Chapter 1: Planetfall

Jik felt like he could sleep forever. Darkness wrapped itself around him. It was peaceful and comforting. Jik allowed himself sink deeper and deeper into the dark. Before he was completely consumed by the darkness, a burning sensation started to wrap itself around Jik. Within seconds the heat became unbearable, and Jik was pulled back to reality. When he finally came to, smoke, heat, and flames surrounded him. He was in a small two person circular lifepod, that was 10 feet in diameter, sitting. Fire consumed the far side of the pod. Reacting quickly, Jik pressed the release button on his seat. He stumbles out of the chair, and on the floor beside him is a fire extinguisher. He grabs it, and struggles to put the flames out. After a few minutes the fire was extinguished.

Jik sets the fire extinguisher down on his seat, and assesses the damage to his lifepod. The pod was running on reserved power, an occasional beep could be heard. On the far side of the pod, where the storage unit was, an access panel could be seen. The panel was open, and damaged wires could be seen hanging out. Jik looked behind him, a metal panel was on the floor beside him. A sharp pain flooded his head, it was almost disorienting. He sat down in the other seat across from where he had placed the fire extinguisher.

He sighs,“What the hell happened?”

He looked around, in the center of the lifepod there was a ladder that lead to a hatch, which opened on top of the lifepod. Two feet to his right, there was a bottom hatch that opened to the underside of the lifepod. He jumped up out of his chair and reached for his side. He pulls out a small five inch by ten inch device. The device had a black and grey grip going down the left side. The grip was about two inches wide, and the rest of the device was glass-like. He taps the screen, after a few seconds of waiting the screen comes to life. A red and yellow set of words flash on the screen:

Emergency reboot process initiated.

After a few more seconds, a computerized female voice can be heard,  “Greetings survivor, great job not dying.”

“Uh, thanks...i guess?” Jik says as he runs his hand through his short, sandy,  blonde hair. The computerized voice continues,“You have sustained moderate head trauma, and have been unconscious for three hours. Given the circumstances, this is considered an optimal outcome. Your PDA now has one directive: to keep you alive on a hostile world. Please familiarize yourself with its functions.”

Jik is shocked. He speaks to the PDA, “You mean to tell me that I’ve been unconscious for three hours!? What the hell happened?!”

There is no response. Jik taps the screen a few times,

“Hello?”

Jik looks to the ladder in the center of the pod. He taps a screen on the left side of his suit. Part of a helmet forms around his head. He then taps a button on the side of his helmet and a glass pane sides across the front side of the helmet. The glass pane turns on, showing an oxygen indicator in the lower right hand corner of the pane. The suit that he had on, without an oxygen tank could hold two minutes of air. He walks over to the ladder, climbs up it, opens the hatch, and steps out on top of the lifepod. The world that greets him, is not like anything he has ever seen. There is nothing but an ocean desert that surrounds him, fear, no terror rips through his body.

“Oh no!”

About nine miles directly in front of him sits a large spacecraft. The ship has suffered extreme damage. Smoke rises from the crashed ship. The computerized voice speaks through the helmet, “The Aurora suffered catastrophic hull failure. Cause: Unknown. Zero human life signs within a 100 meter range. Situational assessment: T+3 hours since planetfall. Lifepod Five hull: Secure. Communications: Offline. Environment: Uncharted ocean planet. Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere. Water contamination: High.”

Jik took a second to process everything before responding back.

“You mean, I’m stuck here?! You’re telling me that I’m stuck here, and that no one from the Aurora survived?! What about the other lifepods?!”

“Survivor, please calm down.”

“First off, my name is Jik. Not ‘survivor’. Secondly, how do you expect me to calm down, when you just said that there are no other survivors? I can’t be the only one!”

“My apologizes Jik. I am a Personal Data Assistant, or PDA for short. My primary objective is to help keep you alive on this world. I understand that the situational assessment that I have given you is not a good one. Your chances of survival are little to none.”

“Thanks for that motivational note. That makes me feel a whole lot better. Might as well kill me now.” He sat down, and was silent for a moment. He tried to think back to what happened before he fell unconscious. But nothing came to him. Fear once again ripped through his body.

“I can’t remember anything!”

He shouted, “I can’t remember anything from before now!” Panic starts to consume him.

The computer spoke,“You are suffering from moderate head trauma, memory lapses, and amnesia is to be expected.”

“Will it go away?”

“Given enough time, yes. There’s no telling how long it will take, but your memory should come back.”

Jik is silent, he takes a moment to pull himself together.

“Well, if I’m stuck here, I’m gonna do everything that I can to survive. Maybe if i can fix the lifepod, I could get the communications online, and send out a distress signal out.”

The computerized voice response, “Lifepods are equipped with a fabricator programmed to construct tools, and render organic substances edible. My scans indicate that you could fabricate a Repair Tool to help you complete your objective.”

Jik stands up, “That settles it, I need to figure out how to get a Repair Tool.”

“Based on the blueprints that are available at the moment, a Repair Tool requires a Magnesium Deposit, a Battery, and Crash Powder.”

An uneasy feeling consumed Jik as he looked at the water that surrounded him. He knew that the thing that he needed, were under the surface. He looks to the sky, the sun was setting. His dive would have to wait.

“Alright then. When tomorrow comes, I’m going out and getting the things I need for the Repair Tool.”