Project New Eden

Chapter 5

Captain Thalin walked as quickly as his legs could take him to the shuttle bay, one of the ship doctors struggling to keep up behind him.

His thoughts raced as to what could have gone wrong, causing the death of three people and one more to be seriously wounded.

The doors to the bay slid open, revealing Alaina and the shuttle pilot dragging Patrick out of the shuttle and onto a stretcher.

"Get that man to sickbay, now!" Thalin instructed the doctor with him, then he ran over to Alaina. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm a little shaken up sir. I can debrief now if you need me to." She responded, Patrick's blood coating her uniform.

"No, take some time. I'll want a full report at eight-teen hundred hours." Thalin knew she needed some time to recover.

"Aye sir, thank you." Alaina slowly walked off, arms crossed and her head down.

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Ren's head pounded. He struggled to open his eyes, the light making his head hurt even worse.

He slowly sat up, his mind clouded. Sitting there rubbing his temples, Ren tried to remember what had happened. He vaguely recalled sitting around beside the river when... The battle! Ren thought, jumping to his feet, eyes shooting open.

He immediately regretted the decision, falling back down as his head felt like it was splitting in half.

Ren groaned in pain, looking around the tiny room he was in. It was a small, circular room with wooden walls. The ceiling appeared to be made from grass, woven together with fibers from a tree used to tie it off. The door was made of wood as well, large cracks between the pieces letting ample light through.

I'm a prisoner, Ren thought, I wonder what they want me for. Ren slowly got back to his feet, not making the mistake of standing too quickly again.

Walking over to the door, Ren peaked out through the crack to see what he could.

There were a few of the large people standing around a fire, cooking some sort of meat. More of the wooden houses sat scattered around in the trees, it appeared to be a village of some sort.

Ren realized that the fire Katrina had seen on the way down must have been from these people. They must have been spotted on the way down in the shuttle, and the native people stumbled across them when they went to investigate.

"Hey!" Ren yelled at one of the villagers, hoping to figure out what they wanted. Maybe they could communicate somehow.

One of the people around the fire looked at Ren, said something to the others then walked away, disappearing out of Ren's view.

Ren could hear footsteps coming closer to the building he was in, he arched his neck so that he could get a look at what was happening. It was the one with the tooth necklace and tattoos, he was coming straight towards Ren.

Stepping back from the door, Ren started looking around for anything that could be used as a weapon. There was nothing in the room with him other than the hide bed he had been laying on.

Defeated, Ren stood waiting for his fate.

The door swung open, the one with the bone necklace stood there, staring at Ren. They both locked eyes with each other for a moment before the Native motioned for Ren to leave the hut.

Ren hesitated for a moment, not sure what to do. It made the motion again, this time grunting and stepping back.

Ren slowly walked out of the hut, Wary of the huge people as he did.