“You’re up!” Tim flashes his signature boyish grin. “I was worried about you.”
Despite my best efforts to appear completely uninterested, my cheeks heat under the intense scrutiny of his deep, blue eyes. I’m still human and he is handsome; he’s just not for me. I want romance, not lust. “Have you seen any signs of indigenous life? Anything around the perimeter of our”—my eyes sweep over our wrecked escape pod and the small patch of survivors—“camp that might be a threat?”
His upbeat expression falters. He gives me a nervous grin as he rubs the back of his neck. “I, uh, hadn’t really gotten around to checking on anything yet.”
“Alright, I need you to get on that. We don’t want to be surprised by a predator or something.”
He nods and I look to John. “What about the rovers? Did they survive the crash?”
“Yeah. Both did.”
I lift my gaze to the blazing, orange sun overhead, burning brightly in the pale-blue sky, then back down at him. “Did you lay out the day panels to charge the rovers and the rest of the emergency equipment?”
He shakes his head.
“Let’s get started on that,” I tell him. He nods and leaves.
In the back of my mind, I’m surprised by how easily issuing orders comes to me. Then again, I’m also taken aback that I’m the first one to ask these questions. How could an engineer and a security officer not think of implementing such basic measures? I’ve always marveled at how some people have to be prodded into action.
On the other hand, Milo and a few others started working on temporary shelters, without being told to because they realized shelter was a priority for our survival.
I turn to Anna. “How are we doing on medical supplies?”
“The kit survived the crash intact,” she answers, shooting me a hesitant look as I turn toward the wrecked escape pod. “You should probably rest a bit longer. You just woke up, you know.”
I throw another cursory glance at the people around me. Some still lie unconscious on the ground while a few others suffer from wounds that are heavily bandaged. I’m lucky I survived relatively unscathed, with a few aches and bruises but no serious injury.
“No,” I tell Anna. “I want to see exactly what we’re working with here. Then we need to figure out how to establish a permanent settlement.”
“Permanent?” Talia asks.
“These escape pods were only meant for a one-way trip. Even if it was intact, it couldn’t break the atmosphere to get us back into space.” I allow my gaze to drift over the dunes that surround us. “For better or worse, this is it—we’re home now. So, we need to find a way to survive here. I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking our best bet is not out in the open.” I pause. “If this planet is anything like Earth, there could be sandstorms here, and I’d rather not be caught in one if we can help it.”
She nods, but I read the disappointment in her eyes. “What if one of the colony ships survived the attack?” She lifts her gaze to the sky. “What if they’re still up there somewhere?”
My heart stops. “The transmitter beacon. Is it on?”
She frowns. “Of course. That’s one of the first things John switched on after we crashed. Why?”
“Shut it off! Now!”
My friends look stunned, but Milo rushes to the wreckage to do what I’ve asked.
“Why are you—” Anna starts, but I cut her off with my answer.
“If one of our ships survived the attack, the pirates could have, too. And if they went to all this trouble to attack us, they might still be looking for us.” Suddenly, finding a permanent settlement with better cover seems exponentially more important.
“But what about the other escape pods? Without the computer, the beacon is their only way to find us.”
I shake my head. “Hopefully, they’ve shut their beacons off, too. We can’t risk alerting the pirates of our location. We can consider switching the transmitter on in a few days, but not yet.” I turn to address all my friends. “Once the rovers are charged, we should set out to investigate those rock formations,” I point into the distance. “See if there are any caves we can use for shelter. Who knows, we might even find a source of water. I’ll run some tests on the soil as well. If we can start planting something now, the crops will be ready long before we run out of rations.”
If we happen to run into a sentient species, I can only hope they’re friendly instead of hostile like the pirates. However, I don’t voice that thought aloud because I don’t want to incite panic. We already have enough problems without speculating on worst-case scenarios.
As I study the light-blue sky, I almost expect to see a ship breaking through the atmosphere, but only a thin wisp of gray clouds hangs overhead. I pray we shut the signal off in time. We have no hope of defending ourselves against an assault from an obviously superior species.
Chapter 4
Varus
It is the day of my betrothal ceremony, but I will not participate. If it is my fate to be mated to a female to forge an alliance between our people, then it will happen eventually. At least, that is what I told my mother before I shifted into my draka form and leapt from the balcony window to take flight.
I must know what landed in the desert seven days ago. I have been searching to
