Part 3
Chava
I watched the dawn light catch his wings as he soared across the sky. He was my morning light at the start of every day. I smiled before I dove beneath the surface again. I observed everything – the water currents, the waves, the tides pulled by the planet's satellite, the growing of the marine plants and the undulations of the mobile marine creatures. I sent my observations to the Genesis for their databanks.
This was my first planetary assignment. I wanted to do everything right.
Yet every morning, I watched my colleague in the sky, wondering what his tasks were and wishing I could communicate with him. I wanted to ask him for advice on how to do better. With him in the air and me on the surface, we catalogued the planet as closely as we could. Once the catalogue was complete, we'd be summoned back to the Genesis and return to hibernation until the next planetary assignment.
As the sun set, I saw him descend to land to rest and refuel, as I did the same.
The crack of simultaneous lightning and thunder woke me. It was dawn, but the sun was nowhere in sight. The air smelled of ozone – an unusual scent for this planet.
He had already risen, hovering in the sky above me, so I dove through the storm-stirred waves in his wake. I kept beneath the surface as much as possible, hoping to match him today. The wind buffeted his wings, slowing him down to a speed closer to my swimming pace.
I smiled as I submerged again. I could see his shadow on the surface, outlined by each bolt of lightning. I caught a glimpse of some unusual fish and dove deeper, where light no longer penetrated to form shadows.
"We have lost contact with planetary personnel. Please respond," I heard Angie say.
"Responding," I replied, heading for the surface.
Angie repeated her message. Her tone grew concerned.
"Responding," I repeated, wondering if the water depth had hidden my first reply from her.
"Your colleague is not. Please confirm his location," Angie said.
I searched the sky, but with this was difficult in the troughs between waves. I caught sight of movement, but it was another bolt of lightning. The bolt split in the sky, as if it had contacted something on its way to the surface.
His scream arrived at the same time as the crack of thunder. I saw a fireball plummeting toward the water.
The only sun in the sky this morning was him – his wings ablaze with flames kindled by the lightning strike.
YOU ARE READING
Genesis
Science Fiction"Who'll notice if we blow up another planet, Angie? Plenty more where this one came from." A paradise planet, a lost world...and love. Angie and Des, terraforming engineers on the vessel Genesis, encounter a new planet. With no signs of life except...
