Journeys of the Shepherd

Chapter 15: Marooned

The morning sun was rising in the sky. A cool breeze was blowing over the beach, into the rolling dunes. Luke took a deep breath, and glared at the calm ocean in the distance. The rippling waves didn't tell the story of what happened here just the night before, the story of the two ships that came crashing down into the sea from the sky.

Luke glared at a piece of charred metal in his hands, he had found it earlier that morning near the surf. He wasn't sure if it came from the Space Shepherd or the PSNV Zaschitnikov, but it was the only piece of wreckage they had found so far. After the two ships had hit the ocean surface, they assumed the remains had sunken to the bottom. The remains of the Space Shepherd were now laying several thousands meters below, on the seabed.

Ultimately, the final resting place of the old pirate ship and her crew seemed more than appropriate to Luke. 

Luke closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The air on this planet was unlike the air on other planets, it was clean. The lack of human civilization also meant that there were no pollutants being emitted, and Luke could feel it as he filled his lungs with the fresh air.

He opened his eyes again, and looked in the distance. It was clear. Even on his lush home planet, there was always a purple haze above the horizon, caused by the same pollutants. But here, the sky had not been tainted by toxic mist.

There were few planets like this left in the zone, and it baffled Luke. During the second decade of the 22nd century, humanity barely managed to save its home world, after the Earth had been ravaged by global warming and pollution. It seemed strange now, that humans were making the exact same mistakes on other planets.

But this planet had not been touched by humanity, atleast not yet. Luke looked around, there was a sea of trees past the beach, the vegetation was a lot like the plants found on Earth and other human colonies. The endless ocean waves were azure, the water in the shallows was clear as glass.

It obviously was a gorgeous and lush planet, but the natural beauty did nothing to hide the fact that they were in dire situation. They had only a limited amount of food and water, and most importantly: they had no ship anymore, no means of escaping.

''Luke!'' He heard a shout in the distance, it was the captain roaring over the dunes.

Luke got up, shook off the sand from his clothes, and picked up the pump-action shotgun that was laying next to him. He climbed up the dunes, and continued his way to the camp.

The camp lay past the dunes, and had been set up on the beach where their emergency shuttle landed. The floor of the spacecraft wasn't large enough for seven people to sleep in, so they put up a couple of makeshift tents made from the shuttle's parachutes and large tree branches. 

Luke looked around the camp, the other survivors were all salvaging whatever supplies they could find from the shuttle. After only barely escaping the claws of death the night before, they were all visibly shaken and tired, but still optimistic.

Atleast, most of them were still good-spirited. Ash was sitting in the sand, his carbine between his knees. He was frowning and blankly staring off in the distance, finishing cigarette after cigarette.

''You're gonna run out of smokes at this rate.'' Luke said as he walked up to him.

''Like it fucking matters.'' Ash bluntly answered. ''We're not going to last long, anyway.''

Luke frowned, he was caugh of guard by Ash's pessimistic attitude. He figured the first mate was just suffering from fatigue.

''Luke, there you are!'' Luke looked to his left, and watched as the captain walked to him.