The Empty and the Unknown

5 - Recovery

I groggily awoke to a splitting headache and a deafening ringing in my ears. My vision was blurred, making it difficult to see the moving object in front of me. My body felt heavy and sorer than I had ever been while on the station. My vision slowly cleared, and eventually, I could see that it was Titus who had grabbed me by the shoulders and shaken me awake. I saw his mouth moving but I couldn't quite hear what he was saying over the ringing. I put a hand to my head, hoping it would relieve some of the pain. When I drew it back, it was coated in blood.

I attempted to draw myself upward, using the back of the seat as a prop, though I was hit with a dizzy spell as soon as I stood. Titus reflexively grabbed my arm to steady me. He guided me to Aurora's seat, who had been knocked unconscious as well but didn't seem to have sustained any obvious wounds like I had. I leaned on the back of her seat while Titus tried to get her to wake. Once the ringing had subsided to a low buzz, I could hear Titus calling her name as he gently shook her. Aurora suddenly jolted awake after a minute or two, looking around frantically until she realized we had already "landed."

She took a deep breath and unbuckled her seatbelt, standing up with a slight wobble. She pointed to the wound on my head, "What happened there?" she asked.

I shrugged, "Must've been a piece of glass." I motioned to the window of the cabin, which had been completely fragmented when we crashed. The viewport currently gave a view of a cloudless, deep-yellow sky, though the image wavered occasionally. The ship must have automatically deployed a clear energy shield upon impact, to prevent air from escaping or toxic air entering. "Maybe Gage can check it out once we get our bearings." I paused to look around, noticing that he had disappeared. "Where is Gage, anyway?"

"Gage? Oh, he went down to the cargo shelter to see if he could find anything useful for your wound."

I nodded understandingly, testing my balance once again. This time I stood with less strain on my balance, the dizziness not quite enough to topple me. Gage came jogging in with a small white machine in his hand. "What is that?" I asked, pointing to the odd-looking device.

"I know it's kind of inconspicuous, but it's actually incredibly useful. It's a portable energy field generator!" He showed it off, holding it out with both hands, allowing me to take a look at it. It had a rounded handle, with a battery bar that indicated it's energy level. Something that resembled spray nozzle at its end seemed to be what outputted the field.

"How is it supposed to help with a wound?" I asked.

"Well, this specific one was repurposed for medical use. Normally, it would create a physical dome of electromagnetic energy over the person who uses it, allowing them to be protected from outside elements whenever necessary. Now that it has been reoriented, it makes small-scale energy fields can be used to seal and disinfect wounds, healing them about 3 times as fast as any other process. All you have to do is make an outline over it and the shield will form, " He took a look at the wound on my forehead. "It seems to be a laceration from a sharp object. It was likely caused by a sharp object and it's moderately deep. Allow me?" He lifted the healing device up to the cut.

"Of course." I leaned my head downwards to give him better access. When he applied the field, I felt a tingle as though tiny microshocks were hitting it. After he finished, the wound still throbbed, but it felt considerably less painful. "Well, now that that's over and dealt with, I think the best thing to do would be to take inventory." I took a second look around the cabin, noting the loose wires that dangled from the broken metal panels above us.

"We landed pretty roughly and all the holoscreens have stopped working," I put a hand over the sensor that would normally activate it, with no response, "so I think its safe to assume most of our electrical work is down, save for the energy shield, but that runs off its own separate power supply, luckily. Aurora, I'll need you to see if you can use the emergency navigator to find out where we are and attempt to contact the space station. It may take a while for a response depending on how far from the station we are, but its worth a shot anyway." Aurora nodded and walked out of the room.

"Okay, Gage, I'll need you to check on the organic matter in the cargo bay. We'll need to ensure that our organic matter is safe, as that may be our only food supply on this planet. Titus, your job will be to suit up in one of the durosuits in the cargo bay and use the bio-scanner to find out everything you can about this planet. Whether or not it's breathable, if it hosts life, the rock composition, anything. Got it?" They both nodded and headed down the platform that Aurora had to manually push downwards, as the automatic hinges that would have normally powered it have also failed.

Finally, what I have to do. I headed to the cryo-lab to examine the pods. We could use them to wait out our rescue, if they still functioned, that is. I searched around the lower half of the pod until I found the maintenance hatch at the back. As I opened it, it spewed a dark smoke that smelled of burnt plastic. Suffice to say, it was an unfortunate sight. They seemed to have had a power surge that fried over half the wires and fuses. Most of them had fused together due to the high temperatures, making it likely unusable. I checked each of the other cryopods only to be greeted by the same mess. Well, so much for that plan.

If we were back on the FSS, it would have been simple to repair it, but we don't have any of the resources on board to do complex repairs like that. It wasn't necessarily poor planning, it was just the chance of this being so low that no one expected a disaster like this to happen. Oh, how I'm missing the FSS right about now...

"Adelyn?" I perked up when I heard my name being called from the lower levels of the ship. "Could you come down here a second?" I made my way down the platform which creaked noisily underfoot. The short hallway below the ship ended with an exit on the left and right. The right lead into the cargo bay, and the left lead to the maintenance area where Aurora was trying to contact the ships.

I went through the doorway and into the cargo bay, an area I had not yet been in. It was much larger than the rest of the rooms and shaped like rectangle split into three vertical quadrants. The closest quadrant to the door housed the housed the inedible materials which the fabricator used, various plastics and glasses in ground-up piles, another stored suits and gear that we could use on the planet to get around, and the third and farthest one from the doorway housed the plants and foodstuffs. Unlike the other two which were left open to each other, it was split off by a reinforced glass wall, used to protect from contaminants and possibly dangerous otherworldly threats.

I could see Gage inside, examining a few of the plants, and I knocked on the glass. He had a holopad in hand, a handheld cylindrical device that sported a micro projector and scanner. He was using it to scan the plants and check for any signs of damage. In cases of emergencies like this, our food source was approached with much caution, as they were necessary for our survival. He smiled at me through the glass, letting me know that nothing too bad had happened to the plants. As he approached the door, the faux greenhouse let out a gas that would keep out contaminants when the door was opened. He exited the door and shut it behind him, before glancing at his holopad. "There's only good news in this department! The life support systems for the plants, as well as the artificial meat growth chambers, have all been saved from harm, and the plants only suffered a few nicks through the thrashing about."

"So, will we be able to rely on the fabricator for food?" I asked.

"Yup, it should all be functioning well. This also means that the power supply is still running strong, though even I wasn't briefed on what powered this ship. You can see by the white foam on the plants," He pointed to little white flecks that dotted a couple plants," that the emergency spray had to be deployed to protect them from damage, and that's usually a one-time use thing. Other than that, I didn't see any problems with the gear here either," He screwed his face up as though was deep in thought, "though those may need to be subjected to further examination."

"Alright, alright, we'll look it over later, thank you, Gage." I laughed, as he seemed ready to ramble on and on.

Just as he was about to say more, Aurora popped her head in with a worried look on her face. "Hey, you guys need to come see this... It's urgent."