Seeking An S.O.S.: Behind The Scenes

42. Survival Skills

Tapping her fingers on the table, Martina curiously stared at the siblings she befriended earlier this month. Roman and Harley Grendel.

There was something peculiar about those two that she hadn't noticed before; from the minute they watched the movie Eye of the Principle, to becoming part of a crew that was selected for a ridiculous space voyage. It wouldn't be a surprise if the siblings were aliens themselves, hidden underneath a human's skin.

It also remained a mystery that their surname was Grendel. A symbol of immortality? That would be anyone's guess.

Martina remembered reading an epic poem called Beowulf in grade school. One of the characters in that poem was named Grendel and since Martina believed that this individual had to be a monster; her bizarre thoughts concluded that the siblings must be related to a wicked person similar to this mythical creature. Her eyes widened as Martina pondered this childish idea.

The thought was rather preposterous, but not unheard of. Yet, Martina put this suspicion of hers away as she was being stared at. Not wanting to become the center of attention, she held in a deep breath before releasing it. Tears started to flow down her cheeks as well; she was stressed over everything that had happened recently. And since the SPANA's head administrator added more to the plate, she became overwhelmed. Wiping her tears away with her sleeves, she continued to listen in to the lecture she tuned out of.

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I've been waiting for this! Garetth Lewis's guilty conscience has now revealed the truth! So that's what this is all about and why we are here. He had to select unintelligent people for the job! As if inmates aren't smart. And since he can't stop worrying about a simple mistake as dropping a pack of seeds in space which happened thirty years ago, we have to tackle them ourselves! Like, what's the worse that can happen to us? Let them grow in that new orbit! We'll show him who's the real space hero here!"

After hearing the administrator's confession, Martina's mind knew she was right on track from the beginning. Picking at her t-shirt, she wished she could turn back time where none of this had happened. She even pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming all of this up, but alas, Martina only hurt herself.

Ouch!

If only Mr. Lewis would get on with it and stop telling us jibber jabber about his life, we'd be training with those robots now.

Yet, after Martina quietly mumbled those words, the head administrator ended his past laments .

"And now ladies and gentleman, we will start with your training lessons."

About time!

Martina's eyebrow furrowed as she now had Garreth's full attention.

The administrator ordered two of his robots to bring in a moveable blackboard on wheels inside by pressing a button.

Once the chalkboard was brought into the room, visible instructions were already written upon it. They were SPANA'S basic survival training guidelines. Garreth took out a folding pointer out of his jacket's pocket to help track the words better as well.

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Training Day 1

Tapping on the board, Garretth made sure everyone's eyes were focused upon him. Before his speech, he walked between the two aisles and patted down the crew member who was slacking around. Making sure everything was now in order, he walked back to the blackboard.

"As you can see, this short course is designed to provide you guys with an understanding of the hazards associated with what might be encountered in a space environment, the knowledge and skills necessary to react effectively to emergencies and to care and assist others in a survival situation."

Martina tried to stay cool and calm, but her conscience had a mind of its own. She felt queasy as this lecture of Mr. Lewis's sounded like something she heard in school. As she placed her arm underneath her chin, she tried to keep herself from dozing off.

"Water, warmth, knowing certain hand signals, shelter and having food handy are the top five priorities in a survival situation. We will give you emergency supplies to take with you on your journey."

Placing the pointer on the second line, Garretth further explained more about SPANA'S recommendations.

"Now, as I discussed with you earlier, you will all need to work as a team and help each other. The main point of the Rule of four that I will now discuss is that you have to focus on the most immediate problem first. Let's say someone gets hurt. Do you know what to do?"

Roman raised his hand and blurted out that he knows first aid since he used to volunteer as a medical assistant.

"Thanks Mr. Grendel for chipping in. The six of you will be alone in Space for some time, so I believe you need more survival skills than that."

Martina wanted to intervene by satirically asking what the administrator had in mind, but backed out at the last minute as she knew how Garreth felt about her.

"Rule 1, you can survive for 3 minutes without air (oxygen) so since there is no gravity in space, we will be giving you an oxygen mask. But please use it wisely. Rule 2, you can survive for 3 hours without shelter in a harsh environment (unless there is icy water in the terrain). Rule 3, you can survive for 3 Days without water, so again please use your supplies wisely. And Rule 4, you can survive for 3 weeks without food (if you have water and shelter). The rules are useful in determining the order of priority when in a life-threatening situation."

"Wait, three weeks? Are you expecting us to be up there that long?" Martina protested.

"Hypothetically my dear. We don't know for sure. Light years in Space aren't equivalent to Earth hours, so it's always best to be safe than sorry. Survival is a state of mind. Control your fears and avoid panic. It only takes 3 seconds to make a poor decision, so stay calm, and assess your situation. You can effectively plan a course of action only after considering the aspects of your situation. Remaining calm with a positive state of mind is the key to survival in an outdoor emergency."

As Garreth ended that lesson, he didn't want to hear the coming questions if there were any, so he decided not to add that in his conclusion. Instead, he told the crew to gear up since he was going to show where they could stay for the night.

"Please follow me now as I will show you to your bunk beds."

He led them down the long corridor where several rooms were located.Garreth opened the room to his left that had a sign where the girls were to sleep. On the left side of the hall, there was a room designated for the two men to sleep.

"In each room, there is a bathroom attached to it. Each of you will have to wait your turns to use it as that is all we have for you to use. Now I hope all of you will sleep well and tomorrow you will be training with our robots. We will be building your strength and use our exercise machines do jabs and straight kicks."

"We will do our best Mr. Lewis."

As Garretth closed the door, Martina sighed.

"I don't believe this is happening to us.

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Looking out the window, Murdock was excited with glee as he saw the spherical orbit he and his friend have been searching for light years.

Shaking his antennas together, he ran towards Xabiere, who was maneuvering the wheel of the ship towards their final destination.