Chapter 22 - A Christmas Casualty

Mk23 -IRJ Droplet – Class 7 – Carpe Victoria (Wrecked)

Sector - Unknown

Planet - Unknown

25th December 2341 (BSST)

It was a nice cool day today. The birdsong echoing around me brought a smile to my face and the gentle breeze that brought the smell of the ocean up through the trees tickled my face with a biting chill. It brought clarity to my mind and I sighed in relaxation at the simple pleasure of it.

The scent of the ocean on the gentle wafts of the wind curled around me, filling my lungs and airways with a refreshing chill that persisted. Like a strong mint. When I breathed in, the air tasted fresh and cold with a salty odour as well. Oh, so beautifully cold. The day was starting well I thought to myself.

However, the thought didn’t last very long as today was a special day. The 25th of December, Christmas Day. The new thoughts stirred feelings within me that blotted out my admiration of the beautiful morn. In its place, a flood of emotion batted away the serenity I had had only moments ago.

No matter how realistic Enigma’s heuristic programming became, it was no substitute for genuine human interaction, something I was sorely lacking. The constant work and endless tasks were a very good distraction from the loneliness and despair that creeps along in silent pursuit as a tiger stalks its prey, waiting for that one moment of weakness before pouncing.

Well it had pounced, and got me, that was for sure. Prying my mind apart and asking probing questions that I couldn’t seem to ignore any longer.

Was Dad ok?

What was he doing?

What were my friends doing?

Did they miss me?

Did they even know I was gone? Or had the military kept the frigate’s disappearance a mystery?

Surely someone must have noticed that there had been no contact for several months now?

A mum missing her son? Waiting for a letter that will never come.

No?

I wondered what everyone else was doing for Christmas?

Then came the memories, and the reminiscing on Christmases past followed shortly after.

There was a time, back before the bombing of Aerlicas. It was Christmas Day, and I remember holding my Dad’s hand as we came down the packed road of Aerlicas’s housing district. The streets were filled with shoppers buying last minute gifts for their loved ones, I was holding my Dad’s hand and walking along, bouncing in a sort of skipping motion. It must have been very uncomfortable for him, but he held a hunch, so that he could hold my hand and accommodate my motions. We had just come back from the shopping district where we had seen Santa. We weren’t like some other families that bought things at the last second. Dad and Ovila had bought the presents, food and decorations a while ago in preparation. Clara and Kris found the Santa scary, but I didn’t understand why, perhaps they were too young. My sister would have been about 8 while my brother must have just been born that year.

Anyway, we walked down the street and stopped outside a nice wooden door. Though Aerlicas was the most developed city on Terranare it was still a developing world. Having ben colonised at the start of the 22nd century BSST, a basic wooden door on the cottages was not uncommon a sight. The central areas were a little more developed and the traders and Richies living in those areas had much more opulent and sophisticated living as opposed to us. Dad was a military man, he was injured in the arm on a raid. As a dropship captain he was encouraged to take early retirement than to pursue officer duty. It provided a decent living, but it was by no means excessive. Without our frugality and general low cost living it would have been much tighter.

That’s not to say we were living wanting things. We just used the money wisely.

My mother, Grace, had died when I was four and my step mother, Ovila, couldn’t find work easily. A developing world had no use for a historian and work was sparse at best. Though I am grateful for the knowledge she imparted to me, it wasn’t the best choice of career.

I thought it a shame that I had not met Grace properly. My memories were spotty, and I only really remembered her smile, beautiful and endearing. Dad assures me she was a kind woman who would have been proud of me and I like to think that’s true. I’ve no real way of knowing but I still believe it.

Well on that day I remember knocking on the door and waiting anxious to get inside and out of the snow. Terranare was a cold planet generally. Though we had summers and winters, the variance was not as apparent as it was on Earth and a light dusting of snow coloured the planet for much of the year. Well at least in Aerlicas it did. further down towards the equator I’m sure it was hotter, but I’d never travelled down to find out.

The door then opened up on creaking hinges and the smell of pumpkin soup and delicious freshly baked bread mixing with the rich meaty aroma from the meat billowed out. Like opening the door of an oven and the steam pouring out giving an almost film like feel as you acclimatise to the moist air, the smells and warmth of home clung to me, inviting and comforting.

I was met with hugs and kisses from Ovila and her sisters. Then assaulted by my siblings, asking what I had bought them from the mall. I remember telling them they’d have to wait until we opened all the presents otherwise it wouldn’t be fair to the adults as they have to wait until after lunch. Man were they pissed, but eventually they acquiesced, and we sat down to some food a few hours later.

After the food, we settled down to give the presents out. Tradition seemed to demand a spruce or pine Christmas tree, but they didn’t really grow well on Terranare so instead we used an arborrea tree. It was a beautiful tree that grew to towering heights. Common and quite eerie when you wandered through a forest of them. The name stemmed from the joining of two words. Arbor meaning tree in Latin and Boreas the northern god of wind in Greek mythology. Originally called the arborborea because they whistled when the wind blew through their leaves giving off an eerie sound. Though arborborea was a bit of a mouthful and so it was shortened to the arborrea tree as it was easier to say.

I had gotten a doll for Clara, the one she had been wanting for ages and though Kris wouldn’t understand it, a race car toy. It had a little wind-up motor, so that it could drive on it own and a steering system that remembered a sequence of events so that you could set a course for it to follow. It was damn cool if I say so myself.

I blinked, coming back to the present, a tear slid down my cheek. Tracing my cheek and entering at the crook of my mouth. I tasted the salty liquid and began to cry slightly, loneliness was beginning to get to me. Remembering those fond memories hurt. The bombing had taken them away from Dad and I, leaving him an empty man and me a girl ready to embrace vengeance. He tried his best to keep it up for me but as I grew up, the girl that no longer needed looking after, he seemed to lose purpose. He was better now but it had been a rough couple of years when I left for the military. Though he had encouraged me to fight back against those monsters, being alone nearly destroyed him.

Getting up from the floor I had been sitting cross-legged on, I paced, trying to rid myself of the ache that had set in. I stopped outside the house, before leaning against the walls and staring into the forest, watchful and wary of the danger that lurked within. I had taken to leaving the suit off when at camp. The feeling of being encased in it wasn’t very comfortable, especially for extended periods of time. Furthermore, the constant wear of using it twenty-four seven was quite severe. If I ever roamed further than a short distance away, then I’d suit up. I was under no illusions that I could take the humanoids in my birthday suit. Heck, even the suit seemed to barely get me even with them. Not that I’d had an all out fight with one yet. I suspected that, without an intelligence like my own, I could prevail. The question really was - whether they could damage the suit enough to render it unusable before I killed them. Hopefully not!

The suit was resting, open a few feet to my left, ready for me to run into. As I stared at it the birds started singing again, bringing a smile to my face, despite the tears. I wiped my face on the ragged clothes I was wearing, drying my eyes. Thank God for military ruggedness. They had lasted eight months of hard use, and though they were now ripped and dirty I expected they’d last a few more before I had to abandon them entirely. Perhaps I’d be able to create clothes before that point. I’d done shoes after all, though the woven sandals were only slightly less jagged than the ground, they had kept my feet intact.

Walking around the camp, I sang to myself, a

Song long forgotten. My step mother had taught it to me and now I expected it was lost to time entirely. For the first time since getting here I felt truly alone. Not another human soul for millions of miles if not trillions of miles or further. I had no clue where I was after all, I could conceivably by on the opposite side of the universe entirely.

The next few hours passed quickly, I spent the time singing Christmas songs, relaxing by the stream and just generally taking it easy. It was nice to just sit, at one with nature, for a few blissful moments.

As I sat down to have some lunch, I decided to update my log and record a message for my dad. The message first though.

I took a few moments to gather my thoughts before beginning.

“Hey Dad. It’s me, Ronja. I’ve no clue how you got this, but I hope that eventually you do. Though it’s probably going to be long after I’m dead. Perhaps you as well, and it’s someone else I’m talking to. Regardless, its good to say what I have to. I’ve always been brutally honest. To myself and others, often detrimentally I must say. But in times like these it helps to be honest with yourself. And talking to you, even tangentially makes it less awkward and more real.”

“I’m stuck alone on a foreign planet with monsters that lurk in the darkness and other predators that I’m sure would only be too keen to snap me up. As the planet cools the life is emerging and I’m worried something more dangerous will start to roam. The insects have already started to appear, a couple of months ago actually.”

“Even if nothing dangerous comes, I doubt I’ll live long. The humanoids are about, and its only so long until they stumble upon me. Eventually the suit will break down and then it’s me, just me, alone with those abominations. You don’t know just what a primordial terror they stir in you. You can’t know. The empty eye sockets that seem to see you. The broken arms that are stronger than steel. The needle like teeth that seem perfect for killing. Everything about them is horrific and terrifying.”

“What little evidence of civilisation I’ve found doesn’t inspire much hope. Oh dad, I found the remains of a little girl she was so small, innocent. Her and her dad were also left here to survive, and I don’t think they made it. Emily, Emily was her name and the father; Nickolas.”

“If I judge it right I don’t have long left. Nickolas was right, I can feel Death’s cold breath on the back of my neck. Just waiting for me. She’s not persistent or dangerous just present. It’s like she knows she doesn’t have to try, that sooner or later I’ll make a mistake and be delivered.”

“Well, that’s enough self-pity, you’ve taught me better than that, it doesn’t help. I won’t give in, no matter what I won’t give in. I promise you that. I’ll battle for every scrap of life and enjoyment I can. I’ll see you soon if everything goes well.”

“It’s Christmas Day today and I’m celebrating by relaxing. Taking my first day off in eight months of battling to survive. Its not under the shadows cast by an Arborrea tree but at least its something. I would have gotten you a knife I’d been eyeing and a few books, you love to read. Hopefully the army pays you a little so go treat yourself and buy them, a gift from me.”

“I just want to say, I love you Dad. Goodbye for now.”

I dry my eyes again and take a few moments to myself to swallow down my feelings before beginning the log.

“Its been just over 2 months, I decided to prolong the log until Christmas Day. It just felt right to do so. I’m taking my first full day off and I must say it’s been delightful. Memories are welling up on such a special day, but it’s been nice to just take a load off and settle down by the water for a bit. I’m thinking I might head down to the beach and have a look in the waters for fish. Perhaps I’ll even be able to catch something.”

“It’s going to be a shorter log today as not much has happened. First of all, the planet is still cooling, and if Enigma is right, its cooling faster and faster. He tells me it’s because the planet has an elliptical orbit and during the first few months the planet was still close to the suns. Now though, the planet is almost moving directly away from the suns and as a result the temperature is falling quite rapidly. Enigma can’t quite predict how cold it will become but I expect it will be significant judging by how many months it took for the planet to begin cooling. I don’t know how long a year is here, but I expect it’s much longer than the BSST year.”

“Enigma has made more strides towards his development, though empathy and emotions still elude him, he does recognise that others have these emotions even if he doesn’t understand them. Though it may only be for me he does see me as a person rather than just a cardboard cut-out. I’m proud of the development he’s making.”

“In terms of technology not much has happened. As usual I’ve been repairing tools and such but the only thing of importance, and I guess it is very important is that I’ve been able to start smelting metal. Only tiny little balls from the iron bacteria but it’s a start. We now know that the furnace gets hot enough and in a few more months perhaps I’ll be able to start making metal tools. And that would be good. With a sword I’d feel much more confident taking on the humanoids.”

“I smile at the thought. A giant mechanised medieval knight. Its just really damn cool. I snort at the thought before continuing.”

“In slightly worse news though, I found another staircase. Exactly the same style, but slightly different, the planks had different patterns from the grain and the carpet was slightly more worn. It definitely wasn’t the same one though as I had had Enigma mark the previous one on my HUD and that one was a long way from where I found this new one. So now we’ve got two staircases in the mystery. Even worse though, I found the body of a man, I hope to god it isn’t Nickolas, but I expect that that may be the case. Perhaps it is someone else though.”

“I’m not sure which is worse. The fact that there was someone else trapped out here or that my one connection to another human is dead. Which would I prefer? I’m not sure. Whatever the case it is still tragic. He had clearly died to the humanoids; his chest was ripped open and the rest of him was mangled. I buried him in an unmarked grave after looking for a clue of his identity. Sadly, I found nothing. I’m going to try and keep my mood up and end it here, so by for now”

I say before signing off as normal and saving the message to the archive.