Chronicle of the Aesir: Book I: Arrival [PG-16]

Aesirson · July 29, 2010

NOTE: I know I've posted this already, but since I cannot edit topic titles on this new forum I reposted it without the [Prologue] in the title. Any moderator is free to delete the old thread.

If you hadn't already figured out by looking at the title, this Prologue is indeed cliche and holds nothing very special except for some half-bad jokes. You've been warned.

[spoiler=Prologue]

September 28 2036, Departure Day

We've just departed from Earth in search for another solar system with one or more planet who meets the requirements for life! This ship, called the Ark, travels in a speed that matches that of light itself. I don't know how long this journey will take, but of course I brought my beautiful wife Fiona with me.

September 30 2036

We passed Mars yesterday. I could imagine living on that planet someday, if we ever make it inhabitable. I can see that in the future.

October 10 2036

Today I made a profit by selling my old collection of children's books from when I was a baby. I don't know why I brought them, but it seems as if I was lucky. I don't know what I need the money for here though.

Step 1: Skip to Step 3.

Step 2: ???

Step 3. PROFIT!

October 11 2036

My wife just told me she's pregnant, maybe I shouldn't have sold those books yesterday? Oh well I'm very happy right now anyway!

October 19 2036

I miss my pet platypus back on Earth.

July 12 2037

IT WAS A BOY! We're not sure about what we'll call him yet, but I'm sure we'll figure out something!

Jim Higgins knew what the boy was going to be called. It had taken him a year, but he had finally found his father's journal. He kept turning pages, there was nothing interesting to be found until he reached the pages depicting the time when he was around 15.

June 13 2052

I really wish Jim will have the chance to go back to Earth someday. I would love to take him on a journey across America, Europe, Asia, yeah... The whole world actually. But to turn the Ark around now would be foolish, especially when we're already 16 lightyears away from Earth.

June 15 2052

Jim started to read my old books about Norse Mythology and the Old Norse language yesterday. I never really got into that kind of stuff.

July 12 2052

Today is Jim's 15th birthday. I can't imagine that He's been living on this machine for 15 year. Poor boy.

September 28 2052

It was 16 years since we left Earth. We lost communication with them only a month after departure. I wonder how life goes on there.

September 29 2052

Fiona is feeling down. I wonder what's with her.

Jim couldn't bare to read the next pages. They would only depict his mother's slow death by the hand of that unknown disease. He jumped some pages further.

March 13 2053

I really miss Fiona, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever known. Harald back on Earth is probably also dead since a long time back. I'm starting to feel down too. I hope Jim can survive without his parents. It's a cruel destiny for a human to become an orphan at the age of 15, but that is probably how it will be.

The pages went blank after that. Jim couldn't hold back the tear running down his cheeks, and he threw the book away. When it hit the hard, silver colored floor it opened and revealed the last page, where a few words was scribbled. He slowly picked the book up and read his father's last written words.

Jim, if you ever find this book I want you to know that I and your mother loves you. Thank you for being the best son ever.

Under the words there was a photograph of a platypus who were lying atop a table, staring into the camera who took the photo. Across the photo the words Harald would've loved you too. was written. Jim couldn't help but smile.

"Everyone to the mess hall! I repeat! Everyone to the mess hall!" A harsh, Canadian voice echoed through the ship.

Jim quickly looked at the mirror that was placed inside his room. There he saw himself, a 23 year old, young man with long, curly hair, glasses and blue eyes. He was currently wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of baggy jeans, but if he was going to attend to the mess hall he decided that it would be best if he dressed as the marine that he had been trained to be.

He quickly pulled on the military clothes. It was the usual military outfit worn by the American army, and of course his cap. He would go nowhere without his green cap that had once belonged to his father. He hadn't really figured out why he would be trained as a marine on the ship. If they actually did find an inhabitable planet, would the natives be aggressive against them. Oh well, better prepared then not, he thought as he quickly progressed towards the mess hall.

The mess hall was gigantic with golden walls and a big scene in the front. On the sides there was two big windows that revealed the starry darkness outside. However, today there was something else catching Jim's eyes. A planet, not very unlike the pictures he had seen of Earth, could be seen on the left side of the mess hall. A lot of the people who had already arrived there was looking at the planet. On the scene in the front was Captain Fedric.

Fedric was a dark skinned, big man. Born during the year 2000, he was now 60 years old, but his very short hair did still have some of it's past darkness. He was tall and strong, and he was the leader of the Ark for now.

"Welcome, human brethren." He had a harsh voice and spoke with a Canadian accent. It was his voice that had echoed throughout the ship earlier. He chuckled a little and then continued. "I am happy to tell you that we have finally found what we've been searching for; A world where human life can flourish. We've sent a probe onto the planet's surface, and it reveals that the planet's temperature reaches an average of 26 Celsius during the day, and around 10 Celsius at night."

"What's this Celsius thing that you keep mentioning!" A man yelled, around the age of 40. He was laughing, so he was obviously making fun of Cpt. Fedric's Canadian heritage.

"Americans..." Fedric silently said, but he then explained. "I forgive you. I've never left my Canadian tradition of using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. To clarify my statement; the temperature reaches 79 Fahrenheit during the day and around 50 at night. That's 299 respectively 283 Kelvin, if anybody wondered."

The people went silent, except for several whispers that murmured about a new home.

"The planet, which we call New Pangea, roughly equals the size of Neptune, and is circulating around the star that we have decided to name Helion." Fedric coughed. "We have detected signs of life on the planet, but no civilized lifeforms as of yet. The planet is also mostly covered by forests, but around the poles, like Earth, there is thick layers of snow..."

"Yeah right, the people back at Earth has probably melted it all by now." A woman's voice said. Fedric ignored her and continued.

"We will enter the planet's atmosphere in approximately two minutes."

The crowd went totally silent, waiting for the powerful shake that had occurred when the Ark left Earth's atmosphere. Of course not everyone remembered it, and some, like Jim, never even experienced it.

Suddenly it came. The entire ship was shook and the lights enlightening the mess hall was darkened. Many of the people inside the hall fell to the floor as the ship came closer to new Pangea. The people inside the ship could only look at the planet that came closer and closer in a tremendous speed. This would be their new home.

At least they hoped so.

[spoiler=Chapter 1: Argent][spoiler=Part 1]

Jim sensed the cold, shallow water and the rocky bottom under him. He slowly breathed in and out, the air felt like the one on the ship, only a bit thinner. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the sky. It was colored in a light, blue tone, not like the one he had seen on pictures from Earth. This sky had a lighter, icier tone. Jim stretched his hand towards the sky, as if he was trying to reach it, this was a happy moment for him, even though the Ark had obviously crashed into New Pangea. He heard Fedric yelling something, but he didn't really care. Then, everything went black.

He could hear chanting. He could understand some of the words, while others was completely foreign to him. He didn't know how he could understand it, but he knew that it was not English.

Jim woke up and sat up. He was sweating heavily, and the shirt that he was wearing felt attached to his skin. It took some time for him to remember what had just happened, but he had apparently been transported and was now placed inside a tent, and was lying in a kind of bed.

"You're finally awake?" A woman's voice said next to him. Jim hadn't noticed her earlier, he couldn't make out any of the woman's features since he wasn't wearing his glasses.

"Yes. Apparently." Jim said and tried to find his glasses.

"Here." The woman pointed an item towards Jim, and he quickly realized it was his glasses and grabbed them.

When the glasses was safely placed on his nose he looked at the woman. He had seen her several times on the Ark, but he had never spoke to her, and he didn't know anything about her except that she was a doctor. She had short, brown hair, green eyes and looked to be around 40 in age.

"I'm Doctor Lillian Jackson." She said, smiled and held out her hand to shake Jim's hand.

"Jim Higgins." Jim kept it simple, and shook Lillian's hand. "What happ-"

He looked around and saw that he was not the only damaged human in the tent. The tent had the size of a big dining hall, and there was around 20 more beds placed around it. Each one of them had a person in it, some of them were awake and some were still asleep.

"The Ark crashed into the planet's surface." Doctor Jackson looked at the others. "We crashed into a bog, and that is where we are now."

Jim noticed that the woman's lab coat was very dirty and muddy, probably after searching for survivors in the wetlands.

"How many died?" Jim asked, expecting the worst.

"Many." Lillian looked to the door of the tent as Fedric walked inside holding a child of around five in his arm.

"She's dead." He said with tearful eyes. "What should I tell her parents whe-"

"Her parents are also dead..." Lillian walked to Fedric and hugged him. "I don't know how we are going to do this, I'm so scared..." The two of them walked outside, leaving Jim with the other survivors.

"Dude!" A voice came from the bed next to Jim. He turned towards it and saw a tanned man with black rastas and a short beard around his mouth. It was Cyrus Xavier, one of Jim's classmates aboard the Ark. "That was one hell of a crash, wasn't it!" Cyrus was smiling, something that Jim found weird.

"Cyrus, why are you smiling?" He asked, not really knowing how he would react. "Almost everyone is dead, and you're smiling?"

"Dude! You've gotta see it from the bright side!" Cyrus sat up and smiled at Jim. "Sure one hell lot of people died, but we gotta be happy, because we survived! The adventure of our lives lie before us, Jim! Let me see you smile!"

Jim didn't smile, instead he laid down. He listened to Cyrus saying the same thing to the survivor that laid on the other side of him. Cyrus had always been a very weird and crazy person, but he was also one of Jim's best friends, and he was always optimistic no matter what the situation. Jim then fell asleep again.

He heard the chanting again. Still the same words, still the same tone.

He woke up, it was night, judging by the darkness. The other's in the tent seemed to be asleep, so Jim slowly and quietly slid himself out of the bed and noticed that the clothes that he had wore was lying on the ground next to his bed. He quickly got dressed and sneaked out of the tent to take a better look at the planet. Once he got outside he was greatly surprised. Unlike the pictures he had seen of earth, the grass and plants on this planet was silvery colored, instead of green. Lit up by the blue and red moons in the sky, the plants seemed to fill the night with an argent embrace that made the small camp bath in silver light. Jim had never seen anything beautiful, which wasn't weird as he had lived aboard a ship for all his life. He looked around the camp, which was made up of three tents containing all the found survivors. However, there was something else that catched his eyes, two blue, glowing spots that he spotted in the shadows. The two spots remained unmoving, and then suddenly Jim felt a burning headache, probably from the damage caused to his head from the crash. He fell to his knees, holding his head and forcing himself not to scream, which would wake up the entire camp. He raised to standing position again and looked to the spots, which were gone. He then felt how everything disappeared and he fell unconscious.

Someone pushed his side and he woke up.

"Cyrus!" Lillian's voice could be heard and Jim opened his eyes to see Cyrus looking down at him, smiling. "Don't kick him, he's still hurt!"

"I didn't kick him, I just pushed him with my foot!" Cyrus kept looking at Jim, smiling. Jim got up and looked at Lillian, who quickly grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing out here? You should stay in your bed!" She looked angry, but Jim figured that she only wanted Jim to feel better.

"Let go off me!" Jim jerked his arm out of her grip. "And I walked outside to take a look around." He looked at the argent grass and plants around the camp, which was located in a forest. He looked to the sky and saw a shade of the red moon, the blue moon was probably invisible atop the icy, blue sky. He then looked towards the place where he had seen the two sapphire like spots in the shadows and ran towards it. He looked at the ground and saw that the grass had recently been walked on, but not by human feet.

"What is it, dude?" Cyrus walked up behind him and looked at the ground, but he didn't seem to notice the same things as Jim did. "Isn't the grass beautiful? I wonder if it's as good as the grass back on Earth?" He let out a hoarse laugh and then turned to walk towards the camp again.

"Cyrus! Don't talk about such things!" Lillian sounded annoyed, which was understandable. Cyrus was quite irritating, but Jim knew that Cyrus probably felt sorry for all the dead people too, he just knew how to hide it. Lillian appeared behind Jim and looked at the grass, but unlike Cyrus she noticed that something had walked on it. "Probably just some kind of animal, nothing to worry about." She patted him on the shoulder and then walked back to the tents.

Jim looked into the forest, but didn't see anything other then the silvery bushes and leaves falling from the trees. He wondered how the animals would look like on this planet, if they would look like the ones he had seen pictures off from Earth. Maybe he would find a new Harald? He slowly turned around and walked after Lillian back to the tents.

[spoiler=Part 2]Well back in the tent, Jim sat down on his bed and looked at the other beds, where a lot of the survivors were lying. Some of them had walked outside to take part of the silvery forest of where they were located. Jim thought about the blue spots that he had seen, he was now sure that it was eyes, but who, or what, was the owner of those eyes, and was it friendly?

"Jimmy-boy!" Cyrus appeared in the tent opening, waving his hand to Jim. "What were you doing outside tonight? I was worried for you there, dude!"

"I walked outside to see the environment, then I suffered from an extreme headache and fell asleep." Jim said, still in deep thought about the 'eyes'.

"You shoulda slept some more, dude!" Cyrus smiled and sat down next to Jim. "You know what? I think that we, you and me, should go explore!"

"Are you, seriously, insane!?" Jim woke up from his semi-meditation and looked at Cyrus with a surprised look on his face. "We know nothing about this world! We may get lost or we may walk into some kind of hungry animal!"

"Dude!" Cyrus smiled and pulled a gun out of a holster hanging on his belt. "I've got this! Besides, the animals on this planet has never seen humans before, their probably as scared of us as we are of them!"

"I guess you're right..." Jim said, and once again thought about the eyes he had seen.

"Come one!" Cyrus stood up, grabbed Jim's arm and dragged him from his sitting position.

They walked outside, and Cyrus looked around to make sure that they would leave unnoticed. Lillian was talking to a newly awake Fedric, and they didn't seem to take any notice of the other survivors, who were too busy looking at the argent flora of New Pangea.

"No one's noticing, come one!" Cyrus, still holding Jim's arm in his left hand and the gun in the right one started to run away from the camp, and Jim helplessly followed to make sure that his arm didn't get ripped off. After running for about two minutes, they stopped and looked around. They were in a glade, and a silvery leaf was flying around in the light breeze. Jim grabbed it, held it for a moment and felt how good it was to take part of nature, something that he hadn't had a chance to do since he had lived his entire life aboard a star ship. He then opened his palm and looked at the leaf, which had almost been crushed by his grip. It slowly fell to the ground as he turned his hand and looked at Cyrus.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" He asked, but Cyrus was to busy randomly pointing the gun in random directions.

"It sure does! It feels like we're in one of those old science fiction movies that we were allowed to see aboard the Ark!" Cyrus smiled and kept turning around, his gun always holding his gun in front of him with both hands.

Suddenly they heard a growl from the bushes and they both quickly turned to the point of where the growl came from, Cyrus pointing his gun into that direction.

"Come out, whoever you are!" He shouted, but Jim quickly hushed him.

"Quiet!" He whispered and stood still, something that he had learned that you should do from watching movies aboard the Ark.

"No worries, I've got a gun!" Cyrus laughed a little, but then went quiet when a big, wolf-like creature leaped out of the bushes and landed just in front of them. It had black fur and two big, yellow eyes. It was unlike any creature that Jim and Cyrus had seen on pictures from Earth, but it did look a little like wolves, except for the saliva-coated tusks and fangs that stuck out of it's mouth. It opened it's jaws and let out a roaring howl. Then two other wolves came out of the bushes. They were unlikely to have ever seen humans before, and they started to walk around the two young mean in circles, Cyrus always pointing his gun towards the biggest one, but his hand was shaking, and Jim felt how sweat drips was rolling down his face. They were both to scared to scream, as they didn't know how the 'wolves' would react to it.

"Shoot the biggest one..." Jim whispered, but Cyrus hand just kept shaking. "Shoot it!" Jim now spoke louder, almost yelling, and Cyrus finally looked like if he was about to shoot. He closed his eyes and bit his lip as he pulled the trigger. *click*

That bastard brought me out here with an unloaded gun!? He's so dead right now!

The wolves stopped at the clicking sound and just stared at Jim and Cyrus. The biggest one then suddenly leaped towards Cyrus with it's mouth open, revealing it's gigantic teeth. Cyrus was forced to think really quickly, so he dropped the gun and held up his hands, so that when the wolf came close enough he grabbed it's upper jaw with his left hand and it's lower jaw with his right one. The weight of the wolf made him fall over, but he still had the wolf in a steady grab.

"My, what big teeth you have, grandma!" Cyrus appeared to struggle to keep the wolf's jaw open, but it's mouth was slowly closing. Suddenly the wolf let out a whimper and it then fell dead atop Cyrus' body. The two other wolves looked into the forest, and then turned to the opposite direction and ran away. Cyrus threw the wolf away and then stood up, smiling. "Told ya, Jimmy! It ain't dangerous when I'm around!"

But Jim had seen what had really killed the wolf. Straight through it's head was a blue arrow. Cyrus appeared to have also noticed it, and his smile faded away. He then looked at Jim with a wondering look.

"Who fired that arrow?" He said in a rather comical way.

"It wasn't me, if that's what you thought!" Jim looked to the direction of where the arrow had came, and he thought that he spotted a humanoid figure, but it was quickly gone. "We should go back..."

"Yea..." Cyrus picked up the gun and they started to walk towards the camp again, but Cyrus then turned and ran back to the wolf's corpse. "I'll be taking this! A big game hunter never leaves his game!" He threw the dead wolf over his shoulder, and he almost fell over from the weight of the wolf. "Okay let's go!"

Jim looked at him and sighed, but he then turned and started walking towards the camp again. However, when they had walked about halfway and could almost see the camp another arrow soared through the air and hit a tree just next to Jim, almost hitting him in the head too.

"What the hell?" Cyrus dropped the wolf to the ground and looked to the direction where the arrow had came from. Jim did the same, and it was there they saw the marksman.

A humanoid, seemingly female, stepped out of the bushes. She was around 6.6 feet tall, her face looked humane, but her eyes was glowing with a serene, blue light, and she had long, blonde hair. She had no visible ears, but on her temples there was two tendrils that was about 4 feet long. These tendrils had several, golden rings placed on them. As for the rest of her body, she had a broad shoulders and chest with slim waist. On each of her hands there was four digits, whereas one was a thumb. Her legs was digitigrade, and her feet had three toes, two in the front and one at the heel. Another thing that made her look less human was her snakelike tail of about 3 feet length. She wore a golden tabard made out of some kind of leather, and in her right hand she was holding a black, futuristic crossbow, aimed at the two humans.

"What a woman, eh?" Cyrus said and smiled, he was obviously thinking that the alien was friendly. "I might just go xenophile for this lady here!"

"Shut up, Cyrus!" Jim didn't look away from the alien, who were just standing there, analyzing the two humans.

She then lowered her crossbow, opened her mouth and spoke. The language she spoke was foreign, but Jim still felt as if he could understand some of it. The alien pointed at the dead wolf as she spoke.

"Cyrus, I think you should give the woman her prey!"

"Will do anything for the ladies!" Cyrus laughed and then grabbed the wolf's tail and dragged it along the ground to the alien. The alien looked at the corpse and kicked it, to make sure it was dead. She then picked it up and threw it over her shoulder, just like Cyrus had done earlier.

"I think we should go now..." Jim started to slowly walk away in the direction of the camp, but suddenly he felt how something grabbed his shoulder and turned around, only to see the alien holding his shoulder. She looked at him with an angered look, and then pointed deeper into the forest and said something in her native tongue. "Cyrus... I think she wants us to go with her..."

"Oh I'll follow her wherever she goes!" Cyrus laughed, and then followed the "lady" as she started to walk away, aiming his crossbow at the humans to make sure they didn't run away.

As they walked deeper into the forest the alien finally turned away from them, apparently she rusted that they didn't run away.

"We really should try to run away now..." Jim whispered to Cyrus, and apparently the alien either didn't hear him or just didn't care, at least she didn't react.

"Is that how you treat a lady?" Cyrus asked chuckled.

"You're sick, man..." Jim sighed, and they followed the alien deeper and deeper into the forest.

Please rate, and there may be some grammatical errors. I spellchecked it, however, so there shouldn't be any major spelling errors. Also, if some words is not capitalized correctly it's because my Shift button is near death :P

Aesirson · July 30, 2010

[spoiler=Chapter 1.0: Argent (Part1)]