When Jardon's eyes flung open, he discovered, after a very brief moment of inspection, that he was not in his pilot's seat any more and rather, in a bed somewhere within one of the Stardust's medical rooms. He could tell it was a medical room from the colour of the lights that were fixed into the roof. They were stark white instead of pale yellow.
"It's good to see that you're finally awake Captain," he heard a very familiar female voice say to him. A voice he grew used to hearing only through the ship's speakers and not like this, in person.
"Judy is that—" He began in disbelief as he turned to where the voice came from.
"Yes it is, captain," the woman whom he saw approaching him casually responded. She wore the same, almost tight-fitting, uniform as him, carrying such a smile on her face he was convinced, in that moment, that she was anything but an android. The sight of her mesmerized him so much he couldn't stop his mouth from hanging open.
"How are you feeling?" She asked him, but he gave her no response. He just gawked at her with his mouth agape, not failing to comprehend but instead, appreciating.
"Captain?" She asked again, startling him.
His words fumbled out of his mouth, a spoken torrent, "Hmm? Oh! Yes, uh..." , but then he his better judgment got through to him and he finally managed to pull himself together. His brain made sense of his response before he gave it, "I feel..." he took in the sight of his exposed torso and arms, where there were thin cables attached, and paused, "fine."
"We needed to keep track of your vitals," Judy told him upon noticing his evident befuddlement.
"We?"
"Yes," she gave a nod before beginning to gently pull the plastic chords off him, "Dr. Susanna and most of the others are awake. They helped bring you here after you were found unconscious in the cockpit."
Captain Jardon swept a look around the entire medical room. It was quiet and only occupied by empty beds and likewise tables. "How long have I been out for?"
"About two hours since we landed. Can you stand, captain?"
"I guess," he said before carefully pulling the blue duvet off of him. Thankfully, the lower half of his body was fully dressed. When his bare feet touched the cool linoleum floor, he gave Judy another glance, disbelieving. There was very little about the way she acted and talked that suggested she was anything but human, something that left him in even more awe than her elegant looks. When they told him her system was built for this very thing, his expectations were not particularly high. He knew better now.
"How did you... uh...?"
"Manage to upload a copy of myself into this synthetic body?" Judy finished his statement amidst passing him a dull looking shirt from the bag that was on the next table.
Jardon received the shirt and began wearing it, "Yes, that."
Instead of giving him an answer, she chuckled - a very pleasant sound in every regard. She gestured at the rest of her body, "Do you like it?"
"Uh..." his cheeks flushed a little and he found it hard to answer. After a moment that felt like an eternity, he averted his eyes from her, his mind choosing not to lose itself in her well formed, metallic physique. The question was sudden and unexpected and so... human. Before he could respond, however, the door at the end of the bay opened and two people walked in, a man and a woman, who looked completely identical.
"Captain Jardon!" The woman practically beamed. She was dressed in the same type of uniform as Judy and the captain, differing only by the streamlined, horizontal rectangles on each side of her chest which were coloured red instead of white. Her name was Dr Aleksandra Martinez and she was one of Dr Susanna's juniors, "It's good to see that you're still with us. I was afraid you might not up this soon."
The woman, who had spotless alabaster skin and deep red hair, extended her hand to him and he quickly shook it. Unlike her gentle grasp, Captain Jardon's grip was sturdier and firmer, as was normal for all professional pilots his age.
"Second Dr. Martinez," he hid his smile, relieved at the sight of her - glad at the interruption, behind a well-built mask of formality, "It's good to still be with you."
When he turned, with his hand still extended, to face the man, the smile that he had on his faced waned, slightly.
Dr Aleksandra Martinez's twin brother, Third Doctor Raul Martinez, who held the title of third doctor because he was somehow three places below the highest ranking doctor on the ship in terms of expertise, didn't look half as pleased to talk to him as his twin sibling was. While his pressed lips and neutral gaze didn't exactly hint at anything obvious, there was something about the way he regarded the captain that was not too dissimilar to disapproval.
"Captain," he said flatly when he reached out to Jardon's hand, only to barely shake it.
"Third Dr. Martinez," Jardon's smile flattened. He read the room potently and found himself forcing drops of politeness into his voice so as to drown out the building awkwardness. He had no idea why there was a difference in the way the two siblings presented themselves to him, "It's good to see you too."
Dr. Raul Martinez spoke without any hint of emotion to his words, "Likewise," Unlike his sister, his blue eyes had a glow of... hostility? to them.
Whether or not Dr Aleksandra was aware of this when she addressed the captain was subject to debate, but it did alleviate the building tension between him and her twin brother enough that the captain could breathe.
"You'll forgive us for the rather inconvenient timing Captain Jardon," She professed ambiently, "Seeing as you have just woken up, but there is something we'd like to bring to your attention."
"I actually don't mind," he turned away from her twin brother, eager to do anything that took his attention away from him.
ELSEWHERE AT THAT TIME
Andy Tozier couldn't breathe. He twisted and turned where he lay, chest rising and falling at quick intervals when, suddenly, his eyes shot open.
Before his mind could even come to grips with where he was or what was happening around him, an innate switch within him flipped and he began to panic. Before he could even make sense of what was going on, he subconsciously understood one thing, from the way he strained to breathe to the way his heart thundered heavily in his chest, he, unmistakably, was suffocating.
From what he could see, he was inside some kind of small container and there was a metallic door directly above him which he immediately and instinctively tried pushing open but to avail, it didn't budge.
Muffled rays of light from a small triangular glass panel fixed on the same door lit the claustrophobic space, spreading enough illumination that he finally realized where he was.
Figuring he had a better chance of opening the door if he applied more pressure, he began to bang on it.
"Is anyone out there!!" He managed to yell out, but he was met with only silence. A void of noise.
The lack of a response alarmed him further and he hit on the door even harder, "Hey!!!" He called out to whoever he hoped could hear him from outside, "Is anyone there!!? Hey!!! I can't breath in here!!!"
It was an honest observation, he could feel the air in the pod indeed thinning and the heat building quickly. His panic escalated and became desperation, his banging on the door in turn gave way to mindless flailing. Because he was desperate and barely thinking, working only on impulse, it completely passed his mind that there was a lever seating by the side of the same door he was trying to beat open. Fortunately, he was not without dumb luck. Through this uncoordinated, chaotic thrashes, his hand managed to mistakenly press on the lever.
Andy hadn't realised what he had done until a strange hiss filled the air and silenced him. Then, the metallic door flew open. Just as a warm draft of fresh air filled his face, a strong sense of light assaulted his eyes. He flung them closed and averted his head but only for a moment before he sat up. The scene that met him when he re-opened his eyes was unrecognisable.
Thin spindly trees went on in every direction for as far as his eyes could see, covered by dark coloured vines that hanged on every one of their lithe branches and spread out like snakes all around him. He swallowed hard when he looked at the ground beneath his pod only to realize that there was no ground, only muddy grey water that had strange, cattail-like, weedy plants growing out of it and even more weirdly shaped, dark blue lily pads floating on its surface.
Andy looked around, apart from the alien plants surrounding him, there were no other distinct forms of life in sight and because of that, he realized, everything was silent. Silent, except for the sound that his heart made in his chest, and that of his breathing.
Something pulled his gaze back to the water and began to fuel his thoughts. Where was he? Was this the planet he and his crew were supposed to land on? If so, why was he alone? Where was everyone else?
He took a peak at the sky, it was purplish-blue and, through the intertwining tree branches, he made out something really bizarre.
A red sun!
Well, it looked more orange than red in truth, but still, it was different and that's the only thing that mattered.
The sight nearly took his breath away, freezing him there, but he was quick to fight the feeling and rise to his feet, reaching for one of the low lying branches. The pod swayed as he did so, but not enough that he was concerned. He grabbed onto one of the soft, thin branches and twisted. It only took a few turns to detach it completely from the rest of its spindly form. Gracefully and with the utmost attention, he inspected it, noting just how dark its green colour was, before trying it in the air. When the results satisfied him, he dipped its limp form in the murky water.
Quarter way through its height, the stick touched something. Andy moved it around and confirmed that what he was poking his stick with was indeed the ground and not some illusion of it, the really muddy and - in some places - uneven ground.
He took an experimental step and dipped his left foot into the swampy water. It felt cool and slightly thicker than fresh water. Thankfully, his body suit was made from highly water resistant materials so the knee length swampy ichor couldn't touch his skin. He nearly cringe at the thought of it doing so.
Slowly, he circled around the pod. Twice, investigating the trees, trying to get an idea of how he got here. On his third take, he noticed a small, smooth trail in the mud and water that led away from the pod.
His curiosity won and he followed it. After walking in the eerily silent swamp for nearly fifteen minutes, quarter of an hour, he discovered a small opening in the canopy of branches and vines that stood about two or so metres above him,allowing a beam of light to pour through it.
This hole, he noted when he took a step right under it, was almost perfectly circular, and, if his estimations were right, was roughly as wide as the base of the pod he left behind. The branches and vines that surrounded this aperture were all either broken and floating at his feet or snapped and left to dangle loosely. Like something punctured directly through their meshy structure.
He sighed, the confirmation left him more disappointed than he had hoped.
When the the feeling felt like it was going to overwhelm him, he looked up through the hole and took in the sight of the alien sky once more. It felt strange to look at. Like being in a neighbour's house that was built exactly like his. His brain told him he knew the place but then he glanced at everything else around him, and his sense of recognition faltered. Like he knew the place but at the same time, he didn't. Everything around him felt just like what he could find back on Earth but changed, somehow. Warped. It was familiar but he didn't recognise it. If that made any sense.
Andy extended his glance from the sky to the sun before sighing and returning to his pod. The only sounds that accompanied him were that of the wind and the ploshing of his feet in the swampy water when he moved them through it. Other than that, there was nothing but complete silence.
The interesting thing was, he didn't stop when he arrived at the pod, instead, he bypassed it and continued walking.
Relative to the sun's position, Andy's pod moved north when it fell from the main ship, he could tell because the trail that it made after the fall - the one he was from following - went in the opposite, southern direction. Since the pod's trail was relatively straight and consistent, the main ship must have landed somewhere north of where he was. Any sharp turns in the trail would have meant the pod changed direction when it slid through the swamp. The key word there, however, was somewhere. Who knew how far the ship went on before it crashed, or if it made any turns itself? Could be an hour's long walk, or two, or more, or less.
Shit
He took in a long breath, nearly pausing before continuing. There were questions in his mind that he couldn't resolve.
What if something bad happened to the ship as it was about to land? A mechanical malfunction of some sort? Was that the reason why his pod fell out? Was he the only one that fell out? Is the ship even out there to begin with?
Finally, he paused. What if it was destroyed? What if the same malfunction that brought him out here caused it to explode wherever it landed? Did that mean he was the only person that survived? The only person on the entire planet?
He took in an even longer breath and then sighed it back out. There was only one way to find out, he realized. So he steeled himself, pushing all his negative thoughts away, and continued on to where the ship may or may not have been.
The journey was slow as he moved through the uncharted and possibly treacherous terrain. He had no idea what lurked within the swamp, alive or not, so he had to be careful. He poked carefully at the ground beneath the swampy water with his soft and limp branch every after three or four steps to make sure he wasn't going anywhere he wouldn't want to.
About one and a half hours after, the silence began getting to him. Back on Earth, he was a zoologist. His whole life revolved around animals, living or otherwise. He'd go into the undocumented wild just to study them. Because his profession required him to spend a fair amount of time outdoors, he came to a very unique realization some time back then.
People were never ever truly alone.
The majority would live their entire lives and never understand this. No matter where it is they were, or under what conditions. There was always something close to them, a form of life, an animal, an insect, a bird, an ant, a fish. No matter how small it could be, it was always there. It could be found or heard if they looked hard enough. And even if these things weren't physically there, their presences could be verified. From the left overs of the food they ate, the waste they excreted, the remains they left behind and the homes they made. Everybody knew this, but it was subconscious and so always overlooked it. People were so used to the everyday sound of birds chirping that they never felt the need to appreciate it. It became a small thing that never really mattered.
But right now, in whichever direction he looked, Andy saw only lithe vines and murky grey water. Outside the fact that plants were living organisms, the swamp was a dead and desolate place filled with only silence and loneliness. Not even the mosquitoes and flies that were known to reside in such damp places were here. It was that desserted. That lonely. The proof of life was no where in sight.
What kind of a place was this?
It was the small things that made the biggest of differences in life. Without these small things, life would have been constant and repetitive, silent. Exactly like this swamp.
Is this what truly being alone felt like? No one there for you but your own thoughts? Nothing to live for? No one to talk to?
Andy took a deep breath inwards. He couldn't be the only person that was on the ship that survived whatever happened right? Right?
Just an hour on Proxima b and he was already this paranoid. How much longer before he'd lose it completely?
He needed to find something—someone— to talk to and quickly, or else.
He exhaled before continuing to walk. Fear of losing himself to his hallucinations made him hasten his steps and trudge through the water faster. At that point, even just finding the wreck of his ship would do.
Where was all the life? The animals? The insects? The noise?
He carried on. First it was for a single minute, then fifteen and then finally thirty. He had completely done away with his stick now and was wading blindly through the mud and water.
He didn't want to admit it, but his hope was fading, slowly. The thoughts that voiced his doubts were growing ever so strongly in the back of his mind, causing all of his conscious efforts to be directed to keeping them in place rather than on his surroundings. And this, eventually, had its consequences.
He was about to take another blind step when something, most likely a vine, caught his foot and caused him to trip and fell, on a wall of more vines.
Slowly, he picked himself up and wiped the swamp water from his face. It felt cool and refreshing but also, unpleasantly sticky. At least it didn't enter his mouth, a disheartening turnout that would have been. When the last of the viny bits were gotten off his clothes, he got back to walking. In that one moment, only in the one moment, he appreciated the lack of life, because it meant no one was here to see him fall, see him embarrass himself. One second he's desperate to interact with anyone then in the next moment, glad he hadn't gotten it, the irony was lost on him.
He took turns that didn't look like turns and went through openings that resembled anything but. The deeper he ventured into this labyrinth of vines, the less certain he was of where he was going. After fifteen more minutes of walking, he finally accepted that he was lost. But, before his hallucinations and pessimistic thoughts could have another go at his sanity, he noticed a rocky ledge in the distance, slightly obscured by yet more vines.
Andy pushed aside these vines and stood on the ledge, trying to get some view of the terrain from a higher, more intuitive vantage point. When he looked down, however, what he saw made his heart stop for a moment. He was in complete disbelief.
About three and a half metres beneath the very ledge he was standing on was a pod that looked exactly like the one he woke up in, and it was closed.
What were the odds