Last night I was thinking about the E3 coverage of the upcoming game No Man’s Sky, as well as the worlds of Metroid. The following is definitely influenced by forementioned, but it isn’t meant to fit in either as fan fiction. It’s simply an attempt to capture how I imagine being alone on a foriegn world might feel. Especially if something else wanted to claim it first. You never know what is out there.
No air. I desperately gulped at the void around my face, but I found nothing. Can’t think. Can’t breath. No air.
My captor unsealed the mask, and a hint of breath filled my starving lungs. Then again, it was sucked out and I was left gasping in vain.
The room tumbled about me, and the single light blinded me from everything else.
My insides lurched and the mask filled with bile. Again the mask was removed, and I collapsed on the ground. The bindings on my wrist tore into my flesh through the sudden fall. I barely noticed. I wheezed in the breath of life.
“We’re going to try this again,” rasped my reptilian captor. “Who else knows about this world?”
I shook my head with closed eyes.
The sudden force of a boot pressed every molecule of oxygen from my breast.
“Final question,” it calmly continued. “After I have suffocated you in your own vomit, into which star shall I send your remains?”
A weapons I couldn’t recognize rested against my head. In that moment I knew I could close my eyes forever. The searing pain in my chest and head would disappear. An accidental smile stole across my lips.
“You worthless filth, you.” it sneered, feathers frilling out around its head.
“I sent … a beacon,” I whispered, between shallow breaths.
“What did you say?” roared the creature, lifting me up to its face.
I tried to chuckle, but it turned into more of a cough. I took a solid breath and repeated, “I sent a beacon. It’s only a matter of time now.”
In disgust, my captor tossed me aside. In a moment I was alone, and the room was silent. Yet I waited. Rather, I rested, and tried to recouperate from near suffocation and being kicked by a being five times my mass.
The bite of the binding started to sting as my head cleared, so I got up and wandered to where my gear had been discarded. I took no time in locating my blade.
Once my arms were free, I made my way out of the makeshift shack, and trekked back to the starship. It was unharmed.
The data records synced to my ship’s main computer the instant I boarded, and a summary presented itself on the screen.
Stage 3 inhabitable planet
Single-cell colonization only
Massive deposits of fuel-ready organic mass
Massive deposits of a variety of metals
“Send report beacon?” the terminal prompted.
I accepted. I wouldn’t want to be a liar, now would I?