Schlagwort: wasteland

Two weeks after the crash, Percy took Stella aside: “I need to talk to you!”

Judging from the harshness in his voice Stella knew that trouble was arising: “What’s wrong?”

“Did you really ask Auriga to shut our responder off?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why? How could you?!”

“We sent the signal four times and there was no response. There’s no one near. We need the electricity to supply ourselves and the signal’s not lost. It will orbit until it’s picked up.”

“Then shut off the human responder, too!” Percy shook with anger.

Stella tried to reason with him: “No. It doesn’t drain as much energy and it’s another way to get help.”

“You’re going to get us all killed! They will kill us if they find us!”

“We’re not living in the fifties anymore, they won’t hurt us!”

“You’re over credulous! Just because you’ve encountered a few Sims who didn’t want to see you dead doesn’t mean they are all like this!”

Stella scoffed: “You’re seeing the flaw in your argumentation there? Just because you were told that some Sims kill aliens doesn’t mean they all do!”

“Up until recently we still flew rescue missions for hybrids in danger, remember?”

“The last mission was 15 years ago to put that into perspective and they’ve been on the decrease since the 1980′s! Shutting off our responder was a rational decision that had to be made in order to preserve our energy. The signal is still out there and just needs to be picked up. Ask Eri if you don’t trust me. He’s our communication officer, he ought to know this.”

“Ah, please. Eri would approve of anything you say. Don’t you think I know what’s up with you two?”

“Then ask the PTs. My point is: anyone qualified to answer you this question will assure you that this was the right decision.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about this, Captain.”, Percy whispered through his gritted teeth. “Let’s just hope I live long enough to tell you you’re wrong.”

Stella turned to leave: “And Percy: my private life is none of your business. I don’t say something about you and Andromeda either.”

Would it have been possible to turn red for Percy he probably would have. As things were, he was left behind angry and humiliated, staring at the wall brooding. This surely backfired.

Stella cleared her throat: “So from what our guests and I have gathered, we are approximately 10 days away from the next city without any means of transportation, which precisely means we’re stuck here. Auriga tries to get the old communication system up and running, but this will take some time. Eri tries to retrieve the emergency switch so we can send a distress signal to our civilisation, but given the state of the wreck, this might be impossible.”

“I don’t think we should try to communicate with them.”, Andromeda sounded cold, “Who knows who will come out here. We should concentrate on getting back to Sixam.”

Stella interrupted her: “I can understand your point Andromeda, but the world has changed. And there are people in this group whose home is on this planet, so it’s only fair to help them.”

“You know we can’t trust Sims! What if whoever we can signal wants to see us dead?” Andromeda suddenly sounded scared.

“Um… You know we usually don’t want to kill you?” Aldric interrupted their conversation.

“But can you assure us others don’t want to see us dead?” 

“Cyngus, calm down.”, Stella glanced over to Percy, who smiled at her superiorly, “I know that some of you or your parents had bad experiences with Sims, but I can assure you that times changed and I can guarantee you that these Sims, in particular, won’t harm you. We don’t know what happened yet and as long we have to presume that there is danger outside, we have to stick together. Guys, I think you can understand that there are some trust issues. You can stay for now and we will help you but please also understand that it might be better if you stay outside. You do have hiking gear with you, right? I’m pretty sure this situation will be solved in no time and we all be home soon!”

Aldric laughed: “You of all people! I wouldn’t have thought that I’d see you again! Hey, you remember Almeric my brother? He’s married now. That’s Jane, my sister-in-law, by the way. Oh, and Jasmine and Zoe are married now as well! Crazy, huh? Anyway, what have you been up to?”

Stella sighed: “What are you doing here?”

Aldric: “Oh, we went hiking and somehow got lost.”

“That’s nice. Listen, it was nice meeting you all again, but I think it’s better if you leave now.”

Her former college friend ignored her last remark and instead tried to catch a view inside the old housing unit: “Hey, are you living in some sort of commune? Have you felt that weird force field this morning?”

Stella stiffened: “What did you just say?”

“Um, you know, that weird thing that happened today? This… feeling? Well, we all felt nauseous and I think our truck broke down because of this.”

Stella stared at him blankly: “You know what? I’ve changed my mind. Come in, you must be thirsty. Let’s talk.”

Auriga had the electricity, which was powered by a small windmill in the back of the building, up and running in about an hour and Eri managed to scavenge some food out of the UFO wreck. Others weren’t that helpful…

Stella tried to calm Andromeda: “Everything’s okay. I’m pretty sure nothing’s going to happen to us. I wouldn’t take Percy too seriously on that matter, he can be really paranoid sometimes.”

It didn’t work. The young birth queen jumped up: “Well, I didn’t sign up for this! Actually, I didn’t sign up at all! You lured me into this whole thing! You kidnapped me!”

“Wait, WHAT?!”

Stella turned to Auriga: “No, we didn’t!” Turning to Andromeda she tried to keep her voice calm: “You signed up for this! You knew perfectly well what you would get into and DON’T tell me that I didn’t warn you about the possible consequences!” Stella had warned her, had even tried to talk the young hybrid out of it. Hadn’t it been for the desperate situation on Sixam, she wouldn’t even have considered the possibility of bringing her ‘home’. She wouldn’t have recruited half of her current crew.

Upset, Andromeda scoffed and left the room. Percy laughed sardonically and whispered under his breath, just so loud that Stella could hear it: “You really have a good taste in recruits.”

Edit: Sorry, that’s Percy (Perseus), not Eri!