Venus Rising

Chapter 2: Evening Star

"Alright, everyone. We're in a tough situation," Captain Meyers states. "Our chip has crashed, leaving us stranded on the floating Venus Colony. The colony's running out of air, and if the supply dwindles, it'll smash down through the atmosphere. We must stop that from happening."

I deadpan at her, biting my tongue as a sarcastic comment bubbles up my throat. As if we were just going to wait around to die.

Pro. Maxted frowns beside me. "This doesn't make any sense. There are supposed to be 600 people living here. Why haven't they made contact? Why have they left a hull breach untended long enough for things to get this bad?"

"Don't forget that business with the airlock, Professor," Peter reminds her. "None of you are saying it directly, but I will. Someone wired the floor as a booby trap. They wanted to kill us!"

Steve raises a brow at him and slightly shakes his head, which earns him a glare. "Look, the colony's a large place. Something clearly went wrong. If some colonists are injured, but some are able to work, they'll be trying to get the colony's main computer online. That's protocol priority one. It's an AI, like the one on our ship. Regulates all repairs, scanners and communication systems."

"But what if the working colonists are hostile? Maybe they decided they wanted to keep profits from this expedition for themselves. Maybe they shot down our ship."

I swallow thickly at Peter's suggestion. If I didn't know any better, I'd ask him how he could believe people would be so selfish, but I've seen people do worse for less back on earth. People deciding to be greedy isn't anything new.

Captain Meyers doesn't seem to like that he'd suggest that, given the look she sends him. "We're not making any assumptions, Mr. Simons. We don't know why the ship came down."

He scoffs at her. "Well, you say that, but you let Sissay bring extra sidearms."

She glares at him, but he glares right back, cocking a brow as if challenging her to deny it. She doesn't.

"Our mission is still to make contact with the colonists," She says instead, her jaw clenching when he smirks in victory. "We do that, repair the station, and send a distress call to earth. Those are our goals. The best place to access the main computer is the colony's command hub. That means it's our best chance to find any of the people who live here. The hub is straight down the corridor. Let's go."

We don't run this time, thankfully. Even with training I still feel pretty tired from the amount of running we've had to do so far. I didn't think this would be as strenuous as it has been, but I suppose it's stupid to believe things will always go to plan. At the very least, we can say it's interesting, and everyone will have a story to tell when we get back home...

When they get back home. A quiet giggle escapes my mouth when I think about how dramatic Peter's report will be, and I can only imagine the amount of complaining he's going to do to Katelyn and Caleb and Sam. He'll probably talk their ear off, but they'll listen. They always do.

"Something funny, specialist?" Pro. Maxted asks curiously, although she pales when she looks at me. "Oh, my God. You're bleeding!"

"What?" Peter asks in worry as the professor points to my face. I reach through my cracked visor and feel around my lips and nose. There's blood on my gloves when I pull away, and I curse.

"Sorry," I say quickly. "I-It's just a nosebleed. I'm used to them. Uh, we didn't have much time to grab supplies and bring them in, but-"

"Here." Peter grabs a cloth from one of the pockets of his suit. "Come on, sit down. I'll help you get cleaned up."