| Generated by Google Gemini Pro text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
August 23, 2526. Breanna wakes up, still feeling the slight sting on her neck
where her suit revitalized her. The IMS isn’t a full-on medical pod, but it
does have waysof repairing a damaged body, from some trauma that might be
caused despitethe presence of the suit in the first place. She’s not in too
much pain, butit’s all over. Her suit won’t administer a painkiller automatically,
because it requires the user’s permission. She could theoretically ask for an
opioid, though she won’t. She sits up. “Thistle, Administer one dose of a
comprehensive pain silencer. No, two doses. I need twenty-four hours at
least.”
“Would you like an endorphin stimulator as well?”
“No. It’s fine.” She lies back down so the suit can flash its laser beams
all over her skin. She groans as it’s happening, but is able to stop once
it’s complete. She then stands up in the wreckage, finding herself on the
ceiling of the vehicle. Her friends and the other passengers are strewn
about. “Thistle, why weren’t we strapped in?”
“The safety straps were causing unwanted and unhealthy pressure on the
users’ suits. They were only released upon landing. Everyone is alive and
recovering. As leader, you were revived prematurely to make further
decisions.”
“Wake everyone else up as appropriate. Tell me what’s going on, inside and
out.”
“Location, unknown. Status of vehicle, irreparably damaged. Situation,
dire. Medical prognoses, manageable.”
Breanna manages to find the back hatch, and open it. The surface of the
planet is relatively calm, but the tornadoes could be lying in wait.
“Options.”
“Walking.”
She chuckles. “Thanks. That’s great.” She takes a beat as she’s watching the
wind blow the dust around. “Do you detect a methane deposit below us, or
near us?”
“The vehicle’s sensor array is inoperable, and would be insufficient
either way.”
“So, you can’t find the caravan either?”
“Negative.”
“Lifesigns detector,” Breanna continues. “Look for anyone or anything.”
“None found.”
There are no more questions to ask, and she can’t make any decisions without
the passengers, so she commands her IMS to focus the padding to the back,
then lies down to wait. A few hours later, Cash wakes her up, thinking that
she’s the last one.
“We’re lost,” Cash explains.
“I know.”
“The rover can’t be fixed.”
“I know,” Breanna repeats, but louder. “I was up before you. I just took a
nap.”
“Oh. Well, what now? Do we go out and look for Tertius and Aeterna’s
bodies?”
“Aeterna? We lost Aeterna?”
“She’s not here,” Cash replies. “I thought you said you knew everything
already.”
“I did a headcount. I thought she was one of these people.”
“Did you remember to count the guy who we rescued from the other rover?”
“Oh, I forgot. Shit. I guess father and daughter are both dead.” Breanna
looks at all the passengers, who are apparently gathering supplies. “Good
instincts, everybody. We’re gonna have to head out on foot. Carry what you
can. Nothing in here is useless, but use your best judgment, and prioritize.
Food and water are most important, but if you find any vacuum tents, those
are great too.” She yawns as she’s trying to continue. “Don’t worry about
power. Your suits will recharge in all that flurry out there. I’m not gonna
try to explain fusion or ramscoop nodes to you, but just trust me.”
Most of them go to work, but one sits down on the ceiling. They look
depressed, but it’s hard to tell without being able to see a face. “Are you
him...the one from the other rover?”
“The asshole who got your friend killed? Yeah,” he answers.
Breanna sits down next to him, and taps on both of their wrist interfaces so
they can have a one-on-one conversation through comms. “Tell me what
happened.”
“I can’t, I don’t remember it.” He sighs. “That’s not entirely true, but it
was like a dream. I knew where I was, and I knew that I was as safe as I was
gonna get. I just felt so trapped. I started panicking, reaching out for
anything that could change my circumstances. My hands landed on the door
handle, so I opened it, and ran out. I don’t know what I thought I would
find out there. I don’t know that I entirely understood that I even was
outside. I just needed to be able to move around. I’m so sorry. Someone
suggested they lock me to one of the seats, but the others argued against
it, because there could have been a situation where we all needed to escape.
But they should have done it. They should have stopped me. I know, that
makes it sound like I’m blaming them. I just wish they had. I wish they had
been unforgiving about it.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Breanna begins. “I mean that
truthfully. Earth, in its history, has seen its fair share of refugees, but
absolutely nothing at this scale. An entire planet has never been in this
much trouble. Our ancestors colonized it despite the instability of our host
star because they thought they understood it. They thought they knew the
risks. They were wrong. I’m far angrier at them than I am at you. You didn’t
sign up for this. You reacted in a very human way, and I’m sure, if Tertius
or his daughter were here, they would forgive you. They risked their lives
to save people like you, even though it sounds like they didn’t know anyone
personally. They seemingly did sign up for this.”
The guy is still clearly down on himself, but she’s not a therapist, so all
they can do is hope to find their way back to civilization, and get him some
real help. As they’re finishing packing up to take what they can, Aeterna
casually opens the back hatch, and climbs back in. She is wearing a
respirator mask over her mouth, but has removed the parts that go over her
eyes. She’s presumably only using it for comms.
“Where did you go?” Breanna questions.
“Sorry, I was just looking for my dad. I didn’t go too far, I figured once
you guys woke up, I would start hearing you talking to each other.”
“Comms are down. Radio waves are very minimal right now,” Breanna explains.
Aeterna nods. “Well, I’m back. Hopefully we’ll come across him eventually.
“I’m sorry about him,” Breanna says softly.
“Eh, it’ll be okay,” Aeterna says, not the least bit perturbed. “He knows
we’re going north, so either we’ll pick up his trail, or he’ll pick
up ours.”
“You think he’s alive?” Cash asks.
“He has to be,” Aeterna answers with a chuckle. “We’ve been trying to
explain that. We can’t die.”
No comments :
Post a Comment