Page 4 of Fallen from the Stars

“Neither do you, but that didn’t stop you from teaching me how tobeone.”

“I taught you no such thing.” She surveyed the open stretch of sand and rock before her, which was met by rolling waves only fifteen or twenty meters away. The water was a deeper gray than the sky, broken by white crests and foam. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen water like this — if she’d ever seen it in person to begin with — much less walked upon something other than the hard, artificial flooring of interstellar ships and space stations.

Theo frowned and rubbed the spot where the harness had dug into her chest. “Wanna be helpful, Kane, and tell me where the hell we are?”

Kane offered her a few moments of silence. She might have enjoyed it if it wasn’t so alarming; he usually had an answer ready without delay.

“Kane?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?” Sudden heat suffused her — the beginning of panic. “How the hell do you not know?”

“There are no satellites within my range, IDC or otherwise. I am unable to pinpoint our current location.”

Theo dropped into her seat and swept a hand over the console. The holographic controls flickered for an instant before the projection solidified. Her frown deepened.

“What happened? Where is everyone else?” she asked as she manipulated the controls to access the emergency beacon.

“If I don’t know whereweare, Theo, why would I know where anyone else is?”

The display flashed and pulsed with static before presenting an error message.

“Error? The beacon should’ve been activated automatically, right?”

“Due to the circumstances of the incident, it was not activated.”

“It’s anemergencybeacon for a reason.” She slapped the console and scowled.

“The beacon wasn’t activated because there was a strong chance of the incident having been caused by an enemy attack. The IDC does not wish to broadcast the whereabouts of surviving crewmen to nearby enemies.”

“So you can’t detect any other pods nearby? We’realonehere?”

“There are no other escape pods within range of my sensors, and ours was damaged in the explosion. Its long-range communications are destroyed, its internal air supply has been almost fully depleted, and according to the limited records I was able to obtain as we left the ship, we may have been thrown through a tear created by the malfunctioning warp drive.”

Theo leaned back and glared out at the gray clouds. “Got any good news?”

“We have each other.”

“I saidgoodnews.”

“If I had a mouth, I would be frowning.” He went silent once again, but she could almostfeelhim thinking. It had been so strange when Kane was installed in her back when she’d enlisted in the IDC; she’d felt like she would never have a moment of privacy, like her thoughts would never be her own again. But now it was more disconcerting to contemplate his absence. He was part of her.

Her best friend.

Theo sighed and ran a hand through her hair, tugging it back from her face. “You know I love you.”

“I wish I had more information to offer, Theo.”

“I know.”

Sitting forward, Theo manipulated the controls to navigate to the diagnostics menu, but she’d only made it through two options before hitting another blaring red error message. Before she could even ask for assistance, Kane inserted a projection of the escape pod into her vision through her retinal implant.

“Fortunately, the field generator held despite the exterior damage,” he said as the image turned to display red areas of damage on the rear underside of the pod. The image enlarged to show the damage in greater detail. “It held long enough to keep us alive, but we landed in an ocean when we arrived on this planet. Exposure to water increased the damage to the internal systems.”

“Damn,” she muttered as she studied the damage display. “If we were still on the ship, I could fix this, but we don’t have the right tools or any of the parts. Not even to fix the transmitter.”

Pushing herself to her feet, Theo grasped the edges of the hatch opening and climbed out. Her boots sank into the sand below. The air was moist; whether it was due to ocean mist or the threat of a storm, she couldn’t tell. What would rain feel like on her skin? She couldn’t remember — she hadn’t experienced it since her childhood on Old Earth.

---