Leap of Faith

Sunlight streamed though the segmented windows of the space craft and made miles squint. When his eyes adjusted to the light he saw that the sky above was a deep Caribbean blue. The escape capsule was becoming unbearably hot thanks to the sunlight. He sat up, sweating. To his surprise as he looked out there was no horizon line to be seen. Just endless blue.

He was weak but jammed a few buttons on the console, the mandala shaped windows hissed open like the unfurling petals of an exotic flower. Hoisting himself up with the last few milliliters of sanguis dei powering the hydraulics of his suit he got a better view of his surroundings. His ship was floating in a vast ocean. No sign of land in sight. The breathability of the air on this planet would have been more of a relief if the situation didn't seem so dire.

Miles crawled out of the cockpit and staggered his way to the fuel port on the outside of the floating craft. A few meters from the cockpit opening would be the tank from which he might be able to siphon a few last liters of sanguis dei. Luckily for him, what was unusable for the craft was enough to last him maybe two more days at most.

The umbilical attached to his head had begun self healing and could adequately perform one of its function of transferring liquid sanguis dei. He dropped the cable in to the opening of the fuel tank and felt his cells and organs being filled with life with every 'slurp' made by the tube.

He took a long sigh and flopped on his back, staring blankly in to the endless blue above. He was safe, for now. Except that in his circumstances; safe was definitely a relative term. Time was running out, his supply of live-giving sanguis dei would deplete invariably soon regardless of how carefully he portioned the energy he expended. He was stranded, in the middle of an unchartered sea on an unknown planet.

A strange looking heron-like bird came swooping down from the sky and perched itself cautiously on the edge of the craft watching him with one wary eye. The other titled towards the horizon. Or at least where he imagined that would be.

What happened next still made little sense to him looking back. But it was by some miraculous instinct that he made his next move.

As he lay there he inched himself closer and closer to the edge of the craft until he could hear the water lapping against its sides. He opened a port in the wrist of his suit and let his arm dangle over the side. Every last drop of sanguis dei filtered in to the ocean. He closed his eyes for what he imagined would be the very last time.