Chapter Text
KRACKABOOM!
A blistering pain shoots through Cale’s head. He clutches it, groaning. Fragments of thoughts and memories escape Cale’s grasp, and he finds himself wondering where and why he is where he is. Almost like a mist around his head. Brain fog, was it? Blurry colors and shapes come together to form a slightly coherent image, though his mind is still murky, Cale can at least piece together a scene. Something warm flickers Cale’s face, and he edges away from the bright mound. Something holds Cale back, and he finds himself fiddling with some kind of buckle near his chest.
Click. Thud.
Nearly falling straight to the ground, Cale lands on his hands and knees, hoisting himself up in an awkward position. He inhales and coughs, with something smoky filling his lungs. Cale swivels around, facing a huge flame growing by the second. Frantically searching for something to dampen it, his eyes land on a red metal object, hopefully a fire extinguisher. Cale reaches for it, the hot metal burning his hands somewhat. With whatever a person with smoky lungs and blurry vision can do, Cale pushes down on what feels like a nozzle.
Kshhhhhh.
Snow white plumes shoot out of a nozzle and smother the raging flame. After a moment or two, the nozzle sputters and spits out the last of the whitish material. Cale breathes out a sigh of relief, and though whatever he’s in is still slightly suffocating, he finds it easier to deal with than a literal fire.
Trying and failing miserably to figure out what happened, Cale sinks to the floor. He doesn’t remember much. Really, everything feels like a blur. Cale recalls some sort of giant ship traveling across planets and the such, but what happened in the trips or what happened leading up to his situation is still left to be remembered.
“...”
Cale decides to get some fresh air. He climbs up a ladder, frowning at his weak arm strength.
Kaclink.
The hatch of the pod opens with ease, clicking open. A gust of salty air attacks Cale’s face and he grimaces, tasting the salt. Fully lifting himself out of the pod, he balances on the smooth surface of the pod. Cale takes in the scene.
A clear, vast, endless, and blue landscape unfurls itself. The slightly see through water reveals colorful and iridescent structures when Cale squints, and countless strange creatures swimming near the surface dart around. Some fly out of the water and glide along its surface, while some dive deeper, swimming out of sight.
The sight feels foreign, alien even, but nonetheless beautiful. Cale sets himself down onto the sphere/pod and watches as golden orange settles itself across the blue water, blending in, bleeding into crimson, and finally fading into a purple-blue hue. The color spreads itself across the skies and the seas, letting little stars twinkle in between.
A smile blooms on Cale’s face. How peaceful. He sits up. He still needs to find out what happened, what he’s doing here, and whatever else is important. Cale climbs down the hatch, finding the air down there to be a bit fresher after letting the smog air out. Come to think of it, his mind is also a little clearer. Observing the current state of his pod, Cale winces. A large portion of it had been burnt down by the fire earlier, and the portion that was burnt included the medical kit creator.
Something catches Cale’s eye and he pauses to pick up the strange device. It’s mostly a see-through blue screen, with a solid grey handle. He studies the screen, tilting it this way and that, before it eventually beeps. An image flickers in and out, and Cale makes out the words.
Another beep rings out and this time, the screen asks Cale to say a word, any word.
“Confirm user..?”
His voice, though parched and dry, is loud enough to be heard by the tablet, and it unlocks. A series of logs, voice recordings, videos, and messages present themselves in front of Cale. Quickly skimming the messages, he finds out about the Aurora, an interplanetary ship he, Cale Henituse, was apparently the captain of. This planet, which the Aurora was supposed to land on and explore, is a planet with a surface of something similar to water, and for whatever reason, the ship didn’t land seeing as how Cale’s stranded here in a pod.
“..?”
Cale taps on one of the logs, a video showing him, looking a little happier with shorter hair, and a stranger with bright blonde hair who seems familiar somehow.
“Hyung, give me back the log.”
The blonde man crosses his arms across his chest and shakes his head.
“Haa, you say that right after stealing my entire dessert stash..”
In the video, Cale puts on a smirk reminiscent of a scammer and asks, “What do you mean hyung? I would never.”
The blonde man’s eye twitches, and he angles the tablet upwards, pointing his thumb at Cale.
“Get a load of this guy..”
“Hyu-”
The man presses a button and the video stops, ending the log and cutting off Cale’s voice.
Cale is left there in silence for a while. From what he’s seen, it looked like he and that man were close in the past, before he ended up stranded here. Feeling a bit disappointed in himself for not remembering the man’s name or anything about him, Cale tenses up. More importantly, if he had forgotten the people in his life, what about the uses of the machines or information about this planet? Those would be lost too. Yes, those are much more important than the people. Definitely.
...Say, even if he did remember those people, would they really want an incompetent amnesiac crewmate back?
“..I should focus on survival,” Cale whispers, his throat feeling parched and painfully cracked. He steadies himself on the wall and stands up. Dying is really not an option. After all, living a miserable life is better than dying a peaceful death. Living is best.
‘So let’s get to work on figuring out this..’
Cale squints at a small label left on one of the surviving machines of the fire.
‘Fabricator.’