When the world settled down again, Mark found himself in the middle of a nightmare. Sirens blared out shrill warnings and the wind howled, the only think keeping him stationary were the straps holding him to his seat. If not for that he would have fallen to the front of the ship as forward was now down. He looked around wildly, the only light was the flashing red of warning lights. He was having trouble breathing, it felt like the air was being ripped from his lungs.

From what he could tell he appeared to be in a shuttle, similar to the one that brought him to the test ship. Had it all been a dream induced by that gas, was he actually crashing to his death? Right as panic was truly starting to set in, the world stopped. Everything froze in place, the lights stopped rotating, the wind stopped howling and the shuttle stopped falling. In some ways it was even more bizarre than suddenly finding himself in a crashing shuttle. A voice from the seat beside him promised to bring clarity.

“Welcome to the tutorial, Mr. Lee.” The Pilot said from her seat next to his own. Although she was facing downwards like him, she wasn’t strapped into her seat, and showed no sign of discomfort at the fact. It almost seemed like gravity was different for her, letting her sit comfortably while he was being driven into the straps of his chair. “Do you have any questions?” she added with a knowing smile.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded, fighting to get his rapidly beating heart under control once more. “One second we were talking, the next I’m crashing to my death.” He was slowly regaining control of himself. He wasn’t a young man anymore, and although his body hadn’t aged, he had spent decades in a boring routine of desk work interspersed with the odd dinner with his wife. Even now, in this situation, that thought brought a pang to his emotions.

“Like I said, this is the tutorial. A simulated version of the test planet from a few thousand earth years ago.” She continued, like he should understand what she was talking about. “Everyone on board is experiencing the same scenario, only each tutorial is instanced so you won’t meet anyone alive down there.” As she talked, he looked around the shuttle carefully. His eyes lingered in a few places before returning to the Pilot.

“Are you telling me I will be completely alone then? What’s the point of crash landing me on a deserted planet?” he ran his hands over the harness as he spoke, feeling for the latches and whether or not there were any damaged sections he had to worry about.

“Not at all,” the Pilot responded. he could see her watching him take in his surroundings, but she didn’t comment. “The planet is populated by those who lived there a few thousand years ago when the scan was taken. It’s meant to familiarize new comers with how the world works, without giving away anything…like a practice test I suppose.” After she finished speaking, she sat back in her seat.

“What happens if I die in the crash?” he probed, wondering how much she would be willing to tell him. “I don’t know how high up we are, but it’s likely I will die before I get a chance to even begin.”

“Relax Mr. Lee, we are still two minutes fall from the surface.” she said with a smile, letting him know he asked the right question. “Besides, your chair has a built-in dampener field. As long as you are sitting in your chair in two minutes you will be fine…if not, well you die and have to start over with an augmentation points deficit. A set back to be sure but nothing that can’t be overcome.”

“Is there anything else you can tell me?” he asked, after a long moment to consider his options. He felt like everything was moving too fast. He surmised that more time had actually passed than he realized since the gas knocked him unconscious, but to him it felt like a handful of minutes. He guessed that had to be intentional, they didn’t want them having time to acclimate. This was a sink or swim test, at least there were only points and not his life on the line.

“Your implant gives you options, you will have to experiment to find out what it can do. However, I am allowed to tell you that there is a time keeping function. As well as a mini map, you can bring them into your vision with a thought. The only other thing I can say is that there is a town called Landing one hundred miles from here. You can find it on your map.” She stood up, looking for all the world as if she was standing on the wall. Good luck Mr. Lee, I really hope you do well.” With those words she vanished, and the world went crazy once more.

The instant time started again, Mark snapped lose the straps holding him in place. Kicking off with his feet, he rocketed himself toward the open cockpit hatch. Countdown timer to crash landing, he thought the words in his mind and was only a little surprised when a digital clock appeared in the corner of his vision counting down towards zero from two minutes.

Only a few seconds had passed when he reached the door. that was good, he would need all the time he could get to fight gravity on his way back up to his chair. He couldn’t pass up this chance though, he had a feeling time had frozen at that exact moment for a reason. The cockpit door had been frozen open, giving him a perfect view of the shuttle pilot. He was dead, slumped over his controls and impaled with a piece of shrapnel. That wasn’t the important part however, what had caught his eye was the opened locker beside the pilot.

This ship wasn’t identical to those from his youth, but the layout was similar enough that he felt like the risk was worth the effort. As he crashed into the cockpit Mark slowed his fall on the pilot’s body. It wasn’t respectful, but it was the softest thing in the room and served to break his fall enough to avoid injuries.

“Jackpot” he said excitedly as he peered into the locker. He had been right; it was an emergency locker. He took in the contents with a quick glance; a backpack, flashlight, a firearm reminiscent of a shotgun and a metallic club that looked something like the ancient baseball bats from earth.

He reached for the bag first, it likely held food and survival gear plus if he was lucky some communication equipment. It was a struggle to get it off the hook with how violently the shuttle was being bounced around but he managed. It ate up more of his time than he would have liked though, glancing at his count down he saw that forty seconds had already passed. He took the extra few seconds to secure the bag to himself, if he wasn’t able to hold onto what he gained this trip would have been a wasted effort.

Next, he grabbed the shotgun looking weapon. There was a shoulder strap on the weapon that looked like it held extra ammunition but he didn’t take the time to inspect it. instead, he threw it over his shoulder as well. Grabbing the remaining items from the locker he launched himself back out of the cockpit, or at least he tried to. The wind caught him the second he exited the hatch and flung him back inside.

“Shit” was all he managed as he landed again on the pilot. He looked at his timer again, less than a minute to go. He wasn’t going to make it back by climbing against the crashing shuttles gravitational pull. He looked around the cockpit in desperation, hoping that he could find something, anything to help get him back to his seat.

To his shock, the digital controls were still active. He had assumed that the shuttle was dead just like the pilot. A second later his hopes died again, most of the controls were active but the mechanical components were down. his eyes raked the display, there had to be something. Yes, there, it wasn’t much of an option but he didn’t have a choice. Taking a final look around he spotted the pilot’s side arm, grabbing the handgun he slammed his hand down on the control and leaped out the cockpit hatch again.

For a second, he thought it had failed, then the air brakes on the right side of the shuttle opened up. the left side brakes had been ripped away so the control didn’t affect them. the sudden added pressure on one side of the descending shuttle caused it to go into a wild spin. As up became down he was flung backwards towards his seat. Free hand outstretched, Mark snagged the harness that had held him in place when he arrived here. There wasn’t time to buckle himself in, so he hugged the seat as tightly as he could when his timer ran out.

The world around him went white, then shifted to pink and finally a brilliant red, he was baffled by the color change. As he wondered about that, the wind cut down and he was slammed into the chair face first. he couldn’t hear the crunching of his nose into the chair but he could feel it, and taste the blood as it washed over his mouth. The deep red surrounding him slowly faded from pink to white before vanishing all together. It must have been the dampener field the Pilot had told him about.

He slumped down into the chair, wanting nothing more than to sleep. He was exhausted, not having done anything like this in decades. It only took a glance at his surroundings however to tell him he couldn’t stay here. The dampener field had saved him, but he was now in the bottom of a crater surrounded by the mangled remains of a shuttle. A shuttle that was quickly catching on fire.

Dragging himself to his feet, Mark checked himself over. Thankfully he still had everything from the emergency locker. His nose was gushing blood, and his clothes were torn but he was alive. Not knowing if the shuttle would explode, or how much time he had Mark didn’t bother with his nose. Instead, he moved towards the lip of the crater as fast as his tired body would take him.

As it turned out, that wasn’t very fast. It was an effort for him to pick up his feet, another effort to move them forward. He knew he was out of shape, but this was ridiculous. Eventually, after twenty thousand steps, he reached the lip of the crater. Flinging himself over the lip he looked back over his shoulder, to see just how deep the shuttle had gone.

My eyes must not be working properly, it was the only thing he could think of to explain the disparity between his feet’s twenty-thousand-foot climb and the hundred yards or so his eyes saw. Still, probably better keep moving, I don’t think It will explode but no point dying now and having to do that over again.

He looked around, only now realizing that it was getting dark. The fire from the crash had hidden how dark the sky was from him until he got them to his back. After his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he realized he was in a meadow. Looking around he spotted a forest and a lake and what he guessed had to be a small mountain. Mini map with destination marker for Landing. Thinking the words was enough to make a small map pop up in his vision. There was a red dot in the direction of the forest, he experimented by turning around a few times. The map moved but the dot remained constant. Mark had just decided that he would be going into the forest when the sky lit up.

He ducked instinctively as the fireball flew by, only regaining his feet when he realized that it was another shuttle. Flying away from the forest and toward the mountain. Another few seconds saw a plume of fire as the shuttle crashed. Place crash on map and set distance markers, he thought and waited for the results.

He looked at his mini map with a depressed sigh, the shuttle had come down a mile or so away. The problem was it was in the opposite direction from where he wanted to go. he thought long and hard about what to do. On one hand this was not real, and assuming there were any survivors they would have died over a thousand years ago. On the other hand, he had just crashed on an alien planet and there was safety in numbers. With a sigh, he secured his salvaged belongings and, gun in hand, trudged away from Landing and towards the new shuttle crash.

* * *

Going by the timer he had pulled up in the corner of his vision, it had taken him an hour to make it to the lip of the crater. He now stood at the edge looking down, this shuttle had come through the crash mostly undamaged. He figured that it was good to have made the trip after all, even if no one was alive in there he might be able to loot some more supplies.

Besides wanting to look for supplies, it was well and truly dark now. If it hadn’t been for his flashlight and the mini map marking where he needed to go it was likely he would have walked right passed the crater. With another exhausted sigh, Mark started the arduous climb down into the crash created crater.

As he approached the shuttle, he ran the flashlight across its surface. it was remarkably similar to the test ship’s shuttles. It wasn’t as large or as sleek, leading him to believe it was an older design. That would make sense, considering this was supposed to be the distant past. Reaching the bottom of the crater he found his first problem. The shuttle’s hatch wasn’t close enough to the ground to access. Mulling over the problem while he caught his breath, Mark eventually shrugged and started to search for a crash made opening.

He walked around the shuttle twice before he found an opening. It was mostly buried beneath ground level, and he hadn’t been able to see it until he turned off his flashlight. Once his eyes adjusted to the blackness, the light streaming out of the small opening was like a beacon in the night. dropping to his hands and knees he dug down just deep enough to squeeze into the ship.

It took him another ten minutes to crawl through the belly of the ship until he found a hatch into the passenger cabin. Eventually, using his metallic club as a lever, he was able to force it open. Climbing inside he closed and barred the hatch behind him. He didn’t know what was out there, but the whole planet was a battleground and he wasn’t going to take any chances.

Looking around the cabin, he couldn’t believe this ship had been made for any race other than humans. It reminded him a little of the planes that earth used to have before the Arrival, mixed with the test ship’s shuttles. It didn’t take long to spot the aspirant; she was still strapped into the crash chair, unconscious and bleeding. There was a piece of shrapnel from the crash imbedded into her side, the wound didn’t look fatal and Mark couldn’t understand why she hadn’t treated herself.

Kneeling down beside the woman he focused on her wound. She was wearing a blood-stained white robe or toga of a design he didn’t recognize. He was able to open it up easily enough to expose the wound. Her chest was covered with a long strip of cloth that had been wound around herself several times and tied off. that was a relief to him, he was too old and tired to want to deal with that kind of misunderstanding.

Having examined the wound, he reached into his pack and rummaged around until he found a first aid kit. It looked like there was a jumpsuit in there, good, he needed to get out of his ripped jeans and ruined dress shirt. Mark shook his head, blinking his exhaustion driven thoughts away. Thankfully he recognized most of the gear in the first aid kit from his own time in service. He took out two cans and readied them before slowly pulling the object out of her side.

With a shock he realized it was a small fixed blade knife. He was curious as to how she ended up with a knife in her side, but it would have to wait. Quickly setting it aside he picked up the first can and sprayed a good blast of disinfectant into the wound. The woman’s eyes shot open as the disinfectant entered her wound and let out a pained hiss. Her confused and frightened brown eyes locked onto his and she tried to protect her wound from him.

“Calm down now, calm down.” he said raising his hand that now held the second can. “I just need to seal the wound now, see?” He showed her the can he held, “quick heal foam. A shot of this will stop the bleeding and promote healing…so move your hand, ok?” he said all this in as soothing a tone as he could manage in his state.

Her eyes narrowed, but she lowered her hands and let him finish treating her. After which she almost immediately fell unconscious again. his task finished he covered her back up again and looked down on the now sleeping girl. Brown hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. If she came from earth she must have originated somewhere in the Mediterranean. Not that he was an expert in the people of earth, so how could he know. he chalked it up to the implant’s interference.

With a groan and two knee pops he regained his feet, just in time to be clobbered with a metallic club. He went down hard, doing his best to turn the fall into a roll and failing miserably. He did manage to palm the hand gun though, he held it as his assailant grabbed his shoulder and roughly turned him over. As the man’s face came into view, he almost lost his grip on the gun in his shock.

It was the pilot, the dead one from his shuttle. Before he could be hit again he squeezed the trigger at point blank range. The gun didn’t kick at all, but the force behind it must have been extreme. The man’s chest exploded, there was no other word for it, a fist sized chunk of his body simply disappeared. Moments later, sparks began to fly around the ship.

The bullet had smashed off the ceiling and ricochet back down. It continued to bounce off the walls, floor and ceiling a dozen times. Blasting through seats, storage boxes and anything else that got in its path before it finally hit a window and blasted out into the night.

“Well,” Mark said from his trapped position under the pilot. “Guess I know why he didn’t just try to shoot me.” He had thought it was odd, as he was falling, he spotted the man’s sidearm holstered at his belt. “Why on whatever planet this is would they equip the pilot with a gun that so clearly shouldn’t be fired inside this shuttle.” He grumbled as he shoved the body off himself and climbed back to his feet.

Staggering as he moved, Mark bent down to check on the girl. She was still alive, thankfully none of the bullet’s rebounds had struck her. Once he ascertained that his patient was ok, he picked up the metallic club and moved to check the rest of the cabin for threats. After being attacked by a dead man’s clone he wasn’t going to take anything for granted.

The ship was empty of other threats at least as best he could tell, and he was falling asleep on his feet. moving a few rows away from the girl, yet still in view of the hatch that led both outside and into the ships belly Mark finally closed his eyes. He was out within seconds.

The feeling of cold steel on his neck woke him some twelve hours later, going by his interface’s timer at least. Doing his best to remain still, he opened his eyes. It was the injured girl from last night, she knelt behind his chair, holding the small fixed bladed knife to his throat.

“Don’t move,” she said when she realized he was awake. She pulled the knife in tighter; he could feel it bite into his flesh and had no desire to disobey. “Who are you, and why are you here?” she said with pain evident in her voice. He wasn’t sure how he would answer, but after a moment she seemed to understand his plight and loosened the knife’s pressure just a bit.

“My name is Mark Lee” he said, moving his mouth and throat as little as possible. “I survived a similar shuttle crash last night. when I reached the top of the crater, I saw your shuttle crashing. I decided to check for survivors, or failing that some more gear. When I got here, I found you injured and unconscious, I treated your wounds. Just as I finished that, the pilot attacked me from behind.” He thought about explaining how he searched the ship before falling asleep, but thought he had said enough and went quiet.

He waited in silence, looking at the young woman out of the corner of his eye the best he could. He didn’t want to turn his head for fear that she’d take it as a threat. His only hope now was that she believed him and let him go, he had the club in his hand and the sidearm at his waist but she had the knife to his throat. If he made a move before she said he could, he was going to die.

“I don’t Believe you” she said at last. “I have died and been reborn in this crash thousands of times by now, and I have never seen you before.” She tightened her grip on the knife as she spoke, but didn’t cut him.

“I don’t understand how this tutorial works,” he said as calmly as he could manage. Thousands of times? Even if she was a memory or a program, letting her die like that was beyond cruel. “This is my first time inside though so it would have been impossible for you to have seen me before. She seemed to mull that over for a bit. She would occasionally let out pained whimpers that she quickly stifled.

“Ok Mark,” she said at last. “I still don’t believe you; this is supposed to be an instanced training simulation. So, odds are you are a memory of some long dead sap. But you helped me. Who knows, maybe a little extra help will let me finish this simulation before my body dies of old age.” After she said her piece, she took the knife away from his throat and pushed herself into the chair behind his.

Mark was conflicted, he knew that this woman couldn’t be real. Just as certainly as he knew that he was. However, did it really matter? He had come to this crash site in part to look for a potential ally anyway, and she seemed like she was willing to help. So, he decided to let it slide and go along with her version of events.

“I didn’t catch your name,” he said as he slowly stood up and turned around to look at her. As he moved, dried blood cracked and flaked off of his face and clothes. The girl didn’t look much better though, but the fact that she had made it over to him without waking him up meant that she would recover.

“That’s because I didn’t tell you.” She said with a snort of laughter, that turned into a grunt of pain. “My name is Terra,” she added when the pain had subsided. “I am hungry and in pain. We both need to get cleaned up and changed and then get the hell out of here before they show up. there’s a shower in the back, go get cleaned up and changed. I’ll try to scrounge some food together and then we need to go.”

Mark wanted to ask who ‘they’ were, but she had already turned away. Besides, he really needed a shower. He had lived through a shuttle crash, slogged through a field, dug himself into a second crashed ship, and then ended up bathing in someone else’s blood. Answers could wait. He picked up his bag and went to get cleaned up.