IE VII: THE CASTAWAY
It raged all night long. The rain kept crashing onto the metal roof of the barracks like thunder. Now, she sees the sun shining through the small windows above her bed. The thin rays of light that pierce through the cold air feel blissful in her eyes. It kept her awake all night long, and while the storm calmed down after a few hours, Eva couldn't get herself to sleep. Whatever happened yesterday on the battlefield still haunts her. The questions remain unanswered, even when she has tried to explain the flashbacks all night long.
Even then, Eva feels the shame building up when she even thinks about getting help.
Suddenly, a pound on the door shakes her. Eva throws her bedsheets towards her feet and steps out. As she puts her bare feet on the floor, she feels shivers of cold running through her. She yawns and taps on the door panel. Instantly, Eva is blinded by the sun shining through the clouds. It makes her feel dizzy and she feels the cold breeze blowing into her. In front of her stands Lieutenant Amitash with some of his men. She immediately straightens her back and clenches her fists.
"Good morning sir," Eva greets, squinting her eyes.
"At ease, cadet," says Amitash. His voice sounds as cold as the sharp wind that whistled last night. "Where is your commander?"
Eva glances over her shoulder and sees Roslin lying in her bed at the far end of the barracks. Her bedsheet is pulled all the way over her head as she lies on her side, facing the wall.
"She's asleep, sir," says Eva, looking back at Lieutenant Amitash.
I wish I could sleep that well.
Amitash smiles a little. "Well then. When she wakes up, tell your commander that you've all been called up for duty at 7:00, so within 30 minutes. The storm of yesterday night has left the forest with wounds. We are obligated to inspect the forest for landslides, snapped trees, and those that are at the brink of falling over - things alike. Will you pass that on for me, cadet?"
Eva nods. "Yes sir, will do."
With that, Amitash walks away and pounds on the door of the next barracks. As the sun shines in her eyes, Eva gazes around and sees what the storm has done. All the dirt roads have turned into a sea of slick mud, and in the far distance on the training ground, some trees have snapped with their carcasses lying on the ground. Nature was truly enraged.
At the scrambling point in the middle of the Army base, the details get more clear. Eva and her squad are appointed to a team of five other squads and a sector to skim out. Immediately, the team is sent out and Eva follows the heels of Roslin as they walk over the mud road towards the treeline.
Roslin glances over her shoulder. "Peyton, you got the map?"
Peyton catches up as her eyes are peeled at the screen of her datapad. "Yes sir. We got sector six to skim out."
Peyton hands her datapad to Roslin and gazes at the map.
"What are we looking for exactly?" Roslin asks, looking at the screen.
"Landslides, snapped trees and things alike," Eva recites Amitash.
"So, just changes to the landscape?" Roslin asks.
"Yes sir."
Roslin nods, and after a few seconds, she gives the datapad back to Peyton and points forward. "Sector six is south, one decimal four clicks ahead."
After a walk of 20 minutes, Eva walks through the forest that surrounds the Army base. The broken twigs crack under her boots. Gazing around, all of the ground has turned into unstable mud, and big branches hang down from their trees. Even when nature's destruction is everywhere, Eva feels a blissful sensation as she walks through the forest. She inhales deeply through her nose and she can smell the freshness of the leaves. It prickles in her nose. It feels peaceful.
Suddenly, Eva hears the shouting voice of a boy. She glances over her shoulder for a moment and sees a boy waving to his squad. Eva's eyes land on a tree that snapped, but it has fallen into another tree and is now leaning against it. She sees one of the boys climbing the tree. Peyton, walking next to her, turns around too.
"The hell are they doing?" Peyton asks, dumbfounded. "They're gonna get themselves injured if that's gonna fall."
Eva smirks. "They'll find that out."
Peyton smiles. "You want people to suffer here too just like Ashara, don't you?"
"Well, if you're stupid, then yeah," Eva chuckles.
They continue.
Any changes to the landscape are to be noted and reported to the Lieutenant. When they're going to train here in this forest, they'll all be too distracted to watch out for falling trees. Thus, inspecting the trees in their free time before they fall over is the best thing they can do. The Army Engineering Corps will probably remove all the trees on the brink of collapse once their inspection is done.
"That storm yesterday must've been very powerful," remarks Peyton as she gazes around.
"I know," Eva responds. "We're lucky that storm wasn't raging when we were training."
Peyton smirks. "That would've been a disaster."
Suddenly, she hears some shocked screams and wood crackling. Eva turns around and sees the tree the boys just climbed has fallen over and smashed into the soil. It has almost left an impact crater in the mud as one of the boys stands up and starts cheering.
"We killed the monster!" one shouts.
Peyton sighs with annoyance and glances at Eva. She smirks.
"Boys will be boys," Peyton remarks with a smile, and they continue walking.
Not just that. Distracting as hell too. Funnily, Peyton seems to agree with that as well.
As they keep on walking, Eva and the squad point at many snapped trees, and each one is registrated by Peyton on her datapad. Checking out the flora is not what Eva expected when she signed up for the military. All she expected was rigorous training to convert her into a weapon, but instead, she's become a parkranger. Eva smirks a little as she thinks about it. From soldier to parkranger…
"Wait, wait!" Peyton snaps.
The whole squad stops and Eva turns around to the tech girl.
"What is it?" Roslin asks, in front of the pack.
"I'm picking something up," Peyton mumbles, looking at her screen.
Picking something up. Is it a signal? Eva's heart starts speeding up in her chest.
Her datapad suddenly beeps. "It's like some sort of emergency signal. It's a constant ping."
Ashara tilts her head in surprise. Her golden facial tattoos shimmer a little. "Could be hikers. Maybe they need help."
Roslin steps closer. "Can you locate it?"
Peyton nods and looks down. Then, she points in a direction and Peyton starts walking forward. The girl starts leading the squad towards the signal. They walk up hills, pass the remains of landslides, and the corpses of dead trees. Following her, Eva walks down a slope as the hill becomes a little cliff. Suddenly, Peyton stops in her tracks with her eyes staring into a crevice. Eva walks further until she stops next to Peyton's shoulder, and there, almost like a cave in the cliff, she sees something. Eva's heart skips a beat as she notices metal plates and wires coming out of a black void.
"What the hell is that?" Eva nearly whispers as the rest of the squad catches up.
"Dank Ferrik, it's a starship," Peyton responds.
That's when Eva connects the dots. She recognises whatever is in front of her is the part of a large starship, snapped in half. The black void in the cliff is the dark corridor of the ship. The wreckage is tucked away under a hill except for this passage.
"Has this always been here?" Roslin asks, barely above a whisper.
Peyton looks down at her datapad. "No. It doesn't show up on the map or the list."
"So this is new?" Eva asks. "No one ever saw this? We're the first to find this?"
Peyton looks up at her and nods. "Yeah. A landslide must have uncovered it."
Then if the storm truly made this ship reappear, then for how long has this been lying here? How long has this starship been hiding under the ground? Slowly, the dread starts gripping her and Eva feels her heart starting to pound in her chest. The corridor of the ship looks as dark as an ice cave. It brutally contrasts the sunlight outside as if it's a portal to a dimension of the underworld. Eva can't help but stare into the darkness, captivated by the secret it's holding.
Roslin breaks her stare at the crevice and looks at Peyton. "We should report this immediately once we get back."
"No," Ashara snaps.
The Pantoran steps forward and gazes at the crevice.
"We should go inside," says Ashara, and she turns around. "What if a hiker took shelter here last night? Maybe there are bodies here that are waiting to be found."
"I rather not think about that," Roslin responds.
Ashara steps towards her. "Commander, imagine your body lying in a wreckage for, I don't know, hundreds of years and never be found until this day. It's agony to wait this long for your body to be finally given a name."
Eva suddenly feels a cold shiver down her spine. She can't imagine her own body, hidden away in a dark wreckage for centuries until two stars hit each other. Ashara has a point. They have to go inside and search for anyone, dead or alive, residing inside of it.
Eva can see Roslin's mind cracking until she looks at her and Peyton.
"Get your blasters and activate the flashlight," Roslin commands. "We're going in."
"Yes sir," say Eva and Peyton.
Eva grasps her E-10 blaster and activates the flashlight sitting next to the barrel. With a source of light, Eva carefully follows Roslin and Peyton into the wreckage. She steps into the darkness and she shivers from the cold. Not just any cold, but the cold of the darkness. Lighting the way forward, she can't even see her own feet.
The floor is cracked and covered in a thin layer of dust. Parts of the walls are blackened like charcoal, and the ceiling lights hang down along with their cables. This ship must have been lying here for an eternity.
Eva slides with her finger over the lines inscribed in the wall. She can feel each dust particle pricking her skin. This ship is a relic.
Suddenly, Peyton and Roslin stop in their tracks. Peyton's gasp echoes through the darkness and her flashlight shivers. Eva catches up with her and glances over her shoulder, wanting to know what she found. Her eyes land on two enormous skeletons. They're almost half as tall as she is, probably even taller than Roslin. Her lungs shudder with shock. They've found remains.
"Those are huge skeletons," Peyton's voice shivers.
"I know," Roslin whispers. "Too big for a human. Ashara, check them out."
Ashara lets out a shivering sigh.
"Skorvit," she whispers, and with hesitance, Ashara steps forward and approaches one of the skeletons.
She lowers herself to the floor as Eva waits nervously. Amidst her pounding heart, she can hear the ceiling above her squeaking. Slowly, she starts regretting having ever taken a step into this ship. Dank Ferrik. Why did we have to do this? This is a kriffin' dangerzone that's about to collapse.
Ashara turns around with wide pupils. "They're Trandoshans."
What? She raises her eyebrows. She knows some species but this one doesn't ring any bells.
"What's that?" Eva asks.
"It's one of those lizard people," Ashara responds.
Oh shit, one of those. Now Eva realises what Ashara meant. The Trandoshans, or the lizard people, is an alien species of insanely tall reptilians. Coming from the swampy planet of Trandosha, the Trandoshans are known for their highly praised skill in hunting. Aside from being tall and intelligent, they're very strong too. The Trandoshans are the only kind of people the Wookiees fear, and rightfully so. Their skin is as tough as stone and their muscles are powerful enough to rip off the limbs of their enemy in a quick move. They're not to be reckoned with, and with a shiver, Eva is nailed to the ground.
Ashara on the other hand, doesn't seem so scared at all.
"Quite interesting actually," says Ashara, looking back at the skeleton. "They got bones harder than concrete and their teeth are sharper than Beskar blades. Wanna see it from up close? It's really cool."
"No, thanks," Eva responds with a shiver.
"Don't worry, it's dead," Ashara replies.
Eva smirks. "Yeah, thanks for clearing that up."
Ashara smiles and she looks back at the barren skeletons. Gazing at them, Eva wonders what a Trandoshan ship is doing here in the forests of Vaulent 6. Why did it crash down here? What were they doing? The only answer Eva can come up with is a hunt. A hunt that had gone terribly wrong. But a hunt for what?
"GUYS!"
Suddenly, Ecklund's shouting voice echoes through the darkness and Eva shakes. She instantly turns around and sees Ecklund stepping out of a doorway into the corridor. Her pale face is a ghost in the darkness. Her flashlight is shivering as she looks at the squad, gasping for air.
"Guys, you gotta see this," says Ecklund.
The anxiety suddenly zaps through her as Eva notices the big, wide eyes behind Ecklund's glasses. With burning nerves, Eva follows Ecklund's silhouette through the darkness. She clenches her blaster as Eva steps through a doorway into an adjacent room. And there, right in front of her, stands something that makes her shiver.
Eva's eyes land on a chamber that holds a large coffin of carbonite. In it, she sees the contours of the body of a person, frozen in carbonite. The steel-like material reflects her flashlight, but she can clearly see it's a person, frozen in an eternal coffin of carbon ice.
"We have to get her out of there," says Ashara, her voice shivering. "Peyton, can you free her?"
Peyton nods. "Yeah. I'll get to work."
With her heart pounding in her chest, Eva watches as Peyton steps into the chamber and scans the side panel of the carbonite coffin.
While Peyton gets to work, Eva leans a bit towards Ashara. "Maybe we need a transport to get her to the Medbay. I'm not gonna carry her all the way there."
Ashara nods. "Yeah, I'll call them in."
She walks out of the room while the others remain. Amidst her pounding heart, Eva hears some beeps coming from Peyton as the girl taps some buttons. However, Eva notices the weird look on her face. She wonders what's wrong.
"Hey Peyt, is it working?" Eva asks.
Peyton keeps her eyes peeled on the side panel as her fingers slide all over the place.
"This is very, very old tech," Peyton responds. "Like at least a century old, but I got it. It's just more manual than automatic."
Eva nods. At least a century old? Does that mean this ship is a century old?
Then, the carbonite coffin suddenly hisses and Eva sees a white cloud spewing out of the chamber. Lights flash and Peyton hurdles away. The contours of the frozen body start glowing red as the carbonite heats up and defrosts. Gaps burn through the carbonite with rays of light as bright as supernovae spewing out. They burn in her eyes and Eva looks away. In the corner of her eye, she sees the carbonite defrosting and the trapped body finally becomes visible. The rays of light reveal the body of a girl. She has lavender-purple skin and lekkus hanging down from her head. To Eva's surprise, the girl isn't just any girl. It's a Twi'lek with brown and white robes, frozen in place for perhaps decades.
