Chapter Nine: Taylor Henderson

Lorries and I made our way through the ship and entered into the fuel chamber from an access port in the cryo room. It took only seconds for the two of us to find the problem. A jagged hole near the engines and the giant chunk of space rock wedged inside were both dead giveaways.

Lorries and I traded relieved glances. We may not get along the best, but we were both relieved that it hadn't been sabotage that had brought down the ship. Lorries climbed up to a small console in the cryo room and began punching buttons. I heard a small bang as the satellite drone detached from the ship and began floating away, the balloon attached to it would take it to the top of the atmosphere, where the small rocket would send it the rest of the way into orbit.

Lorries typed in a message that would be transmitted back to Earth, and set the console to connect to his tablet and relay any terran messages back to him.

We made our way back outside to find the rest of the crew fully assembled for the first time in the handful of hours we had spent on this planet.

Jennifer was covered in slime and Dr. Miles' leg was clearly broken.

Everyone else seemed to be in good condition. Lorries dismissed everyone but Victor and Dr. Miles.

"What the hell happened to you?" I asked Jennifer as we made our way over to the fire. Lisa and Damian were building a second building for shelter.

"I was eaten alive and hacked my way out." She grumbled.

I laughed, "About time! your luck couldn't last forever you know."

"It's not luck, it's hard work." she said confidently before heading off to clean up.

I returned to camp, where Damian, Lisa and I sat around the fire they had started with the welder, stuffing our faces with a dinner of MREs. We were joined shortly by Lorries and the others, Jennifer in a fresh uniform, her hair dripping with water.

Lorries stood by the fire, his back to us as he started talking.

"Tomorrow is gonna be a big day," He stated,

"Richardson, Henderson, Andrews and I will go West, exploring the forest for anything potentially useful,"

"While Freeman, Smith and Miles head East, cataloging plants and trying to find something edible. We will be starting at 0900 Earth time,"

He pause briefly before continuing,

"That's nine hours from now, so get some rest and be ready for our first day of work." He finished, turning and entering the makeshift shelter; leaving us alone.

I turned to find Jennifer staring at me, though she turned away when I saw her. I began to wonder about her. Maybe she outdid everyone for a reason, maybe she was like Ava had been, and all she wanted was attention. I pushed these thoughts away, even if she had a reason, she still made everyone else feel worse about themselves.

I stood and tossed the empty container from my dinner into the fire, watching as it slowly shrunk and curled as the flames chewed at it. I found my own spot in the shelter before laying down on the cold dirt and using the tricks I learned in the air force to fall asleep.