HQ

p r i s t i n e (Adjective.)

clean and fresh as if new; spotless

No one expected this. Not the explosions that echoed against every one of the ship's surfaces. Not the wailing alarm or the flashing red lights that bounced off the pristine walls. The captain was an honest man. He didn't lie and never hid the truth from anyone under his supervision. Many people had their lives in the hands of this man, so he often took in their own feelings about the situations that were brought up. He had never done this before. He had never wreaked so much havoc in the years he had been in control of the search for a new, habitable planet.

Enya swam up the stream, rather than with the hordes of people running to the control center. A locked door waited for them there and the woman could still hear people banging their fists on it from miles down the corridors. They wanted answers, which the red head did too, but she had more important business to attend. If there was a problem on deck, she needed to get back to her little brother.

Her mother and father had abandoned them when her brother was still a babe, so she had to beg her boss to allow her to bring her brother on board as well. It wasn't odd for someone to do. A lot of employees had families. The only difference was how young the child was. Why bring along a babe if you were going to be working the whole time? Not to mention, many thought her brother was really her own child instead, which was alright with her. She had been there since his birth and, as he grows up, she will teach him to call her mama.

It took her a few minutes to get to her room, the dormitories were far different from the place they held the cryosleepers' cells. The room that the sleeping people woke in was large compared to the small twists and curves of the dormitories. That part of the ship was also left without gravity and they, she and her brother, were held there until they began to orbit this new planet. Her job was specifically to help organize the type of data that came in from the researchers on the actual planet. She wasn't allowed to actually read the work until it was published to the news tablets.

Her brother, who was sleeping before she entered, was now crying nearly as loud as the alarm from within his crib. The woman pulled him from his bed and pressed him into her chest with another hand carefully covering his tiny ear. Rocking him calmly.

The door to their home opened again when a guard she knew by the name of Danielle barged in unannounced. Enya's red eyebrows scrunched in confusion. She was pretty close to them, but only because they were the one to protect the hall she worked in. Danny had been tall, much taller than her, with very observant black eyes. They have chocolate colored skin, much darker than Enya's pale skin that was dotted with freckles, with their own set of dark freckles. Much harder to see than Enya's, but she thought they were much cuter. Their hair was kinky and curly, even cut as short as it was.

"Danny, what's goin' on?" They came in but didn't let the door shut. Instead, they took Enya by the arm and pulled her out with the babe clutched tightly to her body. The woman's voice became frightened and breathy at the movement. She wasn't the athletic type. Her hips and thighs were on the larger side, though she didn't care about how she looked either way. "Where are we goin'? What's happenin'?"

If Danny was panicking, she should be panicking. Oh lord, she didn't want to panic right now.

None of her questions were answered until they were pulled into a dark closet, far from the sea of people. "We need to get off this ship, E. They want to go in for a crash landing, don't you know what that means?" When Enya shook her head, her brows still scrunched together. "That means the only people that're going to survive are those at the top. You and that... Child... and me and anyone else at the bottom are going to die."

It wasn't that Danny didn't like her brother, Kenton, they just didn't like children in general. Enya had gotten them to hold him on plenty of occasions, though.

"Why'd you tell me? Haven't ya heard ignorance is a blessin'?" She often leaned on sarcasm and joking to ease any rising panic. Enya had the tendency to overreact to situations, but now it was valid. The tears that were gathering in her sapphire eyes were for everyone. For her and Danielle. For her brother, whom hadn't even been conscious for a year.

They took her by the shoulders, staying clearly away from the babe in her arms. "We aren't going to die, E. Do you trust me?"

"Of course," her head bobbing before they even finished the question. Danny had been protecting her for so long, there was no way she didn't trust them. Kenton's crying faded into the background as she tried to focus on what the guard was trying to do.

They flipped on the light of the closet, showing that it wasn't a closet at all. How did she not notice that they pulled her into an escape pod? The rush of people must have blocked out the label above the door or maybe it was her confusion from being pulled from the room that had slowly become her home.

Dannielle noticed her daze, so they did the honor of pulling her into only one of the four chairs and buckled her in. Another thought ran through her mind, there was room for four people in the pod. They buckled themself into the seat beside the control panel, then they became another flare-like object soaring through space.

Danny had their dark eyes facing the instruments while Enya curled herself protectively around Kenton. They stole an escape pod. They were all criminals now. Her sobs were hidden behind the shaking of the pod as it began to break through the atmosphere.

It hurt all of them when the parachute deployed, but it didn't take long before the pod hit something else. It wasn't long, but still long enough for Danny to think everything was fine. They had started to stand from their seat, obviously never having used an escape pod in their life.

They let out an agonized cry when their arm snapped in the wrong direction, now looking disfigured. They fell forward and smashed their face into the control panel when the pod hit another rough patch, then fell to the floor. Enya let out the whimper of her friend's name but didn't make the same mistake. She kept herself curled around her brother.

After her friend was thrown around like a ragdoll many more times, the pod finally came to a painful stop. They were finally on a planet neither knew anything about and all she wanted to do was stay locked deep inside the escape pod, but that was no longer an option. They were all going to have to make it in whatever this planet's wilderness held for them.

Enya unbuckled immediately, throwing the thick straps away from her. Kenton was placed calmly on to her seat, before she went to tend to her friend. Danny's arm was broken. There was no doubt about that. The only blood she could see was coming down from their broken nose, which was either a good sign or a bad one. If Danny had internal bleeding, there was nothing either could do.

The woman patted their face a few times, but came up with no response. There was nothing Enya could do while they were unconscious. She needed to set the broken bone, but couldn't do that if she didn't know where the wound was.

Instead, she turned her sights to her little brother. After getting his crying to calm down, she took him to sit beside Danielle and curled around Kenton protectively once again. They were going to be here a long time.