It's just a walk for you?
Here's my entry for this week's @flashfictionfridayofficial
I'll always hire humans on my crew, I'll tell you why.
A couple of cycles back, we were out past the Heights and the reactor failed. Some kind of overload, the engineers were chattering about it worried and finally pulled the lever and ejected it. It stopped us from being destroyed outright, but we had minimal power. Only what we could collect with our solar collectors, really. Lights, minimal environmental, things like that.
As luck would have it, we were stranded in a system with a "habitable" planet. It was much too heavy and chilly for most every sapient that I knew. Our human navigator loved it. Said it looked a lot like home. He also pointed out that it had a Community climate beacon on the surface, and that we could probably sent out a distress call from it.
Let me tell you, without a reactor, an atmospheric landing is not something you want to attempt. Still, we made it to the surface alive and mostly intact. The issue was we were still 150 kilometers from the beacon. We had no ground vehicle and it seemed like we were going to perish so close to rescue.
After lamenting our plight the human looked up in surprise. "Why are you so sad? It's only 150km. How much food and water do we have?"
"Only 4 days!"
"Oh? That's easy then. We'll just walk to it."
I looked at him like he had five heads. Nobody can walk 150km in 4 days. Still, he seemed determined to give it a try, and I had no other ideas. I told him that he could kill himself however he wanted and if he wanted to die of exposure on a strange planet it far be it from me to stop him.
He got up and rummaged around in the cargo hold and after about two demi-cycles came out with a repulse-litter and some kind of harness he made out of cargo straps. "Come on, it's big enough for everyone." and he gestured to the litter. He had even set up cushions!
By now, the crew had followed me to the cargo hold. "You can't pull this, its too big" were the majority of comments.
"Nah, it'll be fine, I've got the repulse-jets dialed in just right. It will be like wearing a light backpack. Come on, do you want to die for sure here or have a chance of survival? Look how far we've come! All we have to do is go 150 kilometers more and we can be saved!"
I put it to a vote. Of the 8 of us, 6 including the human decided to let him try and drag us to safety.
Early the next morning - ships time - we all climbed aboard. I have to say, he put the effort in. It really was comfortable to sit on the litter.
We set off.
Friends, I want to impress upon you how... easy he made it looked. demi-cycle after demi-cycle he pulled us, walking with that easy lope that all humans use when they're under gravity close to what they evolved under. He even started singing! Nobody knew the words - he said it was an old language that wasn't in the translators - but he was enjoying himself.
It was a sight to see. It really was like he was out for a fun walk around.
After the second day, someone finally got up the courage to ask him why he could do it.
"Do what, the walk? Oh, walking is not hard for humans. We evolved as persistence hunters. Our ancient ancestors would pick an animal and just jog after it until it died."
"What? What if you got tired?"
He grinned and showed his teeth. "The animal would tire first. As long as we kept the jog light and easy-" he gestured "-like we're doing it now, a human can keep it up a long time."
On the third day he kept it up. We'd pass him water and a ration bar when he asked, and occasionally he'd stop to nap for a few demi-cycles but honestly not that much. Most of the crew slept while he hauled to conserve energy. The planet was a good deal colder than what we preferred. He didn't mind though, wore a light jacket. He said that the exercise kept him warm.
Sure enough, on the morning of the 4th day, we made it to the climate beacon and our engineer was able to send out a distress call. We were picked up not even one day later, all thanks to our human navigator who hauled us all to safety.
So yeah, I will always hire a human on my crew.
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Fuck It Friday.
I wasn't going to share anything today, but I'm still giggly and brain-fried from the week, so why not? Thanks to @exhuastedpigeon for the tag.
More from the Sc-Fi of Doom fic.
....
He sniffed the air for the scent of vinegar, sticking to the walls, holding on to his halligan for dear life. Bobby was going to strangle Buck once he caught up to him. Eddie would kill him with his bare hands.
But if their roles were reversed Eddie would have done the same thing. No question. They swore an oath to protect others.
Hell, if anything he should be pissed at Eddie for putting himself in the crosshairs by volunteering the fact that he’d had military experience.
Because that’s what he did. Put a giant spotlight on himself, battlefields are my thing Diaz.
Like he’d hadn’t left a part of his soul in that downed helicopter crash in the desert.
He bristled.
But he needed Eddie to be alive so he could yell at him. And that meant Buck needed to find Bobby and Becky and Lydia and….
Where the hell was he?
He glanced around at the same dark gray walls and dark gray floor. The last time he’d been in this section he’d been running for his life.
Okay, so this was really dumb.
He didn’t know where he was going. Shit.
At the very least there weren’t many options. No other hallways or rooms. He kept walking, debating if he should call out to Bobby.
But what if it attracted the attention of…them?
Was he being foolish? It made more sense that terrorists were roaming around instead —
A screeching echoed down the hallway.
He froze, his heart hammering inside his chest. Buck clutched his halligan, tasting blood from how hard he bit his bottom lip.
....
Tagging those who might be interested or want to share words.
@mellaithwen @homerforsure @finduilasclln @eddiebabygirldiaz @fleurdebeton @hippolotamus @ci5mates @coatedpanda16 @deedo2313 @dangerpronebuddie @diazsdimples @spotsandsocks @the-likesofus @shyaudacity @steadfastsaturnsrings @elenaazra @spaceprincessem @spotsandsocks @andavs @thebestbooksaround
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