Quinn Salerio rolled over and turned off the beeping alarm

Nothing Can Go Wrong . . . Right?

2001

Quinn Salerio rolled over and turned off the beeping alarm. God I hate these things, she thought. Just another thing I miss about home, I guess. There all I had to do was put the time into my internal-coding computer. She looked at the sleeping body next to her. He is so beautiful. God. She got up, rather slowly, and stretched her arms. Rough night, she thought. I’m a little sore. She dressed, and walked to a door on the other side of the room. She slid open the doors, and stepped out. No fresh morning air greeted her, though, like it used to in past years. Like when she was a little girl, happily getting up early just to see a beautiful sunrise. She gazed out the window before her, out into space. Stars are so magical, she decided. Mysterious, exquisite pieces of magic. She stood there contemplating the sight before her, reflecting on how many light-years away her home was. Suddenly two hands enclosed around her middle.

"Ben!" She sighed. "I’m surprised you’re awake."

Ben squeezed her waist. "C’mon now, give me more credit than that. We have work to do."

"I know," she said. "I was just going to go up there now."

She walked into the control room a few minutes later. The control room was the center point of the spaceship, where all decisions were made and all the work was done. Different stations circled around a large conference table, and half the walls and ceiling was made up a huge skylight that displayed the starry cosmos around them. Quinn worked here about 14 hours out of the 24-hour periods. For some reason the Union liked to retain some of the old traditions, like the 24-hour day, even though they were completely inapplicable now. There was no scientific reasoning behind the 24-hours anymore; Earth was completely uninhabitable. The rotations and revolutions of the planets Earth’s former denizens now occupied were completely different. Yet on Union spaceships, they had kept the 24-hour day. Quinn had always found that strange. Of course, Quinn had always found the Union a little strange. All those different people thrown together in one coalition- there’s bound to be a few problems or perplexities. But the Union hadn’t done a terrible job so far, so she never complained. Humans had done all right for themselves on their new planets. Only recently had the Union had problems, when the population had started increasing a little too rapidly. And that, of course, was the reason Quinn was on this spaceship, on this mission. She worked for a research company named Oberon, who had been assigned this operation of finding, investigating, and preparing a new planet for colonization. After what had seemed like an eternity to Quinn, Oberon had been able to locate a previously undiscovered planet with human-compatible characteristics and few inhabitants, a nearly perfect match. They had named it Vida Verde, for its lush habitats and seemingly abundant green life. Now Oberon was working on investigating the inhabitants, determining human compatibility or the lack thereof. Quinn found the natives of Vida Verde very interesting, and had fallen in love with her job in the past two years. She didn’t mind the long workdays, laboring especially hard in an effort to win a spot on the survey team. She badly wanted to be one of the hand-picked specialists that would be actually sent to the surface to investigate the planet. And today the control room seemed to buzz with a certain air of electricity.

"What’s going on?"

"We’re going to station above Vida Verde today!" one of the Oberon biologists said.

"That’s amazing! Will we land soon, do you think?" Quinn asked.

"Garrett said we will land in two weeks! We are going to wrap up some of the last atmospheric and loam testing, and pick the survey team." Malina, a friend of Quinn’s, said.

"Great." Quinn glanced over to the research team leader, Garrett, and smiled. He’s such a great guy. Great in bed too. Garrett caught her eye and smiled back. But no Ben, that’s for sure. She stepped up to Garrett’s platform and walked around the counters to the desk where he was sitting.

"Big day, huh?" she squeezed his shoulders.

"Sure is, honey. Soon we’ll on our way down to meet these natives face-to-face. I cannot wait," Garrett grinned at her. "I absolutely love this."

"I can’t wait either," Quinn replied. "I’m just nervous, though, because I know if I don’t get on the survey team I’ll be crushed." She glanced up through the skylight, and briefly remembered her thoughts that morning on stars.

"Quinn, honey," Garrett squeezed her hands, scattering her thoughts. "Everything will work out, I promise. You know I won’t forget you. You’re the best anthropologist we have. You have nothing to worry about."

"Thanks Garrett," she sighed with some relief. Good luck today, I have to go work now." Actually Quinn had looked up and caught a glimpse of Ben walking through the doors. She didn’t want Ben to come over and talk to Garrett while she was there, so she hurried over to her station. I don’t know why I’m so worried about it. Garrett would never guess that I’m dating Ben, and I don’t really believe he would care, either. I’m just paranoid. All right, mind off men. Mind on work. I have a lot to finish up before we land. Quinn had been studying the inhabitants of Vida Verde very closely for the past few months. She and her team of anthropologists, behavioral scientists, and biologists had been observing and recording data on the natives of Vida Verde, trying to learn as much about them as possible before the landing date. A satellite had been sent out years earlier to orbit the planet and send them back information, allowing them to determine its suitability. Then they sent several RMOs, Robotic Modes of Observance, to the planet. The RMOs had been crucial in Quinn’s work, recording the actual behaviors and practices of the natives. Quinn could watch those recordings all the time and never tire of them. These unknown tenants of Vida Verde fascinated her, having never seen anything like them before.

The natives of Vida Verde were human-like in form, a rare quality to find in other planets’ species. Only slight differences from humans existed, like their eye color and shape. They also were much more uniform as a species, only slight variation between individuals could be determined. One strange characteristic the researchers had noticed was that there were five separate groups of these natives, distant to one another geographically; yet, all five seemed completely comparable in all aspects. They seemed to be a reasonably peaceful race, with little violence or problems. Quinn suspected some sort of global communication was in effect, but the researchers hadn’t been able to determine anything of the kind yet. They did determine that the natives did not appear to have either a political system or economic system, strangely enough, but did appear to have a very strong religious energy. The natives appeared to worship a supreme being, who the researchers had nicknamed "The One," for lack of a better term. Not much else was known, though, about the natives’ religion. Not much was known at all, still, about the natives, because the RMOs were not allowed to travel everywhere, specifically into the natives’ villages. This was one of the many reasons the survey team and landing was necessary.

Just as Quinn was settling down at her station, Ben strolled over.

"So, are you excited?" he flashed his brilliant smile. "Garrett said the list will be out tomorrow."

"Oh wow," Quinn started. "He neglected to tell me that!"

"Don’t worry hon, it’ll be okay. You’ll be on there." He touched her arm, lightly. "I know you will." He trailed his hand down to hers and squeezed it.

"Ben, be careful," Quinn breathed. She could feel Malina’s eyes on her, scrutinizing every action.

"Quinn, relax! I don’t know why you are so uptight about this." Ben murmured in her ear. "No one cares if we’re together, and we’re not going to break up if someone actually does," he looked into her eyes. "Besides, you’re too gorgeous for me to keep my hands off you!"

"Ben!" she broke into a smile. "I need to work now, okay?" she said gently, removing his hand from her thigh. Her thigh still tingled. "I’ll catch up with you later." He is such a stud, she thought as she watched him move back across the room. Big blue eyes, dark brown hair, great body, mm, mm. She watched Ben step up to his station and sit at his desk. He caught her gaze and winked. She smiled back, then turned back to her desk. Okay, now work.

The next day was a big one for Quinn. She was finishing up with her Vida Verde reports, and Garrett was revealing his picks for the survey team. She eagerly worked and waited at her desk, not even leaving for lunch when Ben came by. She was beginning to get a little worried when Garrett finally stopped by her station. She tried not to show her excitement as he rattled off all the rules and regulations of the landing, what her mission was, and when they were leaving.

"Who else is going?" Quinn asked.

"Well, there’s going to be ten of us. You, me, Anna Miller, Ethan Jones, Roman Tanner, Heath Orion, Nathan Corin, Preston Scott, Vanessa Stephens, and Benjamin Webster."

Ben made it too! Her heart jumped. "Only three girls, huh, Garrett? Not surprising."

"Hey, I just picked the best ones for the job. It had nothing to do with identity, just ability." He smiled, and then turned and left.

It was a good crew. She was proud of Garrett. Anna and Ethan were excellent biologists, and had done the most extensive research so far. Roman and Preston were more of the military type, and were probably going as scouts and protectors. Heath was a young but excellent navigator, and had already mapped out most of the planet they would be covering. Vanessa was another scientist, but more of a behavioral scientist. Nathan had been on Quinn’s research team, and had already proved to her his worth through his excellent perceptions and work ethic. Ben was likely going to help pilot the shuttle. That means they’re not leaving us down there without being able to leave when we want to. That’s good. She smiled at the thought of another few weeks with Ben. I’m glad we’re in this together.

Excitement and anticipation filled the rest of Quinn’s week. Everyone was working on preparing the shuttle, getting ready for the big event of the coming week. Ben and she also celebrated- the good way- dinner, candles, soft music, and all. It was a very nice night.

The night before the landing was scheduled she couldn’t sleep. Practically trembling from excitement, she tossed and turned, trying not to wake Ben up. Finally she settled down, just watching Ben sleep. As his body rose and fell with his breathing, she contemplated the journey before them. Who knows what’s waiting for us down there. Something good or bad, we can’t tell. Maybe the answer to our prayers. Maybe our darkest nightmare. She sighed. Who knows?

The shuttle quickly descended through the atmosphere of Vida Verde. Quinn watched the clouds fly up around them as they cut down through the sky. Suddenly the clouds parted and the planet opened up beneath them. It’s so beautiful, Quinn thought. The planet was full of lush vegetation. Its countryside displayed abundant lakes, rivers, valleys and mountain ranges. The vast rainforests captured the team’s attention, seemingly continuing beyond the horizons. Nature surely had the control of the reigns on this planet. Quinn sat back and continued to gaze out the window, watching as the vast greenery and bodies of water got closer and closer, growing in detail and beauty. She glanced over at Ben sitting next to her and touched his hand. He turned his excited look from the window to her. He squeezed her leg gently and smiled.

"This is it, babe. This is what we’ve been waiting for." He leaned over and brushed his lips across her cheek. "I’m glad you can experience this with me," he whispered. "I love you, Quinn."

She stared into his eyes. I can’t believe he just said that. Ohmigosh. Wow. Ohmigosh. "I love you too, Ben." She looked at him and smiled.

Suddenly they were rocked in their seats, almost falling to the floor. Quinn grabbed her chair. "What is that?" she shouted. The ship continued to rock back and forth, as if someone was pushing on its side. The team was in chaos. Suddenly no one knew what was going on, or what was happening. Garrett tried to get people to calm down, but they weren’t listening. Abruptly the jolting stopped.

"Thank God!" Vanessa cried. "I thought we were going to crash!"

"What was that? Ben asked Garrett, who had just checked on the autopilot.

"I have no clue whatsoever," Garrett looked at him wide-eyed. Quinn was watching them talk when she heard a faint sound coming from outside the ship. It seemed like a kind of pulse, like a continuous heartbeat. The pulse started getting slightly louder, yet still no one but Quinn seemed to notice it. Soon the pulse became a forceful throbbing in Quinn’s ears. What is this? Why doesn’t anyone else notice it? She grabbed her chair and squeezed her eyes shut, as if that could stop the pounding. She watched the insides of her eyeballs turn bright red as the pounding persisted, growing into almost an earsplitting, deafening vibration in her brain. What is going on?!! I can’t take this!

"AAAAHHH!" she screamed, clutching at her head. Ben twirled around immediately at her cry, just as the shuttle jerked to its side again. Quinn was thrown to the floor, the throbbing in her brain persisting. The shuttle rocked again, almost completely onto its side. Now people were screaming, as Garrett frantically rushed to the autopilot’s cabin.

"What in the hell could be attacking us? This planet has nothing to attack us with! Mayday, mayday!" he yelled into his auto phone to the ship. "We are under attack! Can you see what is hitting us? Please help!"

"Negative, Garrett. We see nothing that could possibly be attacking you," came the reply from the station above them. "Can you defend yourselves?"

"We don’t have enough firepower on the shuttle to help! Our shields are down! We need help, now!" Garrett shouted as they took another blow.

"We won’t be able to send anything down there in time, I’m sorry. You’ll have to try to land the ship first."

Garrett turned back to his team, now in a frenzy. By now trailing a ball of flame and smoke, the shuttle hurled towards the ground. The pounding in Quinn’s head had reached its maximum; she felt like her brain was exploding in her skull. She couldn’t even hear the hysterical screams of Vanessa and Anna, or Garrett’s panic-stricken shouts anymore, only the thunderous rhythmic throbbing. She crawled to a window, and watched in dazed horror as the ground grew closer and closer. She looked back at the chaos in the cabin, and caught Ben’s terrified eyes. He tried to manage a smile, but the ship rocked again, and he almost lost his grip on the pole he had managed to grab. Blowing her a kiss, he mouthed, Goodbye. I love you. Unable to answer, she turned to the window again, just as the shuttle hit the treetops. She felt a trickle coming down the sides of her face, and reaching up to her ears, realized it was blood. Then the shuttle hurtled into the ground. A big ball of flame rose up above the trees to meet the Vida Verde sky. Then there was nothing.

Quinn awoke in a cold sweat. Breathless, she immediately glanced around. A sleeping body lay next to her in the bed. She looked around the room. Well it looks like the right place. She tentatively rose up and slowly bent over the body to see the face. Please oh please oh please oh please. . .! Abruptly an alarm beeped. Quinn whirled back around to turn it off, as the body awoke.

"Quinn, what were you doing?" Ben asked. He propped himself up, looking at her.

She turned back, still panting. "Oh nothing," she said. What was I doing?

"Today’s the big day," he said, grinning. Leaning over, he pecked her cheek. "C’mon, sweetheart. Let’s go get ourselves a planet!"

Oh thank God. That seemed so real. Quinn could still feel the throbbing in her head, ever so slightly. I just must be nervous about this. I can’t imagine why. We’ve already determined the planet to be peaceful. Nothing can go wrong, right?

To Quinn’s relief, the shuttle made it safely to the surface of Vida Verde. Her only shock of the ride came when Ben leaned over, kissed her cheek, and said, "I love you Quinn. I just want you to know that." This time she said it back.

After the landing, the team had a meeting.

"Okay, guys," Garrett announced. "Here’s what’s going on. First we need to determine where the closest native village is, then get there. The mission of this trip is to make contact with the natives. Now that means that we all need to be extremely careful in what we do, say, or touch. Oberon wants no trouble at all with this mission. We need to be very cautious in our dealings with these natives. Though we know some about them, we only have determined at most that they probably will be peaceful. We know hardly anything else. So please, please, follow directions, obey orders, and don’t get in trouble!"

The team surveyed the nearby surroundings, getting a bearing on exactly where they were in respect to the closest native villages. Heath was able to determine that they were approximately ten miles south of the closest village. Roman and Preston scouted the area for any possible threats, finding nothing. The rest of the group packed up all of their gear, ready to trek the ten miles to the village. Quinn caught a glimpse of Ben watching her as she smeared suntan lotion on her bare shoulders. She winked at him, just as she also caught a glimpse of Garrett watching her as well. Oh no. This might be more trouble than I thought.

Soon the team was on its way. Quinn gazed around in awe at the beauty of the planet. The surrounding forest was lush and alive, swaying in the light breeze, seemingly whispering to her as she tenderly stepped around its big, beautiful trees. Giant shrubs and ferns populated the forest floor, as did large flowering plants the likes of which Quinn had never seen before. Wildlife teemed around them as well. Quinn watched, fascinated, as little rodent-like creatures scurried across their path, beautiful birds hopped along the branches above them, and larger, striking mammals stirred in the undergrowth.

"It’s amazing, isn’t it?" Garrett came up behind her.

"Sure is," she replied. "I can only imagine what colonizing this planet would do to this ecosystem, though."

"Oh don’t worry about that," Garrett almost smirked. "We humans know what’s best for this planet."

Maybe the planet knows what’s best for us. The thought came to Quinn out of nowhere. Puzzled, she stopped abruptly. As she gazed around, knowing there was no answer to her question, she suddenly remembered her dream of the night before. Her stomach lurched, and she had to close her eyes. Her head starting throbbing again, just a little. Oh God. Just then Ben came up behind her and squeezed her waist.

"What did you stop for, honey?" he looked at her quizzically.

Quinn shook her head, and the throbbing stopped. She opened her eyes, to see Ben peering at her, wrinkling his forehead. "I don’t know…" she answered. "Nothing, I guess." She shook her head again, to clear it. "Forget about it, let’s go." She took his hand and started after the others.

It took them a little under two hours to hike the first five miles. Nothing much had happened on the way, much to Quinn’s disappointment. She had just hiked along next to Ben, listening to the wilderness and the conversations of the others. Everyone seemed excited about the mission, chatting eagerly about what they might find or do. Quinn did too, but she couldn’t keep the dull ache in the pit of her stomach to go away. I’m just nervous. You always are afraid of the unknown, right? I’m just a little anxious, that’s all. Everything will be fine, though. I know it. She looked up at Ben, walking tall and confident along the trail Roman and Preston were cutting for the team ahead of them. Everything will be just fine.

The team was just starting to lose its enthusiasm and energy when, unexpectedly, Garrett halted the team. Quinn almost ran over Nathan, who’d been walking in front of her. "Sorry," she whispered as she looked over his shoulder at Garrett, who was putting his finger to his lips. Then the team heard what he had, a rustling in the undergrowth, about ten yards ahead. It was a big rustling, so either it was a very large animal or perhaps an actual native. Quinn crossed her fingers. The noise got closer and closer, louder and louder. Garrett, Roman, and Preston stood in front of the group, tense and ready for action. Then they saw it. It was a native. It passed across the path ahead of them at first, so quickly Quinn didn’t get a good look. She did notice, however, that it was not walking. It was horizontal. It seemed to be flying, close to the ground. She was confused. No one had ever heard of this before. They can fly? But their bodies aren’t equipped… Then the native saw them as well. It slowed down immediately, almost to a stop. Now only a few feet away, the native stared at the team, still horizontal. With this closer look, Quinn could now see that the native was actually using some sort of contraption wrapped around its waist for its travel. That answered her question of how, but not of why no one had reported of this before. The native seemed frozen for those few prolonged seconds, still staring at the group. Then it disappeared as quickly as it came, back into the underbrush. The team stood staring after at it, until Garrett broke the silence.

"Well. That was interesting."

Quinn let her breath out in a whoosh, not realizing she’d been holding it.

"Oh my gosh," she said slowly. The team suddenly broke out into excited chatter, now over their initial shock.

"How could it be flying like that?" "Where is it going?" "Why did it stare at us and then just leave?" "Can we follow it?"

"People, people. We have to calm down," Garrett resumed control. "Can we all just take a breather? We will be seeing many more natives once we get to the village. I’d like to think we won’t act like such novices there." He paused, and looked around at the team. "All right, then, on with the show," he turned back to the task in front of him.

The group traveled another couple miles, following Heath’s navigations. Almost the entire trip had been up-hill, but now the terrain started to level out. Soon they came to the edge of a valley. Vida Verde’s sun was just starting to set; painting the sky they now could see a myriad of bright colors. Quinn noticed a star, or maybe another planet, sparkling above the mountains on the other side of the valley. Magic, she thought. She looked down into the valley, and noticed a small glow at the bottom.

"Is that the village?" she asked.

"Should be," Heath answered.

"Apparently they have fire," Vanessa remarked. "I think the RMOs picked up that already at least."

"Okay guys, it’s all downhill from here!" Garrett laughed. The team groaned at his bad joke. "No, seriously, we’re almost there, people. We should have them eating out of our hands by bedtime," he did smirk this time.

Quinn stared at him. "Why is he so pompous all of a sudden," she asked Ben.

"I have no idea. I think he’s starting to underestimate these natives just because he’s the leader or something."

"Whatever," Quinn said. "Let’s go."

They hiked down through the darkening wilderness, towards the emanating glow. Quinn watched the flickering lights get closer and closer. The team was trekking silently now, lost in their thoughts. The dull ache had returned to Quinn’s stomach, as did the slight headache. She squeezed Ben’s hand for comfort. He squeezed back, but did not look at her. A little saddened, she looked back at the light, now gleaming only a few yards through the trees ahead of them. They had slowed their pace, to be careful of any more wandering natives, and listened intently for any signs of life other than the glow. Soon they heard more rustling, and Garrett stopped them once again. This time nothing came out of the brush, but the rustling continued. Garrett, puzzled, looked at the team and shrugged his shoulders. He motioned for them to continue ahead, despite the noise. Quinn’s headache worsened, just a bit, as they resumed hiking towards the village. Now coming from two sides, the sounds in the undergrowth grew louder. The group got a little anxious, peering uneasily into the darkness around them. Garrett saw their nervous looks, but only brushed off their concerns, pulling them along towards the village. Through the sparse trees left in front of them, they could now see the village; its little huts and shelters silhouetted by the glow of light that seemed to come from its center. Quinn would have been a little more excited if she could actually think through the throbbing that had now taken over her brain. More rustling came from the forest, now emanating from all sides of the group; yet, again, no natives showed themselves. The sounds grew louder and louder, as did the pounding in Quinn’s head. No God. Not again. Lord, please, I can’t…

The rest of the team was now almost frantic with fear, begging Garrett to stop and turn back, but he wouldn’t listen. They were almost through the trees. The light was bright and piercing now; the others couldn’t even look at it. Quinn watched it through half-opened eyes, and started walking towards it, passing the rest of the group. The team was hysterical, scrabbling for Garrett or for some kind of defense as the now deafening rustling approached them from all sides. Quinn ignored them, except for Ben, whose hand she was still holding. She kept walking towards the intense, radiating glow, unable to stop. Screams came from behind her- in the back of her Quinn’s mind she recognized them as Vanessa’s- but the thunderous pounding in her brain didn’t allow her to dwell on it. The throbbing was rhythmic, her feet placing one in front of the other to its beat. Faintly, she could hear Ben yelling at her to stop, and some other male screams, but nothing distracted her from her march. She walked past the huts, towards what appeared to be an immense glowing ball of light. The light was beckoning to her, flickering in the same rhythm as the throbbing in her brain. She felt Ben’s hand slip out of hers, and for a brief moment, she wanted it back. Then she turned back to the light, and embraced it. Her mind raced with new thoughts. Welcome. I have been waiting for you. I knew you would come to The One. Then there was nothing.