It had taken Robert Grist a day and a half before he finally reached the halfway point between his old, destroyed cabin and the mountain that loomed like an icy giant in front of him. The going had been rough. In spots the snow had only been about a foot deep and he easily trudged his way through it. But in other places where the wind was strong he had to force his way through hip deep drifts of snow.
Exhausted, Robert prepared a campsite and setup a tent for the night. The sun was slowly sinking behind the mountain casting a red glow over the landscape. Shadows, hundreds of feet in length, danced across the snow as the ever-shifting piles moved with the wind. It would be dark soon. He glanced up into the sky, trying to look for the grey clouds he had seen earlier, but it was either too dark, or they had dissipated long ago. There was nothing there. He shrugged his shoulders, too tired to care at the moment and crawled inside his tent. Closing his eyes, he was asleep in seconds.

Toshi’ko woke with a start. It was pitch-black, she didn’t know where she was at first. Blinking lights; red, green and blue, sparkled all around her. It was a disorienting feeling. A sensation of panic and claustrophobia began to overtake her. She felt her body pinned up against something, but she didn’t know what it was that was holding her in place. She began to struggle with the thing that held her tight, but she couldn’t move. She started to sweat, beads of perspiration ran down her face. She kicked her leg out, hitting something hard. Where the fuck was she?? She kicked again and again, trying desperately to fight her way out of this situation. On the fourth kick a light above her head suddenly came on, illuminating the area she was confined in.
Breathing hard she looked around, sweat pouring down her face. A sudden realization hit her..she was inside her cockpit. She looked at the control panel in front of her. Part of it was dented and cracked from her frantic kicking. A button next to her boot prints read “interior lighting”. During her thrashing she had accidentally hit it, thank god. She looked down to the thing holding her in place. It was her waist belt. She reached down and unclipped it, freeing her from the cockpit seat.
Looking around, assessing the damage, she shook her head. Damn, what a mess. The only part of her ship that still seemed to be intact were a few flight controls, a lot of good those would do her now. And the seat she currently occupied. Removing the helmet from her head, she let her long, black hair fall on her shoulders. She flexed her muscles, checking her body for any brakes or bruises. With the exception of a few scratches she seemed to be okay. Man, what a fucking mess. Leaning back, she closed her eyes and thought back to the moments before she blacked out.
She had been following closely behind the pod. When they both hit the atmosphere she had been momentarily blinded by the hot plasma pouring over the front of her ship. After being in the calming blackness of space for so long, the sudden, violent introduction of air and fire caught her off guard. Her ship had demanded that she release manual control and let it steer itself through the atmosphere on autopilot. But she never trusted machines when it came to her life. Forcing manual control, she fought the ship and eventually made her way through the wall of flame and into a new and even more dangerous situation.
When her view of the pod came back she was shocked to see that there were explosions erupting all around it. Little black objects, hundreds of them, were flying up from the ground aimed directly at the pod. They exploded in a myriad of smoke and flame, but to no avail. The pod barely had a scratch on it. She swooped in closer for a better view but as soon as she did that, she realized her mistake. From out of nowhere came one of the black objects. It flew directly at her. She tried to move out of its way, but her reflexes were rusty and it hit her directly in the side of her ship. She was rocked hard, her ship was shoved sideways and rolled through the air a few times before the ship righted itself. Lights and warning sounds erupted all around her. She knew what they all meant; she was fucked. She fought hard against the controls trying to keep the ship in the air, but it was hopeless.
She saw the land close in or her. Her ship moved faster and faster as she flew through the air reaching mach 10 in a matter of seconds. Her ship was shaking violently, her body ached from trying to keep the ship steady. She saw an open spot of land in front of her. It was her only chance. She aimed her ship for that spot, using all of her strength to keep it steady. She was only a few hundred feet off of the ground now. The land below her was a blur. She fell lower and lower, sweat poured down her face. Only a few feet now. She felt the bottom of her ship skid across the ground and then rise back up into the air. It fell again, harder this time. She heard something crack below her, the interior of her cockpit was ablaze with reds and blues. Every light in the ship was flashing a warning. The ship bounced back into the air one last time and fell again. She felt the bottom hit something hard, and then the ship began to roll on its side and then blackness took her away.
When Toshi’ko opened her eyes again, a bright light poured through her cockpit window. The light above her head was still on, but it paled in comparison to the vibrant light shining on her. She squinted her eyes, trying to see where it was coming from. Ahead of her was a giant orb that shone bright in the liquid blue sky. Her eyes were so dark-adjusted from living in space for so long that the intensity of the light was painful. She felt around in her ship and found a pair of glasses that she threw onto her eyes. The lenses dulled the light a little, but at least she could see now without tears pouring down her cheeks. Looking outside again she recognized where the light was coming from. This must be the star for this planet, Toshi’ko thought to herself. She didn’t even remember falling asleep. How long had she been out? It had been dark when she closed her eyes and now the world in front of her sparkled. Although it was void of any color but white, the light seemed to bounce and reflect off of everything. It was beautiful.
Leaning toward the control panel, she pressed a few buttons and a tiny, green screen popped up in front of her. It was blank at first, but after pressing the center of the screen with her finger it instantly came to life. Hundreds of words scrolled across the screen in a matter of seconds before they finally slowed and then stopped. Toshi’ko leaned closer, peering at a list of words and numbers. The machine was programmed to read the environment outside of her ship. What it told her made toshi’ko breath a sigh of relief. The air outside was breathable, she wouldn’t need the hemlet to recycle the air for her. And although the temperature was less than 20 degrees, it wasn’t life threatening as long as the body suit she wore stayed intact.
Now the only problems remaining were finding out where she was and how in the hell she was going to get out of here. That task would prove to be a difficult one. She tried to bring up her navigation system, but it was so badly damaged from the crash that it refused to turn on. Swearing to herself, she knew the only way she was getting out of this was to leave her ship.
Looking down, preparing to grab a few items to take with her, she suddenly noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. And that’s when she saw it. In front of her, only a few yards away stood a figure dressed completely in brown fur staring directly at her.