Anna held her breath, afraid to test the alien atmosphere. She leaned in as far as she could; half of her body floating in this new world, the other half still floating on Earth. With her one free hand, she shaded her eyes from the glare of the alien sun. A star, larger and brighter than our own, lit up the afternoon sky. At least, it felt like the afternoon with the color and the angle of the light as it was. Just beneath the bright sun, a smaller red star floated above the horizon.
Wow, a binary solar system.
Anna looked to her left and saw a chain of islands travel in a line across the vast ocean. Small, marshmallow-like clouds floated just below and above her. Her lungs began to burn but she couldn’t pull herself away from the panoramic view of this alien planet.
The display on her goggles flickered to life, surprising Anna and causing her to exhale the little oxygen she had left in her lungs. She frantically pulled her body back through the hole and found herself floating in the familiar night sky of her own world. She gulped in air and tried to adjust to the darkness of home. Her goggles flickered and went dark again. Something about the wormhole didn’t agree with her iCom.
Anna floated in mid-air as her breathing returned to normal. And, then it hit her. She was the first to see an alien planet. The first! Anna Armstrong. But, it wasn’t enough and she knew it. She wanted to be the first to explore an alien planet. There was no question in her mind. She had proved the temperatures wouldn’t freeze her skin or the atmospheric pressure crush her to mush. Hurdle one. Jumping through the hole wouldn’t be any different than a quick jump into the deep end of a pool. Just submerge yourself for a while and swim around the bottom. All she had to do was hold her breath.
One...Anna took in several big gulps of air to oxygenate her blood.
Two...She reached into the orb with both hands then took in one final deep breath.
Three...Anna pushed through the hole and off into nothing.
For a brief second she felt like she was swimming through water, then Anna emerged on the other side. Immediately, her iCom flickered to life. Numbers played across the screen letting her know the exterior temperature -- 80 degrees fahrenheit, the wind speed -- 17 kmph, and atmospheric composition -- 24 percent oxygen which was higher than home but perfectly safe. All of her readings were within the safe green zone but she continued to hold her breath until her lungs began to itch. She exhaled the last of her breath then sipped in a quick gulp of air. So far, so good. The air felt normal and even tasted a little sweet like the clearest of spring days. She allowed herself to take in another gulp, then another, until she was breathing normally. Hurdle two.
Anna checked the coordinates on her goggles and took a snapshot of her location. If she was going to explore, she wanted to make sure she had a way to get back. She looked down and saw speckled light reflect off the ocean’s surface. To her left was a chain of small islands. To her right was a large landmass that spread off into the horizon. That looked like the best place to start her exploration, she figured.
She knew she wouldn’t have long to explore. Mara would now be officially freaked out. But, she couldn’t pass up this chance to explore. Anna looked back one more time to make sure the wormhole was still there. Through the bent light of the wormhole, she could see the familiar moon and the stars and the night sky of her own world.
The air currents were a lot bumpier here than at home and she had to shift her weight constantly to keep from being tossed around. Maybe it was because of the ocean or the altitude. As she glided closer to land, she could make out more detail of the mountains and the vegetation. Two rivers meandered on opposite sides of the tallest peak only to merge just before flowing into the ocean.
Anna was now close enough to make out a flock of white birds, or bird-like animals, riding the air currents along the edge of the shore. About a half mile off the shore, another group of ocean creatures broke the water’s surface, popping in and out of the water like a school of dolphins. The altitude gauge on her dashboard read 86 meters. From that height she estimated the animals playing in the water were the size of small elephants. At least, she thought they were playing until she noticed the shadow closing in behind them. The shadow just beneath the water’s surface looked like a giant rock, at first, but it moved at a fast clip and was propelled by four giant fins. The shadow was on the hunt. She focused her iCom on the leviathan to get its readings. It was almost 100 meters in length, about the size of a football field, and big enough to snatch her from the sky even at this height. Anna quickly changed her course up and out towards land.
She could hear the roar of the waves, fifty to sixty feet high, as they crashed on the rocks of the beach; waves twice as big as anything she had seen in Hawaii. As she made her way over land, the deafening crash of the waves gave way to a strange chorus of new sounds. Anna felt like she was trying to pick out words from a foreign language. She wasn’t sure where one noise stopped and the other began. Tweets, squawks, deep thundering hums. The world was alive with sound and movement.
Beneath the canopy of trees that lined the mountain, she could make out quick flashes of alien life. A great long arm covered in white fur swung gracefully on the branch of a tree. Two eyes peered between fan-shaped leaves. Smaller red animals, like jellyfish, swung from tree to tree in a pack, their movement like water flowing in a stream. There was so much to see, so much that was alien, the images began to blur in Anna’s mind no matter how hard she tried to hold on.
Anna followed the path of one of the rivers, past a series of cascading waterfalls, to its source at the top of the mountain. At this height, clouds swirled around the mountain like water flowing around a rock and the wind buffeted her from side to side. Water vapor formed droplets on her skin and hair. But, once she cleared the mountain top, the wind gusts stopped and a great valley opened up in front of her. The land was flat as far as she could see. No hills. No mountain ranges in the distance. Just an uninterrupted flat plain dotted with enormous trees that mushroomed hundreds of feet into the air, their branches leaning towards the ocean like sentries pointing towards a far away destination. Underneath the shade of their giant canopies, four legged animals grazed on rust and lime green colored grasses.
She slowly descended until she was just feet off the ground but far enough away from the tree and the herds of animals to be safe. She had no way of knowing if they were carnivores or herbivores and didn’t feel like testing it out. The ground looked safe enough, no quicksand or giant insects or gaping holes ready to suck her underground. Anna landed gently on the surface. The first thing she noticed was the soil felt a little softer than soil at home, almost spongy.
Anna ran her hand along the blades of red and green grasses which felt soft like fur. Was it her imagination, or were the grasses bending and reaching out towards her as she walked through the giant meadow? The sun was warm and the air dry. In the distance, she heard beautiful singing unlike anything she had heard before. Were the animals talking with one another? Was this their music? The sound worked its way into her head and resonated in her chest. Her shoulders relaxed, her eyes half closed. Anna found herself smiling and swaying with the grass as the light from an alien sun warmed her skin.
Then something flapped against her face. Feathers.
“Ackk...!” Anna swatted her hand in front of her face.
A birdlike object fluttered around her head, swooping and swirling as if it was trying to get her attention. Another birdlike creature landed on the ground near her feet and looked straight up at Anna. Anna looked straight back, surprised to see something so familiar in this alien landscape.
“What are you doing here, little fella?” Anna smiled. “You look just like the birds we have at home.”
Then she realized it was a bird from home. She didn’t know the type of bird, but she was sure she had seen it before. There was no mistaking it. The bird seemed to respond to her voice and joined its friend in fluttering around her playfully.
“How long have you been here, you poor things? Did you fly through the same wormhole I did?” Anna asked softly, afraid she might scare them away. “You’d never be this friendly on the other side, would you? You must sense I’m from home.”
The two birds began to tweet loudly and swoop and swirl around her head. Something was agitating them. And, just as quickly as they’d appeared, the two birds took off like a shot in the direction of the closest giant tree.
“Was it something I said?” Anna called out.
Then it hit her. The silence. The beautiful song that had filled the air was gone. The air was still. Anna looked around nervously. The animals under the canopy of the tree had disappeared. All bad signs.
Anna held her breath as she strained to hear any approaching sound. She watched her two bird friends take off in a straight line towards the tree, only to disappear in a gap in the trunk. Then she realized all of the animals had made their way into the base of the cavernous tree trunk, barely visible. Hidden and protected. What are they doing?
A loud thunderous groan broke the silence and made Anna jump. The groan was followed by a terrible and great sustained crash of wood, twisting and snapping. The branches of the giant tree somehow began to twist and fold and collapse, wrapping around its trunk in a protective cocoon. Each tree that dotted the horizon moved in a similar pattern, closing their giant branches like bird wings. How could anything so big move so quickly?
The grass that swayed in the breeze just moments ago, began to collapse in circles at her feet. In a giant rolling wave and a quiet hush, grass collapsed flat against the ground as far as she could see until the entire landscape now looked like a green and red carpet. In seconds, the entire landscape had changed. Alien and incomprehensible.
The temperature had also changed, 90 degrees and rising according to her iCom. Sweat began to trickle down Anna’s back. 95 degrees, now 100. The air that smelled sweet like spring just moments ago, began to turn stale. Anna sniffed and her lip curled up in disgust. Sulfur. A breeze began to blow from across the valley, but it was hot and dry and quickly became a full blown gail.
Oh man, what had she been thinking? Anna wanted to kick herself. How long had she been gone? Where was she? Anna tapped her iCom and mapped the location of the portal that would lead her back home. The display read 21 kilometres away. She plotted a course back to the wormhole and a blue target appeared on the screen. She turned and readied herself to fly when something in her peripheral vision caught her attention.
A figure, dressed in black, stood alone in the distance. It wore a round white hat that reflected the sun like a halo. It can’t be, Anna thought. And suddenly she felt she was in a dream remembering a dream. She had imagined these creatures months ago, the creatures in the field outside her window. The figure’s impossibly long and thin arms swayed back and forth as if it was searching for something. She was sure of it. It was searching for her.
From this distance, she could barely make out its face. White like bone. Two dark holes where eyes should be. Suddenly, the figure stopped and raised its head. It’s eyes locked with Anna’s and then it began to run towards her in herky jerky movements. Too fast. Anna couldn’t move her legs, she couldn’t feel her legs. She was frozen.
Before it could reach her, the creature stopped and opened its mouth; a round black hole that seemed to take up more than half its face. A silent scream. The creature made no sound, but somehow, Anna could hear it speaking to her. A voice deep within her head. Words without language. It was unmistakable. The creature told her to…
Run!
And, just like that, the creature vanished and she was left alone. Anna felt like she was losing her mind.
In the far distance, clouds in the horizon began to part and disappear at a great speed. It reminded Anna of an old grainy film she saw of an atomic bomb blast and how the resulting shock wave parted the clouds in the sky. Just like now. Something was parting the clouds in the sky and it was heading directly towards her.
“Oh no...”
It started with a rumble like jet engines in the distance, growing louder and louder until the sound vibrated in her chest and made her head throb.
“No, no, no, no, no!”
Anna instinctively turned and ran in the opposite direction of the sound. She was able to clear ten paces before she was hit hard with a wall of air that tossed her dozens of feet into the air. She was spinning now, lost in an air current, unable to tell which direction was up or down. The roar of the wind was deafening. She was stuck in some kind of alien windstorm and it took all that she had to not put her hands over her ears and scream.
Her lungs began to itch. From the corner of her iCom display, the oxygen sensor blinked red. 19.5 percent and dropping. At this oxygen level she had minutes left before she would pass out. The more she struggled against the wind, the more she was tossed like a rag doll. The wind speeds were well over 130 kilometers per hour and rising. At this rate, she’d be tossed out far across the ocean, far enough away from the wormhole that she’d never find her way back. Stuck here forever on this alien planet, if she survived at all.
It was like being caught in the undertow at the beach. There was no fighting it. She forced herself to relax and lean in the direction from the wind, although her body was racked with panic. At least she was being blown in the direction of the wormhole. Now, it was a matter of aiming herself perfectly at the wormhole and hitting it straight on while going well over 150 kilometers per hour and spinning out of control. Easy — like hitting a bullseye in a hurricane.
The first obstacle was the mountain range that was fast approaching. Anna flattened herself out and used her arms and legs to ride the air currents over the mountain-top. Just as she stabilized her flight, her body was hit with a cross current and she began to tumble out of control. No matter how hard she breathed, she wasn’t able to take in enough oxygen. She was close to blacking out, but she couldn’t stop now. Anna used her core to stabilize the spin and was back on course. But, the spinning and lack of oxygen were taking their toll.
At this speed, Anna calculated she had 75 seconds before reaching the wormhole, but her lungs were already burning and she wasn’t sure if she could hold on that long. She tried to relax and conserve oxygen. Focus. Focus. Anna rode the air current along with the mountain range, just clearing the peak before being shot out into empty air like a cannon.
Her iCom showed the wormhole straight ahead of her but she was beneath it by two hundred meters. She needed to climb at a 6-degree angle if she had any hope of reaching it in time. She used the little bit of strength left to adjust her arms and legs like ailerons on a plane, even though her body was being tossed like a rag doll. 5 degrees. 4 degrees. 45 seconds to go. Anna wondered why her iCom display was growing dim, then she realized she was blacking out. 2 degrees.
Almost in line. Almost. Come on.
Anna’s vision began to blur. 25 seconds to go. The blackness at the edge of her vision began to constrict like a lens closing on a camera. Blurred colors streamed past her. Ahead was a tapestry of black speckled with points of light. Her arms and legs grew limp. The last thing she remembered was the roar of the wind. Then nothing.