Falling - 1. Chapter 1

“No, no, no.” The junk ship assigned to me had parts shaking loose every time I landed, but during my last furlough, it’d supposedly gone through a thorough diagnostic and repair. From the outside, well… it still looked like a rusty pile of shit, but nothing had been dangling from damaged hinges or loose wires for once.

“Fucking Anslough.” He was the lead mechanic. I’d blown him once and then let him suck me off, but his skills had been on par with his repair abilities; I should have known better—on both counts.

Now I was about to crash on an uncharted planet in an unresponsive ship. Hard. I banged on the panel with my fist, and the display lit up once, flickered… then went black. My internal links didn’t work, the backup system was down, the engines unresponsive, and I couldn’t even close the external viewport screens.

The planet, an orange and yellow swirl of clouds with brief glimpses of white here and there, filled the viewport. With the engines fired at maximum thrust, I had minutes, if I was lucky, before gravity would kick in. If I was out of my seat, I’d be smashed flatter than a pancake, but there were things I needed.

I rushed over to my locker and pulled out the hazard suit. Damn thing took nearly thirty seconds to pull on, seconds I didn’t have, but maybe it would keep my internal organs from scrambling into new and painful locations. The filtration system would be vital if the air proved toxic, if I survived the crash.

That was a very big if.

Planning ahead was the only thing that got me out of the ground forces and into an exploratory pilot post, though, and that forethought meant I had a bug out bag all packed with rations, weapons, spare filters, and a few other necessities. I yanked it by the handles, pulling it out of my locket. I strapped it under my seat, locking the straps so wherever I fell, it fell.

The ship lurched, and I stumbled. A hand on the arm of my chair was all that kept me off the metal floor. I fought into the chair through the turbulence, slamming my hand repeatedly on the button. “Fucking shit. Nothing works on this thing!” I pinched my finger yanking the straps out of the crevice, but a few hard pulls, and I was able to engage the buckles.

Now there was nothing to do but wait to see if I was going to live or die. The engines’ usual grumbles increased to pops and groans when we broke through the outer layers of the planet’s atmosphere, and the pressure against my body mounted. We were going so fast, the blood started rushing to my head. My limbs went numb, and my vision went red.

“Fuckity fuck fuck.” Redout. Why couldn’t I blackout instead? No, instead, I had to have a ship that was pushing me toward the ground. I couldn’t see anything, and the pressure in my head grew. My heart thudded, slower and slower, and I screamed, desperate for the pain to end.

My entire body ached when I regained consciousness. Worse, when I opened my eyes, a haze obscured my vision, and the pressure was intense. I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye, and my left only registered large shapes. I was alive, but for how long?

Crashed, alone on an unfamiliar planet, virtually blind… I was a meal just begging to be eaten, if the elements didn’t get me first. My filter must be working, because I wasn’t gasping for air, but I could feel a chill breeze ruffle my hair, so the hull was open somewhere.

I didn’t even know if the emergency beacon had fired. The one thing I did want to come off the ship and there was no way for me to check if the internal link was still offline.

Groping carefully, I found the latches on the buckles and got them open and slid out of the chair. I coughed, the metallic tang of blood filling my mouth. I spit repeatedly, swiping my hand over my mouth. Hot liquid dribbled out of my nose too. I needed a coagulant in case I was bleeding internally. There was one in my bag, but first I had to get it.

“Why oh why did I use a combo lock instead of a biometric?” I’d figured low-tech was better, in case of power failures, but I hadn’t factored in being unable to see. Tracing the lines on the dials, I finally found the zeros and ones and rearranged them in the right order.

When I was feeling pain, my sensitivity enhancements were a liability. They were helping me now, since I couldn’t see anything. I found the med kit and read the vials with my fingers. Loading the hypo with the coagulant and the pain med was harder, but at least I was able to lock it into the port at the base of my neck without any trouble. It would release over time; enough so I could function without hurting so much, but it wouldn’t knock me out.

I groaned when the first tendrils of pain relief crept through my system.

Hopefully it was good enough so I could check the ship. I crawled back into my chair, sliding the ports in my wrists over the prongs. I curled my hands over the arms of my chair and prayed the internal link would work. A spark shocked me, and I grunted as the prongs vibrated and activated. Just my luck; before I crashed, nothing. After, it worked… a little too well.

What I felt in my body was nothing compared to the damage to the ship. It was ripped nearly in half, and the sensor readings registered painfully on my synapses. Fluids leaked out, spreading around and soaking into the hard ground. There was one positive; the beacon had detached.

There was also a pretty big negative; a large life form was approaching the ship.

Gasping, I pulled my wrists off the sensors. They crackled, and I smelled hot metal. Without being able to check them, it would be a risk to link to the ship again—burned out terminals could shock me bad enough to stop my heart. Then again, that might be a less painful way to die than whatever might be coming for me.

A beast?

A being?

Friendly or hostile? Primitive or advanced? No one had been this far out—it was my job to explore new galaxies and transmit the data to the central planet processing division when I docked at the station after every four month tour. I never, ever engaged by myself. That was for the contact and terra research teams.

I scrambled for a weapon, clutching the frequency resonator. Every object—animate or inanimate—resonated with a specific frequency. If I could get a bead on the approaching being, the sensor could determine the frequency needed to incapacitate or kill it. Chewing on my lip, I set it to incapacitate; I wasn’t a killer.

Though I might change my mind on that if I survived long enough for the beacon to transmit my location and get rescued, because if I did, Anslough was fucking toast.

The ship shook around me. “Shit.” Whatever was coming was bigger, bigger than the sensors picked up. I wedged into a corner so I had protection on two sides and prepared to shoot the first thing that came near me.

A loud screech heralded what was probably going to be my last few breaths before my ship was cracked open like the busted tin can it was. The shaking got worse; was there more than creature coming for me? Aiming one-handed was a cocky dick move, but when the ship tilted I had to fling out a hand to find something to hold on to.

Holding the resonator at the ready was getting harder. My arms already ached, and my hand was beginning to shake. If I wasn’t careful, my thumb would press the button on accident instead of on purpose. Sentient beings would have announced themselves; I was the sitting prey for savages or a beast of some sort.

“What are you waiting for?” I shouted. “An invitation? Well I have one right here for you; come and get it, you bastard!”

Without warning, my entire ship dropped. My stomach lurched sickeningly; had the ground cracked underneath me when I landed? Falling to my death was probably better than being mauled or eaten. I spared a brief moment to conjure the memory of my mother’s face, my little brother’s and sisters’ laughter when I showered them with candies on my last furlough.

How far was the drop? I hadn’t hit yet, but I didn’t want to know. The engine had burned itself during entry, but if the second impact was great enough to jar the containment fields….

Before I could second guess my choice, I turned the resonator so it pointed at my torso and then depressed the button. The whumph as the wave hit me straight in the chest was the last thing I’d feel before I welcomed oblivion.