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k_a_webbEvelyn nodded. “Do you think we’ve been lucky or unlucky to actually find a world?”
“Right now I don’t know.” Nikki bit her lip. “We don’t know anything about that world, so it could well be uninhabitable. If we do survive the crash we might well end up not being able to breathe, or starving to death, or being eaten by wild animals.”
“You are a ray of sunshine, aren’t you?”
Nikki laughed. “Sorry, Evie. I just… Being on the ship was easy. After spending so long on it I’ve got used to it. The thought of being on another world is terrifying. Until I saw that outside the window I knew how I was going to die and I was as happy with it as I could be. Now I have no idea. Will I die in the crash? Will I survive the crash and starve to death? Will I manage to find food, only to go exploring and find a wild animal who’s probably more hungry that I was?”
“What if there are people down there?”
“It can’t be inhabited.”
“Nik, it might be.”
She shook her head. “Then what do we do? Hope they’re going to help us? If there are people down there I doubt they’re going to be pleased when we invade their country. We’re going to crash a great big metal object somewhere, so they’re going to think it’s a sign of us wanting to make war on them or something equally stupid.”
“Or they might help us. None of us know what we’re going to find down there. I don’t think any of us would ever have believed we’d find another world, but there it is.” Evelyn looked out of the window. “For better or for worse that world is going to become our home, no matter how long for, so we’re just going to have to prepare for that as well as we can.”
“How long do we have?”
“A few hours, maybe, depending on how strong the gravity of that world is. Right now we’re floating, really, because the ship isn’t trying to get anywhere, and it probably doesn’t know there’s a world down there. I don’t think whoever programmed it expected there to be any planets for us to find.” She sighed. “What we need to do is pack a bag each, with clothes and some food, in order to give us a place to start from. Make sure it’s something that will stay on you if we do land in the sea.”
“Make sure you have a clean set of clothes wrapped in a plastic bag, Evie. If we do land in the sea the last thing we’re going to want to have to cope with is wet clothes for the rest of the day… or for longer if it’s raining down there.” Nikki sighed. “Then we’re going to need to find some shelter and I hope someone knows how to start a fire.”
“Unless it is inhabited and then we might be lucky enough to find ourselves being ushered into houses that are already warm.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.