A World in Between

Streaking through the atmosphere, Maisy sat tight and stared out the window, watching the flames coil past the pod as it descended. It was getting increasingly warm inside the capsule, and with her fur, it didn't help anything. The temperature control was doing it's best to keep the interior of the pod cool, but the heating from the outside easily overpowered it.

The sky got brighter as the pod dropped, and the flames gradually died away, leaving only a whistling sound as the wind rushed by. It cooled down quickly, the friction low enough so that the skin of the pod began to get colder. The feline watched as the ground rose to meet her, growing more concerned each passing moment that the stopping systems on the pod didn't activate.

Finally, she felt a jolt, and she was pressed down into her seat as small fins near the top of the pod opened, creating drag to slow her descent. A few minutes later, parachutes opened, and Maisy braced herself as they unfurled, squishing the cat down into the chair.

They would be automatically cut once the pod stopped moving, assuming that it was safe to do so. The descent vehicle came down in the trees, right at the edge of a cliff. The canvas got stuck in the branches of a larger tree, stopping the pod a few feet above the ground. The cord was cut, and the cat experienced a moment of weightlessness before the pod bounced once, twice, and sailed off the ledge, crashing down the steep slope and slamming into the ground below.

-Many years earlier-

Kristal was comforting her younger twin as she spoke about impending dangers that they could face. Jade was always the nervous sort, preferring to speak to the plants and the elderly. As her sister laid down in her pod in the VIP wing, she held her hand until the sleeping agent worked before going into her own pod. The last thing she saw was their parents. Smiling and saying, “We’ll see you soon. “

- Current -

Kristal’s pod was dislodged as an explosion suddenly ripped the VIP section from the rest of the ship. As the pod activated emergency sequences, the girl was thawed. The first thing she saw was her pod descending away from an exploding ship and towards a planet much like earth. Perhaps she would have enjoyed the view, if not for the impending feeling of sudden death overtaking her body.

“Oh my god! Oh my goodddddd!!!”

She didn’t even believe in God. But in this case she believed with all her heart. Wishing that she and her sister as well as their parents would be fine. Even with all her training to calm the spirit, the girl was weak and surrendered to the urge to fall unconscious.

When she awoke, the pod was lodged in the branches of a very very large and tall tree. The size from her angle, perhaps rivaled ancient red woods from earth.

She groaned, making sure her body works the way it should. The girl is probably bruised like crazy, but behind that she’s fine.

“Status Report...”

The glass display lights up indicating the pods status.

{Life Pod : VIP04-4X
Life support: Stable
Energy Systems : Solar Active
Comm Systems : Damaged}

“Well that’s just fantastic. I’m stuck on top of a bloody tree with a broken Comm system. Well. I guess it could be worse. “

And certainly, fate decided it could be worse. The life pod was jostled by her movements, breaking a supporting branch and causing it to drop several feet down the tree before being caugh again by several branches. It seemed fate decided to scare her out her wits.

The girl was decidedly terrified, letting out all the frustrations and grieving her family. With comms systems down, she has no way to know how they’ve fared. Or if they live at all. The sat like that for awhile, bawling and releasing her frustrations, before falling asleep from fatigue.

An hour after she had crashed, the cat woke, small lights on the inside of her pod glowing softly to illuminate the damage on the inside. Part of the wall had buckled inward, a crack having appeared to let a bit of natural light through. The feline laid there for a moment, trying her best not to panic as the straps from the harness dug into her arms and legs. Reaching down, she unhooked them, breathing a small sigh of relief each time the leather/fabric bonds loosened. Pushing herself up into a sitting position, pain shot through her ribcage, and she tentatively placed a paw there to feel for any broken bones. There were none. It was probably just bruised, which would heal in a matter of days. For now, though, she needed to try and get out.

There wasn't much space in the pod, but Maisy managed to reach over and push the button to open the door, which slid halfway and stopped, a grating noise signalling that there was probably a chunk of metal blocking it. There was enough space for her to squeeze though, but it was going to be a tight fit. A sharp edge scraped down her arm as she squirmed through the door, removing a chunk of fur.

Falling out onto the ground, she laid there for a few minutes, taking deep breaths of the fresh air. She didn't care that the ground was wet, or if the air was poisonous. She just wanted to rest, out of the constricting space of the broken lifepod.

When her slitted eyes opened again, they darted around, falling on an object sitting in a tree. She didn't recognize it, but it wasn't far away enough that she wouldn't go check it out. Pulling herself painfully to her feet, the cat limped toward what she would soon find out was Kristal's pod.

Hauling herself up into the tree, she carefully stepped toward the pod, testing her weight at each step to make sure that she wouldn't break the branches. She could hear them creaking, and knew that some of them were at their limits of the weight they could hold. Reaching out, she knocked on the pod, clearing her throat and calling out.

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" She asked, carefully crawling around the object to see if there was a way to get inside.

Kristal jolted awake from the knocking heard from behind the glass. She opened up the hatch and removed herself from the straps.

“Hello. Um...were not Gona fall are we?”

She dug around in the compartments and took out her bag pack with basic survival tools and followed the cat like person down the tree. It was quite the trek but they made it back down.

The girl took in a big breath then waited for about one minute.

“Yep. The air is safe. “

She then turned to extend a hand towards the other female.

“I’m Kristal Cloud from the transport ship Haven. I’m a Zoologist. I also dabbled in the of Xenobiology, archaeology, and took two years in med school before dropping out. “

The feline shook her head. "I don't think so, the branches here seem stronger than the ones that were broken through earlier," she said, looking up and the ones that the pod had smashed through.

Making their way down the densely wooded trunk, Maisy helped the woman when and where she needed it, the claws embedded in her paws helping greatly to ensure that they wouldn't fall. Hopping down to the forest floor, Maisy stumbled, catching herself on a branch before she lost her balance completely.

Taking the hand, Maisy shook it, the action soft as she wasn't used to it. Her ears swiveled forward as she listened to the other's title, a snippet of background she would hang on to for later.

"My name is Maisy. Maisy Calderan. I was part of an exploration mission, flying out to a smaller planet to try and make contact with another species. The ship malfunctioned, and half of it broke apart and got flung into oblivion." She didn't really understand this "med school," but she assumed that it was short for medical, and in that case, their chances of survival had gone up.

She listened to the Felyne’s explanation and nodded her head.

“The same thing happened to our ship I’d imagine. Since waking up from stasis I saw it split in half before exploding. “

She does the calculations in her head, scrunching her forehead.

“We were on our way to the galaxy, Maffei 2. It was known that it harbored many stars and a high metallic and magnetic quality, but we should’ve deduced most of those stars would be gone. But that doesn’t explain the violent gravitational pull when you think of the numbers....”

She went on and on with talks of calculations and where you could possibly be, finally landing on the theory that you’re somewhere near Maffei 2 but not quite there.

“I think we’re at the space between Maffei 1 and 2. My dad never was able to pinpoint what was in that zone... I guess this is it. “

Now that her head is not triangulating some answer to an impossible question, she looks to Macy.

“So what’s the plan? I’ve still got resources in the life pod. Since it’s a VIP we can make a shelter from it. We just need to get it down... so it can revert back to its compressed status and we can travel with it to a safer location. “

She beams at the Felyne as if asking her opinion.

“What do you think?”

Maisy listened to the woman's explanation, nodding slowly. She had never heard of these places, but she had her own names for the the galaxies she assumed that Kristal was speaking of. She understood some of the mathematical language, growing up around ships and being part of a species that was rapidly accelerating in spacefaring technology.

"So, if we're between galaxies, somewhere in sort of an empty space..." The cat looked up at the sky, then down at her paws, a small sniff making itself known. "...that means that we're probably not going to be rescued, since nobody knows where we are..."

She shook her head rapidly, bringing her paw up to wipe away a stray tear that threatened to drop through her fur. She wouldn't let the possibility of not making it out of this place get her down, and the determination was evident in her eyes as she looked back up at Kristal, nodding.

"I think we should use your pod, since it looks like it's in much better condition than mine. We might be able to salvage something from inside, but the pod itself is wrecked."

She turned her arm to look at the scratch that ran the length of it, and suddenly let out a hiss as a drop of something landed on it. Her muscles tensed, her claws slid out, but she stayed in place, grimacing as she looked up to see dark clouds blowing over their heads.

"If we're going to do it, we'd better hurry. I don't want to know what kind of rain this planet has, and what it does to open wounds."

Kristal quickly got back up to the pod, pressing a flashing yellow button which then transforms it into the cube the size of her hand. She stuffs it into her back and makes her way down, jumping down as she was close enough to the ground.

Soon after she rejoined Maisy, the small sting of the drizzle began to feel more painful as the weather quickly turned for the worst.

“Maisy run!!”

Kristal runs beside the other female, hoping that they can find shelter soon. The rain is starting to become very painful.

The feline's eyes widened slightly as she saw the pod collapse in on itself, her ears flicking in confusion. "That... how did you...?"

Her question wasn't answered, mostly due to the toxic rain that was now dropping around them. It didn't seem to affect the foliage - it had probably grown accustomed to the stinging liquid. When Kristal shouted, Maisy took her advice without a second thought, dashing off but keeping close to her. Her sharp eyes scanned the jungle, looking for shelter.

As she scanned, she had kept her eyes open for a second too long, and a searing pain in her left eye caused her to lose focus, trip and fall to the ground, yowling in pain as she held a paw to her face. Forcing herself to get up, the cat stumbled along, spotting a dark opening in the cliff she had slid down. "Kristal! Over there!" She called, pointing to the cave.

The two of them take shelter in a cave. With some semblance of safety, she is reminded of their pain and quickly removes her clothes and washes herself briskly with the waters streaming from the cave walls. It is cooling and soothing to the touch. There’s no way of knowing if this water is any good or not, but it’s relieving her pain and drinking it relieves her of thirst as well.

The stinging rain lasts awhile, seeming to be an endless deluge. She explores her bagpack to find a few glow sticks and hands Maisy one as well. Then, she washes her clothes with the little stream of water from the walls and lays the clothes to dry on a ski flat rock nearby.

“It looks as if we’ll be here for awhile. Shall we take note of supplies?”

One by one she removed the supplies in her pack.

“A large bag of trail mix, a survival guide, cartridges for a pistol, a small health kit, a survival knife, and a small mess kit with a small pot, pan, and cooking tools. As well as these glow sticks and the deactivated survival pod. “

The girl then looks to Maisy to continue their inventory.

As Kristal washes herself down, Maisy resorts to curling up in a ball, shaking slightly as she felt her eye burning. Feeling a small stream of water push up against her arm, she opens her good eye, looking around to see Kristal drinking the water dripping down from the walls. Pushing herself up to a sitting position, the cat cupped her paws to catch some of the water, pouring a few drops into her eye. The pain quickly left, and she let out a relieved sigh. She still couldn't see out of it, and to an outside observer, the eye had paled as if she had gone blind.

Pushing her way under a larger stream, she cleaned herself off as well, the pain from the toxic rain melting away as it had with the other injury. Taking off her own bag, which was thankfully waterproof, she opened it, dumping out the contents.

"Meal packs, extra water... I think this is a flare gun with extra shots," she said, gesturing to a blue box, latched closed. "Firestarters, matches and the like. And a radio!" The last item in the pack seemed to excite her, and she picked it up, examining it. "Unless your pod has a better one, at least we've got this."

Kristal wondered for a moment where her pistol went since she had the cartridges, but then remembered she handed it to her sister before the freezing process. She mentally slapped herself and tuned in more when mention of a radio was heard.

“Seriously? Think we can get it working? “

The gears began to work in her mind on just how they’ll be able to fix it. But the thing that keeps showing up as priority is finding a semi safe place to make base.

“Considering where we are, rescue might not be an option. We need a base. And if we’re going to try to get any signal to reach others, even if it’s on this planet, we’d need high ground. “
Once the rain ends, they’ll have to trek again to find high ground. That, or risk exploring further in the cave for who knows how long. Normally she’d be up for it, but without her pistol, they’re defenseless.

“We also have no idea how hostile this planet is. We have some options. We can make weapons to arm ourselves better. Explore the cave for possible exits to other parts of the planet, or head out once the rain ends. We’re both pretty tired so a rest is in order as well. “

"I think we can," Maisy answered, nodding. "I think all it needs to work is to be charged..." Turning it over, she pried open the back of it, revealing, to her delight, three small, blue capsules embedded in the back. "Perfect, it has power. Now, when this storm lets up, we can get it out in the sun to charge." The device was solar powered, the batteries in the back holding an incredible amount of charge.

Putting the radio down as Kristal spoke again, Maisy turned toward her, nodding along. "Making a base would be a good idea, you're right. We have your pod, and I might be able to get some things out of mine after the storm stops. And exploring the cave might be a good idea as well. I'm not sure how able I would be to assist you without a light, since my depth perception is all out of whack."

As if on cue with the mention of resting, the feline's jaws split in a wide yawn, the stress of landing, the exhaustion of running through the rain and the energy expended to ward off the pain finally catching up with her. "Yeah... Rest sounds like a good idea," she said. "Sleep through the storm, get up in a few hours and start stockpiling things." Packing the contents of her bag away again, she stood, stretching and walking over to the rock with the clothes. Still very damp, her tail twitched, and she went back to sit down by Kristal again.

"Does your pod have a suitable bed that you can use?" She asked. Being used to sleeping out in the weather, she opted out of claiming a bed for herself.

When Maisy mentioned her damaged depth perception, she took a moment to notice her eye. Once they’ve learned enough about this place, she’ll make a note of synthesizing something to fix her eye.

“I’ll be fine Maisy. I’ve had my fair share of adventures. Once base is set up we’ll be a bit more comfortable. “

she began to look around for things to burn to make a fire, finding some tar like substance in a pool and some damp branches.

“I’ll take first watch. Get some rest. “

After getting a very small fire going, she deduced that the intensity of the fire isn’t enough to burn the damp branches. It seems she’ll have to burn up some of her survival guide as well. She reached into her pack and took out the guide, ripping out the pages she didn’t need like the basics of making a shelter, fire, and avoiding losing your stockpile. As she had little knowledge of herbalism, she kept the pages on the plants. Burning the papers, soon the damp branches have dried to create a steady fire that should keep burning. She needs only to find more wood.

She made a small stockpile, taking everything she could find from within the pools and the outer part of the cave. When she’s nothing to do, and the rain began to let up, she took the radio outside to charge, letting Maisy sleep awhile longer while she looked for more wood and building materials.

"Thank you." The words were preceded by a suppressed yawn, and Maisy's eyelids started to close. She shook her head, trying to stay awake, and was able to keep her eyes open halfway, for the most part. Pacing around the cave, she felt along the stone floor, finally finding a suitable spot to curl up in. Against the wall, her body was slightly hidden in the shadows, a small outcropping of rock helping a little to block what wind might blow through the cave.

As Kristal started the fire, and got it heated up, Maisy relaxed into the warmth that she could leech though her fur. Tucking her limbs in close to her body, she closed her eyes, the crackling of the flames soothing her to sleep. She didn't hear Kristal moving about the cave, taking the radio out to charge... she was in a deep, dreamless sleep, one of the better ones she'd had that month.

Kristal returned and left a few more times to bring building materials and more wood scavenged from the forest floor. The radio is fully charged and her clothes had dried on the rock. Wearing only her skivvies and shoes, she ventured.

When Maisy wakes, by the campfire are some alien fruit roasting and Kristal was busy making a spear. There was also some mud around it acting like a guard of sorts or the beginning of a makeshift grill.

Around the cave there are piles of scavenged items. A pile for firewood, a pile of large leaves, and two wolf like creatures with leafy bodies instead of fur.

Yawning as she woke up, the feline first noticed the odd but tantalizing smell floating from the campfire. She pushed herself up, her arm aching where the cut and subsequent burn was. Her nose twitched as she took another whiff of the roasting fruit, and she made her way over to Kristal's side, sitting a few feet away from her.

"Morning... or afternoon. How long was I out?" She asked, her ears flicking as she watched the spear take shape. The cat's fur covered her body, really not revealing anything unless you looked for it. She mostly wore garments for armor, and to fit in among other cultures.

Maisy poked at one of the fruits, and upon hearing it sizzle a bit, she pulled back. She stood, walking over to the leafy lifeforms, running her paw over their pelts. "These are certainly interesting... did you find more like these?" She asked.

Seeing the other female awaken, she smiled.
“Good afternoon Maisy. Here have some alien planet fruit. “
Finishing the spear she sets it aside and grabs her knife, getting ready to skin the wolves.
“Actually, these guys found me. I was out looking for materials and firewood. They lunged for me so I fought back. It was just the two, but I imagine there’s more. “
She begins the process, first dragging one.
“Help me drag these outside. We need to tie them up a tree and get all the blood out. “

Carefully batting the fruit away form the fire, Maisy let it cool before picking it up, sniffing at it. She took a small bite, and as the flavor filled her mouth, her ears shot up. "This is really good!" She said. She took a couple more bites, a smile spreading across her snout. "We definitely need to find more of these."

After she had finished, she got up, grabbing the other leafy canine and dragging it out behind Kristal. "We'll need to be on the lookout, then." As they dragged the wolves, the cat started to chew on her claws, sharpening them a bit so she would be able to cut through the leafy pelts of the animals. "Wonder that they taste like...?"