Orpheus

39

All Riley could hear were the rattle of the ship and the beating of her heart. She stared ahead, but saw nothing but an auburn haze; the sight made it look like they were descending into hell.

'The friction...'

The rattle got worse, until it was so loud, Riley thought it couldn't get louder.

'I don't want to die like this... I don't want to die....'

Eventually, the crescendo began to subside and the red hue fade; the clouds began taking a whiter appearance.

"Re-entry complete Riley," Connor spoke from upfront. "You can breathe now." He laughed weekly at it, but Riley didn't feel the need to join in; there was too much going on in her head.

Soon the clouds began to part and Riley saw it; their planet. The face of Khione appeared harsh and pale; streaks of black crisscrossing the whites and greys that stretched on forever.

'It looks beautiful, yet desolate...'

'Sometimes the most dangerous things are the most beautiful.'

Connor brought the Destiny into a broad downward spiral as the descended. Riley could see the terrain: uneven, rising and dipping on a whim, stretching on till the eye could see. It was starkly beautiful.

'-and cold. This planet looks cold.'

Destiny gently hovered over the surface. Riley felt the leading gear extend, followed by a bump as it made contact with the ground. Connor unbuckled from his seat.

"We better set up camp first." he told. "Have a base of operations before we do any exploration." Riley nodded weakly in agreement.

"De-pressurising in 3, 2, 1." He announced as he flicked a switch

The door hissed open as she unbuckled. Riley stared outside; the ground looked rocky, coarse, with crystalline moisture coating the whites and greys that called out to her. From inside, a bunch of alarms started going off.

"What's that?" She asked in concern.

"Destiny's air circulatory system," He replied nonchalantly. "Complaining about foreign compositions in the airflow."

Riley stared at him in slight confusion. Connor seemed to notice. "Ammonia, and Nitrogen." He said, looking at the screen. He seemed slightly worried. "Let's move."

Riley got up, but it seemed a lot harder.

'Gravity; Owen mentioned it was larger here.'

Owen... the mere thought of him threatened to spill her heart red.

'I may not know what I feel, but I do know now's not the time to feel so.'

'Yet why do I feel so?'

She shook her thoughts aside and walked towards the door, towards the surface. She extended a leg out, but stopped centimeters from the ground. 

'This is it; I'm in space, on an alien planet. No human has ever set foot here before. We are the first.'

A wave of nausea washed over her; she thought she was prepared, but she wasn't.

'No, Riley. Now's not the time to stop. Take the step.'

She took sucked in a huge breath of air, before she lowering her foot and stepping on the ground; the crystals crunched softly 'gainst her feet, like dry leaves. The sound made her strangely nostalgic.

"Beauty, isn't she?" Connor asked, standing next to her.

"Yes." She replied, taking in the sight. "Let's just hope it's a good planet for us."

They split up, loosely scouting the area. Riley walked to the edge of a depression in the ground and looked below: black rock. She turned her gaze to the sky: harsh white.

'Let's just hope for the best; that's all we can do at this point.'