Sarah Valienca
Discovering the Unknown
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Survey Mission Delta 5, Eden Primus System
Sarah woke up tiredly, and proceeded to crash her forehead against the top of her bunk. Wincing, she rubbed it as she sat up, and looked around her. The cabin was empty apart from herself, and Lyndia, her fellow scientist and best friend. "We should be finished refuelling any minute now, Sarah. Go back to sleep". Sarah groggily remembered that she was on a survey shuttle, hitching a lift to the nearest settlement with Lyndia. It was lucky they had found this shuttle, she remembered. 5 minutes later and they would have been left at the spaceport. Taking her friend's advice, she got back into her bunk, and waited for the jump to light speed. But it never came. "ZZZ...This is your Captain speaking...We have a minor technical fault...stay calm, and we'll be ready to jump soon....ZZZ" Sarah sat upright rapidly, and banged her head agin while doing so. "Feth", she muttered, "Now we're going to be late after all". Still, even with her thoughts swirling in anger and disappointment, she manged to fall asleep again...
5 hours later
Sarah woke up agin, for the 2nd time, and saw that Lyndia was gone. She hurriedly dressed, and went out to look for her. After a short period of searching, she found her on the bridge, talking to the Captain. "...look, a manfulctioning engine and a suicdial autopilot is not a minor technical hitch! We need to...Oh...Hiya Sarah". Sarah quickly took in what her friend was saying, and was about to ask the Captain herself, when the ship began to lurch to the side. The two pilots began to shout out panickedly, "Sir! The engine's have exploded! Our orbit is declining rapidly from the blast! ETA until atmospheric entry...30 seconds!" Sarah ran to the nearest chair, fear showing in her eyes. There were 50 people on this ship, 20 crew and 30 passengers. Would any of them survive a crash landing? She realised she really didn't want to find out. "10 seconds!" She closed her eyes, thinking of her long dead parents, and wondering if she was about to join them. Suddenly, the world turned red, even with her eyes closed, and she felt herself being thrown out of the chair. She slammed into the roof, and everything went black...