《The Protogen Generation》 Preflight Hello! I''m the author of this novel. Before I start with the story, I''d like to point out this is a republished story taken from my Wattpad account. Thank you for reading! LUCAS''S P.O.V. I''m suddenly awoken by my alarm, jolting me from my sleep. Clumsily, I reach over to stop the alarm. I almost turn it off, but before my hand can find the alarm clock, I start to fall out of bed. Crash Ouch! I lay on the floor for a few moments while I gathered my bearings. Now incredibly annoyed, I lift myself up and turn on the light. Finally, I stopped the buzzing alarm. I make my bed one last time, making sure it''s free of imperfections. Satisfied with my bed, I grab my phone and head downstairs. Looking over at the wall clock by the bottom of the stairs, I noticed the time. It''s 5:05. It quickly dawns upon me that I won''t have much time to get ready before I''m driven to the Carlin Launch Complex, where I will be piloting a new spacecraft, the EX-5. It will be flown to a nearby planet to conduct a manned biological research mission. My good friend Michael Carlin will also be among the EX-5''s crew, as one of the mission specialists. Interestingly, his father is the founder of the Carlin space agency. Oh shoot! Michael! I gotta call him. Bzzzzt... Bzzzzt... Bzzz- "Hello?" Somebody answers "Hey! It''s lucas," Then I recognize the voice, its my friend Kyle Raymond "wait is that you, Kyle?" "Y-yes," Kyle stutters, "Do you want me to get Michael?" "Why do you have his phone?" I ask, waiting for a response. "I''m at his house," Kyle sheepishly admits, "I uh stayed the night." Dumbfounded from the answer, I silently hung up the phone. As much as Michael and Kyle like each other, it really isn''t the best time to have a sleepover. This is an incredibly important event for the 3 of us, including Kyle, because he is a part of Mission Control. Annoyance aside, I grab my freshly cleaned jumpsuit and head to the bathroom. Upon entering, I undressed myself and opened the shower door. Making sure I don''t fall, as I did a couple of minutes ago, I shut the door and turned on the shower. I''m immediately hit with a high-pressure stream of water. The water stings as it hits my fur and visor, but I quickly get used to the feeling. I grab the soap container and start to message soap through my fur. It''s unscented soap, mainly because the agency doesn''t want you to use any scented form of soap. Now that I''ve been fully covered in soap, I begin to wash it off. It takes a minute, but eventually, I''m spotless. I enjoy the warm water beating against my fur for a couple of moments before shutting off the water. I step out of the shower and use a machine to dry off. I stand under a special vent, and after pressing a button, I''m quickly blown by hot air, drying out my soggy fur. Once I''m fully dry, I put on my undergarments and slip my legs through my jumpsuit, and begin to button it up. It''s annoying to put on, but at least it''s comfy. The jumpsuit itself is light grey, with my last name, Burke, plastered across the back. Putting on my boots, I stand up and take a good look into the mirror. My somewhat fluffy blue fur fills the mirror, with my visor and expression looking back at me. I double-checked the bags I had packed the previous day. Everything was there, extra clothes, some pictures, my toothbrush, and some other small items. Looking back at the clock, it''s only been 35 minutes. Grabbing my bags, I open my front door and head outside. Immediately, I''m greeted with the morning air, crisp and cool. With a brief look around, I see the agency pickup vehicle waiting quietly. I wasn''t expecting it to show up yet, but I won''t complain about it being early. Quickly, I walk up to the car, and I''m greeted by the driver, a smaller protogen dressed in a work uniform. He opens the door, and I get into the car while he deals with my baggage. The rear door slams shut, and the driver walks around to the car. Soon, he enters the driver''s seat and starts the quick journey to the launch complex.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Meanwhile, I''ve been completely silent, so the driver decides to start a conversation. "So uh... Mr Burke, Are you excited about what''s to come?" The driver asks, glancing at me for a brief moment. I respond to his question with a short answer, "Well, I''ve been training for the last 2 years, it doesn''t feel much different than anything else..." Seemingly satisfied with the answer, the driver continued with what he was doing beforehand. About 5 more minutes or so pass before we arrive at the Main Launch Complex, a large spanning area that''s dotted with hangers, runways, and other various buildings. Before long, the vehicle is in front of a large building, with the word Carlin across the front of the building. I open the door and step out of the vehicle, and I''m immediately escorted into the building by a team of security staff. Upon entering the large doors of the building, I''m warmly greeted by workers. After a couple of greetings, I make my way to the cafeteria. After walking down a hall that felt like it would never end, a set of doors led into a not very big cafeteria. I grab myself some food, and then I notice Michael and Kyle chatting at one of the tables. I walk up to the table they are sitting at and join them. Michael looks over and sees me, "Hey Lucas, good to see you!" He says with a happy smile. "Well, it''s good to see you guys too," I say, "But I tried to call you an hour ago, but your sidekick here picked up the phone instead..." Michael, who is sitting next to Kyle, slowly turns his head and looks down at him. "What did you do..." He asks, with an unamused expression. Kyle looks up to Michael, "I answered your phone. You were sleeping!" "Why do I ever let you come to my house?" Michael says in a rather grumpy tone. Kyle mumbles something along the lines of "Because you like me" in a barely registerable group of words. "Oh shut up..." Michael fights back, now cracking an obvious smile. The 3 of us make jokes, make verbal jabs at each other, and eat breakfast. We truly had the perfect friend group. We are all different, and that''s what makes us a formidable trio. To start off, there is Kyle. A unique but short, 4 eared gray protogen, with a distinctive crack down his visor, he is the smart one of the group. Interestingly, he was born with the ability to form nanite wings from his back. Then you have me, Lucas, a fluffy blue furred protogen who does his best to keep up good spirits in our friend group. Last but not least, you have Michael Carlin, Kyle''s favorite person. He is a loyal friend and an absolute unit, towering over me and Kyle. He is covered in dark, black fur, which makes it scary if he ever sneaks up on you. We all finish our breakfast quickly, in time to watch Michael''s slightly older brother, Conrad, walks into the cafeteria. With a serious expression, he approaches our table. "Michael and Lucas, where the hell have you two been! Both of you were supposed to start preflight inspections 5 minutes ago Conrad finally notices Kyle, who is trying to save himself from the rant by hiding behind Michael. "Kyle you are also going to be late to your position in the control room, so stop wasting your fucking time." I''m shocked by the sudden outburst from Conrad, and Kyle starts to sink into his seat, the unexpected words from Conrad taking a toll on him. Michael notices this and stands up, looming over Conrad. "Do not ever, and I mean this, ever speak to Kyle that way again." Conrad seems to understand the message, as he looks back at everyone. "You all have 5 minutes to to be doing what you''re supposed to." As briefly as he entered, Conrad leaves the room. "You okay?" Both me and Michael asks Kyle. "Yea I''m fine, he''s just so rude sometimes..." Kyle and I get up, and join Michael as we walk out of the cafeteria. "See you in the suit-up room," Kyle yells back as he walks away from us, going to the control room. "See you!" Michael and I say. We both start to walk down to the main hanger that contains the EX-5. We walk down a large corridor, with multiple doors that lead to smaller hangers. Some hangers have decommissioned or not in use spacecraft. One of the spacecraft is the Adastra, a testbed that was used to test hyperspace flight and technology. Soon enough we get the end of the hall, and enter an incredibly large hanger that''s buzzing with workers. As almost as if it''s an incredibly expensive art showcase, the EX-5 sits proudly in the middle of the hanger. It resembles more of a plane, the main difference that there are 2 hyperspace pods integrated into the wing, and a large heat shield covering the bottom of the fuselage and wings. "There you guys are!" A voice calls out. A pinkish purple colored protogen comes running up to Michael and I. It''s Avera, the mission commander. "You both are late for the preflight inspections..." She calls out. I chirp in, "Avera, we already got yelled at by Conrad, so we don''t need to hear what you might have to say." "In that case, stop being late. Since you are here now, go help Garrett and Scott with the equipment checks." "Got it." Michael and I make are way to the equipment and storage bay underneath the EX-5. I see Garrets unmistakable orange fur. Since he is a Biologist and not an engineer, he holds a checklist, checking off the equipment that Scott lists off. Scott, a red furred incredibly talented engineer stands in the equipment bay on a ladder checking the equipment and sensors. Michael sees the opportunity to mess with Scott. "HEY SCOTTY!" "Wha-" WACK "DAMNIT THAT HURT" Scott yells out. Michael bursts out laughing as Scott climbs down the ladder, with his hand on his head. He notices Michael laughing, "Man you are the worst" Michael takes a break from the laughter, "so are you, you always laugh at me whenever I hit my head on the entrance hatch." "Touch¨¦" "We got everything listed off" announced Garrett, handing the checklist to Scott. Scott now turns to Michael, "Michael, come help me get the equipment bay cover back on." While Michael helps Scott, Garret and I walk over to a couple of crates. 1 by 1 we move large boxes to help Scott and Michael can load them into the storage bay. 20 minutes later Garret checks his watch, "Where is Vita?" "Shouldn''t she get here around now?" I ask. Vita, a trained physician will be apart of the mission. Incase anything goes awry, she will be there to help. Soon she walks into the hanger. "Hey, did I miss anything?" She asks. "Besides Scott hitting his head, not much." Garrett adds in. "Oh! Is he okay?" "He''s fine," replies Garrett, "he was startled by Michael." Michael and Scott finish bolting the equipment bay cover, and help Vita, Garrett and I finish loading the last bits of cargo. I notice Avera, Conrad, and Kyle walking towards us. "Good work guys," Avera calls out, "It''s time to suit up." The six of us make are way towards an adjacent room in the hanger, while Conrad and Kyle wait near the EX-5. We pass an armed guard and enter the room, where workers help us put on pressurerized flight suits. Its similar to putting on a jumpsuit, but a little bit larger and bulkier. A worker helps me slip my legs and arms into the suit. Next, large boots are attached and locked in with a pressure-tight seal. Once that is complete, gloves are attached a bit below the elbow. The worker hands me my helmet and connects the oxygen hoses to the suit as I wait for everyone else to finish suiting up. Concept art of Lucas in his spacesuit. After a couple of minutes, we all leave and make are way out of the suit up room and towards the EX-5. "Michael," Conrad says, "Your friend here (Kyle) wanted to wish you farewell." Everyone starts to climb into the EX-5 Michael and I give Kyle a hug. "I''m going to miss you," Michael tells Kyle, "See you in a month, ''Kay?" "Oh I will, Just don''t get yourself killed by then... And for you Lucas," Kyle says, turning to me, "you gotta stay safe too" Michael gives Kyle one last hug, Conrad making a funny face at this. With are farewells done, Michael and I climb into the EX-5, Shutting the hatch behind us. That is the end of Chapter 1: Preflight. My good friend who helped write the early version of this story recently passed away. This is dedicated in his memory. Takeoff LUCAS¡¯S P.O.V. Michael and I climb into the EX-5, shutting the hatch behind us. I take my seat in the front of the craft, right beside Avera. I pull my harness down, and it clicks into place. I''m surrounded by buttons and switches at my seat¡ªsome might simply turn on the lights, while others might shoot you into space. "Lucas and Scott, begin the power-up procedure," Avera instructs. "Battery 1, Go?" I ask. "Go," Scott responds. "Battery 2, Go?" "Go." "Power up the APU." Scott turns to his side and begins to power up the APU, the auxiliary power unit. It''s used to provide power while on the ground, and it''s shut off later. "All hydraulics, Go?" "Go," Scott responds. "Hyperspace cell, Go?" "Go." The hyperspace cell is what makes this all possible. It produces a mind-numbing amount of energy, and once this power goes through the hyperspace pods in the wings, a "warp" field is generated. This allows the spacecraft to go faster than the speed of light¡ªa true engineering feat. I continue flipping through circuit breakers, slowly bringing the spacecraft to life. Soon, the display in front of me is buzzing with information and data. I lean over and tell Avera she can begin the comms check. Avera begins listing off our names, and we respond. "I am go," she says through our headsets. "Lucas, go?" "Go," I respond. "Scott, go?" "Go." "Michael, go?" "Go." "Garrett, go?" "Go." "Vita, go?" "Go." We all respond, "Go," ready for further instructions. "Ground control," Avera says, "we are go and ready to be towed out, over." Ground control responds, "This is ground control. You are go and will be towed out shortly, over." As she finishes the sentence, the large hangar doors begin to open, letting the morning sun shine brightly into the hangar. I do my best to shield my eyes from the brightness, but it''s still hard to see. The spacecraft shudders as a towing tractor pulls us out of the hangar. I look to my right out of the window and see many workers standing on the ground, waving us goodbye. It takes a couple of minutes to get towed to the runway while the slow little towing tractor does its best the whole time. Once we are on the runway, the towing tractor unhooks itself from the EX-5 with a muffled clank. We all exchange looks with one another. "Don your helmets," Avera tells us before putting on her own helmet. I turn to my side and grab my helmet. I lift it over my head and lower it onto my suit. The helmet locks into place with a click, assuring me it won''t come loose. I look back at Scott, Michael, Garrett, and Vita. "You guys ready for this?" I ask them. "Ready as ever!" Vita exclaims through the intercom. "Sounds good," Avera says. "Let''s get this thing moving!" I turn back around, looking forward down the runway. I take a deep breath and close my eyes. "Scott, are the thrusters ready?" The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Thrusters ready for your input," Scott tells me. Avera once again contacts ground control. "This is EX-5. We are requesting permission for lift-off. Wish us a safe flight, over." "Ground control to EX-5. You are cleared for lift-off." I open my eyes and place my left hand on the throttle lever, and Avera does the same. We slowly advance the throttle lever forward, and I''m quickly jolted back into the seat. The spacecraft rumbles as two large rocket motors propel the craft down the runway. I look down at the display in front of me. The indicated speed is rising rapidly, and within seconds, it''s time to pull back and point the craft towards the sky. Using my right hand on a side stick, I lightly pull back, sending the nose of the spacecraft up. The rumbling from the runway stops as the landing gear leaves the ground. Avera taps a button, and the gear is retracted. We shoot above the ground, ascending into the sky. The craft rattles and shakes, pushed around by the extreme forces of wind. As we climb higher and higher into the atmosphere, it grows quieter. You can''t hear anything besides the angry hum of the engines. KYLE''S P.O.V. Michael leans down and embraces me in one last hug. We only hug for a couple of seconds, but I wish it could go on forever. Michael lets go of me and smiles. Then, without a word, he joins Lucas and climbs up the ladder to the EX-5. Conrad looks at me with a scowl on his face. "We gotta go now," he says. "..Right." The two of us walk to the exit of the hangar. Before we step through the doors, I turn and look back at the EX-5 one last time. I''m gonna miss Michael and Lucas. Their mission will only last around seven months, but that will be seven months without anyone to talk to. Maybe when they get back, I could throw a party. That would be fun... I shake the thought and turn back around, exiting the hangar. Conrad and I head to mission control, which is in a large building separate from the hangars. The two of us continue down a large hallway, lined with doors leading to various storage rooms. Conrad, who has been silent for some time, looks down and takes a deep breath. "Sigh. Look, Kyle, I apologize for yelling at you and your friends. Avera and I had a bit of a... disagreement. It set me off in a bad mood. Just don¡¯t hate me for today, will ya?" He turns his head back, waiting for my response. "Well, I''m not going to hate you for it, so it''s fine," I reply, doing my best to offer a sincere smile. Conrad smiles. "Thank you." We turn down the end of the large hallway, leading to a smaller one with only a few lights strewn about. Eventually, a sign comes into view, attached to the ceiling, with the words "Ground Control" displayed in large letters. Both of us approach the double doors beneath the sign. After fiddling with his keys, Conrad finds the right one and unlocks the door. We enter a somewhat large control room. It has wide windows letting in the morning sun, hurting my eyes. Complementing the room¡¯s size are consoles arranged with workers who were clearly waiting for us to arrive. "Hey boss, they¡¯ve begun the power-up procedure," a worker informs. "Everything seems fine." "Good to hear," Conrad says, turning his head to me. "You should get to your console, Kyle." I nod in agreement and head to my station behind one of the consoles. My task is to review the EX-5''s system data: temperatures, stress loads, oxygen levels, and the like. The screen in front of me lights up as the spacecraft systems come online. With no issues, all systems report operational. Seeing this, I turn back in my chair and give Conrad a thumbs up, to which he nods in return. Communication with the EX-5 crackles to life. "Ground control," Avera says, "We are go and ready to be towed out, over." Conrad looks around at everyone. "Is everything good for launch?" We all glance at each other, then at Carlin, and collectively answer with a quick, "Yeah." Conrad grabs his headset and speaks into the mouthpiece. "This is ground control. You are go and will be towed out shortly, over." We watch through the large windows and monitors as the EX-5 is towed out to the runway. My heart rate begins to rise rapidly at the impending takeoff, making me feel queasy. The craft sits idle for a moment until a familiar voice crackles over the radio again. "This is EX-5. We are requesting permission for lift-off. Wish us a safe flight, over." "Ground control to EX-5. You are cleared for lift-off," Conrad responds, his eyes fixed on the runway. As we all watch, a sudden, loud rumble can be heard as the EX-5 throttles up its large thrusters. With brilliant speed and grace, the craft lifts off into the air and disappears from view. I breathe a sigh of relief as I watch my friends vanish into the clouds. Turning around in my chair, I focus on the monitor, analyzing all the system data on it. LUCAS''S P.O.V. The view outside the window is mesmerizing. My planet, Aureon, sits in a soft blue glow. The vast dark oceans and their accompanying coastlines are cloaked by a variety of clouds and storms. BEEP! A button on the instrument panel to my left lights up brightly and noisily. It¡¯s time to shut down the engines, leaving the spacecraft in a stable, weightless orbit¡ªconstant free fall around Aureon. "Engine shutdown," Avera calls out. "I''m on it," says Scott, quickly shutting down the engines, silencing their raw power for the final time. The spacecraft is no longer under constant acceleration, and everything becomes weightless. The ends of my harness straps slowly float up, lazily bumping into my helmet. "Heh, this is fun!" Michael blurts, playing with his weightless arms. "You¡¯re more like a child than I thought," Scott says, amused. "I am certainly not a child," Michael retorts, glaring at Scott. "If you say so..." Scott responds with a smirk that¡¯s visible even through his helmet. It¡¯s only five minutes of orbiting Aureon before we begin the six-day journey to a planet nicknamed Sirius II. Located in a nearby solar system, it won¡¯t take long to get there. The EX-5''s mission is to study Sirius II¡¯s atmosphere and ground conditions. We know the atmosphere is partially breathable, but there¡¯s little other information. Upon departing Sirius II, we will briefly study its sister planet, Sirius, which is undergoing rapid environmental changes. "What''s it like to go into hyperspace?" Vita asks Avera. Avera, an experienced commander who previously led EX-3 to the Lovell system¡ªa group of six planets orbiting a small dwarf star¡ªanswers, "Well, everything outside the windscreen stretches, and then things begin moving. You don¡¯t really feel the jump into hyperspace, but you sure can see it." "Noted," Vita replies, sounding anxious. The radio crackles to life. "This is ground control," Conrad¡¯s familiar, almost irritating voice comes through. "We just wanted to check in before you guys made the jump." "All is good up here," I say. "The only issue is that I don¡¯t think we brought enough snacks for Michael." Michael glances my way and chuckles. "You better be wrong!" "If that¡¯s the only issue, it should be smooth sailing for you guys," Conrad responds. "If all goes to plan, we¡¯ll be speaking with you again in six days when you arrive at the Sirius system. Good luck and goodbye." "Yep..." Avera replies in what I can only describe as an "I couldn¡¯t care less" tone. The console in front of me, displaying our orbit around Aureon, signals it¡¯s time for the jump into hyperspace. "It¡¯s time," I announce through the intercom. Avera turns to Scott. "You know what to do." Scott powers up the hyperspace pods with the flip of a few switches. "Ready on your mark," he confirms. With Avera, I place my hand on the throttle for the hyperspace pods. "Three, two, one... Mark!" We both push the throttle forward, and suddenly, the most brilliant phenomenon unfolds. All the stars in the windscreen stretch endlessly. "Holy..." Garrett mutters, awestruck. "Why aren¡¯t they moving?" Avera asks, stunned. Vita looks at Avera. "Huh?" "This isn¡¯t normal. Everything should be moving by now!" The master caution alarm begins blaring loudly throughout the cabin. "I¡¯m getting stress warnings! There¡¯s too much gravity!" Scott exclaims. "That¡¯s impossible!" I shout over the intercom. "We¡¯re aborting!" Avera commands. "Shut it down!" Garrett yells. Scott scrambles through the emergency shutdown checklist, but it¡¯s too late. The spacecraft groans as it¡¯s pushed to its absolute limits, on the verge of being torn apart by excessive stress and gravity. Suddenly, the rattling and groaning stop. Silence. Warning alarms still blare, furious at our actions. "Is everyone all right?" Avera asks. "We¡¯re good," we respond in unison. Michael, looking terrified, finally speaks. "What the actual hell was that?" "I don¡¯t know," I reply. Feeling the ordeal is over, I lean forward and silence the master caution alarm. I breathe a sigh of relief, clutching my seat harness tightly. Disappearance KYLE''S P.O.V. "Yep," That''s the last full transmission received from the EX-5. Conrad looks around the room at everyone. "Alright, guys, be prepared," he says. "They¡¯re starting the jump." On the monitor in front of me, all the readings are where they should be: temperatures, pressures, G-forces, stress. I¡¯m in charge of monitoring them all. There¡¯s a beep, informing everyone that the jump has started. Everything goes fine for the first 30 seconds. Then all hell seems to break loose. At first, the amount of gravitational force¡ªG-force¡ªexerted on the spacecraft begins to steadily decrease. This is normal for this stage of the flight. However, it doesn¡¯t slow down or stop. The monitor begins flashing warnings, trying to tell me this isn¡¯t normal. Seeing this, I call Conrad over to take a look. He walks over and examines the screen. "I''ve never seen this before," he says, analyzing the data. "Can we still warn them about this?" he asks me. Looking at the monitor, I feel a sinking feeling in my gut. There¡¯s nothing we can do to help them. Regretfully, I have to tell him, "We can''t. It''s too late to contact them." Once a spacecraft enters its jump phase, it can¡¯t send or receive radio signals. Another controller across the room calls out to Conrad, ¡°Sir! They¡¯re trying to send a transmission!¡± ¡°What does it say?¡± Conrad asks desperately. The controller¡¯s excitement quickly fades. ¡°It doesn¡¯t say anything, sir.¡± I try not to panic. Maybe the sensors are faulty. Maybe it¡¯s a glitch with my computer. Maybe¡ª ¡°We¡¯ve lost contact.¡± Conrad addresses the room in a solemn tone. ¡°No!¡± I yell, drawing the attention of others. ¡°...That¡ªit can¡¯t be!¡± It can¡¯t be... It can¡¯t. Everything was fine just seconds ago. ¡°Do you have them on radar?¡± Conrad asks another controller. ¡°No,¡± he replies. Conrad begins to lose his composure. ¡°Is there any debris?¡± ¡°None, sir. They¡¯ve disappeared completely.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± Conrad mutters under his breath. ¡°Until further notice, I order all of you not to speak about this publicly,¡± he says firmly. ¡°You all should probably go eat lunch now. You likely won¡¯t have time later.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be in my father¡¯s office,¡± Conrad says as he walks out of the room. Did I just watch my friends die through a computer screen? Two of my best friends¡ªone of whom I loved dearly¡ªare gone. 15 or 20 minutes later, in the cafeteria I sit, trying to eat my sandwich with my coworkers. All I can do is take a couple of bites and stare at it. ¡°Are you going to eat that?¡± the guy sitting across from me asks. ¡°No,¡± I tell him without looking up. ¡°Kyle, it¡¯s going to be alright,¡± he says, trying to reassure me. ¡°They¡¯ll be found.¡± After I left the control room, it didn¡¯t take long for people to figure out I had friends on the EX-5. I doubt they knew anything about how Michael and I felt about each other, but that didn¡¯t stop them from trying to reassure me every two minutes. I refuse to believe the EX-5 vanished without a trace. That just doesn¡¯t happen. Then, an idea¡ªa possible explanation¡ªstrikes me. Looking up from the table, I ask if anyone has some notebook paper. A few people respond, and soon I¡¯m handed some sheets. I grab a pencil and start frantically writing down my idea. From the data I saw, the EX-5 lost all its mass when it disappeared. Under normal circumstances, that¡¯s supposed to happen. Without any mass, the EX-5 can travel faster than the speed of light. But what if, instead of losing all its mass, it gained negative mass?Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! This might have caused the EX-5 to slip through the fabric of space. It sounds insane¡ªbecause it is. Everyone at the table seems interested in what I¡¯m scribbling. ¡°That might actually¡­¡± one of them says. ¡°If you guys have any other ideas, I¡¯m happy to hear them,¡± I tell them. ¡°I¡¯d say it¡¯s worth a shot,¡± says another coworker. The six of us spend the rest of lunch refining the idea. We¡¯re desperate for answers. For all we know, entertaining this theory could be the biggest waste of time, but we don¡¯t care. 1.5 hours later, in the conference room After lunch, most of the controllers from the control room are asked to gather in the conference room, myself included. In the room are Pruitt Carlin¡ªa large fellow with brown fur and the founder and CEO of the Carlin Space Agency¡ªand the father of Conrad and Michael. Joining him are Conrad, multiple engineers, representatives, and the controllers. ¡°Alright, can you please explain to me how a state-of-the-art spacecraft, commanded by an experienced crew, vanished?¡± Pruitt asks impatiently. ¡°Well, sir,¡± Conrad begins, repositioning his hands on the table, ¡°from the time they started the jump to the time we lost contact, it was only about a minute.¡± A green-furred engineer in a plain tie lays out some papers. ¡°We believe there could have been an in-flight breakup. It exceeded its designed operating stress before contact was lost.¡± ¡°Is this correct?¡± Pruitt asks, looking at me since I was in charge of monitoring the data. ¡°Well, technically, yes,¡± I tell him. ¡°But I doubt there would have been a breakup¡ª¡± I¡¯m cut off by the engineer. ¡°Well, currently, a breakup is the most feasible explanation,¡± the engineer remarks. ¡°The only issue,¡± one of the controllers interjects, ¡°is that there wasn¡¯t any debris we could detect.¡± ¡°Well, there might be a reason for the lack of debris¡ª¡± the engineer starts, but Pruitt cuts him off. ¡°Do you know what happened or not?¡± Pruitt demands. ¡°No, sir,¡± the engineer concedes. Sensing an opening, I decide to share my theory. ¡°Mr. Carlin,¡± I announce, ¡°I do have my own theory.¡± I grab the attention of the entire room. ¡°I believe the EX-5 went through the fabric of space.¡± Pruitt scoffs. ¡°That¡¯s a joke, right?¡± Catching his breath, he continues. ¡°Look, I admire the creativity, but that¡¯s not possible with our current technology.¡± My hopes falter, but I pull out the paper I wrote earlier. Conrad notices and immediately shows interest. ¡°Let me see that real quick,¡± he says, snatching the paper. He examines it thoroughly, intrigued. Looking up, he says, ¡°Kyle has a point.¡± The engineer frowns. ¡°Fifteen years ago, we tried to break through the fabric of space with the Adastra. Test 27C didn¡¯t work. We did the math¡ªit would take more energy to punch through the fabric of space than even the EX-5 could produce.¡± ¡°Well, the math might be wrong,¡± Conrad counters. ¡°What if the Adastra simply didn¡¯t have enough power to break through?¡± Pruitt rises from his chair. ¡°Which one is it, then? If you can¡¯t prove which one it is, I will go with Mr. Arelio¡¯s theory. We will investigate the other theory, but until then, that¡¯s what the press will hear.¡± Conrad protests, ¡°Dad, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good ide¡ª¡± ¡°This meeting is dismissed,¡± Pruitt declares. Swiftly, everyone leaves. In the hallway a couple of minutes later, Conrad finds me again. ¡°Seriously, I do believe your theory might be right, but there is no way to prove it,¡± he says, sounding defeated. The next couple of hours pass in various meetings and other conferences. Eventually, the media catches wind of what happened, and it becomes a nightmare. At around 5 PM, I''m finally allowed to leave. I step out into the parking lot and find my car. Well, for the record, it isn''t actually my car¡ªMichael owns it. Since I stay over at Michael''s so much, it kind of became my car. I pull open the door and get into the driver''s seat. I silently shut the door and rest my head on the steering wheel. I begin to cry. I sit there pathetically in the middle of a parking lot and cry. My friends are probably dead, and my idea to save them was laughed at. 30 Minutes Later I drive down a highway and turn off onto a small, narrow road. I pass a couple of fences and mailboxes before I arrive at the property I''m looking for. There is a large black fence that comes up to the road, with a beautiful gate in the middle. Behind the gates is where Michael lives. To put it simply, he lives in a mansion. The place isn''t huge, but it isn''t small either. It is three stories tall and has beautiful white pillars. The gate automatically opens for me, and I drive through. I go up the long driveway and open the garage door. I pull the car into the garage, shut it off, and close the garage door behind me. Opening the car door, I step out and head inside. I enter the house''s large kitchen. The smell of food immediately hits my nose¡ªit smells like pasta. The maid, Amelia, is the only one who works in the residence. It''s a large house for just one maid to look after, but she always dismisses the idea of extra help whenever Michael or I bring it up. Walking past the kitchen, I make my way to the living room. It''s a large room with two big couches, a chair, and a sleek glass coffee table. I plop myself down on the couch that sits directly across from a large TV attached to the wall. I reach forward, grab the remote, and turn on the TV. Immediately, I''m greeted by a news reporter. ¡°You better not be talking about¡ª¡± I say under my breath. The news reporter begins speaking. ¡°Earlier this morning, the EX-5 spacecraft, which belonged to the Carlin Space Agency, went missing.¡± Dammit. A picture of the crew pops onto the screen. ¡°The six-person research team: Mission Commander Avera Willow, Pilot Lucas Burke, Flight Engineer Scott Wilkinsons, Medical Assistant Vita Langley, and Mission Specialists Garrett Vermandes and Michael Carlin, who is the son of the C.S.A. founder, Pruitt Carlin¡ª¡± Agitated, I quickly lunge for the remote and change the channel. It doesn''t get much better, though. Instead of a news reporter, it''s Pruitt himself speaking at a large press meeting. ¡°Yes, we do believe an in-flight breakup was involved¡ª¡± he says, ¡°We are looking into what might have caused it.¡± I swear, he better know what he''s talking about. Before Pruitt can continue speaking, the TV shuts off. ¡°What the¡­¡± I say before realizing why. In front of me stands Amelia, a light black protogen with white spots, still in her maid uniform. I notice she is holding the remote for the TV. ¡°I think it''s best you don''t watch that,¡± she says. ¡°Dinner is ready anyway. You really do need to eat, Mr. Raymond.¡± I lazily get up. ¡°Yeah, I guess,¡± I say in a tired tone. I head into the dining room and sit at the large table. Amelia appears from the kitchen with a large plate of spaghetti. ¡°Here you go, Mr. Raymond,¡± she says, setting it down in front of me. ¡°Thank you,¡± I tell her. ¡°Of course,¡± she says before returning to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later, she comes back with another plate of spaghetti, which I''m assuming is for herself. I grab a fork and start eating greedily. Considering I had an early lunch and didn¡¯t eat much, I¡¯m starving. After such an eventful day, it feels good to get some food. Looking up, I notice Amelia sitting across from me at the table. It¡¯s odd because house staff normally eat by themselves. But, then again, I¡¯m thankful she¡¯s eating with me. ¡°Hey, thank you for not leaving me to eat alone,¡± I tell Amelia. ¡°It¡¯s no problem at all,¡± she says. ¡°Not to offend you, but you look like you had a horrible day.¡± She¡¯s not wrong. Seeing my reflection in my water glass, my fur is an absolute mess, and my tie is crooked. ¡°I know how you feel,¡± she says, wiping her visor with a napkin. ¡°I raised Michael since he was little. I¡¯m just as hurt as you are, seeing him gone.¡± ¡°I¡­ just want to save him. All of them,¡± I say. Amelia raises an eyebrow at me. ¡°Why can¡¯t you?¡± she asks curiously. ¡°You¡¯re smart. You¡¯d be able to figure out how.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing,¡± I tell her. ¡°I think I already did.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± she says, surprised. ¡°I brought it up to Pruitt. He thought it was a joke,¡± I say. ¡°So?¡± Amelia replies, becoming serious. ¡°Look, I was one of the first people he hired when he started that company. Head of security for almost 20 years. Do you know how much stuff I pulled behind his back?¡± ¡°No, not really,¡± I say, intrigued. ¡°Exactly,¡± she says. ¡°And that old fart is still paying me a lot of money to work at this house.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your point?¡± I ask. ¡°Pruitt Carlin is a smart man, but he¡¯s incredibly oblivious,¡± she says nonchalantly. ¡°So, with that out of the way, what¡¯s the plan?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± Over the next 10 minutes, I explain what I believe happened to Amelia. She seems to light up at the idea of saving the EX-5¡¯s crew without Pruitt knowing. But the real question is: how am I going to do it? After dinner, Amelia cleans up the table, and I get up to leave the dining room. ¡°I¡¯m going to head to bed,¡± I tell her. ¡°All right, Mr. Raymond. The bed has been made, so goodnight.¡± ¡°Goodnight,¡± I reply. I head through the living room and up the stairs. Michael¡¯s room is on the third floor, which is always tiring to climb to. Eventually, I make it to the third floor and turn down the hallway. At the end of it are two doors leading to his room. Stepping inside, I remove my shirt and flop backward onto the large bed. It feels odd without Michael¡ªnormally, he¡¯d cuddle me to sleep. But tonight, I¡¯m alone. Maybe, just maybe, I can save them. Amelia seems to agree, and Conrad might too. After a few minutes, I eventually shut my eyes and fall asleep Disaster LUCAS''S P.O.V. It''s been 3 hours since we tried to jump into hyperspace. We were still orbiting Aureon, thankfully. Scott, who was directly behind my seat, and he was still frantically going through different spacecraft systems. None of us could figure out why the jump failed, and almost killed us in the process. ¡°Have you heard anything back from mission control?¡± Asks Vita. ¡°No" replies Avera, still fidgeting with the radio. ¡°Are you sure this isn''t broken?¡± She says looking in Scott''s direction. ¡°It could be,¡± responds Scott, ¡°The long range antenna might have been snapped off with all the stress¡± ¡°What about the short range antenna?¡± Asks Michael. Avera sighs, ¡°It''s not giving us anything either¡± Scott undoes his seat harness, ¡°We are going to have to do an EVA and check it visually¡± ¡°Alright you are authorized to do that,¡± Avera says, ¡°And check for any other damage¡± ¡°Will do¡± responds Scott, ¡°Come Michael, you are helping¡± Michael undoes his harness and pushes himself out of his seat. Together Michael and Scott pull themselves over to a ladder at the bottom of the cockpit. They both go down the ladder to the airlock, which opens on the bottom of the EX-5. MICHAEL''S P.O.V. I go down the ladder and enter the EVA bay that is below the cockpit. It''s a cramped little room with a couple eva suits and a door to the airlock. Scott and I start removing our Flight suits. I take off my gloves, boots and everything else until I''m only in my jumpsuit. Scott detaches a white eva suit from the wall and proceeds to put it on, and I do the same as him. The EVA suits are similar to our flight suits. The only difference is the flight suits aren''t as reflective, and they can''t carry as much oxygen as the EVA suits. I put on the legs, then the torso. Followed by that I put on my boots, and then gloves. Grabbing the helmet I put it on as well. ¡°Comm check.¡± I say, making sure my microphone is working in the helmet. ¡°Loud and clear¡± says Scott ¡°And we have you guys up here¡± says Garrett ¡°Alright, we''re going to go out now¡± says Scott through his helmet. ¡°Confirmed¡± Avera says. Scott twists open a small know on the airlock door, and then the door opens outwards toward us. The both of us make our way into the small airlock. Considering I''m one of the larger protogens, trying to fit in an airlock with a bulky EVA suit on is not my definition of a fun idea. Anyhow, the both of us still manage to fit. Scott closed the door and seals it shut. ¡°Get your tether attached,¡± he says. Wiggling my arm down, I clip one of the white tethers to my suit. ¡°Ready?¡± Scott asks, ready to depressurize the airlock. I turn and look over at him, ¡°yeah¡± Scott hits a panel on the side of the airlock, with a faint hiss the airlock depressurized. I shuffle my arms forward and unlatch the outside door, swinging it outward. ¡°remember, if you see anything unusual, report it,¡± Scott says while pulling himself out of the airlock. The airlock on the EX-5 is weird, because its located on the bottom of the spacecraft, right in the middle of the heat shield. it''s kind of hard to get in and out of since there aren''t many handles to grab a hold of. Once Scott gets out of the airlock, its my turn and I pull myself out as well. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I follow Scott as we both crawl on the heat shield to a ladder, letting us go from the bottom to the top side of the EX-5. Once I reached the ladder, I saw a breathtaking sight. You could see all of Aureon, a beautiful blue atmosphere dotted with blue stirred up clouds. Looking closer, stuff about the planet began to look strange¡­ ¡°Does anyone else see this¡± I ask, trying to figure out what''s wrong ¡°What did you find?¡± Scott asks, already well on his way to check the antennas Then I see it, ¡°The coastline, it looks wrong.. I don''t recognize that landmass right there¡± I say, pointing towards the planet ¡°I don''t recognize it either, but we shouldn''t be worrying about that right now,¡± says Scott, removing the panel off an antenna ¡°This looks fine,¡± says Scott in a surprised tone, ¡°The antennas don''t have any damage.¡± Avera chimes in, ¡° Then why aren''t we receiving anything?¡± ¡°I don''t know!¡± says Scott, clearly frustrated. ¡°Well can you at least check for any of the damage?¡± Lucas says, changing the topic, ¡°That could explain why¡± ¡°Yeah thats what I was thinking earlier¡± says Scott as he puts the antenna cover back on. ¡°Did the heat shield have any damage?¡± says Garrett through the headset ¡°I did not see any damage or cracks,¡± I say as I grab a small foothold on the side of the fuselage and tether myself to it, ¡°I didn''t see any damage anywhere else¡± ¡°Well that''s good,¡± Scott says, ¡°but that still doesn''t explain why we haven''t received any radio signals¡± ¡°Well in that case you both should come back in¡± says Avera. ¡°Alright, will do.¡± Responds Scott ¡°Wait,¡± I say, ¡°I wanna get one last look from out here¡± ¡°Fine¡± Avera says, Definitely annoyed. I get my foot into one of the footholds on the top of the fuselage, at that point I was practically standing on the top of the spacecraft, looking upwards towards the planet. Ya know, at this moment, I really have to compliment space. It was cold, lonely, and it tries to kill you. But when it doesn''t, when it lets you live, it is majestic. Here I am, weightlessly gazing upon my home. No cares, no burdens, nothing. ¡°You done yet?¡± says Scott, on the ladder, read to go back to the airlock ¡°Yeah yeah,¡± I say, and begin to step out of my footholds. Then something catches my eye. A small sparkling thing. It looked like a star, except it kept getting bigger. Suddenly it stopped growing, And flew right by at a high speed. It looked like a chunk of metal, or maybe a rock. I almost jump back, ¡°Oh fuck!¡± I yell through the intercom ¡°Report?¡± Avera says ¡°You good?¡± Asks Scott, pearing his head over the side. ¡°Large chunk of debris- It flew right by our right side¡± ¡°What?¡± Lucas says, ¡°We didn''t see anything from here¡± Then I see more pieces of debris. They looked to be far away, but they were quickly getting closer. ¡°Hurry! We gotta get inside!¡± I yell at Scott. I begin to double my pace, and scramble to finish undoing my foothold. Then another piece of debris flies by me, just a couple feet away from my head. Quickly I grab one of the handles on the fuselage and launch myself towards the ladder. I grab a hold of the ladder and do a 180 degree, caused from how fast I was going. I begin to work my way down the ladder, and then I look up and see more chunks of metal fly by It didn''t take me very long to reach the heat shield. But before I could start going towards the airlock, Avera brings up some bad news. ¡°We have had multiple impacts!¡± She yells, ¡°Everyone get on your helmets!¡± I scramble towards the airlock right behind Scott. We are about to make it into the airlock before the EX-5 gets hit again. Then¡­ a large, large piece of debris hits us. It tears through the top of the right wing and smashes through the right vertical stabilizer. It sends the craft into a spin, launching Scott and I off the ladder, away from the EX-5. After a couple seconds, we reach the ends of our tethers, yanking us right back towards the spacecraft. I''m sent towards the side of the fuselage, and I put out my hands to brace for the impact. I slam into a jagged piece of metal, and it rips into my EVA suit, right into the side of my chest. Suddenly I''m hit with a sharp, piercing pain. ¡°GAH-¡± I yell, clutching my side. the EX-5 was still spinning out of control, because of this, I was quickly pulled off the jagged piece of metal. The suit sealed itself to maintain its pressure, but I was still bleeding badly underneath. I yell into my mic, ¡°Fuck! I''ve been hit! My suits been punctured!¡± But I get no response. I''m dragged along the torn fuselage, and I find another piece of metal sticking out to grab ahold to. With one arm I grab the metal piece and hold it with the tightest grip I can muster. All the while more tiny pieces of space debris peppers the EX-5. A small piece of metal went straight into my lower leg, making me grit my teeth even more. Bam. To my horror I feel an impact on my helmet. My ear begins to hurt as well, and small blobs of blood begin to float throughout my helmet. ¡°Michael!¡± Scott''s voice calls in my headset, ¡°You still there?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I say, ¡°Everything hurts¡­¡± ¡°Where are you? Are you still with the EX-?¡± He asks, "Is your suit holding pressure?¡± ¡°I''m uh¡­ Right side, and my suit is still holding pressure¡± I respond to him, ¡°My helmet is filling with blood and I can''t feel my leg¡± ¡°Shit,¡± Scott says, I''ll be there to help in a second.¡± I breathe a sigh of relief knowing Scott is still there. He soon comes over the side of the heat shield, slowly crawling his way towards me. He takes an extra tether off of his belt and tosses it towards me. I catch it and clip it to my EVA suit, that way I can''t float away. I let go of the jagged metal and grab the tether, then I start to pull myself towards Scott. Without saying a word he turns around and begins to go back towards the airlock with me in tow. I notice the craft wasn''t spinning as badly now, Which meant Lucas and Avera were still trying to control it. During the crawl back though, I notice a reasonably sized sealed puncture in the neck of Scotts EVA suit. He seemed to be just fine, I didn''t see anything else wrong with him. ¡°You okay?¡± I ask him, ¡°There''s a puncture under your helmet,¡± He responds tiredly, ¡°oh¡­ Im alright¡± We reach the airlock and go back into it, and I close it behind us. I notice the cabin pressure is still high, which means the inside of the EX-5 wasn''t damaged. Scott pressurizes the airlock and opens up the hatch to the cabin. Slowly, he pulls himself out of the airlock. I quickly undo my tether so it doesn''t get tangled up, and follow Scott. He climbs up the ladder and enters the cockpit. ¡°Vita¡­ Michael needs your¡­ help.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± she says, ¡°Garrett help Scott,¡± she orders him. I make my way up to the cockpit to make it easier for Vita to help Mr. ¡°whats ¡­our status?¡± Scott asks in a dragged out sentence. ¡°Hydraulic lines 2 is dry and line 3 is leaking,¡± Lucas says, ¡°The heat shield is okay, but I don''t know if we would structurally survive re entry¡± ¡­ ¡°Scott?¡± Avera asks, trying to look back from her seat. No answer. ¡°Scott answer me-¡± Vita demands. He doesn''t move or react to it. Instead, he goes limp. ¡°Is everything okay back there?¡± Lucas asks, still fighting the controls. ¡°Scott is unconscious¡± Vita says as she takes off his helmet. Bits of blood begin to stream from his suit, right from the back of his neck. ¡°Oh my- stop the bleeding!¡± She yells at Garrett. Slowly I begin to feel myself slip out of conciseness. ¡°Im¡­ dizzy-¡± I say, before everything goes black. LUCAS P.O.V. ¡°Hurry! We gotta get inside!¡± Michael frantically yells in his intercom. ¡°Wait is there debris?¡± Garrett asks from his seat. ¡°They saw something go-¡± says avers before getting cut off by a small noise. tink! ¡°What was that?¡± I ask. Then it happens again. ping. Then again. ¡°I¡­ don''t know this time¡± Avera says. Then the noises get louder. The high pitched noises turn into louder, heavy thumps. ¡°We are getting hit by debris,¡± Avera says, ¡°get on your helmets!¡± I scramble to turn around to grab my helmet, but I don''t grab it in time. A loud bang reverberate through the fuselage as the EX-5 is thrown into a crazy spin. Vita, who had unbuckled her harness to grab her helmet, was thrown into the ceiling. ¡°Vita!¡± Garrett cried out, and he begins to unbuckle his harness to help her. ¡°Garrett don''t!¡± She says, ¡°stay in your seat!¡± He finishes unbuckling and begins to fly out of his seat. He twists before hitting the ceiling and lands on his knees, similarly to a superhero. I turn my attention back my job, getting the EX-5 under control. I move my side stick around, trying to counter the spacecraft''s spinning. The spin starts to slow down until Avera yells at me. ¡°Lucas- Your helmet!¡± I look down to see my helmet had begun to work itself free from where I put it, and it started to fly towards me. I instinctively put my hand out to stop it, but it didn''t do much. It went straight through my hand, and into one of the windscreens, leaving a sizable crack. Blind descent LUCAS''S P.O.V. Slowly, I wake up after being hit by my helmet. My vision, still fuzzy, makes it hard for me to see what I''m doing. ¡°...how long was I out?¡± I ask, turning my head over to Avera. ¡°15 minutes¡± She responds, ¡°Are you alright?¡± Finally coming to my senses, I realize I''m not alright. My hand, which took part of the impact, is probably broken. the side of my head took the rest of the impact. ¡°I''ve got a real bad headache¡­¡± I say, putting my good hand on my head. ¡°What about everyone else?¡± I ask optimistically. Avera shudders a little bit, it''s odd for someone with her experience to do that. ¡°Scott,¡± she says, ¡°he''s dead.¡± ¡°Oh..¡± I say with pain, ¡°What''s Michael''s status?¡± Avera looks back behind her, ¡°He''s unconscious.¡± She says, ¡°Vita has him stabilized.¡± ¡°Fuck¡± I say under my breath. Our flight engineer is dead, and my best friend is about to join him. Looking out the cracked window ahead of me, I''ve noticed we''ve stopped spinning. Avera must have done that while I was out. Garrett floats up to me and Avera''s seat. ¡°We need to land, Michael won''t survive much longer up here.¡± He says with a straightforward tone. ¡°We won''t survive re entry.¡± Avera snaps back, almost angry. Garrett protests, ¡°Well at the rate we are losing coolant and Hydraulics, re entry won''t even be possible.¡± He continues, ¡°Right now we still have a chance, a chance to save Michael and ourselves.¡± Then I noticed something on my flight display. We weren''t in an orbit anymore. We were slowly falling to the planet. At the rate we were going, we would be hitting the atmosphere soon. I would use the thrusters to extend our orbit, but that would most likely just blow us up if they are damaged. I turn to Avera, ¡°We don''t have a choice,¡± I tell her, ¡°our orbit is decaying, we were slowed down after we hit the debris.¡± ¡°How much time?¡± She says Looking back at the monitor, we don''t have long. ¡°5 minutes, 7 at most.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± She says, keeping her composure. ¡°Garrett,¡± she calls, ¡°Get Lucas''s hand bandaged. After that, prepare the cabin for re-entry.¡± Garrett floats back up to my seat with some bandages. He begins to dress up my hand, that may I''m less likely to mess it up any further. His hands are a dark dark red, covered in bits of blood. I cant help but stare with concern. ¡°It''s going to be okay,¡± he tries to say reassuringly. ¡°What''s the use,¡± I tell him, ¡°We are all going to be dead within 30 minutes anyway.¡± ¡°Don''t say that-¡± he stops, ¡°We will make it, we will for Scott''s sake.¡± Garrett finishes up bandaging my hand and pulls himself away back towards the rear of the cockpit. I begin to unbuckle my harness, ¡°I need to go back and help,¡± I say. Avera puts her hand out and stops me, ¡°You don''t want to see it back there. Just stay up here and focus on getting us on the ground, ¡®kay?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± I responded. She leans over to the side of her seat and pulls out a small checklist book. ¡°Okay uhm, this is practically useless now. Half our systems are damaged and this doesn''t tell us squat.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°What''s the good news?¡± I ask. ¡°As you said earlier, the heat shield is intact and we do have enough Hydraulic pressure to use our flight surfaces.¡± ¡°What about ground control?¡± I ask, ¡°don''t they know anything?¡± Avera turns her head back towards me, ¡°We still have no contact with them. If anything, I don''t think we will be anytime soon.¡± ¡°...all alone.¡± I murmur to myself. ¡°Huh?¡± Asks avera. ¡°We are all alone up here. No help from anyone.¡± Avera sighs at this, ¡°What we have is a crew of some of the smartest protogens. That''s what we have and it''s what we must use.¡± ¡°In that case, let''s defy the odds.¡± Avera Nods in agreement. ¡°Let''s get to work.¡± 5 minutes Later; 1 minute until re-entry. ¡°Is everyone buckled up back there?¡± Avera says through the intercom. ¡°We are good back here,¡± garrett replies, ¡°We don''t know how much longer Michael has though¡±. I swallow, ¡°alright.¡± Shortly after we enter the dark side of the planet. The interior goes dark, only illuminated by various panels and buttons. ¡°Looks like we are landing in the dark,¡± Avera says. Re entering the atmosphere in the dark isn''t normally a problem, but we have no contact with ground control and no choice of where we will be landing. The EX-5 begins its re-entry. Wisps of plasma flies over the windscreen, as we start to rip through air particles. At our current nose up attitude, we wouldn''t be able to see where we where going. It truly was a blind descent. The craft begins to rattle as it encounters more air resistance in the atmosphere. The wisps of plasma grow larger and darker, turning into large bright orange streaks. It becomes harder to breathe as the G-forces increase. This phase of descent doesn''t last very long, but it''s incredibly dangerous and intense. Please hold together¡­ Please. ¡°Hows the wing-¡± Avera gasps, straining her voice. ¡°it''s staying on¡± I reply back to her. ¡°Good, good.¡± She says relieved. A couple minutes go by as we continue to rip through the upper atmosphere. As we slow down and get lower, the plasma surrounding the EX-5 lessens. This would normally be accompanied by the reestablishing of communication with ground control. Except nobody on board was expecting to hear back from ground after everything that has happened. As we leave the dangers of hitting the atmosphere and going through the hottest part of re entry, we find ourselves looking at new dangers. Where are we going to land. Not only where are we going to land, but how are we going to land in the middle of the night, likely without a runway. ¡°Where are we?¡± I ask, turning to Avera. She leans forward to look out of the windscreen, ¡°I can''t tell, do you see anything out on your side?¡± I do the same as her and come up with the same results, ¡°I Can''t tell either..¡± She continues to look out the window, ¡°Wait! I see some lights-¡± ¡°Huh¡± I respond, trying to find what she is seeing. ¡°It''s real far off from us, at our 11 o''clock.¡± She says. ¡°Can we make it to there?¡± I ask her. ¡°I don''t think so, and I wouldn''t want to land in the middle of a populated area.¡± She says ¡°Is there anywhere to land in front of us?¡± I say looking forward over the EX-5''s nose. ¡°I still can''t tell,¡± she says, ¡°We are still very high up.¡± This isn''t great news. We still need to find some place to land, even if it''s pitch black outside. ¡°The only place I see to land is a dark patch up ahead..¡± Avera reports to me, ¡°We need to slow down immediately if want to land there.¡± ¡°speed brakes?¡± I ask her. ¡°More than that.¡± she says. ¡°Okay then.¡± I reply back. The EX-5 when it lands, it goes incredibly fast. Because of this, it also has many ways to slow down. Speed brakes can be used to slow down quickly. If that doesn''t work you can use flaps, which also helps with lift. Lowering the gear also does a great deal to slow you down. And if you are in a pinch, there is a drag chute that can be deployed during landing. I lean forward and use my inly good hand tk pull a small lever towards me, ¡°Speed breaks deployed¡± Then I switch my attention to the gear lever, and I pull it down as well. Only 2 of the 3 landing gear bogies deploy though. ¡°Nose gear isn''t lowering..¡± Avera says, concerned with it. Matching her concern, the flight computer shows a message, ¡°raise gear, speed unsafe¡± ¡°What''s our speed?¡± I ask avera. ¡°350 knots and slowing, but the gear is going to break off¡± she replies back. (350 knots=400mph, 650 kmh) Just a little longer and we''ll be down. ¡°3,000 meters¡± she calls out. Passing through 10,000 ft, it was becoming a little easier to tell where we where landing. It looked to be a large field that was backed by an even larger wooded area. As we got lower and slower, the nose gear finally went down and locked. This was of course a good thing, but we were still going too fast. Passing through 5,000 feet/1,500 meters we were still screaming past a speed of 200 knots. ¡°Final approach¡± Avera says through the intercom. ¡°We are still going too fast¡± She says ¡°Well we can''t do anything about that, we don''t have the altitude for it¡± I tell her. Quickly we go through 2,000 feet, still going fast. At our current glide angle, we weren''t going to hit the field. We were going for the trees. ¡°We are not making it!,¡± I say through the intercom. ¡°BRACE!¡± Avera yells. Avera puts one of her hands out in front of her on the console, while I do the same with my bandaged hand. It''s not comfortable but I have to keep my other hand on the side stick. ¡°The drag chute! Deploy it, deploy it!¡± I yell at Avera. With her free hand she reaches up and deploys the chute. With a fwoop, the drag chute opens. We pass straight over the field we were supposed to land in. I notice a house that was in the middle of the field. All I could see was its outline reflected in the moonlight. Putting my attention back in front of me, all there is is a bunch of trees. Pak- Bwam! Just as we experienced with the space debris, the impacting of trees reverberates through the fuselage The EX-5 begins to dig into the trees, cutting through them like a blunt knife. We continue through the trees for a good distance. I can feel the drag chute as it gets shredded by the tree limbs. We begin to slow through the trees. I feel a distinctive thud as we hit the ground, still going through various trees. One of the wings must have dipped into the ground because we started to skid at an angle. The EX-5 finally stops, giving up it''s battle against the trees. Everything once again goes silent as I try to catch my breath. ¡°You did it lucas¡­¡± Avera says, out of breath as well. ¡°We are okay back here,¡± Vita says through the intercom, ¡°are you guys ok?¡± ¡°Yeah¡± I say. ¡°Shutdown checklist¡± Avera says, already going through and flipping off switches. I turn off the batteries,coolant and other various systems. ¡°Alright let''s get out of here,¡± I say as I unbuckle my harness. Pushing myself up from my seat using my good hand, I turn around to walk to the back of the cockpit. The sight that lied before me made me stop where I was. Everything was stained red. The floor, the walls, everything. Only now did I notice the smell of blood. ¡°N- no no!¡± I say, as I rush toward where everyone else was. Vita''s white fur was no longer white. most of her visible fur was stained dark red as well. Michael who was still in his seat was covered in his blood as well. Half of his body it seemed like was covered in bandages. ¡°What.. where is Scott?¡± I ask trembling. ¡°His body ..is in the airlock¡± Garrett says in a heavy tone. Avera comes up behind me, ¡°We need to get out of Here. That''s our current priority.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Vita says as she unbuckles Michael from his seat. Avera turns to the emergency exit located on the side of the cockpit wall. It''s a small square door that releases with explosive bolts. Avera arms the door and hits a button next to it. Bang! The door blows off the fuselage and lands a distance away. A small slide inflates after the door detaches, allowing quick degress of the EX-5. Avera gestures for me to go down, which I agree to do hesitantly. I go down the slide and hit the ground stumbling. I''m followed by Garret. He hits the ground and turns back. Then Michael went down. Garrett caught him and (mostly) stopped him. Then Vita went down and landed without issue. Avera, being the commander, was the last to leave. She began her trip down the slide and hit the ground with a thud. ¡°I grabbed some of the emergency sidearms.¡± Says avera, handing out small pistols to everyone. Vita, kneeling next to Michael, looks up towards everyone. ¡°We need to get Michael proper medical help.. He won''t survive much longer out here¡± ¡°You heard her,¡± Avera says, ¡°our fight for survival has just begun.¡± The Secret Plan KYLE''S P.O.V, at the Carlin space agency main hanger building. After the disappearance of the EX-5, most work at the agency has been halted. The production of the EX-6 spacecraft had also been stopped. Meanwhile, most of the workers, including myself Have been left with nothing to do. This is a good thing for me, as this leaves me with time to execute my plan. The plan itself you may be asking is rather simple. I will be ¡°Borrowing¡± the adastra. Then I will be using the spacecraft to recreate what happened with the EX-5. There are some problems that I have address first. First off, the adastra was spacecraft built for testing. It was used to see how viable warp technology was. Second, it hasn''t flown in over 15 years. The next issue is that the adastra isn''t powerful enough to recreate what happened. In order to do that, I would have to yet again ¡°borrow¡± the hyperspace cell meant for the EX-6 and put it into the adastra. This would in theory give it more than enough power. Then I would also have to do all of this without anyone knowing. Its definitely not an easy thing to accomplish, but my bets are it''s possible. I head down to the hanger corridor where the adastra is located. I unlock the door heavy metal doors to the hanger and quietly slip inside. It''s dark in the hanger, and the only source of light streams in through cracks in the outer hanger door. Fumbling with the wall beside me, I find the switch and flip it. ¡®Click click click¡¯ the lights power on and illuminate the hanger. In the middle of the hanger, lies the adastra covered in a large dusty tarp. I walk over to the adastra and grab the tarp with both hands. With as much strength as I could muster, I slowly pull the tarp back off the craft. I cover my mouth as a cloud of dust rises out from the tarp. Free from the covering, the adastra shines in the hanger lights. While it wasn''t modern or had all the new technology that the EX-5 had, buy the adastra would have to do. The craft was very similar in shape to the EX-5. The only major difference was it was a quarter smaller and meant to be flown by a small group of engineers. I walk over to a small cart in the hanger that had a couple of flashlights and other items. I grabbed a flashlight and went back to the adastra''s entry hatch. I grabbed the small handle on the netry hatch and twisted; the hatch popped outwards and out of the way. A small ladder was mechanically released downwards. Due to my short height I had some trouble getting onto the ladder. After pulling myself up the ladder, I made my way inside the adastra. Inside the craft it was pitch black. Once I turned on the flashlight, it became much easier to see. A thin layer of dust coated every surface. Looking around I found a couple log books and manuals, I''ll definitely be needing these. Instead of extra seats and room for cargo, there are large computers used for processing data. This could prove itself to be great for learning about the gravitational phenomenon. Going past the computers, I move forward to the front of the cockpit, and look up to the overhead panel. I turn on both breakers for the onboard batteries¡­ nothing happens. The batteries must be shot, but it shouldn''t be that hard to pluck some batteries off the EX-6''s production line. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I go back to the ladder and climb down. Because the batteries are dead, I can use ground power to check the systems on the Adastra. Attached to one of the hanger walls is a large coiled up cable. This is a large power cable that can be connected to the adastra to provide it with power. I go up and unhook the cable and drag it across the hanger towards the craft. Once I get to the wing, I drop the cable and start searching for the port to connect the cable. After a bit of searching, I find the port under the wing. I put the cable into the port and twist it, locking it into place. This should now be providing the spacecraft with power. This isn''t a permanent solution, but it lets me check the electronics in the adastra. Once again I struggle my way up the ladder leading into the spacecraft. With two fingers, I switch on the ground power connection switch located on one of the controllers panels. To my relief, the whirring of computer fans fills the cabin. numerous interior lights turn on, lighting up the dark interior. I sit down in one of the seats underneath a suitable reading light. I grab one of the logbooks and open it to its last entry. Adastra decommissioning flight logged on day cycle 29275. Over 15 years ago. The logbook had some other information within it. Looking through the maintenance section, I didn''t find anything unusual. It was in perfect working order when it was retired. Heh, maybe this will be easier than I thought. I continued going through the logbooks and other various manuals, learning more about how to operate the adastra. At some point I decided to check my watch. Flipping my wrist over, I read my watch. 10:13 PM. ¡°Shoot, it''s later than I thought-¡± I whisper to myself. I scurried my way back down the ladder and ran across the hanger to the door. I peaked my head out, but the hallway lights were off. Looks like I was the only person there. Seizing this opportunity, I decided to get the batteries for the adastra while nobody was here. Flashlight in hand, I began my walk to the assembly building. During the walk, I didn''t encounter any security guards. This is great for many reasons, Forst off I obv6 I won''t get caught, Secone, if I ever tried to fight a security guard I''d probably get myself dropkicked. The trek to the assembly building went uneventful. After arriving at the assembly building, it wouldn''t be that hard to find the batteries. Since the production of the EX-6 had been stopped, most of the parts used in the construction were still unopened in their boxes. Hanging up from large trusses, the gray and paintless EX-6 sat, still waiting for its wings to be attached. Up on one of the platforms surrounding the unlisted craft, I found the large square batteries that I could use. The only problem was that the batteries were heavy. Incredibly heavy as it turned out. This shouldn''t have been an issue but I don''t have anyone to help me, and I''m also just not a very strong protogen. But sitting tucked away under some boxes, I saw a pallet jack I could use to wheel the batteries to the adastra''s hanger. With some monumental effort, I managed to load 2 batteries onto the pallet jack. With a push, I went back on my way to the Adastra. The walk, once again, was uneventful. But things quickly changed once I got up to the doors leading into the hanger. One of the double doors was left cracked open. I knew it was shut when I went to get the batteries, which means someone is probably in the hanger. Right now I can probably walk away and not be fired for tampering with company property. Or¡­ I could simply walk into the hanger and try to get whoever is in there to get on my side. With how much is at risk, I''m just going to¡­ you know what, screw it. Without thinking, I swing open the door and charge into the hanger. Standing tall in the middle of the hanger, I saw Conrad admiring the Adastra. ¡°What- what are you doing in here!¡± I call out to him?¡± ¡°Kyle?¡± He turns around surprised, ¡°what are YOU doing? You don''t actually plan to use this thing do you¡± he says, gesturing at the adastra. ¡°It''s my only option,¡± I respond back, ¡°I''m not going to let my friends die in whatever dimension they sent themselves into!¡± Conrad sighs, ¡°Look, you are going to kill yourself doing that¡± ¡°Well I don''t care if it means I''ll be the only person doing something about it¡± I call back at him, clenching my fists. ¡°Don''t act like I don''t care about them,¡± he says, ¡°My own brother is gone, and I never got to make things right with Avera.¡± ¡°Well then if you care, don''t get in my way¡± I tell him as I head back to the door. ¡°I''m not¡± he yells out across the hanger, ¡°I''m helping you.¡± I stop walking and turn around. ¡°You are what?¡± I called back. ¡°You will fail doing this yourself,¡± he says, ¡°but you have a chance if you have some help¡± He does have a good point as much as I don''t want to admit it. Having help in this could be incredibly useful. ¡°Okay¡± I say, ¡°do me a favor and don''t tell anyone about this, including pruitt¡± ¡°Yeah yeah I know, a plan as dumb as this won''t be popular with my dad..¡± ¡°Good,¡± I say, ¡°now help me install the batteries.¡± 1 HOUR LATER clack! the cover to the battery compartment pops back into place. ¡°So how do you expect to get this to create a strong enough warp bubble to leave our dimension?¡± Conrad asks as he loads the old batteries onto the pallet jack. ¡°I''m going to use the hyperspace cell meant for the EX-6 and use it in this¡± I say, pointing at the adastra. ¡°Is that even compatible with it? That''s a 15 year gap in technology.¡± He says, expressing his concern. ¡°Don''t worry,¡± I say to him, ¡°I looked and they are compatible, but¡­¡± ¡°But what?¡± He says Agitated. ¡°But there is still a good chance we will blow up-¡± I tell him. ¡°Ya know, I really do hate rocket science sometimes, even though it''s my job¡± he says, ¡°Things always try to blow up¡± ¡°In this case blowing up won''t be an ideal option¡± I jokingly say. ¡°Well in 2 weeks we''ll have the answer¡± He says. 2 weeks. That was the agreed on amount of time that it would take to get the Adastra flight ready. We still haven''t figured out the amount of food that we would need to bring, or how we''d keep this little mission under wraps. Looking back at the time, it was approaching midnight. ¡°Yyyawwwnn¨C¡± Conrad says, ¡°gah.. im tired, we gotta some sleep.¡± ¡°Yeah, enough has been done for today.¡± I say. The both of us grab our belongings, and we make out way to the door. I stop and look back at the Adastra one more time. This is it. This is going to be how I save my friends, using some old forgotten spacecraft. click click click- the hanger lights shot off in series, leaving the entire hanger pitch black. ¡°Don''t forget to lock it next time¡± Conrad says, already on his way halfway down the hall. Getting my keys, I take them out and lock the door. I turn and make my way down the hall towards the door to the parking lot. Once I get outside, I''m immediately hit with a breeze. It feels good I must say after running around doing things all day. I spotted Conrad in his car already leaving, and he gave my a quick wave as he drove by. I too made it to my car, and started my drive back to Michael''s house. Unfamiliarities LUCAS¡¯S P.O.V. Now that we were on the ground, we set up camp under the EX-5''s wing. None of us knew when help might arrive, or if it would arrive at all. Garrett and I were busy trying to figure out where we had landed, but even after a couple hours we still didn''t figure out anything. ¡°You need to look at this-¡± he says, waving me over, ¡°Don''t these plants look odd?¡± I jump up and walk over to Garrett. He was kneeling by a small bush with flowers on it. There he was holding a medium sized flower, with a green stem and pinkish red petals, wrapped around each other in a bowl shape. ¡°Aureon doesn''t have these types of flowers¡± he says, ¡°This just makes things more confusing¡± ¡°Are you sure you aren''t mistaking it for another type of flower?¡± I ask him. Then he turns to me and gives me a funny look. ¡°You are a pilot, and I am a Biologist. So no, I''m not mistaken.¡± ¡°You have a point¡± I tell him, ¡°But there has to be an explanation for it.¡± ¡°I agree with you, but right now that explanation is beyond me.¡± He says, still examining the flower under a flashlight. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Avera walking up to us. ¡°Michael is starting to get worse, she says, ¡°And we don''t have the supplies here to do much more¡± ¡°ah, fuck!¡± Garrett curses to himself. He quickly gets up and sprints his way over to Vita and Michael. Now it was just Avera and I standing there. ¡°I should be the one that he blames,¡± she says, ¡°I let them do the EVA.¡± ¡°Look,¡± I tell her, ¡°you can blame yourself all you want, but your little pep talk from earlier is what got us on the ground in the first place.¡± ¡°I appreciate that, but I-¡± avera says, before getting cut off by Vita. Vita calls out to us, ¡°Avera! Come here, this is urgent!¡± She quickly turns around and runs to Vita, and I follow closely behind her. ¡°There is shrapnel in his chest.. If we don''t get it out soon, I won''t be able to stop the bleeding.¡± Vita says as she unrolls new strips of bandages. ¡°I couldn''t find any surgical equipment, The cargo bay was a mess¡± Garrett says, ¡°And I don''t think there is anywhere we could take him for surgery¡± But then it hits me. We might have passed over a house right before we landed, why haven''t I thought of that? ¡°Wait!¡± I blurt out, ¡°I think I saw the outline of a house a couple seconds before we crashed, but I''m not sure-¡± ¡°Well if there is, we should be going there right now¡± Vita says. ¡°She is right¡± Avera says, "We need to get to that house.¡± Garrett Nods, and quickly runs inside the EX-5''s cargo bay. After a couple seconds he comes running out with a scrunched up stretcher. Vita helps him lay it out besides Michael, and together, they lift him onto the stretcher. ¡°We are ready¡± Vita says, slinging her medical over her shoulders. ¡°Alright then, Lucas, show us the way.¡± Avera says to me. Before I started, I took one last look toward a nearby tree. In front of it, a mound of dirt that was topped by a broken helmet. It would be Scott''s final resting place. A great friend, who was passionate about his job and was willing to help his crewmates at his own risk. Scott, may the spirit of exploration and knowledge be on your side. Now leading the way, I took us through the path of spacecraft parts and ripped tree limbs. Among some of the wreckage was a chunk of the right landing gear. Half of the wheel assembly was sticking out of the ground, while the half must have gotten lodged in the ground when it broke off. And to my surprise, there wasn''t that much debris from the EX-5. The only noticeable thing was bits of torn parachute that coated most of the trees. After maybe an hour and a half of walking through the woods, the trees started to thin out and open up to a large open field. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The forest floor led into tall unkempt grass. It was still fairly dark outside and we all struggled to make our way through the brush. Things changed when we hit a a gravel road. The path itself didn''t seem to have been traveled much, but I was sure it led to the house I had seen earlier. Occasionally the 4 of us stopped so Vita could replace different iv bags hanging over Michael. At one of these stops, she took the moment to ask a question. ¡°Do you know how much longer we will need to go on this road?¡± She said. I looked around, I could tell we weren''t far away from the house. ¡°A little past that hill¡± I say, pointing towards a small upcoming hill. ¡°We need to hurry,¡± she says, ¡°We are running out of time.¡± I nod back, and we start walking again. Once we get to the top of the hill, we finally get a view of what we were looking for. A white, 2 floor house. It certainly did not look like a bad house. With the house in view we pick up our pace, and practically start running to get to the door. We all made it the house''s back door and started to hit it. ¡°WE NEED HELP!¡± Avera yells at the door. Nobody answers. Then Garrett tries the same thing, but to no avail. Then he decided to turn his attention to the doorknob, and he tried to twist it, but it wouldn''t turn Great, It''s locked. ¡°I''m sorry for this¡± I say as I unholster my survival pistol. Without much thought, I aimed at the doorknob and shot it. PWAK-PWAK! Avera quickly opens the door and enters with the 4 of us in tow behind her. Breaking into somebody''s house wasn''t something I had in mind when I signed up for this mission. But then again I didn''t, you know, have everything going to shit in mind either. Inside the house, it was even darker than it was outside. After groping the wall, I found what I hoped to be a light switch. I flipped the switch and a ceiling light came on. Now that there was light, it was easier to make sense of where we were. It looked like we were in a kitchen. In the middle of the kitchen there was an island counter that could be used as a makeshift operating table. With Garrett''s help, Vita lifts Michael from the stretcher and onto the counter. ¡°Find some small knives and tweezers¡± Vita commands as she starts to remove Michael''s bandages. Avera, Garrett and I all began to go through drawers in the kitchen. Some of the drawers I opened contained things I didn''t recognize. It''s odd, I thought. But I shouldn''t be judging what''s kept in this kitchen considering I just broke into it. Unable to find anything useful in the drawers and cupboards, I frantically started looking on top of the counter. On the edge of the counter, I found a black box with many handles sticking out. I grab one of the handles and tug on it, it slid out along with a shiny blade It''s too big to be used as a surgical knife, but it looks like there are some smaller knives in the box. ¡°Can you use these?¡± I say, showing Vita the array of knives. ¡°These might¡­¡± she says, finding the smallest knife. ¡°Yeah this could work¡± Avera popped up out of nowhere from behind the counter, ¡°I''ve got some tweezers¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± Vita says before she grabs the tweezers and covers them in a sterilization fluid. Vita begins her surgery to get the shrapnel. With a small knife, she delicately cuts further into Michael''s chest. He didn''t need much anesthesia for this operation considering he had already passed out before we landed. Piece by piece, Vita pulled out some small, and large, bits of shrapnel. Some pieces looked like they had been parts of the EX-5''s fuselage. ¡°That is most of the shrapnel out,¡± she says, ¡°but there is still some I wasn''t able to get.¡± ¡°He will be okay now, right?¡± I ask. ¡°With most of the metal out he should be fine, but I would have been to get the rest out if I had my surgical kit.¡± Vita responds. ¡°Why didn''t you have that in the first place?¡± Avera asks her. ¡°I don''t know,¡± Vita says, "Something as important as that should have made it onboard.¡± Garrett interrupts the conversation while holding a small needle. ¡°I found these in one of the drawers, we can use this to suture the wounds¡± he says. Vita attached the needle to some string, so that it could be used to sew the ends of a wound closed. With Garrett''s help, Vita closed the wound on Michael''s chest. ¡°Almost done,¡± Vita says. She pulls the needle out of michael¡¯s wound and cuts the end of the string with a knife. ¡°...finally¡± she says, ¡°he''s okay now¡± I breathe a sigh of relief at her words. The surgery was successful. 10 minutes later After the surgery everyone decided to take the time to rest. Everyone was on the floor dozed off except for me. I figured it would have been a good idea to stay awake in case the home owner arrived. While I was sitting there with nothing to do, I got rather bored. Might as well look around this house while I''m here. This isn''t the most ethical thing I''ve ever done, but after the day I''ve had, I didn''t really care. With a flashlight in hand I ventured out of the kitchen. The doorway led into a dining room of sorts with a decently sized table on one side. On the other, there was a large glass cabinet full of picture frames. I walked up to the cabinet and shined my flashlight on some of the pictures. Most of the photos I saw had only 2 figures in them. But upon a closer inspection, the figures in the photographs didn''t strike me as normal. One had pure white fur, similar to Vita, While the other had white and black. Except they didn''t have visors like protogens do. Instead, there were 2 round eyes sitting atop and a snout that was ended with a black nose. Thats¡­ not a protogen. Yes, they had ears, just not visor. Not just their heads, but the things they were wearing looked unfamiliar. In one photograph, the figures were both wearing hats that said NASA in large bold letters. What the heck is a nasa? I backed away from the cabinet, freaked by the things in the images. Whatever these things are¡­ We really shouldn''t be in this house now. I turned and bee lined it back to the kitchen. I grabbed Avera on the shoulders and shook her awake. ¡°Wh- What is it?¡± she said groggily. ¡°We need to leave, we should not be here¡± ¡°Lucas, we broke in. I know we should be he-¡± she says. ¡°No! It''s more than that,¡± I say, ¡°I don''t think a protogen lives here.¡± ¡°What? I don''t know anyone else that would live here.¡± She says, rubbing her eyes. ¡°I saw some photographs of these weird creatures! We can''t stay here!¡± I tell her, trying to make her understand the urgency of it. ¡°Show me the photos.¡± She says, as she pushes herself up off the floor. I led her to the dining room with the cabinet of pictures. I shine the flashlight on the ones I had looked at previously. ¡°What the¡­¡± Aver says, studying the photos. ¡°Fetch Garrett, he might know¡± she says. I run back to the kitchen and wake up Garrett. His reaction to the information I gave him was similar to Averas. After getting him off the floor, he followed me back into the dining room with Avera. He, too, studied the photographs in the cabinets. ¡°I don''t know what these people are,¡± he says, ¡°But it freaks me out..¡± ¡°Wake up avera and get Michael back on the stretcher¡± Avera tells Garrett and I. ¡°Alright.¡± We say, but before we can turn and go back towards the kitchen, a bright light floods into the front room that''s connected to the dining room. The 3 of us take out our pistols and slowly walk make our way into the room. The light is coming in through window shutters at the front of the room. The light continues to get brighter until It stops. Avera looks through the window and out towards the front of the house. ¡°Someone''s here,¡± she says, ¡°You guys need to hide. Go, GO!¡± She yells at us. ¡°I''ll get everyone else, hurry!¡± She commands. Garrett and Avera dart back towards the kitchen. We couldn''t escape, not after all the blood Michael had lost. I found a closet in the front room and quickly opened it. It was full of boots and coats, so I ended up hiding myself behind some of the hanging coats. Through a small crack in the door, I watched as the light shining through the window shut off. Then I heard a car door slam shut. The lock on the door began to rattle as it was unlocked. Then in a quick motion the door itself was thrown open. Standing in the doorway was the white furred figure with the hat. It walked through the door and forcefully closed it, making the entire house rattle. ¡°Stupid fucking interview!¡± The creature said in a feminine voice as it ripped off the hat. It immediately threw the hat, and it hit the wall next to me. The hat fell to the floor, leaving the large white letters ¡°nasa¡± gleaming in the moonlight. Now I knew for sure who it was. It really was them from the photograph. I thought there was another person but at this point it didn''t matter. The creature walked over to the couch that was in the room and basically face planted onto it. ¡°Why did I even try to join him at that stupid job-¡± the thing said, flipping over onto its back. It sighed and stared at the ceiling. ¡°..Damn it!¡± it said, getting up off the couch. ¡°Where did that hat go,¡± it said, ¡°I shouldn''t have thrown it¡­ We''ve had these since we were kids.¡± It walked over to the closet and looked down. ¡°Ah..¡± it said, bending down to pick up the hat. ¡­Then it noticed the closet door was open. Oh shit. It went to close the door but must have seen the shoes that I had stepped on. It opened up the closet further and began to rearrange the shoes. Slowly it worked its way closer to my feet. Suddenly I felt a tap on my boot. ¡°I don''t remember owning a metal boot-¡± it said, and it looked up at me. Then we made eye contact. 2 beady Green eyes looked at me. White fur with 2 pointy ears, partially hidden by long white hair. It froze, and began to whisper to itself, ¡°what.. the¡­ fu-¡± Unwelcomed guests LUCAS¡¯S P.O.V ¡°What¡­ the¡­ fuck..,¡± The creature said, starring into my eyes. In a panic I moved my hands to get my pistol, but the creature saw this. It launched itself backwards out of the closet and went scrambling towards the table. I lunged out of the closet with my pistol in hand, but I didn''t make it very far. The creature was standing tall in front of me, and it had its arm held out holding a shiny metallic gun pointed directly at my head. We both froze. I was too far away from the creature to do anything, and if I moved I was afraid I would get shot. ¡°WHO ARE YOU!¡± It yelled, shaking vigorously. ¡°WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!¡± ¡°My friend-¡± I said, trying to point towards the kitchen. ¡°STOP MOVING!¡± The creature yelled again. ¡°I don''t want to hurt you!¡± I toldl the creature. ¡°Then why did you break i-¡± It said, but suddenly paused ¡°What are you wearing¡± it said as it pointed the gun at my flight suit. ¡°It''s a space suit¡± I tell the creature. ¡°Wait, you''re an astronaut?¡± It said, But before I could answer, Garrett and Vita bursted back into the room with their pistols drawn. ¡°DROP THE GUN!¡± Vita barked. The creature saw this and stepped back in surprise. It was now outnumbered 3-1. It slowly crouched and placed the gun on the floor before rising back up. ¡°Who are you!¡± The creature yelled at Vita. ¡°That''s not important, Now tell us what the heck you are!¡± She said back. ¡°I''m a wolf, okay! Just put down the gun!¡± Avera lowered her gun and looked at Garrett, ¡°I''ve never heard of a wolf before,¡± she said in confusion. ¡°Neither have I!¡± Garrett yelled, pointing his gun at the wolf''s head. We all stood there for a couple of tense moments, unsure of what to do. I came to my own conclusion once it felt like no one else would. Violence shouldn''t be an option. ¡°Garrett, put the gun down¡± I tell him, but he refuses to budge. Avera gets the message and tries to help. ¡°Put the gun down,¡± she said, ¡°That''s an order.¡± Garrett looked at her, unsure of what to do. ¡°Give me your gun right now.¡± Avera said. After a couple seconds he lowered the gun and handed it over to Avera. I spoke up, ¡°...Okay, I''m sorry we broke in, but we had to. Our friend was going to die if we didn''t.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± the wolf said, ¡°Then can you tell me why you''re wearing a mask on your head?¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I say, ¡°This isn''t a mask¡­ It''s a visor, and it is my face¡± ¡°So you''re not a¡­¡± the wolf says quietly. ¡°We aren''t, we are protogens. We''ve never seen or heard of wolves before.¡± Says avera. The wolf backed up to the sofa that was in the room and sat on it. ¡°Okay then¡­ you''re not gonna shoot me?¡± The wolf said. ¡°If you''re not hostile towards us, of course we won''t,¡± Avera said.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. The wolf took a deep breath and looked at us, it''s green eyes staring in curiosity. I slowly walked towards the couch. Once I got to the table, I stopped and set my gun down on it. Then I took another step towards the wolf. It continued to stare at me, unsure of what I was doing. To be honest, I didn''t have much idea of what I was doing either. I stretched my hand out towards the wolf. ¡°I''m Lucas, You guys do handshakes, right?¡± I said. ¡°Oh! Um-¡± The wolf said nervously. ¡°You can call me Winter,¡± the wolf said, slowly shaking my hand. Then out of nowhere, Vita came out of the dining room. ¡°Is everyone okay-¡± she says, before noticing winter. ¡°Jesus christ!¡± Winter yelled out, drawing our attention. Vita looked confused, ¡°What''s that thing?¡± She said, gesturing towards Winter. ¡°How many of you are there- and why is that one so tall?¡± Winter said, jumping up off the couch. ¡°That''s a wolf, and it''s name is Winter.¡± Avera said to Vita. ¡°I''m a she, not an it¡± the wolf frowned. Garrett quickly wrote this down when Winter said that. Since this was an intelligent species we''ve never seen before, it was probably a good idea to be writing these things down. ¡°So is everything good in here?¡± Vita asked, surprisingly chill with the situation. ¡°Yes everything''s fine,¡± Avera said. ¡°Okay then,¡± Vita said before walking back out of the room. ¡°what?..¡± said Winter, confused at who that was. ¡°That was our medic Vita¡± Avera said. ¡°Then what are your names then?¡± The wolf asked. ¡°I''m avera, mission commander, and this is Garrett, mission specialist.¡± she said, ¡°Then there standing next to you is Lucas, our pilot.¡± ¡°Who''s the 5th person?¡± Winter asked. ¡°Michael, who we had to borrow your kitchen for.¡± avera said. ¡°Can I see him then?¡± the wolf asked. ¡°Yea just don''t touch him,¡± Avera said. We all made our way into the kitchen where Michael was still recovering from the surgery. Winter made her way up to him and stopped near the counter. ¡°What happened to him?¡± She asked. ¡°Space debris¡­¡± Vita said. ¡°Our flight engineer was killed,¡± Avera said, ¡°It forced us out of orbit and we ended up landing here¡± ¡°I''m sorry to hear about that¡­¡± Winter said, looking down at Michael. ¡°You guys really don''t mean any harm to me, do you..¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± Vita said, ¡°So¡­ where are you guys from?¡± Winter asked, standing by the fridge. ¡°Aureon¡± Garrett said, ¡°That''s where we thought we were when we landed.¡± ¡°Where are we, anyway?¡± Vita asked. ¡°Earth,¡± Winter said as she began filling up a cup of water using the fridge. Winter took a sip of water and began to chuckle. She started to laugh harder and harder until she suddenly stopped. ¡°This is a crazy dream¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I said in confusion. She laughed, ¡°A bunch of weird looking astronauts break into my house..¡± ¡°I can assure you we are real¡± Avera said. ¡°That job interview is really getting to my head, isn''t it?¡± The wolf said. ¡°Maybe if I get some sleep this will end. The 4 of us stared blankly at the wolf in confusion. What the heck was it going on about? The wolf set down the cup of water and walked out of the room without saying a word. ¡°Hold on-¡± I said, and I began to follow her. ¡°You''re not real. None of this is¡± she said. Before I realized it, I had followed her to a staircase that went up to the second floor of the house. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I asked. The wolf made her way up the stairs and ignored me. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked up, still trying to process what had just happened. It was probably best if I didn''t follow her and intervene further. I went back to the kitchen and explained to everyone what had happened. ¡°She thinks she''s dreaming,¡± Vita said. ¡°This is a peculiar thing to come back to in the middle of the night.¡± ¡°Peculiar?¡± I said, ¡°She almost shot me!¡± ¡°Since we broke in, I''m honestly surprised she didn''t¡± Avera said. ¡°Well I''d prefer to leave before she wakes up and does decide to shoot me.¡± I said. ¡°From a scientific perspective, I''d rather not leave,¡± Garrett said, ¡°There is so much we could learn about this planet and their species¡± ¡°There''s that, and also Winter is currently the only person who can explain to us what is going on.¡± ¡°Okay then,¡± I say, ¡°But what are we going to do when she comes back downstairs and realizes this isn''t a dream, that we are real.¡± ¡°We''re going to have to get her to help us,¡± Avera said. ¡°And if she doesn''t help?¡± I asked. ¡°I don''t know,¡± Avera replied. ¡°We''ll just have to wait and see,¡± Vita said, ¡°and besides, chances are Michael will be waking up soon.¡± 6 hours later, ~8 AM MICHAEL''S P.O.V. There''s a light. I try to open my eyes more to get a better look, but they don''t respond. Everything is blurry. The only thing I can make out is a reddish white figure in front of me. ¡°Michael!¡± someone shouts at me. ¡°Is he waking up?¡± says another voice. ¡°Hey buddy, everything''s okay¡± the figure says. Slowly things became clearer, I realized it''s Vita standing over me. But her fur¡­ It''s dark red. Why is it so red? Shouldn''t it be bright white? Where am I? Why aren''t I in the EX-5? Wasn''t I doing a space walk? Scott and I¡­ The last thing I remember, I was yanked off the EX-5. Then I hit the fuselage, and there was a distinctive pain when I did so. After that, I can''t remember what happened. ¡°Where am I..¡± I mumbled. ¡°Earth¡± One of the voices said, I wasn''t sure who said it though. ..What is earth? I''ve never heard of it before. There was a soft breeze that hit me. I looked downwards and realized I was almost completely without clothes, and I was only wearing my undergarments. My chest was bloody, and half the fur on my body was matted down with blood. Could that have been what was covering Vita? Was it my own blood? I struggled to focus my eyes but I could see a patch of bandages covering the side of my chest. One of my arms and legs had bandages on them as well. What about Scott? Wasn''t he there with me? What had happened to him? But before I could ask the question I was already given the answer. ¡°Scott didn''t make it,¡± one of the voices said, ¡°And it''s a miracle you survived as well¡± I tried to sit up, but Vita stopped me from doing so. ¡°Don''t move, if you get up, your wound will start bleeding again.¡± She said. My whole body ached. I could barely feel my limbs¡­ I guess you should expect that when you get thrown around like an empty can. I moved my head around to get a better idea at where I was. It looked like I was in the middle of the room. And on one of the walls, I saw a stove. Was this a kitchen? That''s not exactly the place you expect to find yourself after waking up after passing out in the middle of space. I heard lucas start to speak, but I couldn''t see him. ¡°It''s good to have you back,¡± he said, ¡°I understand your confusion as to where you are.. We''re taking refuge in some aliens'' house, it''s a long story.¡± ¡°Aliens house?¡± I say, ¡°No shit that''s a long story!¡± ¡°Hah,¡± Avera laughed, ¡°It''s some species called wolves, they look a lot like protogens but without the visor, it''s kinda odd.¡± ¡°Are they nice?¡± I ask. ¡°Well, one of them almost shot me in the face last night,¡± Lucas said, ¡°For some reason it- I mean she, thought it was all apart of a dream and then went up stairs, where I''m presuming she''s sleeping¡± ¡°When she wakes up.. It''s definitely going to be a bit of a shock for her¡± Avera said. Go figure. I pass out and wake up in some alien¡¯s kitchen. ¡°So where is Garrett?¡± I ask. ¡°He''s outside collecting samples, there''s so much undocumented biological life here, he almost had a seizure when he figured out this wasn''t Aureon.¡± Said Vita. ¡°Good for him,¡± I said jokingly, ¡°What about the ex-5? How did you guys even land it?¡± ¡°We were forced out of orbit, and Lucas here managed to land us into a bunch of trees.¡± said avera. ¡°My piloting skills aside,¡± Lucas said, ¡°The Ship itself isn''t in too bad of shape besides the damage from the debris impacts.¡± ¡°That''s good,¡± I said before getting cut off by a distant noise. tap-tap-tap-tap-tap- a heavy tapping noise could be heard, it sounded like someone going down a flight of stairs. ¡°The wolf woke up!¡± Avera said. Vita was sitting on the counter. ¡°So we gonna take the casual approach or what?¡± Vita said, chuckling. ¡°What do you find funny about this!?¡± Asked avera. But before Vita could give her answer, Winter walked into the kitchen, catching us off guard. Her eyes went big. She froze in the doorway, ¡°It.. was a dream..¡± She said to herself. ¡°3¡­ 2¡­¡± Vita said. ¡°Oh my god..¡± the wolf said, before fainting. Winter fell backwards and hit the floor with a thud. ¡°And that''s my cue-¡± Vita said before she hopped off the counter to go help Winter. A special gift KYLE¡¯S P.O.V, Michael''s house, 8:15 A.M. Conrad and I have only 1 week left to complete the restoration of the Adastra spacecraft. After the restorations are complete, our plans to save the EX-5 will be fully set into motion. I''d just gotten myself out of the shower and was making my way downstairs for breakfast. Amelia was trying out some new recipe, something else than the usual pancakes. Whatever it was, you could easily smell it from the 3rd floor. Once I was on the ground floor I made my way towards the kitchen. Amelia was at the stove, scrambling what looked to be a bunch of eggs. Simultaneously, she was also trying to brown the underside of some biscuits on another pan. ¡°Do you need some help with that?¡± I asked. ¡°No no,¡± she said, waving off my offer. ¡°I was not hired to do a bad job at making breakfast¡± ¡°Okay then,¡± I said, raising my arms jokingly. ¡°And besides,¡± she said, ¡°I was also hired to help protect the Carlin family, which is much harder to do than this¡± ¡°I''ve probably asked this a bunch of times, but what were the other reasons you were hired?¡± ¡°When I retired as head of security,¡± Amelia said, flipping the eggs, ¡°Pruitt needed someone to watch Michael when he was little, since then I''ve been the one to raise him¡­¡± ¡°Anyhow, this is about done. You can go ahead and take a seat at the table.¡± She said, I nodded and went into the dining room and took a seat at the table, once I sat down took a drink out of the cold glass of water that was at my spot. Soon enough Amelia walked out holding 2 plates of what she had made. It was a sandwich, with eggs, sausage, I think, and a healthy amount of cheese put between 2 toasted biscuits. She set the plate down in front of me and then sat down in her chair across from me. ¡°Why don''t you make these more often?¡± I asked. ¡°Michael only cares for blueberry pancakes. Whenever I make anything else for breakfast he is disinterested, well the only exception to that was the time I made blueberry muffins.¡± ¡°He sure likes blueberries, I''ll give you that.¡± I said. ¡°Yea, but the only thing he likes more than blueberries is you,¡± she said with a chuckle. ¡°Huh?¡± I said, and I shot my head up, blushing. ¡°When he met you and Lucas, He was so much happier. He wouldn''t stop talking about you guys, how he''d finally gotten actual friends. But whenever he talked about you in particular¡­ He would always get this starry eyed look, like he enjoyed the thought of you.¡± At this point I struggled not to blush even more, and I''m sure Amelia could notice. ¡°This reminds me, when your done eating, there is something I need to give to you¡± ¡°Okay,¡± I said, avoiding eye contact with her. I picked up the sandwich and started to hastily eat it. I thought it tasted alright, but I wouldn''t call it my new favorite food. By the time I looked up when I was done, Amelia had already eaten her whole sandwich. ¡°How did you-¡± I asked in confusion.. ¡°Chewing is optional,¡± she said jokingly before getting up from the table. She took the plates and went back to the kitchen. I got up and followed her because I was curious about the gift she had talked about. Amelia just finished washing the dishes before she noticed me. ¡°Okay you stay there, I''ll be right back.¡± She said. She darted out of the kitchen and I didn''t have a clue as to where she went or what she was going to bring back. After a couple moments went by she came running back into the kitchen holding a folded hoodie. ¡°Michael wanted me to give this to you once it started to get cold in the mornings,¡± she said. She handed me Michael''s favorite hoodie. It was a black color that was covered in different star constellations, and on the back of the hoodie was written M. CARLIN in large white letters. ¡°He said he hoped it would remind you of him while he was away,¡± Amelia said. The hoodie was 3 or 4 sizes too big for me, but the gesture for me was more than enough to enjoy wearing it. ¡°The forecast said today was a bit chilly, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring it out for you¡± Amelia said. ¡°..Thank You,¡± I told her, ¡°I appreciate this.¡± I unfolded the hoodie and held it out in front of me. ¡°Why don''t you put it on?¡± Amelia asked me. ¡°I don''t see why not,¡± I said before flipping the hoodie upside down. I pulled it over my head and put my arms through the sleeves. Fully on me, the bottom of the hoodie went all the way down to my knees.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°I would point out it''s too big,¡± Amelia said, ¡°but something tells me you aren''t bothered by that.¡± ¡°I''m not, it''s actually pretty comfortable.¡± I told her. ¡°You don''t look too bad in it,¡± she said. ¡°Thanks, I think I''ll have to roll the sleeves up though,¡± I said as the ends of the sleeves flopped around lifelessly. The hoodie was so big it was kinda like wearing a light blanket. The fact it doesn''t fit makes a lot of sense when you consider Michael is over 203cm (6¡¯8) tall, while I''m only 165cm (5¡¯5) tall. Because of this I never really wear Michael''s clothes, I''m just way too small. On the bright side, it''s hard to get laundry mixed up. ¡°So, when do you plan on getting into work?¡± Amelia asked. ¡°before 9:30¡± I said, glancing at the kitchen clock. The kitchen clock said it was 8:56, so it would probably be best if I left soon. ¡°I''ll be heading out here in a minute or so,¡± I said. ¡°Alright, please drive safely, Mr. Raymond.¡± Amelia said as she resumed washing the dishes. ¡°That''s not a bad idea,¡± I chuckled, ¡°Alright then, see you!¡± I turned around and made my way to the garage. I opened the garage door, and slowly the door crept its way upwards. The sun was sitting right over the distant tree line, shining brightly into the garage. I did my best to shield my eyes from the sun as I went to the car. I opened the car door and quickly hopped inside. Without wasting a second, I hit the ignition and back out of the garage. The garage door closed as I turned the car to go down to the highway. 20 minutes later, at the Carlin Space Agency I turned off the highway and pulled into the staff parking at the Carlin space complex. For the last few days, there have been more and more cars showing up since everything was shut down. It hasn''t been released to the public yet, but the company has already started to resume its previous operations, albeit with many changes made. Among some of the changes, the amount of security personnel has also increased exponentially. In my opinion this is poor use of company money, but what am I to say about that since I will be stealing a spaceship here in a week. Once I got to my parking space, I stopped and got out of the car. A swift breeze hit my visor, which stung quite a bit. If half my visor wasn''t cracked like an old sidewalk, it would be much easier to tolerate the wind. I hustled my way to the entrance, where I was met by a large security guard. The guard took my ID card and scanned it. After a couple seconds, the scanner buzzed with a green light. He turned around and unlocked the door and let me into the building. I quickly made my way through the hall. I had to do a couple more minutes of walking, but eventually I turned my way to the hanger corridor. Before I entered the storage hanger, I took a quick look down both ends of the hallway, akin to that of the paranoid. There was nobody else in the hall, hopefully. And as for security cameras, I had to hope no one thought twice. Opened the one of the large metal doors and slid my way into the hanger. I found Conrad in the hanger, and he was frantically pacing back and fourth near the Adastra''s wing. ¡°Is everything okay?¡± I called out from across the hanger. ¡°No!¡± He yelled back to me. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked, running over to him. ¡°My dad,¡± he said, shaking his head. ¡°He''s getting curious..¡± ¡°What did he do?¡± I asked. ¡°He told me to keep an eye on you, And to report to him if I found you doing anything suspicious.¡± He said, still pacing. ¡°Just don''t tell Pruitt anything,¡± I said. ¡°How am I gonna keep my mouth shut!¡± He yelled, ¡°He is going to find out about this sooner or la-¡± He stopped mid rant. ¡°Wait a minute,¡± he said. ¡°That hoodie looks familiar¡­¡± I froze. I completely forgot I was wearing Michael¡¯s hoodie. ¡°Turn around,¡± he said. ¡°Huh?¡± I asked in confusion. ¡°Turn. Around.¡± He demanded. ¡°Okay okay!¡± I said. I turned around so Conrad could look at the rest of the hoodie. I could hear an audible gasp as he read the name on the hoodie. ¡°How did y- Where did you even get that!¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked as I turned back around to face him. ¡°Why the fuck are you wearing my brothers hoodie!¡± ¡°A-Amelia gave it to me!¡± I said defensively. ¡°She said it was a gift from Michael!¡± ¡°You were at the house?¡± He asked, slowly stepping towards me. ¡°Amelia lets me stay there-¡± I said, stepping backwards. ¡°Explain right now.¡± Conrad said. ¡°Well my parents forces me to move out so I asked around and-¡± I said stammering, ¡°And Amelia and Michael said I could stay there-¡± ¡°What guest room are you staying in then? I never heard about anyone else staying at the house¡± He said, yet again confused. (Authors note: Conrad sleeps and lives at the Carlin Space Agency) I stared at Conrad blankly, I was unable to say anything to him, nothing would come out of my mouth. ¡°Kyle¡­¡± He said, slowly stepping towards me again. ¡°Where are you staying!¡± he said menacingly. I tried to say something but I choked on my words. Suddenly Conrad stopped stepping towards me. ¡°You''re not sleeping with.. Michael, are you?¡± ¡°I um uh-¡± I said, further stumbling on something to say. ¡°You''re sleeping with my brother, aren''t you!¡± He said, ¡°That would explain why you care so much about him!¡± ¡°...Okay, fine!¡± I snapped back, ¡°yes we are in a relationship!¡± I said, looking him in the eye. Conrad pulled himself back, ¡°gahh, kyle!¡± He said, putting his hands on his visor. ¡°I understand we''ve never been on great terms until last week, but a quick heads up that YOU WERE DATING MY BROTHER would have been a little nice to know!¡± ¡°Well I had thought he would have told you-¡± I said to Conrad. ¡°Look, Kyle,¡± He said, ¡°Michael and I have barely acknowledged each other for the last 10 years¡­ The only thing we have in common now is the fact we work for our dad,¡± Conrad said, slowing his pacing to a stop. ¡°Then why are you doing all this?¡± I asked him. Conrad shot me a curious glance when I said this. ¡°Why are you risking your life for a brother you barely know? Risking your guaranteed chance to take over the agency when Pruitt retires.. I said, deepening my tone. ¡°Don''t take me as someone who doesn''t care for my brother, because I do care,¡± He said, ¡°And my personal reasons for helping you are none of your business.¡± Conrad is refusing to tell me something¡­ Even after all I''ve just told him, he''s still hiding something. Whatever it is he is hiding, I''d like to find out what it is. It''s out of character for him to suddenly want to help me on something like this. Right before the EX-6 took off¡­ Conrad said that he had a disagreement with Avera. Could that have something to do with this? Making something right with her? Gah, this is just leading to more questions. Questions I don''t know how to answer. ¡°We need to trust each other if we are going to succeed in saving the EX-5. And in order to do that, I need to know why you are helping me.¡± I said to Conrad, who had already started pacing back and forth again. Side note, I''ve noticed when Michael and Conrad get stressed, they walk back and forth the exact same way. It''s kinda funny and adorable if I''m being honest. Conrad opened his mouth to speak but suddenly stopped. ¡°It''s just¡­ I wasn''t counting on sharing these things with everyone until later, I know it''s hypocritical of me after everything you''ve said, but I had this all planned out in my head,¡± He said, ¡°If only she''d said yes..¡± ¡°Who?¡± I asked him. ¡°I asked Avera if she would-¡± Conrad said, getting cutoff. A echoed beeping noise danced about the hanger. ¡°Is that my phone?¡± Conrad said with a concerned look. ¡°I think it might be,¡± I said. ¡°Ah, shit!¡± Conrad said frantically as he began to run to get to his phone. He ran to the back corner of the hanger. We''d set up a table in the back as a break spot and a place to manage the adastra''s restoration. Conrad swipes his phone off the table and looked at the screen, ¡°Ah fudge it''s my dad, I told him I was in the assembly building supervising the workers there,¡± he said. Conrad reluctantly answered his phone and put it on speakerphone. ¡°I need you to find that Raymond kid again, he''s probably hanging out somewhere in the hanger building,¡± Pruitt said on the phone. ¡°A- Okay I''ll get him-¡± Conrad said, glancing back at me. ¡°I need both of you in my office immediately, Goodbye.¡± Pruitt ended the call as quickly as it had started. ¡°What''s with him all of a sudden?¡± I asked. This really isn''t what Amelia had described. He wasn''t being oblivious, he was acting like he knew what was happening. ¡°We can''t dodge this bullet,¡± Conrad said, ¡°We need to go see him.¡± ¡°I guess so.¡± I said. ¡°Before we go, take that hoodie off and leave it here.¡± ¡°That might not be a bad idea,¡± I said, and I began to work the hoodie over my head. ¡°My dad gave Michael and I matching hoodies with our names on them as a gift one year, and if my dad saw you wearing that he''d probably kill you..¡± ¡°Well that''s not at all concerning-¡± I said, Carefully setting the hoodie on the table. ¡°Alright let''s go,¡± Conrad said, turning for the door. The two of us went up the corridor of the hanger building. After like 10 minutes of walking, we entered the office building. Whereas most of the Carlin Space Complex (The property the space agency is located) Is dedicated to hangers and other industrial buildings, there is still a small portion that is dedicated to offices. It''s on the farther end of the property which makes it a long walk to get to. We hopped on an elevator that took us to the top floor of the building. It was an awkward 40 seconds, neither of us knew what awaited us when we got to Pruitt¡¯s office. The elevator dinged and stopped at the 7th floor of the office. The elevator opened to a short and narrow hallway. The hallway ended with 2 fancy doors, guarded by a security agent. We slowly walked down the brightly lit hallway, until we stopped short of the door. The security guard let us through without question because of Conrads high security clearance. Pruitt¡¯s office was a large square room, and the back wall was made entirely of windows that overlooked most of the complex. In Front of the windows sat a large desk with a large brown protogen sitting behind it. Pruitt Carlin. ¡°Would you like us to take a seat?¡± Asked Conrad as we approached the desk. ¡°No no, this will be quick.¡± Pruitt said, ¡°Mr. Raymond, I do understand your concern for the tragic loss of the EX-5''s crew, it''s affected us all, just think, I''ve lost my son.¡± He said. ¡°But right now for you to help, I''ll need you to stop messing around in the hangar building. If you do not heed my direct advice, there will be consequences. I''m not sure what those consequences might be, but I''ll assure you it will happen if you don''t listen.¡± I can understand Pruitt¡¯s message clearly. He''s out to stop me from succeeding with my plan. I don''t know why, but he''s out for me. ¡°That will be all I have to share with you, Mr. Raymond.¡± Pruitt said. ¡°I would recommend you head downstairs and begin to familiarize yourself with the EX-6 mission alongside the other ground control staff.¡± Pruitt said, staring at me without much emotion. Conrad took this as our que to leave, and we both turned around. ¡°Stay, Conrad.¡± Pruitt ordered. ¡°There is MUCH more I''d like to discuss with you.¡± He said, sounding as serious as ever. I continued for the door, and I glanced back at Pruitt and Conrad. Pruitt had already began to angrily berate Conrad. I didn''t stay in the room long enough to hear what it was about, but it didn''t sound very kind. I pushed through the door and reluctantly made my way to the elevator. Hopefully Conrad will get out of that office unscathed as I had just done. Undivided attention LUCAS¡¯S P.O.V A lot has just happened in the last 5 minutes. 1, Michael woke up. 2, The wolf finally decided to come back downstairs, and promptly fainted. When the wolf fainted, Vita hopped off the kitchen counter a d went to check if we''d just killed the thing. Vita kneeled beside Winter and put her finger on the wolf''s wrist, ¡°These people spook easily, don''t you think?¡± She said, checking for a pulse. Winter''s eyes suddenly shot open. ¡°OI, GET OFF ME!¡± She yelled, surprising Vita. ¡°I just wanted to make sure you are oka-¡± Vita said. ¡°I''m fine!¡± Winter said, lifting herself into a sitting position. ¡°And I was stupid enough to think you guys weren''t real..¡± ¡°Is everything okay over there?¡± Asked Michael. He didn''t have a very good view of what was happening since he was stuck lying down on top of the counter. ¡°It''s under control,¡± Avera said. Winter tries to stand up again but almost fell back over while doing so. ¡°Careful,¡± Vita said to her, offering her hand to help. ¡°Just- Stay away from me¡± Winter said, bracing the wall to stand up. ¡°Wasn''t there.. 5 of you guys?¡± She said, ¡°There is, but Garrett is outside. Right now he is having the time of his life looking at all the different plants.¡± Vita said, pointing towards the kitchen door. ¡°..looking at the different plants?¡± Winter said in confusion. ¡°He''s a Biologist, plants are his thing.¡± Avera said. ¡°A Biologist?¡± Winter asked. ¡°Do you not know what a Biologist is? You guys are less advanced then I thought.¡± Avera said. ¡°I know what a Biologist is, I''m not stupid!¡± Winter said back to Avera. ¡°Well you were sure starting to sound retar-¡± Avera said before getting cut off by Michael. ¡°HEY! Knock it off! I''d be dead if it wasn''t for this house, show some respect will you?¡± Michael shouted at Avera. ¡°Thank you,¡± Winter said, ¡°at least he understands.¡± Avera let out a sigh and looked at the wolf. ¡°Look, we don''t want to be here. And we don''t even know how we got here.¡± Said avera. ¡°So how about we take Michael''s advice and cooperate?¡± Winter gave us a hesitant look. Her tail swished back and forth, and her eyes darted between the four of us in the kitchen. ¡°Alright..¡± Winter said quietly. ¡°Really?¡± I said, ¡°Thank you-¡± ¡°Its not everyday you get the chance to help aliens..¡± Winter said, ¡°I might as well take this opportunity.¡± Avera let out a sigh of relief. With Winter on our side, she was one less thing to worry about. ¡°However¡­ there is one thing I must do first. I''ve got a friend I can call, he might be able to help you guys.¡± ¡°Woah woah woah,¡± Avera said, ¡°We can''t be letting anyone else know about our presence here.¡± ¡°Well my friend stands a chance helping, he works for Nasa.¡± said Winter. ¡°What''s Nasa? Vita asked. ¡°Sounds like a food-¡± said Michael, chiming in.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Oh right, you don''t know what that is¡­ It''s a space Agency funded by my government. Do you guys have something similar to that?¡± Winter said. ¡°We all work for the Carlin Space Agency, I''m assuming it''s similar to Nasa.¡± Avera said. ¡°Oh fuck him,¡± Michael groaned. ¡°What?¡± Vita said in surprise. ¡°My dad..¡± Michael said, ¡°He can go screw himself,¡± ¡°Excuse you?¡± Avera said. ¡°Pruitt doesn''t care about Me¡­ The only reason he put me on the mission is so I''d be out of his way.¡± He said, ¡°And can I get moved off this counter? It''s making my back hurt even more..¡± ¡°Well, Do you mind if we..?¡± Vita asked, looking at Winter. ¡°I don''t mind, you can set him on the couch in the front room.¡± Responded Winter. Vita nodded, and she laid the stretcher out besides Michael. ¡°Alright help me with this,¡± she said, looking at Avera. Vita grabbed Michael under his shoulders while Vita got his legs. ¡°Careful on 3,¡± Vita said, ¡°1.. 2.. 3, now!¡± They both lifted Michael and placed him onto the stretcher. ¡°How much do you weigh, geez¡± Avera said when she let go of his legs. ¡°Like 135kg (300 lbs) last time I checked, probably a bit less now with a quarter of my blood gone..¡± Michael said chuckling.(Authors note: some protogens are heavy bois) ¡°So, is he not able to walk?¡± Winter asked, walking over to Michael. ¡°His leg was full of shrapnel.¡± I said. ¡°Really? I don''t feel much of anything¡± Michael said. ¡°Yea the anesthesia is still wearing off, you''ll definitely be feeling it in an hour,¡± Vita said. ¡°That''s great¡­¡± he said. ¡°Alright, we''ll be right back.¡± Vita said, grabbing the end of the stretcher. Avera did the same and they both lifted the stretcher. They maneuvered it off the counter and slowly made their way out of the kitchen. With the 3 of them gone, it was now just Winter and I in the kitchen. It was a bit awkward between us considering last night''s events. ¡°I should probably call my friend now, anyway¡± she said. ¡°Uhm Alright¡­ Is he nice?¡± I asked. ¡°¡±Yeah, or at least to me, He''ll probably be nice to you guys..¡± ¡°What do you mean probably?¡± I said. ¡°When we were little kids we made a deal that if we ever met aliens, we''d be nice, My hope is he will remember that deal.¡± ¡°Yeah, pointing a gun at me sure sounds nice-¡± I said. ¡°Well you broke in!¡± She said in an annoyed voice. ¡°Yea yeah, can you just call your friend now?¡± I asked her. Winter pulled a phone out of her pocket. Which was strikingly similar to ones protogens used. Although the ones we are accustomed to using are much more sleek than the clunky rectangle that Winter was holding. She tapped the screen a couple times and brought the phone up to her ear. The phone rang for a bit of time until someone answered. ¡°Can you call later? I''m busy right now with paperwork-¡± The voice said. ¡°Wait! This is important-¡± Winter said. ¡°If this is about the interview, I''m sorry that didn''t go well. I''ve been trying to talk to my superiors to get you at the very least an internship, but right now I really gotta g-¡± The voice on the phone said. ¡°Forget the interview, this has nothing to do with it!¡± Wintered yelled at the phone, ¡°You need to get to my house ASAP.¡± ¡°That''s a 5 hour drive from Houston¡­¡± said the voice. ¡°Book a flight or something, this is more than worth being out of work for a day.¡± Said Winter. ¡°Are you okay? You''re starting to worry me.¡± Said winter''s friend. ¡°Oscar, I''m fine. Just come to my house and you''ll see for yourself, and bring your ATV¡± Winter said into the phone. (*ATV/Four Wheeler is a small all terrain vehicle used on rough terrain) ¡°Why do I need to bring my- You know what? Fine. I''ll be there when I can, I really need to go now, goodbye.¡± the voice said. The phone beeped and I''m assuming that meant the call ended. Winter let out a sigh of relief and out the phone back into her pocket. ¡°So¡­ Your friend''s name is Oscar?¡± I asked. ¡°Yep, we''ve known each other since we were little. I Understand that you don''t want any more people to know about you, but this will be worth it.¡± She said, running her hand through the fur on her head. A few moments after Winter said this, Garrett pushed the back door opened and peered into the kitchen. ¡°You will NOT believe all the plants I''ve fou-¡± he said, before noticing Winter. ¡°Oh! Hi there-¡± he said, giving a small wave towards winter. ¡°Hi¡­¡± She said, raising her hand slightly. ¡°There''s Michael?¡± Garrett asked. ¡°He''s in the front room,¡± I said, pointing in its direction. ¡°He woke up, and Vita put him in there so it''d be comfier.¡± ¡°That''s good, I''ll go and check on him real quick. When I get back I do have a bunch of questions I want to ask you.¡± He said, closing the door behind him. His jumpsuit was covered in dirt and what looked to be grass stains. ¡°Great now there is gonna be dirt for me to clean up-¡± Winter said, crossing her arms. ¡°Don''t worry, our boots and flight suit don''t track foreign materials, it is for preventing cross contamination-¡± I said, showing Winter the heel of my boot. ¡°That''s neat¡­ how does that even work?¡± asked Winter. ¡°The pressure lining in our flight suits is infused with a special material that helps to repel organic compounds. Our jumpsuits on the other hand are only made to keep our bodies at a cooler temperature, and adding that repellant lining to it was too expensive and unnecessary.¡± I explained. ¡°Then if your jumpsuits don''t have that material, then why did Garrett bother to go digging without wearing the flight suit?¡± She asked with a confused look. ¡°That''s a good question,¡± I said, ¡°our original mission required us to wear the flight suits while we were outdoors, otherwise we wouldn''t have been able to breathe. But since we can breathe on this planet without issue, we don''t need to wear flight suits. This gives us much better mobility for experiments, and the effect of cross contamination hasn''t been a big priority..¡± I explained to Winter. ¡°That does make some sense. And uh, if you don''t mind me asking, what was your original mission supposed to be anyway?¡± Winter asked. To me, she felt¡­ oddly genuine with her questions. It''s like she was making mental notes about everything I said. She looks at me with actual curiosity. Not with fear as she had done the previous night, but with curiosity. And being honest, I kind of enjoyed it, if that''s the right phrase to use¡­ I don''t know how else to explain it, it just felt nice having her undivided attention. I snapped out of my thoughts and tried to answer her question. ¡°So our original mission was to visit a planet called Sirius II¡­ Our goal was to conduct different experiments to find out if the living conditions there were suitable for more missions to that planet, and if setting up a mining operation there was feasible.¡± I explained to Winter. ¡°That sounds like it would have been interesting¡­¡± She said, ¡°But then how''d you end up here on earth?¡± ¡°I don''t know. We never even left the orbit of my home planet, there isn''t any physical explanation for why we ended up landing on a completely different planet.¡± I said. ¡°I agree that does sound weird,¡± she said, ¡°But at least the one time that aliens do land on earth, they aren''t hell-bent on world domination.¡± Winter said with a chuckle. I gave Winter an awkward look when she told her joke. ¡°...You guys aren''t gonna take over the world, right?¡± She said with a concerned look. ¡°Do I look like I''d take over the world?¡± I said, waving my bandaged hand around. ¡°I guess not, no offense,¡± she said. Garrett and Avera walked back into the kitchen, and they seemed to be in a fair mood. ¡°Taking over the world? Can I be included?¡± Avera said laughing. ¡°Sure!¡± I said, chuckling. ¡°Michael''s doing good. I''d say things are starting to look better for all of us,¡± Garrett said. ¡°Michael had a question for you,¡± Avera said, looking over at Winter. ¡°He specifically asked if you know how to make blueberry Pancakes for some reason¡­¡± ¡°Uh.. I mean, yea. I can get the ingredients for some at the store later.¡± She said. ¡°Michael was kinda bummed out though when Vita said he couldn''t eat anything for a little while..¡± said Garrett. ¡°Anyway! I do have many questions for you, Winter.¡± ¡°Alright, We can go sit down if you guys want,¡± Winter said. We agreed, and the 4 of us sat down at the small table in the kitchen. Garrett got out his small tablet used for recording information among other things, and he sat it on the table. ¡°Alright, my first question¡­¡± He said, going through his list of things to ask. For friends and family Mid-book finale part 1. KYLE''S P.O.V The elevator made a soft hum as it descended to the ground floor. To be frank, I don''t really know what had just happened. Pruitt found out about the plan¡­ Or at least I think he did. The elevator dinged and the doors shot open. I glanced up, this was my stop. I stepped out of the elevator and made my way to the exit. I couldn''t stop thinking¡­ I got a verbal warning, and that''s about it. His response was nothing like I had in mind. I figured he was going to fire me, but that is not what happened. I left the office building and made my way to the ground control center. As I approached, you could already see another security guard at the door to the building. Once I got up to the door, the tall, gray-ish furred guard stopped me. ¡°I work for ground control,¡± I said, ¡°It''s self explanatory why I''m here.¡± I told the guard, showing him my ID card. He checked the card and gave me a weird look. ¡°Yep..¡± He said, and he unlocked the door. ¡°Thanks,¡± I said, pushing the door open past the guard. I rushed down the hallway that the door led into. At the end of the hall hung a sign, pointing towards the control room. I followed the sign until I found the control room door. This door didn''t have any guards attending it, thankfully. I twisted the door handle and entered the control room. I was greeted by many familiar faces and voices. ¡°Hey it''s Kyle!¡± Said one voice. ¡°Oh hey!¡± Followed another. ¡°Hi¡­¡± I said, Shutting the door behind me. One coworker came up to me and gave me a stapled pamphlet. Written on it in bold letters were the words ¡°EX-6 mission directive¡±. I began to flip through the pamphlet. It went over some of the parameters for the next mission, although the information it told me was incredibly ambiguous. I pulled pulled out the chair at my console and sat down in it, still trying to make sense of what I was reading McCoy, one of the ground control staff, spoke up. ¡°Don''t you think Pruitt is rushing on this?¡± He said to the entire room. ¡°We''re all thinking that..¡± remarked someone else in the room. ¡°This doesn''t even tell us how long the mission will last,¡± said someone else, slapping their pamphlet down onto the console in front of them. Everyone began talking to each other, explaining their personal distrust for the next mission I wasn''t paying too much attention to this. I was still thinking about my meeting with Pruitt. Was this really the end of my plan to save Michael and everyone else? To find out what had happened? It was clear, If I got anywhere near the Adastra, something bad was likely going to happen. And then there is Conrad. I still don''t even know what his consequences were with Pruitt. My only guess is he might have gotten a nasty scolding. Speaking from personal experience, when you get in trouble with your dad, that is never fun. This brings me to the second biggest issue regarding my plan. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. We weren''t supposed to leave for a further week, and the Adastra still hadn''t been fueled. How am I supposed to add rocket fuel without getting close to it? I spun back in fourth in my chair trying to figure out how to solve this issue¡­ until it hit me. The answer was right here in the room. As far as Pruitt was concerned, the 5 other protogens in this room weren''t involved in my plan. Bingo. I got out of the chair and stood up. ¡°You guys remember that idea I had a couple of weeks ago? During our lunch break?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡±, said McCoy. ¡°Well¡­ I was going to put that theory to the test using the adastra.¡± I said to everyone. Everyone was surprised to hear this. Some faces even smiled in approval. ¡°How''d you get permission for that?¡± Asked One of the controllers, perking up in his chair. ¡°That''s the thing, I didn''t. And that''s why I also need your help..¡± ¡°Wait, you haven''t told anyone?¡± McCoy said. ¡°Conrad is helping me with this, besides him, you are the only ones I''ve told.¡± I said to the room. ¡°If he''s helping you, then why should we risk our jobs by getting involved?¡± Said another one of the controllers. ¡°Neither of us are allowed to get close to the adastra, and that''s where you guys come in. All I need for you guys to do is to fuel the Adastra. That''s it.¡± ¡°I don''t know¡­¡± said McCoy, looking back at everyone in the room. ¡°Well, don''t you want to find out what happened? We all know the EX-5 didn''t break up in orbit.¡± I said to him, pointing at the computer consoles in the room. McCoy paused and looked down for a moment. He raised his head and looked out the large windows overlooking the runway. ¡°I''ve got a friend who might know how to do the fueling, he''d be willing to help.¡± He said. ¡°So you''ll do it?¡± I asked him. He turned back and looked at me, ¡°Not because it''s a good idea. I too want to find out what actually happened to them.¡± ¡°Me too!¡± Said a dark purple protogen from the back of the room. ¡°Me 3!¡± said a yellow protogen. ¡°Me as well!¡± Followed another. Without missing a beat, all of the mission controllers were raising their hands in an eager fight to help me. Shortly after this occurred, the handle on the door rattled. Everyone''s gaze immediately shot towards the door. The door slid open and a tall figure stepped into the room. It was Conrad. ¡°Hi..¡± He said, closing the door behind him. ¡°You good?¡± I asked him. He was clearly shaken up a little bit. ¡°I''m fine,¡± Conrad said, ¡°My dad though¡­ He said he''s having the Adastra dismantled and scrapped.¡± ¡°HE''S WHAT?¡¯ I said in a panic. ¡°We''re not gonna be able to do it..¡± He said. ¡°N-no no no- that can''t be right!¡± I cried, ¡°Pruitt that asshole!¡± McCoy came back up to us, interested in the news. ¡°They are scrapping it? When? We still might have enough time to fuel it.¡± He said, stopping in front of Conrad. ¡°You know about the- Kyle! You told them?¡± Conrad said, giving me a confused look. ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, wiping the tears off my visor with the back of my hand, ¡°These guys are our only hope to get the adastra fueled.¡± Conrad paused and turned back to McCoy. ¡°They are moving the adastra to a different hanger later tonight¡­ Conrad said, heavy with concern. Tonight. That word sounded like a gunshot. I flicked up my wrist and looked at my watch. 1:37 PM. Refueling would take maybe an hour and a half¡­ Getting the hyperspace cell would be a tricky ordeal, that itself could easily take another hour and a half. Then there is other equipment such as flight suits. Those would be in storage¡­ It might take 40 or 50 minutes to find the Adastra flight suits. Then there are the unfinished repairs. There were still some critical things that weren''t working, such as the copilot avionics. (Screens that display information like altitude, speed, etc.) Even if we''d completed all the necessary repairs, it would still be incredibly dangerous to use the adastra. But when you''ve only completed half of those necessary repairs¡­ you''re just gambling with fate at that point. ¡°This could still be feasible!¡± I said, ¡°We can''t waste any time, if we start working now, we can do it.¡± Conrad was taken aback by this, surprised by my determination. ¡°Maybe, but the adastra still isn''t in any condition to fly-¡± he tried to explain. ¡°It''s in good enough condition, and remember this is our only option¡± I said to him. ¡°You think so?¡± Conrad said with an inquiry look. I nodded, ¡°We''ve got no alternative, so I can''t possibly think otherwise.¡± McCoy, who had been standing besides me, decided to speak up once again. ¡°So are we doing this or not?¡± He asked. ¡°It appears so¡­¡± Conrad replied, letting out a sigh in the process, ¡°Kyle is right, we can''t waste any time on this.¡± McCoy ushered the other controllers to stand with us. The 4 remaining controllers got out of their seats and joined Conrad, McCoy and I in a circle. Everyone''s attention fell onto me. Conrad gestured quickly for me to start speaking. ¡°Alright uh¡­¡± I said, trying to form a plan. ¡°McCoy and the other ground control personnel will refuel the Adastra. There are large fuel stores in one of the neighboring hangers; they are close enough to be hooked up to the .¡± The controllers nodded their heads, except one asked a question. ¡°How are the 5 of us, assuming you and Conrad won''t be there, how will we be getting past the security you mentioned?¡± ¡°That''s a good question,¡± I responded, ¡°Conrad will summon a meeting with the hangar building security. This will give you enough time to refuel the spacecraft.¡± I said. ¡°That''s never gonna work-¡± Conrad said, folding his arms. ¡°If the meeting is about security protocol, it won''t bat much of an eye.¡± I told Conrad. He didn''t seem very trusting of my reasoning, which was understandable. ¡°While that is all happening, I''ll be retrieving the flight suits. The new flight suits designed for the EX missions are not compatible with the Adastra, which means I''ll have to find it''s old in storage.¡± I explained. ¡°What about the hyperspace cell?¡± Asked McCoy. ¡°Conrad and I will have to get that right before we leave. For safety reasons, when the hyperspace cell is removed from the assembly building, an alarm will go off.¡± I said. You might be asking yourself why that is. Hyperspace cells aren''t some top secret thing, it''s actually how we first arrived onto Aureon. It''s the power of the hyperspace cell that is the issue. When fully charged, it has the power of a small black hole. All this power is crammed into a suitcase sized container. If this container was mishandled, breached or damaged while on the ground, half of the planet will be violently defaced. You obviously don''t want this to happen, so alarms are put into place to let people know when the hyperspace cell is being moved. Anyhow, I continued to explain the plan. ¡°Once the security meeting is over, Conrad will meet me in the storage building, where we will put on the flight suits. After that we go to the assembly building, where we will be ¡®borrowing¡¯ the hyperspace cell meant to be used for the EX-6 mission.¡± I explained to everyone. ¡°You guys understand?¡± Asked Conrad. The 5 ground controllers nodded their heads. ¡°Alright then,¡± Conrad said, turning to me. ¡°I''ll get that security meeting underway.¡± ¡°Sounds good¡­ wait, you guys know how to refuel the spacecraft, right?¡± I asked, gesturing to the others. Some of them almost burst out laughing. ¡°We are nerds, aren''t we? Of course we know.¡± ¡°I''m counting on that,¡± I said. ¡°Alright then, let''s do this!¡± Conrad nodded, and he made his way to the door. He turned around before he got to the door and looked at us. ¡°If this doesn''t work out, I''ll see to it that none of you take any blame. This might have been Kyle¡¯s idea, but I''m the one allowing this to happen. Because of that, I''ll be taking full responsibility for all of your actions.¡± We all solemnly agreed. Conrad was risking his entire future, an almost guaranteed chance to become the CEO of the space agency when Pruitt retires. Quietly, Conrad turned his back to us and left the room. I turned to the other controllers, ¡°You guys get in that hanger, fuel the adastra, and get the fuck out of there.¡± I said to them, ¡°We know,¡± They said, ¡°once the security is gone, nobody will know we were there¡­ or at least long enough for you guys to get out of here. For friends and family: part 2 This is the mid season/book finale. If you have gotten this far into reading the book, thank you. KYLE''S P.O.V 4 Years ago, Michael''s house. Noise bounced around the living room as Lucas and I took turns playing a new flight simulator on TV. This was another one of those hangout days where Michael invited Lucas and I over to play games, have fun and whatnot. It''s become a big part of our schedules, and the 3 of us looked forward to our hangouts. Lucas was on the couch next to me, controller in hand and Laser focused on the TV. The game we had chosen to play this week was a new combat flight simulator, where you are tasked with flying a fighter jet, and the goal is to win the game. Michael was sitting in a chair adjacent to us, making remarks on our flying skills. Lucas was masterfully evading missiles and gunfire, his flying skills in the game was near wizardlike in style. ¡°Are you planning on becoming a fighter pilot or something?¡± Michael asked, amazed at Lucas¡¯s skills. ¡°Preferably not,¡± He said, eyes still locked on the TV. ¡°That''s good, because there is something I need to talk to you guys about¡­¡± Said Michael, gesturing for Lucas to pause the game. Lucas paused the game and we both turned our attention to Michael. ¡°I''ve been selected to fly on one of the future EX missions¡­ I really don''t know how to feel about it.¡± He explained to us. ¡°Doesn''t your brother care more about that stuff?¡± Lucas asked him. ¡°He''s really upset that I was chosen for it, he was expecting to be chosen.¡± Michael said. ¡°I guess that''s understandable, he''s the favorite child according to what you''ve said,¡± I said to Michael. ¡°I have been trying to hand this off to my brother anyway. Like Lucas said, he would love to do it. But my dad is forcing me to do this,¡± Michael said to us. ¡°Sorry to hear that.¡± Lucas said. ¡°I was kinda hoping¡­ you guys would join the C.S.A *(Carlin Space Agency) and come with me on the mission.¡± He asked us quietly, looking towards us for a response. ¡°I''d love to do that¡­ Just think, exploring strange new worlds, seeing what space has to offer.¡± Lucas said. I breathed out a deep sigh, as I knew my answer. ¡°I can''t.¡± When Michael heard this, he was heartbroken. ¡°After the accident, I haven''t been able to see out of my left eye,¡± I reminded him, ¡°They will never let me go to space with my visor cracked¡­ the G-forces alone could make the crack worse, and that could kill me.¡± Michael looked down at the floor and closed his eyes, you could tell he regretted asking the question. ¡°They might have a spot open for ground staff, the medical requirements are much more lax for that.¡± Lucas pointed out. ¡°Hey, that''s not a bad idea,¡± I said. Michael popped out of his momentary depression when I said that, ¡°Really?¡± He asked. ¡°That depends on what I''d be doing, if I could get a spot on working in mission control, probably.¡± I responded, ¡°My background in I.T. could be useful.¡± ¡°Yes, yes! That''s great!¡± Michael blurted, ¡°Do that!¡± ¡°Pffff, so you get excited by Kyle joining in and not me?¡± Lucas said in a confused yet joking tone. ¡°What, no-¡± Michael said in defense. ¡°...right,¡± Lucas replied, squinting his eyes at Michael. 4 years later; Present day. It was a week after we had that fateful conversation that Lucas and I would officially sign up to work for the C.S.A. Lucas was put on the crew roster for the EX-5, along with Michael. I was kept on the ground, in charge of spacecraft data analysis. That was until today, where I, Kyle Raymond, and my supervisor, Conrad Carlin, will be stealing a decommissioned spacecraft to find out what happened to our friends and loved ones. And we are doing it right now. Not tomorrow, not in a week, it''s being done tonight. This is what was crossing through my mind as I ever so quickly got closer to the storage building, a giant cube that was on the outskirts of the launch complex. If this all works out, I thought, what are we even gonna find? A debris field? Bodies? What if we don''t find anything? This all could be for nothing. There was an unfortunate amount of time to rethink my past and current decisions, the walk to the storage building was a long one. These buildings, Assembly, the main hangers, and the storage, were all spread out over large distances. Great for contemplation, I guess. I would be driving a shuttle car to make this trip quicker, however I don''t have access to those. Why would a guy working for mission control need to drive all around the C.S.A. property? And besides, once Conrad finishes his security meeting, he will be able to drive us and the flight suits back to the adastra. I reached the storage building''s entrance door. The only thing stopping me from entering was the ID card reader. I swiped it against the reader box, and it buzzed red at me. I frowned and swiped it again. It buzzed red a second time. ¡°Work you little piece o-¡± I murmured, swiping my card for a 3rd time. Finally, it decided to work. 3rd time''s a charm really is true, isn''t it? I slid my way into the building, going from the bright outdoors to the dark interior. There was a switch, presumably for lights, near the door. With the flip of the switch, the large overhead lights turned on with a . The inside of the building was that of a cavernous warehouse, large shelves lined one half of the floor, with boxes and pallets lining the other half. According to the research I''d previously done, the adastra suits were kept somewhere in the rows of shelves. I narrowed it down to row 3. All I knew was the suits were located somewhere in the 40ft (13m) long row of shelves, packed to the brim with pallets and boxes. I pulled a ladder up to the one shelf. I climbed up and began my search. Most boxes had old reports and files, while others had models of different projects.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Shortly after I began looking, I stopped. To me, something felt off¡­ almost as if I was being watched by someone. I couldn''t shake the feeling, but I resumed looking through the boxes anyway. 45 minutes later. Time was running out, and Conrad''s meeting would be ending soon. Frantically searching through box after box, I finally found what I needed. A large container labeled ¡®ADASTRA.¡¯ I scurried back down the ladder with the container in tow, and carefully set it down upon the concrete floor. With a click I threw the top of the container open to reveal its contents, the adastra flight suits. Inside were 4 dull orange colored space suits, each of different size. I laid each suit on the ground, inspecting them for potential damage. Each suit still held the surname of the previous wearer on the breastplate. Grissom, White, Chaffee and Laika, the 4 original test pilots of the Adastra. They are legends on Aureon, being the first protogens to return to space after our arrival onto this planet. Unfortunately none of them still work for the agency, they left shortly after the initiation of the EX (Exploration) mission program. They were concerned about space exploration and what we might find doing it. Everyone thought they were crazy for thinking so, but I can fully understand now. Chaffee''s suit was the smallest of the 4. I was concerned it would still be too big for me, but there was no use to be upset with the matter. Meanwhile Laika¡¯s suit seemed to be the closest in size for Conrad. The remaining suits were put back in the container. I closed the container and put it back onto the shelf, likely to not be noticed for another 15 years. With both flight suits and their respective helmets slung over my shoulders, I made my way for the door. I dropped the suits near the door while I waited for Conrad to show up. 12 or 13 minutes later, Conrad zoomed up to the door in a small shuttle car. I carried everything outside as he quickly ushered me to get in. I opened up the door and threw the suits in, and quickly followed. ¡°How are we doing on time?¡± Conrad asked. I flipped up my watch, ¡°We are doing good, we''ll be cutting it close getting that hyperspace cell.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ I haven''t heard back from the controllers yet. They should be done by now though.¡± Conrad said, turning the shuttle car towards the assembly building. ¡°Once we get to the assembly building, we put on the suits and get the hyperspace cell. After we do that we won''t be popular with security,¡± I said, ¡°If possible, we can take this shuttle car back to the adastra¡¯s hangar.¡± ¡°I''d prefer that,¡± said conrad. We pulled up to the backside of the assembly building, and Conrad hesitantly stopped the car. ¡°Alright put this on,¡± I said, handing one of the suits to Conrad. He gave the suit a quick glance. ¡°This thing is ancient,¡± He remarked, ¡°wait¡­ This is Laika¡¯s suit.. THE Valentina Laika suit.¡± ¡°Yep..¡± I said as I grabbed my suit as well. ¡°I had a poster of her on my wall as a teen¡­¡± he said, marveling at the suit. ¡°That figures,¡± I told Conrad as I put my suit on. After a few minutes, we were both fully suited up. We grabbed the helmets and got out of the small shuttle car. ¡°Just act normal,¡± Conrad said as we approached the door. ¡°Act normal? We look like walking carrots..¡± I protested. ¡°Nevermind then?¡± He said, swiping his ID card against the door. Once it buzzed, we threw the door open and went inside. Inside, the assembly building was still deserted like it had been the week previously. Little work had been done to the EX-6 spacecraft, its fuselage now sat much closer to the floor, but nothing else seemed to be any different. ¡°Where is everyone?¡± I asked, looking around in confusion. ¡°All the assembly workers responsible for the EX-6 were reassigned to other projects¡­ the new workers for it have yet to arrive.¡± He said, gazing towards the unpainted fuselage. ¡°Geez¡­ a lot really has changed,¡± I quietly said. I mean, really. More security, the rushed style of the soon to be EX-6 mission, the sudden and abrupt attempt to indirectly stop Conrad and I from using the adastra¡­ and now this, the replacement of the assembly crew. All there is to ask is why, why is Pruitt doing this? What are his motives behind all of this? Ever since the EX-5 disappeared, he has acted rather erratic. Conrad, too, had changed. Though, to a bit more positive of a light compared to his father. Of course though, I still didn''t understand his motives either. Conrad and I approached a pair of large blast doors. It was kind of pathetic considering they offered little protection against what sat behind them. Conrad stopped short of the door and froze. ¡°There should be security here,¡± he said slowly. ¡°Then where are they?¡± I asked. ..I don''t know,¡± Conrad said as he unlocked the doors and heaved them open, allowing us through. The room we entered was a bit smaller than the main assembly space, but it still was big. Well, it was big, besides 1 thing. It was taken up mostly by a large machine. It was a dull gray color, with many control panels surrounding it. The machine itself was a giant energy converter. The device it was converting energy for was the hyperspace cell. The process took months to fully charge the hyperspace cell. This cell in particular had only been charging for a couple weeks, and its energy output might be lower than desired. We cautiously approached and stopped short of the machine. ¡°I''ll shut off the power, and you grab the hyperspace cell.¡± I directed. Conrad nodded, and I approached one of the control panels. The panel displayed some rather worrying information. ¡°The Hyperspace cell is only 15% of maximum capacity,¡± I warned Conrad, who was waiting to grab it. ¡°Is that enough?¡± He asked worriedly. ¡°It''s only enough power to get us there¡­ it''ll be a 1 way trip.¡± I told him. ¡°Well it''s not too late for us to stop, kyle. It''s your call.¡± he said, looking towards me. I went silent for a couple moments. My decision had already been made a week ago. ¡°We aren''t turning back,¡± I said as I shut off the power to the machine. ¡°Let''s go!¡± Conrad snatched the hyperspace cell from the clutches of the machine, triggering a loud buzzing noise. We both ran past the blast door, and continued running through the machinery in the assembly building. ¡°I expected this to have taken much longer!¡± I shouted, trying to get my breath at the same time. ¡°We are almost there!¡± Conrad said as we approached the door we had entered from. Our escape was flawless, almost perfect. As we got ever so close to the door, I saw something in the corner of my eye. A flash of something large with dark gray fur. Its arm, perhaps, was striking something.. or someone, on the floor, whatever it was striking was obscured by machinery. I immediately stopped running, sliding to a stop. ¡°S-someone''s here!¡± I yelled at Conrad, who had stopped shortly after I did. ¡°Ignore them!¡± He shouted, picking his pace back up again. I looked back at what I''d seen, but nobody was there. I immediately booked it for the door, stopping to open it to let Conrad through. He went out the door, still holding the hyperspace cell tightly. I followed closely behind, but lingered for a couple moments in the doorway. I scanned behind me one last time in search of the figure. They were completely gone. The only thing left in its place was a pair of shoes poking out from behind machinery. The best I could tell was that it belonged to a security guard¡­ an unresponsive security guard. I turned my head back around and continued to run for the shuttle car. Conrad was already getting into the driver''s seat as I approached. ¡°What is it? What did you see!¡± He asked as he desperately tried to start the car. ¡°There is a guard on the floor-¡± I said, getting into the passenger seat. ¡°What?¡± Conrad asked in confusion, ¡°It can''t be the same guy you saw, could it?¡± ¡°It can''t be,¡± I said, trying to catch my breath. Finally, Conrad got the shuttle car started. Immediately, he slammed on the accelerator, sending us into our seats. As we quickly put distance between us and the assembly building, I peaked my head out the window and looked behind us. A figure, perhaps the one I had seen, was standing outside near the door we had left through. They were tall in appearance, with a sharp visor and squat, metal covered legs. They remained motionless, and quietly stared on at us as we made our getaway. I slid my head back into the car, ¡°...who was that?¡± I asked with a shudder in my voice. ¡°I really don''t want to know,¡± Conrad replied. We both sat without talking during the ride to the hangar building. We weren''t quite sure of what had just happened. Whoever that was, they weren''t friendly. Were they trying to help us? Would we have been their next victim had we not gotten away? ¡°Uh, Kyle,¡± Conrad said, tapping my shoulder. ¡°Huh?¡± I replied. Conrad pointed in front of us as we got closer to the rows of hangars. The Adastra''s hangar door was wide open. The spacecraft itself was stopped halfway out of the hangar, with an unattended towing tractor attached to the front landing gear. It appears they stopped towing it once the alarms went off. My concern over the mysterious figure was quickly replaced by that of us being too late to take the Adastra. ¡°Hurry!¡± I yelled into Conrad''s ear. The shuttle car came to a screeching halt a couple yards away from the Adastra''s hangar. Conrad grabbed the hyperspace cell and we both ran up to the spacecraft. I furiously began unlocking the small hatch on the heatshield where the hyperspace cell would be inserted. I swung the hatch open, and Conrad immediately shoved the cell into its compartment and twisted it, locking the cell into place. He slammed the hatch shut and ran for the adastra''s entrance hatch. ¡°GET IT ON THE TAXIWAY!¡± He yelled as he extended the entry ladder. I hopped into the towing tractor and started it frantically. After a couple moments the tractor was ready, slowly I began to move the adastra out onto the taxiway that resides in front of the hangars. Once the adastra was in the clear and was facing straight down the taxiway, I unhooked the tractor and parked it near the hangar wall. I turned to run for the spacecraft, but I didn''t move. I was forgetting something¡­ Michael''s hoodie! I immediately sprinted as fast as I could back into the hanger. Right in the back of the hanger, the hoodie was still folded neatly on the table, just as I had left it a couple hours previously. Just as I grabbed the hoodie, the metal door I''d used to get into the hanger for the past week was violently swung open, revealing a small group of security guards. ¡°There he is!¡± yelled one of the guards, raising an energy rifle at me. ¡°GET ON THE GROUND!¡± Shouted another. I wasn''t listening to anything they asked me to do. With the hoodie clutched against my chest, I began running through the hangar towards the awaiting Adastra. One of the guards must have hit the button that shuts the large outward doors to the hangar, as they quickly began to slide shut. I continued running as fast as my short legs could take me. The guards continued yelling at me, but it didn''t matter. I got what I needed. I dove for the hangar doors, hitting the outside pavement with a thud as I rolled onto the ground. The doors fully shut as I raised myself off the ground, thwarting the guards'' attempt to stop me. It wasn''t over as more security began running out from other buildings. Not wasting a second further, I climbed up the Adastra''s entry ladder, and retracted it as I reached the top. With the entry hatch closed as well, I joined Conrad in the cockpit as he activated various systems. ¡°What took you so long!¡± Conrad asked as he flipped through various circuit breakers. ¡°I had to get something- I said, strapping myself into the pilot seat. After fumbling around for a couple moments, I put on my helmet and attached life support hoses to my flight suit. Conrad sighed, ¡°Are the turbopumps spooled up yet?¡± He asked, making his way to the flight engineer''s seat. I leaned forward and inspected the engine gauges in front of me. ¡°Engine 1 turbopump is fully spooled up,¡± I said, ¡°Engine 2 pump rpm still rising,¡± ¡°Alright, Engine 1 start,¡± Conrad said. With the flip of a switch, Engine 1 choked, unwilling to start. Conrad tried again, dumping even more rocket fuel into the Engine. The engine finally got the message and roared to life, causing the whole spacecraft to lurch to one side. ¡°Engine 2 ready to start!¡± I shouted over the noise of the first engine. Conrad nodded and ignited engine 2. It had a much easier time and roared with power after the first attempt to start it. ¡°Get us to the runway!¡± Conrad shouted as he strapped himself into a seat. ¡°About that-¡± I said, looking out the windscreen. Security vehicles had already blocked off any paths leading to a runway. ¡°We have to take off from this taxiway!¡± I shouted back at Conrad as I lowered the Adastra¡¯s flaps. ¡°You''re joking-¡± he said with concern. ¡°Nope,¡± I said, resting my hand on the throttle lever. ¡°Kyle, this is a taxiway. A very SHORT taxiway.¡± he reminded me. Before I could push the throttles forward, the Adastra was struck by something. TING! ¡°What-¡± Conrad said. I looked out ahead of us, and saw a lone security guard at the end of the taxiway. He was holding an energy rifle, pointed right at us. ZWIP! The guard fired again, sending another bead of energy hurtling past the Adastra. ¡°What''s he doing!¡± Conrad yelled back at me. ¡°Well, he''s gonna have to get out of the way,¡± I said, shoving the engine throttles to their max setting. The engines screamed the loudest I''ve ever heard, sending a cacophony of noise into my ears. The Adastra quickly went barreling down the taxiway, powered by a pair of unrestrained rocket engines. PAK! Another shot hit the adastra, this time it hit the windscreen in front of me. That guard was trying to shoot me, wasn''t he? The guard continued to stand unphased by the spacecraft that was quickly traveling towards him, he continued shooting in a feeble attempt to stop us. The Adastra''s speed continued to rise. When it seemed fast enough, I took the control column in front of me with both hands and pulled it back, sending the Adastra¡¯s nose pointing to the sky. The guard dove to the ground as the spacecraft finally left the taxiway and clawed for altitude. I released my grip on the control column, and raised the gear. We did it. We just stole the Adastra. Wrecksite (Author''s note: This chapter takes place roughly 1 week since the last chapter involving the EX-5 crew; sorry if seems a little confusing) Lucas''s EX-5 log entry. It has officially been 1 week since our arrival to Earth. It''s been a lot to take in. The crew and I are still recovering from the loss of Scott, and Michael''s close call as well. It''s been very chaotic, and we all are still trying to cope with our arrival here. Shortly after we landed¡­ we broke into a house. It was an act I''m not proud of, but this allowed us to save Michael''s life. And by doing so, we''ve made contact with a species we''ve never seen before, who call themselves wolves. Being bipedal creatures, they are covered in fur and have many attributes similar to protogens. Most stunningly they lack visors, with organic eyes and a snout in its place. One of these wolves, named Winter Reid, is the first wolf we met after our arrival. Our meeting was rather tense¡­ but went well nonetheless. In the last week, she has warmed up greatly to our presence. I''ve taken a particular appreciation to her given our similar love for space and aviation. Winter''s friend, Oscar, showed up a couple of days ago. He has sided with Winter to help us, thankfully. Among other news, I''ve regained some movement back into my hand, although limited, it is promising. Michael has also made progress over his injuries. He''s already begun walking again with the help of crutches. According to Avera, he''ll fully recover within a month or two. As pointed out by Winter, we heal much faster compared to wolves. I''d dive into this further, but I must cut this log entry short, as we are going to be taken back to the EX-5 to assess the damage it had sustained during our orbit. Until the next entry, I will be keeping notes. End of log entry. LUCAS¡¯S P.O.V. I turned off the small tablet and held It blankly in my hands, staring at my reflection on its black screen. Everyone took turns with the tablet making log entries, but lately I''ve found myself making the majority of them. I stuck the tablet into one of my large jumpsuit pockets and got up from the living room sofa. Michael was in the kitchen looking for who knows what to snack on, while everyone else was out in the backyard preparing for the car ride back to the EX-5. I leisurely walked into the kitchen where I found Michael snacking on blueberries. ¡°Ya know lucas, you should really try these¡­¡± Michael said before shoveling a handful of blueberries into his mouth, ¡°...They taste much better than the ones on Aureon¡± he continued with a muffled voice as he tried to chew and talk at the same time. ¡°You are getting addicted to those¡­¡± I told him with a concerned face. Michael finally swallowed, ¡°No I''m not,¡± he said in disagreement. ¡°That''s the 4th large pack of blueberries you''ve eaten since yesterday!¡± I argued. ¡°It''s not my fault Winter bought so many of these,¡± He replied before eating another handful. ¡°She bought those for everyone to share,¡± I pointed out to him. ¡°Oh¡­¡± Michael said quietly before staring at the pack of berries. ¡°Could she ...maybe buy some more?¡± He asked, akin to a child asking for candy. I sighed, ¡°Yes, I''ll ask to get more.¡± I said as I pushed the back door open. Michael excitedly continued to snack on the berries as I shut the door behind me. In the backyard, Avera and Garrett were helping Winter load gear into the back of her jeep. Meanwhile, Vita was busy talking to Oscar on the patio. ¡°Vita, could you stop talking with him for a second and help us?¡± Avera screamed towards Vita, but she didn''t hear anything. ¡°I''ve got it!¡± I said as I rushed over to the jeep. ¡°Nevermind¡± said Garrett as he finished loading empty boxes into the car. ¡°We are ready to go,¡± he said as he stepped into the back seat. ¡°Alright I''ll go get Oscar,¡± Winter said before she ran off. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Meanwhile, Avera sat in the front passenger seat so she could help direct us to the EX-5. ¡°Is everyone gonna fit in this thing?¡± I asked as I peeked through the door. ¡°I don''t know,¡± Garrett shrugged. Winter finally came back with Oscar. ¡°Just sit in the middle,¡± she said as she climbed into the driver''s seat. Oscar and I piled into the back seats with Garrett. Once the door was shut, it was incredibly cramped. ¡°Alright let''s stop wasting time,¡± Avera said. ¡°I actually agree with you,¡± Winter said, ¡°you have to start talking a little less,¡± she said, peering at Oscar through the rear view mirror. Oscar became defensive, ¡°You practically begged me to come down here,¡± he said, ¡°and when I arrived, I found GENUINE ALIENS at your house! And you don''t want me to talk to them?!¡± He said with a frown. ¡°Just because we got here by accident doesn''t mean we can be wasting time¡­¡± Avera continued. ¡°What! You are the greatest discovery in history, there are so many questions that have to be answered!¡± Oscar said. ¡°Yes, I''m sure we are, but you are just as important of a discovery to us as we are to you.¡± Avera said. Garrett chimed in, ¡°I can attest to that, you guys are indeed the most amazing discovery,¡± he said with an enthusiastic smile. ¡°Anyways!¡± I said in an attempt to change the conversation, ¡°How long will it take to get to the EX-5?¡± ¡°20-25 minutes or so,¡± Winter said as we drove onto a trail leading into the woods. ¡°Should we be concerned about anyone finding the wreck site?¡± Garrett asked us. ¡°Not really¡­ The EX-5 was never detected in orbit.¡± Oscar said, ¡°And since you landed in the middle of a forest, I doubt it will be seen by anyone,¡± ¡°What''s with that, anyway? Is your spaceship supposed to be stealthy or something?¡± Winter said with a hint of concern. ¡°No, not at all,¡± I said, ¡°Being easily traceable was a part of its design,¡± I explained, ¡°It''s got an emergency transponder, it''s hard to miss it¡± Oscar was puzzled. ¡°I don''t get it. How could we have missed your arrival here?¡± He said. ¡°We couldn''t detect the debris that killed Scott¡­ and our flight computers could barely even tell we were orbiting a planet either.¡± Avera said quietly. Winter put it together, ¡°We can''t detect you¡­ And you can''t detect us.¡± She said with an instant realization. ¡°Perhaps you guys exist at a vastly different resonant frequency compared to us?¡± She said in a query tone. ¡°Perhaps¡­¡± Avera replied. Everyone continued to make small talk and ask questions. After a couple minutes I stopped listening and instead turned my attention to the outside world. The jeep continued to bump along as the grassy fields turned into forest. Avera was directing Winter on where to turn while Garrett and Oscar made notes of our position. As we got closer to the wreck site, the mood inside the car slowly changed. Conversations slowed and voices became quiet. Suddenly, Winter slammed on the breaks sending the jeep to a screeching halt. The muddy trail ahead of us was covered in broken tree limbs. Gazing upwards, the forest canopy had been sliced open, revealing the cloudy sky above. Mixed in with the tree limbs were shiny flakes of metal, gleaming in the light. Avera got out of the car and approached the debris. She picked a couple pieces of the metal and pointed out to our right. A couple hundred yards away, the faint outline of the EX-5 could be seen emerging from the trees. Everyone got out of the car, and together the 5 of us followed the ripped apart trees leading towards the spacecraft. As we got closer, metal flakes turned into metal chunks. The chunks became more recognizable as we approached. 3 deep ruts in the ground marked where the landing gear impacted and dug in. The right landing bogey was still firmly lodged in the ground far away from the EX-5, much to Winter and Oscar''s fascination. Avera, Garrett and I waited as the two wolves admired the piece of debris. ¡°Can we go? I''d rather not be here longer than needed¡­¡± Avera said impatiently. Oscar nodded, but he started to fish his phone out from his pocket. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked, peering over at him. ¡°Getting a photo,¡± He said as he pointed his phone at the chunk of tire. ¡°What! Are you stupid?¡± Avera said before violently ripping the phone from Oscar''s hands. ¡°HEY!¡± Oscar yelled, ¡°GIVE ME THAT!¡± He said, lunging after Avera. The commander swift dodged Oscar''s attempt to get the phone, ¡°You can have this back when we are done. I can''t let any photos be taken of us or the ship-¡± she said, waving the phone high above the Wolf. Winter watched on silently as this all unfolded, unsure if helping her friend would end well. ¡°Give that back to him,¡± Winter ordered, ¡°He won''t take photos, right, Oscar?,¡± ¡°Uh- yes, yes!¡± He said, eagerly nodding to Avera. Avera stared at them both with a scowl before reluctantly handing the phone back to Oscar. ¡°Thanks,¡± he said before putting the phone back into his pocket. ¡°No photos¡± Garrett raced up to the EX-5''s wing, gliding his hand across its leading edge. After a moment he pushed himself up onto the wing. He walked up it and towards the fuselage, stopping right before a large gash that had been ripped into the top of the wing. The gash went all the way up onto the side of the fuselage and back towards the tail. A messy red streak was left around its jagged edges, presumably where Michael or Scott had hit. ¡°Is this what sent us into a spin?¡± Garrett asked as he surveyed the damage. ¡°for how bad the damage is, yeah¡­¡± Avera said. I followed the damage as it went up to the EX-5¡¯s twin tail. 2 large tail fins joined together in the shape of a V. But there were no longer 2 tail fins, only 1. The other one had been ripped almost clean off, leaving a check-marked shape instead. ¡°How''d we even fly¡­¡± I whispered, awe inspired by the sight. Winter came up beside me and stared on as well. ¡°And it was a Satellite that did this?¡± She asked. ¡°Michael described a boxy, foil covered object,¡± I answered. Oscar joined the two of us, ¡°That sounds like a satellite¡­ wait a minute-¡± Oscar paused mid sentence. ¡°A couple old GPS satellites collided a few weeks ago, could that have been what you hit?¡± He asked. ¡°That is still a big maybe,¡± I said, ¡°Explaining any detail of our journey so far is purely hypothetical.¡± As we wrapped up our little talk, Garrett jumped down off the wing. ¡°It could be repairable,¡± he said as he went to the equipment bay, ¡°But we can figure that out later,¡± Garrett climbed up a small ladder into the bay in search of something. Winter walked beneath the hatch opening in confusion, what are you looking for?¡± She asked. ¡°This!¡± Garret hollered back at her, fore climbing back down. In his hand he held a small metal container, one the size of a tissue box. ¡°It''s the auxiliary data storage bank, this will help us figure out how we got here.¡± ¡°Oh¡­.. that''s cool,¡± she said. ¡°But did we just drive out here for only that? No offense though, seeing your ship is friggin epic,¡± Avera took the storage bank and examined it. ¡°Nope, we need to get a couple other pieces of equipment. Tomorrow we can return with Oscar''s truck and get the rest of our belongings.¡± ¡°Oh okay that sounds fine,¡± replied Winter. Over the course of the next few minutes, Avera and I rummaged through the EX-5''s cabin. It was a mess, but eventually we got what we needed. Before we knew it we were driving back to Winter''s house. To be frank, her home was becoming the only familiar thing we knew on this planet. End of chapter 13. Author''s note: One of my favorite parts of writing this series is listening to different vinyl records as I write. Minecraft Volume Beta by c418 and Breakfast In America by Supertramp are both spectacular albums. To those unfamiliar with supertramp, I''d recommend giving them a listen. Among other news, I''ve continued to crack down on spelling mistakes in the new chapters. Have questions or recommendations for the series? Leave a comment below, I love seeing feedback! See you in chapter 14! To The Limit KYLE''S P.O.V. The Adastra shot through high-level clouds as we ascended into space. I kept a death grip on the control column, easing our sharp climb to reach orbit. Behind me, Conrad fiddled with the radio, cycling through various frequencies in an attempt to communicate with the ground. ¡°Does that even work?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah¡ª¡± Conrad replied, turning a small dial on the radio. Pruitt''s loud voice boomed into my headset. ¡°¡ªWHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?¡± He sounded pissed, understandably. ¡°IF YOU CONTINUE, YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO OVERSEE THE AGENCY¡ª¡± Conrad quickly grabbed a headset and began speaking into it. ¡°Look, Dad, I''m sorry¡ª¡± he stuttered, ¡°I just can''t let you ignore what has happened.¡± I clicked on my microphone. ¡°Pruitt, I''ve looked up to your family name since I was little,¡± I said. ¡°And to a degree, I still do. However, I''ll never be looking up to you specifically.¡± Pruitt¡¯s tone shifted, though the anger was still present. ¡°Raymond? You are dragging my son to his death with that half-cocked plan of yours! If I ever have the opportunity of meeting you again, I will make sure you remember it.¡± His words angered me¡ªnot in an annoyed way, but in a way that left me confused. My grip on the control column tightened as if I could crush it in my hands. I held my thumb on the control yoke, hovering over the mic button. My microphone activated, and without thinking, I acted. ¡°You''ll be outright THANKFUL to ever see me again!¡± I yelled into the mic. ¡°Because as far as I''m concerned¡ªYOU are a liar. To my colleagues. To the public. And to your own children!¡± Pruitt didn¡¯t have much of a reply. He wasn¡¯t expecting the sudden outburst, and neither was I. ¡°Two minutes until we''re in orbit,¡± Conrad said, breaking the tense silence. ¡°And can we shut off the damn radio now?¡± I didn¡¯t say anything. Instead, I continued staring out at the cracked windshield in front of me. ¡°Well... uh,¡± I said, ¡°just wait a moment.¡± I took a deep breath and adjusted my grip on the control column. ¡°We¡¯ll be transmitting scientific data at 3GHz frequency. Adastra out.¡± I gestured for Conrad to cut communications with the ground, which he promptly did. I turned back to Conrad. ¡°Once we¡¯re in orbit, get the gravimetric computers going. Send the additional data to the ground at 3GHz.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. He nodded. ¡°We¡¯re just about to match the EX-5¡¯s orbit,¡± he said. ¡°Engine shut-off in ten seconds.¡± I counted down, and when Conrad said so, I shut off the engines. Suddenly being weightless was... interesting, to say the least. Bits of dust and other minuscule debris began floating about the cabin, including Michael¡¯s hoodie. Conrad looked on in awe as beams of light illuminated the floating particles. ¡°Try not to get any in your eyes... or eye, in my case,¡± I said, unbuckling my seat harness. I haphazardly pulled myself away from the cockpit and toward the flight engineer¡¯s station. I settled into the seat as Conrad activated various scientific computers. ¡°Once we reach the coordinates where the EX-5 disappeared, we¡¯re getting out of dodge.¡± Minutes passed as I worked through circuit breakers and other systems to activate the hyperspace cell. To my relief, I succeeded in connecting it. The cabin lights flickered momentarily as they began drawing power from the cell. ¡°Conrad, don¡¯t let our negative mass reach -150% or more,¡± I warned. ¡°Less-than-stellar things will happen.¡± I floated back to the pilot¡¯s seat. Conrad hovered near my seat, looking concerned. ¡°And what will happen if we go over -150%?¡± I laughed. ¡°Well, every atom of the spacecraft¡ªand our bodies¡ªwill be violently ripped apart.¡± ¡°Are you okay?¡± he asked, giving me a funny look. I sighed. ¡°Actually, not at all,¡± I admitted. ¡°It¡¯s just been... so much.¡± Conrad patted my shoulder before returning to his seat. ¡°In a couple of minutes, there¡¯ll be no more need to worry,¡± Conrad reassured. ¡°We¡¯ll know what happened.¡± A small tear formed on the side of my visor, and without gravity, it clung there, unmoving. It grew until I had to close my eye. ¡°How long until the jump?¡± I asked quietly. ¡°Six or so minutes until we¡¯re in position,¡± he replied. I turned to Conrad. ¡°Hey, uh, you never really did tell me why you¡¯re doing this.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± he asked. I blinked away the tear. ¡°You know¡ªrisking your life for this? You mentioned Avera this morning, and that was about it.¡± ¡°Oh... I guess I never fully did tell you,¡± Conrad said. ¡°The day the EX-5 took off, I proposed to Avera.¡± I was speechless. ¡°She said no, though. That¡¯s why I was such a jerk to you in the first place. I was heartbroken...¡± He leaned back in his seat. He stared at the cabin ceiling. ¡°Gah!-fuck, I¡¯m a hypocrite.¡± I felt bad for him. Sure, he might have been right about the hypocrite part, but that didn¡¯t lessen the fact that he proposed and got turned down. ¡°So... how long were you two together?¡± I asked. ¡°Almost three years,¡± he said. ¡°After the EX-3 mission, I developed a crush on her. I hesitated for a year before asking her out. We hit it off after that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s nice,¡± I chuckled. Conrad sat up. ¡°And what about you and Michael?¡± he asked. ¡°Oh... like a little over a year,¡± I said. ¡°Ironically, I turned him down when he first asked me out. It was only after I realized how scared he was of going to space that I tried to comfort him. That¡¯s when I realized we had mutual feelings.¡± Conrad laughed. ¡°I guess getting turned down runs in the family.¡± ¡°And what exactly do you plan to do when you see Avera again? Let her slap you in the face?¡± I teased. He started to respond. ¡°Well, I really don¡¯t k¡ª¡± He stopped mid-sentence as the Adastra rattled. The ship lightly shook, and the bright stars outside the windshield seemed to swirl, as if stirred by an invisible whisk. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Conrad asked, startled. ¡°This patch of space is still disrupted from the EX-5,¡± I explained. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be this bad, though. They really had a rough ride.¡± ¡°And us?¡± Conrad asked. ¡°A bit worse,¡± I admitted. ¡°It¡¯ll be hard to stabilize a warp field in space this disrupted.¡± ¡°Do we go?¡± Conrad asked, tightening his harness. ¡°It¡¯ll only get worse. Yes,¡± I said. ¡°Kill the cell safeguards!¡± Warning alarms buzzed through the cabin. I gripped the hyperspace handles. ¡°Here we go!¡± I yelled, slowly pushing them forward, worsening the vibrations. Space outside the windshield blurred as streaks of stars enveloped the Adastra. I was awestruck¡ªit was unlike anything I¡¯d ever seen. ¡°Our mass is 36% and decreasing!¡± Conrad called out. ¡°How long will¡ª¡± He paused, staring out the windshield. ¡°Oh my...¡± Aureon¡¯s oceans and landmasses morphed before our eyes, as if melting together. The Adastra groaned and shuddered under the extreme forces. ¡°What¡¯s our mass?¡± I shouted. ¡°Negative 67%!¡± Conrad replied. ¡°How much longer?¡± ¡°Almost!¡± I yelled. The alarms grew louder. Lights on the control panels flashed like strings of Christmas lights. We were so close. I pressed my head against the seat, ready to order Conrad to shut down everything. ¡°Kyle, we¡¯re reaching¡ªno! Our mass is over -150%!¡± Conrad shouted. ¡°Already?¡± I panicked. Before he could reply, the crack on the windshield spiderwebbed. ¡°Shut it down! QUICKLY!¡± I yelled. Conrad killed the hyperspace cell, plunging the cabin into darkness. After a moment, the lights flickered back on. ¡°Did we... make it?¡± he asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said. Outside, a planet resembling Aureon floated below us. But whether it truly was Aureon... that was another question entirely. End of Chapter 14. To The Limit PT 2 CONRAD¡¯S P.O.V. The adastra, as old and beat up as it was, still held true in its orbit around the planet we found ourselves floating by. After a couple orbits, it was made apparent that Aureon wasn''t the planet outside our windows. The rough shapes of land looked similar to those on Aureon, but the coastlines were completely different. There was a particularly large gulf within one of the landmasses, with its opening blocked by a large thin island. The weirdest difference Kyle and I have noticed is whenever we passed over the dark side of the planet. The dark land was illuminated, almost completely. Aureon didn''t have such widespread city lighting at night, there just weren''t that many protogens. Its population was only slightly above 100,000. The planet we were orbiting looked like it could have had a population of millions, If not billions. Besides mapping the planet, Kyle and I were busy with locating the EX-5, although with little success. ¡°Is the receiver set to the distress frequency?¡± Kyle asked me, ¡°It shouldn''t be too hard to pick up their transponder.¡± I continued to mess around with the radio, ¡°The emergency transponders weren''t designed to be heard from orbit.¡± I said, ¡°And I don''t think descending down into the atmosphere is a great idea.¡± ¡°I see your point,¡± Kyle said, folding his arms. ¡°We risk alerting whoever lives down there of our presence.¡± And we couldn''t possibly know if the planet''s inhabitants would take kindly to our arrival. They might try to kill us, or they might try to be our friends. Maybe even both. Who knows what might have happened to the EX-5. What if they were taken prisoner? Or worse, killed. This concern was heavy in my mind as I searched endlessly scanning the planet for the lost spacecraft. ¡°What if they didn''t land?¡± Asked Kyle, who had now taken off the top of his flight suit and was wearing Michael''s hoodie instead. ¡°Maybe..? I doubt they would have lasted a week in orbit without hearing from anybody.¡± I replied. ¡°It''s worth a shot.¡± Kyle said, pointing at the computer console in front of me. ¡°I guess so.¡± I said. The chances of us finding something in our orbit wasn''t very high, but at least trying wouldn''t have been the worst idea. I pressed a couple buttons on my console, which began scanning our orbit path. Initially, garbled static was all I heard. This process of changing the radio frequency, scanning, and changing the frequency again continued for well over 20 minutes without anything notable happening. As I turned the radio dial for what felt like the 500th time, the radio static turned into intelligible speech. ¡°kshhhhhhhh¨Cton this is the ISS, We are beginning the power cycle of the node 3 thermal system as planned.¡± I froze. Kyle, who had been listening, stopped moving as well. ¡°Did you just¡­ find something?¡± He asked carefully. Before I could respond, the radio answered for me. ¡°Copy, ISS. Continue with the power cycle. Update us on any irregularities.¡± ¡°Understood Houston, cycling node 3, standby.¡± Kyle and I watched on in silent confusion. ¡°That''s not the EX-5! Where is this coming from!¡± Frantically, I checked to find its origin. According to the computer, the broadcast was coming from below us, on a nearly perpendicular orbit. As we neared closer to the signal¡¯s origin, it became clear where it was from. Scans showed a large structure, over 100 meters in length. Thankfully we were well out of the way, and didn''t risk any collision with it. (300ft) It could be a space station¡­ Aureon didn''t have anything that large in orbit. Pruitt had considered building a station, but nothing had been launched, and certainly nothing of that scale. I turned to Kyle, ¡°Do we talk to them?¡± I said quietly, ¡°What would we say?¡± ¡°I don''t know¡­ they could''ve done something to the EX-5, who knows what they''d do to us.¡± He said. I nodded, ¡°But if they haven''t noticed us, then they likely never noticed the EX-5. If this is the case, then we have a chance of talking with them.¡± Kyle looked out the window as if deep in thought. He sighed, ¡°Do it. Make contact, I would like to get closer.¡± He floated back to the pilot seat, and strapped back into it. ¡°If the scans are correct, we will be able to get within 2,000 meters before our orbits overlap. With how big the structure is, we''ll be able to see it.¡± (1.2 miles) I shot him a quick thumbs up, even though getting close to their space station was the last thing on my mind. Speaking to them is one thing, seeing them is another. With my harness on tight, Kyle began to ¡°shrink¡± our orbit. We would slow down, allowing the planet''s gravity to pull us closer. Slow down too much and you hit the atmosphere, something we weren''t quite ready to do. With the adastra facing backwards relative to the direction it was going, so when Kyle fired the maneuvering thrusters to their maximum, we were both sent back into our seats. The maneuver took roughly 20 seconds. By the time the thrusters went silent, Kyle was already out of his seat before I could even unbuckle my harness. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. His head was smashed against the windshield in a feeble attempt to get an early glimpse of the station. ¡°We still have a minute before we will be close enough to see them,¡± I reminded, ¡°which is also not enough time to figure out what to say to these people.¡± He pushed back from the window, ¡°Just say hello, our names, and our objective. If they think we are joking, they''ll be able to look out their windows, if they have any, and see us.¡± Seems simple enough. Giving them basic information shouldn''t be too hard, shouldn''t it? As I tapped the mic button with my finger, I still wasn''t sure on what to say. The only thing I knew was that we wouldn''t be going back after this. Kyle was moving his hand, encouraging me as I said the first word. ¡°H-Hello¡­ This is the Carlin spacecraft Adastra. My name is Conrad, and I am joined by my friend Kyle. Do you hear us?¡± The radio went silent for a couple seconds as Kyle and I exchanged concerned glances. The radio crackled to life once more, a soft yet firm voice began speaking. ¡°Get off of this frequency. There are consequences against using a government frequency without authorization.¡± ¡°We aren''t joking. One of our spacecraft was stranded here a week ago. We believe they have crashed onto your planet''s surface. We only want to find them.¡± Meanwhile outside of the windshield, the station was finally visible. It was a small white speck, but it was growing rapidly. Kyle grabbed a hold of his headset mic, ¡°You have a reason to believe us. We are within visual range of your space station.¡± We both kept our focus glued outside of the window. As we got closer, it was easier to spot the details of their station. A thin, circular main body. Each end was stopped by 2 huge sets of solar panels. Different modules branched off the main body, kind of like a tree. I stared in awe, ¡°it''s giant¡­¡± I whispered to myself, ¡°These people don''t mess around.¡± Kyle added. The person on the radio began to speak once more. ¡°We see you.¡± They said, ¡°Where did you guys come from?¡± As Kyle opened his mouth to respond, a loud, shrieking zipping noise pierced my head. ¡°THE LESS THEY KNOW.¡± thundered forcefully through my mind. We both thrashed our heads side to side to stop the uncomfortable presence. I tried desperately to say something, anything, but nothing came out of my mouth. My own couscous spoke again, ¡°THE LESS THEY KNOW.¡± it repeated, loudly and forcefully. It was such an odd feeling. And before we could make any sense of what was happening, the buzzing noise faded away. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK-¡± Kyle yelped out as he tried desperately to breathe. ¡°Who- Who said that!¡± ¡°It couldn''t have their uh, station, could it?¡± I managed to say, ¡°It''s like someone spoke into my mind telepathically¡­¡± Kyle looked like he finally got himself under control, ¡°NOBODY- no one¡­ can do that- and those who could¡­ we killed them all!¡± He said, ¡°This isn''t possible!¡± It was hard to listen. My mind still felt as if it was attached to a pair of strings, like I didn''t own it. I glanced back at the window towards the now shrinking space station. We had gotten as close as we could to them. Now we were going back towards emptiness. My heart still felt like it was in my throat, and I doubted the feeling would go away for some time. ¡°Shouldn''t we say something before they are out of comms range?¡± I asked. Kyle didn''t move at all to my question, ¡°No. Don''t say anything else.¡± was the cold reply. ¡°Then what are we supposed to do? They can still help us.¡± I said, ¡°They could have known the EX-5¡¯s position!¡± Kyle snapped back, ¡°Did you NOT understand what we just heard! We weren''t supposed to tell them.¡± I was silent. His point was not exactly wrong. Something, or someone, didn''t want us to tell the space station anything else¡­ or at least, I think that was the message. And as Kyle had said earlier, nobody should have been able to communicate through telepathic means, only the primagens could. We killed them all. Every last one. Did one of them survive? Are they trying to tell us something? No¡­ It''s not possible. ¡°Conrad! Hello?¡± Kyle asked, waving his hand in front of my visor. ¡°Huh?¡± I said surprised. ¡°We have a better chance of finding them with our lower orbit. Perhaps we are within the range of the EX-5''s transponder.¡± He said. ¡°The quicker we get this over with, the less likely ¡­Whatever we heard¡­ could happen to us. ¡°Ma- maybe¡­¡± I replied, trying not to choke on my words. ¡°But we really do have to get this done quickly.¡± Kyle grabbed the top half of his flight suit, which had been idly bumping around the cockpit. He pulled it over his hoodie and locked it into place. He took his seat at the copilots station, ¡°We have 1 more orbit to find them, otherwise we will land anyway.¡± ¡°What?¡± I asked, ¡°Shouldn''t we return to Aureon? With this much information, who knows what we could do?¡± Kyle sighed, ¡°Returning was never planned. Getting here and finding them was as far as I had aimed for¡­ we never did talk about what we''d do if we found them, did we? Plus, we didn''tZac x have enough power to return.¡± ¡°No we did not¡­¡± I said. He replied, ¡°It''s not your fault. You weren''t wrong when you said I didn''t plan this very well, it''s because I didn''t.¡± ¡°Well what is stopping us from returning to Aureon anyway? It shouldn''t be hard.¡± I questioned. ¡°We wouldn''t survive returning. We just about got ourselves ripped apart during the hyperspace jump.¡± He answered. I frowned, I wasn''t to take that for an answer. Or at least I did not want to. After all, we did risk so much to get here. The thought of doing all of this, only to not be able to return, left a feeling of hopelessness in its wake. As Kyle said, we will just have to find the EX-5. Once we do that, or if we do, that is, we can get our bearings. Then we could learn more about this planet¡¯s inhabitants¡­ ¡°You think you can shrink our orbit any more?¡± I asked Kyle, ¡°You are right that we might be able to pick up a transponder signal if we are lower.¡± He glanced back at one of the instrument panels for a moment, ¡°If we get any closer, we''d start skimming the atmosphere.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± I replied. ¡°What if we-¡± I was cut off by the sound of our main thruster turbopumps spooling up. ¡°Did you just arm the engines?¡± I was confused, didn''t he just say we couldn''t get any lower? Kyle looked at the controls, ¡°N-no I didn''t¡± He replied, ¡°And I can''t disarm them.¡± He said as he desperately hit different buttons. ¡°Conrad, cut the fuel!¡± He hollered through the intercom. After scanning the engineering panel, I pulled the breakers for our engine fuel pumps. The turbopumps only spun faster and faster, louder and louder until¡­ FWOOM! The adastra''s main engines fired to life, dead set on stopping us in our tracks. Kyle and I held onto our seat harnesses as we braced for the forces of deceleration. ¡°WE''RE GONNA BE DE-ORBITING IF WE CAN''T STOP THIS!¡± No matter what we tried to do, the engines continued to roar at full power. I knew this wasn''t going to end in our favor. And if we don''t get ourselves facing the other way, we''d be hitting the atmosphere backwards. The effects of doing this, well, it could be catastrophic. Some seconds later, both engines shut down simultaneously. It wasn''t me or Kyle who did it, and I wasn''t sure the engines starved of fuel either. It was just as magical of an action as when they started. Kyle went about the process of turning the adastra around to face the other direction, but none of the controls responded. We were stuck in the situation and unable to get out. The familiar licks of plasma began to creep their way around the windows of the Adastra. The plasma was accompanied by vibrations. The vibrations turned severe, until it turned into full shutters and jolts. Our re entry would be a bit smoother had we entered the atmosphere facing forwards, but the luxury of something as simple as that was out of our reach. The shaking became so severe, I lost focus of anything in front of me. I was fairly certain the craft began to enter a violent roll to the left, as I was thrown into the right side of my harness. My head was pinned to my chest as the roll went steeply downwards. Kyle, as much of him as I could see, was still fighting the control yoke with both hands. The windows were now fully covered by plasma, a bluish yellow color that was slowly melting away at the windows. ¡°WHAT''S OUR ALTITUDE!¡± I hoarsely yelled, unable to move my head much. ¡°I CAN''T TELL!¡± Kyle frantically replied, ¡°I''VE LOST IT!¡± As we continued to tumble, losing speed and altitude, the plasma slowly let up, revealing smudged and burnt over windows. The chaotic descent continued for some time, making It impossible to figure out what was happening. ¡°CAN WE EJECT?¡± Kyle yelled, ¡°IF WERE LOW ENOUGH!¡± I replied back. But when was it low enough? 40,000 meters? 30,000? It made little difference until we really started hitting a denser atmosphere. The Adastra''s air frame, weekend and warped from the hyperspace jump and the reentry plasma, stood little chance against the lower atmosphere. A muffled crackling noise, followed by a sensible jolt, the adastra began to twist and roll much more violently than it had before. One of the wings had likely just separated due to the enormous stresses. My arms became pinned to my chest, and my head unable to move. As my blood rushed to my legs, things began to dim. Kyle had already lost his fight for consciousness, and he was left limp in his seat with his arms being pulled towards the floor. I was ready to surrender to the blackness, and a black blanket slowly slid over everything. The last thing I registered in my mind was someone standing over me, as if a protector. Their presence didn''t seem alarming, I did question it, until¡­ BANG! ¡ã¡ã¡ã My vision came back around as I was thrown around by the wind. The Adastra, and Kyle, was nowhere to be found. There wasn''t much around me, only a parachute above and some dark storm clouds below that were illuminated by the setting sun. A dull orange flash followed by a thump shone through the clouds as the adastra inevitably hit the ground. End of chapter 15. Author''s note: IM BACK, BABY! I sincerely apologize for the lack of updates in the last 2 months. To explain this simply, writing isn''t my main hobby and I''ve struggled to find any fun in writing. Sorry if the writing in the start of the chapter isn''t great, as I was still trying to power through writer''s block. But as they say, there is a time and place for everything. And currently it''s time to get this story back on track with updating. Among other things I''ve also begun work on some other projects. This includes an upcoming book I plan to start publishing chapters for around May. It is titled Westbound Calico and will follow the story of a mechanic joining a pilot on her journey to the west coast. And to end off this Author''s note like always, if you have questions about characters or the story, feel free to comment, I''ll happily respond. See you guys in chapter 16! Light And Thunder LUCAS¡¯S P.O.V. As I stood on Winter''s porch, I spotted Oscar''s old white truck off in the distance as it slowly found its way out of the woods and onto the gravel path towards Winter''s house. The bed was laden with equipment harvested from the crash site, along with Garrett who was precariously sitting on the truck''s tailgate, holding on for dear life. They were returning a bit sooner than expected, though the reason why was clear. Dark storm clouds loomed closely in the sky. Winter had told everyone previously that in this region, it rained heavily around this time of year. I believe it was ¡°April¡± but I can''t entirely remember, these people used a weird calendar system. Michael was eager to get his hands on his own equipment, considering he was a meteorologist. And given his fears of water, yes really, many found it ironic. A small plume of dust began getting kicked up as the truck drew closer to the house. I figured Garrett was likely regretting his life choices as he got covered in dust, and probably was getting pelted by small rocks as well. The truck came to a stop near the back of the house, finally giving Garrett a chance to jump off. As he did so, spitting out dust and all, Avera and Oscar stepped out of the truck''s cab as well. I leaned over the porch railing, ¡°did you happen to find my bag?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± replied Avera, ¡°but it was ripped open during the landing.¡± I frowned as Garrett lifted up my bag for me to grab. A fairly sized hole was ripped into the top of the bag, but weight wise it seemed that nothing had fallen out of it. As I unzipped the top of the bag, everything seemed fine. It was only until I pulled my computer out of the bag that I found a giant piece of metal sticking out of it. I dropped the bag in disappointment as I surveyed the damage to the computer. Vita, Michael, and Winter came out of the door next to me to check on all the commotion. ¡°Good to see you all made it back.¡± Vita said with a small wave towards those who were unloading the truck. ¡°Did you also find my stuff?¡± Asked Michael as he waved his crutch at the truck bed. Garrett picked up another bag out of the truck, ¡°Yeah yeah, you''ve probably got more snacks in it, you fatso¡± He tossed it up for Vita to catch, ¡°The fact you aren''t obese is BEYOND ME. I can''t even explain the physics of it, and I''m a biologist for goodness sake!¡± He continued. ¡°That''s because I work out, you ass!¡± Michael shot back at Garrett, ¡°WE ALL WORK OUT YOU IDIOT!¡± was Garrett''s quick reply. Before they could squabble any further, Avera intervened. ¡°Will you both stop it? This isn''t the example we should be setting for ourselves.¡± Michael and Garrett both looked at her with as innocent eyes as they could get, and simultaneously replied with ¡°Yes commander.¡± As everyone continued to unload the equipment, the outside temperature quickly began dropping, and storm clouds made themselves rather apparent. A low, drawn out boom of thunder echoed throughout the air, stopping everyone in what they were doing. ¡°Thunder¡­¡± Oscar sighed to himself, ¡°Nothing to be afraid of.¡± He said, gesturing towards the clouds. ¡°Does it get any worse than that?¡± Asked Vita, who was staring at the storm clouds with worry. Winter took a look at the clouds as well, ¡°The forecast said it''d be over us¡­ it will be getting much louder.¡± I groaned at the news, ¡°Loud noises are the worst.¡± I grumbled, ¡°At least when aren''t expecting it.¡± Winter laughed, ¡°Makes sense, you guys have ears the size of my head!¡± She said as she stepped back onto the porch. Most of the equipment had been unloaded by this time, though a couple metal containers still remained on the truck. Most of the contents were sampling kits, meant for sampling atmospheric conditions, soil, water and things of that such. Michael was already far out in the dirt trying to set up one of the kits for measuring rain and pressure, but he was struggling a great deal while doing so. First Vita tried to help him, but she was shooed away. Then Garrett tried, and was shooed off as well. Avera and I were about to try our luck at helping him, but apparently the weather got to him first. Within seconds, rain began to fall and splash against the surroundings. Michael let out a horrid yelp as he was hit by the water, almost as bad of a yelp as he did during his space walk, and immediately began to scramble for his crutches. ¡°SCREW THIS!¡± He yelled as he hobbled back for the safety of the porch. He dove for the stairs, while talking almost incoherently to himself. ¡°Stupid freaking'' rain, stupid stupid stupid!¡± 1 by 1, Winter, Garrett, Avera and Oscar joined us on the porch. The rain was accompanied by bright flashes of lightning, and the appropriate cracks of thunder. Everyone flinched whenever the thunder came by, much to the amusement of Oscar and Winter. Winter guided everyone inside, where we all made ourselves comfy on the living room furniture. It didn''t take Garrett much time to have his boots kicked off and legs propped up on the coffee table. Avera was already busy noting the weather conditions on her own tablet, but this job would have gone to Michael, except he was already busy cowering under a couple towels. The television had already been turned on, but it was muted. An odd looking weatherman, a bird I believe it was, was busy pointing at a rectangular map behind him. Text and other tidbits of information scrolled along the bottom of the screen but I, nor any other of my crewmates could read it. We could understand and respond back to spoken language on this planet, but we couldn''t understand any written text. Winter came by as I joined Garrett on the couch, and she picked up the TV remote and held it in our faces. ¡°This button changes the volume, and this button turns it off. Do me a favor and don''t change the channel.¡± She said, handing the remote to me. Garrett leaned forward, ¡°What if I want to change the channel?¡± He asked. ¡°If you don''t like it, go outside.¡± Winter said, pointing at the door. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°But it''s raining?¡± He said, looking out the living room window with confusion. Winter briefly had a smile, ¡°Grab an umbrella.¡± she said before turning and walking off. I turned my focus to the remote below me. It was a small rectangular thing, not too far from the ones I was familiar with. I moved my thumb to the volume button and pressed it. We were finally able to hear the TV, which was still set to the weather program. ¡°-western Kansas will likely be experiencing more rainfall on Tuesday. And moving over to the southeast, the rain will be continuing over the Hutchinson and Wichita area until around midnight. We''d recommend you stay up to date with the weather forecast, since it is that time of year for tornadoes.¡± Oscar was present, watching the broadcaster attentively. ¡°And we are near that Wichita place, right?¡± Asked Garrett, pointing at the TV. ¡°Well kinda, we are right outside of a small town called grenola. Wichita is about a 2 hour drive away.¡± Oscar said. Avera looked up from her tablet, ¡°That must have been the lights we saw.¡± she said, lost in a thought. Oscar nodded, ¡°That sounds about ri-¡± A sudden, bright flash of lightning flooded through the windows. Oscar only was able to say the words ¡°Uh oh¡± before the violent crack of thunder shook the house. BANG! I flinched as the violent crack of thunder hit the house. Everyone''s hands went to their ears, sending Averas tablet flying to the floor. The lamp behind me shut off, along with the TV. A couple moments later they both came back on. Garrett shook his head back and forth, he was probably suffering from the ringing as I was. ¡°That was a loud one¡­¡± Oscar remarked as he peered out the window. ¡°Have any other useful information?¡± Avera spat out as she slowly moved to pick up her fallen tablet. Winter quickly came running into the room, ¡°You guys good? She asked, looking around at everyone. I put a weak thumbs up, ¡°head hurts now.¡± I replied. Vita leaned her head back on the chair she was in, ¡°Don''t have anything for that, sorry¡­¡± she said as she rubbed her hand on the top of her head. ¡°It will be gone soon.¡± Avera said. She raised herself up off the couch, ¡°Garrett, have you and Michael had any luck getting information off the storage bank?¡± ¡°Well,¡± Garrett said, looking around. ¡°Where is Michael?¡± I turned my head back and forth, and noticed the giant towel covered lump that was crouched on the floor, right next to the couch I was on. I leaned over towards him, ¡°Michael? You alright bud?¡± He didn''t respond. I slowly worked my way off the couch and towards him. I put my hand on his shoulder and tried to turn him around. He still didn''t react. His only movements were heavy trembles. Vita and Garrett joined me on the floor as the others watched on to see what was wrong. ¡°Hey we''re all here, you''ll be okay¡­¡± Vita said softly to him, ¡°it''s alright.¡± Michael let out a low, unsettling grumble. After a couple of tries we were able to turn him around so he was facing us. His visor was dim and emotionless. I could sense he was confused. And scared. we all were. Vita fruitlessly waved her hand in front of him, to which he didn''t do anything. ¡°What did that lighting do to you?¡± She asked in a voice heavy with sympathy. I got up to get out of Vita''s way, ¡°How do we snap him out of this?¡± I asked. Garrett looked at Michael a bit longer¡­ ¡°I think I know.¡± He said. Everyone immediately looked at him, curious about his answer. ¡°Way back when we were controlled by the Primagens¡­ they used loud noises as a psychological trigger. It made it easier to quickly stop a protogen in whatever they were doing. A sudden loud noise stuns our brain, making it ¡®trip on itself¡¯. This causes all cognitive abilities to momentarily seize.¡± Winter and Oscar shared a look of complete confusion when Garrett finished his explanation. ¡°Controlled by primagens?¡± Asked Winter, yearning for a further explanation. ¡°Who''s going to explain?¡± Garrett asked in defeat. ¡°Ah, I will,¡± Avera said. ¡°You see, many hundreds of years ago we were a very simple species. until at one point, we were found by a group who were called primagens. As advanced as they were, they still took us for their own needs. We received mechanical augments, such as our visors. We were upgraded into their image. We fought their wars, followed their orders, and did what they wanted. We became drones. A hivemind. It was that way for a long, long time. Nobody had a conscience. For reasons unknown, a small group of protogens became aware. They gained what they had lost, individuality. They fought back, revolted. It was our uprising. The primagens did their best to quell it, but they were pitifully outnumbered by their own creations. By the time we left Zenith, the primagen and protogen homeworld, all the primagens had been killed and along with most of the protogens. Those who had survived went off in exploration of the unknown. One of the groups of protogens found the planet Aureon. That was 100 years ago. I do hope this explanation helps.¡± ¡°Woah¡­ that''s intense.¡± Winter quietly said. ¡°And what has happened since then?¡± Asked Oscar. Avera sighed, ¡°We devolved, to put it simply. We developed the means of natural reproduction, our life spans shortened, and we have long since lost many of our augments. We are a far cry of our ancestors who lived on Zenith, and we are proud of that. We are unique and we truly experience life.¡± Oscar and Winter were silent. I couldn''t tell if they were about to cry from the information bomb, or from the fact they hadn''t blinked. It''s convenient that blinking is something I don''t even have to worry about. ¡°So, anyways,¡± I said, ¡°How long is Michael going to be like this? It''s not going to be permanent, is it?¡± ¡°Oh it wont, or at least it shouldn''t¡± Garrett replied, ¡°If studying serves me correctly, his current mental state should only last 10 to 30 minutes.¡± I took a long look into Michael''s eyes, ¡°hang in there, you''ll be out of it soon enough.¡± I said, patting him on the shoulder. It just was not easy seeing him in such a state, stripped of his mind. Winter went up to the doorway towards the kitchen and stopped, ¡°Sooo¡­ I could make some tea for you all while we wait for him to get back to his senses.¡± ¡°That would be fine, thank you.¡± I nodded. Vita and Avera, with great effort, moved Michael onto one of the living room couches. Oscar fetched a blanket from one of the closets and put it over Michael. After some discussion, it was decided to leave him alone for a little bit. We made our way into the dining room where we all took a seat at the large table. Vita and Garrett began furiously typing away on their own computers, making sure to type every detail of Michael¡¯s new condition. Oscar was playing with his thumbs, staring off at who knows what. As for the commander and I, we both sat deep in thought. What if we all become susceptible to any sudden loud noises? What if Michael never snaps out of it? The dining room continued to be briefly lit up by flashes of lightning, followed by the distance rumble of thunder. The worst of the storm was beginning to pass, so the thunder wasn''t going to be as bad. Unfortunately there was still a while before the storm would end completely. Winter came out of the kitchen holding a large tray with glasses of dark liquid, tea, as it was called. A large pitcher and some small white cubes were also present. She passed a glass to everyone, and we all took an eager sip. It tasted funny in a good way. Apparently it was common to put a sweetener in these drinks as well. It was something I''d have to try. as I reached forward to grab a small cube of sugar on the tray, the strangest thing happened. A low orange flash bled through the window shutters. This was immediately followed by a distant roar and a low, deep rumbling sensation. The whole house shook as it happened. The orange flash stopped shortly thereafter along with the shaking. I wasn''t sure if it was the lightning that had caused it. A quick, short ¡®thud¡¯ was felt as well. As if something small had also hit close by. ¡°The hell was that?¡± Said Oscar, getting up from his seat. ¡°Did a transformer blow up again?¡± Winter looked equally shocked, ¡°We still have power!¡± She ran to the window and opened a shutter, ¡°What the fuck?¡± She whispered. Everyone else joined her at the window, myself included. It looked misty outside, you couldn''t see very far. Far in the distance, a subtle orange glow reflected off the sky. It almost looked like it was flickering. Could something have been on fire? What if the lightning lit someone''s house on fire? We all looked Dumbfounded as we stared at the distant glow. I didn''t know if we should have been going outside at that moment to check what happened. But if we went outside and were close to any lightning, we might be sent into shock like Michael. ¡°Oscar, get your raincoats and boots, NOW!¡± Winter yelled as she ran into the living room. He followed her, with us protogens in tow behind them. Winter stuffed her arms in a bright yellow jacket, and Oscar followed with his own blue jacket. ¡°Where are you all going?¡± Garrett asked, squinting at them. ¡°Outside. I want to know what just happened.¡± Said Winter. ¡°You guys stay here. I don''t want you all to end up like your friend.¡± ¡°No.¡± Avera said, ¡°I''m going as well.¡± We all looked at her like she was crazy. I was beginning to think she was crazy. ¡°Wait, you can''t just be going out there.¡± I said to her. She nodded, ¡°As my second in command, you have the right to challenge any of my decisions, Lucas.¡± she bent down and picked up her flight boots, ¡°But as the first in command, I also have the authority to do what I want, whether it''s a good decision or not.¡± ¡°Alright let''s go.¡± Avera said, painting at the front door. ¡°Jesus christ, okay then.¡± Oscar said, ¡°See you guys again in a minute.¡± Winter opened the door, letting in a gust of cold air. They all filed their way out onto the front porch. ¡°Screw this, I want to watch.¡± I said as I stepped past everyone else. I followed the trio out onto the porch. It was very gusty outside, and a chilling wind could be felt as well. Out over the treeline, the orange glow had become much fainted, likely a result of the constant rainfall. The commander stepped off the porch along with the wolves, walking a course toward the treeline. They didn''t even get halfway across the yard before a figure began emerging from the mist. I couldn''t tell who it was, but they had a bulky figure and looked to be holding a large knife. Avera stopped in her tracks as the person drew closer. I noticed they were orange, kinda like Garrett. It looked like an old flight suit, including the helmet. Within a couple yards of the trio, the person stopped as well. They stood frozen for a couple seconds. Slowly, their hands reached up towards their helmet. It twisted and came off, revealing the outline of a protogen. Over the noise of distant thunder, the frantic pitch of Avera''s voice could be heard. ¡°...Conrad?¡± End of chapter 16 Fun Fact: The Protogen Generation originally started life as a webtoon comic called Proto-Life. This was done in 2022 with a close friend of mine. The comic itself didn''t get very far before I gave up on drawing it. The plot of the first ¡®season¡¯ was very different, and involved the teen versions of Lucas, Michael and Kyle. They basically found a little portal box that accidentally brought a wolf to their own world. The second ¡®season¡¯ was going to involve Lucas and Michael going to space. Things happened, and they would use that portal box to save themselves, and would be sent to wolf earth as a result. You can see where TPG got its current plot from. And out of all the characters, Michael has probably remained the least changed of all the characters from his original concept in 2022, and was based on/created by the co-author. And I''d say that Lucas is most closely based on myself. If you have any questions regarding the story, please let me know. I love hearing comments from readers! Reunions A/N: Conrad was found in the last chapter. There was a typo with Oscar''s name instead. KYLE''S P.O.V Something cold and damp brushed against my visor. I instinctively reached up to move whatever it was, and quickly realized my arm wouldn''t move. In a mix of grogginess and pain, I opened my eyes to see why. I found myself in the middle of a tree, still strapped to my seat¡­ Above me, a ripped and tattered parachute howled around in the intense rain. The parachute cords had been cut and tangled and now surrounded me like a group of bloodthirsty snakes, restricting almost all of my movement. Rain came falling from everywhere, soaking my fur with freezing cold results. My helmet was gone, and I didn''t have a clue where it went. And all I could think was how did I even get here? Last I ever saw was that I was in the Adastra, things went dark, and I thought I was going to die¡­ did I die? What about Conrad? Was he alright? Had I died, I probably wouldn''t be in a tree right now, which answers that question. But I still don''t remember ejecting. It couldn''t have been done automatically, at least I didn''t think it could. Below, the ground lay waiting for me. From where I was, it was maybe a 9 or 10 meter drop to get down. The idea of falling that far wasn''t great, but the only way out of this tree was going down. In order to even get down, I had to get myself untangled first. This would have been easy with a knife, but go figure, the only knife I could use, along with survival supplies, was attached to the back of the chair. The chair swayed back in fourth as it was pushed around within the tree. The ends of branches poked into my sides no matter which direction I tried shifting myself towards. In front of me, a small branch kept coming back and hitting my visor. I tried tilting my head but it was no use, until I tried grabbing the branch using my mouth to stop it from hitting me. The shape of my visor didn''t make this easy, I had a short and round visor when compared to Lucas or Michael. I timed the movement of the branch so as it came closer, I was able to reach forward and chomp on it. As I did so, I heard a light snapping noise come from the branch. Then an idea struck me, much harder than the branch had. I could use the branch to leverage the parachute cords off my arms! I bit even harder on the side of the branch with a newfound determination. With as much movement as I could get out of my neck, I flailed my head around as quickly as I could to get the branch to break. It snapped more and more and I could feel it begin to give way. I readjusted my bite and gave a final tug, disconnecting a small piece of branch from the rest of the tree. I immediately took the end of the branch and began pushing it past my shoulder and down my arm. After I got it past most of the cords securing my arm, I once again bit the end of the stick and moved it as far to the side as I could. The cords began to untighten, and I was finally able to loosen my arm. I desperately wiggled my arm, and along with moving the stick as much as I could, I managed to slither one of my arms free from the rope''s grasp. With my arm now free, I was able to reach behind the seat and grab the handle of a small survival knife. The knife wasn''t very big, but it could still cut. I cut the rest of the cords that were around my other arm and legs, including some that had gotten wrapped around my chest. I now had much better access to my seat harness. I pressed the center pad of the harness, making it unbuckled. Now that I''m free of my parachute entrapment, I now had to find a way to get down. If I lean forwards and simply jump out, I''ll probably eat dirt the hardest I ever will in my life. Alternatively I could stay up here and end up with hypothermia. I sat and thought¡­ What if I climb down? Not necessarily by the branches, I''ll eat dirt one way or another trying to do that, but if I used a piece of one of the parachute cords, I could just slide down holding onto that. I took one of the cords I had cut and tied one end of it to a grab handle on the seat. I then joined another length of cord to this so it would be long enough to reach the ground. With my makeshift rope complete, I was ready to slide down. Before I did this final act, I reached back behind the chair to get any extra supplies I could use. To my astonishment, there was only 1 survival bag. No emergency pistol, no rations, just a small bag with a blanket and firestarters. Then I realized that all perishables, including rations and energy pistols, which could become unstable in long term storage, would have been removed after the Adastra was decommissioned. I slung the only bag around my shoulder before I gripped the rope. I held on for dear life as I pushed myself off the chair. Within moments I was quickly picking up speed towards the ground. I tightened my grip on the cord, but with the bulky gloves I had on, it didn''t slow me down much. As the ground got closer, I bent my legs for the impact. With uncomfortable speed, my legs hit the ground. I threw myself to the side as this happened and began a short roll to stop the fall completely. I landed in a pile of mud, which helped in the end. I couldn''t help but laugh. My great flight to space ended with me army rolling into a pile of mud. Amelia would have been proud of me. Now that I was on the ground and not halfway in a tree, the rain didn''t seem to be as bad. My head was still soaked, though. And the thunder¡­ it was still loud and annoying. I took a seat at the base of the tree I had just been trapped in, and I began to rummage through the survival bag. Some basic firestarters, a small thermal blanket, and¡­ that was it. No radio, no food, water or anything else useful. The firestarter, at the very least, could work in rain. It was a simple metallic disk that was capable of lighting itself on fire. Even without kindling, the starter could create a very warm flame. All you had to do was set the disk on the ground and firmly hold the sides of it with both hands. I did the steps, and within seconds a nice little flame was emitted from the disk. It was a good time to get myself out of the rain. I noticed some nearby trees, which would be useful. I took the thermal blanket and tied it between the trees, which provided some half decent shelter. I could already feel myself starting to doze off¡­ I tried to fight it, but after 5 or 10, or maybe 15 minutes, I began to lose. I closed my eyes as the soothing sound of rain thumped against the leaves. THE NEXT MORNING The whooshing of wind through countless trees echoed throughout the forest. A calm was casted on everything. The rain and thunder was replaced by sunshine. I rolled off the tree root I had fallen asleep on. It wasn''t a great bed and I felt terribly sore as a result. I let out a well needed stretch as I got up off the ground. I already felt hungry, but my food options were limited¡­ actually nonexistent. If I was right that this was an alien planet and not Aureon, I didn''t know if any plants were even edible to me. And staying right here wouldn''t do any good either. Yeah, I understand that once you''re lost, you should stay put. But I''m WAY past that point now. Conrad is probably out here somewhere, and finding him was the only thing I could do now. I took down my little shelter along with the firestarter and neatly packed them into their bag. I had a rough idea of which direction was which based on the position of the sun. I figured if I kept going in some direction, I''d hit a stream or something. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. With the bag on my shoulder, I began my trek into the unknowns of this forest. 5 HOURS LATER. I''ve found a trail¡­ I''ve been following it for the last few miles. Based on various tracks on the ground, it''s well traveled. The sun was high up in the sky, it must have been noon or shortly past it. I still haven''t found any sign of Conrad, or the EX-5''s crew. And as far as food went, I still haven''t found anything that''s been edible. I crossed by a small stream which gave me some water at the very least. You know, something I''ve noticed with this planet is just how green it is. The grass, the trees, everything. It was all alive. Back on Aureon, we had trees and grass, but they just weren''t as vivid as the ones here. It could be from different levels of oxygen, or from the simple wow factor¡­ or maybe both. Sunlight still flooded through all the vegetation, it was incredibly pleasant. Far up ahead on the trail, a large, unimpeded patch of sunlight shone through like a beacon. It caught my attention, as if calling to me. I picked up my pace down the path, eager to find out more. The patch only got brighter, and as I neared closer, the sky became visible through the trees. I stopped in the middle of it, staring upwards toward the sky. The trees above had been ripped apart. When I followed the direction of the damage¡­ The EX-5. It was here. In this little forest. Like a wounded beast, it sat quietly amongst the trees and mud. As if sleeping, waiting for its next moment to strike. A wave of anxiety washed over me upon the sight. My legs suddenly felt weak, and that I would fall any second. But it didn''t matter. I stepped closer, and stepped again. Before I knew it, I was running towards the fallen craft, jumping over broken tree limbs and wreckage. ¡°MICHAEL!¡± I yelled, waving my arms frantically as I neared. ¡°ANYONE! I''M HERE!¡± Nobody was though¡­ Well, I was wrong¡­ to a gut wrenching degree. At the base of one of the surrounding trees, sat a mound of dirt with a cracked white helmet. No, it couldn''t be, I thought. No¡­ But when I went to see it closer for myself, it was indeed a grave¡­ the bloodied helmet was Wilkinsons. Scott Wilkinsons. I was silent, not even a thought could enter my mind. It had happened, someone was killed. I wanted to save everyone. But here was the reminder that wasn''t going to happen. I never even knew Scott personally. But what I did know was people loved him. There is someone who will wake up without him and not be happy¡­ ¡°I will save them¡­¡± I said, shaking. I backed away slowly, unwilling to disturb him any further. I turned towards the ship itself. It was in better condition than It''s surroundings. A torn tail, landing gear, and a giant gash in its side. It was pockmarked, like it was hit point blank by a shotgun. The worry in my chest came to a peak, where were the other graves? Nobody should have survived this. But it was here¡­ and it landed. At the very least Lucas or the commander Would have had to survived for this to be the case. I circled around to the front where I found some confirmation of my theory. The emergency egress had been blown out and a now deflated slide was in its place. The cargo hatch had been opened and bits of supplies had been littered everywhere. I made my way over to the hatch where I found a ladder going up into the cargo bay. I looked toward the dimly lit abyss that was above me. With some hesitation, I took hold of the ladder and pulled myself up it. After a few short steps I was in the cargo bay. The only light came from a large hole, the giant gash that was on the fuselage. The cargo bay was a mess. Everything had been rummaged through or broken completely. I had to get to the crew compartment. Near the floor on the bulkhead, the faint outline of a small hatch could be seen. I crawled towards it and tugged it open. A thick metallic odor hit my nose, making me wrinkle my head back. What the heck? I forced myself through the hatch and into the crew area. More light streamed in through the large windscreen, which was evidently cracked just as bad as the Adastra''s had been. The absolute carnage of this compartment could not have been described¡­ Everything was red. Every. Single. Surface. The metal I could smell wasn''t from the spacecraft, but from blood. I hated to think what truly happened. What was it that led to this? I made my way up towards the commander and pilot seat. I briefly ran my hand across the controllers, indecisive of what to do. After I looked, I found one of the circuit breakers to the cockpit avionics computers. I flipped it, which led to a cascade of screens coming to life. Unlike the adastra, this thing actually used screens. From Lucas''s seat, I brought up the EX-5¡¯s log. After their failed jump, things went as I expected. They tried to call for help and troubleshoot. As I looked further, things worsened. At some point, the go-ahead for an EVA was given. It was Scott and Michael. A voice recording was also present. ¡°Oh fuck!¡± ¡°Report?¡± ¡°You good there, michael?¡± ¡°A large chunk of debris just went by!¡± ¡°What-¡± ¡°Hey, we need to get inside now!¡± Many small pings could be heard, and they would slowly get louder. ¡°We have multiple hull impacts, everyone get your helmets!¡± A giant bang was heard before the recording momentarily cut off. ¡°FUCK! LUCAS IS OUT!¡± ¡°Where are the guys!¡± ¡°SCOTT! MICHAEL! COME IN!¡± ¡°I cant- I can''t get the spin under control!¡± ¡°I''m slipping out of my seat harness!¡± ¡°VITA! Hold on, i''ll help y-¡± The recording came to an unexpected stop. My only guess was it lost power, inevitably done by one of the impacts. Was this really how Scott met his end? What about Michael¡­ my beloved Michael. He was with him. He couldn''t have been killed, could he? No, I didn''t want that. I didn''t want to think it. It couldn''t be true. I shut down the computers and turned back to get out. I didn''t like what I saw. I was concerned. Disgusted. And I was scared. A small flipped open panel caught my eye as I neared the little hatch to the cargo bay. Inside the opening had some survival supplies that had been taken out. However, a pistol remained. I double checked, 1 pistol. 5 others are gone. It looked more and more that Scott was the only casualty. The others must have been alive. I eagerly took the pistol for myself, but checked it carefully. It was fully charged. Now that I was armed with more than a knife, I went back through the hatch to the cargo bay. It never occurred to me to look through any of the crates, it looked like they''d already been sifted through. I slid back down the ladder, hitting the dirt once again. A low dragging noise permeated the air, catching my attention. Through some distant trees, I noticed a cloud of dust quickly approaching. Fuck! Somebody is coming. I bolted off towards a nearby tree without much thought. It wasn''t my best idea to go hide behind it, but with a gun, anything could work. I stood rigid behind the tree with the pistol clutched to my chest, I really didn''t know what to be expecting. The vehicle that was coming down the trail came to a stop not far from where I was. Its engine was shut off and was followed by the slamming of a door. I peaked my head over the side and saw a white truck¡­ and a person, the driver I guessed, inspecting the EX-5. They had a weird head. It was kind of ugly. No visor, nothing. Just a long mouth. And they seemed busy talking on a phone or something like that. ¡°Wait what did you want me to get? ¡­No, I don''t know what that is. Why couldn''t you have sent Garrett with me? ¡­Tell him he can check on Michael later, he''s been completely fine since he woke up- Yes I swear I won''t take any photos¡­ Goodbye? But I don''t even know what-¡± ¡°Hell,¡± the person said, ¡°yeah, send me out alone to find some niche alien metal and then not tell me what it is..¡± Michael? Did it just say Michael? It had to have known where the crew was! Like predator and prey I focused on the creature. I withdrew from the cover of the tree with the pistol drawn, prepared to fire it. I slowly crept up to whomever this thing was. They had their back turned to me, busy inspecting some large flake of metal on the ground. I raised the gun to their head. ¡°Do not move. I will kill you. Where are they?¡± I asked slowly. The person froze, and I heard a slight gasp. ¡°WHERE IS THE CREW!¡± I yelled, ¡°ANSWER ME!¡± The person slowly rose upwards. They turned towards me, avoiding any sudden movements. The thing looked at me with a surprised expression¡­ ¡°Kyle, isn''t it?¡± The creature asked. ¡°How do you-¡± I stuttered, ¡°just tell me where the crew is or I''ll be the last thing you ever see!¡± It slowly raised its arms, ¡°They are all okay, including Conrad. We found him yesterday¡­ put the gun down. I know there isn''t anything in that.¡± I pointed the gun towards the sky and pulled the trigger, releasing a short jet of plasma into the air. The creature looked taken aback, ¡°Oh-¡± it said, ¡°Just put that down, I''ll take you to them.¡± ¡°Where.¡± I asked sharply. ¡°Down the trail. 10 minutes away.¡± He said, pointing towards the way he had come. ¡°Take me to them. Do anything stupid and I will shoot you.¡± I said. The creature nodded and gestured towards the truck. I got the message and followed him towards it. ¡°I''m Oscar,¡± it said, ¡°Conrad and Michael have told me about you¡­ Everyone, uh, thinks that you are dead.¡± I remained silent with my gun still pointed at it. I found the door latch and opened, getting into the passenger seat of the truck. Oscar got into the driver''s seat and started the truck, and we began driving down towards the path. ¡°Could you stop pointing that at me?¡± it asked. ¡°Shut up.¡± I said. ¡°Do you guys have seatbelts on your planet? Because if I hit the brakes, you''ll go flying into the glove compartment.¡± said Oscar, pointing towards my unbuckled seat belt. Point taken, I slowly lowered the gun away from Oscar. The truck barreled down the path until we cleared the forest. It quickly went from trees to grassy fields. Among the large fields was a white farmhouse. As we neared, my stomach began to feel queasy. The truck pulled to a stop outside the front of the house. ¡°They are here.¡± He said, opening his door. ¡°Go. Go see them.¡± He said, pointing at the house. I followed suit and quickly made my way to the door. I reached toward the handle¡­ What would I say? I twisted the handle and pushed the door open. I cautiously walked inside, still holding the pistol. Inside, I at first didn''t see anyone. I began to think it was a trap. But it was not. Among the couches, Vita sat nestled against some pillows with her tablet in her hands. She looked up to see who had come in the door, when she made eye contact with me, her expression was pure shock. ¡°Where is he?¡± I asked quietly. But she just stared at me, unable to say a single word. Useless, I thought. I was happy to see her, see her well, but I wanted to see Michael and Lucas. They were the only ones I wanted to see. I moved past her, venturing deeper into the house. I found what looked like a dining room, where I saw another one of the weird creatures sitting at the table. ¡°Where¡­ is Michael.¡± I said, haphazardly waving the pistol around my waist. The creature looked at me blankly. ¡°Good lord¡­ he said you were gone!¡± I''m not gone, you idiot! I''m standing right here! I just want my friends! ¡°..Lucas and Michael are at the end of the hall¡± said the creature, likely sensing the end of my patience. I didn''t waste any more of my time in the dining room and immediately searched for the hallway. I circled back towards the living room where Vita was, and found the hallway. I was already heading down in before Vita had the time to question me. I found an open door at the end of the hallway. I pushed the door open all the way¡­ Michael was on a bed, busy reading something. Lucas was messing around on a laptop while in an undersized armchair. I could feel a tear forming¡­ I had so many emotions. Michael saw me in the doorway¡­ He ran through just as many emotions as I, and you could see it. I stepped towards him, crying. He wrapped his arms around me when I was close enough, lifting me up towards the bed. He didn''t say anything. He just hugged me as tight as he could. ¡°I tried¡± I said between light sobs, ¡°Everyone thought you all died!¡± ¡°And I thought I wouldn''t see you again..¡± Michael said softly. Lucas had jumped out of the armchair, ¡°KYLE!¡± He said surprised. ¡°How! Conrad said¡­ he said you were lost with the adastra-¡± It didn''t matter. I was with my friends. Heavy footsteps came crashing through the hallway. Conrad frantically slammed into the doorframe, looking like he''d been running for a month non stop. ¡°YOU''RE ALIVE!¡± He said out of breath, ¡°I never saw you eject..¡± ¡°Don''t¡­ care.¡± I said. I was already drifting off into sleep before I felt the commotion of even more people entering the room. End of chapter 17 R.I.P. the split story arc. You were weird to write while you lasted. authors note: I aimed for a 2,500 word chapter and finished a 3 800 word chapter instead. This was done in a week. You all are welcome. Mentally, I''m just as tired of writing this chapter as Kyle is, which ironically made the ending easier to write. Have questions, concerns or recommendations? Leave a comment below! I love reading comments. See you all in chapter 18! Hide or Disguise Lucas''s EX-5 log entry. I''m adding onto Avera''s last entry from yesterday¡­ we haven''t had the time to make one for today. Yesterday, Kyle Raymond, a close friend and colleague of mine, found the crashed EX-5 and subsequently found his way to Winter''s house. With him and Conrad Carlin now safely with us, we''ve now gotten a better understanding of how they got here. After we vanished from our failed warp jump, they both commandeered a decommissioned test craft, the Adastra, to find us. They were successful and made it into orbit of Earth. Upon making contact with one of earth''s orbital structures, they were forced out of orbit. The Adastra broke up during reentry and Kyle and Conrad miraculously survived. This brings the official headcount of surviving protogens to 7. Avera, myself, Michael, Garrett, Vita, and now Kyle and Conrad. This leaves Scott as the only casualty. And until 2 days ago, our presence here has been subtle. But with most of the Adastra¡¯s wreckage crashing only a couple miles south of the house, into an angry fireball no less, it has stirred the local community. The rainstorm must have put out most of the fire, but it still didn''t stop people from finding its wreckage. By the morning of the crash yesterday, it was already being displayed on the TV. Unsurprisingly nobody actually knows what the wreckage is from. Some broadcasters debated for over an hour on what it was. What fools these people were. With the threat of the EX-5 being found at its current height, we were forced to partially bury it so it couldn''t be seen from the air. Burying it is a bit of an exaggeration, but we did cover it in a lot of shrubs and branches. And unless repairing the EX-5 is viable, we might be stuck on this planet. When we do formulate a plan, I or somebody else will put down an entry with it. End of log entry. LUCAS¡¯S P.O.V I sat the little tablet on the living room coffee table while Garrett and I watched the TV. For the last week or so everyone has been mostly outside exploring winter''s property. But with the Adastra''s crash, Avera forbade any of us from leaving the house to avoid us being found out. Since we were a bunch of glorified scientists meant for outdoor exploration, being cooped up inside all day gave us shockingly little to do. Any information we would have been gathering, as it turns out, was available through a large network system called the internet. Through audio, we can gather a lot of useful information. Until we can figure out written language, spoken language and such will have to do. Garrett found an interesting documentary on the TV which I joined in on, since I didn''t have much to do. The documentary was about ¡®The Americas¡¯ , the continent which we had landed on. It featured many animals that lived here, which Garrett found captivating. The weirdest bit of all was that it was centered around wild animals. It went over species such as wolves, but they were quadrupedal. The only difference between them and Winter was that Winter was bipedal and sentient. This applied to many other species. There were wild ones and their bipedal counterparts. From an evolutionary perspective it made zero sense. When I asked Winter and Oscar about it, they couldn''t explain it either. Garrett was so hung up on the concept that he eventually gave up trying to find an explanation as to why it was. I couldn''t blame him, I found it just as confusing. Besides the evolutionary questions, we also found ourselves watching some history documentaries. One documentary talked about this crazy guy named Hitler, while another talked about Antarctic expeditions. The things that we could learn through these shows and documentaries were astounding and scary. Winter occasionally came by and asked if we needed anything, to which I didn''t need much. Garrett on the other hand asked for some water. Winter went back to the kitchen and came back with some water and grapes. She handed the glass to Garrett and then took a seat beside me. ¡°You know, I''ve been wanting to see this documentary,¡± she said, ¡°it''s narrated by one of my favorite actors.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Asked Garrett. ¡°An actor, Tom Shmanks. Been in a whole bunch of movies. He was in this one movie called Apollo-13, you guys might like tha- actually wait you probably wouldn''t.¡± Winter said before popping a grape in her mouth. ¡°Uhm, alright.¡± I said, ¡°Any good movies you''d still recommend?¡± ¡°Oh!¡± said Winter, ¡°Codename Alpha!¡± It''s a movie about this spaceship that accidentally goes through a wormhole and then it''s crew meets the people of earth- wait a second-¡± ¡°That is suspiciously similar to what has happened to us¡­¡± said Garrett, squinting at Winter. ¡°You guys get weirder and weirder,¡± I added before I took a handful of grapes from winter. ¡°You guys eat so much food, good god¡± she said, staring at me. ¡°You all have the combined metabolism of a jet engine.¡± Garrett chuckled, ¡°Under certain conditions our metabolism can slow down a lot, allowing us to go large periods without eating. But in most cases we still require a lot of energy to function, which means eating a lot.¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°That explains a lot, thanks.¡± winter said. While we all talked, Garrett and I began counting to see who could steal the most grapes. I managed 6 before winter swatted me away, and Garrett got 4 before the grapes ran out. Interrupting the fun, Vita walked into the room while holding her own tablet. ¡°Where is Michael? I need to check his leg.¡± she asked. ¡°He''s in his room with Kyle, I wouldn''t bother them though.¡± I said. ¡°Why?¡± Asked Vita. ¡°Because they both could use some alone time together¡­ they would probably enjoy being left undisturbed.¡± Vita didn''t seem to get the hint and still turned to go to Michael''s room. ¡°I''m sorry, what?¡± Said Winter, dead panning at me. ¡°Uhhhh¡­¡± I looked at Garrett for any advice, but he just shrugged. Vita''s voice broke out from the hallway, ¡°OOOH THAT''S WHAT THEY MEANT- ..ew.¡± Garrett and I burst out laughing as Vita came walking back into the living room. ¡°...Told ya.¡± I said, still laughing. ¡°The hell are they doing?¡± Winter asked demandingly, ¡°I don''t need you guys doing some weird shit in my house!¡± ¡°They are kissing rather personally, nothing too bad.¡± Vita said, ¡°Just uhm, let me know when they are done with¡­ that.¡± ¡°They ain''t gonna be screwing each other in there, are they?¡± Winter asked, now concerned. ¡°Probably not.¡± I said Winter opened her mouth, ¡°What do you mean probably-¡± ¡°NEW CONVERSATION!¡± Garrett yelled out, ¡°How about we all go do something?¡± ¡°Like what?¡± Asked Winter. ¡°I don''t know, didn''t think that far.¡± Said Garrett, ¡°We could go bother the commander?¡± ¡°Bother Avera? Are you all childish? Do they send children to space in your culture?¡± Asked Winter. ¡°I''m not childish, nor a child. I''m a respectable 27 years old. And Garrett here is only a week older than I am.¡± I said back to her. ¡°That didn''t fully answer my question.¡± she said. ¡°OK to answer that, we aren''t children. We simply joke around a lot. We are highly experienced individuals, and some of the most capable that Aureon could muster. We''ve lost one of our comrades, we''re stuck in this house, and can''t leave it or this planet. We''ve no use for moping around. Some humor really helps.¡± ¡°Oh- I see then. I''m sorry for being rude about it, I just kind of expected you guys to be overly professional.¡± She said, ¡°But the fact you guys do joke around so much is kind of refreshing, I don''t think I''d put up very long with a bunch of up-tight aliens..¡± said Winter, cracking a smile towards me. ¡°Oh don''t worry, we are still up-tight. We got Avera and Conrad to thank for that!¡± Garrett said, chuckling to himself. Conrad came out of nowhere, ¡°What about Avera and I?¡± He asked, giving a toxic stare to Garrett. ¡°Nothing¡­¡± he replied quietly. ¡°I''d hope so,¡± Conrad said, ¡°I need you and Lucas to Come to the dining room. I''d prefer that you come as well, Winter.¡± I lifted myself up off the sofa, ¡°Alright, you going to join us, winter?¡± I asked. ¡°Something tells me I''ll have to be joining.¡± She replied. I reached my hand out and helped her up, and we made our way to the dining room. Here, Oscar was sitting at the table while furiously tapping away at his little phone. He looked up to see us, ¡°Well I hate to say this but I have to leave. Nasa needs me at JPL. They will probably send me to Nevada afterwards.¡± Michael and Kyle both stepped into the dining room, followed by Vita. They were both visibly embarrassed, and Vita meanwhile was paying more attention to everyone else in the room. ¡°Oscar, I don''t think they know what any of that stuff is.¡± winter pointed out, which she was right, I didn''t know what he was talking about. ¡°Oh, right,¡± he said, ¡°What I meant is that Nasa, our equivalent of your Carlin Space Agency, needs me to go to an aerospace laboratory. Chances are they have recovered most of the Adastra¡¯s wreckage by now, and our government would really like to know what it is. Since I design the thermal protection systems for solar probes, and if the wreckage is covered in heat tiles, guess who will be forced to study the wreckage?¡± ¡°Yikes¡­¡± Winter said, ¡°Could you slow down their investigation by any bit?¡± ¡°I can''t. Every major governmental agency is going to be involved sooner or later. It is inevitable that they find out that the adastra is from alien origins.¡± He said, standing up. ¡°ALL of you are in danger.¡± He continued, ¡°I must be leaving now. Unless you guys can disguise yourself with holograms- you have to hide. They will be looking for Adastra¡¯s pilots. Good luck to you all.¡± He finished what he had to say and left the dining room. ¡°Good seeing you, Oscar.¡± Winter said, waving her hand goodbye to him. Everyone joined and wished him goodbye, and soon he was out the door. We all took a seat at the table to figure out what to do. We could continue hiding. But I didn''t know how much longer we could do that. ¡°Hologram¡­¡± Michael whispered to himself, ¡°Can''t we do that?¡± He asked, ¡°couldn''t we take one of the holographic displays from the sampling kits and repurpose them to project, say, a wolf''s head over our own?¡± ¡°Yes, that might work.¡± Avers commented. ¡°What about the rest of the body?¡± I asked. ¡°That shouldn''t be an issue,¡± Garrett said, ¡°Our heads do look different to most mammals on this planet. Every other part of our bodies look visually similar to many mammals.¡± ¡°There is an exception to that. You, Lucas and Avera. You guys look like you came out of a pack of skittles.¡± Winter said, trying not to grin. What a great day to be the same color as a pair of jeans. Just great! And she was right, Garrett looked like a carrot and Avera was a weird mix of pinkish purple. Everyone else was a shade of white and black. ¡°We can figure that out later,¡± Michael said, ¡°If we can get a holographic mask to work that will help us a monumental amount.¡± Avera got up from her chair, ¡°That would also require us to scan your head.¡± she said, ¡°I''ll be right back.¡± She left the room for a couple minutes and came back with a small tricorder, a scientific scanning device. She tossed it to Garrett, ¡°Scan Winter''s face.¡± She said, ¡°While you guys do that I''ll help Michael get one of the projectors. We can then use the scans of winter as a base for the projection.¡± Garrett and I turned to winter. ¡°Uhm, That won''t hurt me will it?¡± She asked. ¡°It won''t.¡± He said. Winter shrugged and bowed her head forward so it was easier to scan. Garrett tried repeatedly to scan her head, but it didn''t work. Kyle came over, ¡°Mess around with the scanning frequency,¡± he said, ¡°That should make it work.¡± ¡°Oh, right.¡± He said, and dialed the scanning settings accordingly. ¡°Aha!¡± He said, ¡°Now it''s working.¡± He moved around winter waving the tricorder around her head. Once he made a full circle, he stopped in front of her. ¡°Okay, uh, I hate to ask you this, but please open your mouth.¡± Garrett eagerly said. ¡°I know for a fact you aren''t sorry.¡± She said, ¡°But I know there aren''t any other options for now.¡± Reluctantly, she did open her mouth for Garrett to scan. We were both mesmerized by the many, awfully sharp looking teeth. It weirded me out a bit, but not for Garrett. ¡°Could you kill somebody with those?¡± Kyle asked, peering over. ¡°I could if I wanted to.¡± she replied. Garrett finished the scans, leaving winter free to go. ¡°Who is going to be the test pig?¡± Winter asked, looking at us. Garrett, Kyle and I all turned to Vita. She looked at us confused, ¡°What?¡± she asked. ¡°You have unanimously been chosen as the person to test the holographic mask on. ¡°Okeh,¡± she said. ¡°That could be fun.¡± Aver, Michael and Conrad came into the dining room, and Michael set a large thick band on the table. ¡°We just have to upload the scans to this, and it will in theory project the head of anything you want.¡± Avera said. ¡°Wait, how is Vita going to wear that?¡± Kyle asked. Michael grit his teeth, ¡°Around the neck¡­ like a collar.¡± He said, ¡°Not many other ways to wear it.¡± Vita shrugged, ¡°Oh I won''t mind that.¡± she said, "If it means I can leave this house.¡± ¡°Okay then, let''s get this set up.¡± Garrett said. 2 HOURS LATER. Vita sat perfectly still in one of the dining room chairs as Conrad wrapped the black projection ¡°collar¡± around her neck. ¡°This better work.¡± She said as the device snapped in place. ¡°Alright, try turning it on,¡± Kyle said as he held one of the laptops. Conrad pressed a small makeshift button on the collar, turning it on. Nothing happened at first. Kyle tweaked a couple things through the computer, and slowly, things began to happen. Winter''s face slowly fizzled into the place of Vita''s visor. As it slowly rendered itself, it became clearer after a couple seconds. Vita¡¯s large ears were now replaced by Winter''s smaller ears. ¡°Good god¡­ that is uncanny.¡± Winter said as she watched her own head appear on Vita. ¡°Is it working?¡± Vita asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Michael beamed, ¡°It''s working! You look like a wolf!¡± Garrett handed Vita a mirror. She took it and glanced at the reflection, ¡°Hey, I don''t look bad with this.¡± she said in amazement. ¡°With the hologram or the collar?¡± I asked. ¡°Both.¡± Vita replied, much to everyone''s amusement. ¡°We''ll have enough projectors for everyone, but we''ll need some more head models.¡± Michael said, ¡°I can find some images online you can reference for some.¡± Replied winter, ¡°Just don''t use my face again, it''s creepy.¡± ¡°It''s not like you guys will be mixed up at least,¡± Kyle said, ¡°Vita is a good foot taller than you, winter.¡± ¡°Yeah you''re like what, 7 feet tall?¡± Winter said. ¡°Around that height.¡± Replied Vita. ¡°Once we get the head holograms figured out, you should be prepared to get asked if you play basketball.¡± Winter chuckled. Over the next few hours, we all got the rest of the Hologram projectors. It took even longer to have heads modeled for everyone, but eventually everyone had a holographic collar ready. END OF CHAPTER 18. Author''s note: shout out to fellow Wattpad author SergeantSiler and his book Codename Alpha. It''s a great book. Its plot shares so many parallels to TPG that I just had to reference it, with permission of course. You should definitely go check out the book. Have ideas, recommendations or questions about the protogen generation? Leave a comment. I love hearing feedback. See you all in the next chapter. Another Nervous Wreck Lucas''s P.O.V ¡°Have you found any damage?¡± Avera asked, peering out the windscreen. ¡°No, the antennas are fine. Not a scratch on anything.¡± Responded Scott. ¡°And the heatshield?¡± I asked, peering out the windscreen as well. ¡°No damage.¡± Said Michael, ¡°still looks new.¡± Avera sighed, ¡°Well come back in then. Not much need to have you guys out there.¡± She said into her mic. ¡°Give me a minute, I want to get a look at this view¡­¡± Michael responds. ¡°Be quick.¡± Avera said before glancing out the window again. ¡°Yeah.. The view is stunning though.¡± Replied Scott, ¡°But the continents look kinda funny.¡± ¡°What do you mean they look funny?¡± Garrett asked, ¡°Looks like a bunch of land from in here.¡± ¡°No I mean that it just looks off, ya know?¡± Scott said, ¡°It''s like I can almost recognize it.¡± Avera looked impatient, ¡°Just get back to the airlock.¡± She said, ¡°We can figure the view out later.¡± ¡°Yeah Scott we can figure-¡± Michael said, stopping himself mid sentence. ¡°Uh, what''s that?¡± ¡°What''s what?¡± I asked. ¡°A bunch of small shiny things in the distance.¡± Replied Michael. ¡°Those are called stars,¡± Garrett retorted, ¡°Space is full of them.¡± ¡°But they are getting bigger¡­¡± He said, ¡°Uh Scott we gotta go, right now.¡± ¡°Huh? What are you- Oh shit!¡± Scott said, barely masking his horrified tone. ¡°Space debris!¡± ¡°What?¡± Avera said, ¡°You can''t be serious?¡± Before anything else could be said, the pings of metal ripping through metal shrieked through the cabin. Vita looked around concerned,¡°Uhm-¡± ¡°Get your helmets on!¡± Avera practically yelled. I reached over for my helmet, and by the time it was pulled to my chest, something large struck the ship. Something big hit us, the ship was flung into a violent spin. The helmet escaped my grasp, getting flung out of sight in the process. The ship continued to get peppered by bits of who knows what. Parts of the windshield looked as if it was about to give out while it got obliterated by pieces of debris. As this happened, the sides of the cockpit began to deform around me. Cracks I could have sworn, developed me on all sides. With a violent pop, the once familiar panels of buttons and switches were now replaced by the dark ink of space. In a silent, slow motion, I was ripped from my seat, air sucked from my lungs and all. I clawed at my lack of surroundings, but all it did was spit me further from the ship. I couldn''t breathe¡­ I spun around wildly as I got farther and farther, the ship, the planet, the black void of space, all merging in a streaky line. I choked as things dimmed. Darker, darker, air, air! I shot up on the sofa, gasping for the oxygen I so desperately needed¡­ It was pitch black in the room. The only noise was the distance whooshing of the wind. I was¡­ fine. I could breathe, and I wasn''t floating into space. No, I was just sleeping on the couch. It was a dream, wasn''t it¡­ Still here on Aure- Earth. On Earth. I frantically turned my head, gosh it must be the middle of the night. ¡°You alright?¡± Somebody asked dryly. ¡°What?¡± I said, still out of breath. A lamp turned on in the corner of the room, making me flinch. I could at least see my surroundings now. It was Vita, who was awkwardly curled up on the adjacent sofa-bed. She could barely fit on it given her size. Winter showed us how to turn the couch into a bed by unfolding a hidden mattress, but even then Vita still had to curl up to fit. Unfortunately the couch I was on didn''t have the pop-out bed. Kinda sucks. I rubbed my hand across my visor, ¡°Just had a nightmare, that''s all.¡± I said, ¡°got sucked out of the EX-5.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°Oh,¡± she said, ¡°that doesn''t sound very pleasant. ¡°It really isn''t, don''t even know if I''ll be getting back to sleep now.¡± I said, resting my head back onto a pillow. Vita sat up with her hands clasped, ¡°I can stay up if you would like. I once had a nightmare when I was little, hated the silence of being awake after it.¡± ¡°Ah, thank you Vita, but you don''t have to.¡± I said quietly. ¡°Nah, it''s fine.¡± She said, ¡°And hey, if you have anything on your mind, feel free to say so. I haven''t really had much to talk about in the last few weeks anyway.¡± ¡°Well,¡± I thought. What have I been thinking about? Being stuck here? How will we leave this place? Will we leave? It was hard to think of 1 thing. There were multiple things to be mulling over. Heck, Winter and Oscar are doing all they can and it isn''t affecting much¡­ Okay, maybe not entirely for Winter. She was giving us free housing and food¡­ plus she was really nice. Talking with her was lots of fun. ¡°Are you still there?¡± Vita asked, chuckling. ¡°Wha- oh, yes. Thinking about winter, I guess.¡± I said, ¡°The aliens here are cool.¡± ¡°I like her, I''d say.¡± replied Vita, ¡°We¡¯d be in quite the pickle if it wasn''t for her being as kind as she is.¡± I smiled, ¡°I agree, and she loves space which is a plus.¡± I said. She nodded, ¡°I''ll leave you to those thoughts. I also do have a general question to ask you.¡± she said, looking at me. ¡°Ask away,¡± I said, turning over to see her. ¡°Do you really think we''ll return home?¡± She asked, focusing on me for a response. I sighed, ¡°I can''t give you a concrete answer.¡± I replied, ¡°We have enough power in the hyperspace cell to, at the very least, jump back to Aureon. But I don''t know how we would actually reach the jump stage.¡± ¡°Oh..¡± She said, sounding somewhat disappointed. ¡°It''s all what-ifs, but we can probably get a better idea about it in the morning.¡± I replied, ¡°Probably a good idea to try getting back to sleep.¡± I shuffled back around on the couch until I was comfortable. Now, The thoughts of being stuck on this planet permeated my mind. My nightmare felt irrelevant now. The lamp switched off and I could hear Vita as she curled back up on her bed. ¡ã¡ã¡ã Everyone sat quietly at the dining room table enjoying their breakfast. Well, almost everyone. Kyle was too busy fiddling with one of the holographic collars to acknowledge the waffles that Conrad had made. Conrad scowled at him, ¡°Will you eat that? It took me forever to figure out how to make it in the first place.¡± He said. Winter glanced at him, ¡°Took you forever? I was telling you every step!¡± She said with a slight laugh. Avera was beside him, ¡°Oh it''s fine, Conny.¡± she said, putting her hand around his arm. He winced, ¡°Please don''t call me that¡­¡± Kyle looked up, ¡°Hah.¡± He said before going right back to what he had been doing. ¡°Hey I thought you finished setting up those holo-collars yesterday.¡± Garrett commented, ¡°Is that one not working?¡± Kyle handed him the collar, ¡°This one is yours, actually. I was having trouble finding a model to project.¡± ¡°Did you find one?¡± Garrett asked, inspecting the collar. ¡°Yeah, a bird. It was called a Tunki or something like that.¡± Said Kyle as he moved his plate of waffles closer to himself. ¡°You can try it on.¡± ¡°What about mine?¡± I asked, ¡°I want to see what it looks like.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Kyle replied, ¡°everyone else can try theirs on after breakfast.¡± Garrett lifted and closed the collar around his neck before he switched it on. Similarly to what Vita''s had done, an image slowly rendered around his head. A funny looking bird head slowly took shape. Garrett''s visor was now a small beak, topped by a comically large crest. Winter nearly spat out her coffee when the hologram came into focus. ¡°YOU PICKED THAT?¡± She said, laughing hysterically. ¡°What''s wrong with it?¡± Kyle asked defensively, ¡°Garrett is orange. Tunki is orange.¡± ¡°Yeah, but like,¡± Winter said, ¡°you couldn''t have picked a fox or something?¡± She asked. ¡°Oh. That would also work.¡± replied Kyle, ¡°What do you think, Garrett?¡± Garrett picked up a spoon and studied his reflection from it, ¡°I like it actually.¡± He said, ¡°I kinda like the mohawk.¡± ¡°I guess that settles that.¡± Winter said, ¡°Can I see everyone else''s?¡± She asked. Michael nodded, ¡°Sure, I''ll get the rest of them.¡± He said before getting up from the table. He left and went towards his room and eventually came hobbling back with a handful of the collars. He handed everyone their corresponding collar and we all put them on. Winter watched as everyone tapped the power button on the projectors. 1 by 1, Avera, Kyle, Michael and Conrad''s heads began to fizzle into different shapes. I joined in and pressed the power button on my own collar. Vita was the last one to do it as we''d already seen her use it yesterday. Winter''s face lit up as she did her best to figure out who was supposed to be what. Avera seemed to be a parrot, which made Garrett look less funny, Kyle looked to be a Cat, Michael and Conrad were wolves, and when I checked my own reflection, I looked like some weird dog breed. Later, Winter would tell me I was a Weimaraner. We all looked silly staring back at one another admiring the holograms. ¡°Woah¡­ you all look stunning.¡± Winter said, ¡°You''re a genius Michael.¡± ¡°And I did all the coding for it!¡± Kyle beamed enthusiastically. ¡°Why yes you did!¡± replied Michael, who then grabbed Kyle. Kyle yelped, ¡°What are you-¡± he said before suddenly getting lifted high into the air. ¡°Put me down!¡± He said, swatting his hands on Michael''s. Michael chuckled, ¡°Okay.¡± He said as he set Kyle on his shoulders. ¡°There you go.¡± Michael said, ¡°Enjoy the view!¡± Kyle was forced to grab Michael''s horns through his hologram to avoid falling, making him laugh even more, ¡°This isn''t funny.¡± Kyle protested. ¡°Michael, be careful!¡± Vita said, ¡°Your leg is still healing!¡± She scowled at him, ¡°I''ll be fine.¡± Michael said back to her. Garrett watched the ordeal in amusement. ¡°That looks like fun¡­¡± he said, turning over to Vita. ¡°Can I get uppies? He asked her excitedly. ¡°no.¡± Garrett frowned, ¡°was worth a shot.¡± He said before switching off his hologram collar. Everyone followed the act and switched off theirs to save power. After a couple minutes Kyle began to order Michael around, clearly enjoying the high vantage point. ¡°To the kitchen!¡± He pointed, ¡°onwards!¡± Conrad and Avera went around the table and picked up all the plates and cups and followed Michael and Kyle to the kitchen. ¡°Well that was amusing,¡± Winter said, "I should probably get the mail. I''ll be right back.¡± She made a small wave and left towards the living room. Garrett sighed, ¡°At least we can finally go outside now without much risk. I would love to get some more plant samples.¡± ¡°You guys want to help with that?¡± He asked. ¡°Sure, but we should probably check in with Avera on anything else we have to do.¡± Vita replied. ¡°Eh, do whatever you want.¡± Garrett said, ¡°Ima go find my boots.¡± He mimicked the wave winter did and promptly left the dining room, leaving Vita and I as the only ones there. As I started to formulate an excuse to leave the room myself, I heard the front door slam open. Winter came sprinting in, ¡°SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT-¡± Vita and I turned in surprise, ¡°3 FUCKIN HUMVEES ARE COMING UP THE DRIVEWAY!¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I asked her. ¡°THE MILITARY!¡± She cried, ¡°THEY ARE HERE.¡± Vita looked unhappy at the news, ¡°Handle it, then.¡± She said, ¡°I''ll get everyone else rounded up.¡± I switched on my Holo-Collar, ¡°I''ll help, If they are here for us, I''ll buy some time.¡± I said. Vita nodded, ¡°Is the backdoor unlocked?¡± ¡°It''s still broken from you guys, so yeah.¡± Replied winter, ¡°Alright Lucas, come on.¡± We both left the dining room. As we went past the living room sofas, a heavy knock rattled the door. ¡°Coming!¡± Winter said nervously. She stopped at the door,resting her hand on the door handle. Slowly, she twisted it and pulled the door open. End of chapter 19. Author''s note: This chapter was delayed because I ended up hurting my arm after I was yeeted off a bike lmao. 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