you?"
"Ooooh, I see!" her eyes softened. She cared deeply for the thespian-butler-soldier-spy "'Fred' it is, then" she lean to kiss the left side of his face.
"Why was that," he asked, smiling.
"Because you are very sweet." She lowered her eyes.
After a silent pause, he continued.
"So, 'Fred?'"
"Yes, yes." She was back in business.
"Quite a miraculous place this is. It's almost impossible for a planet circling around a binary system of this nature -a red giant and a white dwarf- to retain an atmosphere, let alone a breathable one. The gravitational pull of the two stars is tremendous, specially the white dwarf. Both stars occupy a space equivalent to the orbit of Venus in our solar system. There's one planet between Fred and the suns, but it's nothing except a barren rock. 'Fred's' orbit is quite large, like Jupiter's, but, because it moves slightly faster, it covers it in little over 10 years, and its rotation cycle is almost like our home's: 23.8 hours. It's size is 1.3 times that of our Earth and has 3/4 of its surface covered by water. In top of that, this planet also shelters life. From what I can see a varied one."
"Oh, you have no idea," mused Diana.
"I think the reason why this planet is able to retain it's atmosphere is the ring around it. It is composed by magnetite rock, which creates an electromagnetic field preventing the gases to escape to space," Clark continued.
"Wait a minute. Electromagnetic field," asked Diana. "That means that the signal of our homing beacon will be so distorted that no one would be able to pick it up and locate us. Nobody will ever find us, Kal!"