Planet of the Dead

Chapter One

Kessler 42 looked almost grey from orbit. At least, Gavryn thought so. He sat, looking down on the new world from a spacecraft high above. Gavryn looked down, almost disappointed at the sight. The pictures he had seen during training made Kessler 42 sound more interesting than the grey rock below.

Gavryn was snapped out of his thoughts by Ender. "Get ready Gav, we've almost landed," he said.

"Alright, I'm coming," Gavryn sighed, pulling away from the window. He went to his quarters on Deck 3 to make sure he put all his tools in the bags. 

Gavryn was part of an exploration team from Earth in search of a new planet. Overpopulation was threatening to destroy the human race, so the United Earth Parliament had issued 10 expeditions. Each group had five members. One captain, one archaeologist, one geologist, one biologist, and one engineer. Ender was the captain and Gavryn was the archaeologist. Natlia was a geologist, Lylah a biologist, with Elyot as engineer. The five had trained on Earth for eight years before embarking across the stars to Kessler 42. They were the first group to leave the Earth behind and the first craft to leave in over twenty years.

Gavryn went up to Deck 7, the main control deck, to find Elyot checking readings from the planet, Lylah at his side. "What's it like down there?" Gavryn asked, glancing at the readings on the holo-screen. He couldn't understand all the complicated graphs and charts.

Elyot looked up, startled by Gavryn's soundless entrance. "Oh, Gav, um, well, the atmosphere is 21% oxygen and no signs of any poisonous gasses, so I don't think we'll need those suits," he said, motioning to the space suits hanging on a rack on the other side of the room. Lylah looked closer at the readings.

"There's no harmful radiation or chemicals, so we won't need the suits," she said confidently.

"Oh that's a relief," Natlia sighed from the doorway. "Those things would be way too bulky and all those straps would make prep time an extra twenty minutes." She walked in. Elyot sat in his chair, startled by another silent entrance.

"Can you please at least knock next time," he told them. "One of these days one of you is going to sneak up on me while I'm working and I'm going to electrocute myself!"

Ender knocked on the door frame. "Is that better, El?" he asked, stepping in behind Natlia.

"Yes!" Elyot practically shouted.

"We'll break the atmosphere in six minutes," Lylah said to Ender.

"Perfect! Ly, go and grab the environment manual and double check expected conditions." Lylah hurried out of the room. "El, check the compact domes and make sure they're secured. Don't open them!" Ender yelled the last bit as Elyot ran out. "Nat, stay here and start taking measurements of the terrain from above. Just take scans, don't waste time forming the data into maps; we can do that once we land." Natlia nodded and sat down in the chair Elyot had sprang from and got to work.

"Now, Gav," Ender turned toward the silent Gavryn who had been observing from affar. Ender motioned for him to follow as they walked out of the room. They started walking down the corridor. "We don't know what's going to be down there," he started. "There might be life, there might not. You have the hardest job of us all.; you're going in blind."

"Gee, thanks for the pep talk, End," Gavryn said, sarcastically.

"No, I just meant that if something doesn't go to plan or something happens, it's not your fault." Ender looked at Gavryn who nodded. "To be perfectly honest," he continued, "there's a very low chance of life here." He smiled. "You might be the least busy of us all."

The spacecraft suddenly lurched. "We've hit the atmosphere!" they heard Natlie call fro down the hall.

"Come on!" Ender said. "Don't want to miss the fun, do we?"