Chapter Text
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
IT all started with the engines failing. The pilot, a fifteen-year-old girl named Callista, (most of the time she shortened it to Calli) cursed as multiple alarms were going off, telling her that other systems were also giving up.
"Good one Calli. You managed to steal a cruddy ship!" The teen grumbled before slapping the control panel as if that would somehow magically make everything alright. Her entire body lurched forward when the ship suddenly came out of hyperspace, and through the viewport, Calli had a partial view of a planet. It appeared to be mostly land, thank goodness, spotted with many small bodies of water, but nothing larger than lake it seemed.
Well at least she didn't come out of hyperspace into a meteor shower or a black hole. She might have a fighting chance of survival if she can crash land with style on the surface - without blowing up that is.
The ship groaned as it got caught in the gravitational pull, it's nose catching fire as it entered the planet's atmosphere. Calli gripped the controls like a lifeline while the ship headed straight for the ground and she heard explosions - coming from the engine no doubt, that shook the vessel.
Just hold out until I land, then you can blow up completely. Calli silently told the ship in her head, beginning to flip switches and press buttons to start the intense landing process, all the while calm as if she wasn't less than a minute from a possible death.
The fates seemed to mock her apparent bravery and calmness when a new alarm began blaring, and after a quick check she saw that one of the wings had torn off.
As surface grew closer and closer, Calli's heart pounded against her ribs, and she tried to remain calm. But when a chunk of metal on the nose of the ship suddenly came off, she couldn't stop herself from jumping as it hit the glass window, causing it to crack, but not shatter. Calli then remembered that there was an escape pod and decided she'd rather take her chances with that than staying on this ship that might come apart before it even hits the surface. The crack becoming bigger and another alarm sounding as the oxygen levels began dropping from the breach in the ship only further Calli's resolve.
Unstrapping the seat belt, Calli got up from the pilot's seat, grabbed her bag that carried all her belongings and hurried out of the cockpit, doubling back briefly to swipe an oxygen mask mounted on the wall by the exit and put it on before hypoxia became another in an already tall stack of problems.
She made it to the escape pods at the back of the ship in less than a minute, thankfully it wasn't a very large ship she'd stolen. Well.... borrowed without permission sounds better. It was nothing more than a simple scavenger ship, barely held together by rusted bolts and a prayer before every take off that it'd hold together until the next stop.
If Calli had had more time and didn't have a group of thugs she'd swindled money from on her tail, she would have chosen a better spaceship to make her escape. At least one that would have gotten her from point A to point B without any mishaps. What's the point of a ship if it doesn't even hold together when it's going .2 past light speed?
Another explosion caused Calli to lose her balance and fall forwards, her head slamming into the durasteel wall, making everything fade in and out for a brief moment while briefly seeing stars. Calli grabbed onto the door of the escape pod to steady herself but didn't waste time and hit the button on the control panel nearby to open the pod. She was lucky that this tiny ship even had a pod at all. It was the last one in fact.
Once inside, she was quick to close the door and with one push of a button next to it, the escape pod jettisoned away from the ship, and Calli watched through the window as not a second later the entire ship exploded. Calli let out a shaky breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
She got out just in time.
For a moment she felt relief, until turning her head to the viewport, then gasping when she saw how close the planet's surface was. Any relief she felt went out the window as she went to the control panel and prepared for a bumpy landing.
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A few hours later...
Calli didn't know she'd lost consciousness until she awoke with a start. That simple jolt immediately her body protested at, as every muscle in her body ached. At first, she didn't know what happened, until taking a glance around and saw that she was still inside the escape pod.
Then it all came back to her.
The last thing Calli remembered was the escape pod making harsh contact with the planet's surface and she had been thrown around as it flipped and rolled for an unknown amount of time. The teen must have passed out during this, which in retrospect was probably a good thing. It took a lot of energy to move her right arm that felt like it weighed a million pounds, tentatively touching the side of her head and immediately regretting it. Calli flinched at the contact while hissing as the simple touch aggravated that particular sore spot.
Groaning as more pain radiated from all over her body, Calli moved her other limbs one by one to see if anything was broken. Thankfully, there wasn't, but just by doing this made the pain intensify and she knew that there were most likely bruises all over her body. But bruises were far more manageable than broken bones.
Deciding that laying on the cold metal floor was severely uncomfortable for her already sore body, Calli grabbed onto the sides of the single pilot seat and used it to help her stand up. Her arms protested as she used all her strength to pull herself off the ground, but she pushed through it. The pod rocked as Calli moved, making her pause and wonder why it did so.
Testing it out again by bouncing on her feet ever so slightly, caused the pod to rock and it became apparent she wasn't imagining things.
It almost felt like it was floating...
Calli's head snapped in the direction of the viewport, and it was then that she noticed there was only a partial view of the outside world on the upper half, and she saw large trees and not much else, while the lower was submerged in murky water. And with her moving around, the escape pod was slowly sinking further down.
Calli immediately stilled her movements to prevent the pod from sinking anymore and sighed, knowing that getting out was going to be difficult. The second the door opened, water would come rushing in. But it was either stay in the pod until the oxygen from both the pod and the oxygen mark ran out or try and swim to the surface, even though Calli hated the water, partially because she wasn't the greatest of swimmers. You'd think, growing up near water, swimming would come naturally, but that wasn't the case. In fact, it made Calli despise any body of water larger than a puddle.
The thought of swimming now was definitely not appealing. Especially with her injuries. But, sitting around waiting for death.... that didn't sound good either. At least with the mask, Calli wouldn't have to hold her breath while swimming, which always proved difficult for her. She'd never been able to master breath control, tapping out mere seconds anytime the teen attempted to practice it. Again, the mask was proving to be invaluable and Calli was glad to nab it when she did.
Making the decision, Calli picked up her bag and slung it over her head, so the strap was lying diagonally across her chest with no chance of it getting lost. The small oxygen tank connected to the mask was clipped to her belt, and a quick check of the contents showed it had just enough for her to get out of this mess. She walked over to the door and her hand hovered over the button that would open it.
Calli wanted a moment to prepare herself, but when the pod started to sink once more, she couldn't stall any further.
The button was pushed and Calli stumbled backwards as water started rushing in at a harsh speed and slammed backwards into the pilot's chair, causing bruises on her back to explode in pain. Already the escape pod was halfway full and Calli kept a tight grip on the seat as the water climbed higher and higher, and before she could blink her head was submerged. On instinct a deep breath was drawn before this happened, mostly to steel herself.
The water was freezing and Calli's sensitive body shivered as goosebumps formed, but she focused instead on getting out once the pod was completely filled, the pressure equalizing thus making it easier to move. She used the chair as a launch pad to push herself forward with her feet and legs and she glided through the water across the escape pod and out the door.
Once outside the pod, Calli angled her body upwards and kicked her legs with all her might. Letting water into the pod had caused it to sink considerably so she had a bit of a ways to go. Calli could feel her heart pounding as the water pressed all around her, threatening to consume her if she somehow never made it to the top.
Her vision never strayed from the light of the surface, not wanting to get a glimpse of how deep this body of water actually was, for fear it'd make her panic. As if to play a cruel joke, the mask abruptly stopped pumping air, which meant the oxygen ran out.
Not knowing it would turn off, Calli didn't get the chance to take one final gulp of air, and being cut off like that with no preparation only intensified the anxiety weighing on her chest.
Despite this her legs kicked harder, and about five seconds later her head broke through the surface and after ripping off the now useless mask Calli gasped in the fresh crisp air with relief. Earlier she made sure to check the oxygen levels for this planet and readings showed it was safe enough for humans.
Taking in her surroundings, Calli found she was only about thirty feet from the shore of what was a decent sized lake.
Calli swam as fast as she could with a sore body to the edge of the pond, doing a very poor doggy paddle and having trouble keeping her head above the water. After finally reaching the shore, she pulled herself onto the dry land, not caring about the dirt sticking to her wet clothes and skin, all that mattered was that the fear of drowning had disappeared.
Even so, Calli crawled a good fifty feet away from the water just to be safe, before collapsing onto her stomach. The poor girl was exhausted after the whole ordeal.
Every part of Calli's body ached even though she barely moved a muscle yet, too afraid to as she knew the pain would intensify. Not to mention her head, which hurt like hell. But Calli knew she couldn't stay in her vulnerable position, lest she get attacked by wild animals or whatever else lived on the planet.
Ok, on the count of three, get up. Planting her hands on the ground, Calli drew in a deep breath before beginning counting.
One.
Two.
Three.
Mustering up all the strength in her beaten up body, Calli's eyes opened and lifted herself from the waist up....
....and instantly regretted it. The nausea hit her in full force, and the world spun like a tornado which didn't help things. The urge to throw up also came, but since there was nothing in Calli's stomach, all she could do was gag and dry heave, two sensations she absolutely despised. Blood pounded in her ringing ears as she took slow, steadying breaths to calm down, and eventually the nausea ebbed away enough to where she was able to move again.
A little crawl later and Calli sat down at the base of a substantially large tree with her back leaning against the trunk.
She began to check herself for injuries. While nothing was broken, she did acquire a couple nasty cuts that she must have gotten from the crash with all the tossing around that happened. There were a lot of sharp corners in the escape pod. One was a sizable gash about six inches long on her left forearm and the other was on her shin and roughly ten inches. The one on her leg didn't look too deep, but the other cut was deep and still bleeding quite a bit. It also stung from the exposure to water. Calli didn't have a medical kit to treat them. Talk about being prepared, right?
She thought about rinsing them with water from the pond, but it might not be clean as the water was stagnant, extremely murky and gave off an unpleasant smell that no doubt Calli now wore due to swimming in it. Sighing, she decided that wrapping the wounds would be the best she can do now. She took off her jacket and proceeded to rip the long sleeves from her gray shirt, then pulled out the knife tucked into her boot to cut them into strips.
Calli rolled up her pant leg and used most of the fabric strips to cover that one. It was harder to wrap her arm, but Calli succeeded, though blood was already starting to seep through the fabric. Calli knew she'd have to find a nearby town - if there even was one. With everything that's happened so far, Calli wouldn't be surprised if she crash landed on one that didn't have any intelligent life. But she held onto the small hope that there might be some sort of settlement somewhere, and with that she got to her feet and started her long quest of finding civilization.