Another World: A First Colony Space Exploration Sci Fi Odyssey by Samuel Best

Author:Samuel Best [Best, Samuel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sky City
Published: 2020-04-06T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

LEERA

Earth, she thought when she opened her eyes.

She had never seen a more beautiful blue sky, streaked with pure white clouds limned by a beaming sun that warmed her skin.

Leera lay on her back atop a broad, jagged boulder of mineral lead sulfide, every part of her body resting at a slightly different elevation. The remains of her hypergel tank fanned out in a firework of shards around her, stuck in the flattened glob of pink goop.

She squinted at the sun, confused. It was closer than it should be — larger in the sky.

First things first, she thought.

She tried to sit up and screamed as a knife twisted in her lower back.

Panting hard, she forced her muscles to relax as she gently rolled onto her side. Probing her back, she felt a sharp chunk of metal protruding an inch from her lower spine. She grabbed it slowly, clenched her teeth and shut her eyes, then yanked it free.

Her scream carried throughout the forest of strange, light brown trees in which she’d landed. Leera remained on her side, breathing heavily, as she stared at the tall, naked trunks, looming toward every horizon like an army of silent sentinels. They were easily as tall as the massive Redwoods she’d read about in primary school. Atop each were three large, bare limbs of varied size. The limbs grew straight out from the main trunk for several meters, then bent upward at a ninety degree angle, giving the top of the tree the appearance of a clawed hand opening toward the sky.

Leera rubbed her bloody hand against her gel-covered body suit, smearing the black and white fabric with a streak of red.

She sat up slowly, eyes clenched shut with pain from the wound in her back. When she opened them again, she saw that her right leg was broken below the knee, her tibia snapped at a right angle, skewing the bottom third of her leg outward at an unnatural angle.

Leera leaned back, resting the back of her head against the hard rock.

Far above her, as the white clouds in Galena’s blue sky parted, the Halcyon appeared.

It took a moment for Leera to figure out why it was so much smaller than usual. Once she realized she was seeing it head-on, instead of from the side, she propped herself up on one elbow.

The ship was falling down to Galena.

Fire erupted from the starboard side and vanished. The nose of the ship glowed red-hot.

Pull up, she silently commanded the vessel, willing it to turn and ascend to orbit.

A shield of flame engulfed the front of the ship as it grew larger in the sky. Distant booms echoed across the landscape.

It looked like it was headed straight for Leera.

“Pull up!” she yelled, her body shaking with rage.

The Halcyon began to turn. The shield of flame covering its nose morphed into a narrow oval and extended to cover the entire side of the vessel as it banked, angling away from the planet.

Leera laughed and laid back, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.

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