Kiera
My chest felt heavy from the pressure of the harness so I unsnapped it. Instant relief hit and I took a deep breath. "Grab all the life packs. We are going to need all the help we can get to survive. We don't know enough about this planet to be lax with supplies." The hatch to the outside was just behind the cockpit area. I walked over and popped it open. Thanks to the air in the ship, we had floated back to the surface of the water. It wouldn't last long. Water was pouring in from the back. It was up to our ankles and rising quickly.
I shucked my space suit and looked gratefully at Mikhail as he held out two life packs for me. The weight of them was like carrying an extra person but oddly reassuring. Climbing the ladder, fresh air hit my face and was a welcome relief to the stuffiness of the rescue pod. Once we were all out, we each assessed the situation as we stood on top of our sinking pod.
Decisions were my job. I nodded, knowing they would trust me to keep them safe. "We don't know what's in the water. Keep an eye out. Give it everything you've got. Don't linger in the water any more than necessary. Do your best not to drink any of the water." It was a good two hundred yards to shore. It was nothing we hadn't done before. We were also weighted by two life packs, swimming in unfamiliar water with possible unknown predators. I made sure my guys were trained for this. This kind of life or death situation got the blood pumping and adrenaline skyrocketing. Each of us, from the look of it, were almost high on this new adventure.
"Yes, Commander." I looked at each of them to make sure they were ready for this. Each nodded back, knowing what I was looking for. I gave the signal and we all dove in, hauling ass to shore.
From the splashes, I could tell that they were all keeping together in a group but moving fast. About halfway, I checked to make sure no one was lagging behind. Fabrizio was bringing up the rear, making sure Bao didn't fall behind. As the smallest of our group, she tended to have to work harder to keep up but she hung in right there with us. Pride in my team choked me up for a moment.
Looking back at the pod, I expected to see just the tip of it above the water. Instead, a large tentacle shot out of the water. It was orange and huge, wrapping around the pod and inadvertently lifting it slightly further up from the water. The tentacle was wrapped several times around it. The suction cups on the creature were the size of my hand at least. I knew my eyes bulged as several more tentacles sprung up and dragged the pod down.
"Faster!" I ordered. Turning back to shore, I put everything I had into making it before the creature realized that there were people in the water. I dropped back to make sure I was the last out of the water. We reached the sand, but my instincts were still shouting that we weren't safe. "Get away from the water! Further up the beach!" Soaking wet and dragging two heavy bags, the weight almost dragged me down.
Getting to the edge of the thin beach where the trees boarded, I looked back. Four huge dark eyes stared at us from just inside the water. There was above-average intelligence in those eyes. Very slowly, the creature sank back into the purple depths. A slight ripple in the water was the only evidence that anything had been there.
The feeling of danger subsided with the creature gone. I finally felt like I could stop and take a breath. The excitement didn't subside though. A new adventure had just begun and the adrenaline from the crash was still giving me a feeling of euphoria. Looking at the others, they were doing the same thing I was. Breathing heavily, we did the exercises taught to us to help regulate it. Swimming two hundred yards with gear, under duress, would have had anyone's blood pumping. We all shared a grin.
Taking a final cleansing breath, I finally looked around at our surroundings. It took everything I had to keep my jaw from dropping. This place was amazing! On so many levels.
The ocean was a deep purple but turned lavender as it came to shore. Sand covered the small beach but it was a pale green with darker green flecks scattered throughout. The foliage and trees behind us were a mix of oranges and reds, all different shades. Some of the tree trunks started out yellow and then faded into green and then brown as they reached for the sky. These trees were not like the ones that had once populated Earth. These trees were so wide across the bottom that it would take all five of us linking hands to completely surround it. The canopy was thick and almost looked like there could be a walkway up there. Kind of like it had been said could happen in the rainforests of old on Earth. Further out, the mountains seemed to be all rock without any kind of vegetation. The rocks were varying shades of red and orange.
I could feel excitement threatening to take over. This is what I lived for. This is why I had left everything behind on a dying planet. Discovering new worlds, not having someone telling me what I can do and when I can do it. The others were the same. It was one of the reasons we bonded as well as we had. Here, we had air and our awesome skills. The rest we would figure out.
We all shared knowing grins. My team was incredible. We could overcome anything.
"Alright, first things first. We need to inventory the life packs." Crouching down, we began pulling items from the packs. Separating and organizing what we had took only moments. The only thing that needed to be kept separate were the clothes as they were in sizes to fit each of us. We were satisfied once everything was laid out. The MRE's would last us two months, even if we were separated. Probably longer if we rationed. There were ten of everything else. Small water filtration mugs, first aid kits along with health scanners for internal damage, specialized one person pop-up tents, thermal survival blankets, small hygiene kits, solar charges, flare guns, hunting knives, and laser pistols. What we didn't have in the packs we were sure we could make from the materials around us.
"We split everything so that if we get separated everyone has what they need. First aid kits and hygiene kits can be combined. Flare guns and laser pistols, you only need one each. Just take the extra power cartridges and loading clips. Make sure to pack the extra solar charges as well. Two blankets each. We don't know what the temperatures are like here. The other items we can stash in case we need to come back for them later."
"Come now, Commander," Fabrizio murmured smoothly in a suggestive tone as we reloaded our packs. "We don't need extra blankets. We can keep each other warm. Might I suggest that we begin snuggling so that when it's time to propagate we are more…comfortable with each other?" His sly smirk let all of us know that he was only half kidding. He's a shameless flirt and always up for some close contact. His antics never failed to ease any tension and relaxed our team.
We all laughed as we gathered the items we were packing and found a large tree just inside the tree line that had an abundance of foliage around the base. Checking to make sure that no creature had made this area its home, we used the bushes around the tree strategically to camouflage the location of our gear. So far there has been no sign of any wildlife aside from the squid-like creature in the ocean.
Bao blew him an air kiss but shook her head. "Easy, Fab. We are exploring the planet, not repopulating it."
"When does that plan go into effect? I want some of that action," Greg chimed in eagerly.
Mikhail punched Greg on the arm playfully. "We all know that when that begins, I get first dibs. I am the smartest and best looking of this group. It only makes sense that they choose me first."
That sent the men into bickering good-naturally on which of them would be the best choice for the first children. Each suggesting qualities that they possessed that the others didn't and the importance of those qualities.
Bao and I looked at each other in exasperation and rolled our eyes with our arms crossed as we watched the men make idiots of themselves over something that wouldn't be their choice at all. When and if that ever happened, Bao and I would be the ones to decide that. And only once we were ready. Not a minute sooner. Giving up on the guys, we turned back to retrieve our packs.
"This is what we have to repopulate with?" Bao joked. "We are so screwed."
"In more ways than one," Fabrizio insinuated, waggling his brows as he grinned. The guys had followed us to the packs, so they heard Bao's comment. In an unfamiliar environment, no matter what else was going on, they would never let any of us wonder off too far without being close. It was a nice sense of security that I would never take for granted again.
I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up. "Guys, seriously! Let's stop thinking with our little heads long enough to find out if something here can kill us before that happens. I have no interest in having kids just to have something eat them."
"Aye, Commander," they all rang in. It was habit more than anything. Eventually, maybe I could get them to stop using my rank and just use my name. Rank didn't really mean anything out here unless we ran into a hostile situation.
"I tried to run a quick scan of the terrain as we came into the atmosphere before we hit the water," Fabrizio stated. "It didn't work. As soon as we came through, the radar went crazy. We are going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."
The team grinned like idiots. This was one of our favorite things to do. Live off the land, explore new places, put our well-earned skills to the ultimate test. We were in heaven. So what if it wasn't on the planet we had originally been aiming for?
"I'd like to take a look at the canopy first. From down here it looks like there could be a highway up…"
A loud screech suddenly filled the air, cutting off my sentence. A chill slid down my spine. That call could only have come from a large creature. Realizing that it had come from the sky, I forced myself into action. Using the hand signals that we had developed, I ordered my crew to grab our bags and hide in the bushes at the base of the trees. The cry had sounded far off, but we were taking no chances. We stayed quiet and still, waiting to see the creature that could have such a spine-chilling roar.