Chapter Text
The alarms blared, the sound piercing and unbearable to the young crewmember as you stumbled towards the escape pods while trying to block out the noise with your hands. A piece of the ceiling crashed to the floor in front of you, causing a shriek to rip from your throat.
“KID!” A hand grabbed your arm, yanking you along, “We need to go!”
You hurried after the person, dragged along. Quickly, you recognized the distinct and familiar teal-streaked hair.
Ryley.
“What’s happening?” You shouted over the screaming alarms, nearly sobbing.
The grimace grew on Ryley’s face as he yanked them around a corner, the pods in sight.
The first four pods were already gone. The pair nearly crashed into the door of the fifth pod, Ryley yanking the hatch open and practically shoving the smaller figure in. You moved to the side, waiting for Ryely to also slide down the ladder.
Instead, he began to close the hatch.
“Wait! Why aren’t you-”
Ryely cut you off, “Kid! Not now! I’ll find another one! GO!”
With that, the hatch was secured. The teen panicked, flinging themself into the seat and securing the harness as the pod was launched remotely, no doubt Ryely launched it from inside so they didn’t try to…what? Climb back out?
Actually, you’d probably try to do that.
Bracing as the pod shook, flinging away from the Aurora, knuckles white from how tightly they gripped the handholds on the harness. You’d barely looked up when the pod was rocked violently as a massive explosion spewed from the starship.
Screaming, you barely had time to process the explosion before a fire extinguisher came loose from the wall, banging around the cabin. You tried to track it with your eyes as it knocked loose a panel from the wall.
You didn’t even have time to scream before the panel flew towards you and everything went black.
—-----—
Consciousness slipped through your fingers, eyes feeling glued shut. You could tell you were slumped against something. Strange…maybe you’d fallen asleep in one of the common areas. It wouldn’t be too crazy. Ozzy had been bugging you to get more sleep and he wasn’t wrong.
It was hot…too hot. Where were you? The boiler room?
Wait, no…did the Aurora even have a boiler room.
Near blinding light seemed to be flicking behind your eyes, the heat growing more intense. Finally peeling your eyes open a crack. Your eyes flew open as you realized what was happening.
The alarms.
Running.
Ryely.
The pod.
There was a fire.
You slammed your hand against the panel on the arm of the chair, fear growing as it doesn’t release immediately. When it finally unlatched, you flung yourself forward, scrambling to pick up the fire extinguisher, trying to aim it as your hands shook.
With how much you struggled to steady the stream, the extinguisher was nearly empty by the time the fire was out. You dropped the extinguisher, nearly falling to the floor yourself as you shook with the adrenaline coursing through you.
Now that the fire was gone, you were able to start to wrap your head around what had just happened.
Well…you didn’t know how long it had been exactly with having been knocked out, but you tried to shove that extra panic down for now. Shutting your eyes and trying to calm your breathing, you slipped down the wall you’d leaned on, curling up as you tried to string your thoughts together.
You’d been walking to the seamoth lab to deliver a message to one of the engineers and had paused to check your PDA when the Aurora had shook, nearly causing you to fall over. The alarm had started suddenly with an automatic message to evacuate to the lifepods.
Luckily, you’d happened to be near the pods, but you’d been panicking so bad that if not for Ryely you might not have made it to one.
God…Ryely…
Had he even made it to a lifepod? Why had he not just gotten into the one he’d shoved you into? You vaguely remembered him mentioning a statistic of lifepods with only one occupant having a higher survival rate but you’d thought he’d been joking.
There weren't enough lifepods, even with two passengers each, on the Aurora! There might not even be enough with three passengers!
You rock on the floor slightly. Had two people died because Ryely had sent you off on your own? Was it your fault? Ryely had always said that you would be a priority in an emergency situation ever since he’d found out, but you hadn’t thought he was serious!
God! This was supposed to be a way to quickly gain experience while getting college credits! This stupid program had seemed like a miracle when you’d been selected to study off-world. You didn’t even technically qualify! You weren’t even an adult!
You couldn’t stop the sobs that wracked your body. You were way too young for this.
Gasping, you barely register your PDA booting up.
“You have suffered minor head trauma. This is considered an optimal outcome.” The PDA chimed, startling you out of your thoughts. It went on to inform you that it had been booted into emergency mode. It also told you of the “detailed survival advice” in the data bank, before wishing you luck.
Ok…ok…you could work with this. Just box up all these emotions and shove them way, way down to deal with later.
Wiping your eyes, you tapped on the tab to open the data bank, scanning the entries. They described the functions of the PDA, a survival checklist, and a notification that explained that the blueprint database had been corrupted.
Great…
You focused on the checklist, deciding it would be of the most use. Ignoring the first step, because you didn’t really think you needed any first aid, and moved on to the second.
You mumble to yourself, “Take inventory of materials and supplies…yeah…yeah! I can do that!”
Rising to your feet, you make your way to the bench locker, avoiding the sparking wires you’d finally noticed on the exposed panel.
Ok…there’s something for that. A repair tool, right?
Double-checking the blueprints on your PDA, you nodded to yourself. There was a repair tool blueprint. Thank god, because there was no way you’d be able to fix that. Sure, you’re an engineering student, but you were also in your first year.
Yet another reason the whole Starry Eyes program was shady as hell.
Prying open the locker, you take note of the contents.
Two nutrient blocks, two bottles of water, two emergency flares, and one all-environmental protection suit. That was strange, there were supposed to be two suits if you remembered the extremely sparse emergency briefing you’d been given correctly. Maybe it was fate you’d been thrown in here alone.
You laughed dryly at that. Yeah, fate. That made it so much better.
Shaking the dread away to deal with later, you pulled up the survival checklist again, scanning over the rest. You tried to skip the steps that would require going outside for now, but looking at the radio…which was busted, you knew it was fruitless.
You really wish repair tools were standard for emergency supply lockers…
Glancing up to the roof hatch, you stare at the blue sky. It was painfully similar to Earth. If you ignored the lifepod, you could almost imagine you were back home…
You noted the sky was rapidly darkening. You really should do everything before nightfall…the lifepod was practically offline and you’d prefer not to be stuck in a dark metal ball for the entire night.
Quickly pulling off the leisure clothes you’d been wearing when everything had gone to shit and tugging on the all-environment suit, which was a bit large, not quite skin tight. It was designed for an adult and you were small for your age. It was still a bit ridiculous. You knew adults smaller than you.
You rolled your eyes, accepting you’d just be uncomfortable and the suit would be failing half of its intended purpose, but it was better than a sweater and leggings. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any weird alien bugs crawling under the loose edges. You weren’t sure what kind of planet this even was. You were sure it must have been mentioned, but you were always bad about paying attention to specifics. Though, it’s not like this had been a planned stop…to your knowledge.
You climb the ladder, not trusting the bottom hatch would even work. Pushing open the hatch, you gasp as your eyes lock onto the massive wreck in the distance. The next thing you notice is the water completely surrounding the pod.
Well…fantasic…
You bang your head against the rim of the hatch lightly in frustration. Of course…right smack in the middle of an ocean…with your luck, this was an ocean planet.
You barely register the PDA chiming about the Aurora suffering orbital hull failure for an unknown reason. Your breath caught in your throat at the added detail of zero signs of human life being detected. You really hope it was only referring to the Aurora.
Pulling yourself the rest of the way through the hatch, you cringe as you see the sun beginning to set. It was…less than ideal to be taking a dip in alien waters at night, but you also didn’t trust the pod to retain enough energy to not suffocate you in the middle of the night.
Steeling your nerves, you carefully made your way down the exterior ladder, dipping a foot in the water, surprised at the relative warmth. It wasn’t warm persay, but you had been expecting much colder.
Taking a deep breath and squeezing your eyes closed, you plunge into the awaiting water. You float for a moment, slowly opening your eyes, ignoring the sting as it fades. It takes everything in you not to gasp in surprise. It was beautiful. The plants had begun to glow in the darkening water, creating a magical biolumence in the area. It was surprisingly shallow, thank goodness.
You breached the surface, double-checking the materials needed for a repair tool. You furrowed your brows. Where the hell were you supposed to get silicone rubber and sulfur? Taking another breath, you dove back down, scanning the sea floor for anything that may be of use. Your eyes locked onto an outcropping of what you were fairly certain was limestone. Maybe you could get something out of it, it wouldn’t hurt to try… probably.
You dove down, punching the soft stone, mildly surprised as you unearthed a bit of metal. Pulling it out, you recognized it as titanium, which was fantastic! You needed that! Maybe this wouldn’t be as hard as you were worrying it would be.
You hum slightly in excitement, quickly regretting it as you let out way more air than intended. Pushing yourself off the sea floor for a boost, you bring yourself to the surface for air, tucking the titanium into one of the surprisingly spacious pockets on the suit.
Ducking back below the surface, you noted the kelp-like forest with glowing bulbs. Those look useful or at the very least interesting!
The little forest was quite close, though there was a vague feeling of being watched as you got close, but it’s probably just those weird fish with the big, freaky eyes.
The bulbs are easy to pull off, though they were pretty big, so you only grabbed a couple. You would need to check if you could make anything with them with the fabricator.
As you were looking at the leaves of the kelp, trying to tell if it might be edible, you heard a shifting coming from further in the forest. You froze, fight or flight kicking in. You couldn’t see anything, but the excitement of the glowing ecosystem had made you forget about the dangers of the alien ocean. You had no idea what could be in these waters. Not seeing anything, you decided to take the risk to shoot back as fast as you could towards the shallows.
Nothing pursued you, which you took as an absolute win.
You breached the surface taking a quick breath so you didn’t drown but ducked back under quickly, keeping an eye out for predators.
You climbed onto the lifepod, keeping an eye on the water.
You waited for a while, trying to keep your breathing calm. After about 15 minutes, you deemed it safe enough, checking your PDA again.
You finally noticed the sulfur in the repair tool blueprint was specifically “cave sulfur,” which might help find some. The thought of having to dive into caves was worrying. You had an awful sense of direction and were fairly sure you’d get lost.
Well, you have to at least try, right?
Slipping into the water again, your eyes flicker to the kelp forest again, freezing up when you see red eyes staring back at you. Well, that’s great.
You and the concealed creature continued to stare at each other until your lungs started to burn, forcing you to surface.
When you looked back, it was still there…but it hadn’t moved…
Maybe if you just ignored it, it wouldn’t do anything.
You swim towards the closest opening in the ground, breaking eye contact, and ducking into the cave. There were a few limestone outcroppings and a weird flower-looking thing a bit deeper. You pulled the metal from the walls, approaching the flower thing slowly. You barely have time to react as something flies out, screaming at you. You almost scream yourself, bubbles flying from your mouth as you try to swim out quickly. You panic as you realize that you weren’t faster than it, and your lungs burn and desperately want to cough up the water you’d inhaled accidentally but if you tried there would only be more water in your lungs. You’d barely passed the opening of the cave, the thing on your heels, when a dark blur flew in, wrapping around you and pulling you away from the explosion.
“Careful,” a voice chastised, whatever had grabbed you pushing you to the surface.
Gasping and hacking, you barely have the ability to focus on what you’re currently sitting on. As you finally catch your breath, you finally notice the large figure breaching the surface of the water not far from yourself and the palm platform.
Your eyes locked onto the massive red eyes staring down at you.
You might be screwed-