Endeavour

Sci-fi

There was a rush of excitement in the Civilian area of the ship. The once starry black space the windows looked out to, had been eclipsed by a by a mass of red. Terra Ardenti. Since the  metropolisation of Earth, Arcs have been sent to every hypothetically survivable planet. The people of Australasia Zone 52 were selected to be sent on the SS Endeavour to Terra Ardenti. Everyone was excited to be out of cryo sleep. I’m not sure if I had ever felt anything worse than being frozen inside out for a few thousand years.

Over the speaker system the captain told everyone “Sit down. We will be landing shortly.”

He sounded younger than the captain we left with. The ship began to descend and the pseudo gravity gave way to the planet’s pull. Outside the window, it looked like the planet was covered in fire. The ship slowed to a stop and from the lower floors of the ship, tiny motes of white light began to drift towards the planet. The moment the specks of light hit the ground, everything went silent before an explosion of pure light and noise, and as it subsided, it was followed by another and another, leaving a black crater behind. After a few hours, the ship touched down in the crater. While all of us were waiting, I asked a crew member what happened.

“We launched a few void points to neutralise the planet’s natural fires.”

“What about any native people or species?” I asked.

“You really think anything but people with our technologies could survive on this planet?” He laughed as he responded.

It had been a few weeks. The engine of my hover bike hummed as a rode through the fields of freshly planted grain. On the horizon, sections of crystalline light were being assembled into a protective dome, once those were done, we would be able to breathe normally again. All the people under 65 had been assigned jobs; mine was to explore beyond the dome and search for potential locations of natural resources. While we had supplies, we needed access to food and water. As it turned out, the earth of Terra Ardenti was incredibly fertile, so we could grow some food; the next step was to find a source of water. That was my job (wasn’t your job to find good locations?). I stopped at the checkpoint at the edge of the dome for my fire-retardant gear and a refill of my oxygen. The outer area of the crater was obsidian black. Outside the Colony was harsh but survivable. While looking from space, it looked like nothing but fire, but up close I found ways to avoid the fire. The ground had small holes in it which secreted a green flammable gas, which would eventually light up into a pillar of flame. All you had to do was avoid the colour green. Scattered across the horizon were these strange objects which grew in the fire covered areas. They were made of metal and took the shape of a leafless tree. They were all emerging in the centre of the areas most wreathed in flame

As I rode, I found an interruption of rock. The hover bike lifted so I could ride over. The hover bike was only built to be able to repel off ground to get over rough terrain but couldn’t fly. I discovered this when I rode over a deep crack in the rock. Before I knew it, I was falling deeper and deeper. The walls were claustrophobic. The bike wedged between them, scraping sparks of metal as it ripped and tore ever deeper into the abyss until it stopped and I found myself sitting on a broken metal plank above an abyss. I scrambled to grab the climbing picks from my bag. I drove them into the stone just as the corpse of the bike gave way. I was left dangling, barely holding on to the picks and my grip was slipping. I looked up to the distant light above me. My hands slipped and I began to fall. I swung my arms wildly at the rock, which pulled skin away from my arms and hands. My fingers found purchase in a horizontal crack in the stone. I watched small rivers of blood pour from my fingertips. I swung my feet hopelessly, trying to find even the slightest foothold. I screamed for help over and over till my throat was as cracked and broken as the skin on my hands and face. Tears slid down my face and snot filled my breathing mask. For hours and hours I dangled helpless until. Shluck, shluck.

A strange and grotesque noise made its was making its way towards me. I turned my head to see a strange pinkish creature. Its eyes were a misty grey and perched on the sides of its oval head. It wore some strange leaf-like leather clothing. It had two arms though one was half the length of the other and bandaged with the same leathery green leaf. It had strange a liquid-esque hand which seemed glued to the wall. A strange noise echoed through its head: a melodic screeching like a wet finger encircling a glass, and it offered its bandaged arm to me. I grabbed on to its arm and we began to slide down into the abyss. It got darker and darker until even the light from the sky was gone. Then from the darkness below, I saw small spots of blue light. The hole opened to a cave. Below us, there was an undulating pool of water marked with glowing blue flowers. With a splash my feet touched the water and soaked my shoes. I collapsed into the pool and started splashing my face, without thinking I pulled off my mask to clean my face. I panicked and gasped for air when I noticed a slight tingle on my left side; something I hadn’t felt since I left earth. Wind. I breathed in the first free air had since home. I looked at my hands. They were torn and mangled, stained with blood and dirt. I looked over to the strange creature who saved me. It watched me patiently from the edge of the water. I took my first good look around and realised that calling that place a cavern would have been an insult, looking out across the space I couldn’t see the other side. Giant masses of outlying rock housed forests of alien plants. Waterfalls and rivers flowed from clouds that crawled across the cavernous ceiling entwined with the metal roots which radiated heat. The creature waded into the water and handed me a collection of strange leaves, each painted with a strange green jelly, at first I thought of it like a cat fetching a dead bird, but then it started wrapping the leaves on my wounds. It stung a bit and I thought it was trying poison me but then I remembered the aching sting of having alcohol on an open wound. They understood medicine…

The creature, who I decided to call “Endeavour” after the vessel I came here on, could speak in melodic rings of varying volumes and pitches. Endeavour was clearly intelligent and seemed to be trying as hard to speak to me as I was to them. What we did succeed in was communication through pictures. We learned some basic meanings from each other. I taught them “rock” and “leaf” in English; they taught me that two interrupted high-pitched tones meant “flower”. I pointed to their bandaged arm to which they pulled out a white dye and painted a mass of white surrounded by smaller white dots. As I saw the splotches of white inflicted upon the cavern wall, the dread of realisation hit my chest as I realised the injury mad this world, before the ship had even touched the ground.

Endeavour led me to their home, following the flow of water through a forest of glowing fruit, which they stopped me from eating. Trees curled in strange shapes and odd froglike winged creatures fluttered about. In some places, it was possible to see the core of the planet: a mass of undulating liquid that all the water flowed to eventually. Out in a clearing, a collection of huts surrounded the river. Others just like Endeavour wandered about all doing their part to maintain their place in this world. Smaller ones ran about and played. It was beautiful and so free from the rigid structure of Earth society. The people of the village tended to my injuries. The children gathered around, fascinated by this strange creature that had wandered into their world. After a while I began to understand their echoing language, as did they mine.

Eventually, I realised more than a year had likely passed. No one from the dome had looked for me. I was dead to the world and that was fine. I looked around the town; they were dancing and singing. They were happy. There would be conflicts, sure, like there are in any society, but they should be free to have them without outside interference. I decided never to return to tell the colony about The Underground. I refused to repeat the sins of my ancestors. I would live out my days here and pray no one found them. I would help teach them what little I knew.

The ground began to shake. A roar of metal broke the ceiling. A drill.