Castaway Planet

As she cleaned up the remains of their meal, Racha looked over at Roy as he rocked the baby to sleep. For a few minutes when they started to eat, she had been worried about how they would feed her. But it turned out the little lady had her teeth, and was able to eat the soft flesh of the pods. For all that they had struggled to try and survive the creature, this place was barely worth it. And since it had gotten away, they would have to post a guard, not that they weren’t planning to.

“Thank you, thank you so much for saving her,” Roy said softly as he looked up.

Racha could only watch as Jinn sat down before him and played with the baby’s hair, smiling. “Roy, it was nothing. We’re shipmates, we look out for each other.”

Racha only rolled her eyes and sighed, trying to play it off. That was more than a criminal like Jinn would normally say, and that bothered her a lot. Ever since Duncan had broken her cover, to Jinn she had been on edge. And then Paige had broken theirs to the others, she had been a little concerned and even more confused. Jinn acted like no criminal or rebel she had ever seen. Some were loyal to each other, but he went beyond that. And the abilities Paige had, and the people who hunted her down. And that wasn’t even thinking about the powers that Jinn had developed, what were they? And did Paige’s come from the same source?

“After what happened at my pod, I know that’s not true,” Roy said miserably and Racha looked up at this.

“We didn’t have time, but what happened there, what happened? I mean, what could have gotten the idea for a sacrifice to appease the creatures?” Racha asked and Roy looked away.

“I can’t say. And I mean I truly can’t. You see, during the first attack….. I got knocked out,” Roy said as he looked down, his eyes misty. “When I woke up, they were completely crazy! Everything just happened so fast, I couldn’t understand anything! It was why I spoke up, and the next thing I knew I was the second sacrifice!”

Racha only looked at him, her nanites recording everything she just heard, and went over it. That meant that whatever happened to the majority of the others happened when he was knocked out. Or did his being asleep keep whatever happened to the others from happening to him? Was it the result of a Power user like Jinn or Paige? There were several possibilities, and she didn’t like any of them. But all they could do was try and keep calm and move along, never stop, and stay alive.

“I can’t believe it man, I just can’t! I mean the psych evas alone. How could someone like who would do that even make it onto the crew, let alone an officer!” Al muttered as he looked up at the ceiling above them from the right.

Racha looked at him, a strange feeling going through her as she thought about Al’s words. There was truth in that, and that bothered her. That made her idea that much more possible. If someone gained powers like Jinn, then maybe they thought they were god’s chosen.

“Still can’t believe a yard ship is here. I mean aren’t Archipelago considered strategic assets? What?” Roy asked as the others all looked away.

As Roy looked around, Jinn shared a look with Racha. After a few minutes Racha nodded, Roy and anyone else they met deserved to know that much at least.

“It’s not an Archipelago Class. I think it’s an Anchorage,” Jinn said as he looked at her. He just sighed as he saw the look of complete confusion on Roy’s face. “You know, an Anchorage class? As in the first Yard-Ship, the one that went commercial and was three classes behind the Archipelago class? The military stopped making them before the Corporate War and…..”

At this, Racha took a deep breath in shock before Al started cruising in binary. Jinn only looked into space, shocked beyond words.

All Racha could think about was that this was an extremely good thing for them. If they could get ahold of any records it had, they might be able to learn something about this world. If there were any survivors there, then they had to get there faster. Survivors meant help for all the marooned passengers. Survivors meant people had been stuck there for years if they were all lucky. if not, then there was a space Ruin above this planet or on a moon they couldn’t see.

“……They were made before the Corporate War….. Could it be that old?” Jinn asked shocked as he looked around.

Racha saw Roy look at Jinn in shock as he opened and closed his mouth a few times.

“Why would you even think it was that……” Roy began only for Al to interrupt him.

“Even if it is, I still have a copy of its operating system. I’ll be able to take control as soon as I get a hold of its mainframe!” Al said forcibly and Roy’s head snapped over to stare at him.

“Why would you even have a copy of its operating system?” Roy asked.

“We need to get there as fast as possible, we don’t have a choice anymore! That ship, if its sensors still worked all this time then maybe we can figure out where we are!” Racha barked, and all the others except Roy nodded. A second lady the baby started to cry, shocked awake by Racha’s remark.

“Could someone please explain what you all mean?!” Roy barked out softly as he started to rock the baby back to sleep.

Racha looked away and sighed, trying to think about how to explain this without making Roy lose his mind.

“On the way here, we found a fighter. It was from the Corporate War, specifically from the corps side. And somehow it still had power. So we used it as a bomb,” Jinn said softly and Roy looked at him, his eyes wide.

Roy looked at his friend, trying to understand what he meant. There was no way that was possible, no way at all! The corps were the cheapest of fools when it came to military hardware. They even gave all their fighters recharge batteries to save on construction costs! But all that did was make them lose power if the battles were too long, killing their pilots.

At least, that was what he had been told. He could so easily see a cover-up being involved, but then that was what governments did. But that didn’t help them it made this worse. But forget how they made the fighter, it had been here. It had worked after all these years, but that didn’t make sense. Why had it worked, just how was it even possible? Could it have been a newer model, from one of the reinaction companies he knew about? But those were all drones, remote-controlled units. And the engines weren’t powerful enough to ever be used as a bomb!

That meant that he couldn’t trust what he knew, and in this situation that was incredibly bad.

“And you’re sure that’s where the fighter was from?” Roy asked in total shock.

“I know ships! If I said that was what it was, then that was what it was!” Al said forcibly softly and Roy just looked at him.

“Had the Alliance logo and everything, it was from back then,” Jinn said with a sigh.

“It’s insane, but that's the way it works. I mean this planet. From humanoid insects as large as us or bigger. Strange spiders and whatever that thing that lived here was, I mean this is wild!” Al said and Roy only looked at him, shocked beyond words.

As Roy tried to comprehend how any of this was possible, the baby he was rocking to sleep finally fell into slumber. He looked at her and then the others and sighed, he turned towards the cave. “I’m gonna set up a place for the little lady to sleep and use the bags to make a barrier. I’ll sleep against it in case she’s a climber. And then hopefully when I wake, things will make sense again.”

“You go and take a nice sleep man. We’ll handle the watches, you just rest,” Jinn said softly and Roy felt relief.

“Thanks,” Roy said softly as he walked into the cave. As he walked into the darkness he blinked as he walked into a soft green glow. It was cast by a crystal embedded into the ceilings. He, Al, and Jinn had found them when they had cleared the cave. They had to make sure that there wasn’t another way into the cavern in it. The same crystal that gave the cavern light shined green and dimmer here, and part of him didn’t want to know why or how. Sometimes, it was better not to know, he had learned that the hard way long, long ago.

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Jinn looked at the cave before turning towards Racha. “You didn’t think or want to say the possibility, did you?”

“What are you talking about?” Racha asked softly.

All Jinn did was stare at her, his mouth closed. For a few seconds, he wondered if she even knew what he was talking about, but no one the Service sent out wouldn’t know. The fact that she was at least of a rank that let her lead this mission of hers was enough, she would have to know. The only way was if the Service was hiding it, but with the planet that seemed unlikely.

“What are you talking about?” Racha asked as she looked back at him.

For a second, all Jinn did was look at her. Then his eyes hardened, if she didn’t want to take the plunge he would.

“The folly of the Algmar,” Jinn said softly as he looked at her, watching for any reaction. She didn’t disappoint, she just looked at him as her mouth opened in shock.

For a few seconds, all Jinn felt was a bit of pleasure. He had been right about her, she did know about it. But then why hadn’t she said…. Oh. She hadn’t made the connection, that was something. but then that made this whole situation that much more dangerous, who knew how long they had been lost?

“What’s the Algmar?” Al asked a note of wonder in his voice.

Jinn only looked at Racha, waiting for a reaction. All she did was look at him with wide eyes as she saw what he had figured out.

“The Algmar was a colony ship that disappeared over three hundred years ago. It was found about, oh…. Thirty years back, the crew and passengers were still alive. They had stumbled into the area of a Ruin that was on an asteroid. It was discovered in the inquiry that the sensors detected rare metals worth a lot on the same asteroid. It was on the way so the colony’s sponsor wanted to take a look. To see if they could get it on the way back after dropping the colonists off. Instead, the ship wandered into the Ruin’s area and it activated. And they all became time travelers,” Jinn said bluntly and Al could only stare at him, shocked beyond words.

“How many years? How big was the stasis field?” Al asked in horror as he understood exactly what had happened to the ship.

“Big, when it broke the pilot had to do some fancy flying to stay alive. A few of the asteroids and comets that had gotten stuck at the edge. They found out their new world had a Fleet base and more ships that had gotten stuck. Last I heard they were on this world the Federation set aside for people like them,” Jinn said and shook his head.

“How do you know that?!” Racha barked softly.

“A group escaped the planet, someone from the bridge of the Algmar was a part of it. The people who raised me found him. Last I saw he was being moved to another camp. And that was before I left so I don’t know where they are now, or who they are. I still have a little loyalty to them even if I’m a traitor to their leader,” Jinn said bluntly as he leaned back and looked up. He saw Sara and Paige at the exit to the forest, watching for anything that might come at them. If he remembered what they had planned, then after a few hours he and Al would take over the last shift until morning. But then that didn’t matter, the only thing that did was what Racha did next.

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“They escaped!? Oh nova, nova! This is bad, really bad!” Racha said as she felt her blood leave her face. The planet was one of the most secure locations in the Service. The people sent, some had run into Ruins, the kind that the public didn’t know about. There were few cities, most far apart. They weren’t exactly prisons, more like hospitals. The Algmar colonists were given a region far from anyone else. They were able to build their new home there while they adjusted to the changes. Last she heard the plant was going to be made public. It was set to have happened within the next year once the last colonists gave the go-ahead.

“So the Federation just keeps people prisoner?!” Al demanded and Racha looked at him before she looked away.

“It’s now a prison, not really. The planet was set up to help those affected by Ruins heal. I admit that we wanted to keep an eye on them, but after one ‘Zombie Plague’, got free, can you blame us?” Racha asked and Jinn looked up, glaring at her.

“Zombie Plague, like in the movies?” Jinn demanded and at Racha’s nod, he looked away and sighed. “So you keep them on the planet to make sure the Ruins didn’t infect them? Smart I guess.”

“Necessary, at least according to my old teacher. The committee involved with that decision, well most of them retired from field work. Last I heard some of them were in the academy or entered the Civilian Workforce,” Racha said and Jinn looked at her and nodded.

“Okay, I’ll admit that there might be a reason, but do you see what might have happened to us?” Jinn asked and Racha only blinked.

She was about to say something before her eyes went wide as her mind made connections. “NO! You can’t mean!”

“I do, there is a good chance that happened to us. That we might have wandered into a Ruin. That's the only way this tracks,” Jinn said.

All Racha could do was think as she gazed past that, all the way back to the Federation. After the Diplomatic party failed to show up, there had to be have been a search. Once they didn’t find anything from The Spirit, there had to have been an outcry. Just what had the Ancients done? There was a lot of talk about who on the team was the Diplomat, and what noble rank they were.

“What are you two talking about?” Al asked as he looked between them.

Racha only stayed silent, the sheer weight of what Jinn had told her keeping her silent. After a few seconds, Jinn only sighed before he turned his head.

“There is no way to know how much time passed between whatever caused us to leave the ship and when we hit the ground,” Jinn said softly as he looked at Al.

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Al only looked at his friend, his mind trying to understand just what he meant. But then he did, and his eyes went wide. If the stasis field was advanced enough to hold machines and people in a state of suspended time…… then it could have been thousands of years. If the Ruin had enough advanced equipment, then who knew how long it had been. Well, there was a way.

“We need to get to the Yard-Ship, I need to see its central computer,” Al said, looking a the others as they looked back at him.

“Well, yeah. You need to take over the ship,” Jinn said but All only shook his head, a bit of anger sparking in his mind.

Once again, he wondered just why he and those from the Scholar’s Way worlds always thought the way they did. Jinn knew so much, but he didn’t even see it. Again, that wasn’t too bad but the way this was going, he would have to explain in detail.

“No, I mean I need to get to the system. That will let us know just what we’re dealing with here!” Al said forcibly, letting his voice echo a bit. He went silent and turned towards the cave, seeing Roy just roll, still asleep.

“Listen, if this place is the result of a temporal Ruin, then the way time works here has to be different! Slowed down or accelerated, then that ship is a witness! That system will have all the records about how long it’s been here,” Al said forcibly.

Racha could only look at him as she tried to understand him. After a moment, she started to and grinned “Then once we know just what we’re dealing with…..”

“….We’ll be able to see just how bad we’re in the black hole!” Jinn finished with a smirk.

“That’s my thought. We need to get there as fast as possible. This might be even more important than we thought it was,” Al said with a soft voice.

All Al could do was think about just what this meant. For a small moment, he had hoped that centuries had passed by in the greater Federation... It would have fixed all his problems, and he might have been able to argue what happened to him. If the rebellion back on his world would have won. If that had happened, then his class would have gotten justice. And that meant they might have created a memorial for their lost friends. And if everything he thought had happened, then he could have still be a researcher on his world.

That was all he had ever wanted, but then the last day. Fighting for his life, and the comradery of the others. Maybe he wanted something else, maybe he wanted this life.