Page 21 of When Eden Falls

“Good.” Rooke tried to fight the smirk forming on his lips. “Thank you for your advice, doctor.”

Zamya mumbled something incoherent and left the chamber, closing the inner airlock door behind her.

“Do you think she may explode by the time we come back in?” Rooke chuckled, zipping up his navy-blue fleeced jacket.

“You love winding her up,” I said, checking the charge on the laser rifle I was now holding. “You’ll regret it when she starts stabbing us all in our sleep. You were worried I’d lead a mutiny. Maybe you should keep an eye on Zam.”

“She wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh? And I would?”

He winked at me and walked to the closed outer door.

Standing side by side, armed and ready for what could potentially meet us on the other side of the door, Kobe’s voice came through Rooke’s handheld radio, “Area is clear, sir.”

Rooke hit the airlock button. The doors hissed open, and the ramp began unfolding in front of us. A pink glow flittered over the rockface to the left. The sea, a mixture of greys and blues in the distance to the right. Walking down the ramp, delicate droplets of water hit my face. I glanced up at the sky. The edge of a grey raincloud loomed above, showering cool raindrops over my skin. I took a deep breath. The air was fresh and clean, almost tranquil. But that was quickly wiped away…

Stepping off the ramp and turning towards the main section of the ship, we viewed the immense carnage littering the ground under and around the ship’s hull. The amount of stripped metal, hull breaches, and wire destruction were abundant. I admitted to myself, the possibility of fixing this every day was slim to none.

I glanced up at Rooke. “Have you contacted Troy yet?”

“No.” His voice had turned gruff and flat. “I was hoping we may find an alternative solution.”

“I don’t think there is one, Rooke.”

He looked at me, surprised by my words. “Yesterday you opposed the dropship option.” We both glanced at the metallic and mechanical mayhem surrounding us. “There is no other option, is there?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

Rooke sighed. “When I accepted this mission, why didn’t I ask for a larger subspace carrier with an extra atmospheric ship attached? That could’ve solved all our problems.”

“We’ve never needed an extra one before.”

“We’ve never been on a mission like this before.”

I walked over to the sunken wheel, sighing with disappointment. The repaired cabling had caught my eye, it was once again hanging from the mechanical arm.

“When does Troy come back into radio contact?” I asked, ducking under the underside of the hull back towards Rooke. He was dusting off a piece of metal on the floor. But his reply didn’t register with me. My attention was drawn to movement on the distant clifftop behind him. I flinched; my adrenaline surged. A humanoid figure atop a horse was silhouetted against the brightening sky.

Noticing my reaction, Rooke stood, looking in the same direction.

The figure instantly retreated, disappearing behind the cliffs, leaving us gazing in wonderment. Rooke stared back at me, mouth gaping. “Did you…did you see that?”

I nodded. “I think we may have found a form of intelligent life.”

Without taking a moment to contemplate the discovery, Rooke rushed back onto the ship, striding towards the analysing room with me in tow.

“Kobe, Kobe. Is the drone still functional?” The urgency in his tone was a mix of what sounded like excitement and panic.

Kobe swung round in his desk chair. “Uh, yes. I believe so.”

“Can you get it airborne. Immediately?”

“Sure.” Kobe scurried to the comms desk and started typing commands into the computer. Rooke hovered behind him.

“What’s going on?” Cora appeared next to me.

“We saw a human, or what looked like a human.”