Adrift

By jinnis

Day thre: Losses

Simon is gone. He's lost, and I'll never find out how or why—I was asleep while he fell overboard.

After failing to reanimate the AI, the captain split the crew into three watches, like they used to on Earth, back when mighty ships roamed the seven seas. Afloat on an endless expanse of water, thinking of home grows nostalgia.

This amazing planet is covered by a single ocean, its surface rippled by strong winds, waves unbroken by shores. Although Jury insists this isn't water, in the strict sense. Apparently, too many minerals and strange HO isotopes dominate the mix. But it looks like a mysterious, deep, ancient ocean. Depending on the light, luminescent plankton seems to wander beneath the surface even in broad daylight.

But back to the accident. Hannah, Sy's watch partner, insists she didn't hear him go outside. After a loud splash, she realised the top hatch was open, climbed up onto the hull, and found him gone.

Somehow, his loss hits me worse than the deaths of Doc and Marylee upon reentry. I mean, we were all convinced we'd die that day. When, against all odds, six of us survived, we thought us lucky. Those that died did it on duty, in a desperate situation.

Marylee saved us, sticking to her pilot's post while the heat in the cockpit grilled her alive. Star Rambler was a deep space explorer, not built to land on planets. We knew the pressure and atmospheric friction would destroy her as soon as she got caught in the gravitation well.

If Doc hadn't ushered us into the tiny landing shuttle, we'd all shared Marylee's fate. He lost time to convince the captain and finally knocked her unconscious to save her. This left no time to launch the lander, but its shielding protected us from the inferno. Only Doc didn't make it. In a stroke of fate, his old heart gave out in the raising pressure during the fall.

Yeah, Marylee and Doc died heroes. But Sy... it's a wonder the Rambler's molten hull remains afloat on the ocean, a tiny, tight nutshell rocking in the waves. What did Simon do outside, at the water's edge?

Day four: Burials

Sleep was rare last period, and I can't blame the near endless day on this strange giant of a planet. Without the ship's life-system, the cargo bay is dark like hell. We set up quarters there, in the place least affected by the damage.

Today, the captain decided to get rid of Doc's and Marylee's bodies. It was time, too. Not much was left of our pilot, so we considered the burnt lumps of suit we found in the former cockpit her mortal remains. As a semi-religious person, she would have appreciated the gesture.

We met on the battered and blackened surface of the Rambler. The long swell of a quiet sea rocked our substitute ship floating on the glittering surface. Strange how the water sparkles under a leaden sky, heavy clouds hiding the big, red sun most of the time.

An eerie silence hung in the air. I waited for the cry of a gull, the splash of a jumping fish, something to break the tension, make this world seem more familiar. But this isn't Earth, this ocean may look much like our seas, but we haven't observed a single animal so far. Besides, the colours are too brilliant, and the waves roll too sluggish, the sunlight breaks at wrong angles.

The captain used sombre words, an adequate goodbye for Doc, Marylee and Simon. But I was distracted, worn out and tired. Alex says I'm seasick. He might be right, I was always prone to motion sickness. It will pass with time. Doc might have prescribed me a cure.

After the sad ceremony, I delved into work and managed to jury-rig our communications set. The captain helped me recover components from the crushed, burnt cockpit and the shuttle. Now, we transmit deep space signals, and help might already be underway.

Day nine: Mysteries

The planetary day drags on while we deplete our stores. Jury and Alex built a working water filter, and Hannah reanimated part of the greenhouse using spare solar panels from the communications unit. But we lack everything else. Desperation creeps in.

I broadcast deep space messages twice daily, every twelve Earth hours. We continue to run our own time. This world doesn't offer an easy way to adapt our cycles, so we stick with the habitual units.

We changed the watch system to two eight-hour shifts. I spend mine with Alex, Jury and Hannah share the other. The captain seems awake at all hours, busy with calculations and keeping a meticulous log of our observations. This was Sy's job before.

The captain looks exhausted, and I imagine the responsibility of command wears her down. She isn't to blame we stranded on this desolate water world. If it can be called someone's fault an asteroid hit the main drive, Marylee already paid with her life. Was a bad conscience the reason she insisted to stay at the helm?

I finished my comm duty and joined Alex on deck. Strange how many nautical terms we non-sailors use in this situation. The part of the Rambler's hull above the waves is the deck, now even secured by an improvised handrail. Alex leaned against the badly welded structure meant to prevent others to suffer Simon's fate. He stared into the water.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

He denied, said he must have imagined seeing movements under the surface. We laughed them off, sharing dirty shark jokes and a few happy minutes.

Our merriment stopped the moment the captain joined us, leaving us embarrassed to behave like kids. But she wasn't angry, just wanted to know about the occasion for our laughter. When Alex told her, she turned serious.

"The depth might harbour life. That we haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

While writing this diary entry, several heavy thumps resonated through the Rambler's submerged hull. I wonder.

Day seventeen: Monsters

Finally, the night arrived. Even if it won't last as long as the day did, it's frightening. The tilt of the planet's axis causes irregular days and seasons. We will have to get through a dark period equalling eleven Earth days, now. This is summer, featuring long days and short nights. Winter will come, eventually, in seven Earth years. I wonder where we will be, then.

Dusk crept in gradually, the overcast sky turning darker and the water taking on a luminous quality. A pensive Alex and I were on watch. I knew the thought of his wife and children back home ate him. He never talked about them, but when I mentioned setting off another mayday signal, he turned away, shaking his curly head.

I spent several hours re-examining my installation, and I'm sure the signals are transmitted. So why is there no answer? Unfortunately, I can't double-check the receiver. I can't help but fear something is terribly amiss.

Alex's strangled cry called me outside. I was too late. A track of blue foam across the deck was the only trace I found. Panicked, I ran for a weapon and straight into the captain. She didn't waste time, and minutes later we were back on deck, ion blasters buzzing.

Simon waited for us.

Night had claimed the last daylight, and the ocean burned in a deep purple glow under a starless sky. It seemed as if sparkling balls of fire were moving deep below the surface, some slow and stately, others fast and twitching, subaquatic fireflies twirling in a mating dance.

Against this backdrop, a dark silhouette stood out. I recognised the spiky hair, broad shoulders and slim waist. Simon turned around, running a hand through his unruly hair in an all too familiar gesture. Then he stepped nearer, and I gasped.

Illuminated by the ghostly glow of the sea, I saw pupil-less indigo eyes burn in a changed face. Smooth, tan skin had turned pale, pulsing blue veins crisscrossing every inch of it in a moving, mesmerising honeycomb pattern.

Not-Simon coughed, and blue slime trickled down this monster's chin. Vocal chords no longer used to human speech gurgled and, to my utter shock, whispered my name.

While I stood transfixed, unbelieving, the captain raised her gun.

"Who are you? What did you do to my crew?"

The being, once our crew-mate, lifted a hand in an entirely human gesture, but its words were unrecognisable, blurred, bubbling noises without meaning to our ears.

Tears shot to my eyes, this was my Sy—I lowered my gun, against better knowledge ready to chance a closer encounter.

Before the captain could intercept me, I stopped myself, my gaze caught by another thing that crawled out of the sea and aboard behind him. For a moment, I thought I recognised Doc's friendly smile, then the captain's shot tore into the wriggling, alien body.

Seconds later, Sy dived into the water headfirst. In parallel, a fist-sized blob of blue goo shot out of the water and hit the captain's arm. Her flesh sizzled, threw blisters, melted and dripped onto her own leg where the same hissing process started.

The captain looked at me, then down at her slime-covered arm and leg. Slowly, she lifted her other hand, holding the gun. I didn't stop her, sure I'd do the same in her situation. Her deep wounds bubbled with blue foam, it already crept up her arm, coated half her chest. Transfixed, I couldn't tear my gaze away. She coughed.

"Aly?"

Her voice was harsh, I could tell she was in severe pain.

"Promise you'll burn me. I don't want to end like them."

I nodded with burning eyes.

The shot sounded dull in the heavy air.

Day eighteen: Choices

The captain's log confirmed my darkest suspicions. Our distress signals are swallowed by the atmosphere, and she knew it for a while. There's still the possibility someone picked up our emergency call before we got sucked into this planet's evil aura. Or, perhaps, someday an expedition will visit this world. Until then, we're alone.

I tried to burn the captain's remains with my sweltering torch—I swear I did. But the blue mass covering her corpse made it impossible. It shrank away from the heat and dove into the ocean. I couldn't stop the thing.

Hannah found me, hours later. The slime had dried to a dark, inky powder and my story sounded lame even in my own ears. Jury insists he believes me, but I saw the suspicion in Hannah's eyes.

The choice is mine. I can wait in the dwindling hope for rescue with Hannah and Jury. Or I can take a single step and discover this planet's underwater world. The captain is alive down there, together with Alex, even Doc and Marylee.

And Sy, my unfulfilled love. I'm convinced his mind still occupied his body or what remained of it. Deep blue eyes spoke of his longing.

The waves against the hull whisper about an option, promise an adventure, a future.

Time to close my diary, to go outside.

In the depth, purple lights beckon.