The following morning and plans to reach the others.

The following morning came and went for the crew that landed in the forests of planet Circe. The four pods had been set up in a fashion where it was turned into a crude campsite; small pathways were dug up and cleared between each pod for easier walking with a central camp fire that nestled around three of the closest pods. Those three pods were fashioned into sleeping quarters with fold out cots for the crew to sleep on with their personal possessions what few they had nearby. The forth and furthest pod had been cleaned out and made into a storage room for supplies and food which were gathered from all four pods, where Medical officer Jacobs had been made quartermaster of to keep record of food and medical rations.

Sitting by the fire with the rest of the crew, Captain Tasha and Roberts her chief engineer shared their portion of rations for the day while the rest of the crew busied themselves trying to set up the radio extension to reach the other survivors. “We should have this ready soon ma’am.” Called out one of the ensigns stitching up a balloon with the parachute materiel she and the others gathered from one of the pods. “Good! Let me know when you’re ready to fly.”

Getting a salute from her crew as they continued, Captain Tasha stirred the contents of her soup mix into a metal tin that sat on a make-shift candle oven at her side, tearing open a package of crackers waiting for the soup to cook. Nearby, Roberts worked on one of the damaged data pads, removing the casing damaged parts to determine if the radio antennae was still functional. “Soup is almost done, here’s your tea.” Offered the captain to her chief engineer, with Roberts nodding a thanks while still working on his project.

“So, what are you cooking?”

“Vegetable soup with herbal tea, it comes with some biscuits and freeze-dried orange slices for a dessert.”

“Scrumptious…” Snorted Roberts, prying off the cracked screen of the damaged communicator and tossing it into the fire next to him. “Whose bright idea was it to make the ration supplies vegetarian?”

Stirring the heated tin, Captain Tasha smelled the cooking contents with indifference before setting up a pair of bowls provided by the rations kit. “The Earth Exploration League decided a few years ago that vegetable meals would last longer if properly stored then those with meat in them, no matter how well you keep your stores clean or dry meat always goes bad in the end, this way our M-RE stock remains fresh even after ten or twenty years.”

“Well la dee da… Some of us like some ham to go with our soup you know.”

“Which is why they added THIS to the rations.” Pointed the Captain, offering Roberts a vacuum sealed package of beef jerky. Accepting the wrapped meal with a chuckle, the man freed a stick of salted meat free and chewed on it with a smile. “Heh, what can I say? Squeaky wheel gets the most grease.” With the soup ready, the captain served herself and Roberts their meal and watched on as her crew prepped the balloon. Stitched up and folded into an ellipse shape with an opening at the bottom, the ensign had taken some nylon rope and pierced for corners at the bottom with a knife, tying the ends together to make a center weight for the balloon.

“How long do you think that’ll stay up?”

“Using one of the cooking cubes there as fuel at the bottom of the balloon? Those things can keep going for about 3 hours, they make for a good starter for a camp fire if you’re not cooking.” Explained Roberts, still plucking out non-essential components as he worked. “Even after it goes out the temperature in the balloon would remain hot enough to keep it afloat for over twelve hours before it finally cools down and descends back to the ground.”

“So that gives us about twelve to fifteen hours to try and contact the rest of our crew each day.”

“More than enough time captain.”

*

Watching on as the crew prepped the balloon, Samantha sneered, biting into another fruit in her hand while her cohorts gathered dry wood for the fire.

“Come ON Sam!” Cried out Tina while she and Craig bundled sticks in their arms. “You’re going to get in trouble if you don’t pick up some wood for the fire.”

Rolling her eyes back at the two crew mates, Samantha tossed her finished fruit rind on the ground where three others laid at her feet before joining them. “Sigh… So, you’re looking for wood huh? Why not just pull some branches from the trees here?” Pointing up towards the canopy above where the branches and leaves obscured the sunlight above, the other two crewmen looked to each other and nearly chuckled. “Come on Samantha, we need dry wood for the fire if we want the balloon to work, besides that none of us can climb that high.”

“Oh yeah?” Walking over to the nearest tree, Samantha looked up to the tall trunk of the tree and gripped at its bark with her fingers. Much to the surprise of Tina and Craig, Samantha began to climb up the tree and rather quickly. Easily finding purchase with her hands and feet, the woman climbed her way up as quickly as if she were running, practically scurrying up the height of the tree until she reached the branches overhead. The two crewmen stood patiently together while they waited for their fellow cadet to finally come down. To their second surprise they found her return, crawling back down the tree with the same speed and nimbleness as a chipmunk, crawling down face first until she leapt off the trunk and landed on her feet.

“Yeah… Guess you’re right, all the branches up there are sopping wet from rainfall.”

“Uhm… Sam.”

“Yeah?”

“How’s you do that?”

Brushing herself off and scratching an itch at the back of her neck, Samantha rolled her shoulder and huffed. “What? I just climbed a dumb tree; didn’t you have trees growing up?” Finishing brushing off her cloths, Samantha stormed off to join the others, leaving the two cadets to look back up the tree and back at their retreating friend.