Following the tremor, Aria could swear that the entire ship went upside down for a short second. Whatever that was, it knocked the ship off course. Its pace into a slow and inevitable death was now accelerated drastically.

Joshua dropped onto the ground, but he swiftly regained footing and was up and about at no time. For reasons unknown, his visual faculties returned to him after a quick knock. Now that he could finally see clearly, his worst fears that he imagined all the while back had come true.

The colony ship that was supposed to bring them over to another chosen planet was now in ruins. And he was in these ruins, probably about to become one with the space debris outside if he couldn’t escape soon.

For a split second before, though, Joshua was only focused on marveling his visual restoration. It’s not even a knock to the head, it’s like magic! If he could get it to work again, he would have wanted to knock his head some-more earlier in the past, then his mother would probably had scolded him less…

‘Whatever, the past is in the past’ Joshua told himself. He looked around only to find most things tumbled about. A multipurpose medical chair was flipped upside down, probably shouldn’t happen naturally unless an external force got involved. Not to mention that they were usually bolted to the floor, and weigh no less than a ton. It’s not even supposed to be here, on the hallway. But seeing the medical room beside with a busted window and otherwise busted fluid tanks probably explains why.

He turned his gaze around again, finally landing his eyes on a person groaning right on the floor.

“You alright?” He asked, stretching a hand out.

“Yeah…” Aria answered, grabbing the hand offered by Joshua.

She got the wind knocked out of her for a brief moment. She was certain she split her head or broke some ribs too, based on the impact that she felt. Probably as hard as a person trying to embrace a speeding car, she mentally remarked.

But otherwise, she was completely fine. After getting back on her feet, she checked herself and found no issues. Not even an ache or sore spot could be identified… weird.

Regardless, there is no time to turn over the floorboards and investigate. She had not forgotten the reason they were running about, and she knew of the consequences if she wasted any time.

“Hey, miss…” “Aria.” She interjected Joshua, sensing that he would come up with a conversation if she didn’t. Not exactly appropriate considering the time and place.

“Oh, hi! I uh… my n—” “Let’s hurry.” She did it once again. Seemingly cold and brutal in response.

Looking at Joshua’s face, he only produced a small nod and an otherwise stoic face. ‘Good’ Aria thought, she was hoping that Joshua wouldn’t get offended by that. Everyone would, if they were faced with such rudeness in other circumstances.

Without a word, both of them started running towards a certain direction. Everyone abroad the ship would’ve known the ship’s layout, and they would know that this would be one of their precious few lifelines if something were to happen during the journey.

As they left the scene behind, what they didn’t notice was objects of microscopic proportions had blanketed the small radius of that area. Like an elusive fog, they swirl in patterns mesmerizing to any observer, but were otherwise too tiny to see it with the naked eye.

The “fluid tank” that Joshua laid eyes on was actually a storage tank for medical nanites. Probably one of the most valuable resource there is that ever existed in the universe, the microscopic swarm, quadrillions of them will now cruise around and dissipate into the air. Until they have spent all the energy in their insignificant robotic selves to carry out their duty. Or die trying of exhaustion, trying to reach them.

“HEAVE!”

“HO!”

“ONE MORE!”

*Clank*

As the lumbering sarcophagus was pushed away by the combined effort of four puny humans, their lifeline was revealed in the form a still operational bulkhead.

“That’s it!” Aria screamed. “Come! Pull!”

The four puny humans once again was engaged in a struggle, eight hands pulling the heavy chunk of metal open. Its design was considerably noteworthy, not on every airlock door would somebody find it to be painted in a copious amount of red-green fluorescent paint. For these survivors here, nothing could be better than the equally noteworthy label.

[ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [ EMERGENCY DROP PODS ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ]

Wasting no time, none of her companions made anything more than as a celebratory sigh of relief before they ran into the hallway. leaving the half-opened door behind them, leaving it to seperate themselves from that sorry excuse of a starship.

Soon, another sense of relief washed over them as they found that all drop pods were still up, and operational. All the modules were fine, and they were ready to be dispatched. The piercing blip of green light on each of the escape pod bays indicates that they were ready to be deployed at an instant. There was no doubt the AI had preemptively activated them following the event of the incident.

“Hey, we should check what’s in the pods first.” Aria reminded the rest. “We’re stuck with the stuff we chose in this case…”

There was an embedded container in every escape pods that could only hold a select few items, they were never meant to be used to transport supplies. So, not only was the capacity limited, also that they only contained generic items of low value for last resorts only. Moreover, there was no possible avenue for the escapers to open up every pod and take any excess supplies that they could carry, unless they have some time, and a good power saw on their hands.

“This one’s a medical pod, I’ll ta—” *SNAP*

“Ah fuck! We leave. NOW!” Jim screamed hysterically. He swiftly balanced himself and hopped into the nearest escape pod, fumbling at the controls.

Another quake had coursed through the ship, so rudely interrupting their vetting process. Moreover, this one was worse than the previous major commotion. There’s always a good and bad in any situation, though. In this case, they are in a narrow hallway surrounded by rows of escape pods. Good that they could leave at any moment; not so good if something happened near and the entire subsection would have folded into halves.

But, for now, luck remained on their side.

“Good luck!”

“You too!”

“…”

Everyone jumped into the nearest escape pod and strapped themselves into their seats. It was nothing but a narrow capsule with enough harnesses on the inside and enough boosters with dubious performance on the outside to make planetfall as less-painful as possible.

Pressing onto one of the few buttons on the interface, the lid shut off and was thoroughly sealed in place. If only the decoupling charges would work after they landed, one could consider their escape pods effective and now would they be free from danger.

If the panels did not break apart, or that the mechanism activated too early or late after ejection, the user would not be able to consider their escape pods to be anything, as they would be dead. Exposed into the vacuum of space, or use up all the oxygen confined within and die of asphyxiation? All the choices we have!

“Bye!” Joshua yelled through his pod.

Despite not be able to hear any voice, being locked up in their own isolated metal cocoons and all; they could see him waving his hand in a comical way, obviously bidding farewell. With his other hand, he pulled the lever at the side of his seat; he disappeared within a blink of an eye, leaving being an empty hatch that once held a spacecraft only with the ability and fuel to manage a single, precarious landing.

Everyone else did the same, too.

*Poof*

Aria could hear her escape pod being dislodged, and after that, only flashes of light. Looking out the window, she could see so clearly. Colors.

White and blue—the stars that she once saw, hanging high up in the sky, now surround her.

Red and blue—like a fleeting memory, the exploded ships narrow infinitely under her gaze, until they were nothing but a small dot in a field of stars.

Green—bigger and bigger, and soon it shall contain her. But for how long?