Lost

(Zendoel's POV)

I came out of stasis and blinked a couple of times to clear my eyes. Thankfully the ship's interior light was set low for the comfort of the newly awakened. Carefully I stretched the muscles in each limb, relieved that all appeared to be in working order. It had been a long journey, the longest I had ever taken, but so far, so good.

I looked around for the others.

I saw Prime, black as night, already seated at the control panel, the silver helmet on his head connecting him to the ship's operating system. As leader of the expedition, Prime would have been in and out of stasis a few times during the voyage. It would have been his decision to judge whether the ship was close enough to our destination to justify rousing the rest of us.

Ora, the medic, was standing to my right, waving her diagnostic scanner over Mohktar who was groaning faintly. It appeared I was the fourth to waken; the other three were still in their stasis units. I took a sip of water from the tube in front of me and swirled it around my mouth, waiting for the shot of nutrients Ora had given me to take effect.

Prime was both the leader of our expedition and the controller of the ship; pilot, navigator and engineer combined. Secca was his backup, able to take over if needed. It would be her responsibility to take us home. The rest of us were scientists, myself and Holtar biologists, Jamila a chemist and Mohktar was a physicist. Ora was not only our medic but a specialist in micro-biology.

I wondered if everyone else was as excited as I was. A new world to explore, a world which all available evidence indicated was inhabited, and not just by micro organisms. Our scanning systems revealed the presence of multiple large life forms, both stationary and mobile. Although that was exciting enough, I couldn't help daring to hope for more. Would we be the first to discover alien intelligence?

~~~

Prime brought the ship down in the mountains. We had surveyed the planet for a couple of days before deciding that would be safest, both for us and for the native inhabitants. The scanner indicated that the predominant life form nearby was stationary and similar to what we would call "plants." True, there was a large concentration of mobile creatures in the vicinity, but they were far enough away to the south that they were unlikely to be bothered by our descent.

Best of all, the scanner showed the presence of a large cave system, sufficient to conceal the ship and for us to establish our base camp inside. We had decided to keep our presence hidden for a while, at least until we could assess the natives' level of intelligence. Holtar had argued that we should land as near to the creatures as possible, but Prime had over-ridden him, suggesting that the sudden arrival of a ship from the sky might be frightening rather than interesting. Eventually Holtar had agreed that we didn't want to cause a panic.

Everything went as planned. The ship fit neatly into the largest cave and we began to make small excursions out into the world in which we found ourselves. Everything was so different to what we knew, we could hardly take a step without encountering something new and exciting. At first we took precautions, not wanting to harm either ourselves or the creatures here, but as time passed, we became complacent. We found that a ship's blanket made a cosy tent for the night and Ora quickly identified several plants we could digest safely. There were enough species here to keep us busy for years, decades even and we began exploring further and further afield, sometimes for days at a time.

Which explains why no-one was in the ship when the alarm sounded.

~~~

I admit my first reaction when my emergency device flashed a warning was to cover it up with my hand.

At the time, I was completely engaged with monitoring the rather fine example in front of me of this world's dominant species. The male creature was taller and bulkier than myself. His forehead was narrow above heavy brows, his jaw receded so that he had no chin and he had five fingers instead of the usual six on each hand. He wore no clothing, though a rather thick pelt of hair over most of his body would serve almost the same purpose. At the moment, he had a stone in one hand and was striking it against a piece of flint in the other.

Even to an observer from another world it was obvious he was making something, and using a tool to do so. I zoomed in on the activity with my recorder. So primitive but so fascinating. Had our own ancestors performed the same actions thousands of years ago? So much of the creature's activity was a mystery to me but this one spoke across the aeons.

I tore my gaze away, frowning in annoyance. My alarm was still flashing.

Reluctantly, I drew back and sat down behind a rocky outcrop to examine the device properly. What could be so important as to interrupt my work?

Before I could find out, the very ground shuddered beneath me. Like the primitive creature I had been observing, I flung myself face down, grabbing at the bushes as if they would save me from being swallowed. Another rumble shook the land, then a third.

What was happening? I had never experienced anything like this in my life! Eventually the dust settled and I opened my eyes, somewhat surprised to find I was still alive.

Ashamed of my panic, I took a few calming breaths and made myself think. Had this ground-shaking been what the warning was about? At any rate, I knew there would be a scientific explanation for these events—I was certain Mohktar the physicist would be able to tell us. Was it an isolated event or the beginning of something more dangerous? I had no way of knowing.

My alarm was still flashing, signalling an urgent recall. I had no choice, I would have to postpone my observations of the creature, which was still huddled on the ground, and get back to the ship.

I was still about a kay away from the cave where we had left our ship, when my emergency device went crazy. The alarm was flashing so fast it was almost a continuous bright beam. My heart leapt in fear. What in the world could have happened? What disaster had befallen us? I wished now, not for the first time, that we had taken our proper communicators with us, not simply these panic buttons, that only allowed us to send a call for help or receive one. As I said, we had become complacent.

I began to move even faster. I reached the cave location panting, my eyes staring rather wildly. For a second I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Where was the cave? Had I misread the co-ordinates? But no, there was Prime, scrabbling futilely at the base of an almighty rock fall.

Mohktar came up behind me. "Did you feel the earthquake, Zendoel?" he asked, inanely.

I didn't bother to answer. It was evident that the earthquake had caused more than the ground to shake. It seemed like half the mountain had come down on top of our ship, completely cutting us off.

"Was anyone inside?" I asked Prime, hurrying towards him.

"I don't think so." He stopped for a minute to check his own emergency device, a more sophisticated one than mine, which showed the location of all of us.

"No, no-one," he confirmed, not yet ready to feel relief. A minute later, Ora and Secca arrived, closely followed by Jamila and Holtar. We were all here, safe for the moment.

We stared at the rock fall. It was obvious to me that it would take weeks, maybe months, to dig our way through to the ship. But what choice did we have? All our supplies, as well as our ship, were inside. All we had out here were ourselves and our journey packs, containing drinking water, a blanket and our recording equipment. Ora at least had a small field first aid kit, but that wouldn't last long if anything serious happened to one of us.

"Do you think they'll send a rescue ship?" asked Jamila, anxiously.

"It's possible," conceded Prime. "Especially when they receive the first reports of our discoveries, but it's likely to be years before they would reach us."

I glared at him. Why didn't he just say it plainly? It wouldn't be years, it would be centuries.

(Author's Note: Lost was originally published in 2013 as my final entry for Ooorah's SFSD Smackdown 6.

Prompts were -

For the final round, you're going to play the role of a scientist who's part of a mission to a recently discovered planet.

Your story should be from 4k-8k words, and be told from the first person perspective.

 Sub-genre of Lost World Science Fiction.

Plus the following quotation:

All the places I've been and things I've seen

A million stories that made up a million shattered dreams

The faces of people I'll never see again

And I can't seem to find my way home)