Lost Worlds (my sci-fi short collection)

Lost - (Part 2)

A year later

Today we reached the ship. Those of us who were left.

It had been a long year but I could still remember the day Holtar died with painful clarity. He had always been the one of us most eager to interact with the natives. Against my advice he had slowly introduced himself to the small tribe which roamed the mountains to the west of us. Oddly enough, it was the one containing the very individual I had been observing when the earthquake struck. He called them the Dark People.

It had been a couple of months before we discovered a second race inhabited the plains to the south, occasionally venturing into the mountains to hunt. They were taller and more lithely built than the Dark People, able to run much faster and their faces were different, smaller but with definite chins. Generally they co-existed with the Dark ones, usually by staying out of each other's way. Holtar called them the Runners. For a biologist, he wasn't very imaginative.

He had introduced himself to the Dark People by the simple means of killing a large animal and leaving it for them to find. Unlike us, both races on this world were meat eaters. To my surprise, after several such 'gifts', the tribe began to tolerate his presence, as long as he didn't try and get too close to the females. Holtar was enthralled—he spent every moment with the tribe that he could spare after he had done his turn at digging. If he could have left us to live with them, I think he would have. But we needed every one to help dig our way through to the ship, slow and painful process that it was.

I blame myself for his death. I tuned out all too quickly when he started on his tales about his hunting expeditions with the tribe. I ignored the references he made to their primitive tools, assuming that he was scientist enough to know not to interfere. Observe, yes, by all means, but never interfere.

It was a spear, that led to disaster. Holtar made a spear and, rough though it was, it was far better than what the natives had. He presented it to the chief after a brief demonstration and he was delighted, using it on every hunt. I think he even slept with it, by all accounts. The trouble came when a small tribe of Runners saw the spear. Instantly they wanted it for themselves. In a flash they surrounded the Dark tribe, baring yellow teeth to frighten them. Rocks started flying, and before Holtar could blink he was in the middle of a battle. The smallest of all, he scrambled backwards, only to watch in horrified dismay as the chief was battered to the ground, the spear wrenched from his grasp.

We found him lying dry eyed beside the bodies of his tribe, clutching his stomach in a vain attempt to keep his insides from spilling to the ground. Not even Ora could fix that. He died a few minutes after we reached him.

After that we kept to ourselves, all our energy turned towards reaching the ship. Our innocent delight in this new world had vanished.

~~~

Today we reached the ship. It was buried in dirt and rocks but we could touch the side. I know I wasn't the only one to cry.

We still had a long way to go before we could uncover it sufficiently to be able to take off but it was a huge milestone.

It was another few weeks before we could get inside the ship. Prime was first in, desperate to communicate with his controls. No one believed him when he told us that the ship had been damaged by the cave-in, that it wouldn't fly again. All that back breaking work for nothing!

Well not quite nothing, the good news is that the stasis units are still functioning. It only took a few minutes for us to decide to make use of them. The ship was still broadcasting its location into space but the fastest a ship could reach us, well, it's likely to be several centuries, even if they left tomorrow. Prime set the stasis units for a thousand years. With any luck we will be wakened before then by our own people.

~~~

I came out of stasis and blinked a couple of times to clear my eyes. Thankfully the ship's interior light was set low for the comfort of the newly awakened. Carefully I stretched the muscles in each limb, relieved that all appeared to be in working order. It had been a long journey, the longest I had ever taken, but .. suddenly, I remembered.

I looked around for the others. No-one was standing to welcome us back, all were still in their stasis units. The disappointment was so intense I nearly cried.

No-one had found us, we were still on our own. I was the first to awaken. I checked the time control, just in case I had wakened early, but no, the full one thousand years had passed, which meant ... we weren't going to be rescued. For some reason or other, we were going to be stuck here for ever.

An hour later, we were all awake, trying to come to terms with the crushing setback. Mohktar came back in to the ship after a brief look at the world outside.

"Nothing seems to have changed," he said. "The same mountains, plants. No sign of any more advanced life than what we saw when we arrived."

"I'm going back into stasis," announced Prime in a loud voice. Of all of us, he was the most uncomfortable with the primitive environment we found our selves in. I, on the other hand, had found it fascinating, but not fascinating enough to stay here by myself. All of the others were nodding at Prime's words. I noticed nobody asked how long the stasis units would keep working.

Another thousand years passed. This time when we woke, the world outside was covered in ice.

~~~

The fourth time we woke up, Ora and Secca decided they'd had enough. The world outside was warm and balmy, alive with scents and growing things. There was still no sign of anything we would consider technology, no ships or lights in the sky, but they decided they wanted to spend what was left of their lives together, they had slept enough. At the last minute, Jamila and Mohktar decided to join them. Jamila was talking about having a family and she would need Ora's help if she succeeded in becoming pregnant on this alien world. Besides, they would be safer with four.

I half wanted to stay behind with them, but I found I had become addicted to the excitement of travelling through time, finding a new world every time we woke up. Soon, I told myself, we would come to one where I wanted to stay, but not yet.

We hugged each other and watched until our companions disappeared from sight.

I looked around at my remaining companion. To my dismay, Prime was looking tired and dispirited, but he summoned up a smile from somewhere and set the stasis units as far as he could into the future.

When I woke up again, I was alone.