Remnants of the Earth
SPACE STATIONS => The Cancer => Topic started by: Anonymous on September 27, 2007, 12:42:11 pm
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((OOC--continued from Red District--))
Skah and Katrina walked down more corridors until they came to one of the many reinforced slidder doors. Skah approached the control panel next to it. The panel was just a blue screen in the shape of a hand. He placed his hand on it and suddenly, the screen glowed for about three seconds, then dimmed. The door slided open, and they stepped inside.
Skah's quarters were pretty simple in design. To the left was a hammock-like bed strung from the door wall to the back wall. A couch and glass coffee table sat in the center facing the huge window that had a magnificent view of the earth below. A door led to the shower room, and next to it was a heavily vaulted door that had the words, "Escape Pod."
"Make yourself comfortable," Skah said to Katrina with a smile. "I'll check to see if the escape pod still works."
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Katrina looked around, her mind spinning with decoration ideas, despite the fact that she didn't have much intention of trying to decorate Skah's home, it was a force of habbit, and she found it comforting. It made things more familiar in her mind.
"Okay" She said, perching on the couch to wait for him while she admired the earth through the window. It was strange seeing it from the outside after growing up on it so long...
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Skah went to the heavily vaulted door and looked at the control panel. He punched in a few buttons, commanding the panel to run a diagnostic of the escape pod. After a few seconds, the panel bleeped, indicating that the pod was still workable at 100% capacity. He punched in a few more buttons, and the vault slid open, revealing another vault-like door, which slid open as well. Looking inside, there was enough room for two people.
"Okay, it still works," Skah said. "Come on." He waited by the pod entrance for Katrina to come over.
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Katrina gracefully stood to her feet and trailed him into the escape pod. Slightly self conscious in the close space, she smoothed her skirt without thinking about it as she glanced around. "Do you know how to drive this?" She asked, realizing that she hadn't a clue what any of the buttons did. She'd barely learned to drive a car, let alone fly any sort of device.
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Skah followed in as both doors closed behind him. "Well," he began as he sat down next to her. "The people on this ship told me that in order to activate this, you have to first set a flight path. After it's released, I think the autopilot takes us to the destination."
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"Oh, well that shouldn't be too hard right?" Katrina said as she looked at the instrument pannels. She was getting nervous, but more an excited nervous than a forboding. She was going back to earth.
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"No, it shouldn't be," Skah said. He then punched in a few buttons in the control panel until the screen said, SET FLIGHT PATH. "Do you have a particular destination in mind?" he asked Katrina.
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"Well, were you wanting something big city, historical, mountains, forests, rivers oceans....or what exactly? I'm not sure what's left of anything, but if there was something you'd never seen and wanted to, I could at least probably show you where it used to be."
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Skah puzzled over this for a few moments. What did he really want to see? He then remembered a word used to describe a really nice place to visit. "How about a, um...oh, what was that name?...um...uh...a paradise?" Yes, that was the word.
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Katrina pondered this a moment "Well, it depends on what your idea of paradise is. If you're talking the generic, green, leafy, peaceful forest near the water, I'd guess we'd be looking near the equator. If you're talking paradise in the relaxing, shopping, resort sort of paradise, then...I don't know really what's left behind at this point." She grinned "Let's try for the Caribbean."
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"Carri...bean? Okay, let's try for that," Skah said as he punched in a few more buttons. But the computer blinked, NO MATCH FOUND. "Drat," he said. "Well, let's try someplace near the equator." He punched in a few more buttons, and the computer blinked, FLIGHT PATH SET." "All right. You ready?"
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Katrina nodded "I'm ready...do I have to do anything? Harness myself in? Click my shoes together?" She asked, not sure how anything worked.
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Skah nodded. "Well, strap yourself in, cuz it's going to be...one heck of a ride," he said, stapping the harness on him and pressing one final button. The pod hummed loudly as it disengaged from the station, and soon, the hum of thrusters could be heard as they hurtled the pod towards Earth. They were on their way at last.
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Katrina quickly strapped herself in, white knuckled griping the arms of the chair as they shot into the sky. She had done very little traveling, and what she had expirienced, had not been at such high speeds. Naturally, escape pods would need to be quick, but it hadn't occured to her until after they were already hurtling through the sky. She was just glad she wasn't prone to motion sickness too much anymore-- she hoped.
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Skah held onto his seat as the pod experienced re-entry...the point where the gravity on Earth captures the ship and pulls it in at incredibly fast speeds. He felt the centrifugal force on his body as the ship plummeted to earth. Were they going to crash into it?
Suddenly, he felt the pod slowing down considerably. The reverse thrusters had been activated, and they were slowing the pod down.
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Katrina finally let go , her palms imprinted with the texture and corners of the arms of her chair. "Um...Skah?" She said, her voice shaking a little. "Are we there now?" Somehow, no matter what was on earth, staying there seemed to be a good plan. It kept her from having to make the return trip.
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Suddenly, everything was still and quiet. Skah shuddered from that experience. "I-I think so," he said, undoing his safety harness and standing up, shaking all the while. "That was some ride."
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Katrina nodded, smoothing her skirt a bit too furiously to be truely calm before finally remembering her harness and releasing herself. She stood, but her knees quaked, much like a person who has been on a ship for extended periods of time and suddenly finds themself on solid ground-- which continues to sway within their perception. "So....now what?" She asked, holding on to the backs of the chairs as she attempted to move across the pod towards him.
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Skah shrugged. "I guess we, uh, take a moment to...um...what was that term?...gain our bearings. Then we go outside," he said. His knees were still quaking as he leaned against the wall for support. "Are you alright?" he asked, noticing her shaking.
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Katrina nodded "I'm just...not used to traveling like that. Never been much for dare devil, speedy adventures." She drew a slow breath, conivincing herself that she wasn't going to be sick. "is there a way to look outside without opening the door?" She'd heard stories of course, so if there was a way to check, she didn't want to simply walk right out into potentually hostile hands.
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Skah thought for a moment, then looked around the escape pod interior. "There should be a viewport somewhere around here," he mumbled. Then, after five minutes of searching, he found a steel circular viewport with the metal slats closed. "Ha, here it is," he said as he found a button next to it. He pressed it, and the slats opened, revealing the outside world.
After hearing all the stories of the earth dying, Skah expected to see a wasteland. But what he saw now took his breath away; they were in a forest that seemed relatively untouched by pollution. It was far from a paradise, but far from a wasteland at the same time.
"Hey, Katrina, take a look at this," he said, beckoning her to the viewport.
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Katrina made her way over to him. "Wow" She said with a smile. She hadn't had much opportunity to see forests. Her family hadn't been the outdoor types. If there wasn't a spa, her mother wasn't interested. "Does it look safe to go out?" She asked, attempting to peer through the viewport and spot any potentual attackers.
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Skah shrugged. "I guess so...if there's anything that tries to attack us, I'll protect you," he said. Did he really just say that just now? He shook it out of his mind as he headed for the vault door. He punched in a few buttons and the door slid open. He then just stood there, surveying their surroundings. "Looks safe to me. Come on."
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Katrina smiled, but followed him down out of the ship. She'd been promised protection before, but had stopped relying on it. No one could protect her from everything. She rubbed her arms to brush the memories away. "So where to now?"
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Skah puzzled over this for a moment. Then he looked around, and he noticed a dirt path to their left. "I guess we start walking down there," he said, pointing to the path.
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Katrina glanced the trail over before picking her way along, offering a mental wince as she thought about how thrashed her shoes were going to be by the time they got back to the ship. She hadn't often participated in activities that would scuff and sully her shoes. "Do we need supplies or anything?" She asked as she cast a glance back to the ship. She wasn't sure what the winged-man had in mind. For all she knew, she had just signed herself onto a camping trip.
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Skah paused. "Y'know, I never thought of that," he said before plunging deep into thought once more. After a few minutes of thinking, he finally said aloud, "Crud, we didn't bring any supplies like food or tools or anything." H smacked his head in annoyance. "I'm such an idiot," he groaned.
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Katrina considered it "Shouldn't an escape pod come with a kit or something? I mean, emergancy shelters are always stocked with at least canned goods." Though, water could be a problem. It wasn't like warm, tropical water had been good for drinking back in the old days, certainly with a dying earth, it would be that much more hazardous.
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Skah sadly shook his head. "I don't think I saw anything like that in the escape pod," he said. "But that would have been convenient to have. Whoever built that ship should've taken that into thought." Really, he wished that he saw something like an emergency pack in the escape pod.
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Katrina shrugged "Oh well, we don't plan to be here that long do we?" She asked as she paused to look at a flower. "Have you heard any stories of why the earth is dying?" She was curious, and hadn't managed to pick many up in her travels. After all, it was kind of old news and no longer the hot item for the gossip. People being picked up for experiments was much more interesting than the fact that the earth was still dying. "Even if we wanted to stay over night, we wouldn't starve in a day" She looked up "well I wouldn't...would you?" Her tone suddenly became concerned. She had forgotten that he wasn't exactly human, and so might have different requirements to survive.
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Skah shrugged. "Just one or two," he said as they continued walking. "One was that some country...Aedolis, was it?...kept causing many wars and dumping its waste all over the planet. I don't understand or know the details to it, though." The bartender at the tavern told him about this, and he didn't seem to know why. "And to your second question, I don't seem to get hungry as often as most people. They say I could go a month without food, and maybe a week and a half without water...though I've never tried to."
((ooc--sorry about not replying sooner...school's a bitch.--))
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"Oh, then we should be just fine for a bit" She said brightly as she gazed around them. She hadnt' actually had the chance to go wandering through a rainforest before, and it was an interesting experience. "Is your sense of direction good? Or should we mark a trail so we can find our way back?" She sure didn't want to get lost without food or water.
((ah, yeah, school is good at that. Life is good at that too recently))
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Skah looked at her. "I've never been here, so it's hard to tell which way's...eh, north, was it? Wait, there were three more directions....mmmm. ..south....east.... .and....weast?" He really had a hard time remembering.
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Katrina smiled sweetly "North, south, east, west" She reminded "Let's mark a trail, do you have a knife, or anything like that?" The only thing she could think of, other than a giant ball of twine, was to notch the trees they passed. "What do you hope to see out here?" She herself was excited, but slightly nervous.
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Skah smiled. "I just want to see...I want to see whatever beauty is left of this planet before it dies..." Though he was smiling, there was a tone of sorrow in his voice.
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Katrina nodded, his sorrow mirrored in her eyes. "I used to call this planet home" She mused, gently touching a tree as she passed it. "It seems so long ago now. I mean, I was so sheltered from the death of the planet, I barely even knew there was a problem, let alone that it was so advanced." She turned to look at him, but didn't seem too upset about it. "Then one day, I guess the power, or science that kept our area alive and pretending nothing was wrong, and all of a sudden everyone was leaving, and I was being called back from boarding school, but I had left after my dad stopped paying for it...I'm not sure how he thought I could stay there if he took the funding, but he didn't know where to get ahold of me after 'disowning' me...so they left, and then I eventually got word of what was happening and headed into space myself." She paused to look up into the trees overhead. "it's so different out here than it is in space." Plus warm. It was nice to things to be warm again.
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Skah nodded, taking Katrina's words in slowly...though he would be bound to forget them anyway. "I feel...I feel as though I want to save this planet...but they keep telling me I can't..." He paused, trying hard to look for more words to add to his weak reasoning.
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"Well, I don't know that anyone can. I mean, the scientists and everyone tried I'm sure, so I don't know what you or I could do to save it." She picked up a branch from the ground, twirling it between her fingers. "but it would sure be nice. I miss it." She glanced up at him, but then smiled "But we're here now, let's see what we can find. We may not get this chance again."
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Skah nodded. "Okay. Let's keep going. Maybe we can find people here."
They walked for a good ten minutes more, observing their surroundings every now and then. But Skah heard a faint rustle and stopped abruptly, looking left and right. "Shh...did you hear that?" he whispered, putting an arm out in front of Katrina.
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Katrina haulted abruptly, straining to listen for whatever it was that Skah had heard. She'd heard something, but it hadn't registered in her mind as something to be watching out for. She'd assumed it was Skah. "What do you think it is?" She whispered, now catching the rustling and keeping an eye on the surroundings, expecting something to pop out.
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"I don't know," Skah whispered back. "Could be anything." He closed his eyes, his finely tuned senses trying to hone in on whoever or whatever was stalking the two of them.
Another rustle! This time to the left. Skah's head drifted to the left a little. He then heard a low, faint growl. He expected an ambush, so he took a step forward...
"What the...!" He yelled as he opened his eyes wide as something gave a huge roar and leaped out of the bushes onto him. To Skah, it looked like one of those...what were they called, tigers?...only it was three times as big, and it had two large horns sprouting from either side of its head and curving down to its nose, which gave it a demonic look. It had him pinned to the ground with its large, rake-like claws and was about to thrust its giant, fang-filled maw onto his head. But Skah got his arms free and held the beast's mouth at bay, feeling its putrid breath envelope him.
"Katrina! Get back! Now!" he yelled as he struggled with the beast's jaws.
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Katrina was not one for heroics. She didn't have the strength or the skill to fight off much of anything though she had gotten better than she once had been. However, when the thing lept out of the bushes, she screamed as most startled people will do and backed up. Where was she going to go? She couldn't out run a wild animal, it looked like it could probably climb a tree if it wanted to, though why it would bother when it could knock the entire thing down she didn't know. As she scrambled back, she searched for a weapon of somekind, but the only things that seemed to be around were rocks and sticks. She grabbed a stick. "What do I do?" She asked frantically as she backed into a tree. Being lost was probably more dangerous than this whatever it was. What was it doing on earth? It wasn't a normal earth species.
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Skah shook his head wildly as Katrina asked that question. "No! Don't do anything! Just stay back!" He didn't want her killed by this...whatever it was.
He kept on holding the beast's jaws mere inches from his head. Suddenly, the inside of the creature's mouth began to glow wit heat. Skah's instinct was to get the beast off of him NOW. Immediately, he pressed both feet on the creature's stomach and pushed as hard as he could. Apparently, he didn't know his own strength, for he threw the beast into the air behind him. He sprang to his feet and turned to face the beast...only to be greeted with a giant fire breath. He jumped out of the way half a second too late; his right arm got singed in the attack.
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"Can you fly?" She asked abruptly. "Fly while carrying me?" Her only logical solution was to get back to the ship and get back into space. She didn't know what the animal wanted, she had never met a firebreathing anything before. Did it like its meat cooked?
She was shaking, but had no where to go at the moment, but she clung to the stick, not intending to attack anything, but feeling marginally better with the knowlege that she had something with which to defend herself-- even if it was only a stick.
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In events such as this, Skah thought that this was the best solution. But can he carry her? His right arm was charred with second-degree burns, but he felt little pain. Then he saw the beast hyperventilating from its breath. He decided to chance it. He got a good running start, then extended his wings to full span.
"I'm on it!" he yelled, leaving the ground, but not before grabbing Katrina from under her arms. They soared into the air out of the beast's reach. The beast tried to jump and grab them, but to no avail. In annoyance, the beast let out another breath of fire that missed them by yards. Then it stalked away.
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Katrina held on as best she could, but she was nervous. After all, if she fell, not only was there the danger of impact, but there were beasts down there waiting to eat or char a person. She looked at his arm, but didn't say anything about it just yet. She would wait until they were back on the ship and relatively safe. It was possible he was still in shock and so didn't feel it, or it was possible that his species didn't feel much pain.
In an attempt to distract herself from the danger of falling, she attempted to enjoy the view and the air brushing past her. She would probably never get another chance like this. Too bad it had to be while they were fleeing an evil fire tiger beast.
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Skah continued flying high above the treetops, looking for a safe place to land. He felt his right arm starting to give out; Katrina was surprisingly light, but the fact that his arm had been caught in the breath made his arm weaken. He had to find a safe place to land, and fast. He couldn't go back to the ship; it was too far away from them. He then saw a clearing in the jungle. Apparently, it looked like it had been used before; a ring of stones could be seen, as well as a couple of felled tree trunks.
"Over there!" he called from the sound of the wind. He then descended, using his wings as parachutes to ease the fall. When he got there, he placed Katrina safely on her feet. He landed right next to her.
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Katrina's legs were a little shaky, but she held herself with poise despite the rather chaotic episode they'd just endured. "How bad is your arm? Do you know which way back to the ship? Do you think it followed us?" She asked quickly, one after the other as she struggled to stay calm. She had enjoyed the flight in some ways. Perhaps he would take her up another time, when they weren't fleeing for their lives and he wasn't half burned.
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Skah looked at his arm, which was badly singed, but only hurt a little. "My arm's fine," he said. "I don't know which way is back to the ship, but I'm sure that thing didn't follow us; I think it went in the other direction." Truthfully, though, he had picked up the beast's scent while he was fighting it, so if he smelled its aroma, the it would be near. And he didn't smell anything.
"Let's just rest a moment," he said, folding in his wings and sitting on a log.
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Katrina settled down beside him, smoothing her skirt, but a light beading of sweat could be seen on her upper lip as her heart pounded. She'd never even camped. All her outdoor experience had come about as a sink or swim situation. Kicked out of your sleeping quarters along with your friends, no where to stay, find a place to curl up and sleep for the night. Of course that had always been with at least one other person if not a whole posse of men to offer some level of protection, even if they were not fighters exactly. She sighed, recalling the rough crowd she'd fallen in with: her boyfriend's crowd. She'd had no friends of her own, so she ended up hanging out with him and his, that and she hardly left his side since he had enough enemies that being friends with him put her in danger. She'd become a mark to use in getting back at him. "Do you think we'll be able to find the ship again?" She asked. The thought of being stuck on a dying planet was not a comforting one, though really she didn't see why it should make a difference to her. She had nothing waiting for her in space either. As long as crazy beasts didn't eat her or Skah, it should all be fine, even on earth. Finally, she drew a deep breath and seemed to calm. Life was not as bad as it seemed in the moment of near panic.
She gently stroked his wing. She missed soft things. If they sat there much longer she very well might rest against his shoulder. Perhaps she was too trusting, but she'd been fortunate enough to run into men who had a tendency to protect her, so there had not been a pressing need to develop a sense of street smarts.
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Skah shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I guess, for the time being, we're kinda stuck here." He then just set his silvery orbs out into the sun, which was setting into the western sky.
He then felt a pleasant sensation going down his folded wing; Katrina was stroking them. It seemed unexpected, but it felt...nice. Not only because of that, but he actually had someone beside him. He had always felt lonely, even if he had someone he "befriended" beside him. But this time...no, it was different. Maybe he found a good friend after all. It felt pleasant. He turned his silvery eyes towards Katrina and smiled. Unbeknownst to him, the bad burns on his right arm slowly began to fade away.
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Katrina continued stroking his wing as she spoke. It was comforting to her and he hadn't seemed to mind it so far. "We better find somewhere to weather the night. We aren't going to make it back to the ship before dark." She commented. She didn't want to spend the night in the dark forest unsheltered, and in her mind, she was spending the night alone, though she had Skah. She'd been alone for the last several months, so it was not natural to automatically picture the situation with a strong man with wings at her side. She glanced over at him and found herself wanting to crawl under his arm and just feel safe for a few moments, but instead, she just shifted so her head rested against his shoulder. "What do you think we could come up with before it gets too dark to see?"
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Skah thought about this for a moment, trying to figure out what "weather the night" meant. Then he knew what it meant. "You mean for a shelter? I'm not sure. I don't know the first thing about living in the middle of all these trees." It was true; all that he remembered was in that space station.
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Katrina sighed softly "Well, just someplace where we're out of the wind, and hopefully where the animals can't get to us, or at least can't get to us from all sides" She commented "not a lot to work with though." She looked up at him "What do you think?"
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Skah shrugged. "Hmm...I don't know what to think," he said as a chilly wind began to blow. He looked around and saw nothing but trees and clearing...and Katrina. He then had a sort of idea. He extended one of his wings and wrapped it around Katrina, its soft feathers shielding her from the bitter wind. And though he didn't notice it, a kind of warm aura emanated from his wing...a comforting warmth. "I just don't know."
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Katrina sighed and did the natural thing-- she leaned against his chest, letting the wing shelter her and somewhat himself as well. She felt oddly content though there was a higher than usual possibility of them dying or sustaining serious injury. "We should take turns sleeping probably so one of us can keep a look out" She mentioned, though she wasn't sure she believed it. It felt like it would all be okay, though she couldn't say why. The fear was melting away. As long as Skah was with her, she didn't have to be afraid.