“I think we lost him!”.
Nadia wiped away the red dust that was encrusted across the helmet of her envirosuit. The plastisteel visor
subtly dimmed as the scorching rays of the twin suns poked above the horizon. Her pupils sharply adjusted to
the sudden influx of light; she was dumbstruck by the unfamiliar landscape that lay before her. Far above her,
the sky burnished into a deep terra-cotta, and for a second, it became impossible to distinguish anything. No
land, no sky, no horizon. Nothing. The void wrapped itself around her allowing, for the first time since the
crash, her mind to relax. Simple pleasures were hard to come by, so this moment of quiet reflection stirred a
long forgotten yearning for home comforts: chocolate, fresh water (opposed to the synthcycled fluid she’d
become accustomed to) and her bed.
Bzzzk! Bzzzk!
Glancing at her wrist, the chronocom’s screen flickered into life. Static interfered with the image, but Nadia
knew who it was.
“Nad---, th- -lanet -ill be too dan---ous ....”
“Cyman! Can you hear me? CAN .. YOU ... HEAR ... ME?”
Nadia screamed into her communicator; the rising suns were interfering with the radio frequency. She knew
what Cyman had been trying to say: within hours the surface radiation would reach such a level that it would
tear through the seals on her suit, cryofreezing her in seconds. Shuddering at the thought, Nadia tried to
suppress the painful memory of her lost crew. Now it was just her and Cyman. She needed to focus - on
surviving.
76% .... 75% ....74% the condition of her envirosuit was rapidly decaying. Shelter was her priority. Delicate,
laced tendrils of frost seeped into her helmet, causing Nadia to snap to her senses. From across the valley, she
could just make out her droid’s distress beam; it had found a refuge from the harsh and bitter solar winds. All
Nadia had to do was get there. The roar from her repulsor jet-pack would have been deafening had there
been an atmosphere, but Nadia could feel the ferocious energy as it buffeted her from side to side.
Her HUD display blurred violently as she accelerated towards Cyman’s beacon, leaving a cloud of baked earth
swirling behind her. With great precision she soared up into the atmosphere. Spiraling and pirouetting
through the arid dust clouds, Nadia relentlessly pursued the faint beam of light.
65% ... 64% .... 63%
“Cyman, I’m nearing the landing zone ...”
Bzzzk! “N-, I repea- D- N-T LA-D!” Bzzzk! “D-N-GER ...”
“Ready or not, here I come!” Nadia winced as, with a sharp intake of breath, she applied the retroburners.
Reducing her velocity, she hovered and gazed at what lay beneath her. A ramshackle hut, cobbled and
welded together from the flotsam and jetsam that had burnt its way through the atmosphere. All sorts of odds
and ends had been combined in an ingenious and intricate fashion; building a haven from the hard, bleak cold.
27% ... 26%... 25% ...
Jets of oxygen started to trail away from Nadia’s helmet. The seals were breaking! Panic bubbled in her
throat. She drew a long impending breath and tried to ease the rasping, silent scream that was brewing deep,
deep down inside her.
Heavy fists hammered against the airlock door. 13%.
Red turned to green; and with one graceful slide the door was open. Dragging herself in, Nadia slumped onto
the ground. As quickly as the door had opened, it closed. The howls from outside faded, only to be replaced
by the howl from within.
