A Song of The Stars

TalesofNine

ISABELLA

She felt her head spinning and a wave of pain as she slowly felt herself waking up. Isabella groaned as she sat up, realizing the crash landing had shoved her face first into the front console of the cockpit, a fine indent on the touchscreen display where her face had slammed into it. Isabella sighed as she leaned back into her seat the last thing, she remembered was struggling to regain control as they were catapulted out of the spinning Karlsefni after Bill firmly shoved her into the cockpit and told her to fly like mad as their ship fell from the sky.

Isabella searched through her frantic memories, Bill Richards, Thomas Kim, and Eliza Espinoza had all been in the shuttle with her as she looked back. However, the shuttle was empty, their seats abandoned, and the door of the shuttle had opened. Isabella felt her eyes widen and a cold shudder go down her back wondering if the door had broken off and sent them falling until she glanced to see the heavy latch on the door had been pulled. She sighed relaxing a little, no doubt the others had awoken and decided to survey their surroundings while leaving her to wake up.

"Be right with you," She murmured more to herself than anyone. "Just a second…"

Undoing the straps to her pilot seat she stood up her head throbbing from the pain of the impact and her entire body was sore from the violent shaking of re-entry. She had never been in a crash landing before besides emergency simulations and she had no desire to experience that again. She approached a large storage locker and opened it where a row of spacesuits, medical boxes, and survival kits were neatly lined up. Isabella was given a pause when she skimmed the contents and realized everything was untouched. Were the others crazy? Even in a breathable atmosphere wearing an environmental suit on an alien world was the first golden rule of extraplanetary surveying. It was the first step of disease control and personal protection, whatever had caused them to leave had made them go in a hurry.

Isabella, however, was under no such rush and as she glanced outside seeing a blanket of snow and hearing howling winds, she had no desire to stumble around the cold wearing only her jumpsuit uniform. She began with the medical kit, she quickly took some pain medication, bandaged a few scratches on her head, and then pulled out two injectors. The first was a stimulate injection to boost her energy and insert a fresh batch of medical nanomachines which would monitor her immune system and assist with any minor injuries. Then the second was a Tracker Injections a small beacon that would go just under her skin and connect with her body it would allow any potential rescue to detect her location and status. Even if the Karlsefni was attacked it was better to be taken prisoner by whoever had the technology to shoot them down than blindly wander the wilderness.

Next up was slipping into an environmental suit, the emergency suits packed into the shuttle were far from the most advanced or comfortable but they were practical in a pinch they had the capacity for several days' worth of air supply, an eternal exoskeleton that would allow her to carry plenty of gear without getting exhausted, internal food and water storage so she could eat and drink sufficiently and an arm mounted MoCom tablet never hurt to have a computer on standby. As she stepped inside of the suit and sealed it a familiar jingle echoed in her mind that had been stuck in the back of her head since she was a child.

Helmet On, Seals Tight, Check, Check, Check.

Double Check, Triple Check, Never Bet.

As the hiss of filtered stored air filled her helmet Isabella allowed herself to take a deep breath relaxing from the familiar scent. After a moment the suit became a dance of light as information began appearing, her health status, currently green, a compass appeared which spun briefly as the suit aligned itself with the planet's magnetic north, it began highlighting objects of interest as the voiceless artificial intelligence working in the background accessed its surroundings. A simple message appeared reading 'Suit Ready' which gave Isabella the green light to continue. As she feared, however, nothing about nearby suits appeared, no signals for Bill, Thomas, or Eliza at least it was not a red signal meaning they were critically injured or dead, but the lack of information was troubling.

Isabella turned her attention to the survival kit snapping it open revealing an assortment of stored rations, flares, signal beacons, a small drone, and finally an LPZ Survival Laser Pistol not the fanciest of weapons but it had a high battery capacity and an adjustable power setting. Isabella quickly picked up the pistol, checking it over before placing it in a holster on her hip she was not about to go wandering around an unknown planet without protection. She had missed most of the conversation, but she had caught on to the fact there was an Indigenous population, and beyond that there was wildlife. She liked animals well enough, but she had heard one too many horror stories about deadly encounters with alien animals due to foolish surveyors not being cautious.

After collecting her gear Isabella spent the next few minutes gathering every piece of gear she could onto a large backpack. All the survival kits, medical equipment, camping supplies, air supply tanks, and a few spare parts for her suit, whatever could potentially save her life. Once it was collected it snapped onto the back of the suit, and she stood without trouble merely having to adjust her stance as her center of gravity shifted a move, she was familiar with by now.

Stepping outside of the shuttle for the first time she saw she was in a vast tundra of rolling hills, mountains, and scattered forest there was snow as far as the eye could see and storm clouds in the distance. Isabella let out a long sigh with a mix of dread and resignation the last time she had been in a place like this was a camping trip in Siberia back home in the Eurasian Union. Now she was stuck in it as she raised her arm and tapped in a series of commands an antenna raised on her suit as she searched for any incoming signals.

Her suit searched for a moment before returning negative messages in coming or outgoing except for one emergency transmission from the Karlsefni which had been dispatched automatically.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY

UAS THORFINN KARLSEFNI, SACAGAWEA-CLASS DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SHIP

CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED; CREW EVACUATION ORDERED OVER PLANET

SCRAMBLE DATA CONTAINS CRITICAL INFORMATION

IMMEDIATE AID REQUESTED

UAS THORFINN KARLSEFNI LOST

The message was like a punch in the gut. Isabella knew it was a long shot but that confirmed that her ship was gone, piloting the Thorfinn Karlsefni had been one of her proudest achievements now it was destroyed far from home with her stranded on an alien world. Isabella bit her lip quietly sighing as she refocused her mind trying not to dwell on it too long.

"This is Isabella Zagnino," she said slowly into her comm device. "My shuttle has crash-landed in the far northern hemisphere of the planet. I am in a Tundra, uninjured I have lost contact with my fellow shuttle crew. Is anyone out there? Respond."

Silence was her answer nothing but static. Isabella sighed with the Karlsefni gone there was nothing to relay her signal which severely limited her options for long-range communication. She had hoped maybe another landing party was within a few kilometers of her but with the chaotic death spin the Karlsefni had endured there was a chance every raft and shuttle had been scattered across the planet.

She looked around for any sign of Bill and the others when she noticed the snow around the shuttle was disturbed. There were footprints and markings on the ground leading away from the shuttle. Isabella frowned as she began following the trail going against all her instincts, but her training was overwhelming her instinctive urge. Find her crew, as the pilot of the shuttle they were her responsibility, and they were her friends they were wandering without environmental suits in an alien world. If something was wrong, she would be their only lifeline.

Tracking in the snow was difficult with every gust of wind bringing fresh snow falling from the sky, it became ever more difficult. Isabella sighed looking at the internal temperature of her suit, even with the heat set to full there was still a cold chill that made her shiver as she walked. The trail grew disturbing the trail left by her three crew seemed to grow more confused and disorganized like they were stumbling through the snow each step a swift stride like they were running until finally there were flat holes in the snow and drag marks.

Isabella quickened her pace following the trail as it led to the edge of a forest where fallen snow ruined the trail. Isabella cursed, kicking the ground in frustration wondering what could have fallen upon her crewmates to cause such disturbance. There were no signs of blood, but everything screamed at her that something had gone wrong but without a trail, there was little she could do besides wandering blindly through a forest.

It was then she heard a sound looking up she saw a figure moving through the brush of the forest. Isabella stared feeling the hair on the back of her neck stand up when she caught another sight of the figure and relaxed when she saw the familiar blue jumpsuit of a Karlsefni crewman. From the darkness, Bill Richards slowly stumbled out.

"Bill!" Isabella shouted. "Oh thank god I…Bill?"

As Bill approached there was something off about his presence. He did not walk with his usual confident swagger but with an awkward gait taking large steps. His face was sickly discolored grey, but most alarming was his eyes, once a gentle auburn was now a bright blue staring at her with wide eyes. It was then Isabella noticed the hole in the chest of his suit where he had been stabbed.

"Merda, Bill…What happened to you?"

Bill did not respond only continued staring before he suddenly charged Isabella. She raised an arm as he tackled her into the snow. Even in an environmental suit Isabella struggled, Bill was a large man and he began grabbing at her helmet and struggling with her.

"Bill!" She screamed. "Get off me!"

She shoved him back feeling like a flipped turtle resting on her backpack as she struggled to get up Bill looked up and screeched loudly charging again as Isabella raised her leg and kicked him. She reached down to her hip and produced her pistol pointing it directly at Bill.

"Bill, stop right now!" Isabella said. "I'll shoot!"

Bill showed no hesitation, he simply stood and began charging again. Isabella reacted with pure instinct as adrenaline and fear drove her forward. Bill was no longer her friend and mentor who had trained her to fly the Karlsefni. Something about his mere presence screamed death in her mind, nothing human was in front of her only death and danger. She pulled the trigger of her LPZ and heard a loud snapping noise fill the air. Laser pistols were not like the shows she watched as a child; the beam is an invisible cone of charged energy that snaps through the air like lightning. Bill was thrown back by the force as his jumpsuit erupted into flames.

"God…Bill!" Isabella shouted. Looking down she realized she had set her LPZ to full power and her thumb had instinctively adjusted the dial. Bill thrashed and screamed as his body began to burn engulfed in flames. Isabella watched in horror as the flames spread unnaturally fast, covering him as he struggled before finally collapsing into a smoldering pile. Isabella stared in horror as the realization settled over her.

Bill was dead. She had killed him.

Isabella began running, away from Bill and the forest. She had no idea where she was going but she simply wanted to be away from Bill's corpse. As she raced away as fast as her suit would allow her to, losing track of her surroundings everything became a white blur as her mind became overwhelmed with grief and fear. She felt like she was surrounded and that something was chasing her, so she reacted on pure adrenaline running as fast as possible until suddenly she realized she had blindly run off a large hill and was falling.

Isabella could only gasp as she rolled down the hill snow causing her to flip and stumbled as she crashed and slid her backpack, throwing off her weight before she was thrown out into the tundra and hit the ground hard. Isabella could only groan as she felt her head spinning an alarm blaring in her suit as she passed out once again.