He snapped back to himself, his mind once again wrapped in its cocoon of flesh, reinforced by the icy strands of metal and synthetic nerves. He opened his eyes, squinting and blinking into a harsh white light. His muscles ached and his mouth was filled with the hot coppery taste of blood. Lungs burning, he took a deep shuddering breath, relishing the cold, refreshing air supplied by his exo-suit. He glanced down at the small clock in the bottom corner of the heads up display. The entire eons long out of body experience had passed by in just under a minute. Someone was shaking him gently and an unrecognizable sound warbled over his suits radio.

The sound resolved into Izzie’s voice. “Nate!” she shouted. “Damn it, what's wrong? Nathan! Answer me!”

“It’s okay Iz, I’m right here.” said Nate in a whisper. The memory of the vision fading like a half remembered dream.

“Are you okay? What happened? I have the med kit here, tell me where it hurts” said Izzy, her voice high and full of panic.

“I’m fine,” said Nate. “I don’t hurt anywhere, and you’d have a hard time working that medkit underwater. Everything is okay, I’m okay.”

“Are you sure? Your suit listed you killed in action after you touched that thing”

“Yeah I feel okay. Did you guys hear the whispers too?”

Rowan swam over to him. “Whispers?” he said. “No, I don't think anyone heard that. If it’s okay with everyone else I’ll take Nate back up to the surface. I think he needs a more thorough check up.”

Everyone agreed and Rowan attached a tether to Nate’s exosuit and swam back to the surface, Nate paddled back up the tunnel slowly and emerged into the sharp daylight of the world above. Rowan led him into the gunship and sealed the exit ramp. Nate sat in one of the seats in the crew compartment. He looked up at Rowan standing over him with his arms folded and tried to explain everything the monolith had shown him.

“So that’s it then?” said Rowan. “Your arm clamped on and the alien artifact gave you some kind of vision? I’m sorry buddy but I think we’ll need to give you a full tune-up when we get back to the Dauntless.”

Nate began to reply, but stopped himself, checking the event logs on the exo-suit. It had listed him as completely brain dead for five seconds before reassessing and stating he was alive but comatose. “I really do hate doctors,” he said. “But the suit logs think I fucking died for a full five seconds, that can’t be good for anybody. So, I guess you’re right, time for a tune-up. What’s the final tally on this old bucket’s damage?”

Rowan smacked the wall twice with his fist, producing a hollow metallic bang. “This bucket, as you put it, is tougher than she looks. The belly is pretty crumpled but it should be able to fly out of the atmosphere, although I wouldn’t trust it for reentry until it’s spent some time in the repair bay. Control circuitry got pretty banged up, but the mechanical bits are all still in place, we got lucky and just need some wire to splice the hydraulics back under the computer’s control. Izzy managed to fix that false read from the EBF sensor. Only other thing is hunting all the shorts in my control panel but hopefully swapping some fuses will fix that.”

Nate thought back to how hard they had hit the ground. “Wow, tough sounds like an understatement. You ditched the extra fuel though, we won’t have enough to make it back into orbit, or slow down once we’re in space.”

Reginald chimed in over the radio. “Sorry for eavesdropping guys, but I’m chatting with the Dauntless they’re trying to hot drop us some fuel. Their communications guy sounds ex-military and I can’t keep up with all the acronyms and jargon. What’s he mean by hot drop?”

Nate scowled. “It means they’re loading our supplies into a metal pod and slinging it down to us from orbit. It went poorly so often that most Alliance ships swapped their drop pods for torpedo tubes a decade ago.”

Rowan paced back and forth a few times, thinking. “If they fire a payload of fuel down from orbit isn’t there a good chance it’ll explode?”

“One crack in the heat shielding will turn it into a fireball in the upper atmosphere, or it could land poorly and bust open on the ground, orbital drops are nowhere near precise so it could land in the ocean too.” said Nate.

“Then why are they even bothering with that? They have the little shuttle to fly us some fuel.” said Rowan.

“One shuttle on the Dauntless and both the shuttle pilots down here on the ground,” said Reginald.

Nate thought for a moment. “The Dauntless would have a pilot though” he said. “I’m sure if he can fly a big explorer ship he should be able to manage a little shuttle loaded with a couple fuel cans. Reg if you can get the Dauntless back up on comms ask them why they can’t do that. In the meantime, Rowan, let's start hauling that burnt up wiring out of the ship.”

Nate and Rowan stepped back out into alien terrain and climbed onto the ship. First they opened all the available access panels and then started the long and tedious task of removing the ruined wiring and circuits.  The sun edged slowly towards the horizon as they worked, tinting the pale sky with shades of pink, and lavender.

“Are you sure you're okay man?” asked Rowan.

Nate set his tools down and sat watching the sunset, legs dangling over the wing. “Seriously I feel fine. That vision or bad trip or whatever the fuck is fading fast. Barely remember any of it really. And I feel good, feels like I just got a good night's sleep.”

Rowan sat down on the wing next to Nate. “That's what I'm talking about man. Your logs listed you dead for a full 5 seconds, some alien presence crawls through your brain, you wake up mumbling about whispers that no one else can hear, and now you're fine. You get up like nothing happened, not a care in the world. Like, shouldn't you be shook up? Scared? Hurt? Shouldn't you be everything except fine right now?”

Nate shrugged. “I guess,” he said.

“I got a message back from the Dauntless,” said Reg. “They’ve been ambushed by more ships, so they’re hot dropping the fuel and parts we need then reactivating their stealth systems.”

Damon’s voice cut in over the radio. “I think we’re ready to come back up. We videoed the whole chamber, no passages, no secret holes in the walls, no drones coming to kill us, just a big empty room. I eavesdropped on your radio channel a bit. Onyx and I will take the rover and find that pod once it makes it dirtside.”

Nate frowned and shook his head. “Nate, Onyx and you will find the pod you mean, you need me to drive the rover.”

“No,” said Damon. “We still don’t know what happened to you. I agree with Rowan, you should be anything except fine right now. I think it’s safer that you stay in the dropship.”

“Can you drive a double clutch?” asked Nate. Damon started to speak but Nate cut him off. “No? Then you need me to drive the rover. Unless you want to grind the transmission to pieces and break it and end up carrying all that fuel back by yourself, then you need me.”

Nate took Damon’s exasperated sigh as agreement and walked into the ship. He worked quickly to release the rover from its electromagnetic clamps and restraints and climbed into the cab, bringing the heavy vehicle to life and easing it out of the ship and into the shallow water. He tapped at the keys on the dashboard and set the computer to scan for navigation beacons. Within a few minutes it found one in the forest just a few kilometers away. It looked like it would be a simple job to go and retrieve the supplies before it got too dark.

Once Damon and Onyx were strapped into the back of the rover, Nate mashed the throttle down, sending the rover roaring towards the beacon. The river seemed to be consistently shallow, barely touching the rover’s belly at its deepest points. Glancing up at the sky he saw the sun sinking rapidly towards the horizon and a thick blanket of clouds blowing in, it would be dark sooner than he thought. He pressed the gas pedal to the floor, wanting to make it to the beacon as quickly as possible. The rover threw out a deep throaty growl as the engine revved and the tires bit into the soft mud. The rover jumped forwards, rocking back and forth roughly as it sped over the uneven terrain. The beacon was sitting in a thin stand of trees just outside the river. The river turned sharply but Nate held the wheel straight, sending the heavy vehicle bouncing up over the riverbank. The rover sailed through the air, all six wheels flying clear of the earth and slammed back down, slewing to the left and sending a plume of mud arcing up into the air. He spun the wheel to the right, fishtailing the rover in the opposite direction with a smile. He slowed slightly as he weaved through the trees, carving huge ruts through the forest floor. The drop pod sat in a wide grassy clearing. The rover flew towards it, at the last possible second he turned and slammed down on the brakes, sending the rover into a slide, stopping with the rear of the vehicle facing the pod and the cab pointing back the way they had come. He pulled the parking brake and jumped down out of the cab.

“Mission success:” he said. “I got mud on the roof!”

Damon stumbled out of the rover. “You’re fucking nuts” he said. “We could have been killed driving like that!”

Nate laughed. “I’ve been driving trucks through the woods like this since I was fourteen! We’re fine.”

Onyx stepped out of the rover laughing. “You gave poor Damon quite a scare.” he said, patting Nate on the shoulder. “He needed it though, a fright like that from time to time stops his ego from getting too big.” Onyx dipped one of his antennae in his version of a wink and walked off to help open the drop pod.

The three of them pried the drop pod open and began sorting through its contents. One of the fuel containers had cracked and was slowly leaking fuel. While the others sorted and loaded the rest of the spare parts and supplies, Nate muscled the heavy fuel drum over to the rover and dug through the tool compartment looking for something to seal the leak. He returned to the barrel with a roll of duct tape in hand and began patching the slow leak as best he could. As they loaded the last of the supplies he looked up at the night sky, trying to gauge whether the incoming clouds were likely to bring a storm. The encroaching clouds were lit with a fiery orange glow. Something was dropping through the atmosphere at a tremendous speed. The ball of flame hit the clearing like a bomb, flattening vegetation, igniting trees and sending Nate sprawling to the ground with his ears ringing.

His scavenged helmet drew targeting reticles, medical displays and ammunition counters across the heads up display as it clicked into combat mode. He stumbled to his feet and pulled his little laser repeater up to his shoulder. Dark shapes leapt out of the flames, flitting through the shifting shadows. He fired, sending a long burst of blinding red beams into the flames as he stepped backwards towards the rovers cab. He fired another long burst and climbed into the rover, starting the engine.

“Nathan” Onyx boomed over the radio. “We are aboard. I suggest we make our escape at your earliest convenience.”