Love Deeper than the Sea

The Crash

Panic. Fear. Red. Screams.

This is all Autumn hears as she's being pushed and shoved all through the ship. It was burning, something had shot it. We were heading into orbit and fast. Everything was going to burn up and she'd become ash if she didn't get to that escape pod. There were only so many on the ship, and so few left. Rushing and fighting her way through the crowds, not even caring for the high priority passengers. She didn't care. She wanted out. She wanted to live, and survive. She wanted to fulfill her duty on this planet.

Managing to barely make it to the front of the millions of crew mates crowding her, Autumn leaped into an escape pod, barely closing it before someone else got in and threw her out. Ejecting from the ship as it was preparing to crash, she did all she could procedure wise, and prayed.

She was throttled all through hell and back. Even to the point of getting knocked out as her pod became unstable and started falling apart internally. As everything faded to black, Autumn lost any and all sense of fear or hope she had and let herself drift off for the rest of this startled trip.

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Autumn came to and rose from her seat, feeling disorientated and overwhelmed as she tried to stand with everything coming back: The ship, the people, the panic, and most of all the flames.

Collapsing to her knees and hands, she struggles to get her head clear, only until she's taken over by a stronger feeling: hunger. Having lost her sense of time, she didn't know how long she'd been out. Minutes? Hours? Days even? All she knew was that all would be for naught if she didn't at least try to survive long enough to find the other escape pods.

Taking a short few seconds to collect herself, she began rummaging through the emergency storage. She found some water bottles, a couple processed food bars, a standard tablet, and a wetsuit paired with goggles and a shabby rebreather. She only took out one of the food bars and began eating it slowly while changing out of her uniform and into the wetsuit, knowing she'd have to start hunting early and get her pod fully up and running.

Once she had something in her stomach, and the proper suit on, she hopped onto her seat and grabbed the ladder leading to the top exit of the escape pod, which was hopefully the safest exit of the three, begging that her pod was floating and it was calm waters out.

She cranked it open, and made her leave. Hoisting herself up and sat on the edge of the opening, keeping hold of the lid for support. As she's looking around her, all she can see is ocean and a clear blue sky with the sun beaming down. Her best guess was that it was roughly midday, assuming time works relatively similarly to Earth's. Looking around some more, she glances behind her and sees something standing out. Curiously shifting and turning around while seated on the lip of the opening, she now bears witness to a horrifying sight.

Facing her was the very same ship she was on just moments ago. Crashed, burned, and flaming now. No longer the gleaming glorious colony ship the Aurora was back on Earth. It had become mere rubble and signaled one looming message: The mission failed. There were no pods nearby, and an assured guarantee no one would or could survive this grisly crash.

Autumn could only stare in pure shock with millions of questions running through her mind. How did this happen? Why did the ship catch fire? Were we attacked? Was it an engine failure? Is there intelligent life on this planet? Are they hostile or just cautious? What's going to happen if they do exist and they find me? Are there any survivors? Did the other pods all fail?

Everything up until this point was a confusion and a question for Autumn. She didn't know what was happening and how to find out. All she knew was that she needed to get food and water before she planned anything bigger.

Putting on her goggles and preparing her rebreather, she swung her legs up and slid down the smooth pod, doing a minor leap off the edge of the floats and hopped into the water. Taking in her surroundings, there was nothing too shocking in regards to the land, just sand, rock, and mineral deposits. The real intriguing part were the creatures. Lungs with a head, a giant eye with fins, oddly shaped fish, a boomerang, something akin to a ray from Earth, a school of glowing green and blue fish.

Swimming slowly, so as to not scare anything that may come near, and taking in her new reality, she finally felt something positive since she woke: Wonder and amazement. She was seeing the planet up close and personal. Everything the scientists were predicting and hoping for was real and right there in front of her. The doubts of this being a lifeless and desolate planet of water was no longer a thought in her, and hopefully any of the possible survivors', mind.

Now it was time to face the real issue: catching the fish. How do you catch a fish without knowing anything about them?

"Maybe I could grab them..." she thought, "yeah that could work". Coming to a stop in the ocean and being careful about their breath, she waited for a fish to merrily swim along within reach of her. One of the Giant-eyed ones came close, and BAM! Swiping with her might she caught it before it had time to react. Her plan worked.

Swimming above the water to grab a breath of air, and continuing her hunting with the last of the daylight she had.

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With numerous fish caught, and the sun setting, Autumn headed back into her pod to cook them and preserve them for the days to come, and get her emergency tablet up and running to help plan the next move.

Booting up her tablet, she gets an emergency message regarding the Aurora: It is still active, combustible and is emitting high levels of radiation. It will likely blow within the next 15-20 hours.

After looking at a map that detailed the current radiation radius, and predicted radius after the blow, Autumn was relieved to find that she would be well out of the zone. But she'd need to get materials to strengthen her suit to withstand radiation if she wanted to ever board and explore the Aurora, which is what she needed to do. The Aurora would be a major scavenger and rendezvous point. If she wanted to get help or live long enough for the next colony ship to land, and find out what's going on on this planet, she'd have to explore her only relic of Earth.

After looking at some more information, and tutorials about the pod and the fabricator, something she hadn't been fully taught about aboard the Aurora, she formulated her plan. Once the Aurora blew and was as stable as it could be for exploration, she'd board it. Until then, she'd focus on exploring the surrounding area, finding anything she can, and getting the materials needed to reinforce her wetsuit to handle the radiation when she went to explore.

With the plan ready, and her next days ahead of her, she ate one last fish and made a makeshift bed of the seat. Everything was put away, outside was dark, it was time to rest. With the distant roars and sounds of the ocean to put her bed, Autumn drifted off into sleep after her first day of her new situation.