PROLOGUE

'one small step for man, is a giant leap for mankind' , Neil Armstrong said, what ever led him to say that didn't come from the mouth, but from the depth of his heart, he definitely wasn't being sarcastic, and he probably said it while looking at the vast, empty, airless, limitless, timeless, unforgiving but divine space around him.

From space, planet karla looked like a twisted combination of earth and Mars with black spots except it was way smaller than both planet, but on the inside, it was magical, the sand was like a unicorns vomit, with red, green, purple and yellow coloured sand all mixed together, your instinct would naturally tell you to jump into it and stuff a handful into your mouth, but what made it more beautifully bizarre was the dust that were blown by the wind didn'ttake the colour of the sand, it was like hold dust instead, and the landscape was perfect even without any tree in sight, the air smelled like a stawberry flavoured rose, even the whistle of the gentle wind was enough to cure hypertension. But that was just for the land, although the planet didn't have a moon, the aurora borealis that displayed along the sky was dazzling, you could watch it all day and not get bored, every thing in the planet was alien yet satisfying. it is literally a fairy land for fairies.

'rumble'

The violent rumbling of a landing shuttle totally destroyed the harmony and tranquility of nature, trust humans to always search for mother natures trouble. the rumblings made the beautiful sands on the ground to dance vigorously and the sands directly under the shuttle immediately dispersed.

As soon as the rumbling stopped, the environment returned to its previous tranquility, but it wasn't the same any more, the wind no longer whistled, but made a snuffing sound from moving sand, the aurora borealis now danced a bit frantically, and the atmosphere smelled different due to the combustion from the engine. everything had changed suddenly as though the planet felt the presence of uninvited guests.

About two minutes after the shuttle landed, the sound of clanking metals came from inside the shuttle and the metal door opened.

four astronauts in full kit light space suits stepped out of the shuttle one by one with the first having nothing on his hands, the second one was carrying a large USA flag and a camera bag, the third was with a box like transmitter and the last one was with a tool box, they were all wearing a complicated expression on their faces, because they didn't have enough information about the planet they where on but they had to explore it, which was why they were here.

as soon as they stepped on the ground, the environment immediately caught their attention and they all stared at the environment in amazement, they were all speechless and the burden of fear or worry that was on their faces was lifted a bit.

"Terry, quick set up the transmitter" the captain who was the first astronaut to get out of the shuttle broke the silence by instructing the one carrying the box like transmitter.

"aye aye captain" He responded .

"I've told you Terry, stop saying aye aye, this isn't a joke" the captain said while collecting the flag from the other guy

"aye ay..., sorry roger" He corrected himself

"don't blame the kid cap, he just woke up from a month sleep he probably had a dream that he was a pirate in space" the one who was with the tool box said while checking the shuttle. his name is Andre he was around the age of forty, roughly forty-three, in fact all of them here were already at their forties, except Terry who was still young, roughly twenty-five. Although this mission was certainly not for kids, he had talent and connections (his uncle is one of the higher ups in NASA), and because of these he was usually teased by his seniors, many even dispised him because they thought he was too young and only got to where he is because of his uncle.

"you know we should talk about our dreams, you know we have been on stases for a whole month, I'm sure we had good dreams" Andre was well known for sparking up conversations and keeping missions lively, apart from being a genius in engineering, he was also good at socialising which was rare among geniuses.

"why don't I go first, I dreamt about my wife,and we had fun together, and did all sort of things" He continued while smiling, as if he was reliving the moments.

"you don't even have a wife Andre, have you forgotten?" Kurt the one who handed the flag over to the captain said while setting the camera

"that's the thing, any body can be your wife, and you won't feel guilty about it for example I can dream of being Taylor swifts husband this night and I can be Britney spears the next, and I won't feel guilty"

" so your a celebrity man whore in your dreams?" Kurt teased while laughing

"No... are you serious" Andre burst into laughter and threw a tiny screw on him playfully, and Terry also joined in the laughter, the tension that was on them had been lifted even more.

"so Kurt, what was your dream?" Andre asked, going back to the topic

"i don't want to talk about it" Kurt said with a gloomy expression

" No man, that's not how it is, what ever it is, spit it out don't be shy" Andre said, trying to convince him to talk

"I'm not shy, it's just..... I dreamt about this mission"

he finally said it and what came after it was complete silence.

the fact that he didn't want to talk about it and the way his mood changed when it was his turn even when they came out of the stases tube he had the most terrified expression, this all meant that it was a nightmare. the thing was, they where all nervous due to the lack of information and they were all looking for something to comfort and cheer them up, which was why Andre started a fun conversation.

"we good, we'll pass you, next terry" Andre said awkwardly moving the conversation to Terry, not wanting to ponder on something that will ruin the moment or make them nervous

"oh...me? yeah.." Terry said shyly after been jolted back to reality, he then continued

"dreams, dreams are signals taken by our brain from parts like the amygdala and hippocampus then tries to interprete them, yeah that's what I think about dreams... what, why you all looking at me like that" the other three stared at Terry without saying anything, the glares they shot at him was either saying 'you're foolish' or asking 'are you foolish?' because what he just said was by no means in correlation to what they've been saying. like andre, Terry was also an extroverted genius, but he was not sociable, in fact he had no friend and even people he had worked together with for years, weren't close to him, the reason being that, he often flaunted about what he knows even when nobody asks, which could be very frustrating to the point of wanting to strangle him.

'jeez, this guy is a hard-core nerd, was he even listening to what I've been saying'

Andre thought, he didn't even know what to say now, even the captain who didn't join in their conversation and was just staring at the environment was now looking at him with disgust while thinking, 'Now I get why he has no friends, does he even have a girl friend?' the captain thought. truth be told, which girl in her right mind would date an hard-core nerd like him, this made the captain curious to ask if he had one.

" Hey kid, you got any girlfriend?"

The captain finally took the initiative to ask him, breaking the silent and the glare from the other two. Andre looked at the captain and smirked because he was about to ask the same question.

" oh.. that? I've actually gone on a couple of dates and I either got ditched or they broke up that day" Terry said. that's actually what all of them thought but they couldn't help feeling sorry for him, because he was undoubtedly handsome, so some ladies might even take the initiative to ask him out, but unfortunately they would be dissapointed, not able to stand his intense nerdity.

before they could finish feeling sorry for him he then said

"Well they probably thought I was too smart for them" Terry Continued while smiling.

they all immediately stared at him in disbelief, ' What! He doesn't even know why they ditched him, he thinks it's because he's intelligent ' it was this moment they knew how stupid he actually is, so they ignored him and continued what they were doing without talking, but in their minds they couldn't help imagining the scene of the dates he went on and how frustrated the ladies would be.

'smack'

'smack'

the silence was interrupted by Terry again, he was spanking the transmitter, he then complained.

" Guys this thing isn't working" he said while spanking the transmitter.

Moreover, all of them were busy. the captain was already trying to stand the flag, Andre was repairing somethings in the shuttle while Kurt was still on the camera, so they were all busy and wanted to ignore what Terry just said, even If they weren't busy, they still might ignore him because he had already displayed his stupidity so they didn't want to bother themselves about him again.

"the kids right, the camera isn't working also" Kurt said, also having problems with the camera.

"I'm sure I tested it, it was working before we landed" Kurt continued with a bit of concern in his face.

"Hey kid go inside and contact the main shuttle to send more supplies, so nobody should panic" the captain immediately commanded Terry, he didn't want anybody to panic, so he immediately took control of the situation. they had to contact the six people they left on the main shuttle in space but it might take a while before they will receive any supplies because the main shuttle was orbiting the planet, so they would have to wait for the main shuttle to take a whole revolution round the planet and reach their position before sending anything.

"Roger" Terry said, stomping into the shuttle.

Kurt and Andre were now worried because they didn't plan for this.

"Hey guys take off your helmets" the captain said after seeing their worried face, he tried to divert their attention and lift the tension.

they finally took off their helmet and the cold breeze that grazed their skin plus the welcoming scent made them to inhale deeply and sigh simultaneously with a smile on their faces, they no longer had that worried look anymore.

"Guys the shuttle's transmitter isn't walking also"

Terry suddenly dashed out of the shuttle and yelled, the tension that the captain managed to lift suddenly slammed back on them. their eyes widened in shock and they all rushed into the shuttle to check what's going on, but as soon as they got inside the shuttle the captain immediately picked up the transmitter on the metal wall of the shuttle.

"Derek, Anne, Stacy, do you copy? over" the captain yelled into the transmitter expecting response, but no one answered.

"Derek are you there, over" He repeated and yelled the names of the people on board the main shuttle but no one responded.

the captain turned his head slowly to the back, immediately, he felt the gaze of the three people behind him, the gaze was so intense that even he had to catch his breath. he felt the anxiety in their gaze as It suddenly turned to fear, even he was a bit scared, but he had to keep his cool as the captain and think straight. He felt that the only thing to do now was to think of what to do, but the other three probably couldn't think of anything now, due to the fear that surged In their hearts. so the best thing to do now was to calm them down.

but before he could talk, Andre walked towards the wall and opened a metal sheet that was bolted to the wall. with his tools, he made an opening, yanked the metal sheet off the wall and thick white smoke began to come out slowly.

'cough'

Andre coughed, covered his nose, and moved back.

"I thought so. the battery is fried" He said looking at the rest

"how? why? I thought you checked it when..."

before the captain could talk finish, Terry interrupted.

"Yeah, a battery wouldn't short circuit if the positive and negative aren't..."

"would you shut up" the captain yelled at him in annoyance before he could finish his spiel, nobody asked for his opinion on how batteries are short circuited but he just blurted it out without sense, everyone was nervous and trying to think straight on a solution, but he was talking about how batteries are short circuited, it's simply frustrating.

"I checked everything before we left the main shuttle and nothing was wrong" Andre couldn't bother about him because he actually knew some people like him who would flaunt about what they knew in a very annoying and frustrating way.

"Then why is it like this, its your job to take care of the machines around here and this happened on your watch so you find a solution" Kurt was so nervous that he put all the blame on Andre.

"oh, so it's my fault? Well thanks to you I don't know anything about the geography of this place and what could have fried the battery "

Andre was sure that this had nothing to do with him, so he tried to defend himself.

"so you're trying to turn it on me? what does the geography even have to do with your work"

it was obvious that they weren't thinking straight because they kept on arguing on who's fault it was and blaming each other, they even blamed Terry at some point but they didn't bother to argue with him because he was saying something entirely different. but the captain seemed to get what the problem was.

"everybody shut up!!" He yelled at the top of his lungs to get their attention and it worked.

"nobody is to blame for this, we know almost nothing about this planet that we're in and that's why we're here, I don't know what's going on but this explains why we haven't been able to land an unmanned craft or satellite on this place, that's why there was no choice but to send people, us. The mission has already begun and with the way it has started, I can't gurantee you that it's going to go as planned, so..."

'BANG'

a loud bang that made the shuttle to totter, took all four of them off their balance and tossed them around the shuttle, with tools and sharp metals flying around, it made all of them to scream in terror. After what felt like minutes, but was only five seconds, the tottering stopped, and the four of them where now struggling to get up, they were all injured but the fear and adrenaline that pumped in their blood stream made them feel no pain.

"w...wha...wha...what was that" Terry said, with a shaky voice. his previous agile and active body was now trembling, he cuddled himself into a corner and hug his knee his handsome face was now taken over by fear. Kurt was kneeling down and staring blankly at the floor, his face was expressionless but his eyes was wide opened in fear, it looked like he was thinking about something, but in fact his mind was empty, he was now in a state where your body, soul and mind have been overcome by fear and he couldn't move any part of his body, he couldn't hear anything, his vision was blurry and his mind was as empty as space it self, even the captain who just gave them a speech, was now trembling in fear and drenched in sweat, with blood gushing from his head. however unlike the rest, Andre was not as scared as the rest,he was staring at the captain, waiting for orders but when he looked into the captains eyes, looked at everyone and saw that they had already lost their sanity.

"It's just like the dream" Kurt finally brought himself to speak and his voice was as cold as his face

"we're all going to die, I wonder what being dead feels like" Terry said, still cuddled up in a corner and rocking himself, he was so scared that he felt like vomiting his heart.

"nobody is dying, not on my watch" the captain said with a stern look on his face but this didn't mean he stopped trembling. He then crawled to a wall and used it as support to stand because he could not stand up on his own with all the trembling his body was making. him being a captain wasn't only because he was intelligent, it was also because of his bravery he had spent three years in the marines so this intensity of fear wasn't a new thing for him.

Andre eventually saw the captain he was looking for, not the one who trembled cowardly.

"Where are you going to?" Andre asked the captain

"We don't know what that was, what if we're just scared for nothing, it could just be a storm" the captain said and his trembling suddenly stopped. Andre smiled and also stood up.

"let's go" Andre said, determined to go with the captain.

"No you guys stay here just incase" the captain said however when he looked at Andre,he saw that he wasn't willing to stay behind "It's an order " he then ordered

"No, I can't sit here while my captain goes out to something we think might be dangerous, even if its an order"

"that's basically the summary of this mission" the captain said with a strsight face but Andre still didn't want to give in, the captain sighed and said " if you insist"

They both walked towards the door bravely, but their hearts pounded loud like a bears fart and every step they took was as tense as the atmosphere.

"Wait!!" aloud shout suddenly echoed from behind them and they were both startled before realising that it was just Kurt.

" I'm going with you" Kurt said with a trembling voice, he wasn't the type to act brave and risk his life because someone else did it, but he wasn't too cowardly to let his crew members to venture into danger while he cuddled on the floor like a scared baby. he stood up and walked towards them but they all looked at Terry, expecting him to do the same thing.

"you guys can go on I'm good here" Terry said with a cold smile while cuddled beside the wall and shaking in fear.

'what a coward' they all thought, but they couldn't blame him because he was still young, they all went and left him alone in the dark and silent shuttle, and for some reasons, it was even more frightening than the tottering of the shuttle.

"s**t" Terry cursed and stood up with a trembling leg, he then walked with the help of the wall to the direction of the door with his eyes wide opened and his head scanning every corner for any strange movement, he was like an armature thief on his first robbery.

He finally caught up with the rest and they were about to open the door, when he saw that they wanted to open the door, his heart skipped and he forgot to breath, he shut his eyes tightly and his mind was a scrambled mess, you could only imagine what fear could turn you to, the annoying part was that they didn't even know what they are scared of.

" Wait!!" Terry finally brought him self to speak and he yelled like a rabid dog.

" I know you guys are curious, you all watch horror movies right, you know sometimes curiosity can be a big son of a bi..."

'clang'

they ignored him and opened the metallic door and the cold breeze from outside flowed into the shuttle, Terry almost lost it, the breeze was supposed to be chilling and comforting instead, it was terrifying, it was like he was in a horror movie, although he doesn't watch movies because he spent a lot of time at work, or studying, he still remembered a horror movie he watched sometimes ago where there was a creepy clown who eats children,'Pennywise'. for some reason, the whole two hours plus movie flashed before his eyes and the face of the monster clown and his crazy smile terrified him that he didn't know when he lost his balance and fell on the floor due to the immense fear throughout his body.

the remaining three looked at him and they felt sorry for him, even they have experienced a lot of scary things, but this one was exceptional, it could be said that this moment was the most scariest they have experienced and they still didn't know what they were scared of.

They all looked outside and they took a gulp of saliva at the same time that even Terry could hear it from behind.

"where's the flag??" Kurt said, and they all realised that the flag and the other equipments they had left outside was no longer there.

"Kurt, what happens next?" Terry asked after crawling to their side

"what do you mean" Kurt asked,not understand what Terry meant.

"you had a dream about this mission right, what happened in the dream??" Terry asked with mixed emotions that cannot be explained.

they all still didn't get how Terry could think of such thing In a Situation like this, if they hadn't seen him display his stupidity earlier on, they would have thought he banged his head on something during the tremor. of course they ignored him and they realised the captain wasn't with them any more.

"where are you going captain?" Kurt asked after seeing the captain walking to the left side of the shuttle, he then sighed, bent down and picked up something.

"I knew we were scared for nothing" He said while waving the flag at them, they all let out a sigh of relief, smiled and laughed after remembering how cowardly they behaved for nothing.

while they were all laughing and comforting themselves, something suddenly pulled the captain out of their sight and they were all startled

"captain" they all screamed in horror, not sure of what just happened.

"captain" Andre yelled, almost getting down from the shuttle but Kurt held him back, telling him not to go.

Terry was now extremely petrified, so he fell to the ground in shock,his sweat could fill a pond and his eyes wide opened like the full moon, he couldn't process what just happened, he could feel adrenaline surging through his veins, but he couldn't move, it was like his brain suddenly became slow at processing things and he didn't know weather to move or think, but before he could even do any of the two, something pulled Andre out of his line of sight and Kurt who was holding him was also dragged along, Terry's eyes that was already wide open and looked like it was going to fall off was suddenly widened again, he could hear their aggrieved cries from a distance and he could tell that they were being dragged, his heart was now going to thirty beats per seconds, the speed of his blood was now close to the speed of light, his body couldn't take this much fear so it was about to shut down. his vision became blurry and he was about to faint before he realised that he was sitting at the front of the wide opened door, he immediately stood up and closed the door, he then fell back on the floor and thought, 'Now I can faint in peace' He closed his eyes and silence began to overwhelm him, he sighed and smiled at the thought that he was safe , not bothering about his crew.

'Bang'

the sound of something hitting the door jolted him back to reality, he flew up from the floor and ran to corner, cuddled himself and hugged his knee again. 'Why is this happening?' He asked himself

'Bang'

the bang continued and Terry could see dents forming on the door, he was mind blown.

'this is a thirty centimeter thick door, what could possibly cause this much damage?'

'Bang'

the door was finally smashed open and Terry completely lost it, he screamed like like Kristen dunst in the spider man movie, his eyes was very teary and mucus was falling from his nose, his face was red as red as tomato and the horror in his eyes was unfathomable.

'what is this' He said in his mind as a foot step drew closer to him.

"stay away from me, my dad is a bigshot"

he yelled and his voice was totally different from before, even he knew that what he said was stupidity of another level, but who cares, what if it gets him out of this, the figure before him was strange but he couldn't bother about what it was but what it wants.

he looks at the thing, and he could tell that this was the end for him, he shuts his eyes and when he felt something touching him,

"Ahhhhhhhhh..."