(Author's note: This chapter takes place roughly 1 week since the last chapter involving the EX-5 crew; sorry if seems a little confusing)
Lucas's EX-5 log entry.
It has officially been 1 week since our arrival to Earth. It's been a lot to take in. The crew and I are still recovering from the loss of Scott, and Michael's close call as well. It's been very chaotic, and we all are still trying to cope with our arrival here.
Shortly after we landed… we broke into a house. It was an act I'm not proud of, but this allowed us to save Michael's life. And by doing so, we've made contact with a species we've never seen before, who call themselves wolves. Being bipedal creatures, they are covered in fur and have many attributes similar to protogens. Most stunningly they lack visors, with organic eyes and a snout in its place.
One of these wolves, named Winter Reid, is the first wolf we met after our arrival. Our meeting was rather tense… but went well nonetheless. In the last week, she has warmed up greatly to our presence. I've taken a particular appreciation to her given our similar love for space and aviation. Winter's friend, Oscar, showed up a couple of days ago. He has sided with Winter to help us, thankfully.
Among other news, I've regained some movement back into my hand, although limited, it is promising. Michael has also made progress over his injuries. He's already begun walking again with the help of crutches. According to Avera, he'll fully recover within a month or two. As pointed out by Winter, we heal much faster compared to wolves. I'd dive into this further, but I must cut this log entry short, as we are going to be taken back to the EX-5 to assess the damage it had sustained during our orbit. Until the next entry, I will be keeping notes.
End of log entry.
LUCAS’S P.O.V.
I turned off the small tablet and held It blankly in my hands, staring at my reflection on its black screen. Everyone took turns with the tablet making log entries, but lately I've found myself making the majority of them.
I stuck the tablet into one of my large jumpsuit pockets and got up from the living room sofa. Michael was in the kitchen looking for who knows what to snack on, while everyone else was out in the backyard preparing for the car ride back to the EX-5.
I leisurely walked into the kitchen where I found Michael snacking on blueberries.
“Ya know lucas, you should really try these…” Michael said before shoveling a handful of blueberries into his mouth, “...They taste much better than the ones on Aureon” he continued with a muffled voice as he tried to chew and talk at the same time.
“You are getting addicted to those…” I told him with a concerned face.
Michael finally swallowed, “No I'm not,” he said in disagreement.
“That's the 4th large pack of blueberries you've eaten since yesterday!” I argued.
“It's not my fault Winter bought so many of these,” He replied before eating another handful.
“She bought those for everyone to share,” I pointed out to him.
“Oh…” Michael said quietly before staring at the pack of berries. “Could she ...maybe buy some more?” He asked, akin to a child asking for candy.
I sighed, “Yes, I'll ask to get more.” I said as I pushed the back door open.
Michael excitedly continued to snack on the berries as I shut the door behind me.
In the backyard, Avera and Garrett were helping Winter load gear into the back of her jeep. Meanwhile, Vita was busy talking to Oscar on the patio.
“Vita, could you stop talking with him for a second and help us?” Avera screamed towards Vita, but she didn't hear anything.
“I've got it!” I said as I rushed over to the jeep.
“Nevermind” said Garrett as he finished loading empty boxes into the car. “We are ready to go,” he said as he stepped into the back seat.
“Alright I'll go get Oscar,” Winter said before she ran off.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Meanwhile, Avera sat in the front passenger seat so she could help direct us to the EX-5.
“Is everyone gonna fit in this thing?” I asked as I peeked through the door.
“I don't know,” Garrett shrugged.
Winter finally came back with Oscar. “Just sit in the middle,” she said as she climbed into the driver's seat.
Oscar and I piled into the back seats with Garrett. Once the door was shut, it was incredibly cramped.
“Alright let's stop wasting time,” Avera said.
“I actually agree with you,” Winter said, “you have to start talking a little less,” she said, peering at Oscar through the rear view mirror.
Oscar became defensive, “You practically begged me to come down here,” he said, “and when I arrived, I found GENUINE ALIENS at your house! And you don't want me to talk to them?!” He said with a frown.
“Just because we got here by accident doesn't mean we can be wasting time…” Avera continued.
“What! You are the greatest discovery in history, there are so many questions that have to be answered!” Oscar said.
“Yes, I'm sure we are, but you are just as important of a discovery to us as we are to you.” Avera said.
Garrett chimed in, “I can attest to that, you guys are indeed the most amazing discovery,” he said with an enthusiastic smile.
“Anyways!” I said in an attempt to change the conversation, “How long will it take to get to the EX-5?”
“20-25 minutes or so,” Winter said as we drove onto a trail leading into the woods.
“Should we be concerned about anyone finding the wreck site?” Garrett asked us.
“Not really… The EX-5 was never detected in orbit.” Oscar said, “And since you landed in the middle of a forest, I doubt it will be seen by anyone,”
“What's with that, anyway? Is your spaceship supposed to be stealthy or something?” Winter said with a hint of concern.
“No, not at all,” I said, “Being easily traceable was a part of its design,” I explained, “It's got an emergency transponder, it's hard to miss it”
Oscar was puzzled. “I don't get it. How could we have missed your arrival here?” He said.
“We couldn't detect the debris that killed Scott… and our flight computers could barely even tell we were orbiting a planet either.” Avera said quietly.
Winter put it together, “We can't detect you… And you can't detect us.” She said with an instant realization. “Perhaps you guys exist at a vastly different resonant frequency compared to us?” She said in a query tone.
“Perhaps…” Avera replied.
Everyone continued to make small talk and ask questions. After a couple minutes I stopped listening and instead turned my attention to the outside world.
The jeep continued to bump along as the grassy fields turned into forest. Avera was directing Winter on where to turn while Garrett and Oscar made notes of our position.
As we got closer to the wreck site, the mood inside the car slowly changed. Conversations slowed and voices became quiet.
Suddenly, Winter slammed on the breaks sending the jeep to a screeching halt.
The muddy trail ahead of us was covered in broken tree limbs. Gazing upwards, the forest canopy had been sliced open, revealing the cloudy sky above.
Mixed in with the tree limbs were shiny flakes of metal, gleaming in the light.
Avera got out of the car and approached the debris. She picked a couple pieces of the metal and pointed out to our right. A couple hundred yards away, the faint outline of the EX-5 could be seen emerging from the trees.
Everyone got out of the car, and together the 5 of us followed the ripped apart trees leading towards the spacecraft.
As we got closer, metal flakes turned into metal chunks. The chunks became more recognizable as we approached.
3 deep ruts in the ground marked where the landing gear impacted and dug in. The right landing bogey was still firmly lodged in the ground far away from the EX-5, much to Winter and Oscar's fascination.
Avera, Garrett and I waited as the two wolves admired the piece of debris.
“Can we go? I'd rather not be here longer than needed…” Avera said impatiently.
Oscar nodded, but he started to fish his phone out from his pocket.
“What are you doing?” I asked, peering over at him.
“Getting a photo,” He said as he pointed his phone at the chunk of tire.
“What! Are you stupid?” Avera said before violently ripping the phone from Oscar's hands.
“HEY!” Oscar yelled, “GIVE ME THAT!” He said, lunging after Avera.
The commander swift dodged Oscar's attempt to get the phone, “You can have this back when we are done. I can't let any photos be taken of us or the ship-” she said, waving the phone high above the Wolf.
Winter watched on silently as this all unfolded, unsure if helping her friend would end well.
“Give that back to him,” Winter ordered, “He won't take photos, right, Oscar?,”
“Uh- yes, yes!” He said, eagerly nodding to Avera.
Avera stared at them both with a scowl before reluctantly handing the phone back to Oscar.
“Thanks,” he said before putting the phone back into his pocket. “No photos”
Garrett raced up to the EX-5's wing, gliding his hand across its leading edge. After a moment he pushed himself up onto the wing.
He walked up it and towards the fuselage, stopping right before a large gash that had been ripped into the top of the wing.
The gash went all the way up onto the side of the fuselage and back towards the tail. A messy red streak was left around its jagged edges, presumably where Michael or Scott had hit.
“Is this what sent us into a spin?” Garrett asked as he surveyed the damage.
“for how bad the damage is, yeah…” Avera said.
I followed the damage as it went up to the EX-5’s twin tail. 2 large tail fins joined together in the shape of a V. But there were no longer 2 tail fins, only 1. The other one had been ripped almost clean off, leaving a check-marked shape instead.
“How'd we even fly…” I whispered, awe inspired by the sight.
Winter came up beside me and stared on as well. “And it was a Satellite that did this?” She asked.
“Michael described a boxy, foil covered object,” I answered.
Oscar joined the two of us, “That sounds like a satellite… wait a minute-” Oscar paused mid sentence.
“A couple old GPS satellites collided a few weeks ago, could that have been what you hit?” He asked.
“That is still a big maybe,” I said, “Explaining any detail of our journey so far is purely hypothetical.”
As we wrapped up our little talk, Garrett jumped down off the wing.
“It could be repairable,” he said as he went to the equipment bay, “But we can figure that out later,”
Garrett climbed up a small ladder into the bay in search of something.
Winter walked beneath the hatch opening in confusion, what are you looking for?” She asked.
“This!” Garret hollered back at her, fore climbing back down.
In his hand he held a small metal container, one the size of a tissue box.
“It's the auxiliary data storage bank, this will help us figure out how we got here.”
“Oh….. that's cool,” she said. “But did we just drive out here for only that? No offense though, seeing your ship is friggin epic,”
Avera took the storage bank and examined it. “Nope, we need to get a couple other pieces of equipment. Tomorrow we can return with Oscar's truck and get the rest of our belongings.”
“Oh okay that sounds fine,” replied Winter.
Over the course of the next few minutes, Avera and I rummaged through the EX-5's cabin. It was a mess, but eventually we got what we needed.
Before we knew it we were driving back to Winter's house. To be frank, her home was becoming the only familiar thing we knew on this planet.
End of chapter 13.
Author's note: One of my favorite parts of writing this series is listening to different vinyl records as I write. Minecraft Volume Beta by c418 and Breakfast In America by Supertramp are both spectacular albums. To those unfamiliar with supertramp, I'd recommend giving them a listen.
Among other news, I've continued to crack down on spelling mistakes in the new chapters.
Have questions or recommendations for the series? Leave a comment below, I love seeing feedback!
See you in chapter 14!
