Anna drops to her knees on my other side. “Hey.” She gives me a warm smile in greeting as she runs a scanner over my body. “I’m glad you’re up. How do you feel?”
I press my palm to my forehead and wince at the slight pain in my wrist. How am I supposed to feel—great? “Like I crashed on a strange planet,” I give her a half-teasing, half-annoyed reply.
A soft laugh escapes her. “You're lucky. I see you still have your sense of humor and nothing is broken. So, you should be fine. It doesn’t look like the pirates followed us here, thank goodness.”
That’s a relief. “What about the other escape pods?”
She shakes her head softly. “No sign of anyone but the twenty-five of us. Though they could have landed further from here. I mean, who knows how big this planet is.”
“The pod’s computer?” I ask. That’s the only way we can locate the other escape vessels if they didn’t land nearby.
Anna sighs heavily. “It’s fried beyond repair, according to our resident computer specialist.” She looks to Skye.
Skye was part of the ship’s bridge crew. She may have specialized in navigation, but she knew the computers like the back of her hand. If she says the pod’s computer is unsalvageable, I have no reason to doubt her.
“Yeah,” Skye adds. “We’re lucky we made it.” Grief flits briefly across her expression as she corrects herself. “Most of us, anyway.”
I reach out and take her hand in mine, giving it a reassuring squeeze. We’ve both lost people we love. We’ll get through this, though it will be hard at first. That’s the nature of grieving.
“Everyone has been waiting for you to wake up,” Anna says, pulling me back from my melancholy thoughts.
“Me? Why me?”
Skye’s gaze travels over our people for a moment before she leans in. “Since you were the director of the botany lab, that makes you the most senior crew member on our escape pod. So…”
“So, what?” I ask incredulously. “That makes me our leader?” I look around. I’m only twenty-three. I’m not the oldest refugee here by far, but it seems everyone decided to choose me by rank.
I’ve always enjoyed the quiet aspect of my profession. Not much drama, not much talking. Just me and the plants, one on one. Though I had staff under me, my subordinates felt the same way. Working with plants, watching them grow, and developing new ways to increase crop yield are all inherently relaxing tasks, so managing botanists was never difficult for me. But becoming a leader? I’m not so sure.
That’s when it hits me. My jaw drops as I scan the landscape beyond the small circle of my friends. “Did we crash in a desert?”
Skye sighs. “It sure looks that way.”
“Red sand and rock as far as the eye can see,” Milo tells me with a half-hearted smile.
“Why couldn’t we have landed on some sort of tropical island?” Talia laments.
“Or in a beautiful green forest,” Anna adds.
Skye lifts a thoughtful gaze to the sky. “For some reason, I always thought we’d end up in a place with lots of water and vegetation.”
Well, any other situation would seem ideal compared to ours. But, at least, we all survived and landed on a planet with a breathable atmosphere and tolerable gravity.
I look up at my friends. “Has anyone taken an inventory of our supplies? Food? Water?”
Anna nods. “It looks like we have enough food and water for a month, but after that, we’re going to need a new source.”
I allow my gaze to drift over the red desert plains that surround us. Rock formations like skeletal islands amid an ocean of sand tower in the distance. A dry wind blows through my hair, carrying a soft scent of something akin to spice and cinnamon. If not for the smell, I could imagine we were back on Earth.
I can see why the others immediately began working on constructing temporary shelters. Our escape pod is mostly intact but the gray tarp flapping over a gaping hole in the side tells me it will never suffice as a permanent shelter. I turn to Anna. “What about the seed banks?”
“One of the first things I thought of, too,” she grins. “They survived the crash just fine.”
Thank goodness. This means we have a chance to survive. Those seeds are genetically engineered to grow and prosper in even the most extreme environmental conditions. As my eyes sweep over the sand once more, I’m thinking this definitely counts as a harsh and extreme environment.
I notice John, one of the ship’s engineers, standing apart from the group. I climb to my feet, intending to speak to him, but my legs wobble and I nearly fall before Milo grips my arms tightly, helping me regain my balance.
“Be careful,” he grins. “You just woke up, remember?”
As if I could forget. Part of me still hopes I’m asleep in my bed on the ship and all of this is simply a nightmare.
Just in case, I pinch my forearm, but no luck. This isn’t a dream; it’s our new reality.
“John!” I call out and he rushes over, probably because he sees Skye standing beside me. He’s always had feelings for her, I think—unrequited ones. Skye went on one date with him, which was enough to tell her what kind of person he was. The first question he asked was how long her brother would be sharing her quarters. After their parents died, Thomas was all the family she had left, and she resented his comment suggesting that he was nothing but a burden.
Tim joins him, his eyes raking over my body like I’m the best thing he’s ever seen. He worked security on the ship. Sure, he’s handsome and his body is toned, but he also carries a reputation as a womanizer.
I suspect the only
