Fantasy Vs Reality | The Tear

31: Distress Signal

"Storm..."

...

"Hey, Storm..."

...

"HEY STORM! WAKE UP!!"

"Eh?" I blinked my eyes open. "Whassat?" I muttered, rolling over and falling off my bed. I jerked fully awake and sat up with a jolt, rubbing my eyes. I looked up to find Ember standing over me, her hands on her hips. 

"Marcus is looking for you. He wants you down on the bridge as soon as possible." Ember pulled me upright after grabbing one of my arms. "You really need to stop sleeping in."

"How am I supposed to know what time to get up?" I grumbled, running my fingers through my head fur, trying to fix it slightly. "The time isn't exactly... normal to me still. Trying to change my sleeping hours is a bit harder to do than most people think."

Ember smirked. "Well, you're just going to have to get used to that, and I think we need to fix that clock. Come on." She gave me a gentle nudge. "Let's head down to the bridge alright?"

"Fine, lead the way."

~~

"What do you mean she was still sleeping?" Marcus growled, crossing his arms. "We may need to fix that alarm clock of yours. Storm, it's been long overdue."

"Yeah yeah, not the first person to say that today... what is it you want?" I asked grumpily.

"Just before Orion went off to sleep, we received a distress signal from a local planet that is known to be inhabited." Marcus explained, walking over to Orion and nodding.

Orion nodded back, adjusted his headset, he pressed a button. "This is what we received a few hours ago." He stated, pointing up at the screen.

The screen turned a soft blue and wave signals appeared on it. They fluctuated as sound came from the signal. There were scratching noises, then the sounds of running footsteps. 

"H-hello? Is anyone out there!?" It was a female voice. More scratching noises. "If anyone is listening, please, you have to listen and help me! These... things came a while ago, destroying everything in their path! They... t-they killed everyone!" The voice started sobbing. "Y-you have to help me... I... I think I-I'm the only one l-left..."

There were other noises that sounded like alien moaning. It reminded me of zombies. "O-oh stars of Hava... n-no! No!!"

The screams were enough to give me nightmares. I flinched and looked away from the signal. Then it went dead. Everyone looked uncomfortable.

Dun placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him as he towered over me. I had almost forgotten that the giant hare still existed. "I think you know why Marcus wanted you down here now hun."

I nodded grimly. "If it means finding out what's happening... then... I'm willing- to help." Even though this may scare the living daylight out of me... or kill me. I thought. I have to blend in and act like Storm until I can get home... I just hope Storm knows what she is doing...

"The planet is from a tiny solar system, the only planet in the solar system apparently." Orion explaind. "It appears that the other planets decayed away years ago from unknown causes, leaving nothing but a large ring of asteroids around the sun. The sun is as dim as a full moon, and it's a deep orange." Pressing a few buttons furiously as Dun moved back to his position to navigate the ship, Orion continued. "We need to be cautious, anything could be lurking on the planet based on the evidence that we found. We will have K9C2 run protocol scans before allowing entry into the planet's atmosphere."