//------------------------------// // 2 - Damage Analysis // Story: Unwitting Pioneer // by Split Flow //------------------------------// The Pathfinder will spend the next five years in deep space charting the stars around Equus and pushing the boundaries of astronomy. Jointly built by four nations, she is packed with the latest in technology, with the most notable being the largest TunnelDrive built to date. This brings her top speed to almost .75light years per day...  - Extract of a news report on the starship Pathfinder, 1086, prior to her loss at space three years later. "Well, buck." Astral muttered, looking down ruefully at the smouldering wreck that was supposed to be her ship. There was no way her insurance agent would process a claim with those two words under 'extent of damage', but she could think of nothing else to describe the scene beneath her.   Frankly, it was overly generous to even call the crumpled hunk of metal and crystal a ship. Not Enough Storage Space was split cleanly in half; the reactor was powering the ship through strands of cable that looked like they were on the verge of snapping. This, combined with the smoke wafting out from the still smoldering flight deck and the still blinking navigation lights, made it look more like an abstract sculpture that was ripped straight out of a madpony’s dream, than a spacecraft built within the constraints of physics and magic. The impact had dug an ugly brown gash in the otherwise pristine greenery, leaving behind a trail of pulverized trees and detritus in its wake that could have stretched on for kilometers, but she wasn’t high enough in the air to tell for sure. The atmosphere here was far thinner than Equus - Astral had barely hit a quarter of the distance to Cloudsdale before running out of air to work with, and even holding her current altitude much closer to the ground was starting to wear her out.  She shivered, catching sight of the snow-white puffs of her breath shimmering in the sunlight. There was an oddness to the sensation, given that it should have been scorching hot up here. And yet, despite all that pegasi hardiness she had for living high in the sky, her lungs were practically burning from the cold. It was an interesting oddity, and one that she dearly wanted to investigate, but Astral forced herself to shelve that thought. She could always warm herself up later and besides, there were more pressing issues to attend to.  Finding a solution to replace their pancaked communications array was one. As over-engineered as the second generations of spaceships were, no amount of cross-bracing could withstand the wrath of physics itself. The impact had completely flattened the sensor radome beneath the flight deck, rendering them invisible to any help that might come. The lone distress beacon hopefully still floating in space would clue in ships to their location when their warp trail dissipated - that was good and all, but without a way to send messages, whoever responded would probably see the wreckage up high and figure that it was too much trouble to land for a corpse. That or set down somewhere far away and claim the incentives for themselves when they reached a URSA dock.  She should know, she would have done in their shoes too. Being a freelancer meant that they were constantly pressed for time and either way, URSA didn't specify if they would ever evoke the finder's fees if there were two claimants involved. If they were lucky, whoever did that would at least have the courtesy to relay their coordinates to a rescue team. On the other hoof, that would give them ample time to document the alien life while waiting. Astral wasn’t a certified xeno-whatchamacallit but she’d skimmed enough papers during her downtime to have a basic understanding of the subject - she just needed to package her findings into something scientific sounding enough for URSA to accept. A book like an 'Analysis on the tastes and textures of local flora' would give her a juicy little bargaining chip to use if push came to shove, and even that was optional: she could have written down everything in crayon and URSA would still be legally bound to compensate her, as long as it wasn't filled with nonsense. The radio on her waist harness chirped, stealing her attention to Night Glow's tinny sounding voice warbling out of the speaker. The bat had insisted that they check that tanks were still intact, a useless task, if Astral might add, but Night Glow was persistent. The bat practically walked off on her out of fear of dying to a black hole. "It smells like a refuse cavern in here, but I think we've lucked out." The radio chirped again. "No leaks in hydrogen tanks. TunnelDrive’s safeties kicked in and the spell matrix's fused as designed. I think we're good for now, no dying to explosions or magical voids for the time being."  "Right. If you're finally convinced that we're not going to end up as teeny little bits scattered across space as I've been saying for the past three hours, you can come out as soon as you get your fill of the caves." Astral cut off the radio, smirking at having proven herself right. Her faith in her ship wasn't misplaced. If anything, Astral thought, landing softly with a few beats of her wings, I bet Night Glow’s trying to skimp on pulling her weight.   Truth be told, the bat was starting to irritate her, with her incessant nagging this morning about how "the sun was going to set if she didn’t leave her room soon" or she "shouldn’t have bathed to conserve water" rather than helping with things that actually mattered, like hauling what remained of their supplies. She had half a mind to punch Night Glow in the face when she started going on and on about how she should inspect the tanks alone because bats could see better in the dark.  And the gall of her to chalk their situation to luck! It wasn't luck that got her enough bits to buy the freighter. She had worked her flank off, begging for every contract that the bat pricks in the Lunar Fleet dangled in front of her muzzle, turned her life into an endless cycle of shuttling from hangars and into space just to earn enough to stay afloat and what did Night Glow do? She was probably sipping on grape juice and fraternizing with those same assholes who handed her the same forms with overly generous payouts like nopony's business. Astral wasn't exactly the brightest pony around town, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. Fair employment practices her flank. Astral hissed, kicking a pebble hard enough to send it vanishing into the distant greenery, sinking to the earth as her anger fizzled away. She sighed, looking glumly at the blades of not-quite grass swaying lazily in the breeze. She shouldn't be getting angry - anger was for little fillies who didn't know what to do, and screaming into the void for too long wouldn't help their situation. But still, part of her couldn't help but feel that the universe was being unfair to her. She had to admit though; it was pleasant to be out in the elements again and soaking up the sun's rays, instead of languishing under the dim glow of lighting crystals. Astral inhaled, letting the crisp, cool air of the planet fill her lungs and held it in. Last week's recycled air couldn't hold a candle to the fresh air of mother nature herself. It didn't matter how expensive the life support systems were. No amount of magic could stop air from becoming damp and musty after one too many cycles in the system. Out here, with the plants and its multicoloured greenery, the inside of her ship seemed depressingly bland in comparison. Astral exhaled, scanning the cloudless sky that hung over her head as her muscles relaxed. Maybe she was being a little unfair to Night Glow. The bat probably didn't mean whatever she said and besides, Lady Luck did provide her some reprieve in the form of the rather sizable pile of supplies she had managed to scrounge up from the nearly totalled cargo hold. Other than looking a little worse for wear, the boxes of food and drink gave them nearly... three months worth of provisions, and enough variation to maintain a healthy range of food choices. Shelter was easily solved by staying in ship, making their basic needs more or less covered. That gave them more than enough spare time to focus on her, no, their long term goals. The transmitter was still going to be a priority, but they could add a few more activities to their to do list. The mare closed her eyes, letting her limbs sink into the warm dirt as she ran through her plans. If they ever got bored, she could always drag Night Glow along on a safari of sorts. It would be fun trying to spot animals from afar, and the batpony would probably appreciate being given the chance to name some never before seen beast. Plants like the multicoloured flower things and the oversized pine cone treed peppered around the crash site were interesting enough for now, but if they really wanted to cement their greatness in history, she was going to have to name at least one beast before going home. Preferably one that didn't eat ponies and looked like a fuzzy ball to get their hearts melting. Then everypony wound respect her. The glow of the afternoon sun on her eyelids grew several shades darker and stayed that way. Astral's ears twitched, her body growing stiff at the growing sensation that there was a presence towering over her. She frowned. Something was definitely breathing right above her. Her eyes snapped open, her heart leaping into her mouth as she found a pair fangs bearing down on her face. Astral screeched as she scrambled to her hooves, the thoughts of having a 'fun' safari vanishing and replaced with images of herself being eaten alive, only to find herself face to face with her batpony companion. Astral stuttered, an angry squeaking sound escaping from her throat as the words she wanted to say stumbled over each other in her mouth. That only made the batpony snigger, licking her fangs as she threw her head back in a terrible imitation of some nightmare night vampire. "Did I scare you? Boo! Scary bat of badness is here to suck your blood!"  "No!" Astral screamed, smacking Night Glow's snout with a wing hard enough to send tufts of down fluttering into the air. She wanted to strangle the mare for even thinking of pulling such a prank on her, especially after incidents best left forgotten. "Are you insane? I almost punched you in the face again like last time!" "I was trying to cheer you up!" Night Glow eeped, batting at her muzzle with a hoof in an attempt to wipe off her oil and down from her snout. "Yeah, right." Astral rolled her eyes, gladly planting her flank on the ground. Night Glow didn't need to know just how downright terrifying that prank was, lest she do it again. "Anyway, did you find anything useful while I was in there? The damage cannot have been that bad, right?" Night asked, shrugging off her gear with a grunt. She had probably meant it as a joke, but that remark struck Astral like an irritating pebble wedged in a boot. The mare frowned, grinding her teeth as she regarded the mare again. "Oh, it's not that bad. Only that the entire ship is trashed and I'll probably have to find some other job for Celestia knows how long." Astral forced herself to smile at the mare, keeping kept her wings firmly pinned by her sides. "Besides, it's not as if I don't have anything to fall back on. I mean it's no big deal right? We're stuck here on the greatest find in the history of science and-" "Astral-"  "WHAT?!” Astral snapped, bringing herself eye to eye with the much taller pony with a flap of her wings. She inhaled, puffing out her chest. “Right." Exhale. "Sorry about that, you wanted to know about useful things. Well... I found food?” She pointed at the pile of haphazardly stacked containers.  "I see… Look, it's starting to get late." Night Glow winced, shifting her gaze to the sun and the pile of supplies. She backed away slowly from Astral, moving casually as if nothing had happened. “You want anything to eat? Those potato chips you had for lunch couldn't have been filling.”  The mare shrugged, watching as the batpony ripped open a box seemingly at random. Lunch was hours ago, and just thinking about it made her painfully aware of the emptiness gnawing away at her stomach. Night Glow was right, as always. It had been hours since she last ate and right now, she wanted nothing more than to dig into a nice juicy hayburger - preferably with extra fries. Astral wiped her muzzle at the thought. Hopefully, Night Glow didn't catch her drooling. "Here." The violet mare tossed a silvery packet of something her way. The pegasi caught it with a hoof, raising an eyebrow at how squishy it felt in her grip. She ignored the rather serious looking label plastered on it which promised all sorts of legal retribution for misappropriating fleet property, greedily tearing the seal open with her mouth instead.  The scent of something sweet and savory hit her like a train. If she wasn't hungry before, she sure as heck was now. She had expected to find the same bland, textureless trash that they had been living off on from surplus stores, but what she got were peaches. Fresh, juicy peaches that practically oozed with flavor and didn't feel like mystery paste. The mare gave in to her hunger, shoving her muzzle directly into the pouch. She didn't care if she looked like some uncivilized filly. After all, it wasn't as if there was anypony else to judge her. Astral watched in fascination as the alien sun sunk behind the horizon, turning the sky into an unfamiliar shade of pink as the day drew to an end. Although science has long proven that Equus was the exception, not the norm where celestial bodies were involved, the concept that the sun rose and set because of the planet's spin was still hard to comprehend. Harmony had kept the sun and moon in check around Equus, not gravity. Harmony made sure that both day and night were in balance with each other and the sun and the moon stayed around Equus. And yet, it was only Equus that worked this way. From the first science outpost in the Amicitia system to their original destination in Mintaka, it was because of the planet's rotation that made the sun set. Astral had spent many evenings watching sunsets from inside a biodome, only that now she was no longer disconnected from the universe by a sheet of glass.  It had never come to her mind during her travels hopping from one star to another, but watching the sun lower made her aware just how insignificant ponies were in the grand scheme of things. Nopony else in the galaxy would notice if Equus just disappeared one day. Sure, she might notice, but science has proven that Equus was no longer the centre of the universe. The stars would keep on shining, and the planets would continue moving by themselves even if ponykind ceased to exist. No creature would mourn them.  Space was big.  "So…" Astral blinked, switching her gaze to Night Glow, now drinking from a juice carton presumably fished from the innards of a hastily ripped up box. "You've got that look on your face again. Got any plans for us?"  Astral shrugged, scrunching her trash into a neat little ball and adding it to the empty carton that Night was using for waste. They might be stuck here for the time being, but that didn’t mean that they could start treating the planet as if it was Equus and start dumping their trash everywhere. "Well…" Astral flicked her tail, grinning sheepishly at the bat. "Since you asked, I was thinking of maybe going into the forest? I mean, the sun did set awfully early, so I won't be falling asleep anytime soon. And if it gets too dark, I'll just follow your lead. Our environmental suits should protect us from anything too nasty."  "No." The batpony's expression was stoic. Nevertheless, Astral swore that she saw Night Glow's eyes twitch a little at the suggestion. "We don't even know what lurks there and you want to barge in? That sounds like a good way to get us killed." Night Glow replied, taking a long sip of her drink.  Of course, she did have a point. If the trees on this place didn't look like anything back home, then they had to assume that the wildlife also followed the same convention. That still didn’t stop Astral from stomping her hoof into the ground and making the bat jump in her seat. “Yeah, well, if you didn’t spend the whole afternoon checking on that stupid reactor of yours then we would have had more than enough time to go and chart the place out!” Night Glow’s brow furrowed, pursing her lips and giving Astral a glimpse of the mare’s fangs. The pegasi gulped, flinching as the mare just stared at her and let an uncomfortable cloud of silence hang over them. From all their time together, Astral had learnt the hard way that showing fang was never a good sign. “You know what? You’re right.” Night Glow said, letting out a sigh that Astral hoped wasn't irritation. “Maybe it was selfish of me to leave you alone out here, but what’s done is done. I just assumed that you would be okay with me inspecting the tanks instead of asking you what you wanted. I apologize.”  “W-what?” Astral blinked. She had expected to be shouted at, maybe even rebuffed, but this? It was as if Night Glow poked a needle into the balloon of anger inside of her, deflating it with all the finesse of a skydancer. Astral nodded. “You know what? You have a point too. We need to get the transmitter up and working again as soon as possible if we want to get off this place anytime soon. Ships aren’t just going to land on a planet out of the good of their hearts after all.” Astral continued, stealing a glance at the wreck. “It’s crushed at the moment, but it would be great if you gave it a look. Might even speed things up if rescue ever comes.”  The batpony shrugged, adding the now empty carton to their pile of garbage. “Sure. I was about done with dinner anyway. Tell me what needs to be done.” She said, stretching lazily. “You know, if they don’t give us that finder’s fee thing, how about asking them for a few pallets the food instead? It’s way better than the freeze-dried things that you keep feeding us with.” Astral rolled her eyes, paying no heed to the mare’s poor attempt at a joke. She would wipe that grin off her muzzle soon enough. “Just get the transmitter fixed Night.” She groaned, pointing to the task that lay ahead. “I’ll be in my room if you need me.”  “How in the name of the Denmother am I supposed to fix this?” Night Glow squeaked. She knew just as well as Astral that there was no repairing the transmitter when said transmitter in question was in little bits and pieces. “There’s nothing left! Absolutely nothing Astral!” Astral shrugged nonchalantly, feigning a yawn. “Think of something. I just need a way to signal to anypony that comes that we’re still alive. It shouldn’t be that hard right? I mean, you did manage to get us back to a spaceport with a roll of duct tape once. That was nothing short of a miracle, if I may say so myself, so this shouldn’t be that hard.” She said, dusting herself off the ground with a flap of her wings. “That was different! I had something to work with! You’re asking me to fix something that doesn’t exist anymore! How in the bloody hell am I supposed to fix nothing?” Night squeaked numbly, her hooves flapping at the wreckage like a fish out of water. “You’re the engineer, so do your engineering magic! I don’t care what you do. As long as you don’t trash the supplies, just come up with a way to let somepony in orbit know that we’re still alive!” Astral shouted from the doorway of the emergency exit, faking a yawn. It might have been mean of her to ditch the bat, but if Night Glow wormed her way out of work in the afternoon, then it was only fair for her to do the same now. Besides, if she knew any better, Night probably wouldn’t be actually working on anything tonight - she’d do that brainstorming thing of hers first before starting on whatever idea she came up with the next day. “Oh, and please! Do remember to keep an eye out for any animals! It might help when we finally start venturing into the forest. Just don’t get eaten or anything!” Astral shouted, raising her voice loud enough for the bat to hear from the outside. It would be a shame if Night missed any critters while she was outside. Hopefully, if Night Glow didn’t manage to think of a solution for their signalling problem, she would at least spot an alien bear with that superior ‘bat vision’ of hers by the time she woke up tomorrow. That would make up for her trying skimp off work earlier. Almost.