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Beneath a Blue Sun

  BRETT P. S.

  Copyright © 2016 Brett P. S.

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1 – ALONE AND AFRAID

  CHAPTER 2 – WATCHING AND WAITING

  CHAPTER 3 – GIVE AND TAKE

  CHAPTER 4 – IRONY AND ENCOUNTER

  CHAPTER 5 – DOWN AND DEADLY

  EPILOGUE – HOLLOW AND HOPEFUL

  Chapter 1

  Alone and Afraid

  Joel Korhonen sat amidst the smoldering wreckage of the only home he’d known for seven years, nearly a decade adrift in starlight. Burnt copper wiring peeked out through the ship’s cracked titanium plating and boiling chemicals of questionable origin singed his nostrils. The stench built up a nauseous welling in his stomach and throat, but he kept at it. Joel searched through the central cluster of wreckage under the glint of a starry blanket that sought to suffocate him. The air was breathable at least, though any long-term effects required the proper hardware for in depth assessment. His ‘arrival,’ as it were, was hardly a planned incident, though he found himself making the most of a bad situation. At least there was hope. If he could find it …

  “What’s this now?” he said, talking to himself.

  Joel snatched up a rectangular device with a smooth, circular tip that contained a cracked screen meant to display digital data. He ran his fingers over the contours and checked the power reserves on the back. A green light flickered a little when he turned it over and Joel heaved a sigh of relief. Good, it would work for a couple days at least. He shoved the piece of half-beaten tech into his uniform and continued searching the wreckage.

  The Ergo’s fuselage laid scattered across an alien landscape, not too dissimilar from some celestial bodies in the core systems though the color seemed off. Kneeling down in his uniform, his feet dug into dark soil with a reddish hue and his knees pressed against cerulean colored grass, a perplexing mixture. He’d heard of some dead worlds with red soil, stories of poisonous atmospheres and inhospitable climates, though this world contained neither. Looking at the gross mixture, he surmised the seeds and surviving plant life in the botanical section of the ship would ill survive new potting if the situation came to it. Luckily, the storage, if it survived the impact, would house enough packaged goods to last one man half a lifetime.

  Joel moved further up the line, unsatisfied with his pickings. He couldn’t tell exactly, but if memory served, the armory would have been further toward the bridge. The wreckage behind him leaked chemicals and smelled of scorched titanium. How he survived the fall was a miraculous question in its own right, though he didn’t care to dwell on god’s change of heart. He’d been unusually unlucky lately. Maybe this was karma? Joel chuckled as he lifted up a sizable hunk of metal.

  “That’ll do.”

  He grabbed the second piece of tech he’d been searching for, a beam gun. It was small, barely the size of a coffee mug, but it held a full charge. He doubted a single creature on this planet could take more than one bolt from this peashooter. Joel clipped it to his belt and stood up, eying the breadth of the wreckage. He could return at any time to search for more supplies, though his found tokens should suffice for now. He pulled out the first device from his pocket and held it in front of him. He flipped a switch on the side, and the tech flickered. He gave it a good slap, forcing it stable. Joel flipped through the pocket menus with his index finger until he brought up the tracking functions. From there, the screen lit up with hundreds of dots, signatures of important information. However, once piece in particular mattered more than the rest.

  “Where are you?” Joel said with a grumble.

  He thumbed through the myriad of points overlaid on a topological map of the area until, finally, he located a red blip a handful of kilometers to the northwest of his location. Joel smiled and selected his destination, locked onto the blip like a waypoint. He turned until he faced the proper direction as he held the tracker in front of him. After gathering enough supplies to make the trek, the signal beacon would be his priority.

  “Can’t believe it fell so far,” he said. “Must have detached earlier than I thought.”

  Joel eyed his destination in the distance. The landscape around him, much to his good fortune, served as an open grassland, tinted blue beneath the starry sky. The cool glow of a rising sun glimmered from the east. Day would soon break beneath the eerie scowl of a burning blue dwarf. Ahead of him, plant life grew to tens of meters in forested area.

  Cautiousness would be his benefit, though time was also a factor. Cut off from the ship’s primary power source, he gathered the signal beacon had probably about two days-worth of reserve power before the lights went out for good, and there was no guarantee the Ergo’s own generators weren’t damaged in the crash. Joel hardly considered himself a scientist or a technician. His odds of repairing vital damage were about as likely as wishing it to happen. He was no astronomer either, though he could read a star chart enough to know the constellations above him made no sense.

  No, Joel was a survivor.

  Chapter 2

  Watching and Waiting

  Joel wiped gathering beads of sweat from his forehead, though he only managed to smear it across his face and through his hair. He would have liked a towel or a damp rag, but he didn’t think to take any. He hadn’t imagined this planet’s sun could be so hot, given the abundance of plant life. The temperature seemed closer to that of the badlands on a rocky crag, an inhospitable place in a world he visited on one of his earlier expeditions.

  Joel drudged on through the array of sparse trees and foliage comprising the forested area for an unknown radius from him in all directions. Blue grass and leaves pelted his face, some of which left a sticky residue he tried to wipe off, but couldn’t. He just ended up smearing more across his face before he gave up entirely. Disgusting. Completely and utterly disgusting.

  Joel found a sap riddled tree and stopped beside it to drop his pack. He examined whatever proved analogous to wood on this world, a thick bark that curled up in layers. It looked like a stocking of potato chips that ran up the sides, each curled chip caked with sap on the inner side.

  “I wonder if I can eat this?” he said.

  What was the worst that could happen? If his body couldn’t metabolize the nutrients, it would expel the foreign substance, or so he thought. He wasn’t a scientist and something sounded off about the logic, but his belly ached and the sparse rations in his pack did little justice. He reached into his pack and pulled out a plastic canister, normally used for containing harmful agents. He unscrewed the cap and picked off a few flakes from the tree before placing them inside. He took care to gather as much of the sap as he could. Once he returned to the crash site, which he’d already marked as a waypoint, he was sure he could find some kind of nutrient analysis whatever. At times like this, he wished some of the crew had actually survived. His survival was ironic, if nothing short of spectacular.

  Joel’s thoughts trailed off at the sound of trampling grass to his six. He cautiously placed the canister back into his pack and drew his firearm, a side style beam gun, meant as a deterrent to would be vagrants and a bargaining chip when confronting those of ill repute in the brig. He’d practically pulled it clean from the guard’s pale hands. The thought made him cringe a little, but he shook it off and raised his weapon in the direction he’d heard the disturbance. Shifting grass bustled to his right, caught by
a gentle breeze. Joel kept his finger on the trigger and approached the area to inspect it. He fished around in the grass, finding disappointment.

  “Fair enough,” he said, still a little on edge.

  He had no idea what alien life lurked in these woods, or the planet for that matter, and he wasn’t about to take any chances. Nevertheless, Joel lowered his gun and calmly walked back toward the location where he left his pack, feeling satisfied he’d done his due diligence.

  “This place plays tricks on the mind,” he said firmly.

  He believed it, more or less. He hadn’t felt so completely convinced that someone or something had been watching him. He tried to shake the lingering notion in the back of his mind, but his efforts ended in futility. This world carried a dire strangeness and a remarkable air of the unknown, while at the same time appearing no less inhospitable to animal life than any number of worlds in the core systems. Something was here. He just hadn’t seen it yet. Joel shouldered his pack and heaved a sigh, trekking on beneath a blue light seeping through the sparse canopy of cerulean woodlands.

  Chapter 3

  Give and Take

  Joel opened his tired eyes and forced himself awake in the midst of a cool morning air. Wisps of wind whistled through the trees around him, floating past the stubble on his cheeks as they made their way deeper into the woodlands. He carefully eyed the area around him, dismissive of the blue dwarf barely visible to the east. The air chilled his skin, and he hadn’t bothered to bring a blanket, a decision he soon regretted, though it did keep him awake most of the night. He looked at it as more of a blessing than a result of poor decision making. One never knew what beasts lurked in the deep of these woods. He reached for his pack, though he found himself reaching a little farther than usual. He finally grabbed the base of his pack, glancing over to see that it had fallen over. He pulled it close to him across the mud and red soil, leaving behind a trail of broken food stuffs in its wake.

  “Not good,” he said, gritting his teeth. “I needed those.”

  Hurriedly, he checked the insides of his pack. The canister remained intact, and a healthy portion of the food he packed for the journey stayed wrapped, but at least a third of it was gone now. He’d need to ration the rest if he was going to make the return trip … or he could chance it on the new food source he’d acquired. No, he shook his head. Not yet. On the bright side, less weight to carry meant fewer calories burned. He’d simply made the journey less taxing in the short run, though it was the long run that he worried more about.

  “Hold on,” he said. “I’m missing the larger point here.”

  Something other than himself had ruffled through his pack and eaten at least a portion of the food. It … or they had been stealthy enough not to wake him, even though he’d been sleeping lighter than usual. A cold chill lingered in the back of Joel’s neck, sure as the swollen lump in his throat. The creatures hadn’t come for him this time. They were curious, but they were predators. His next encounter would not be so civil.

  Joel grunted and hoisted his pack over his shoulder. He stood up and stomped out his fire. At least things here burned. Some attributes carried across the core systems and beyond, it seemed. He fiddled through his pockets, pulling out his tracker. He thumbed the switch and the device turned on with a faint glow. The power source was running out, but it still worked. He’d collected his bearings and headed due north of his present position, one foot after the other. Joel stopped, however. What had he forgotten? His morning grogginess had claimed the better of him, leaving him trying in earnest to picture what it was he’d forgotten.

  Joel turned and stared into the charred fading embers of his campfire when he caught a bare patch of soil beside it where he’d left his second most important accessory. He frowned, frantically racing to spot the whereabouts of his beam gun. The bright green insides would have glowed in stark contrast to the blue grass and bare patches of red dirt. He searched, first with his sight and then on his hands and knees to find it, cursing as he slammed his fists into the ground. He’d lost it.

  He couldn’t go back. He hardly had enough time left to find the signal beacon in one run, let alone risk a restock, provided the scavenging vultures hadn’t picked the crash site clean already. Joel wiped the dripping sweat from his forehead and picked himself up off the ground. He clenched his fists and stuffed the tracker inside his pockets, scanning the woodland basin bare eyes. He locked his sights on a less than suitable replacement, but it would do. He strode over to a dim patch of soil next to an aging tree and snatched up a freshly fallen branch. He smacked the wood against his thigh. It stung. Good.

  Chapter 4

  Irony and Encounter

  Joel stopped at a tall precipice as he stared down through the vine-riddled depths of a cavernous maw of a rock formation. The forest basin dropped about five stories, carved out into a crater filled with blue moss and amber rocks that would render a fall fatal. He swallowed the lump in his throat and fished out his tracker. He flipped it on, but the thing refused to function. He tapped it hard a couple times, and the device flickered, but the lights would not stabilize.

  “Piece of junk,” Joel muttered.

  He banged a firm hand against it in futility before spotting a black box nestled at the bottom of the cavernous opening. It sat near the base, scratched profusely and wedged between two amber stones. One red light blinked as it faded softly from deep red to the absence of color, a cool black emptiness. Green would have indicated full power. Orange meant less than twenty five percent, but red …

  “Guess I’ve got no choice.”

  Joel reached for a sturdy rock to grab with his hands. He used the staff he’d collected and wedged it into the soil, like an anchor for the journey down. The idea of climbing five stories down a mess of rock and grime didn’t much sit well with him. In fact, the situation itself carried a speck of irony. If the signal beacon had broken from the ship just a fraction of a second before, it would lay on terra firma, rather than this dank hole in the middle of a starlight abyss. Joel chuckled a little beneath his groans as he pulled his staff out from behind one patch of soil and wedged it between two rocks.

  The Ergo was a small ship, large enough for deep space travel, though small enough to operate on a minimal crew. Those on the bridge died immediately, punctured by the planet’s surface and scorched by entry into the atmosphere. The crew in their quarters passed on once the ship snapped in two, following the crash. The jolt of raw kinetic force concussed the Ergo and broke down the inertial dampeners in the crew quarters. He hadn’t witnessed it first hand, though he imagined seeing bodies flailing from one side of the ship to the other in one crushing instant.

  “And I lived,” Joel said.

  He’d navigated down a couple meters. Joel eyed the signal beacon. The faint red glow grew dimmer as he approached the base of the cavernous hole. He stretched a leg down to set his foot on a rock, feeling for a sure footing. Once he planted both feet at a new level, he pulled his staff out between two wedged stones above his head and eyed the next point to stick it. A handful of trees grew near the top, but at this point, the crater was all rock and moss. His footing grew treacherous, and Joel was beginning to regret his decision to descend. He’d come this far though. Might as well reach the bottom and complain afterward about the journey back up.

  Joel finally found a decent patch of moss and rock that looked as if it would hold with a firm grip. He dug his staff into it and moved one of his feet to a slightly lower rock. Joel managed moving his boot halfway to his newfound footing. The the grass above him ruffled. He glanced up to see the trees ruffle from a gust of air that blew through the woodland canopy. A blue midday sun beat down on him from the cracks in the leaves. He dismissed the distraction with a moment’s pause and resumed his footing.

  Joel focused his attention downward, but a pelting of tiny rocks and reddened soil trickled over his head from the p
recipice above. Bits of dirt caught in his mouth, and Joel looked up again to see what had driven them off the edge. A lump formed in his throat at the sight of two massive paws bearing crimson claws. A spine covered creature stared down at him with black beady eyes. Joel froze, meeting its gaze for seconds that seemed like long minutes.

  The beast opened its jaws, exposing a set of twisted, gnarled teeth like a rodent’s incisors four times over. Drool dripped from its lips and two drops landed squarely on Joel’s forehead. Cautiously, he moved to pull his staff and took barely a moment’s pause to reflect before the creature dove down at him.

  Chapter 5

  Down and Deadly

  The spine covered animal leaped down toward Joel. He raised his staff in time to block and push the creature away from him, but the weight pushed him off balance, and Joel lost his footing in the midst of the feat. Joel slid down the rocky crater, trying to catch himself in futility. Red soil and amber stones scraped against his face and bloodied his cheeks and forearms, but he held a firm grip on his staff. The alien creature hit the base first and Joel heard a resounding squeal before his own body landed in a soft patch of red mud.

  Rainwater had collected in the clay from days prior, not yet seeped into the ground. The soil beneath him was thick and viscus. His shirt and pack melted into the deep soft pillows of sticky mud as he struggled to pick himself up off the ground. His legs ached from the trek, and his arms and face burned, stained with blood from the fall. Joel examined the creature as it lifted its head and snarled at him with four sets of incisors jutting from its jaw. He grabbed his staff and forced himself to his knees. His boots sunk a good inch into the earthen claw, which took the advantage of movement away from him.

  He sloppily jerked up to his feet and drew his staff out from the mud. Joel sized up the creature. It shook off the mud from its spines as a dog would shake out water from its fur. It stood on four legs, about three feet tall, with a stubby tail and a razor sharp crimson claws coming from its paws. Blue sunlight pierced the canopy and briefly glimmered against them as the creature readied itself into a pouncing stance. Joel kept the beast in his sights, though his attention shortly rested on the black box behind it.