chapter 4

Chapter 4

~Grounded~

Scarlet's POV

            Something trickle's down my arm. My hand feels numb, and there's a sharp pain in my neck. I hear muffled voices around me, but nobody's voice really stick's out.

            "W-what h-happens..." I try to say but my own voice is muffled. A sharp pain stabs at my shoulder, and I wince. My vision comes into focus for a seco.nd. I see Dr. Marcus Antonio standing over me, with my dad's worried face next to him. I groan and I try to lift my head. My dad helps me stand up. Around me loose things have been thrown about. The captain's people are all slowly getting up. I'm on the ground, a few feet away from the window pane, which is dark. I'm guessing the front of the ship landed in the ground, while the back is in the air. That would at least explain why it's dark. Dad motions for me to take a seat, and I do.

            "Where's Marie? What happened?" I ask after a second of finding my voice. Dr. Antonio is leaning next to someone. When my vision focuses on them, I see it's Marie, and I see a trail of blood by her. "Oh no..." I whisper. Dad moves into my field of vision.

            "Marie is going to live, and so are you. We just have to bandage up your arm. You're and Marie's buckle came undone, and when we crashed, you guy's flew across the floor. You've only been out five minutes, which is lucky considering it could have been worse. Your arm seems to be bruised and you were cut on something, otherwise no damage seems to be done." Dad says and he hugs me. My shoulder sends out a sharp pain and I wince. Dad lets me go. "You might have a shoulder wound too." he says frowning. I nod, and stand up. Dad and I walk over to Marie, who's seems to be staring at the ceiling. Her arm is bleeding, and it looks like she got cut on a piece of sharp rubbish. She has a bruise along the right side of her. Dr. Antonio is whispering smoothing words to her. Finally she blinks and looks over at him. He smiles and hugs her tightly, which makes her wince.

            "Sorry!" Dr. Antonio says, and he lets her go, but Marie hugs him back. I smile at them.

            "What damage has been done?" Marie asks. Dr. Antonio shrugs.

            "We need to check on the people who were buckled in the bunker, otherwise everyone's alright here." Dr. Antonio says. Marie nods, and she stands up. It takes her a minute to get a hold of her legs, and then we all begin to walk. Marie yells to the crew member to go to the bunker, and shortly after we leave the crew follows. Dr. Antonio assess the situation when we get there, along with the other doctors. In all, we have only three people who got cuts and bruises from the impact, but not deaths.

            "You can count your lucky stars nobody died." Antonio says as everyone begins to move about.

            "Alright, tell everyone to stay here. Marcelo, Reggie, Scarlet, and Henry, follow me." Marie says. We make our way back to the control room. Marcelo pulls up images and sends out probes to scan the surrounding area. Reggie assesses the damage done on the ship using one of the probes with Marcelo. Dad and I watch as Marie types on her computer furiously. Finally everyone stops what they're doing and looks at us with worried expressions.

            "The ship won't make it back into outer space...Good news is the ship is stable enough to hold us for a little while. The leak was just on rocket fuel, which probably means we left a streak of fuel across the ground. Anything alive is not going to be happy about it." Reggie says.

            "The vegetation around her seems to be non-hostile, and there seems to be no life. I wouldn't count on it through; we know things like to hide here." Marcelo says.

            "I have good news and bad news. First; Right now we are in a rotational period that goes around this sun, it takes ten years. Were currently at the transitional part where it goes from winter to spring, which means a lot of rain, and it will likely be really cold. Second; we only have a limited amount of supplied on this ship, which means we must ration it. The crops we were growing have likely been destroyed by the crash, as well as the one's we've landed on. I've found a plant that... eats meat." Marie says. Marcelo gives her a worried look. "It tried to eat one of your probes last year, but it hadn't happen again since then. Word to the wise; we stay in here as long as we can." Marie says. Marcelo and Reggie nods. The door opens and Dr. Antonio steps inside.

            "The crew is doing their best to calm the people, but they're getting restless. They need to know what happened." Dr. Antonio says. Marie nods, and goes over to the intercom. She presses a button and holds the mic to her mouth. 

            "Attention h crew members, a search has been done to asses the damages about whats been done to the ship. We must stay aboard because the life outside is uncertain weather they are friend are foe. You all may return to your rooms until further notice." Marie stops talking and clicks another button. She turns to us.

            "There's a traitor among us... Henry, I believe you. Someone tried to lock me in the break room earlier before this happened. If they had succeeded I would have been crushed. We need to find these people and find out their plan." Marie says to him. Marcelo and Reggie exchange glances.

            "There was two people, and they were talking about selling us humans to the aliens. I don't think they realize that they're human too." Dad says.

            "I found that the sea creatures have an enemy..." I being but I pause looking at Marcelo. He nods for me to continue. "There are thing's that live in the desert and cold areas, just like in the ocean. We know that they have long octopus like tentacles, and that that reach out and grab anything near them. I advise we stay only in the tropical areas like where we are at now." I say. Marie nods.

            "It's settled. Alright we need to go find blankets and pass them out to everyone. Our power is shot right now, it took a major blow in the crash and is out dated as it is." Marie says. We follow her to a supply room, that's full of blankets and other things. We fill four carts up with blankets, and two people take each cart. Marie pages Antonio to help her bring her blanket's to the west wing, Reggie and Marcelo take one cart to the North, Dad and I take another to the village people. Damion and another crew member arrive to take the fourth cart for the crew members.

            "Meet back here in twenty minutes. Make sure to save a blanket for yourself." Marie tells everyone before we head off. Dad and I get rid of six blankets before were done, and we each get  two blanket's for ourselves. We head back to the captain's quarter's and settle on the floor. The air slowly begins to get cold, and I'm glad I have two blanket's over me. I lean against dad, as we both shiver. The door opens and Marcelo and Reggie walk in, both of them with blankets over them. Marie and the Doctor walk in next snuggled in two blankets together. Damion and the other crew member decided to watch over some of the people from the farms, and page Marie to tell her. When everyone's settled in, we get quiet.

            "Now what?" Reggie asks, turning to Marie. Everyone turns their head to her.

            "Just get some rest. Night comes in a hour anyway, in the morning we help give out food before figuring out a plan." Marie says. She doesn't move. Nobody does. Marie snuggles closer to the Doctor, and falls asleep shortly after. I snuggle close to my dad, with Marcelo and Reggie across from me. They aren't snuggled together, but they do lean against one another. This room has a window so that I can see outside. I look up at the stars and I smile. It looks so beautiful...Dad shifts and I look over at him. He looks like he's fighting sleep.

            "I'll take first watch Sargent." I tell him, nudging him. Dad smiles at me and hisses my forehead.

            "Wake me in a few hours alright?" Dad says. I nod and he turns over on his side. I make sure he's properly covers before I lay on my back and watch the stars. After a second I hear someone, and I look down to see Marcelo and Reggie staring at the stars too. I smile, and close my eye's for a second.

* * * * * * * * *

            In the morning, I snap my eyes open. Everyone's still asleep around me, and the moon's still out. I look out of the window when I notice something on the glass of the window. Frost. It's frost. Outside the ground is covered in a thin layer of frost and snow. It loo almost like the Cold areas on the planet, but... no, something is different here. I notice the snow rises in weird areas, and that after a second those areas move. I turn over to my side and shake dad awake. He jumps with a start.

            "Who? What? When? Where?" He asks looking around. This takes up Reggie and Marie, and they stare at dad.

            "It's snowed outside, there are large masses of snow moving outside, I think were surrounded, and I just woke up." I tell dad. I feel ashamed for falling asleep, but that doesn't matter. I look outside, and I can see the moon. This planet must have a really long night... which means it gets really cold at night and really hot during the day. That could pose a problem for us...

            "Come on, let's go check it out." Marcelo says. Marie waves at us, and dad follows. I keep the blanket around my shoulder as we head to the command center. Marcelo looks some stuff up then he turns to me.

            "Those masses of snow have slight heat signatures... The things in the cold spots were able to move over to us." Marcelo says his face pale. I scowl.

            "Sheet." I mutter. Dad scowls at me and I wince. "Sorry. What else Marcelo? How bad is it?" I ask. He turns to the computer for a minute, then back to me.

            "The atmosphere here is twice as thin as Earth's, which means the sun's radiation is hotter here, and it gets about -227 degrees Celsius. Were kind of screwed." Marcelo says. I scowl at myself.

            "There's got to be some way we can live here..." I mutter. Outside lightning flashes across the sky, lighting it up. Clouds move in overhead, and it looks like there's going to be a storm.

            "Look!" Marcelo whispers. On his camera the masses of lumps are moving away from the ship. That can only mean something bad is about to happen.

            "The storm, Marcelo the storm! It has to be bad if they're leaving because of it. I tell him. He nods and types so buttons.

            "Okay it looks here like it's just going to rain, the electrical currents in the air are going hey wire. The winds here... they reach thirty miles an hour." Marcelo gives me a worried look.

            "This planet doesn't want us here either..." I mutter as I look out of the window. Indeed the sky looks like a plasma globe, or a tesla ball where the electricity is going from one source to all of the outer sources I frown and then realize something.

            "I think the electricity is coming from the tropical areas..." I turn to dad my eyes wide. A strike of lightening hits the Earth, nearly knocking out the probe.

            "Shoot... We need to make everyone least likely to be zapped by the storm. But how do you get electricity to travel through us and to the tropical area were on?" Marcelo asks.  I frown. What doesn't electricity through? Then I get an idea, and Marcelo's face lights up at the same time.

            "Rubber!" We say together. Marcelo runs out of the room and I follow. Dad looks confused but follows.

            "Electricity can't travel through certain insulators like glass, plastic and rubber." Marcelo begins to explain.

            "So if we give everyone something rubber and they put it on, it should channel the electricity around us and onto the tropical area." I finish for Marcelo.

            "Exactly!" he answers. Marcelo goes into the supply room. He pulls out plastic sheet covers for the beads. "Each bed has a plastic sheet cover, and we can give people rubber socks to put on. Hopefully if they sit on their beds, with their feet not touching the floor, the electricity will travel through the rocket, power it up, and give us juice to run the heater." Marcelo begins.

            "What if this fails?" I ask. Marcelo pauses.

            "We all get electrocuted." Marcelo says. In the corner of the  room I spot a rubber suit fit for regulating body temperatures when we go outside the ship. I put it on, and put on rubber socks then sneakers. Marcelo pages the crew members, and they all arrive.

            "We must hurry; the lightning storm is getting worse." Marcelo says as he reads a weather reader. I scowl, and quickly go around the ship, passing around rubber socks and telling everyone to stay on their beds. We get to Marie, and I see she and the doctor are in rubber suits just like me.

            "Okay everyone; stay off the floor and near the windows. Keep away from anything medal." Marcelo says. Three people sit on Mare's bed. Dad, Reggie, and Marcelo all stand on chairs and hold onto the backs that have cloth on them. Finally, a strike of lightening hits the ship. I feel am buzz pass through my body just from the impact, then nothing. Dad looks around at everyone, and we feel more lightening hit the ship. After a half an hour, the storm seems to reside. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and I hug Marie. She smiles.

            "Thank you Marcelo, without you a lot of us wouldn't have made it." Marie says. Marcelo smiles. Marie goes to the intercom and tells everyone that it's safe now. Reggie goes to the control center, and turns on the heat. Outside, the sun begins to rise.

            "These tropical areas are the conductors. It's strange how the safest place we can live is also the place were likely to get electrocuted." Marcelo says. Marie nods.

            "Yea, but we don't know who's friend or foe yet." Marie says.

            "Let's find out." Dad answers. Everyone turns to him, with questioning glances.

            "How?" Marcelo asks, staring at dad. Dad smiles and looks over at me.

            "Science." he answers.

* * * * * * *

            For half an hour dad goes around watching everyone as the crew members and I hand out food to the people who are awake. There looks to be about one hundred of them now that were all together. I guess that means that NASA really tried to pack as many people here as they could. It's a good thing we haven't died yet. If we had this mission would be for nothing.

            "What is your dad doing now?" Damion asks warily, as he watches my dad talking to almost everyone. My dad's talking quickly, getting answered, then moving on. He's been doing this for the past hour that he's been up.

            "Nothing." I answer. I dad said to tell nobody about his experiment, because he wants to see if he recognizes anyone's voices. That and he said science will make the guilty person nervous when he's going around asking questions. The person is likely to approach dad, and they may not know how stealthy my dad is. That plus Marcelo and Reggie are watching dad too, making sure if he finds the people that they can help take them down.

            "Your dads... kind of paranoid." Damion says, and moves closer to me. "Why?"

            "My dad isn't paranoid." I answer, then I pause. Damion's voice... it isn't one from the meeting room. No, he's not one of them. But why's he so nervous then? I glance at Damion, who's still staring at dad. Finally my dad finds pauses at two guys who are talking to each other. Dad looks over at Marcelo and nods. Marcelo and Reggie move over to them.

            "Now what?" Damion groans as my dad, Reggie, and Marcelo begin to make a scene. One of the guys throws a punch at dad, and dad grabs his hand, twists it behind the guy's back, and then pushes him toward the wall. The other guy stands up, holds his hands up in surrender, and follows as Marcelo and Reggie lead him out. Dad drags his guy out. I follow slowly behind them. They make their way to the meeting room, were Marie and the Doctor are waiting. Dad pushes his guy into a seat, and the other guy sits calmly down. The calm guy has short blonde hair, and light hazel brown eyes. He's got a square jaw line and stumbles of hair along his chin. His skin is really pale, almost white. He's wearing a white doctor's jacket, a cotton sweater, and white pants with white crocks on his feet. He doesn't look nervous at all. In fact, he looks calm, collected, and cool. His friend on the other hand looks nothing like him.

He's got short black hair, a beard, brown eyes and he's wearing lumberjack clothes; a red flannel, stained blue jeans, and tan boots. His dark brown hair I sin curls and is really messy. He looks to be of Asian descent, and he's cursing in Latin. I know it's Latin because one of my friends of school was a transfer and taught me a lot of his language, when I was just taking French in high school for the first year.

            "Placere esse. Tu conclamantem." the doctor says. The guy quiet's down, but gives my dad a death scowl.

            "What did you say?" Reggie asks, confused.

            "He said 'Please be quiet. You're making a fuss.' I think..." I answer. Latin is not my best subject, despite learning it within six months. I really wanted to learn Latin and Japanese. I took a few months of Japanese before the schools all closed down, so I only know a little of it.

            "Eja! You speak Laitin?" the doctor says. I nod, and frown at him.

            "What were you two doing trying to sell us, the last humans, to aliens for?" I ask. He frowns at me.

            "It's not polite to eavesdrop."

            "Neither is holding a secret meeting to sell us!" I answer. The doctor shakes his head.

            "No, puer, It was to give us vitae!" He answers.

            "What did you call her?" Dad asks, scowling at the doctor.

            "Puer, young one. Vitae, life!" The doctor answers. I nod when dad turns questioning to me.

            "We don't need a new life. We need to create our own life, and not be the slaves of an alien race." dad answers and he crosses his arms over his chest.

            "Ah, that's where you have it wrong. We are the aliens here! This isn't our planet. Do you expect them, the natives who are already at war, to just hand over their planet to us Novitii?" He asks. Novitii means recruit, or young. He thinks we don't deserve a chance at life because our Earth gave us the boot. I grab the guy by his collar.

            "They wanted to attack us. I saw them in the snow. Is that what you were waiting for? For us to all be asleep and then ship us off?" I ask him. His eyes widen and he shakes his head.

            "No! Imo! Imo!" the doctor begins saying something I can't quite understand at his speed that he talks, and then he turns to his friend. They exchange a few words that I think mean 'We are in trouble!' Dad smacks the doctor who turns to him.

            "Stop speaking another language and talk to us!" he yells.

            "Those were not the things we made the deal with. The things we made the deal with looked... LIKE US! Except they have to hide underground. Do you mean to say another species is at the war with them and they don't even know?" the doctor asks. I nod, and show him one of the pictures I took. His eyes widen and he stands up.

            "IMO! IMO!" he begins saying gibberish before dad ties him to his chair, along with his buddy. Dad turns to me.

            "I'm guessing nothing is going according to his plan?" he asks me. I nod.

            "I can barely understand him, he's so freaked out." I answer. Marie scowls.

            "Hurry, we must warn the others of an upcoming attack. Everyone must gear up. We can't sit around waiting for too long." Marie says. As she says this, there's a large bump against the ship. I stumble and almost fall, but Marcelo catches me.

            "They're here!" The doctor yells from over by the window. I look over at Marie, and she returns my look.

            "Go, go, go, go!" Dad yells at us. He unties the two guys who run off. Dad runs to the part of the ship were all the frozen people are. If they wake up with us in the mist of war, they won't survive! Our backup generators have kept them alive so far, but we can't rely on that for much longer. I stop with dad inside the huge freezer, were everyone's shut away in little drawers like they would be if they were in an lab, waiting to be poked and prodded at. I shiver at that thought. What have we gotten ourselves into this time?