by DocRick » Wed May 01, 2024 1:43 pm
Twila stood at the porthole of the starship that had been her home for her entire life, gazing at the planet below. She had been born a year after the ship began its interstellar exploratory journey and she had been raised as a climatologist, studying the atmospheric and environmental conditions of the various planets they explored. Using laser technology, she had examined the atmosphere of the planet they were orbiting and found it to be very similar to Earth, a planet she had never stepped foot upon, and the first planet with such conditions they had encountered is several years.
Bobby, her best friend and cadet in training as a pilot joined her. While the planet could support human life, the biologists reported a lifeform on the planet would be too dangerous for a landing party and they were planning on leaving orbit to travel to the next possible "Goldilocks Planet" on their list. He tried to comfort her but knowing it would be a long time before they reached the next world, Twila had sunk into a depression.
The starship suddenly rocked violently. Alarms began sounding and a voice over the ship's intercom exclaimed the ship had been struck by a meteor and all crew was to head to the escape pods and prepare to abandon ship. Bobby grabbed Twila by the arm and rushed her to an escape pod and strapped her in. He told her he had to stay as part of the emergency response team and pressed the autolaunch button on the console. If the ship was in imminent peril of destruction, the pod would launch automatically. She waited nervously for him to return. She felt the ship shudder again and again, then without warning, the pod launched into space. Within a few seconds, she saw the starship explode.
The escape pod followed its own programming and sensor readings and headed to the planet they had been circling. It entered the atmosphere, the exterior heating up so Twila could no longer see out the windows and after what seemed an eternity, landed roughly on the planet. The canopy opened and Twila steeled herself for what she was about to encounter.
She found herself in what appeared to be a tropical jungle. Huge grasses, taller than she, were all around her. To her relief, her testing turned out to be accurate. The air was breathable, and the temperature was a balmy 80 degrees C. Climbing out of the ship, she jumped down to the ground, which was covered in small pebbles. She realized that she was barefoot, having taken off her shoes while she was still on the starship gazing out the porthole. Fortunately, the rocks were smooth and round, and she could walk on them with hurting her feet, though she did have to step carefully as to not step on a loose one and possibly twist an ankle. She scanned the skies and couldn't see any other escape pods. Climbing back into the cockpit of the pod, she called out on the radio to reach any other survivors, if anyone else had indeed escaped before the starship exploded. She received no response, even though the radio was capable of transmitting and receiving signals for a thousand or more miles. She began to fear that she may have been the only survivor from the starship.
Twila began to wander through the jungle of grasses. She heard a loud buzzing sound and looked up to see what she recognized as a bumble bee, which the ship had thousands in the vegetable growing compartment, but this one was huge. She estimated it to be about three feet from mandibles to stinger. It showed no interest in her, so she continued on. She came upon a mound of rocks that came up to her waist. There was a hole about 3 inches in diameter in the top. She thought it looked like something she had learned about in entomology class, but an anthill this size was preposterous. Then an ant, a foot long, came out of the mound. Twila jumped back from the mound, but when the ant just climbed down the mound and went on its way, she continued her walk. A shadow flashed on the ground, and she looked up to see a bird the size of a small airplane (which Bobby had shown her pictures of from his pilot's training classes) and the dove into a clump of grass. She watched the feathered monster circle a few times, as if it had seen her and was looking for her again, then flew off. As she ventured further, she saw a furry animal which looked like a mouse scamper by, not even giving her a look. The mouse was the size of one of the hogs in the "ark" compartment of the starship. A chill ran down her spine as she recalled a video she and Bobby had watched, involving the food chain back on Earth, showing a cat eating a mouse.......if the mouse was this big, she shuddered at the thought of encountering a cat.
Still struggling through the thick grass, which she couldn't see more than 20 feet around her she stepped out of the vegetation and onto a flat bare area of dirt, much smoother than that the pebbles she had been walking on. Off to her left, she saw a strange object. It looked like it was made of some type of metal, obviously "man-made", but about four feet long. For some reason, she thought it resembled a chess piece, a game she had grown to love playing during the long off duty hours on the starship. While she was examining it, she felt the ground vibrate, softly at first, then getting stronger and stronger. She stood up and turned around and to her shock and horror, she saw a giant being standing in front of her. She craned her neck to look up and estimated the giant, which looked exactly like a human except for the size, looking down at her. Frozen by fear and expecting to be killed, Twila closed her eyes and waited for inevitable......which didn't come. She heard a gentle voice, softly saying something in a language she didn't recognize. She slowly opened her eyes. The giant, Twila now saw appeared to be female, was kneeling down and had one of its hands stretched out towards her, palm up and flat on the ground. She looked up towards the giant's face. It had a reassuring and gentle expression and reminded her of her mother's face when she was a child and had been scared by something. The giant repeated what it had previously said and one of the fingers on the hand curled back towards her than lay flat again, appearing to be beckoning Twila to her. Hesitantly, she was able to force her right foot to step forward, fighting the instinct to turn and run in blind flight which Twila knew would be futile as the giant could reach out and grab her before she made it back to the grass. Taking a few more steps forward, the giant's hand never moved, and its calming voice began to lessen the fear in Twila's heart. Reaching the hand, which was near as big as the escape pod, she couldn't step up on it and had to climb on and crawl to the center of the palm on her hands and knees. Once there, she sat down and settled herself. The giant then very slowly and gently lifted her off the ground, cupping its other hand around her like a protective shield, stood up. Now at its full height, Twila figured the giant was about 60 to 70 feet tall. As the giant began to walk, Twila's mind raced with thoughts of her future. She already grasped the concept that she could never survive on this planet on her own and most likely, she would never find any other human from the starship if any of them escaped and made it to the planet. The giant didn't squish her like a bug or simply grab her, Twila hoped that she was benevolent and would at least keep her safe from all the other threats she already knew existed on this planet as well as those she could only imagine.
Bleakly, Twila realized that whatever happened to her from now on, her fate was no longer in her hands............
Twila stood at the porthole of the starship that had been her home for her entire life, gazing at the planet below. She had been born a year after the ship began its interstellar exploratory journey and she had been raised as a climatologist, studying the atmospheric and environmental conditions of the various planets they explored. Using laser technology, she had examined the atmosphere of the planet they were orbiting and found it to be very similar to Earth, a planet she had never stepped foot upon, and the first planet with such conditions they had encountered is several years.
Bobby, her best friend and cadet in training as a pilot joined her. While the planet could support human life, the biologists reported a lifeform on the planet would be too dangerous for a landing party and they were planning on leaving orbit to travel to the next possible "Goldilocks Planet" on their list. He tried to comfort her but knowing it would be a long time before they reached the next world, Twila had sunk into a depression.
The starship suddenly rocked violently. Alarms began sounding and a voice over the ship's intercom exclaimed the ship had been struck by a meteor and all crew was to head to the escape pods and prepare to abandon ship. Bobby grabbed Twila by the arm and rushed her to an escape pod and strapped her in. He told her he had to stay as part of the emergency response team and pressed the autolaunch button on the console. If the ship was in imminent peril of destruction, the pod would launch automatically. She waited nervously for him to return. She felt the ship shudder again and again, then without warning, the pod launched into space. Within a few seconds, she saw the starship explode.
The escape pod followed its own programming and sensor readings and headed to the planet they had been circling. It entered the atmosphere, the exterior heating up so Twila could no longer see out the windows and after what seemed an eternity, landed roughly on the planet. The canopy opened and Twila steeled herself for what she was about to encounter.
She found herself in what appeared to be a tropical jungle. Huge grasses, taller than she, were all around her. To her relief, her testing turned out to be accurate. The air was breathable, and the temperature was a balmy 80 degrees C. Climbing out of the ship, she jumped down to the ground, which was covered in small pebbles. She realized that she was barefoot, having taken off her shoes while she was still on the starship gazing out the porthole. Fortunately, the rocks were smooth and round, and she could walk on them with hurting her feet, though she did have to step carefully as to not step on a loose one and possibly twist an ankle. She scanned the skies and couldn't see any other escape pods. Climbing back into the cockpit of the pod, she called out on the radio to reach any other survivors, if anyone else had indeed escaped before the starship exploded. She received no response, even though the radio was capable of transmitting and receiving signals for a thousand or more miles. She began to fear that she may have been the only survivor from the starship.
Twila began to wander through the jungle of grasses. She heard a loud buzzing sound and looked up to see what she recognized as a bumble bee, which the ship had thousands in the vegetable growing compartment, but this one was huge. She estimated it to be about three feet from mandibles to stinger. It showed no interest in her, so she continued on. She came upon a mound of rocks that came up to her waist. There was a hole about 3 inches in diameter in the top. She thought it looked like something she had learned about in entomology class, but an anthill this size was preposterous. Then an ant, a foot long, came out of the mound. Twila jumped back from the mound, but when the ant just climbed down the mound and went on its way, she continued her walk. A shadow flashed on the ground, and she looked up to see a bird the size of a small airplane (which Bobby had shown her pictures of from his pilot's training classes) and the dove into a clump of grass. She watched the feathered monster circle a few times, as if it had seen her and was looking for her again, then flew off. As she ventured further, she saw a furry animal which looked like a mouse scamper by, not even giving her a look. The mouse was the size of one of the hogs in the "ark" compartment of the starship. A chill ran down her spine as she recalled a video she and Bobby had watched, involving the food chain back on Earth, showing a cat eating a mouse.......if the mouse was this big, she shuddered at the thought of encountering a cat.
Still struggling through the thick grass, which she couldn't see more than 20 feet around her she stepped out of the vegetation and onto a flat bare area of dirt, much smoother than that the pebbles she had been walking on. Off to her left, she saw a strange object. It looked like it was made of some type of metal, obviously "man-made", but about four feet long. For some reason, she thought it resembled a chess piece, a game she had grown to love playing during the long off duty hours on the starship. While she was examining it, she felt the ground vibrate, softly at first, then getting stronger and stronger. She stood up and turned around and to her shock and horror, she saw a giant being standing in front of her. She craned her neck to look up and estimated the giant, which looked exactly like a human except for the size, looking down at her. Frozen by fear and expecting to be killed, Twila closed her eyes and waited for inevitable......which didn't come. She heard a gentle voice, softly saying something in a language she didn't recognize. She slowly opened her eyes. The giant, Twila now saw appeared to be female, was kneeling down and had one of its hands stretched out towards her, palm up and flat on the ground. She looked up towards the giant's face. It had a reassuring and gentle expression and reminded her of her mother's face when she was a child and had been scared by something. The giant repeated what it had previously said and one of the fingers on the hand curled back towards her than lay flat again, appearing to be beckoning Twila to her. Hesitantly, she was able to force her right foot to step forward, fighting the instinct to turn and run in blind flight which Twila knew would be futile as the giant could reach out and grab her before she made it back to the grass. Taking a few more steps forward, the giant's hand never moved, and its calming voice began to lessen the fear in Twila's heart. Reaching the hand, which was near as big as the escape pod, she couldn't step up on it and had to climb on and crawl to the center of the palm on her hands and knees. Once there, she sat down and settled herself. The giant then very slowly and gently lifted her off the ground, cupping its other hand around her like a protective shield, stood up. Now at its full height, Twila figured the giant was about 60 to 70 feet tall. As the giant began to walk, Twila's mind raced with thoughts of her future. She already grasped the concept that she could never survive on this planet on her own and most likely, she would never find any other human from the starship if any of them escaped and made it to the planet. The giant didn't squish her like a bug or simply grab her, Twila hoped that she was benevolent and would at least keep her safe from all the other threats she already knew existed on this planet as well as those she could only imagine.
Bleakly, Twila realized that whatever happened to her from now on, her fate was no longer in her hands............
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