27-43

s h r o u d e d (Verb.)

cover or envelop so as to conceal from view

The lightshow was over before Meia's sun even rose in the sky. Elain was a little disappointed, because it was pretty, but happy that the emergency crash landing did not actually begin. Perhaps it was just a scare? That made no sense, but that was the only answer she had. If it was a drill, then it would have been openly stated as such. This was a terrible thing to do to the people on the planet's surface, but there was still no contact from anyone on Head Quarters. What did the staff on Head Quarters think of this? Did they know about what was happening or were they also in the dark? Elain could have sworn she saw something take off into their atmosphere as well, but she couldn't be sure.

She and Brotte, who had followed her out and sat beside her on the flat laboratory roof, began their descent. That's when it happened. In the center of their sky and in front of the planet's moon, Head Quarters --everyone on board-- was destroyed. The explosion was double the size of the station itself. Then it was shrouded away by the fog of site 27-43.

Elain froze at the sight of it, ignoring the humanoid that called out her name in his broken English. That was it. They were all alone out here. How was that even possible? What happened? No one on the station would be able to survive that unless they were quick to get into an escape pod. Even then, the pod would have a high possibility of getting destroyed during their escape.

The biologist laid flat against the roof of the laboratory. Her cold hands pressed against her eyes while her mind went through her own calculations.

With the rations they had now, they had a month or maybe two? Perhaps longer, because it was hard to tell. Depends on how they would use them. They had some sort of in with the natives around there, but it seemed that they were just assisting their people with their curiosity. Neither of the two humans knew about all of the dangers in their site yet, so it was hard to spot how much medical supplies that would be necessary. Their electricity was deemed on how hot the sun was that day, so it wasn't much of an issue at the moment. Water recycled through filters that lasts a month at a time and they had enough for maybe a year. Even so, water wasn't going to be an issue anymore.

The main issue is their connection to each other sites. Head Quarters was their satellite. Even when it didn't allow messages between the station and Meia, it still made it easy for each site to speak to one another. Now? That communication was cut. Whether anyone needed help, or they needed help, a message was never going to be sent out. Everything was offline.

Elain groaned, finally standing from her spot and going down to the muddy surface beside Brotte. The humanoid stared down at her and the red blush on her cheeks. She tended to have that issue when she got upset rather than crying or panicking. She allowed the male to inspect the new color before trudging into her permanent home. Milo was still snoring quietly on his bed, so she simply sat on the steps of the front door. Selcouth lumbered over and placed his bony head into her lap. She scratched his head calmly, wondering what their next option would be.

When Milo exited the lab in the morning, her red cheeks mellowed back into her olive skin once more. Her glasses were lifted on top of her head, so when she stared out into the land around her she could only make out shapes and colors. Brotte had gone back to his people to report back.

"What's going on?" She tilted her head up to her ex-assistant with a small frown.

She reached to pull her glasses back on so she could see, then let her hand rest against Selcouth once more. The large creature let out a loud sigh but didn't wake up. "At two in the morning, everyone and everything that relied on the station died. Head Quarters, and all of its inhabitants, exploded within the sky." Her frown strengthened. It was like saying it made her come to terms with the issue even faster than before. "The flares ended, but there wasn't any crash landing. Destroyed right there in the sky."

"Oh god." Elain wanted to snort at his reaction. Very few believed in a god these days, especially someone in the field of science. "What are we supposed to do now?"

Milo slammed himself down next to her and put his head in his hands. She didn't even attempt to calm his own panic. She knew exactly what he was feeling. That was why she was sat outside all night. "I think we are going to have to go visit some neighbors like we had talked about," she said instead of comforting him. It would be easier to go make arrangements with one or two sites and form a sort of alliance. If something was to go wrong, each needed a place to go to escape the problem.

"I don't even understand why they decided to do this! Do you know how many people were on that station? And they didn't even know what was happening!"

Her gaze didn't move away from the big creature in her lap and her voice didn't raise. "I understand your frustration, but do not raise your voice at me." Milo didn't even say anything. Both of them sitting in silence until she broke it. "I think I will go through to set up the equipment necessary. Is there anything you want specifically?"

Milo stayed silent, even as she turned herself to face him. Perhaps he was having far too many issues with the new situation than she ever did. He was stuck with her, so that was probably the main issue he was having. Unless he had someone in hibernation? Multiple some ones? Waiting for the planet to be ready for inhabitation, but he should have known better as soon as they came in contact with Brotte. With another intelligent species already inhabiting the planet, it was unlikely that they would ever be able to take over the planet. No matter how dead Earth is. It would take generation after generation to find another planet with the atmosphere similar enough to Earth's to be habited.

"We will leave tomorrow at 0800. I will have everything ready by the time. You won't even need to lift a finger."

She didn't get up to move though. Neither of them did. They both sat mourning people they didn't know and in a constant state of confusion. Brotte was also a situation. She couldn't bring him along without taking him out of the bounds of his people's territory, if they even had specific lines. If there were even more humanoids out there that is. Then there was the issue of disturbances with the humans of that site. They should be rather open, since they too shared her curious mind, but there was always the possibility of Elain being wrong. Would Brotte even want to go with them in the first place?

In the end, she decided it would be best if he wasn't brought along but they would be informed of him. For everyone's safety in mind. Now she had to decide where they were going first.