Keisha didn't remember falling asleep but she woke up to Fiolas gently untying them from the branch they had been sleeping on. "How long was I out?"

"Not sure, there isn't much of a difference between night and day down here." Fiolas checked his watch, "My watch is dead too. I'm guessing it's daybreak up on the surface. It's gotten a bit more grey instead of black down here." He gave a half-hearted attempt to smile.

Keisha opened her pack and pulled out some protein bars. They ate in silence and stared at the dark forest around them. The tree they sat on was as big as a building and the branch itself was the diameter of a person's arms stretched out. It was a dark brown, almost black and they could just barely make out similar shapes off in the distance. The leaves on the tree were sharp piny needles and smelled fresh.

They ate in silence and Keisha could feel cool moisture in the air, There has to be a stream or something down there. Even monsters need to drink. The darkness made it difficult to see far out, but Keisha assumed most of the treetops they had seen on the surface were just like the one they were on.

She remembered from the maps there were no oceans to speak of, but the scientists had assumed the small trees had shown evidence of an aquifer the colonists could tap into. They were at least right on one thing, there didn't seem to be an ocean to speak of on this planet. The satellite images showed no breaks in this web line that would account for any big body of water. She finished off her protein bar and drank a sip of her emergency water bottle.

"Should we see what we're up against?" Fiolas got up and cracked one of the glow sticks from his pack, the light felt blinding in this place. He dropped it over the side and they both watched it fall, Keisha counted to five when it hit the ground. "About 400 feet down." Fiolas said matter of factly.

"That was some quick math." Keisha looked up at him impressed.

Fiolas shrugged and gave her a half-smile, "OK, we don't have enough rope to go straight to the bottom. Do you see a lower branch we can get to?"

They peered over the edge as much as they dared and squinted in the dark. "I think I see one off to the side here." Keisha sidled up to him and agreed.

"Who goes first?" Keisha asked. "It might be easier for you to drop me down, but then how would you get down?"

"We need an anchor in this branch, I'll lower you down. Then when you're secure we'll use the anchor as a pulley system." Fiolas answered. "Let's put two anchors in, one in the branch and one in the tree for leverage. How many anchors do you have?"

"I have four. You?"

"Four. Ok, so we have enough for four descents, meaning each descent needs to be roughly 100 ft long. We each have roughly 197 feet in rope, but will need some leeway for anchors and attachments." Fiolas started chewing his bottom lip and furrowed his brow.

He seemed to be talking to himself mostly as though he always problem solved out loud. Keisha was beginning to be glad she was stuck with him down here and not some hot-heads she had trained with at the academy.

"If we use only 1 anchor per descent we can halve it, but we can't guarantee all the branches will be 50 feet apart. Typically the branches are closer together towards the top. We could have a big drop as we get closer to the bottom. Not to mention this rough bark against the rope." He looked to where the glowstick had dropped to see if he could see any branches. Keisha followed suit and breathed hard when it looked like there would be a big last drop.

"There's nothing for it, we have to get down somehow. We can't stay up in this tree with that thing up there. This whole planet must be full of them." Keisha shivered and felt for her knife. Each pack had a hunting knife sheathed away in it and she now looped it through her belt along with the Captain's gun. She had no idea if the gun would even be effective against a thing that size.

"We don't know what's down there either though. What if the safest place on this planet exists between the canopy and the ground?" Keisha asked while interrupting Fiolas' math equations. They stared at each other for a while. Keisha sat down and motioned Fiolas to do the same.

"Let's think this through. What do we need to do to survive today?" she asked. "We have enough food in our packs to last us two more days, and we know this branch is relatively stable and relatively safe. That thing up there is a danger, but it's one we know about at least."

Fiolas shook his head, "Our ultimate goal needs to be to call for help and warn the other colonist ships from trying to land. They should be arriving in the next one to two weeks." Fiolas started shaking his head, "Not to mention, we can't live on this planet. In order to survive, we need to not just warn the ships but catch a ride on one."

"Agreed." Keisha said emphatically. "Their landing coordinates would be far enough away they won't be nervous about not seeing our landing site, so we have to let them know and possibly see if they can rescue us, which means we'll have to eventually face that thing."

Keisha paused and remembered sparring with Fiolas after cryosleep. He was a smart fighter, not very strong but fast, and quickly adapted to different fighting styles. "I'm glad you're here with me Fiolas. I was worried about being on a mission with someone fresh off a sabbatical." She let out a short laugh, "but I'm glad it's you and not Captain Alterra."

At that Fiolas laughed a bit, "You would have to make everything seem like it was his idea in order to get him to cooperate." they both laughed a bit. "Brakas!" Fiolas was giving his best Alterra impression, "Kill those beasts! Fix this ship! Yes, sir, I saved us from that hell-hole, it was all due to my leadership skills and quick thinking, your Highness." Both of them were laughing now.

"Were you there when he was given that medal for saving the Excelsior after Higgins saved the ship in the meteor storm?" Keisha laughed.

"No, I wasn't there, but I watched it on the holo," Fiolas said. "Watching him try to explain the maneuver to the High Commander and then ordering Higgins to tell him instead was priceless." The silence grew as they remembered him and their home. "He didn't deserve to go out like that."

"No, he didn't," Keisha said. "He was planning on retiring after this you know."

"I didn't know that." Fiolas let out a long sigh, "Let's work like he's giving the orders, ok?" Keisha nodded. "The only transponders we have left would have been in the cargo hold we jettisoned. If we can find it and get inside it, maybe we can get a message out. It must be nearby, it could be stuck in a tree or on the ground somewhere." Fiolas started chewing his lip again. "We can't let the other colonists get stuck here."

Keisha put her hand on his shoulder, "We won't." He had tears in his eyes and Keisha realized she had tears in her eyes also. "The cargo hold had a beacon on it so the ship could always find it. If we find the ship's deck we can see if there's a way to get power to the tracker and see if the beacon is still working. We'll solve it one problem at a time. We know the cockpit fell to the floor, so let's use as few anchors as we can to get to the next branch and we'll just go branch by branch." Fiolas took a big breath and nodded.

"One problem at a time." He repeated. "We can use the branch itself as an anchor, but we'll need to strip the bark so it doesn't tear the rope. If we do that we can save our anchors for the branchless drop at the bottom but it will force us to take the time on each branch to do it."

"Let's give it a try." With that, they fell into a rhythm of stripping the bark in a narrow path along the top of the branch and as far over to the sides as they dared. Fiolas tied their ropes together with a knot Keisha had never seen before, but as she tested it she immediately saw it was safer than any knot she knew.

They both wrapped their hands with some cloth in their emergency pack and decided it was best to use the branch as their anchor which would only work if they descended together to provide a counterbalance to each other. It also meant if the knot failed, they would both plummet. Keisha took the edge closest to the branch they could see. They looped the rope tight in between them and would be letting the rope go slowly.

The actual descent took much less time than it did to strip the tough bark from the top of the branch and find the next branch to stop on. Altogether they stopped on 9 branches before they had to make their final descent. Because they had saved their anchors Fiolas was able to anchor Keisha at the top while she set the anchors in the trunk and soon they hit the floor of the planet Klokos II.

Andromeda haunted the hallways of the outer ring of the starship Pytheas. Her mother was the only one she was allowed to speak to, but Andromeda knew these hallways were always empty. She watched as the Chronos grew smaller and smaller in the window. She wished her mother were here, but as usual, she was in a meeting.

A slight shift occurred and Andromeda felt a tug in her mind. A lot of new and strange things had been happening to her since joining her mother on the Pytheas, but this felt more strange than normal.

She entered her mind garden to center herself and see if there was some information she could use to understand what had just shifted. As she walked to the banyan tree she noticed how much larger her garden had become. There were now multiples of various plants and memories. The walk to her tree much longer.

As she approached she saw three strangers who appeared just like her. They were arguing and one in particular, with a colorful romper on, was wailing. It was heart-wrenching to hear her and Andromeda hid behind a particularly large plant she had never seen before.

"Calm down Andi," one of the women was speaking to her and approaching cautiously. "Our fourth sister is probably going to come soon and we don't want to scare her."

Fourth sister? Is that what I am? A sister? Andromeda had been told she was an only child. Why were these people invading her personal mind garden?

"Shhhh." A woman in a dress hushed the other two. The one in the researcher's suit listened, but the one who was wailing wouldn't stop. The two not crying looked around them.

"It's ok, you can come speak to us. We won't hurt you." Dress lady said. "We have information you need to know." The woman turned in a circle as she spoke, uncertain where Andromeda would be.

Andromeda hesitantly got up from behind the plant and cautiously approached the other women. The colorful one who had been wailing was now laying on the ground in the middle of the banyan tree, weeping to herself. A new trunk sprouted that while it looked sick, continued to grow in the middle of her banyan tree.

"What are you doing to my tree?" Andromeda asked. "Why is it so much bigger?" She reached out to the sick trunk and entered the memory that had grown.

She was in her bedroom, her mother, Corvus Leanthal, and Mina Mirlaj around her. "We've tried everything we can to get into this ship. Rigel's collapse is imminent." Her mother sounded like she was arguing, but Andromeda was having a hard time seeing her. She realized she was strapped to her bed, unable to move.

"Captain, we can't do this." Dr. Mirlaj was pleading with her mother. "She may be caught up in this time loop fiasco, but she is still a child. We don't even know if this really is a time loop, we're going off of what she's told us."

"I've made my decision." Her mother stood resolute.

Commander Leanthal held Andromeda's hand and whispered, "I'm so sorry it came to this." He kissed her forehead and left the room.

Fear was rising inside of Andromeda. Mother no! Don't do this!

"I won't be a part of this, and I can't let you do it either." Dr. Mirlaj stood between her and her mother. The captain nodded to a security guard she had brought along who quickly detained her and dragged her away screaming.

Once all was quiet, her own mother bent over and whispered to her, "Next time loop tell me sooner and we'll keep working on it, no matter how many loops we need." Then she pushed a button and Andromeda felt a burning pain spread throughout her body and then nothing.

Back in the mind garden Andromeda had fallen to the ground next to the whimpering girl and compassion filled her. She reached out and held her. "I'm so sorry Andi. What she did was wrong." She looked up at the other two who were now standing near them and watching them, "Are you all stuck here?"

They all nodded in unison. The one in the researcher's suit spoke quietly, "We are you from previous time iterations. I was the first, and you may call me Senior," She motioned to the one in the dress, "She's Junior, and the memory you just relived comes from Andi."

Andromeda stood up and helped Andi up as well.

"What do we need to do?" Andromeda asked the women around her. She truly did have sisters now, though not the traditional type.

"I've been thinking we need to bring in outside help. There's a dangerous planet just before we enter Dark Space. We can send false reports to Klokos Colonization Command. They're so eager to colonize they'll jump on it. Find someone young and without family with exceptional problem-solving skills. We'll have to hurry to get there before they land and scoop them up." Senior Andromeda was leading the team here and the three of them hashed out a plan.

As Andromeda went to leave and go back to reality, Andi stopped her. "Whatever you do, don't trust Mother. She is not on our team. Don't learn the hard way like I did." Andromeda nodded and gave her a last hug and left the three of them in her mind garden.