Page 10 of When Eden Falls

I followed her gaze to my left. A scatter of puffy clouds sat near the horizon, edged with glowing pinks and oranges. The blinding sun was starting to deepen in colour, attempting to touch the endless horizon of water.

“It’s going to get dark soon,” Cora said, her voice suddenly laced with alarm. I aimed to calm her anxiety, but the words didn’t come. This was going to be a long night and we all felt the consternation creeping in.

Zamya sighed heavily behind us. Looking over our shoulders, we found her leaning against the doorway. She held up a thermometer. “I need to check your temperatures hourly. Rooke is on a rampage. He wants everything doneproperly.”

“I told you he’s angry,” Cora said to me.

I huffed loudly. They always came to me when Rooke was on his high horse, when they wanted him knocked down a peg or two. Standing up, I manoeuvred between the chairs, around Zamya, towards the doorway.

“Not so fast.” Zamya caught my arm and pressed the thermometer forcefully into my ear. It beeped and I left immediately. She called after me, “You’re fine, by the way.”

“Pleased to hear it.”

I found Rooke in the captain’s study. The long, slim ship only had one dwelling level, made up of the flight deck at the front, a basic kitchen area just behind, then a narrow corridor separating two sets of sleeping quarters. When the corridor opened out further along, the analysing room was found, made up of a circle of research desks around the edges, segregated at four points,allowing access to the two docking doors and the corridor at either end. Between the analysing room and the loading bay at the rear, was a corridor that supplied access to the medical room, and opposite, the captain’s study.

I knocked on the door and strolled in. Rooke was leaning against the wall on the far side, where his collection of old-fashioned bullet guns adorned the metal panels. One arm lay across his body, propping the other one up with his fist pressed to his lips. His expression was one of unmistakable concern, his eyes focused on the screen on his desk.

“Rooke?” I took a step closer. His gaze eventually shifted to mine and the frown across his brow deepened. “What is it?” I asked.

“I…they…” He pointed to the screen. “Maybe you should just watch.”

I rounded the desk and sat down on the metallic stool. Rooke tapped the screen, and a recorded message flashed up on the monitor. I recognised the woman who appeared. She was Captain Emilia Lewison, the commander of the scouting ship. Her Solarfleet profile photo had shown a healthy-looking woman in her forties, but here she appeared pale and gaunt. Dark shadows circled a pair of anxious blue eyes. Her long blonde hair was a similar length to the corpse we found that afternoon…with no legs.

A deep chill infiltrated my bones as I watched the footage play.

“I am recording this because I believe by the time anyone gets here, it’ll be too late, and you are probably wondering how we got here in the first place. Well, let me shed some light. We picked up an unusual signal when we were scouting the outskirts of Tridon. It was unusual in the sense it was transmitting ancient space coding. The same coding we stopped using over a millennia ago. I radioed the discovery into high command, but we were denied permission to pursue. Command assumed it was a lost satellite that had floated too far out.

“We continued on our course directive but after a few hours, Lieutenant Filo reported the ship had verged off course and wasbearing a different course entirely. We were unable to realign the course settings and discovered the ship flight systems were locked. It was then that we lost radio signal.

“After a distressing couple of days of flying further and further away from the Alluran solar system at a frightening speed, we discovered we were following a probe like entity. It appeared to be transmitting a metallic field, dragging us along in its wake. Fortunately, Lieutenant Zukola successfully rewired the distress signal, and we began transmitting. We had no idea where we were, or where we were heading. And even though we knew Solarfleet would pick up the signal, how long it would take to reach them was another answer we did not have.

“Months later, we found ourselves approaching this planet. A glowing blue and white world that somehow seemed familiar. Before we knew what was happening, our ship automatically began atmosphere entry. The descent was violent and rapid. Filo tried to take control of the driving panels, but something else seemed to be guiding us down. As you can probably tell, we landed…but the devastation was immense. Filo died immediately on impact. The last amounts of fuel we had leaked into the sea water and exploded, causing a severe fire. Thankfully, it didn’t last long but we lost most of the supplies on the ship. We buried Filo on the clifftop.”

Captain Lewison paused. A wave of pain and suffering filled her haggard features. She was trying to suppress the tears from forming, but as she began to speak again, a cluster of rogue droplets fell.“There doesn’t seem to be any intelligent life around. We’ve looked for food, but the only thing we’ve found are a few berries and seaweed. There are fish in the sea but they’re too difficult to catch, and any animals we find in the forest are either diseased or mutilated. We are starving. The only thing keeping us alive is the water reclaimer, but the power supply is becoming unreliable.”She breathed in a deep, stabilizing breath.“You see, our ship is being eaten…by…by these creatures. Creatures I can only describe as something from a horror story. At first, they only seemed to eat the metal coated in composite, and the wire cabling. In doing so they were ruining the wire connections to our power supply. But the worst of it was…was…”She placed her hand over her mouth, gasping for air, trying to control the emotion boiling up inside.“They…they took Louisa…Lieutenant Chorlar. She…she was fixing the power coupling on the starboard ramp. They usually only come at night, but that day they arrived mid-morning. I heard her screams as they dragged her away. There was blood everywhere. With…without power, the laser guns weren’t charged efficiently. We had no means to stop those bastards, and they took her. They took her.

“The next thing we knew, they were inside the ship. They got in through the lowered ramp Louisa was fixing. Zukola and I keep to my quarters. They don’t seem to disturb us up here. But as soon as they see or smell us, they start roaring ravenously, trying to reach us. I have no doubt what their intentions are. We have no food, no water. We are either going to die of dehydration or die trying to get out of here. Whichever is the lesser evil, I am still unsure. We’ve lasted two weeks. I doubt we’ll last much longer. If anyone does find this, please don’t make the same mistake we did. Leave this planet and its race of demons behind. I doubt I’ll be here to warn you myself. Captain Emilia Lewison. Over and out.”

The footage ended and I peered up at Rooke standing beside me. He was still frozen, a frown dominating his features.

“It explains the missing panels,” I said.

“It explains the mutilated bodies,” Rooke’s tone was clipped. He exhaled and walked back to the wall he was initially leaning against. “We need to get this ship off the ground before nightfall.”

“Unless you want to end up as a fireball in the sky, this ship is not going anywhere, Rooke. One of the fuel tanks has been contaminated.”

Incredulously, he gawked at me, then cursed at the floor.

“The sun is already setting. I have enough fuel to drain the tank and refill it, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. The sea is receding, and the humidity has dropped. The engines should dry out by the morning.”

Rooke glared at me. “Did you not hear what CaptainLewison said? These things come at night.”

“Yes, okay, I heard. But the scouting ship is huge and was tucked away into a neat little bay. We are further out on the sea edge. These creatures may not have seen us.”

Rooke chuckled sarcastically. “Look at you, being the optimistic one.” There was a hint of disdain in his voice, one I did not favour.

“Well, I have to be,” I snapped, “when you’re acting like this.”

“Like what?” he growled back.