Tideline

Chapter Ten

Caspian had been discovered.

He crouched down amid the massive branches of the strange tree he had awoken within days ago. His shuttle had been nowhere to be found. Exploring his new surroundings had shown that he was in an enormous tree, large enough to have its own ecosystem, that jutted out from the middle of an endless ocean. He had tried to explore his surroundings as best he could and it appeared that there was nothing but seas around him. Just crystalline waves beneath a perfectly blue sky with a golden sun beaming down across it. Nothing but waves and water.

There was no one to be found.

Yet his wounds had been taken care of, albeit clumsily. And he could remember a face, blond hair, giant blue eyes. And a voice, so beautiful and pure, singing in a strange, alien language. The planet had breathable air and comparable temperatures to other planets humans had settled. It wasn't so inconceivable to think that this world had intelligent life. Certainly, the human race had already discovered that it wasn't alone in the universe.

As traumatic as that discovery had ultimately proven to be.

It was clear that there were no Rahky about. Rahky weren't known for their subtlety or subterfuge. One thing Caspian had been grateful about the Rahky was that they had been rather upfront about their violent intentions. Just attack, no deception. Caspian had met and fought far too many liars in his life, so it had been rather refreshing to fight someone who was honest about being an asshole.

And now that he was being paid a personal visit by this planet's inhabitants, he could see that they weren't Rahky. The bulky transports that had approached the tree were clearly not Rahky technology. While hiding he could hear voices and the language was definitely not the guttural, spitting tongue of the Rahky. This was far more musical, with strange singing undertones to every word. It was kind of pleasant to listen to. Though it wasn't so pleasant to be trapped on a planet with potentially hostile life, no matter how pretty their voices were.

Yet one of them had saved him.

He had stayed hidden while the aliens had searched something below him in the tree. They seemed to be looking for something else as they never moved further up the tree to where he was. Eventually they had left, and he was alone with his thoughts and a broken communicator. Or rather it wasn't broken, but for some reason it wasn't working. He had taken it apart and put it back together repeatedly, there was nothing physically wrong with it. Yet he couldn't raise communications with his ship.

"And here I thought this mission was going to be boring and a waste of my time," he muttered as he switched on the communicator one more time. "Sojourner do you read me? This is the captain. Sojourner do you—"

"Captain." A voice emanated from the communicator, weak and crackling, and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

"Commander, can you hear me?" Caspian fiddled with the frequencies, struggling to keep the voice speaking.

"Captain, we hear you, we had trouble punching through this...energy field that surrounds the planet," Cdr. Serra said. "I take it you survived your little dip."

Caspian grinned. "Barely, the shuttle is gone. Do you have my coordinates?"

"Aye sir,"

"Send a shuttle and be quick. The natives are restless and I rather not risk discovering if they are as violent as the Rahky."

"Natives sir? Our scans showed no life."

"I'm beginning to think this energy field is messing with more than communication."

"Garison believes that the energy field is responsible for the projection of the destroyed planet. Once we got close enough the projection vanished."