Arrival

Red emergency lights bathed the transport chamber of the small vessel. There was a hiss of steam as liquid nitrogen vented from four cryostasis caskets. Injectors of medical antifreeze serum popped free from blood vessels as the pods warmed their passengers back to life. Four loud pops, in quick succession, echoed in the steel belly of the ship. The women groggily crawled out of their frozen beds.

They had only met each other ten minutes before, from a certain point of view, but they had traveled together for over a decade.

Natasha was the first to return fully to her senses as she lifted herself out of her casket, swearing.

"Aren't we supposed to have some fuckin' assistance with this?"

Her legs were visibly shaking as she stood. She braced herself and a piece of conduit until she regained her composure. The other three women emerged shortly after.

"Hello?" called Michelle. Bits of ice still clung her curls. "Can anyone give us some help?"

Brynn was the one to react. She rushed to the hatch, manually deactivated the electrolocks, and threw her weight against the door until it burst open with a loud pop. Fresh, earthy air flooded the ship.

She poked her head out for two, three seconds.

"Fuck!" she yelled, and rushed into another room.

The other four women stepped outside. They were in what seemed to be a forest. Or rather, it was a forest, which is absolutely not where an expected ship destined for a known colony should be. They could hear water running nearby, and the air smelled like leaf mold. The crooning "gronks" of some alien creature called out from between the trees.

Jesslyn looked like she was going to be sick. Michelle was on the verge of tears, her eyes glistening in the light of an alien sun. Only Natasha kept her composure.

"They're already dead," Michelle muttered, "the colony failed."

Natasha walked, as calmly as possible, back into the vessel and followed Brynn through the side door. The girl was staring at a massive monitor, reading star charts.

"What happened?"

Brynn moved the map of space around a bit, zooming in, trying to get a look at something.

"We were knocked off course. Large collision on the left side of the ship. Probably an asteroid. The autopilot couldn't adequately correct course due to a partial thruster failure and directed itself to the nearest suspected habitable world."

A planet appeared on the screen. Stripes of land formed ragged continents on a vast world-ocean.

"We're here," said Brynn, "Carnyx. 15 lightyears from Earth. 8 from Hania. Even if we can signal for help, it's over 10 years away."

A wild, animal panic was in her purple eyes. Her pupils darted all over the screen, **** for any sign that she was wrong. Her fingernail dug under a key and anxiously teased it, threatening to pry it loose.

Natasha clapped a hand onto her shoulder, which visibly made the girl twitch.

"Then I guess we're real colonists," she said, "we get to claim our own world."

She tried to smile, but it was more of a grimace.

***

Natasha and Brynn broke the news to Michelle and Jesslyn. Jesslyn was actually sick this time, and Michelle actually cried. Once everyone had pulled themselves together somewhat, they took stock of their situation.

The ship had come with supplies for the colony in addition to people. What had been a month's worth of preserved rations for a dozen people in the event of an emergency extended to 3 months for 4 people, if they showed restraint with their eating habits. Seeds for food crops were in abundance, but they currently had no idea what would grow on this world. Jesslyn suspected the climate was comparable to Earth's temperate forests, but the soil could be fickle and needed testing.

Medical supplies were abundant. There was a full surgery kit, as well as 5 standard medkits. There were blister packs of antibiotics and vaccines for common Earth diseases, such as the flu, but a quick survey found everyone was vaccinated anyway. General over-the-counter medical supplies were not common, but they managed to turn up a tube of antibacterial cream.

Feminine products would not be an issue for some time. They had packed enough not just for the women on the ship but a resupply for those already on-world, and it would take months for the collected women to burn through them. Birth control was in short supply, as part of the colonization's program intention was to encourage reproduction, but they suspected those wouldn't be needed in this context. A few month's doses of anti-androgen and estrogen pills were supplied in case Jesslyn's hormonal implant suddenly failed, for which she was grateful.

Otherwise, miscellaneous hygenics like soap, luxury items like chocolates, and some raw materials including linen cloth and iron bars could all be fit into a cardboard box. Only the bare necessities were included in any meaningful amounts. Brynn hurriedly snagged up a toolkit and some basic mechanical components, as she didn't seem to trust anyone else to make repairs to anything.

All that was left was their personal effects: each one had packed a suitcase. It wasn't much, each woman only had a few days worth of clothes with them. Brynn had carried some preserved chips with her, apparently her favorite brand. Michelle had the basics of a kitchen, just a saucepan and some a cutlery kit. She blushed.

"I was worried they wouldn't have a decent kitchen," she said.

Natasha nodded, "seems like you were right."

Jesslyn brought some trashy novels with her, otherwise expecting all her needs to be met at the colony. Only Natasha brought anything of real interest at the moment: her service rifle. It was a MK-V Dorsinger lasrifle, along with two energy magazines. It could fire a clear beam of energy over 500 yards, burning a hole straight through whatever it hit. The magazine thankfully could be recharged from nearly any source of heat or light, although artificial light would take well over a day to manage a full charge.

"Well, we're well and truly fucked," said Natasha, running her hand through her short hair, "we could send a distress signal but by the time it gets picked up and acted on, we'll already be out of supplies. Only thing we can do is hunker down and try to rough it."

Brynn had been moving between the two rooms, alternating between checking monitors and taking stock of supplies. She shook her head, seemingly without any thought: she was pure motion, refusing to stay in one spot for long.

"It's not as bad as I thought. Still bad. Still really bad. The ship's nuclear, and it's reactor hasn't been damaged. It'll function as long as the coolant recyc system does. Left thrusters are basically demolished. This ship isn't going anywhere anytime soon, it's amazing we made it here at all. We have a tube of metal designed for space that can do everything except go to space."

"Is there a lab onboard?"

"We have a molecular analyzer, it can pick up chemicals and some known viruses. Other than that, we're really short on tech."

Natasha rose to her feet.

"Ok," she ordered, "Jesslyn, start taking soil samples and figuring out what will grow here. I'm not going to starve to **** lightyears from civilization. I'm going to scope the area out and figure out exactly where we are. Brynn, you handle the thinking while I'm gone. These two are nearly catatonic and you seem to know what you're doing. The most important thing I need from you is to keep calm and keep things moving. The worst thing in this situation would be panic."

Brynn visibly began to panic as Natasha walked out the door.