Here goes nothing!

After the landing, as usual the most jumpy one of the four was Rick. He almost shot out of the spaceship, before even wrapping in the protective gear, that they acquired from the registration station. He was just like those jumping energetic kids, only with a height of 1.87 m.

Finally everyone equipped themselves in the protective gear which acted as a layer of light on their bodies, and left the ship. In the darkness as the conspicuous guests to the Svarga Nagari landed, there was a pair of prying eyes, tired from struggling to survive in this harsh environment, watched them with great interest and wariness from the cover of burnt down vegetation.

"Rick! Careful! Don't you run all over the place. I sense someone close to us.", said Purushottam, the moment Rick tried to take off towards what seemed to be a small crater. Finally Rick could not contain himself anymore, after being reprimanded so many times during this trip. He burst out saying, "Guruji you are being too cautious!! By the way, old man, it might be some other expedition group that wants to gain experience like us over at Svarga Nagari."

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"Watch your tongue you stupid brother of mine! Don't you talk to Guruji like that again!", Len said hitting the back of Rick'shead. Both Len and Rick were identical in physique as well as in their looks. It seemed a person was hitting a mirror image. The resulting sight was quite comical.

The owner of the eyes could not restrain anymore. There was a slight noise of rustle of dried up branches and a plop. It was hard to determine whether the person could not endure the comical scene of Len and Rick or was so famished that lost all control and fell unconscious.

❄❄❄❄

After hearing this, the party of four became more cautious and approached the nearby trees. Well, you can't really call them trees, it felt like they were burnt wooden poles, left as an aftermath of a horrible forest fire. The guys started looking on the ground, and soon enough, they found a lump of mass, lying on the ground in an odd posture. It felt that the person was trying to sit, but could not resist the fall.

Purushottam approached the lump with measured strides, and signaled to the trio to wait for him. He had his pen like etash-sword[1] in one hand and a scanner on the other. The scanner beeped twice, confirming the cosmic ray contamination of the creature ahead. The light from Purushottam's sword fell on the creature. The guys were this time up for a real surprise. The creature in front of them seemed like a human girl.

The contamination level shown on the radar was medium. But there seemed to be no symptoms of contamination on her. Purushottam got a spare protection gear from his backpack and put it on the girl. He then lifted her and brought her to the opening where the spaceship was, and lay her on the ground. He asked Aryaan to get some water from the spaceship and sprinkle on the girl.

After some time the girl woke up. As soon as she woke up, she was scared to death, when she saw four pair of eyes looking at her curiously. She instinctively started to back away. At that time she noticed the activated protective gear on her, and seemed even more surprised.

Purushottam tried to ease out the situation by trying to communicate. But he did not know what language the girl spoke. So he first tried to speak Devnagari[2], thinking that given her appearance, she might have similar origin to them. The girl immediately responded to Purushottam's question and said that her name was Sia. This again surprised everyone. Oh! What a coincidence.

Suddenly a gurgling sound could be heard from Sia, and then she blushed and showed a visibly embarrassed look. It was evident that she was very hungry. Rick was moved so much by her embarrassment that he immediately offered her some dried food from his backpack. Sia did not immediately take the food from his hands and kept staring at it.

Rick rubbed his nose with the other hand and smiled to warm the atmosphere. "Eat up, or who knows, your stomach might start singing heavy metal songs once again! He He!", he said, smirking at Sia. Well, that was so not his intention, he wanted to say something kind, but ended up teasing her. Sia was angry to the point of snatching the food from Rick's hand and trying to throw it away. But in the middle of the action, her stomach again growled and she could not afford to be wasteful. Thus she obediently ate her fill. 'Here goes nothing', she thought. 'If these people wishes to kill me, so be it. Living in this hell alone have already been more than I can endure any more.'

She Received some more water from Purushottam to wet her throat. After eating and drinking, fatigue came over her. She could not stay put anymore and her eyes started to close. Before she could slump on the ground again, she was caught by Rick.

"Guruji, what should we do? Keep her with us? She seems alone, I guess.", murmured Rick, unsure of his own words and action. Purushottam, saw the look in Rick's eyes, and let out a sigh. "Well, I guess let's take her to the ship for now. Rick you stay in the ship with Len. Me and Aryaan will check the periphery and will set up camp at a suitable place close by in the meanwhile.

Note: [1] Etash in Sanskrit means luminous. Thus it is a luminous sword.

[2] Devnagari is a dialect of Sanskrit.