Frost’s leg was trapped beneath his mech’s navigation panel and sharp jolts of pain shot from it. He could feel warm blood running down his face. The smell of burnt steak and plastic. The pilot’s cabin was quickly filling up with smoke, and it was just a matter of time before the oxygen reactor went boom!
This is my entry for the Ink Well's writing challenge for Season 2 Week 8. The prompt for this challenge is 'red.'
Enjoy!
The mech had crashed on the surface of the comet at an odd angle. Only one arm was operational. The other had been blown off and was floating somewhere in deep space. Frost pushed the console on top of him, but the heat was too much, and he had to let go. A sharp pain made him scream. It took all of his will to calm himself down. Looking up, he grabbed onto the safety straps dangling from the cabin's back panel. Focus, he told himself and taking a deep breath, he tried to haul himself up to not avail. He screamed again in pain and frustration, slamming his fist on the navigation controls.
Outside, the snow and debris swirled in the never ending storm at the comet’s tail.
**
The wind howled. He could barely keep his eyes open, but on the cockpit window, he could see the red snow piling up at the seams.
**
He woke up to the faint hiss of a door sliding open. The light from outside streamed into the room, and he shielded his eyes from the glare. As his eyes adjusted, he became aware of a shadow standing in the doorway.
He tried to sit up but couldn’t move his body. His hands and feet were strapped to the bed.
“Who are you? Where am I?”
The figure didn’t answer but watched him silently.
In pain and disoriented, Frost could barely string any thoughts together. Some distant part of him tried to regain control of his faculties, but it was no use. He was as helpless as a kitten.
He slept and dreamed of a red planet. He was falling through its atmosphere, and he couldn’t control his descent. Eject! Eject! Then just when he thought he would hit the ground, he fell on a pair of arms.
“You’re safe now.”
Darkness and light. Whether real or imagined in his delirium, he could not tell. The wind kept howling, and he felt like a leaf blowing in a turbulent blizzard of pain and exhaustion. The voice comforted him and kept him company. He did not trust this voice, but he had no other choice. So he drifted in the red snow and slept.
**
The woman in the doorway was tall and slender. He had seen her come to the room several times to feed him and wipe his forehead with a wet rag. But this was the first time that he was fully aware of her. Her silvery hair cascaded down her pale body. She didn’t say much except for a single word: “eat.”
Seeing him awake, a shadow crossed her eyes and she hesitated. Then casting a quick glance at his restraints, she stepped into the room with a tray in her hands.
“Where am I?”
She ignored him and put the tray on his stomach. “Eat.”
Frost could not tell the passage of time, but based on the number of times the woman had come into his room, he guessed it had been at least three days.
“I’m not doing anything until you answer my questions.”
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. The way a scientist might look at an uncooperative specimen.
Taking a spoon of what looked like mashed potato, she brought it up to his mouth and said, “eat”.
He looked at her defiantly. “In the name of the Solar Magister, I command you to release me!” A fit of coughing left spittles of blood on his lips.
“Have it your way,” she said and picked up the food tray.
“Ah, so you do speak!” He said whizzing. “Why have you brought me here? Why am I all tied up like an animal? I am a DS officer of the Oort Union, and by holding me captive, you are breaking the law!”
The door hissed, and she walked out of the room without saying another word.
**
It had been a fierce battle, and he had destroyed countless enemy mechs. His unit was state of the art with a new long range laser and additional missile hot spots. The software had crashed during battle, however- an EMP blaster no doubt- and he had to go off-grid to the nearest safe location, which happened to be the surface of this passing comet. It was such an unlikely scenario that back at the academy, he had skipped the optional training module for comet survival. This meant that he was only vaguely familiar with the characteristics of these icy objects, but the last thing he had expected to find was a woman living on a red comet.
**
She stood in the doorway like she always did and looked at him from afar. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the room. Frost noticed that she didn’t have a food tray in her hands but was carrying a bag instead. She saw him looking at it, and reaching inside, she pulled out a familiar object.
“That’s my utility belt,” he said trying to sit up. “Let me see that.”
She raised it and looked at it as if it were a dead animal. She then unlocked one of its compartments and slid out a long combat knife.
“Careful with that,” he told her. “It cuts like a laser because it is a laser.”
She stood beside him and dropped the utility belt on the floor. Then holding up the knife, she gripped the handle and squeezed it. To Frost’s surprise, the blade came to life with a red light buzzing on the edge.
“How did you do that? That knife has been calibrated to my biometrics alone.”
She looked at the blade with curiosity and then she looked at him. In one swift motion, she cut one of his bonds, then the other, and before he had a chance to react, she put the knife millimeters from his throat. He could feel its heat on his skin and dared not move.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he assured her. “I just want to take a look at my things.”
She backed away from him, the movement done with such grace and precision that Frost knew he was looking at a skilled fighter and not some damsel in distress.
She let him take the belt. He rummaged through it until he found the comm unit. He pressed the power button, but the power indicator remained off. Either the battery had drained or the device was damaged.
“Where is my gun?” he asked her.
“You don’t need a gun,” she said. “But you do need a bath. The shower room is third door on the left. I left some clean clothes for you there.”
And just like that, he was a free man.
**
The snow swirled, and the wind whistled as Frost neared the comet’s tail, near the edge of the blizzard. He found his mech buried in crimson layers of dust, ice, and snow.
“Sorry I left you here, old pal,” Frost told the slumbering giant. “I’ll come dig you out as soon as I make contact.”
He scavenged for electronic components in the pilot’s cabin. Once he found what he was looking for, he jumped back out and placed the items on the sleigh.
The ice lashed at his face, and the road ahead was covered in snow. He adjusted his goggles and shook his head at the irony of having Frost for a name. He strapped on the reigns and began the journey back to the stranded ship that he now called home. It belonged to Nissa’s clan, who had come to settle this comet several decades ago. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as they had planned, so they bailed. Only Nissa and members of her immediate family had remained behind. Now, even they were gone too.
On his way back, he saw her figure walking along the snowy road that led in the opposite direction. Maintenance call, he supposed. She said the energy reactor had been placed there because of the hydrothermal vents that helped stabilize the Bosonian core. It wasn’t a difficult job according to her, but you needed a proper pressure suit to withstand the extreme conditions.
He watched her disappear in the swirling snow.
The flakes fell down gently upon the ship and covered it in a soft snowy membrane. It was an old cutlass carrier, which had been popular with refugees from the inner colonies decades ago. Nissa didn’t talk much about her past, but from what little he could gather, her family was part of a group of refugees from the upper stratas of Martian society: scientists, scholars, engineers, and so on. The same fools who created the Martian mess to begin with. Ironically, or perhaps predictably, they also fouled their newfound nest and decided to bail. Typical. Her family was made of sterner stuff, it seemed, and decided to stay behind in the comet. Eventually, however, they also gave up and left.
“Why didn’t you leave with them?” he had asked her once.
“This is my home,” was all she had said.
**
He plugged his comm unit to the old antenna, fiddled with the dials, and stared at the radio waves displayed on the interface. He adjusted the volume, but he could only hear the sound of static, and the howling wind around him.
He looked up at the stars- still visible in spite of the ice and snow- and felt the pit of his stomach sink as he imagined himself getting stranded on this ball of red ice. Overview blues, they called it at the academy. The sudden impact of the vastness of deep space. Just as bad as being confined in a small space. It was overwhelming. Need to get a hold of myself, he thought.
He turned the dial and searched alternate frequencies, his fingers beginning to feel numb from the cold. Again, he heard only the static silence and the howling wind.
**
Nissa entered his room and stood looking at him in that odd way of hers.
“Look,” she said holding up a small red sphere.
“What is it?” He said.
“An ornament for the Christmas tree.”
“Christmas? The festival?”
“We used to celebrate with my family. It’s an old tradition…”
Her family had been members of a Christian sect back on Mars. After all hell broke loose during the Insurrection, they traveled across the solar system and took refuge in this comet. Chosen precisely because of its composition that in many way resembled the conditions on Mars.
“Sounds like fun,” he said turning back to the navigation unit he was trying to fix.
“Will you celebrate with me?” She said.
“Sure thing.”
“I’ll set up the tree. We can exchange gifts and-” she stopped herself and looked at the floor. “In any case, you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to.”
“I’m always up for a celebration,” he said.
He heard her footsteps moving away, and the door sliding shut.
**
Wind. Ice. Snow. Silence. On the barren hill, Frost searched for a signal. Any signal. Please. Where are you? He listened. But there was only wind, there was only ice, there was only snow, and never-ending silence.
**
The eye tracker processed his ocular biometrics and gave him full control of the mech.
“Here goes nothing,” said Frost and rebooted the system.
Flashes in the virtual darkness. A three-dimensional grid. The lights in the cabin flickered and his seat began to rumble.
“Aha!” he shouted and clapped his hands. “Well, old pal. It looks like you’re back in business.
Slowly, he extricated the mech from the mountains of snow and ice under which he was buried. Even the heating system worked well. He would give it a whirl sort of speak before he ventured into the tail’s maelstrom where he could amplify his comm signal. He patted the control panel like one pats an old friend. He couldn't wait to show Nissa the giant mech.
**
Nobody home. She probably went out for a maintenance check.
Looking out in the distance at the blizzard of snow and ice, Frost had an idea.
“No time like the present for a test drive, right old pal?”
The mech began to move down the frozen road, its lights forming red pillars in the snow.
**
Wind. Ice. Snow. Silence.
**
“Nissa? Are you here?” he called out as he traversed the dripping wet tunnels of the reactor.
He came to a door beyond which lay a circular room where giant glass vats held the bodies of men, women, and children suspended in a translucent red liquid. Placenta-like tendrils protruded from their bodies and hooked to a brain like mass hanging above them.
He sensed movement behind him, and he whirled about in a fighting stance.
Nissa stood there looking at him with a sad gaze and his gun in one hand.
“Why did you follow me here? We were supposed to have a lovely Christmas.”
“What is the meaning of this? Who are these people?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” she said placing her hand on the glass. “This is my hive. My family. I wanted to surprise you for Christmas. This was going to be my present to you.”
“You won’t get away with this, you filthy creature.”
“There is nothing to be afraid of. We'll be one big happy family! Merry Christmas, my love.”
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