control replied evenly.
“I’m getting lightheaded. And—wait.” She reached up to touch an open hatch that hadn’t been there before, and she could feel air, or some other sort of gas, flowing past her fingers.
“What—what’s this hatch for? What’s coming out…of…it?”
Her mind felt heavy and sluggish, like every thought had to first swim through a lake of jelly before she could process any of them.
Her eyes were slowly closing, and the last thing she heard was the pod’s automated voice intoning, “Destination locked,” and mission control’s quiet, “ Your mission is so much more important than you know. Good luck. ”
Vivienne awoke to a siren and an almighty thud as the pod rattled around her like it was trying to shred apart. Her eyes opened slowly, like peeling away a scab, and she saw a red light.
A warning buzzer droned incessantly, and the pod’s automated voice placidly repeated, “Atmosphere has been breached. Destination approaching. Please brace for deceleration and impact.”
It took Vivienne a moment to comprehend what it was saying, until the pod’s parachute expanded and with a thunderous jolt, the pod began to slow down as it chugged its way towards the ground below. Well, presumably the ground below. The pod had no windows. Vivienne could only hope that she wasn’t about to be stranded in the middle of the ocean somewhere.
She looked at the main terminal, and jerked in surprise when she realized that over two weeks had passed, and the memories of that last conversation with mission control flooded back into her mind. Quickly, she brought up the terminal’s map, only to find a star chart that was utterly foreign to her.
With a massive bump, the pod hit the ground, bounced twice, and finally skidded to a halt. Vivienne rode the rough landing out with her teeth gritted and both hands pressed to the sides of the pod.
The automated voice announced, “Landing successful. Passenger injuries: inconsequential. Pod status: stable. Sleep mode engaging.”
The entire roof of the cylindrical pod opened, but Vivienne didn’t climb out immediately, instead trying every panel, button, and switch of the pod to get some sort of reaction out of it. Try as she might, though, she couldn’t get it to wake up from sleep mode.
Reluctantly, she unstrapped herself and crawled through the roof hatch. She knelt on the ground beside the pod, and stared around with wide eyes. She knew immediately that she had not landed on Earth, as if the unfamiliar star charts hadn’t been proof enough.
Both her and the pod were in a shallow crater, and the dirt she knelt in was a deep, nitrogen red, but all around the crater she could see grass, though it was not the grass she knew.
It came in the glistening, ever-shifting black and brown shades of an oil spill, interrupted periodically by flowers that consisted of strangely fleshy spirals, coils of organic matter, petals like a porcupine’s quills and stamen like hypodermic needles, and all of them oozed a transparent, viscous orange fluid that Vivienne didn’t dare to touch.
She also realized that she felt like she was melting. It had to be at least a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and she quickly began stripping out of her space suit, leaving her in just a pair of form fitting shorts and her sports bra.
A few creatures stood at a distance, observing the crater curiously. Vivienne could see three different types, right off the bat.
One stood on two legs that seemed enormously long compared to the small, round body. It was covered in puffy green-ish brown fluff like a dandelion, with just its long legs, tiny arms, and round head sticking out, with an almost comically long, thin snout and enormous eyes. A thin, proboscis-like tongue darted out quickly and then retreated just as quickly as it stared at the crater, before it decided that there was no danger and it bounded off into the tall
“I’m getting lightheaded. And—wait.” She reached up to touch an open hatch that hadn’t been there before, and she could feel air, or some other sort of gas, flowing past her fingers.
“What—what’s this hatch for? What’s coming out…of…it?”
Her mind felt heavy and sluggish, like every thought had to first swim through a lake of jelly before she could process any of them.
Her eyes were slowly closing, and the last thing she heard was the pod’s automated voice intoning, “Destination locked,” and mission control’s quiet, “ Your mission is so much more important than you know. Good luck. ”
Vivienne awoke to a siren and an almighty thud as the pod rattled around her like it was trying to shred apart. Her eyes opened slowly, like peeling away a scab, and she saw a red light.
A warning buzzer droned incessantly, and the pod’s automated voice placidly repeated, “Atmosphere has been breached. Destination approaching. Please brace for deceleration and impact.”
It took Vivienne a moment to comprehend what it was saying, until the pod’s parachute expanded and with a thunderous jolt, the pod began to slow down as it chugged its way towards the ground below. Well, presumably the ground below. The pod had no windows. Vivienne could only hope that she wasn’t about to be stranded in the middle of the ocean somewhere.
She looked at the main terminal, and jerked in surprise when she realized that over two weeks had passed, and the memories of that last conversation with mission control flooded back into her mind. Quickly, she brought up the terminal’s map, only to find a star chart that was utterly foreign to her.
With a massive bump, the pod hit the ground, bounced twice, and finally skidded to a halt. Vivienne rode the rough landing out with her teeth gritted and both hands pressed to the sides of the pod.
The automated voice announced, “Landing successful. Passenger injuries: inconsequential. Pod status: stable. Sleep mode engaging.”
The entire roof of the cylindrical pod opened, but Vivienne didn’t climb out immediately, instead trying every panel, button, and switch of the pod to get some sort of reaction out of it. Try as she might, though, she couldn’t get it to wake up from sleep mode.
Reluctantly, she unstrapped herself and crawled through the roof hatch. She knelt on the ground beside the pod, and stared around with wide eyes. She knew immediately that she had not landed on Earth, as if the unfamiliar star charts hadn’t been proof enough.
Both her and the pod were in a shallow crater, and the dirt she knelt in was a deep, nitrogen red, but all around the crater she could see grass, though it was not the grass she knew.
It came in the glistening, ever-shifting black and brown shades of an oil spill, interrupted periodically by flowers that consisted of strangely fleshy spirals, coils of organic matter, petals like a porcupine’s quills and stamen like hypodermic needles, and all of them oozed a transparent, viscous orange fluid that Vivienne didn’t dare to touch.
She also realized that she felt like she was melting. It had to be at least a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and she quickly began stripping out of her space suit, leaving her in just a pair of form fitting shorts and her sports bra.
A few creatures stood at a distance, observing the crater curiously. Vivienne could see three different types, right off the bat.
One stood on two legs that seemed enormously long compared to the small, round body. It was covered in puffy green-ish brown fluff like a dandelion, with just its long legs, tiny arms, and round head sticking out, with an almost comically long, thin snout and enormous eyes. A thin, proboscis-like tongue darted out quickly and then retreated just as quickly as it stared at the crater, before it decided that there was no danger and it bounded off into the tall
Similar Books
