Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There are billions of planets, in billions of different solar systems in billions of different cosmos. Some have already been explored, others are still being explored, and still others have yet to be studied. However, these latter cases were becoming rare, as technology, space exploration and ever faster, more powerful and more efficient spaceships enabled exchanges with living creatures on other planets, allowing cultural and technological exchanges and, more generally, enabling interspatial, if not intergalactic, trade to make its appearance. 

Of course, as on the original planet Earth, not all peoples got along with each other, and not all 'Aliens' - if you could call them that, since technically speaking, if you arrived on their planet, you were the alien - were peaceful and friendly. As was the case with the Clyckers of planet 7953F, otherwise known as 'Fonguos', the first ships to land on this planet having had the unfortunate experience of being aggressive. But the point was that these occurrences of hostile, non-exploring planets were rare, rare enough to be considered only 15% of the entire Universe, go on, maybe 20. So you'd have to be unlucky for the ship you're in, a little technological jewel according to Alterra Corporation, to crash on a hostile, non-explored planet composed almost exclusively of water. 

And you were one of the unlucky ones. It was the only thought you had as you entered one of the Lifepod, the number 16. Alarm sirens wailed in your ears as the lights, usually white and comforting, turned red, flashing in time with the tremors and jolts that shook the Aurora, the light painting the metal walls of the corridors you had passed through and frequented a dark, threatening blood color. Heart pounding in your chest and ears ringing from the detonation that had sounded, you were engulfed in the small emergency cabin. Hands and legs trembling, you staggered forward and almost collapsed into one of the Lifepod's safety seats. You panicked, no, you'd been panicking since before that, pressing every button before finally finding the one that lowered the safety bar that made sure you stayed perfectly seated in your seat.

You don't know how long you'd been waiting, leaving the Lifepod hatch open until someone else came along, whoever it was you didn't care, you just wanted someone else with you. These Lifepods were designed to accommodate a minimum of two people; more could fit, but they wouldn't have safety seats, and the shocks could be lethal. So, even in your terror, you didn't want to simply eject without giving someone else a chance to survive. A minute passed, then two, the only sounds you could hear were sirens, explosions and the sound of a colossal spaceship rapidly penetrating a planet's atmosphere as it disintegrated. Then there was another explosion, much more powerful than the first, much closer to where you were, and you knew at that moment that no one would come. 

Your hand slammed down on the ejection button, and the hatches closed with a hissing sound, isolating the Lifepod 16 emetically. A cold, robotic voice then started a countdown, giving you time to prepare for the Lifepod's eventful ejection. But before the voice could reach the number 1, there was another detonation, destroying the section you were in. Your Lifepod was then violently expelled from the Aurora. The scream of terror that left your lips was drowned out by the sound of tearing metal, cracking electrical cable and flame embracing all in its path, the deafening, destructive explosion.

At that moment, trapped in your Lifepod, which began to spin on its axis as it tumbled rapidly towards this unknown planet, you didn't know if you really wanted to live anymore. You could feel your whole body trembling, and not just because of the shaking, the beeps and electronic noises echoing around you, the same robotic voice spitting out information you couldn't understand, not only because the voice was totally bellowing, but also because you couldn't understand anything. You felt all your blood leave your face, your eyes fluttering shut as you lost consciousness for a few seconds, your body going limp under the centrifugal force that was more than you'd been prepared to bear. 

You regained consciousness the instant the Lifepod 16 pierced the surface of the water, the sound of splashing muffled by the metal all around you as your little rescue vessel sank some ten meters underwater, the force and speed of your fall too great to be stopped cleanly and directly. After a few seconds, the Lifepod's flotation system forced the little vessel to the surface almost as quickly as it had landed. Your hands gripped the safety bar of your chair as your Lifepod resurfaced, and you were tossed about for several long seconds, the Lifepod plunging and resurfacing until, finally, everything stabilized a little and the world around you stopped moving. 

Blinking, you straightened your face and took a breath you'd been holding for far too long, the air filling your lungs which burned slightly after you unconsciously deprived yourself of oxygen. You could feel strands of your hair (h/c) sticking to your forehead and cheeks, sweat dripping down your temple. It took you a few seconds to regain your wits enough to discern your surroundings. The interior of the Lifepod was minimalist, less than 6 meters long by 4 meters wide and 5 meters high, the walls made of white slabs that had been cut and assembled together, revealing grooves and other greyed-out gaps. The floor was a dark grey with non-slip relief and a few white patterns. On the ceiling, a white light flickered for a few seconds before finally remaining active. 

Due to its reduced size, the Lifepod was equipped only with the bare essentials for survival. In addition to the safety chair you were sitting on and the one opposite you, there was a fire extinguisher which, due to the shaking, had been half torn from its place. To the right of the extinguisher was the Medical Kit Fabricator, which, as the name implied, was used to make bandages and everything else related to first aid. Further to the right, parallel to you, was a screen built into the wall of the Lifepod on which information written in green was displayed, but you were still too groggy to make out exactly what was written. Below the screen was a block of metal extending slightly to the two perpendicular walls, the metal block seemed to have an opening at the top, a bright orange door decorated with a luminous logo in the vague shape of a cross, perhaps storage, or equipment.

Groaning slightly as you felt the tension in your neck, you turned your head to inspect what was beside you. Anchored to the wall was a device with a vaguely oval shape, white and orange in color with a few touches of metallic gray. A Frabricator. You knew that, when in use, the device opened up in the middle to reveal a kind of small tray on which you could produce what you needed using laser printers, of course only if you had the necessary materials. The design was the same as that of a 3D printer, but much more precise and advanced, since you could even manufacture food or electronic items on it. You were constantly using this little device in the lab, so seeing something familiar in such a chaotic situation was strangely comforting.

Now that your head had stopped spinning and you'd familiarized yourself with the restricted environment in which you found yourself, you noticed that something wasn't quite right. Everything was tilted to the left, and the Lifepod 16, instead of standing horizontally facing the surface of the ocean you'd just landed in, was half sunk in the water. Grimacing slightly, you ignored the hatch on the floor and the ladder in front of it, and looked up towards the hatch accessible via the ladder on top of the lifeboat, relieved to see that the hatch was not submerged. Letting your eyes drift back down to the front, you let your hands relax around the metal bar still forcing you into the safety chair. Your fingers went to the small touchscreen on the armrest to press the button deactivating the safety bar. 

With an electric sizzle, the bar slowly lifted off the chair and came to rest above you. Letting out a sigh, you tried to sit up slowly, but you felt your head spin again, forcing you to grip the chair and close your eyes for a few seconds to avoid getting sick. Pressing your hands to your face, you forced yourself to concentrate on your breathing and not on your heartbeat, which seemed to be pulsing in your brain. After you'd made sure that all the contents of your stomach didn't come out, you opened your eyes again, staring at the wall in front of you before using the chair you were sitting on to help yourself to your feet. 

Staying upright in an unstable Lifepod was no mean feat, as you found yourself in the left-hand part of the small ship and had to walk partially on the wall that was almost your floor, using your hands to balance yourself by leaning on the walls as you approached the screen on which a whole host of information was displayed. Raising your eyes, you took in the information on the status of your Lifepod. The general electrical system seemed to be working, since you had power, and the right-hand side of the screen confirmed this deduction. Your attention then turned to the left-hand side of the screen, where the following information was displayed : 

Secondary Systems: ONLINE
Outgoing radio communication: OFFLINE
Incoming radio communication: ONLINE
Flotation Devices: DAMAGED
Hull Integrity: OK
Environment:
- Uncharted ocean planet 4546B
- Oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere
- Waterborne bacteria levels: High

The prognosis was clearly mixed. Although you had electricity and the general condition of Lifepod number 16 was quite satisfactory, your radio was only working in one direction and it was clearly not the one you'd hoped for, and the flotation system had been damaged during the explosion or perhaps when you'd ditched, you had no explanation for this defect, but you now understood why your Lifepod had ended up half-submerged. But it was the information about where you'd landed that worried you most. 

You'd just crashed on planet 4546B. You didn't know much about this planet, just a few rare pieces of information you'd read in books or other scientific journals, that it's a planet located in the Milky Way galaxy, more precisely in the farthest part of the Ariane arm, that it orbits the yellow star called 4546, a star similar to the Earth's sun, that there are a dozen celestial bodies in this solar system and that 4546B itself possesses two satellites comparable to the Moon. Admittedly, the planet's air was breathable according to the information gathered by the Lifepod, which meant one less major problem, but that didn't stop you from realizing that the rest of the problem remained.

A category 3 Planet Ocean. That's what 4546B was called, and it lived up to its title. You had seen the planet through the Aurora's many portholes, an immense ball of blue in the dark immensity of the sky. You remembered being amazed to see that this celestial body was almost entirely covered in water, your scientific mind wondering how this water got there ? Did it come from asteroids, like on your home planet, or perhaps in some other way ? How many thousands of years old was this planet ? Had it always been like this ? Why had it never been explored ? All questions you didn't feel like answering yourself. 

Yes, this planet was beautiful and intriguing, but only because it was so very, very far away from you. A plant made up entirely of oceans with unexplored depths and unknown inhabitants sounded to your ears like the worst of your nightmares. On earth, it had taken hundreds of billions of years of technological evolution before the depths of the ocean were perfectly explorable and analyzable. And even then, when space had become as busy as a road on a school vacation weekend, parts of the ocean had yet to be discovered, and neither had the creatures that lived there. So 4546B, an alien and unknown planet, was everything Thalassophobes would avoid at all costs. And that's where you'd landed. 

Your hand lifted to rest under the information display as you felt the Lifepod jerk slightly, nearly knocking you off balance. You were really going to have to try and fix your Lifepod's flotation system, this little space was your only refuge for the moment and you were going to have to make sure it was as stable and secure as possible. Straightening up slightly, you turned your face towards the other end of the Lifepod. Behind the ladder in the middle of the cabin was the radio, a square-shaped metal blox with antennae protruding from it. On top was a big red button which, for the moment, was still switched off, a sign that nobody had yet tried to send a distress signal. 

You couldn't help wondering if there were any survivors other than yourself. You very much hoped there were, but another part of you told yourself that death wasn't such a bad outcome when you saw the conditions in which you were going to have to survive. Your (e/c) eyes went back to the information screen, the last line concerning environmental information being one of the most worrying. 'Waterborne bacteria levels: High'. Not only did you have to fear the larger creatures that populated this ocean planet, but you also had to fear the microscopic beings that lived there, and you knew the damage that unknown bacteria and viruses could do, sometimes far more deadly than weapons. 

You forced your attention to turn elsewhere, more precisely to the kind of storage unit that lay directly in front of you. Crouching down as best you could as the Lifepod rocked slightly, you placed your hand on the lid of the storage container, which immediately opened to reveal its contents. The first thing to catch your eye was the 'Personal Digital Assistant' or more commonly known as the PDA inside. You quickly plunged your hand inside to pull out the little electronic device, about the size of two hands placed side by side, the PDA was composed of a blue glass screen transparent enough to let you see what was on the other side, and a full-width handle of the same white that was found everywhere in Alterra's creations, with a small grey area featuring anti-slip motifs that made holding the device more comfortable.

Pressing the small button in the middle of the handle, you saw the PDA's screen light up, a small loading icon in the image of the Alterra logo appeared, turning on itself several times before the loading circle was complete and the PDA finally displayed the information you needed. Each PDA was normally personalized, analyzing and exploiting the information its owner gathered, you would have liked to have your own PDA with you but in your escape from the Aurora you had left it at your desk and now you were going to have to make do with this one. The PDA's voice came suddenly, cold, artificial and detached: 

«This PDA has rebooted with one directive, to keep you alive on an alien world. Please refer to the databank for detailed survival advice. Good luck.»

"Ah ah ha... I'm going to need more than luck." You sigh in response to your PDA. 

Lifting your hand, which wasn't holding the electronic device, you ran it through your hair, pushing back the strands that had stuck to your face, before opening the PDA's databank. The first was a summary of your situation and information about the PDA and its use. The second was a Survival Check-list outlining the steps to be taken in your situation. You took the time to read this section carefully before reading the last document, which concerned the fact that the PDA's data had been corrupted and some information was now missing. 

"Shit..." You sighed as you closed the Databank to go and consult the other information available on your device. 

The PDA had several information sections, the first dedicated to your inventory and the equipment you owned, another which had blueprints of the materials and other devices you could create, a section allowing you to quickly list and locate Beacon and other radio signals, a photo gallery, and finally a Voice Log which recorded everything your PDA said. Going to the blueprints section, you noticed that a large proportion of the blueprints were incomplete or lacked information about the materials you needed to create anything useful. You didn't know whether the data had been lost due to a bug or simply erased as useless on this planet of unknown resources. 

Lowering the PDA, you placed it on the cabinet in front of you, putting it aside for a few seconds as you went to look again inside the storage unit. You took out two blocks of nutrients, another PDA, two bottles of filtered water, two flares and two survival masks that would allow you to survive any condition, from unbreathable air to water. The mask had a small makeshift filter that unfortunately didn't work on water, and in your case was only meant to keep water out of your eyes, mouth and ears. You placed it on the storage compartment next to your own PDA before plunging your hand inside the small storage container again, looking for something else. But your hands only closed on empty space with each new attempt to find just a little more. Pulling your hand out of the storage container, you let your arm fall back along your body before suddenly raising your fist to strike the wall, the gesture causing the Lifepod to jerk as pain shot through your body from your phalanges upwards.

You slid to your knees, resting your forehead on the storage container as you let your hand fall back against the cold floor of the Lifepod, your eyes closing as you felt waves of emotions crashing over you. Terror, anger, despair you felt all at once, your body trembling slightly as tears welled up in your eyes, adrenalin slowly fading and leaving you suddenly feeling horribly vulnerable. You'd crashed on an ocean planet, you had only a few miserable resources to help you survive, your radio was half-broken, the Lifepod 16 was barely floating and you were horribly and totally frightened by the water.

The Survival Check-list in the PDA had said you'd have to go outside to gather supplies and survival gear, but you'd hoped to ignore that part and stay safe in your Lifepod until someone sent a signal over the radio, until another survivor tried to make contact, until you knew you weren't alone in this vast expanse of blue with danger surely swimming in every nook and cranny. A small gasp left your lips as tears began to escape your eyes, sliding down your cheeks to crash onto your knees and the floor.

How were you going to survive ? Could you even hope to survive ? You were a nobody. You were a mere scientist who knew nothing more than what you'd read or seen in books, you had no experience of how to survive, how to fend for yourself. All you knew how to do was analyze the samples brought to you, run tests, write theories. You may have had some knowledge of technology and computers, but it wasn't enough to keep you alive. A squeak of despair left your lips as you continued to cry, the only thing you felt able to do at the moment. 

One of your hands came up to clutch your shirt at your heart, your fingers digging into your own skin as you tried to quell the despair with pain. And as you continued to spill tears, something cold brushed against your fingers. You flinched slightly, wondering what it could be, if you were already being attacked by one of the life forms on this planet, but then your eyes fell on your pendant, your vision blurring even more. It was an oval-shaped silver medallion attached to your neck by a small chain made of the same metal. You took a jerky breath, your hand rising to catch the little medallion in the hollow of your palm a few seconds before you caught it between your fingers. Your thumb caressed the side of the medallion, searching for the small mechanism which you finally found and pressed.

Immediately, the locket opened in two, revealing the same kind of small blue screen on which a photo was immediately displayed. You felt your heart miss a beat before speeding up a little more as you saw the faces of your family appear. It was a photo that had been taken many years ago now, and on it you could see your parents, your grandparents on one side of your family and your grandmother on the other. There was also your uncle and his children. Your cousin was looking at you with a big smile, her blond hair tied back in a ponytail as always, while she had put her hands on the shoulders of your other two little cousins, forcing them to stand still just for the time of the photo. You couldn't help letting a little laugh leave your lips, Cassie and Gregory really were little troublemakers, but they were both smart and you knew they had a great future ahead of them.

What would your family think if you didn't come back to their side ? You remembered very well what you'd told them the day before you boarded the Aurora, reassuring them that you wouldn't be gone for long and that the Aurora's mission was simply to build a phasegate in the Ariadne Arm. And although building phasegates had nothing to do with the work you were doing, a small team of scientists had been hired to sample and analyze this part of the Universe, to try and determine its potential as well as that of the surrounding planets, and to see if Alterra still had enough to make even more money. 

You'd told your family that the trip wasn't supposed to last long, less than a few weeks, and now you were trapped on a hostile planet with no idea when help would arrive. Another laugh left your lips, the sound echoing through Lifepod 16 as you could re-hear Cassie's little voice speaking to you one day when you'd gone to one of the seas there was on planet 2176C. You'd gone out only with your cousins, leaving the annoying adults to do something else, as Gregory had said. When your three cousins had all gone to play in the water, moving far away from the area where the water was shallow, you had stayed where your feet were and where you could see the sand beneath you. 

Cassie had teased you that you'd face your fears sooner or later, just as she'd been forced to eat her vegetables. You replied that maybe that day would come, but for now it hadn't and you'd rather stay safe. But that day had finally come, and there was more at stake than simply facing your fear: it was a matter of life and death. Closing the locket with a click, you lifted it to your lips, placing your lips on the cold metal in a quick kiss before slipping the locket back under your clothes. If you didn't want to live for yourself, you'd do it for your family. You were lucky to be alive, so you'd fight to stay that way, even if planet 4546B terrorized you to the core. Raising your hand, you wiped away the few tears that had escaped your eyes, deciding that you didn't want to add any more water than was already on the planet. 

Taking a jerky breath, you straightened up, feeling your Lifepod twitch as you moved. Repairing Lifepod 16 was now a priority, you knew you'd have to build a base sooner or later, a more solid, larger and above all more protected dwelling, but for now your Lifepod was your only refuge and you had to take care of it. You turned in the direction of the Fabricator, where you'd find blueprints of tools and materials you could use to repair your Lifepod's flotation systems. The Fabricator was on the other side of the small rescue module, in the raised part of the Lifepod, and getting to it would be no mean feat. 

Grabbing the ladder not far from you, you used the bars to make your way towards the Fabricator, anchoring yourself to it before using the ladder as a foothold to keep your balance and gain access to the manufacturing device. Pressing down on the touch-sensitive part of the Fabricator, it opened up, revealing the tray where you would print what you needed, as well as the printing lasers. Next to it, a small screen displayed a holographic projection of everything you could make with materials from the environment around you. You took a few seconds to browse through all the available categories, mentally making a list of everything you'd need and then making a list of the ingredients you'd inevitably need.

On your list were power tools: the Scanner and the Repair Tool, the flashlight could come later, for now you weren't planning to linger in the water at night, it was too dangerous. You'd also need a Survival Knife for the first two, so you knew you'd inevitably need a back-up battery, and batteries were made from Acid mushrooms and Copper ore. You'd need a wetsuit, because swimming in your clothes, which were a simple white shirt and denim pants, wouldn't be practical.

Your shoes would also have to be abandoned in favor of fins. And both these pieces of equipment required the same components, Silicone rubber which itself was made of something called 'creepvine seed cluster' but which you had no idea what it was, hence why you needed the Scanner. And finally the last piece of equipment you'd need on this ocean planet was obviously the Standard O₂ Tank. You would have liked to make the High Capacity O₂ Tank immediately, but you needed a Standard Tank to make it anyway. 

Now that your list was made you closed the Fabricator, letting yourself slide to the other corner of the Lifepod, mentally repeating to yourself what you needed so you wouldn't forget. You knew that the only thing left to do now was to suit up and dive. A shiver ran down your spine at the thought, your eyes darting to the hatch that opened into the water seconds before you turned away to retrieve your gear. You reached for your PDA, clipping it to your belt, before grabbing the mask and placing it over your face. The lightweight mask was made of ultra-resistant plastic and glass, designed to withstand and endure any metrological or environmental condition. It encircled your entire face and skull, but the glass part was only on the front at eye level, the rest being made of dark plastic.

And as you adjusted your mask over your face, trying not to pull your hair out, you heard a little 'ping' sound in your ears, making you jump, before seeing the same Alterra logo appear before your eyes, spinning around in the middle of a loading bar that completed itself in just a few seconds. The voice of the PDA then sounded directly in your ears as several pieces of information appeared before you on the glass of your mask.

"Synchronization complete. The 'Survival Mask' has now been associated with the PDA serial number 
85739696436. The information necessary for your survival will now be displayed directly inside your mask when you wear it."

At the words of the PDA, your eyes had already begun to scan the information that had been displayed in your mask, in the upper middle was the depth at which you were standing, which was currently at 1 since you were on the surface of the water. In the bottom left-hand corner of your survival mask were four colored circles, one of which was larger than the others. The first circle had a green color fading to blue and inside was O₂ 45. It didn't take you long to figure out that this was the amount of oxygen you had. The other three smaller circles were next to the one monitoring your oxygen level, one of them orange with a small heart in its center, and the orange gauge was not entirely full. You realized it was your vitality. A little shiver ran down your spine as you realized that the PDA was able to detect your physical state and tell you if you were about to die, all in the form of a simple little graph.

Deciding you didn't want to dwell on this morbid detail, you looked at the other two circles which weren't full either, one yellow with an apple at its center and the other blue with a logo of a drop at its heart. This was your hunger and thirst level. Another frightening detail you preferred to ignore for the moment, as your vital signs were still stable. You put the provisions you'd found back into the storage container, taking only one of the flares with you, its description in the PDA telling you that you might need it to defend yourself against potential predators. You then turned towards the Medical Kit Fabricator, whose lights had started to flash. Pressing the open button, you were not surprised to see a small, freshly manufactured first-aid kit inside. You retrieved the kit, placing it in one of your pockets, telling yourself that if you needed to use the flare, you'd certainly need some care. 

Now physically ready, your eyes returned to the ground hatch. It was a bad idea to go out that way, as the flotation problem could cause water to rush into your Lifepod and flood everything, so you'd have to go out through the top of the Lifepod. As before, you approached the ladder, except that instead of going towards the Fabricator, you began to climb up the ladder. It was rather complicated, you could feel your weight being pulled to one side, forcing you to make more effort than necessary to climb a ladder, but when you reached the top, you pushed on the trapdoor, which opened with too much effort, allowing you to pull yourself out and see for the first time the place you'd landed in. 

An immensity of blue the like of which you'd never seen before, it was nothing but water again and again, as far as your eyes could see it was nothing but ocean, to the point where the blue of the sky became one with that of the water, the few clouds there being like thick foam. The surface was agitated by a few waves, white foam appearing all around the Lifepod 16 as the waves gently crashed against it. A gust of wind caressed your skin, stirring the few strands of hair that hadn't been trapped by the mask you were wearing. You could feel your heart pounding in the room as you finished leaving the Lifepod's interior. 

Closing the hatch, you sat down on top of the Lifepod, your hand rising to remove the mask you'd just put on, but you needed to feel the air on your face and in your lungs. Laying the mask beside you, you closed your eyes and took a deep breath of the alien air you were lucky enough to be able to breathe. The smell of sea water filled your nostrils, almost drowning out all other senses, reminding you once again that this was all there was. Ocean. The vast, unexplored ocean of planet 4546B. However, as you looked behind you, you saw the wreck of the Aurora, the huge metal structure billowing smoke in abundance, even from here you could see flames licking voraciously at everything it could touch. The water there didn't seem so deep, since the Aurora hadn't been completely swallowed up by the waves, and that was something you found reassuring.

Feeling another gust of wind on your skin, making your hair flutter as it caressed your skin, you blinked, directing your eyes once more to the sky. In addition to the clouds, you were able to see the dark outline of a huge star that seemed so close you could touch it with your fingers. One of the moons of planet 4546B. It was an incredible sight, a moon so close that it looked as if it might crash into the planet's surface at any moment, but would remain fixed in the sky forever. You knew the planet had a second moon, but it wasn't visible, not during the day anyway, perhaps because it was further away.

The sound of the waves was deafening, but you were able to hear other noises, high-pitched cries that reminded you of seabirds. You tried to find the source of the noise before finally seeing strange creatures flying overhead. Not exactly the kind of birds you were used to seeing, they resembled a strange cross between a finch and a flying squirrel, since their wings were outstretched limbs. The creatures flew and twirled in time with the wind, their songs lost in the echoes of the waves. You stayed like that for who knows how long, just trying to take in your situation and, you must admit, admire the scenery a little. Because even if fear was still present, your feelings of vulnerability and smallness didn't prevent you from finding the landscape magnificent. 

Your contemplation finally came to an end, as you wanted to harvest and make some equipment before night fell, and you didn't know how long it would be between sunrise and sunset. Placing your mask over your face again, you stood on the roof of your Lifepod, approaching the ledge before looking down at the churning water and the waves breaking on the hull of Lifepod number 16. You looked down towards the ocean, unable to see anything below the surface, the blue of the abyss staring back at you with its huge empty eyes. You didn't know what was below you, could it be that the water was shallow, like where the Aurora had run aground, but it could also be that you were above the deepest zone there was, that there was really nothing but water for miles and not the slightest trace of land, sand or rock. 

Fear gripped you once again, making you want to run away with your tail between your legs to the safety of your lifeboat cabin, but you couldn't do that. Lifepod 16 needed repair to be truly secure, you needed water, and food too, and so many other things if you were to survive... Taking a deep breath, one of your hands reached up to grasp the medallion that was attached to your neck, hidden under your clothes, giving you strength and courage, reminding you of your motivation and the reason why you had to live. You then plunged into the water. Your body pierced the surface with a splashing sound as you let yourself sink for a few meters, a stifling silence ringing in your ears before you finally waved your hands to make yourself float, and finally found the courage to open your eyes.

You were stunned by the landscape into which you had just dived, more or less ten meters below you was a coral reef made up of huge rocky structures on which were installed aquatic plants, which, anemones and a whole host of other marine organisms whose names and existence you didn't know. The rock formations were all different in size and shape, some were pillars that rose almost to the surface, others formed rock walls and you could even see some sort of stone arches, forming bridges or underwater tunnels. Aquatic plants clung to these structures themselves, growing where they could, coloring the rock formations with a beige tint of many colors. A touch of green here, strange mushroom-shaped mauve algae there, an intense red in the corals that clung to the walls and resembled tables.

And in this familiar yet alien landscape, you could see hundreds, maybe even more, of creatures, fish if you could call them that, swimming. Some were splashing through the water, others waving their fins lazily, swimming off to who knows where. And these fish passed you by without fearing you, whether it was because they didn't consider you a predator yet or because they knew there were bigger monsters than you in these waters you didn't know, but their proximity allowed you to detail them easily and so notice that these fish were nothing like the kind of fish you'd seen before, even fish from other planets. 

One of them looked like a strange yellow-and-blue upside-down V, its mouth open at the point of the V, its two eyes on the side of its body, giving it an almost terrifying expression. Another fish that immediately caught your eye was its light mauve-pink color, which almost stood out against the blue of the ocean. Its body was long and slender, slightly red with green flecks, a large eye sunken into each side of its head, while above and below its body were almost translucent pink sack-like, or rather balloon-like, protrusions. And one of the fish you saw the most was a slightly greenish blue, its body quite flat and short, with a tail, but the most striking detail was its eyes, two big bright yellow eyes that, on either side of its body, took up all the space in its skull, barely leaving room for a beak that served as its mouth. And above and below its skull, too, were a kind of tube-shaped fins whose purpose you didn't know. 

And there were still other creatures swimming around you, but you didn't have time to distinguish them properly because your attention was drawn to something else. The noise. You had expected to be immersed in the usual silence of the ocean, the heavy, resonant silence, but now that you were in the water you could hear all kinds of sounds, chirping, cooing, snapping, a multitude of noises coming from all the fish around you. A muffled sound similar to a deep, mocking laugh startled you, making you look around before realizing that the noise was certainly coming from further away. And while you were in your contemplation, a message suddenly appeared in the lower part of your field of vision, the voice of the PDA announcing : 

«Oxygen.»

Your eyes immediately fell on the gauges in the corner of your mask, and you saw that you had only 10 seconds of oxygen left. You immediately panicked, waving your hands in disorganized fashion as you raised your face towards the surface. Luckily you hadn't gone far from the surface, so you managed to get out of the water quickly, breathing in deeply as you watched the little oxygen gauge fill up again. You blinked, reaching for your Lifepod and grabbing one of the ladder bars on the side to keep yourself afloat. Your heart was pounding in your chest, the sudden rush of adrenaline and panic having caused your heart rate to accelerate. You were grateful to your PDA for giving you this kind of warning. If you'd had to rely on yourself alone, you'd probably have been asphyxiated by now.

Blinking, you shook your face, your hand releasing the ladder step as you stepped back to get a better look at your Lifepod. The little survival craft was vaguely round in shape, with the ladder at the rear of the module. Swimming on the surface, you circled your Lifepod, inspecting its condition until you came face to face with it. On the front, written in deep red script was the number "16" and just below it the name "Lifepod". Your eyes fell on the buoys keeping your Lifepod afloat, under the sides of which were large bright orange balloons, normally one on each side, but the buoy on the left side of the Lifepod had been completely deflated, partially dragging your module into the water. 

With a sigh, you turned away from your Lifepod, looking back towards the water before diving in, ready to set off again in search of what you needed, i.e. Acid Mushrooms, Copper, Creepvine seed cluster and Titanium. The sun was still high in the sky, so the water was clear and your visibility was great; you could see far and wide all around you, which reassured you a little as you sank into the water. Swimming was proving rather difficult, especially with your clothes clearly not made for it, but you managed to reach a rock formation all the same, staying at a reasonable distance from the surface so that you could ascend and recover oxygen quickly.

As you approached the various plants and algae growing on the rock, you stretched out your hand, letting your fingers graze the different plants, their textures tickling your fingertips. Then you saw the famous Acid Mushrooms, looking exactly like the image the Fabricator had shown you. The  mushrooms came in a variety of sizes, and as you didn't know which one to harvest for batteries, you picked them in all sizes. You quickly picked 8 of them to make four batteries, and put them in your trouser pockets, relieved to have such large pockets. The PDA gave you another warning, the beep prompting you to quickly surface for air before diving back to the seabed. 

You now set off in search of Copper, having to surface several times for air during your search, and you also had to move away from your Lifepod, though you were reassured to see that your mask displayed the position of Lifepod number 16, preventing you from getting lost. After what seemed like an eternity of searching, you finally turned your attention to the strange rock you saw all over the walls and even on the floor, and reached out to grab it in your hands. With just a few movements, the outer layer broke away to reveal what was inside: Copper Ore. 

"That's what it's been all this time !" You exclaimed, pulling the piece of metal to you. 

As you made your way back to the surface, seeing that your oxygen was running low, you couldn't help but silently insult yourself. You'd seen these rocky growths everywhere and hadn't thought for a second about examining them; you'd have wasted so much less time and energy if you'd had the intelligence to do so in the first place. Surfacing, you lifted the copper your find into the sunlight to examine it thoroughly before putting it in your pocket. But when you realized that your pocket was now quite heavy, you decided to return to your Lifepod to deposit what you'd already found. You decided to dive back to your Lifepod, picking up two more pieces of Copper and a piece of Titanium in the process.

Climbing the ladder to get back inside your Lifepod was another complicated step, and once inside you emptied your pockets, carelessly letting everything you'd just collected fall to the ground before emerging again and diving in to continue your search. The sun had moved quickly across the sky and you didn't know how much time you had left, so you clearly wanted to get everything you needed as soon as possible, and before night fell. However, with all this exercise, a new problem had been added to your list: eating and drinking. You were starting to feel hungry and, above all, thirsty, and your water gauge was not low enough to worry, but it soon would be. 

And so, as you swam away from your Lifepod once again in search of Copper, Titanium and Creepvine seed cluster, you realized that at some point you were going to have to eat something, and the two nutrient bars weren't going to be enough for long. So you decided to catch one of the fish around you, after all, maybe they'd be similar to real fish. So, as you continued your exploration and your quest for materials, you also set out on the hunt. However, there was a difference between you and these fish. Perhaps they were less intelligent, but they swam much faster than you did, and catching them proved complicated. Swimming after them was no use at the moment, as they were quickly outrunning you, so you had to hope to catch them by chance. 

One of the first you managed to catch was a fish with a long, slender body, yellow in color with even lighter yellow stripes, a small mouth at the bottom of its skull, big eyes protruding like antennae, and its pectoral fins much larger than its caudal fins. You managed to catch two of them, but they were much slower than the other fish. You then managed to catch one with big eyes and a small beak, but this was purely by luck, as the poor creature had got stuck against a wall. You wanted to catch at least three different species, giving yourself the best chance of finding an edible one. So you set off after one of these fish, which had two pink balloons stuck to its body.

The little fish was a fast swimmer, but you decided to be more strategic than foolishly chasing it and wasting your energy. You tried to push it towards a rock formation to reduce its chances of escaping, and when the balloon fish found itself facing the wall, it had only three options left for escaping: right, left or up, and you were ready to react to any eventuality. So when the fish wiggled its strange body to turn right and skirt the wall, you reacted immediately, your hand closing around the pinkish fish, which immediately began to wriggle between your fingers. You let a cry of victory escape you, your satisfaction at having been smarter than a fish almost making you miss the message the PDA declared.

«Alien lifeforms may have unexpected applications. Utilizing alien resources is a proven survival strategy.»

You lowered your eyes in the direction of the fish between your fingers, which continued to flail about in the hope of escaping, but you didn't let go of your grip. After the message from the PDA, you knew that your life might depend on this strange-looking fish. Raising your face in the direction of the landscape around you, you noticed that you'd moved a little further away from your Lifepod than you'd intended. You were far enough away to notice a change in the ecosystem. Pivoting slightly on yourself to look further to your right, you could see long, tall shapes in the distance, moving to the rhythm of the water. Frowning, you swam lightly and cautiously towards this new area. 

As you got closer, you noticed that the water in this area was slightly greener and murkier, but you knew now that this was only due to the huge and numerous Kelps. The landscape was very different from the waters you'd just visited, with no more coral or acid mushrooms, just long green algae and smaller ones growing all over the ground and rock formations. You could see schools of fish appearing and disappearing within this underwater forest, but your eyes inevitably fell on the only hint of color in this monochrome tableau. On the kelp-like plant were clusters of large, bright yellow spots, almost glistening in the murky water around. 

Your mind immediately associated these stains with the Creepvine seed cluster on the Fabricator's list of ingredients you needed to make Silicone rubber. The kelp you saw was probably what was called Creepvine on this planet. The movement of the corner of your eye made you turn your face, still looking in the direction of the Creepvine forest, your eyes going a little to the right where you'd seen a silhouette moving between the algae. You'd have liked to think that it was just your imagination and that it was probably just some seaweed that had moved, but your instincts told you that for the moment, you hadn't seen any creatures bigger than the fish you were holding in your hand, and that in such a developed ecosystem and such a wide environment, it wasn't normal that you hadn't seen any predators. 

You looked in the direction of the Creepvine forest, before turning towards where the Lifepod 16 logo appeared in your mask. You had four fish on you, as well as several pieces of copper and titanium you'd managed to find along the way, so you clearly preferred to return to your Lifepod to drop off and prepare everything before returning to this forest where you had no idea what you might find or who you might face. Turning your back on the Creepvine forest, you went back to your Lifepod and took a few reference points to return to once you'd cleared your pockets of anything not directly useful. 

As you swam your way back to the Lifepod that was now your home, you occasionally surfaced for air or dived for rocks, and were surprised when you broke another rock to find not titanium or copper, but a completely different type of metal whose name and purpose you didn't know, but you decided to take it with you all the same. After an arduous ascent of your Lifepod, you now found yourself in a safe position to remove your mask and place everything you'd collected on the floor of your cabin. The first thing you brought to your Fabricator were the fish you'd caught. Switching on the printer, you noticed that several of the icons on the screen were now highlighted, showing you that you could make different objects.

Ignoring the various sections present, you took advantage of the one dedicated to food, whose logo was that of a crossed spoon and fork. Clicking to open the available manufacturing sheets, you saw that everything you'd caught was repairable and edible. The first two fish you caught were called Garryfish, then there was the Peeper and finally the last one was a Bladderfish. As you explored the various 'recipes', if you could call them that, you saw that you could cook the fish or dry them with salt. But that wasn't all, a thorn was pulled from your side when you saw that Bladderfish could be used to make filtered water. Not wasting a second, you decided to test the Fabricator, placing the Bladderfish inside and activating the transformation/printing process.

In a matter of seconds, you watched the pink fish disappear, leaving only a bottle of water. When the beep signaled the end of the manufacturing process, you reached out and grabbed the water bottle, examining it as if you'd never seen one before. You grabbed the cork, turning it as you heard the little bits of plastic on the cap to ensure the bottle was hermetically sealed crack before finally you could see the contents of the bottle. You looked inside and saw only water, the most basic and normal you'd ever seen. Sniffing the contents of the bottle you found no particular odor either, so deciding to take the plunge you brought the bottle to your lips swallowing rapidly more gulps. You don't know what you'd expected, but not something so similar to water.

You continued drinking, almost finishing the bottle, which you finally pushed away from your lips with a sigh of relief and comfort. You hadn't realized how thirsty you were until the water touched your tongue, but now you felt a little better. Closing the bottle, you placed it in a corner, saving the rest of the precious liquid for later. Catching one of the fish, you placed it in the Fabricator before starting the processing program, which took just a few seconds to cook the fish. A sweet smell of grilled fish began to waft through the interior of your Lifepod, and when you retrieved the still-warm fish from the Fabricator, your PDA decided to speak up, announcing : 

«The Fabricator cooks small organisms, while disposing of the skeletal structure, bodily fluids and internal organs, thus rendering them safe for human consumption.»

Even if the Peeper hadn't been edible, with the delicious smell it gave off you'd probably have eaten it, at least you'd have died with a full belly. Catching the now-cooked fish in your hands, you brought it to your lips, biting into it without worrying about bones or anything else. The taste was similar to the smell and although a little bland, lacking in spice and salt, it was still delicious, tasting very similar to the fish you'd eaten elsewhere. After you'd finished eating the Peeper, you also cooked one of the Garryfish to eat, filling your belly until all trace of the end was gone from your body. After this little refuelling break, you looked up at the porthole overlooking the sky, the sun had gone down a little more, and you knew it was now a race against time to get everything you needed. 

You leaned back towards the Fabricator, now that your physical state was stable you turned your attention to the other equipment you could make, for the moment you still didn't have much highlighted, most of the objects you wanted to build needing Silicone rubber, however you could already make batteries which you did with all the mushrooms and copper you had, deciding that small batteries took up less space than champions and chunks of metal. With one of the batteries and some titanium, you managed to build a Scanner. Grabbing the pistol-like device, you shook it lightly in your hand before activating it. A small screen opened up on the side, revealing a gauge indicating the scanner's progress. Deciding to test the scanner on yourself to see if it was working properly, you turned it towards your hand before pressing the button that triggered the analysis process. After a few seconds, the PDA's voice called out : 

«Performing self-scan. Vital signs normal. Detecting trace amounts of foreign bacteria. Continuing to monitor.»

You froze slightly as the PDA spoke of foreign bacteria inside your body. The risk of infection and disease caused by an unknown bacterium was very high, and the possibility of curing said infection or finding a vaccine for you was very low, especially as you had no equipment, no team and no idea how said bacteria worked. Frowning, you closed the scanner's little flap with a click. For the moment, this wasn't a problem, but if the bacteria found a perfect habitat in your body, things were about to get complicated. Deciding that for the moment this wasn't your priority you slipped the Scanner into your pocket, you would have liked to be able to make a Standard O₂ Tank but you were still two pieces of Titanium short of making it, so you retrieved and placed your mask over your face before climbing back up the ladder to get out of the Lifepod. 

Diving into the water this time was less complicated than the first, especially as this time you knew where you were going and why. Swimming close to the sandy ground, scanner in hand, you began to analyze everything in sight. Plants like Acid Mushrooms, Veined Nettle and Writhing Weed now had names in your mind and weren't just colored algae. You also learned from the scanner that certain types of stone yielded different types of metal, for example Sandstone Outcrop yielded Lead, and Limestone Outcrop yielded Titanium or Silver. You also scanned the Coral Tube, the Table Coral from which you could take pieces, but only if you had a suitable object. You had tried with your hands, but their material was far too solid for you to be able to do this, so you'd have to wait until you had the survival knife to be able to take samples.

And for that, you needed a few things from the Creepvine forest. Retracing more or less the same path you'd taken before, you managed to reach the forest of seaweed that stretched its branches towards the surface. You got a little closer than before, stopping at the edge of this new ecosystem to observe once again what was going on. As before, you could see the Creepvine moving to the rhythm of the currents, the Peepers, which you'd scanned earlier, going in and out between the algae. The Creepvine forest was a little less linear than the area in which Lifepod 16 was located, there were more chasms, not very deep but that made the terrain harder to observe in addition to the seaweed, giving more hiding places to the things that hid between the marine plants. 

Letting go of the ledge you'd clung to so as not to be tossed about by the current, you rose to the surface, making sure your oxygen was full before diving back underwater and sinking between the Creepvine. As you swam between the algae, you took the time to scan them, your little analysis device confirming that it was indeed the algae you were looking for, and that in addition to the seeds, the leaves could be used to make fabric, which you could use to make lots of things, including safety kits. As you swam towards the Creepvine seed cluster you saw, you were careful to observe everything around you, the memory of the shadow you'd seen swimming between the seaweed never leaving you. 

As you reached the Creepvine seeds, you couldn't help but marvel at the fact that the seeds, which were about the size of a tennis ball, were similar in shape to a drop of water, and were yellow with a hint of orange. But most impressive of all, as you saw from a distance, was the fact that the seeds were bioluminescent. Pulling out your scanner again, you took the time to make an analysis, but decided to save reading the information given by your PDA until later, as the place was too risky for you to do so. Then you put your hand down, picking some Creepvine seeds easily enough, and rolling them between your fingers, you tested their texture, which was slightly mole-like, as if their inside were partially liquid.

A roar that sounded close to you, too close to you, startled you, causing the Creepvine seeds you had in your hands to drop and sink gently to the seabed. Pivoting frantically on yourself, you tried to find out where the noise was coming from, but you couldn't see anything, the movement of the seaweed disturbing your vision all the more with the slightly murky water. Then you heard your PDA give you the oxygen warning. You let an expletive leave your lips before rising quickly to the surface, waving your hands and feet haphazardly, resurfacing with a small splash as you watched your oxygen gauge refill, taking several deep breaths to calm yourself and catch your breath before diving again. 

Letting out a sigh, you dived a little deeper than before, deciding to retrieve the Creepvine seeds you'd already cut, not wanting to waste them as you didn't know how many you'd need or how long you'd need them for, and as you didn't know how long it took for the seeds to appear on the Creepvine, perhaps it was something that took hundreds of years to bear fruit, you preferred to be cautious for the moment. When you reached the seabed, it only took you a few seconds to collect all the luminescent seeds you'd picked. And just as you were about to surface and set off again, your gaze was drawn to a piece of debris a little further on. 

Curiosity outweighing caution, you swam towards the debris, picking up two pieces of Quartz as you went. Arriving at the object of your curiosity, you saw that it was a piece of metal, probably part of the Aurora's hull. Pulling out your scanner, the result your PDA displayed after examination was more than positive. The Fabricator was able to transform this piece of metal into Titanium, and in fairly large quantities. As your oxygen level continued to drop, you decided not to linger any longer, and grabbed the piece of metal, whose size was quite substantial since you had to hold it by slipping it under one of your arms before starting back towards your Lifepod. 

That's when you heard the roar again, but this time close enough for you to know where it was coming from, and understand that it was right next to you. You turned your head quickly, just in time to see a large, toothy maw hurtling towards you. A muffled cry left your lips as you barely managed, with ungraceful movements, to get out of the path of the creature that was attacking you. The beast was quite long, resembling a cross between a shark and a crocodile. Its long, slender snout was filled with fangs that you'd seen a little too closely. It had growths on its nose and chin, similar to those along its spine, and its pectoral fins were long and thin, curving slightly backwards. The predator's belly was an almost white bluish color, while its entire back was a dark mauve, with stripes running down the side. 

But you didn't have too much time to continue detailing the creature as it came charging back at you, a new roar echoing out of its mouth. Dodging it the second time was easier because you'd seen it coming, but that didn't stop the terror you felt. Your heart was pounding in your chest, the sound echoing in your ears as you swam desperately, trying to escape this creature that had started chasing you while maneuvering you between the Creepvines. You told yourself there must be predators on this planet, but you wished you hadn't come across one so soon. You saw movement to your left, a flash of white and purple, and immediately realized that the creature attacking you was not alone. And that, unfortunately, this one you couldn't dodge.

You barely had time to stretch out one of your hands to try and protect your exposed and vulnerable flank before you felt fangs digging into your arm. A cry of pain left your lips as you found yourself staring into the yellow eyes of the second beast that had attacked you. You could see blood leaking from the wound, the predator's teeth still sinking into your flesh, pain shooting through your body as you felt tears welling up in your eyes from the pain and fear. But despite everything, your survival instinct drove you to act, and with your other hand you lifted the piece of metal you were holding, bringing it down hard on the mouth of the monster that had attacked you. The monster gave a squeak of pain, its jaw releasing your arm as you saw a slightly green liquid escape from the top of its skull. 

The other beast, which had taken the opportunity to bite you too, slammed its jaws into the void as you once again narrowly managed to dodge the beast's fangs, yet you felt its body graze you, the current it generated jostling you slightly. Holding on tightly to your piece of metal, your only means of defending yourself against it, you ignored the pain in your arm, trying to ignore the red cloud that spread through the water with each of your movements as you swam towards your Lifepod but also towards the surface. You resurfaced, but didn't take the time to let your oxygen fill up completely, recovering only a little air before diving again, as you could still hear one of the monsters swimming in pursuit. And the creature continued to stalk you for a long time before finally giving up. 

When, looking over your shoulder, you saw the predator of the Creepvine forest turn on itself to go back to its home, you slowed your swim, coming to the surface to regain oxygen. You saw your oxygen gauge refill once you'd passed the water's surface, and you remained motionless for several seconds, taking jerky breaths, your exhalations just as flickering and fogging up the glass of your mask. You stared at the sky without really looking at it, your head spinning as your mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts. A nervous laugh left your lips. You'd almost died, almost been killed and devoured by these creatures. Death had never seemed so tangible as it did at that moment, and your life had never seemed so fragile. 

Wincing in pain as you felt the wound on your arm burn from the salt water, you watched the blood continue to seep out of the wound, the red of your vital fluid rapidly disappearing into the blue of the waves. You had to bandage the wound, you didn't know how much blood you'd lost, you didn't know how serious it was either, your shirt prevented you from seeing the state of your flesh and in a way you were glad it did, you might otherwise have fainted. Deciding to stay on the surface, you swam much more slowly to your Lifepod, not only because of your injury but also because of the piece of metal in your hands. 

Getting back into Lifepod 16 was very difficult, you felt as if your body had been hit by a ship, and now that you were out of the water you could see your blood staining your white shirt red, the warm liquid dripping down your arm as you climbed the steps leading up to the hatch of your Lifepod. Once at the top, you let yourself slide down the ladder, falling slightly as you hit the ground. You didn't try to struggle, letting your body slide until you were sitting against one of the walls of the Lifepod, the piece of metal deposited on the floor with the rest of it, along with the Creepvine seeds. Taking a few seconds just to close your eyes and breathe, your wound sadly reminded you that you were very much alive and not in a dream. 

With difficulty, you opened your eyes and brought your wounded arm to you, your other hand gently grasping the wet, sticky sleeve of your shirt and pulling it up to your elbow, exposing the wound. You couldn't help wincing, averting your eyes for a few seconds to calm down before resting your (e/c) eyes on the wound again. Your skin was pierced in five places, three holes under the underside of your forearm and two more on the top, irregular and unsymmetrical holes caused by the teeth scattered all over the mouth of the beast that had bitten you. You didn't know how to treat this kind of wound, you were a scientist, not a doctor, and even if there had been a doctor on board the Aurora, he'd seemed incapable. The only injury you'd ever sustained was a small burn from a Bunsen burner or a cut from a scalpel or broken glass. 

Blinking, you looked around you, your gaze settling on the Medical Kit Fabricator whose buttons had begun to flash again, signalling that a new Kit had been manufactured and was ready for use. With your uninjured hand, you pulled out the first-aid kit you'd brought with you. The kit was hermetically sealed in a white plastic bag decorated with a slightly bluish-green cross. Grabbing the corner of the small bag with your teeth, you pulled it open with your hand, revealing its contents. Inside was a bandage of a strange color and texture, the same green as the cross, and a bottle filled with a liquid that still had that minty color. 

If you knew what to do with the bandage, the bottle was still a mystery to you, so you took the time to examine the bottle in search of how you should use it, luckily a small label with barely legible writing was present on the side. After deciphering what was written on it, you realized that you had to pour the liquid over the wound before bandaging it. The instructions said that this kit could heal all wounds, but seriously, you had your doubts. However, not wanting to let your wound continue to bleed like that, you decided to do what the first-aid kit said. 

You opened the bottle, a strong smell of chemicals and disinfectant immediately wafting through the air, reminding you of the smell that was constantly present in the laboratory, a touch of nostalgia seizing you before quickly disappearing as you poured the product over your wound. Immediately there was a reaction between the product and your blood as it began to foam slightly, your wound stinging as if you'd put seawater on it. Grimacing slightly, you applied the product to each wound, grabbing the bandage and wrapping it around your arm. Once you'd done that, you tilted your head back with a sight, closing your eyelids for several seconds until you felt a strange sensation in your arm. 

Looking at your arm again with a touch of panic and despair at not understanding what was happening, you could feel a sensation of heat spreading along your skin, not unpleasant but still not a 'normal' sensation. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you saw your health gauge, which had dropped to just over half, suddenly refill, becoming completely full again. You blinked, stretching out your injured hand, which seconds earlier was still aching. You waved your hand, making big movements, no more pain, no more discomfort. Your curiosity wanted you to remove the bandage to see what had happened, but the cautious part of your mind, which had now regained control after being attacked, told you it was better to leave the bandage in place for a while. 

Now that you were feeling better, you set about the task of transforming whatever you had brought back into whatever you needed. The piece of metal was transformed into Titanium, the Creepvine seed cluster was transformed into Silicone rubber, which in turn was transformed into a diving suit, Fins. The outfit was simple enough - a classic bluish-black wetsuit that strangely enough fit you perfectly, decorated with small touches of yellow and orange. But the best part was that the suit had a multitude of little pockets and storage compartments that reminded you of the kind of leather satchels found on the suits of people who, despite discovering an entire universe in space, continued to believe in magic.

You had two consedaunte-sized pockets on the side of your hips, zipped shut. Then on one of your legs, your left leg, there were two small pockets with the same closing system, and another pocket on your other leg, but this one closed with a magnetic button. Then two new, smaller pockets on your arms, also closing with zippers. You managed to make yourself a Standard O₂ Tank which increased the amount of oxygen you had, and your Tank already had a ready-made place on your back. You'd expected something heavier and bulkier, but frankly the whole thing was light enough to allow you to swim in clutter and perhaps even better than with your own clothes, which you'd removed and tossed carelessly into a corner of the Lifepod. 

As you transferred everything from your old clothes into your new diving gear, you found the Flare you had with you, and let an insult leave your lips. You could have used it against the creatures that had attacked you earlier, but in your panic you hadn't considered that possibility at all. Returning to the Fabricator, you managed to make the survival knife you also needed for all kinds of sampling. Once the knife had been created in the Fabricator, you took it in hand and immediately the voice of the PDA rang in your ears, announcing : 

«Weapons were removed from standard survival blueprints following the massacre on Obraxis Prime.
The knife remains the only exception.»

"Ah... So for the moment the only defense I have lies in the palm of my hand." You hissed, your voice echoing through the Lifepod as you lightly waved the little survival knife. 

Letting out a sigh, you placed the knife on your belt, in a small slot that seemed to be dedicated to it, before returning to the Fabricator, once again consulting the list of things you could create with the Fabricator. Once again, consulting the list of things you could create with the Fabricator, you had almost everything, you were just missing Cave sulfur. You had tried to find some at the entrances to the underwater caves you'd seen, but you hadn't gone inside, hesitating too much after your PDA had given you the ominous message that: "A common complication for cave divers is loss of orientation, followed by eventual asphyxiation." But now, unfortunately, you had to realize that you'd only find Cave Sulfur in caves. But now you were a little more prepared, you had more oxygen, more equipment and you knew what to expect. 

You'd gone out, you hoped, for the last time from your Lifepod today, and now the sky was beginning to take on a pastel pink hue, the sun almost reaching the ocean which seemed ready to swallow it up like everything else. Reaching the top of Lifepod 16, you slipped on the Fins before diving into the water. Immediately you could feel a difference, thanks to the fins. Although it took a little getting used to, you swam much faster and more easily, and the suit kept your skin warm, making the swim less unpleasant. Exploring the seabed of planet 4546B once again, you set out in search of an underwater cave complex. You finally found one, but it seemed far too deep and complex, and the fear of getting lost led you to look for another, less dark, one. 

Eventually, you found one that seemed reasonable, and surfaced just above the cave to fill up your tank with oxygen before finally diving in. The light outside was still bright enough for you to see, but you knew you'd have to make a lamp at some point for your own good. The inside the cellar was quite empty, you saw some creature that was a strange cross between a jellyfish and an octopus with three tentacles, after scanning you saw that it was called a Shuttlebug and that it was harmless. You found new Outcrop that gave you different metals, as well as Quartz. You continued to explore the cellar, still conscious of where you had entered, until you saw a strange flower stuck to the wall in the distance, and began to approach it. Immediately you heard a high-pitched, vibrating cry before seeing the flower open up and a fish swim out of it towards you.

And you didn't waste a second in seeing it, immediately starting to swim backwards. The fish, which was round in shape, had a single large yellow eye with black pupils that rested on you. It was bright red on top and slightly creamy underneath, with red-tipped spikes on its back and flippers in a gradient of yellow to red that seemed phosphorescent. As the fish continued to lung at you like a cannonball, you had the reflex to reach for your Scanner, managing to pick up the information about it as it began to blink and emit a sound akin to an alarm. You emerged from the cave just as the fish exploded, the heat and detonation throwing you backwards slightly. 

You froze for a few seconds, still shaken by what had just happened. You hadn't been hurt, just shaken, but the fish had just imploded in front of your eyes like that. The PDA's oxygen reminder brought you to the surface for air, consulting the Databank to see what information it had about this explosive fish. It was called a 'Crashfish', and the PDA also gave some additional information, such as the fact that the fish had an emergency defense mechanism based on the mutually assured destruction of itself and its enemy. Shaking your face at this new creature, you put your PDA away before diving back into the cave towards where you'd seen the Crashfish. 

As indicated in the PDA, the anemone in which the Crashfish had made its nest was full of Sulfur. You picked up a substantial quantity before continuing into the cave. You came across another Crashfish, which you managed to avoid again, and decided to empty its nest of the precious materials. Now that you had everything you needed to build the Repair tool , you returned to your Lifepod, catching two Bladderfish and a Peeper in the process. As you emerged to the surface, you saw the sun begin to disappear between the waves, the sky and sea simultaneously turning black. You remained at the surface for several minutes, simply watching the sun disappear, plunging into the blackness that was only disturbed by the stars and moons above you and the life below you. 

Beneath the surface of the water you could see all kinds of luminous shapes stirring, and as you dove back in you saw that all the fish you'd observed during the day had begun to glow. The yellow eyes of the Peepers, the pink balloons of the Bladderfish, even the Rabbit Ray you'd seen swimming gracefully and swiftly had their bluish spots lighting up the depths. And that's without counting the certain plants that had also decided to light up the ocean. It was beautiful, you had to admit, the place was magnificent, you could see the light of the fish from far away, so far away that you could believe they were shooting stars.

After spending almost half your oxygen reserve observing the seabed, you climbed back up to the surface and into your Lifepod. You had everything you needed now to make the Repaire Tool and you did so immediately, diving back into the water with the small electronic device in hand as you walked around the Lifepod 16 to stand in front of the pierced flotation system. Holding out the Repaire Tool in the direction of the Lifepod, you pressed the activation button, immediately an electrical sizzle was heard, and a small gauge in your mask showing the percentage of repair appeared, the numbers increasing until you reached 100%. However, your Lifepod remained half-sunken in the water, and disappointment began to overcome you as you told yourself that the little rescue ship couldn't be saved, before suddenly hearing the sound of an air valve open.

Immediately, the balloon that buoyed the little device began to fill with air, inflating and forcing your Lifepod to the surface. You couldn't stop the laughter of joy that left your lips as you saw that your Lifepod was now repaired and floating perfectly on the surface. Stowing the device in your belt, you climbed up the ladder of your Lifepod, ready to return to your temporary home and finally get some rest, before finally coming to a halt when you saw something shining in the sky. Looking up, you saw that the second moon of planet 4546B had finally appeared alongside its colleague. Sitting on the top of Lifepod 16's roof, you took time to admire the sky, looking up at the stars, trying to remember which of these stars you had already visited, remembering their names and what you had done on these so-called planets, before crashing on this ocean planet where you were now forced to survive.

Chapter Text

It had now been just over two weeks, based on the days on this planet, since the Aurora had crashed on planet 4546B, and it had also been just over two week since you'd had to survive it. Well, two week you weren't really sure, as the days on this planet seemed to go by faster than on planet Earth, so maybe you hadn't been here as long in reality, but what mattered was how you felt, and it felt like you'd been here for an eternity with the number of times you'd had depressions and anxiety attacks. 

After surviving the first day and despite the Stalker attack, which you managed to scan a little later to put a name to this now more annoying than dangerous creature, you continued to explore the surrounding area. In addition to the area where the Creepvines were, near where your Lifepod 16 was, was an area you were particularly fond of. It was a large area of plateau covered with a red algae that gave the impression of being time, an underwater plain. The first time you'd been here you had to admit that you'd been terrified, not because of the Sand Sharks that lay in wait for you if you got too close to the sandy ground, but because of the screaming that echoed all around you. At first, you panicked and fled back to the safety of your Lifepod. 

But the next day, you had to go back to the grassy plateau to retrieve pieces of a Laser Cutter and a Seaglide from the cargo that had fallen from the Aurora when it crashed. You heard several of those deep, distant screams again, and after raising your face to search for the source of the cries, but also to head for the surface to recover oxygen, that's when you saw them. Huge creatures that looked like spaceships from a distance, a cross between a horseshoe crab and an octopus. The creatures had a carapace vaguely shaped like an ace of spades, with three tentacles protruding from it to serve as fins. On its belly were luminous pustules of which you weren't sure whether they were its eyes or something else. 

After long minutes of observing them to make sure they weren't in dangerous and wasn't going to devour you, you moved closer, even grabbing hold of their strange carapace where you'd found some materials, to then scan them and discover that these creatures were called Reefbacks. You could see them swimming slowly between the waters, there were just under a dozen of them, with some smaller specimens always staying close to the larger Reefbacks. The Reefbacks belonged to a class of animal that was called "Leviathans" on this planet, which was precisely, according to your PDA, a "passive leviathan class fauna" feeding on plankton and other living forms of this kind. 

You were relieved when you read the Databank data, understanding that you had nothing to fear from them and that, on the contrary, they could even be useful to you, since they sported mini ecosystems on their strange carapace. However, as you read about the lives of the young Reefbacks, you felt your face lose its color. "For the first few decades their smaller size would make them vulnerable to carnivorous leviathans." This phrase kept repeating itself in your mind, there were carnivorous Leviathan, Leviathan that were surely as big if not bigger than Reefbacks because they were capable of eating baby Reefbacks, just as orcas would do with baby whales on planet Earth. It had taken you a few more days to meet the famous carnivorous Leviathan and you wished you'd never met it.

In addition to fighting for your own survival, from time to time your radio received messages from other Lifepods, from other people who had survived, and more than once, when you heard the voice of another human on the radio, you felt relieved, telling yourself that you were going to find people you wouldn't be alone. But more than once you'd also gone to the coordinates given by the PDA, only to find Lifepods empty and destroyed, with no trace of life left. You'd found one or two PDAs, but there weren't any in all the Lifepods you'd visited, as if there'd never been any. But you were rather glad you hadn't found more PDAs, because listening to the last messages recorded on the PDA had made you cry more than once, hearing the last words of these people was horrible for you, but you felt obliged to do it, for them. You then kept their PDAs preciously stored in the Lifepod 16, all these people had family and you could only pay tribute to them by promising to pass on their last words to their families. 

And it was in this context, on your way to meet the survivors of Lifepod 4 in the hope of bringing them your miserable help, that you saw one of these enormous creatures for the first time. Beforehand, you'd made the anti-radiation suit, the blueprints of which you'd obtained from your PDA. And as the mysterious owner of Lifepod 4 had told you again, you put on the suit before taking the Seaglide you'd made and heading for the approximate location given to you by the crew members of Lifepod 4. As they'd informed you, they were very close to the Aurora, and you'd had to stray farther away from your Lifepod than on previous occasions. 

You often swam close to the ground, keeping a clear view all around you and making sure nothing could lurk below if you forgot about the Sand Sharks, but you hadn't seen any sign of them yet. So that's what you started to do, staying close to the sandy, coral-free ground that had been ravaged and destroyed by the Aurora's crash. And you also assumed that the radiation from the Aurora's Drive Core wasn't helping matters.

You still remember the worrying message from your PDA when it informed you of the Aurora's instability, before finally telling you a day later that there was going to be a quantum detonation, which in turn would trigger a chain reaction that would cause the Aurora to explode. You panicked, wondering whether you were far enough away not to be endangered by the explosion, whether you'd be safer underwater. You didn't do much that day, just sat on top of your Lifepod and waited, ready to dive if necessary, until your PDA started counting down to the explosion. First, you saw a few flames catch on different parts of the ship before suddenly there was a flash of light, the countdown on your PDA reaching one. 

The explosion then shook the very air around you, the sound of the explosion reaching your ears as you winced slightly, hesitating for a few seconds to jump into the water before finally deciding not to, seeing that you were in no danger. the Aurora burst into flames, pieces of metal flying off and crashing into the ocean all around the wreckage, from which long flames rose up to the sky, which had begun to darken as if to let the light of the spotlights shine on the explosion. For several minutes you simply stood still, watching the Aurora continue to burn, your hope that there might still be survivors inside, burning along with the ship.

You didn't know how the crew of Lifepod 4 had managed to survive, perhaps luck had been on their side and they'd been spared the debris and protected from the blast by the Lifepod's hull. You shook your face, deciding that knowing how they had survived wasn't important, not as important as the fact that they had actually survived. You continued to swim at ground level until you came within a few metres of the Lifepod, which normally had its buoyancy systems active, looking up towards the surface you did indeed see a small black and orange dot floating on the surface, however, you saw immediately that something was wrong as you could read the number 4 written on the Lifepod when it was supposed to be above the surface and not below. 

With a dread in your stomach at seeing the Lifepod turn upside down like this, you began to swim slowly towards the surface, and that's when you heard a roar unlike any you'd heard before. It wasn't the cry of the Reefbacks, which you found melodious, it wasn't the cry of the Gazopods, which you'd come across a few times and which were harmless if you didn't get too close to the toxic gas bubbles they used to defend themselves, and it certainly wasn't the roar of the Stalkers. There was nothing Stalker about it, the scream was much deeper, much darker and more dangerous, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and shaking you to the core. 

Your eyes, dilated with fear, turned towards the chasm nearby, plunging into the dark abyss you'd probably never have the courage to explore. You then saw a silhouette, something huge almost as big as a baby Reefback, something swimming in the water with the confidence only a predator could have. The Leviathan, the monster must have been easily 25 or 30 meters long, its long, slender body almost serpentine, slightly light blue on its belly and decorated with blood-red stripes on its upper back. It had two small pectoral fins which looked ridiculously small compared to its muscular body and which were certainly not used for swimming, then on its back it had two dorsal fins of the same red as its stripes which ran down its body before ending in a tail with four red-tipped caudal fins. 

But it was his head that stood out the most, his skull was massive, displaying two pairs of eyes with the smaller pair placed below the other, his eyes were of a black even darker than the abyss, placed like most predators on the front of his ugly face where his mouth was. Its mouth was so full of teeth that it couldn't close all the way, and you could see every one of its teeth, the smallest of which could easily be the size of your hand. The monstrosity sported a kind of horn on the top of its skull, the same red color that was all over its back, and below its jaw its chin was also prominent and colored red. But the worst thing about this abomination was the fact that around its mouth were four grey mandibles fading to red and ending in hook of intense black.

And in that instant, your view of its face had been all too perfect, its four eyes devoid of feeling or intelligence focused on you, who suddenly felt like nothing more than a piece of meat. You had seen it suddenly hurtling towards you with a speed that belied its size. Lifepod 4 forgotten, you immediately started up your Seaglide, turning in the opposite direction to the monster that had chased you. You remembered how it screamed as it swam after you, how the vibrations reverberated in the water all around you. You pushed your Seaglide at full speed, not even daring to look behind you, not wanting to look at the death that seemed so close to grazing you with its mandible. You zigzagged your way towards the safety of the shallow, safe waters where you had your Lifepod. 

You remember that when you saw the more familiar water safety, you immediately rushed into one of the caves nearby, burrowing inside, the Crashfish being the least of your worries. You stayed in the cellar as long as your oxygen supply would allow, your eyes staring at the entrance with the same terror as Peeper's when confronted with a Stalker, or perhaps even more so. You didn't know when the monster had stopped stalking you, but you always had the impression that it was right behind you, its jaws ready to tear you to pieces, and maybe that was just for fun, because you couldn't see how a creature as big as that could survive on something as small as you.

When your oxygen ran out, you had to climb out to the surface, almost asphyxiating yourself before reaching the surface in-extremis. But you didn't linger - you had the impression that the monster was still there, waiting to finish what he'd started. So you swam to Lifepod 16, climbed in through the trapdoor in the water, hoisted your body inside before closing the trapdoor behind you and dropping to the floor of your Lifepod. You remember looking up at the sky through the hatch above you and seeing the clear blue sky blurred as tears filled your eyes. You'd let the panic attack get the better of you, curled up on the cold floor, your whole body shaking as you saw flashes in your mind of the beast's jaws, the way it had chased you away. 

You hadn't moved from your Lifepod that night, you hadn't slept because every time you closed your eyes for more than a few seconds you feared that the monster who had slaughtered the crew of Lifepod 4 would come and do the same to you. You had watched your hunger and thirst bar slowly decrease until it became critical without you doing anything, the PDA's warnings about your health seeming distant and pointless. You couldn't survive with creatures like this in the water, you were as weak and defenseless as a Peeper, and even if you tried to defend yourself against this thing that was easily 15 times your size, what were you going to do, threaten it with your knife ?! After your despair, you felt anger against Alterra Corporation seizing you, blaming them for your misfortune.

That little tantrum had given you a reason to live again, and you ate one of the nutrient bars you'd saved, feeling too weak to go fish-hunting, but your water supply was ample enough so you allowed yourself to drink two bottles entirely. Getting back into the water was difficult, you could feel your whole body shaking just looking at the liquid. You had sat inside your Lifepod for a long time, the underwater hatch open in front of you as you watched the fish go on with their lives. Eventually, you dived back in, swam, but this time with no specific goal in mind, but towards the red grass-covered plateaus where you knew you were safe and you needed to feel safe right now. 

Hearing the rattle of the Reefbacks startled you before slowly relaxing, you swam over to one of its immense, peaceful creatures and clutched its carapace, letting it drag you along in its eternal swim. As you listened to the various individuals in the colony talking to each other, you couldn't help but feel a little jealous. You too would have liked to have some company, and talk to someone else who wasn't the cold, emotionless voice of the PDA. If you weren't killed by a Leviathan you were sure you'd end up losing your mind, so to prevent that you decided to converse with the Reefbacks, telling them how you'd crashed, how you'd been attacked by a Stalker, how all the survivors just couldn't seem to survive even though you wanted to help them and how you'd been attacked by that carnivorous Leviathan monstrosity. 

The songs of the Reefbacks had echoed all around you, as if the beasts were responding to you, and you wished they had, but you knew it was impossible. You had stayed until the sun began to touch the sea, then on your way back from your Lifepod you had said to yourself that if you had to set up a base you'd do it here, if you put it high enough you wouldn't have to fear the Sand Sharks, and you'd always have the company of the Reefbacks, which would make you feel less alone. Once you were safely inside Lifepod 16, you eventually managed to sleep on the makeshift mattress you'd built for yourself at the very bottom of the little one with Creepvine, Silicone rubber and Fiber mesh. 

«Congratulations, survivor: you have exceeded your weekly exercise quotient by 500%. Data indicates that swimming was your favorite activity. Be sure to vary your routine for uniform muscle development.»

This was the message you received from your PDA today, on the morning of your twenty-first day of survival, as you returned from a very short exploration of a new area, which looked like a dense forest of giant mushrooms, where you had found some new materials as well as blueprints for the manufacture of various parts of your base and a Mobile bay vehicle. You had searched everywhere for the debris of this manufacturing station, well everywhere in the areas where you hadn't seen or heard the same kind of huge monster that had traumatized you. You needed the Mobile vehicule bay to build a Seamoth, and you desperately needed it, not only because it would enable you to travel faster and deeper, but also because it would give you extra protection against the creatures trying to kill you.

As the message ended, the now almost unbearable voice of your PDA still ringing in your ears, you stopped, grabbing your PDA in both hands to look at it, of course after making sure you weren't in danger of being attacked by a Boneshark or anything else. You stared at the blue-screened tablet intensely for several seconds before shaking it violently, little air bubbles bobbing and rising rapidly to the surface as you breathed out through clenched teeth :

"Are you kidding me ?! You're congratulating me for exercising and not because I've managed to survive on this fucking planet where almost every-fucking-thing tries to eat me at the slightest opportunity ?! And my favorite activity is swimming ?! It's the only thing I can do since this whole planet is made of nothing but water ! And the uniform development of my muscles is the last thing I care about, stupid PDA !"

You continued to shake your PDA for a few seconds before calming down, letting out a sigh before looking at your oxygen level and deciding to return to the surface. If you didn't need the PDA so badly, you'd probably have thrown it into Stalker's mouth and let them play with it. As you surfaced for air, a strange sensation began to take hold of you, a slight tingling in your ears as you had the impression of hearing a distant static noise, an echo of something. You stopped yourself, thinking that perhaps you'd come up a little too quickly and that the pressure of the water was playing tricks on you. 

But soon the sensation grew stronger, as if something were echoing directly into your mind. Your vision blurred, your heartbeat accelerating rapidly as shadows of slightly dark smoke danced before your eyes, colors suddenly flickering before a silhouette made of smoke suddenly appeared before your eyes, four points of light in an unearthly blue-green staring back at you as a scream once again echoed in your own skull. You jerked violently, twisting and turning in the water, floundering like a fish in a net as you tried to get away from the creature that had so suddenly appeared before you. A calm, almost gentle female voice then sounded like a whisper in the hollow of your ear. 

"Another... One... Maybe you'll... meet... them." 

And as suddenly as the voice had arrived, it slowly fell silent, the strange sensation disappearing as your vision returned to normal, the colors all around you stabilizing to let you see only the empty ocean all around you. Gasping slightly, you observed the landscape around you once more, seeing the red seaweed and Creepvines you were used to frequenting in the distance, the mushroom forest far behind you, the sandy soil below, but no trace of that creature you'd seen. Its voice still seemed to resonate deep inside you, but strangely enough, despite your surprise and panic, you weren't afraid; the voice had been almost warm, quite different from the water surrounding you and the other mysterious messages in another language you'd already received on your radio. 

«Oxygen.» The PDA voice suddenly announced. 

You winced as you switched on your Seaglide, the small portable device pulling you to the surface where you inhaled deeply, watching your air gauge fill rapidly. Blinking, you looked around again, trying to see if you had that strange vision again, but even after several minutes, even after returning to where you'd received it, nothing happened. The voice's words were enigmatic, was it speaking of another human like you ? Perhaps another survivor. And by 'meet them' was she referring once again to the other survivor ? You strongly hoped that this was the case and that she wasn't talking about meeting the things that were hunting you and whose fateful announcement you'd received over the radio.

You'd received an alien message not long ago, interspersed with words you couldn't quite make out that whoever or whatever they were, had gone into hunting mode. And that you didn't need to think too hard to know that you were one of the things they were hunting. So perhaps despite the fact that the voice didn't sound evil to you, maybe it was the one that had ordered your elimination. Shaking your face, you decided that thinking about it in the middle of the water wasn't a good idea. So you decided to return to your Lifepod - you had plenty to build today and a radio to listen to. You'd left as soon as the sun came up in the morning, so you hadn't received any messages at the time, but maybe you had now.

And you were desperately hoping to see the little red buttons on the radio blink. It had been over a week since the Sunbeam had said it was heading your way to rescue you, and you remembered the joy you'd felt when you heard the pilot's voice say he was coming to rescue you, even if some muffled comments you probably shouldn't have heard had still worried you about his piloting skills. The Sunbeam's captain had talked to you several times over the past few days, trying to keep your hopes up. You said "you" in plural because you were still hoping that there would be survivors other than yourself, despite everything you'd seen. 

Getting back to your Lifepod was easy; you'd got used to your surroundings, and you hated it. The fact that you'd managed to adapt to this ocean planet and now knew how to easily avoid Crashfish when exploring the caves, how to easily catch the fish you needed to follow, how to know where the current was going and decide whether it was a good idea or not to explore this or that place. Hell, you'd even managed to tame the Stalkers a little. It wasn't much, but at least the Stalkers living in the Kelps forests near where you'd settled no longer attacked you directly when you went in search of various materials. 

Switching off your Seaglide as you reached the bottom of Lifepod 16, you checked the battery percentage, reminding yourself that you'd soon have to build a new one to replace it. You knew you wouldn't need to go looking for Copper - you'd probably stored some somewhere in one of the many Waterproof Lockers you'd scattered around your Lifepod. Pushing open the Lifepod's lower hatch, you hoisted yourself inside your little survival compartment, feeling the water drip down your body as you sat down on the edge to remove your fins and place it in a corner. You grabbed a towel you'd made from Fiber mesh and Silicone rubber to place around your shoulders and try to keep too much water from spilling into the room. 

You then stood up, your gaze going straight to the back wall where the radio was, and your heart caught a beat as you saw the red button gently illuminate the room. You didn't know what to feel, you prayed it was the Sunbeam, but you were also afraid it was another one of these alien messages. There was also the possibility that it was another Lifepod, and the latter always made you feel mixed emotions. Deciding not to let the suspense get the better of you, you crossed the short length of the Lifepod and pressed the button to listen to the message. The captain's voice echoed in the remaining space of the lifeboat cabin : 

"Aurora, we're approaching the planet now, and we have a landing site for you that's... well, it's better than the alternatives. We've sent you the coordinates. It'll take us a couple of hours to align our orbit, we should be able to establish direct contact with you during that time, then we're coming in to get you. Cross your fingers the weather holds, and don't leave us waiting. Sunbeam out."

You froze for several long seconds before a smile formed on your lips and a sob escaped you. You dropped to your knees, one hand in front of your lips, the other gripping your medallion under your wetsuit, tears rolling down your cheeks. They were tears of joy, of relief, but also tears for all the other times you'd held back from crying. You had a chance to leave this cursed ocean planet after all this time, you were finally going to be reunited with your family. You took the time to calm down before finally deciding to consult the information given by the Sunbeam. 

The first was a location displayed inside your mask and on the compass of your PDA. This was something that had annoyed you deeply, the fact that you didn't have a map to help you find your way, and with all the functions your PDA possessed you couldn't understand why it was incapable of revealing topographical data and transcribing it into map form. The second thing you saw was a timer showing 40 minutes, well a little less than that, and the countdown continued to diminish with each passing second. Looking through your mask at the general direction in which you needed to head to reach the rendezvous point, you saw that you could easily be there in about twenty minutes, so you didn't need to rush there immediately. 

Lifting your hand after removing the glove, you wiped away the tears that had escaped you, taking a deep breath to try and calm your breathing, which had become slightly slurred with emotion. After taking the time to get back to thinking straight, you set about making a short list of what you needed for your journey to the rendezvous points. You didn't need much, just the basics such as food, water and bandages - you probably wouldn't need anything else if you left this planet - but you were going to take along flares, your knife and all your gear, as well as spare batteries. You could never be too careful, especially after making the mistake once of ending up with an unusable Seaglide when you were far from your Lifepod. 

Letting out a sigh, you abandoned the radio, turning to the inside of your Lifepod as you began to remove everything you had from the various pockets you possessed, you arranged everything without really paying attention to it, you didn't have to worry about organization or the logic and practicality of your arrangement since you were soon going to leave this watery planet, you did however organize your belongings. Placing bottles of water and a few blocks of nutrients you'd found in crates near the wreckage of the Aurora or in the other Lifepods you'd visited whose occupants hadn't managed to survive long enough to consume them. But you also took some salted and cured Peepers with you, as their energy content was greater than that of the blocks and, above all, their taste and texture was much more pleasant. 

Once you'd packed up all your gear, you simply sat down inside your Lifepod, closing your eyes but not falling asleep, deciding to rest before making the final ocean crossing. You'd never been in the direction of the rendezvous point, it was a totally unexplored area for you and you didn't know exactly what to expect, so the best thing to do was to be prepared for anything, including meeting one or more of the same Leviathans who'd attacked you. You couldn't help thinking that all the exploring you'd done was a bit pointless, after all, the Seamoth blueprint you'd just found would surely be useless to you once you were back on a ship and at home. During the short time you spent resting, you also decided to hand in your resignation as soon as you were safe. You'd always found Alterra abusive and almost borderline illegal, and this time, having to survive on a planet full of monsters much bigger than you with only a knife, was the last straw.

Once the timer showed you had only twenty-five minutes left, you got up and got into your gear, like always whenever you went exploring, before climbing out of the Lifepod through the upper hatch. You glanced in the direction of the Aurora, whose wreckage was still smoking even after so much time. You felt your heart clench, so many people aboard the ship or even other survivors ejected in Lifepods like you would never leave this planet or see their families again. The PDAs you'd found were tucked away in your pockets; there weren't many of them, but it was already giving some of them peace.

Stretching out one of your legs, you plunged into the water, feeling the chill settle in before stabilizing at a bearable temperature. Pivoting on yourself, you turned in the direction of the signal, taking out your Seaglide before switching it on, the motor of the transportable vehicle pulling you easily through the currents. Crossing the shallow waters, you didn't worry about predators, but when you came to a large area of Creepvine forest, you descended slightly deeper, not skirting the ground but slipping between the crevices there. Your presence didn't go unnoticed, however, as you immediately heard the cries of several Stalkers. But you didn't worry. 

Stopping your Seaglide, you went vertical, placing yourself in a small area between the Creepvines where you could see as much as you could be seen. Immediately you saw a Stalker swimming towards you with its mouth open as if it was going to attack you, but unlike the first time you didn't panic, reaching out to grab the top of the Stalker's snout. The creature pushed you back a few meters before you finally pushed him away and made him change direction, one of your hands caressing his flank as you passed. You then plunged your hand into your pocket, pulling out a piece of metal you now always carried with you, before holding it out and handing it to the Stalker, which had turned in your direction once more. 

The Stalker's long muzzle opened and closed on the piece of metal, which you let go to prevent it from biting your hand indirectly. The Stalker then began to swim around you, performing a few snags with the piece of metal in its mouth that it had been chewing. Another Stalker then appeared, this one more accustomed to your presence than the other, swimming towards you without opening its mouth to threaten you, leaving a clicking sound, that you decided to interpret as a greeting, escaping it. You stroked the scales of the Stalker, which seemed almost to appreciate your touch as it moved back and forth in front of and beside you. 

It had taken you a long time to tame the Stalker, but it was the best thing you'd done in days. First, since they were attacking you, you decided to show them that you could fend them off and that you too were a predator. So you frightened them with your flares, then attacked and wounded the more aggressive ones with your knife. You even killed one or two Stalkers, which made them less inclined to attack you every time you entered the Creepvines forest. At first, you'd thought of giving them Peepers or any of the other alien fish you managed to catch, but you decided it wasn't a good idea for them to associate you with food - if one day you didn't have any, they might come after you. So you looked for something else. 

Then, after observing them, you discovered that they liked to play with the debris from the Aurora and, more generally, with pieces of metal, so you began to carry them around with you, giving them to the Stalkers who approached but weren't directly aggressive. The beasts were intelligent enough to have come to understand that as much as you could hurt them, if they weren't looking for trouble you could give them rewards. You'd never have imagined that you'd end up training Stalkers, but that's basically what you'd done, and it worked pretty well, so you didn't regret your decision, since now you were relatively safe among the Creepvines, you just had to watch out for the new Stalkers who weren't used to your presence.

"You know... despite our bad start, I'm almost going to miss you." You sighed with a chuckle as you stroked the top of the head of one of the Stalkers.

Suddenly you saw the scenery around you darken, a long, immense shadow passing over you and the two Stalkers beside you. Your heart caught a beat as your face snaped towards the surface, a thousand and one theories forming in your mind as the darkness created by this shadow seemed to engulf you. It couldn't be one of those huge monsters hanging around the wreck of the Aurora, the ones you'd seen far away in the sand dunes near the red algae zone, the same monster that had chased you and nearly devoured you. You prayed to who knows what higher entity that it wouldn't be one of them, because you didn't know if you'd ever be able to escape it again. You could feel your hand trembling against the side of the Stalker as it continued to swim around you, oblivious to the danger above. 

It didn't take long for your eyes to find the creature, the Leviathan responsible for this shadow. It wasn't the beast that had almost devoured you, it was a completely different creature, one you'd never seen before, and that was clearly not a good thing, since it meant you didn't know how much of a danger it posed to you. The distance separating you didn't allow you to estimate the exact size of this Leviathan, and you were glad of that since you knew the risks of being close to something that could eat you, but the creature must easily have been twice your size yet smaller than the monster from Lifepod 4. 

Its body was long and slender, but not snake-like or Stalker-like, no, the upper part of his body was humanoid-like, possessing arms and hands that the Leviathan kept alongside his body as he continued to swim lazily, giving you the impression of seeing those fantastic creatures you'd seen in old books and cartoons from planet Earth, "sirens" if you remember the name correctly. The lower part of the creature then extended into a powerful tail ending in a fin of considerable size. 

The caudal fin was forked and loosely divided into two lobes, as in many fish, and was made of a thin, volatile membrane, giving the impression of watching silken tissue flapping in the water. The membrane was supported and divided at the level of the caudal peduncle into several smaller parts by prickles that grew longer and more prominent, eventually exceeding the length of the fin membrane. The edge of the fin was chiselled and irregular, even torn in places, as if Leviathan had fought and won the battle. And a particular detail that you had never seen before on any other specimen of fish, whether on this planet or any other, was the presence on either side of the tail, a little above the caudal fin, of small fins composed entirely of membranes that seemed to be more for aesthetic than practical purposes. 

You could make out the outline on his forearms, and a few on his shoulders and waist, where the "fish" part met the "humanoid" part of this alien beast's body. As for his flipper, there was some membrane between the spikes, but much less visible than on his tail. And you could see some glimpses of spikes, but as you were underneath it, you could only see the ventral part of the creature, his head and back being invisible to you. And the light refracted by the surface of the water didn't make the task any easier, creating a Snell window that turned Leviathan into a simple dark silhouette whose colors were hard to discern.

Your heart pounded in your ears, the noises around you muffled as the Stalkers' presence seemed to fade, and you concentrated solely on the creature that had started to move away, your eyes leaving it only to check your oxygen level, which was still reasonable. You kept as still as possible, making no noise, almost hesitating to breathe, so as not to attract the attention of this Leviathan who hadn't spotted you yet. Beside you, you could feel the Stalkers continuing to move, creating currents that agitated you slightly. You absent-mindedly placed your hands against their smooth skin, giving them the attention they wanted in an attempt to calm them down and prevent their grunting from attracting the attention of the unknown creature. 

The beast's silhouette began to disappear into the darkness of the waters when suddenly the two Stalkers decided to squabble, both uttering shrill growls before exchanging a few jabs of the jaw in an attempt to subdue the dominance of one over the other. You let a grimace appear on your face as you pushed yourself away from their fight by leaning on one of them, putting yourself out of reach of their fangs which, although not directed at you, could still hurt you. You then abruptly raised your face in the direction of the creature you'd been trying to avoid, and your face lost all color as you immediately met the eyes of Leviathan who, attracted by the agitation of the Stalkers, had stopped and turned around. 

The Leviathan was far away from you, even further away than it had been a few seconds ago, but now that it had changed position, you had a perfect and complete view of his physique and, in particular, his face. His face was relatively flat, as far as you could tell from this distance, and he had the same kind of spikes on both sides of his face that he had spread all over his fins, six very long ones to be precise. Between his main spikes was a membrane that gave his fins a sort of collar-like shape. The various membranes, vaguely triangular in shape, around his face were in the same condition as his tail fin.

Now that he was no longer directly in your Snell window, you could also distinguish the color of each part of his body. Most of his skin was a burnt orange, except for the ventral part of his body, which, like most aquatic creatures, was a lighter, creamy-orange color, as were the insides of his arms. His face bore a strange quarter-moon pattern, with the darker part of his face a deep orange, almost brown or even black, highlighting the lighter part of his face. The same dark orange was found all along Leviathan's spine, the color running down the sides of the beast in the form of stripes that for the longest strokes were visible especially on its torso. 

As you had guessed earlier, Leviathan sported other spikes that formed a sort of dorsal fin on his back. The dorsal fin shrank until it stopped where the upper and lower parts of its body met, then reappeared following the spine of Leviathan's tail for a third of his length before stopping again and resuming on the last part of his tail before ending before the fin's membranes appeared. The spines that made up his fins were the same color as the skin where they were located, for example the one on his back was dark while the one on his arms was lighter, but you could see the tips of the spikes irregularly sporting small circular stripes, light spots on dark and vice versa.

Then there was the membrane of his fins. You thought Leviathans were already very colorful, but his fins only enhanced the effect. Orange, almost red, bright at its closest to the skin, the color faded into a mixture of oranges that reminded you of a setting sun. Although it wasn't exactly that, the colors were more intense, more akin to the sun being devoured by the moon during a solar eclipse. His hands, with claws that were surely capable of slicing through metal, also sported a slight gradation but between the two main colors of his body, with the tips of his claws the same color as his stripes but the palms between his fingers the same cream as his belly. 

However, the detail that you hadn't missed, and that held your attention, was his eyes. Two pairs of eyes to be precise, with one pair of main eyes the right size for his skull, then underneath, placed slightly to the side, another pair of eyes that watched you with just as much intensity. A feature that this Leviathan had in common with the Lifepod 4 monster, it was a common point, a sign that both were predators. But there was a difference in his four eyes compared to the previous Leviathan you'd met. The eyes on the right side of his face were red irises on a white background, while the eyes on the dark side of his face sported the same iris color but on a black background. Despite the distance between you, his eyes seemed to glow.

As you gazed at the Leviathan, you couldn't help but think back to something you'd learned from documentaries. There was a fundamental rule in the animal kingdom, if a specimen was brightly colored, then there were two possibilities: the first was that the species was poisonous and would kill anyone who dared try to eat it. The second option was that the specimen was the most dangerous predator in the ecosystem and never feared being attacked and devoured. And from the way Leviathan looked at you, you knew this creature was not poisonous. There was a gleam of intelligence, the gleam of a predator who didn't simply chase his prey and give up if it couldn't catch it, no, it was the gleam of a predator who knew how to stalk his prey until it was exhausted, until his prey was desperate but unable to escape. 

You saw a smile forming on Leviathan's face, and you could have sworn it was sadistic, revealing teeth as white as the metal that makes up most Alterra constructions. But you didn't dwell on the Leviathan's physique as you watched it move, fast, too fast in your direction. The Stalker begging for your attention almost like an affectionate puppy was quickly forgotten, as were your plans to reach the rendezvous with the Sunbeam. Starting up your Seaglide, you pushed the engine to full speed, heading in the opposite direction to the Leviathan, which, on seeing you flee, let out a roar that signalled the start of the hunt. 

You could never get used to the feeling of being hunted, of being reduced to prey in the eyes of another creature. The pounding of your body could be felt in your fingertips as you gripped the handles of your Seaglide with far too much force, its engine roaring in your ears but unable to drown out the growling noise of the Leviathan stalking you. You crossed the entire Kelps forest, zigzagging between the Creepvines to try and throw the pursuing beast off your trail, but it was no use, you could feel its eyes fixed on you with the same intensity as the flames still burning in the Aurora's wreckage.

The dinstinctive beep of your PDA sounded, the warning about the lack of oxygen making you quickly look furtively in the direction of the various statistical circles visible in your mask. You felt the panic tightening a little more around your heart, making breathing difficult and fogging your mind even more, you were going to have to surface in a few seconds if you didn't want to die of asphyxiation trying to escape the Leviathan. Tilting your Seaglide slightly in the direction of the surface, you quickly felt yourself rising towards the surface, while continuing to move forward so as not to give the monster a chance to catch up. 

You quickly pierced the surface almost in the manner of the dolphins of planet Earth, taking a quick deep breath and filling your oxygen tank as much as possible - which unfortunately wasn't entirely full - before diving back under the surface in a splash of water. Glancing over your shoulder to see where the aquatic beast was, you saw that the distance between you had shrunk enough to be worrying, your action of rising to the surface had only taken a few micro-seconds, but it had been enough to give him an advantage. 

You could have adopted the same technique you'd used last time to escape the Lifepod 4 monster by taking refuge in one of the underwater caves in the Safe Swallows, but your instincts told you that hiding where you had no air was not a good idea, especially when the predator chasing you seemed intelligent enough to have the patience to wait for you. You knew that the big mandibular Leviathans wouldn't go near the safe water cave, but you weren't sure about the one following you on the trail. So the only option you had left to think about was your Lifepod. 

You winced as you changed direction with your Seaglide, giving the coloured Leviathan another opportunity to close in on you, an almost amused and satisfied growl leaving his jaws as he inexorably closed in on you. As much as your Seaglide helped you make rapid progress through the water, it wasn't enough compared to the fins of this creature that had evolved to live only in the aquatic element. When you dared to look in his direction to see the distance that separated you from death, you could see the bubbles and currents that would impede his slender, muscular body as he pierced the water, disrupting the swim of the few other alien fish that passed by. And when his eyes met yours, you could see him reveal his teeth in a smile that only reinforced your terror. 

Then you finally saw the Lifepod 16 appear in the distance at surface level, its shadow silhouetted on the sandy ground of this area which was normally one of the only ones where you were completely safe, but which was no longer safe now that this Leviathan was here. Your mind was working as fast as your Seaglide's engine, whose battery percentage had dropped drastically from running at full throttle. You usually used the hatch at the bottom of the Lifepod, the one that gave direct access to the water, but you knew you wouldn't have time to unlock the hatch, slip inside and close it again before the Leviathan reached you. 

So you'd have to use the one on top of your Lifepod, which was at the top of a ladder you'd have to climb to get to it. This wasn't an optimal solution either, as Leviathan could very well jump out of the water or even just grab you before you had time to reach the trapdoor, but it was already a better option than staying in the water. Forcing your Seaglide's engine one last time, you circled the Lifepod 16, positioning yourself where you knew the ladder was before leaping slightly out of the water. You abandoned your Seaglide, almost dropping it in mid-air as you crashed into the ladder on the side of your Lifepod, your hands clasping the metal bars.

You felt the air leave your lungs as one of the ladder's bars sank into your stomach after you threw yourself on top of Lifepod 16, your head spinning slightly from the impact. But you didn't let the pain faze you any longer, since you knew it would be worse if the colored Leviathan managed to catch you. Turning your face towards the top of your Lifepod, you began to climb, quickly reaching out with one hand to grab one of the bars higher up and pull yourself away from the water. The safety of your Lifepod seemed so near and yet so far. 

And you thought you couldn't reach it when you suddenly heard something suddenly pierce the surface of the water, a large, clawed hand closing around one of your ankles as a deep growl sounded in your ears. A cry left your lips as you felt the hand tug at your ankle with impressive force, your other foot slipping from the ladder bar on which it rested. You felt your heart stop as your hands struggled to stay closed on the metal bars that seemed almost to slide under your fingers, which had surely turned white under the force you were exerting not to let go. You wiggled your foot, which had slipped, clumsily managing in your panic to place it on one of the metal bars, giving you another point of support, as you felt Leviathan's clawed hand continue to pull you towards the abyss. 

Gasping, you looked over your shoulder, your eyes looking into the Leviathan's main pair of colored eyes, their black pupils dilated under the adrenaline of the hunt. One of his hands had wrapped around your ankle just where your flippers were attached, while his other hand had grabbed one of the ladder's bars to hold it to the surface. You could see his tail waving the water around and under him, splashing and creating foam that would crash against the hull of your Lifepod. You saw him point his fangs at you again, his pupils narrowing as he met your gaze and let another growl leave his lips. You felt Leviathan pull a little harder on your leg, using its power to try to make you let go and topple over. 

You knew that if you fell into the water, you'd be finished, so you continued to cling desperately to the ladder of the Lifepod 16, which was becoming increasingly agitated by your movements. You began to wiggle your foot as the Leviathan's grip tightened dangerously, almost to the point of pain. But you also felt the bindings securing your flipper to your foot loosen slightly, and a surge of hope came over you as you put all your strength into shaking your trapped foot violently, until you felt the last bonds give way and detach the flipper from your body. And  the Leviathan's hand, which had closed around the plastic, slipped away at the same time as the fin. 

You saw a look of surprise appear on Leviathan's face as you managed to escape, but his expression didn't last long as you lifted the leg you'd just freed before abruptly slamming your foot right into his face, forcing Leviathan to release the ladder he was also holding with his other hand with a grunt as he dived back underwater. You didn't waste a second before quickly clinbing up the ladder, just in time to get out of Leviathan's reach as you heard him let out a furious growl before hearing his claws dig in and scratch the metal of your Lifepod where you'd been standing only microseconds before. 

Not even looking in the direction of the ocean, you opened the hatch on top, dropping heavily and awkwardly inside the Lifepod 16 as you closed the hatch behind you. You stepped back until your back was against one of the walls, your breath coming in gasps, while you could still hear the Leviathan outside raging against the hull of your Lifepod, his growls and angry hisses echoing in the confined space of your little escape cabin. Your heart seemed on the verge of breaking, drumming so hard and fast in your ribcage that you could barely breathe, the Leviathan's screams still ringing in your ears.

You'd have thought that, after a few seconds, the Leviathan would have admitted defeat and left, but it seemed like an eternity ago that you could still hear him, his growls of fury quiet, leaving you to hear only his claws trying to lacerate the metal of Lifepod 16. You didn't fear that it would pierce the walls, but you did fear that it would attack your buoyancy system, and if it sank your Lifepod you knew you'd have no chance of survival or escape if you tried to surface for air. 

After a few seconds of silence, you began to hope he'd gone, your trembling body relaxing slightly, but you didn't move from your walls. But suddenly, movement in the lower hatch of your Lifepod made you turn your head only to see a flash of orange appear before you met Leviathan's red irises and black sclera. A cry left your lips as you saw his face appear through the porthole, revealing his sharp-toothed smile. You frantically searched for something, grabbing one of the pieces of cloth you'd been using as a blanket and throwing it over the hatch to block the Leviathan's view of you. 

The Leviathan didn't seem to appreciate losing sight of his prey, as you heard him growl deeply once more, the sound reverberating through the water and into your small, confined space, before lashing out again at the Lifepod. His force was enough to move and rock your Lifepod, as you felt a new attack of anguish take hold of you. You folded your legs towards you, wrapping your arms around your knees before nestling your face between the small space created by your legs and arms. Tears began to roll down your cheeks as you tried to block out the noise outside, the noises caused by the Leviathan that seemed so desperate to devour you.

All the while, the Leviathan continued to hover around your Lifepod, your eyes blurred by the tears watched the countdown come to zero. You felt your heart break at the thought of the Sunbeam landing only to find no one there, although you sincerely hoped that others besides yourself would be at the rendezvous point so they'd have a chance to escape this nightmare. As if to remind you of the situation, you heard the colored Leviathan let out a new growl, making you look in the approximate direction in which the cry came from, tightening your arms a little more against your legs. The PDA then beeped again, disturbing your thoughts as its voice rose to bellow : 

«Picking up orbital transponder signature of trading vessel Sunbeam. Vessel is approaching planet surface and initiating surface scanning procedures.
Detecting massive power surge from anomalous contact.»

The enigmatic, ominous words of the PDA made you frown, before you finally heard a hissing sound in the distance, the sound muffled by the metal walls surrounding you and diffused by the distance. The hissing then gave way to the sound of an explosion that made you jump, your face turning to look up at the sky through the small porthole in the hatch on the Lifepod 16, seeing only an immaculate blue sky. Once again, the PDA spoke, its cold, digital voice adding to the gloomy news. 

«Energy discharge detected. Vessel signature lost.»

An energy discharge and the signal from the Sunbeam suddenly disappeared. It didn't take you long to realize that the ship had been destroyed by something, a weapon big enough and powerful enough to fire on a ship and destroy it with a single shot. You couldn't understand how such a weapon could be found on a normally unexplored ocean planet like Planet 4546B. Perhaps it was the same energy cannon that had fired on the Aurora, a possibility that included the fact that the weapon on this planet could not only shoot down ships entering the planet's atmosphere, but also ships in the space surrounding the planet. 

Suddenly, the voice of the Sunbeam's captain echoed in your mind, the hope he had given you in his last days by promising to save you, the survivors of the Aurora. He was probably dead, as were most if not all of the Sunbeam's crew. If you'd been able to survive because the Aurora had been shot down while in space, giving you time to reach a Lifepod, you didn't believe that a spaceship smaller than the one you'd been in and much closer to the power source could survive. You raised one of your hands to your lips as you felt your head suddenly spin and a sick feeling come over you, that of guilt. 

The ship had been destroyed because of you, the crew had been exterminated because of you, because they had tried to help you. As if this macabre discovery wasn't enough, the Leviathan continued to batter against the walls of Lifepod 16, still trying to reach you. Your tears, which had subsided with surprise at hearing the PDA speak, began to escape from your eyes again, a wave of mixed despair and guilt washing over you and making you question for the umpteenth time your chances and desire to go on living. 

                                           𓈒 𓂃 𓈒𓏸

You'd been crying for a long time, long enough for the fatigue caused by stress, anguish and despair to take hold of you and cause you to go in and out of unconsciousness. During the phases when you were partially awake, you could hear Leviathan clawing and clawing at the metal and making other noises. At one point, you even thought you heard the colored Leviathan having a conversation with another creature, as clicks, grunts and other sounds echoed back and forth, interspersed with moments of pose, as if one or the other were thinking before resuming their exchange. The idea that the colored Leviathan was not alone brushed against your mind, but fatigue spared you again before the idea could worry you too much.

When you finally awoke in a more rested state, that is, if the weight on your heart and the heaviness in your muscles could be counted as resting, you didn't know how much time had elapsed between the moment the Sunbeam had been destroyed and now. Maybe it had been a day, maybe two, maybe just a few hours-you didn't know. You stretched gently, feeling some of your joints crack after being curled up for so long. You pulled yourself to your feet, using the ladder beside you to balance yourself as your legs felt like they were made of cotton.

And just as you were about to head for the storage container in search of a bottle of water, you immediately stopped, remembering yesterday's Leviathan and his determination to get his claws into you. You let your eyes wander in the direction of the lower hatch of your Lifepod, the one from which you had thrown a piece of cloth to prevent the Leviathan from being able to see you. You approached it slowly, worriedly, as you listened carefully for any noise around your Lifepod. Only the silence of the infinite ocean could be heard in your ears, no growling or hissing, not even the sound of metal squeaking under the assault of sharp claws. It was reassuring, but you couldn't hope for him to be gone - you couldn't bear another disappointment. 

Positioning yourself at the trapdoor, you crouched down, grabbing one of the corners of the fabric and slowly began to pull it out, before suddenly lifting it and throwing it into the corner of the room. Your heart seemed to tremble in your chest as you gazed down at the sandy floor that lay many meters below your Lifepod. You saw Peepers swimming in the company of other alien fish, the few seaweeds between the corals gently swaying to the rhythm of the currents. You watched the water for several minutes, bending down to try and see further than the little hublo would let you. You saw no trace of the colorful Leviathan, not a fin, not a scale. You let out a small sigh, closing your eyes for a few seconds before standing up and moving away from the trapdoor. 

The gauges indicating your thirst and hunger had largely diminished since the last time you'd observed them, so you retrieved one of the salted Peepers you'd kept in reserve before consuming it without really having an appetite, drinking a large bottle of water afterwards as you knew that the salt in the preparation would cause you to lose another minimal amount of water. However, as you drank, you couldn't prevent dark thoughts from surfacing, voices whispering in your ears, asking you why you were still wasting your time trying to survive. You were on an unknown planet, armed with an energy cannon that systematically destroyed every spacious ship that came near. No one could come to save you as long as the weapon was active, and you didn't even know if it was possible to deactivate a weapon of this caliber. 

You opened the little pendant, looking at the faces of all those people you knew and would love to hold in your arms. You wanted to live for them, but it was so difficult, even more so now that the hope of leaving planet 4546B had almost disappeared entirely. Whether you died or lived stuck here, the result was the same: you wouldn't see them again, but you couldn't decide which conclusion was sadder and more dramatic. Letting out a sigh, you closed the little medallion, replacing it inside your suit as you turned towards the ladder leading to the outside of Lifepod 16. 

Climbing the ladder slowly, you opened the porthole before stepping outside. You didn't go all the way out immediately, just putting your face up to look around and make sure there was nothing there before finally stepping all the way out. The sun was high in the sky, its rays illuminating the sea around you and reflecting off the waves and the hull of the Aurora wreck in the distance. You unconsciously searched for the wreckage of the Sunbeam but found no trace of it, which only reinforced your idea that no one could have survived such an attack. You slid into a sitting position before finally lying down completely, feeling the sun-warmed metal warming your back.

You lifted one of your hands and placed it over your face to prevent the sun from burning you as you basked in the sun's rays, feeling the light slowly warm your skin. You inhaled and exhaled deeply several times, regulating your breathing as you took advantage of this sunbath to clear your mind and just for a moment forget everything that was happening to you. When you heard water splashing on the surface of the sea, however, you sat up suddenly, your eyes scanning the surface of the water as you thought you saw the Leviathan reappear, but all you saw was the silhouette of a Rabbit Ray disappearing underwater again after an aerial somersault. 

You forced yourself to breathe again, letting your muscles relax as you were ready to disappear into your Lifepod like a fox into its den. You couldn't help letting a self-mocking sigh leave your lips, for someone who was still hesitating to go on living, you'd been quick to react and run for your life. You lay down again, resuming the same position you had occupied a few seconds ago. Perhaps your will to live was still there, your survival instinct wouldn't let you give up so easily, and the hope of leaving one day hadn't entirely disappeared. 

You lay there in the sun for a while, thinking about what to do next, but you didn't really have a goal or anything to point you in the right direction. There was, of course, the rendezvous point still marked on your compass. Perhaps you could get there, after all, the late Captain of the Sunbeam had spoken of a piece of land. Maybe seeing some land, real land, would do you good, and maybe it was also the best place to set up your base somewhere away from the water and whatever was in it. That was what you were going to do next, for now you had to look after your Lifepod. Leviathan hadn't succeeded in destroying it, but it had damaged it all the same. As you inspected your little salvage vessel, you could see claw marks here and there, marking the metal and attaching the paint, particularly around the ladder, as if he'd tried to climb it but failed. 

Letting out a small sigh, you climbed inside the Lifepod 16, retrieving your Repaire Tool and small knife, just in case, then turned to your Fabricator. You'd lost one of your flippers and your Seaglide yesterday, and weren't too hopeful of getting them back, so you preferred to make new ones, luckily you'd collected some extra materials and put them in reserve for just such a possibility.  Once properly equipped again, you approached the lower hatch, the one that opened directly onto the ocean. You took several breaths, your hand trembling slightly as you opened the hatch. You waited a few seconds, your body as taut as a rubber band about to snap, as you prepared to see something jump out of the entrance and grab you. But all you saw was a few alien fish calmly passing by, not in the least perturbed by the presence of a potential predator. 

With a jerky sigh, you put your feet through the opening, feeling the cold water moisten your wetsuit and cool your skin slightly. You shivered slightly, letting your body adapt and prepare for the change in temperature before finally sinking a little deeper until you found yourself completely in the water. The damage to your Lifepod was even greater underwater, with jaw marks visible where the Leviathan had been able to bite. You seriously wondered how the creature had managed not to pierce the buoy keeping your Lifepod afloat. Resting a hand against the underside of the Lifepod, you pivoted slightly to see that Leviathan's frustration had not only reached Lifepod 16.

You could see that the Waterproof Lockers you'd made were once laid out all around your Lifepod in a rather organized fashion, had all been scattered and you even saw some missing and others open. Scanning the waters around you to make sure there was nothing bigger than you, you pulled out your Repaire Tool, deciding to start by repairing your Lifepod and taking the time to make sure the little rescue cockpit was back to 100% solidity. Unfortunately, the Repaire Tool repaired the general and electronic damage, but some of the traces of the Leviathan's attack were still there and would surely remain so forever. You knew that at some point your Lifepod would no longer be sufficient for your survival, you were already beginning to find it hard to stay in this small, confined space, and the blueprint for the Habitat Builder was still pinned to your PDA. 

Stowing your Repaire Tool on your belt, you set off to inspect your various lockers. For more than two hours, you repositioned, tidied up and made new Waterproof Lockers. The Leviathan had been playing with your aquatic storage, and two of your lockers had been destroyed, crushed by teeth that sliced through the metal like a knife slicing through butter, scattering their contents in the currents. You managed to salvage some of your materials, but others had been carried too far or perhaps even destroyed by the coloured Leviathan. Other storage units bore claw marks but were relatively intact, and then there was one of the Waterproof Lockers which had simply disappeared, and you suspected that the Leviathan had taken it with him. Luckily there was nothing of any importance inside, and you had made sure that anything of value was stored inside your Lifepod. 

However, you'd lost some materials, so you couldn't immediately build your Mobile bay vehicle, or even your Seamoth, without going back to find the necessary ingredients. You let an annoyed and tired sigh leave your lips, but you weren't missing much: a few pieces of Titanium to make the Titanium Ingot you needed for the Mobile véhicule bay and the Seamoth, as well as a few pieces of Lead and Quartz to make glass. Climbing back into your Lifepod, you sat down on the pile of cloth that served as your bed, taking the time to rest and think about what you were going to do next. You had a choice: either go and get the materials to build the Bay Vehicle, start building a base a little more comfortable than your Lifepod, or go back to the Sunbeam's old rendezvous point. 

You began to hesitate, but as you turned over on your makeshift bed and felt something planted in your ribs, a piece of Silver ore, you decided to start with your base. If you had to live on this damned flooded planet, you wouldn't spend another day without sleeping in a suitable bed, and you had the blueprint of one. You'd found it by exploring a piece of wreckage from the Aurora, which had been near one of the Lifepods whose crew had sent out a distress signal but hadn't survived. You also confirmed your choice to start at your base, saying that you weren't really planning to explore immediately, especially with potential carnivorous Leviathan around.

Now that you'd set yourself this goal, you felt a little more determined, and the tension and heaviness weighing on your shoulders had eased a little. While you were already thinking about what you'd need to build your base, the question of where you'd build it popped into your mind. You could build it near your Lifepod, it would be the most logical thing to do, especially as you'd be in the Safe Swallows, a reasonable distance from other biomes where you could find all the materials you needed to keep up. However, you couldn't help thinking of another place, the red algae dancing in the current, while in the distance the Reefbacks continued their mysterious conversation. 

You hummed, nodding to yourself as you decided to settle on the Grassy Plateaus. It was still a respectable distance from the other biomes, you'd be safe and the presence of the Reefbacks was a comfort you couldn't live without. Grabbing the device in your hand, you tested the device, seeing the outline of a room appear in red, the number of ingredients appearing in your mask indicating that you didn't have the necessary materials. You rummaged through the catalog to see what parts you had at your disposal, several blueprints were corrupted, but others like the Moonpool's were restored because you'd found debris from them during various explorations. 

Making a list of the materials you needed to make several parts of what would become your new base, you took what you needed from your reserves before setting off in the direction of the area you wanted to settle in. Using your new Seaglide you crossed the waters more nervously and cautiously, having let yourself be surprised last time by thinking that no big Leviathan was coming into this ecosystems, but having been wrong once you wouldn't make the mistake again. Crossing the Kelps forest without stopping for the Stalkers, who followed you for a few meters before giving up, you eventually reached the red algae plains. Moving slightly away from the sandy ground to avoid being attacked by sand sharks, your gaze wandered over the vast expanse of red and beige, moving up towards the Reefbacks who continued their slow dance. 

You didn't go too far into this area, as you knew that beyond it lay a precipice that sloped down into a sandy, almost desert-like zone, and you didn't need to explore far to hear the echoing cries of Leviathan, the same kind that had attacked you at Lifepod 4 and which you still shuddered to think of crossing. This area of sandy dune was one you'd never explore if you wanted to go on living. Abandoning your Seaglide to continue swimming in a more natural way, you grabbed your Habitat Builder and set about finding the best place and positioning for the first room of your future base, which for the moment was no more than a simple multi-purpose room. 

Once you'd found the perfect spot, you made sure to place your base far enough off the ground so as not to attract the Sand Sharks every time you entered and left your base, then pressed the button that started construction and watched in amazement as the outlines of the first room appeared. You didn't really know what to expect, but the construction process was much quicker and easier than you'd expected, almost instantaneous, since within seconds the first part was created and installed. You'd expected to have to wait longer or even do some of the construction yourself, but that wasn't the case. You suddenly regretted not having decided to build your base much earlier.

You then continued to install other parts to the first one you'd built, making occasional poses to surface, drink water or eat incidentally even if your gauges hadn't reached a critical threshold, or return to your Lifepod to collect other building materials. In the end, you found yourself with a base made up of four rooms, the uses of which you'd already decided. Two would be areas where you'd store your materials and ingredients, in another you'd put your construction equipment like your Fabricator or your Radio, and the last would be your bedroom, a real room with a real bed in which you could sleep as you hadn't done for several weeks now. 

Deciding to enter your base for the first time, you could feel a touch of excitement and even joy, something that was becoming rare to feel lately between ship explosions and Leviathan attacks. But your joy was short-lived, for no sooner had you set foot in your new base than you noticed the absence of light, and your PDA immediately announced in its ever so incipient voice : 

«Emergency power only.»

You looked at your oxygen gauge as it continued to drop and let insults leave your lips as you almost immediately made your way out of your base, not wanting to asphyxiate in this base that was supposed to keep you alive. Climbing back up to the surface, you once again consulted the fabrications available in your Habitat Builder in search of something that could help power your base. Too many blueprints were still corrupted, but luckily you had the blueprint for building solar panels. And the ingredients weren't hard to come by: you could easily find Quartz and Cooper both here and in the Kelps forests right next to your base. 

In just a few minutes, you installed three solar panels on your base. In the description of the panels, it was specified that at a depth of more than 200 meters, the panels would work less well or not at all, but luckily you were slightly above this limit. Entering your base for the second time, you saw that everything was now lit up and that the oxygenation system built into the structure itself was working perfectly well. The place was empty of everything, decoration, comfort and traces of life, but you couldn't help feeling proud of yourself, for you were the one who had built this place from the ground up - well, with the help of the Habitat Builder, but you'd done most of the work. 

Removing your mask, you placed one of your hands on one of the walls of your new home. You winced slightly at the thought, no, you didn't want this place to become your home, your home was where your family was. Your base was a more appropriate term for the place you were going to live in while you waited for help or found a way to leave planet 4546B. Taking a quick tour of the different rooms, you decided that one of them deserved to have a window so you could see the Reefbacks. You had enough Quartz from the surrounding area to make two windows, which you glued together in the room where you planned to install the Radio and other electronic equipment.

However, you immediately received a warning from your PDA that the structure of your base was not strong enough and was in danger of being destroyed. Consulting the hull integrity you saw that you were below zero. Letting a new grimace form on your lips and with a touch of panic you left your base to return to Lifepod 16 to pick up the ingredients you needed to create reinforcements. On your return you saw that your base had been flooded, two huge cracks having appeared in the hull of your new base. You grimaced again, starting to talk to yourself even though you couldn't help being glad you hadn't installed anything in your base yet, otherwise everything would have been wet. You set up reinforcements here and there, preferring to put in extra just in case - caution had become your best friend on this planet. 

The sun had continued its journey across the sky, inexorably closing in on the water, but now that you were used to this planet's day/night cycle, you knew you still had time, enough time to get to your Lifepod to collect most of your gear. Besides, as long as you didn't stray elsewhere, there was normally no direct danger to you. "Colorful Leviathan aside !" Huffed your mind, making you shiver and completely and utterly forget the idea of being in the water when your visibility would be next to nil. 

Still with that little touch of anxiety, you continued to work on your base, first installing a good number of Lockers to hold all your ingredients and equipment, which had dwindled with all your manufacturing, and then some. You then built a bed in the multi-purpose room you'd decided would be your resting place, a bed you didn't dare test for fear of not wanting to get out. After that, it was just a matter of transferring everything back and forth, as well as making a few things here and there. You had decided to leave all the electronics intact inside the Lifepod 16, just in case. Your base wasn't far from the Lifepod, but you figured that a few meters could mean the difference between life and death. You also left a few bottles of water inside, as well as emergency food and fully-charged batteries. 

Finally, you left your Lifepod, a touch of melancholy in your heart. Sure, this place hadn't been the most comfortable, but it was thanks to the Lifepod 16 that you'd managed to survive all this time, that you'd survived the Aurora's explosion, the fall and your crash on this planet. After a small sigh and a last glance in the direction of the little rescue ship, you spun around, waving your legs away before activating your Seaglide to propel yourself in the direction of the Beacon signal you'd installed above your base. You had indeed set up a Beacon, which you named "Base" because after getting lost a second time looking for your base. 

The sun was almost touching the horizon as you crossed the water towards your base and your bed, and the mere idea of being able to roll yourself up in blankets and snuggle up with your pillow like a small animal in a burrow managed to make you smile. You didn't have anything left to pick up, and you didn't have much on you either, currently your last return trip had only been to pick up the old discharged batteries you had. It wasn't important, but you were still hoping to find the last piece of Battery Charger fragments you were missing, so you could finally recharge all those batteries you didn't just want to get rid of, since after all you'd worked to make them.

Letting out a sigh as your PDA gently reminded you to return to the surface for oxygen, you complied. You looked up at the sky as the largest moon on planet 4546B began to appear and move closer to the sun, so there was probably going to be an eclipse. It was a phenomenon that had amazed and impressed you the first time you'd seen it happen, then you realized that here, it was a fairly common phenomenon, yet it was still magnificent. Now that your oxygen was full, you dove back in, watching the landscape of the Safe Swallows slowly pass by, watching the alien fish that were no longer aliens swim peacefully around you. 

You were ready to go back to your base, to your bed, ready to end your day on a high note, a faint hope in your heart, but still a little ember with the potential to warm you with its soft red glow. A red quite different from the two pairs of eyes you met. 

Your grip on your Seaglide tightened slightly, the engine cutting out as you stopped almost abruptly, your eyes fixed on the colorful silhouette in the distance, standing between coral-covered rock formations. The setting sun painted the water with orange and red reflections, giving you the impression that the water around the Leviathan was ablaze. His same red eyes that had pierced your soul not so long ago stared back at you, his pupils shrinking, the corners of his eyes crinkling as a predatory smile formed and revealed teeth that seemed to promise to soon sink into your flesh. 

You felt your hope fade, a match thrown into the ocean, as your eyes fell on another colorful silhouette, the same but a different, brighter yellow. Your chances of survival were already miserable against a Leviathan when you took everything into account, but now it was even worse because, unlike you, he wasn't alone.

Chapter Text

The world seemed to stop around you, even the water in which you usually found yourself agitated by currents and alien fish coming and going seemed to no longer want to move, as if the world wanted to give you that little moment to look at death, or rather the deaths who stood before you. The Leviathan from the other day was back, and it seemed happy, in a very twisted way, like someone would be happy to see a delicious meal presented before them. The other Leviathan, the one that was even more colorful than the first, seemed more surprised, at least that's what its slight movement of his face to the side made you think, but it could very well have been the action of a predator sizing up its prey. 

The two Leviathans looked very similar, yet they were also completely different. The second and new Leviathan was a very light cream yellow, almost white, with its belly and the inside of its arms being even lighter in color. Its face bore the same markings as its counterpart, a light yellow crescent moon, while the rest of its face was a bright yellow reminiscent of the color of a ripe mango. This orange-yellow color was also found in the form of stripes that ran from its back down the sides of its long, muscular body. It had spines along its spine, shoulders, and arms, distributed in the same way as the other Leviathan. But on this Leviathan, the spines were less prominent. They were still there and still just as disturbing, but they were shorter and had small circles of contrasting colors, orange on white and vice versa. 

This difference was most noticeable on his face. The Leviathan had a colorful collar made up of frivolous triangular fins that were longer than those of the other Leviathan standing next to it. The spines between each of its triangular membranes were very, very short, no longer than the rays that encircled its skull. Its rays, as you would call them since they reminded you of sunbeams in a child's drawing, were orange, darker closer to its body and lighter at the tips. The same color pattern was found on the membranes between the spines of its dorsal fins and finally on its tail. 

The Leviathan's tail was fan-shaped, divided into four large lobes made of this membrane with a texture resembling silk. Its caudal fin was larger than that of the other Leviathan, and the spines between each of its limbs were shorter, as were those on its face. Then there were its eyes, like the other one, a pair of main eyes and another smaller secondary pair below, but no red or heterochromia in its sclera. Its eyes were a very light blue, almost white, with slightly elongated pupils like those of a snake, reminiscent of its predatory nature, despite its relatively passive appearance. Passive, if you forgot about the sharp claws and fangs visible behind his lips, which he parted to let a noise escape, a conversation exchanged with the other Leviathan who was still staring at you with the same intensity. 

This brief moment of respite, of pause, did not last long, however, because just as quickly as the first time, the first Leviathan, colored like the sunset, let out a growl from his chest, his jaws snapping as he lunged toward you. This time, he was determined not to let you escape a second time. And as if you were watching the beginning of a movie for the second time in a short period, you saw yourself grab your Seaglide, pushing the engine to its maximum power as you fled once again, except this time your chances of survival had diminished even further because you heard the second Leviathan start chasing you too, with a cry that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

The water you were speeding through on your Seaglide whistled loudly in your ears, almost as loud as your heartbeat. Your eyes scanned the landscape around you, desperately searching for a place, a corner, something that would allow you to take shelter and survive, but you found nothing. Like a rabbit hunted by a pack of wolves, you didn't know where to go, destabilized and disoriented, unable to return to your burrow. Your new base was in the opposite direction you were heading, and it was impossible for you to turn back without risking feeling claws and fangs descend upon you and take the life you had so desperately tried to preserve over the past few weeks. 

You could go back to Lifepod 16 like you did the first time, but there was nothing left inside except for a few emergency supplies that would only keep you alive for two days. What's more, your instincts told you that the orange Leviathan wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. It was horribly intelligent, intelligent enough to recognize you, to bring a fellow creature with it this time, and you assumed that, like a predator learning the habits of its prey, it would know that your first instinct would be to flee to your home. And even if you managed to get into your Lifepod, who was to say that the Leviathans wouldn't be more patient this time and wait until you came out of your lair, driven by hunger and thirst ? 

It wasn't the best solution, but it was the only one you had, because you could see your Seaglide's battery power dwindling, now below the halfway mark. You took a sharp breath, your eyes also moving to your oxygen gauge to see that it too was running low. You tilted your Seaglide, placing it at an angle that allowed you to rise to the surface and break through it without stopping your escape. You heard your oxygen tank partially fill with a hissing sound, the gauge filling up to a reasonable but not reassuring percentage, unlike a full oxygen tank. That was one less thing that could kill you, leaving only the two biggest threats to your life.

You could still hear them behind you, growling and grunting, accompanied by other clicking and hissing sounds that made you think of a conversation. Maybe they were wondering which part of you they would devour first. You couldn't help thinking about it, the dark and macabre thought not even making you shiver with fear, since part of you had already accepted your end. Your heartbeat was like the sound of a distant drum, a frantic and erratic noise, a musical crescendo before a tragic and fateful end.

Suddenly, you thought back to the nature documentary you used to watch from time to time, you thought back to its prey desperately trying to escape before finally falling prey to their predator's fangs. You had always put things into perspective, not taking sides, because you knew that the predator was only trying to survive by killing and eating. But now that you found yourself in the role of the desperate prey, you felt compassion for all those creatures. Like you, they lived in constant fear of death. Everything you did represented a danger. Building a home, going out to feed—it was risky to die in order to survive. Every step, every breath could be your last.

And when you were hunted like this, when the threat of death took shape before you, claws and fangs ready and willing to tear your flesh and skin, all you felt was fear once again. A consuming, all-consuming fear, a fear that was the last thing you would feel before you died. Yes, you now felt pity for the prey in these documents. You regretted that these poor creatures had not been able to enjoy their lives and were merely a means of enabling larger creatures to survive. Now that you were prey yourself, you felt pity for yourself, and you wondered why you had tried to survive all this time if you knew that your end was inevitable.

You also wondered why, even as this thought crossed your mind, you continued to press firmly on the buttons of your Seaglide in the hope of making it go faster, in the hope of escaping the two Leviathans swimming behind you. It was amusing and confusing that, despite everything, you wanted to continue to survive, you wanted to continue to hope for a chance to live despite the constant fear. Perhaps it was a matter of instinct, something so deeply ingrained in you that even your logic and intelligence couldn't stop it. Or maybe it was simply that you didn't want to leave saying you had given up. You might die in fear, but you would fight to the end to protect your life. 

You saw the long shadows of the Creepvines appearing in front of you, their dark silhouettes standing out and moving beneath the blood-stained sky. With the Kelps forest now in front of you, you knew that Lifepod 16 couldn't be far away, but an idea crossed your mind, a slim chance to distract the two Leviathans and increase your chances of reaching your Lifepod, even if only slightly. You dove a little deeper, closer to the ground as you entered the Creepvines forest, hoping that the sound of your Seaglide would attract the Stalkers' attention. It didn't matter whether they knew you and were used to your presence or not, you just needed it to be there to confuse the senses of the two Leviathans. 

You didn't have to wait long before two Stalkers followed you, whether out of affection or to devour you, you didn't know and you didn't care, you were just glad they were following you. Lost among the long, dark seaweed, your silhouette was no different from that of the Stalkers, and you were counting on that. Looking over your shoulder, you saw that the two Leviathans further behind had also entered the Kelp Forest, zigzagging their long bodies between the Creepvines with a little more difficulty than you. In the dim light of the Creepvines, you could see their eyes shining distinctly, but the weight of their gaze no longer weighed so heavily on you, drawn as it was to the movements of the Stalkers. 

Progressing through the Creepvines was not that difficult for you, you were used to it and your small size made it easy for you to move and change direction to dodge the thick algae, however the falling darkness and your vision, which was not adapted to night life, were a disadvantage. Screams and clattering echoed around you, coming from the Stalkers but also from the Leviathans, the sounds reverberating off the rocky walls of the Kelps Forest, making it impossible for you to estimate how far away they were from you. And you didn't want to look behind you to see exactly where they were, you didn't want to know how many meters separated their claws from you. 

In front of you, between the branches of the Creepvines, you saw the last rays of sunlight fighting against the darkness, a sign that you were nearing the end of the Kelps Forest and that your Lifepod was now a little closer. Your eyes went to your oxygen tank, which you had filled secretly before entering the Kelps Forest, as well as your Seaglide's battery. Maybe you would have a chance, maybe the two Leviathans wouldn't stay as long as you thought, maybe you would finally continue to live... You crossed the threshold of the Creepvine Forest, your eyes fixed ahead toward Lifepod 16. But you saw movement in your peripheral vision. And when your eyes caught flashes of red, you knew it was already too late. 

Your scream, which would have been a mixture of surprise and horror, didn't have time to leave your lips before you felt yourself being hit by something big and very fast. Your hands let go of your Seaglide as you were dragged away by the thing that had grabbed you in his hands. You felt your body stop moving, but the world continued to spin around you, your breathing faltering as your heart raced once again, reaching heights it would not have reached even after intense exercise. The claws holding you at the waist were dangerously close to your skin, threatening at any moment to pierce your suit and spill your blood into the water.

Clattering sounds echoed above, around, and against you, the deep, almost amused sound as clawed hands tightened around your waist, making you squeal pathetically. A little further away, you heard other sounds and clattering noises responding to what your sensor had emitted. Now that the world had stopped spinning, you could feel your body pressed against that of a creature. No, you could even see that you were being held firmly by hands with dangerously long claws against a broad, white chest that reminded you of a seashell washed by the sea and left too long in the sun. 

Blinking, your breath faltered as you realized the color did not match either of the Leviathans you had seen before. Driven by a morbid anxiety to know, even though your life was literally in the claws of a Leviathan that could take it at any moment, you looked up, and immediately regretted your action when you saw familiar red eyes, even though you hadn't yet focused on them. Four eyes composed of bright red irises were spread above a wide mouth that displayed teeth you would have preferred not to be able to count. A growl escaped from the lips of the Leviathan holding you, the vibration reverberating through your own chest, making your heart tremble as anxiety overwhelmed you in the face of this third Leviathan.

Once again, the resemblance to the first two Leviathans was uncanny: same physical build, same size. You didn't know if it was because of their species or if they were somehow related. But this one in particular differed from the other two, notably due to its color and the collar it had around its skull. While the first two Leviathans you had seen were warm colors, this one was almost white gray, white, black with blue highlights, and midnight blue. The colors were distributed in the same way as the other two Leviathans, with the lightest white on its belly, chest, inner arms, and along its tail, followed by white with gray highlights, and then black stripes along its entire spine and tail. 

The spines on its body were black but decorated with small grayish-white rings, and the spines on its arms and shoulders, which were white, had small black rings. The same color pattern was found on the spines of the collar around its face. Its face was like that of the other two Leviathans, marked with the same sign, a crescent moon on the right side of its face, the other being the same black as its stripes. The midnight blue that added a touch of color to its monochrome coat was present on its fins and the membranes between its spines, the membranes lightening slightly as they moved away from the body. 

You discreetly lowered your eyes to his long tail, which was waving beneath you and ended in a caudal fin that you saw was vaguely crescent-shaped, stretching and waving in the current like a piece of carefully worked silk. Then there was its fins around his head. Instead of having several triangular fins spread around its skull like the other two, it had only tiny, almost non-existent fins on the sides, while on top of his skull the membrane stretched into a long, thin triangle before ending in a vague little circle of very light blue. The strange fin bore an uncanny resemblance to one of those nightcaps you had seen in movies and cartoons from another era.

You heard a rumbling sound near your ear before feeling the Leviathan's face press against the side of your skull, a gasp of terror escaping your lips as you struggled against him, trying unsuccessfully to free yourself. A growl escaped his throat in response to your struggle, his face moving away from you to reveal his eyes, whose pupils had shrunk to pinpricks in a sea of red. Even in your terror, you noticed that, like the first Leviathan, the whites of his eyes were black. You gasped again, stopping immediately when you felt his claws pierce your suit and dig into your skin. It wouldn't take much effort for his claws to pierce your flesh, which felt so tender and fragile beneath his fingers. 

A series of noises could be heard, and your attention shifted from the Leviathan holding you to the other two, the ones who had initially hunted you down, emerging from the Creepvines forest with an almost lazy gait, as if they knew you had been captured. Perhaps that was the case, since you heard the cold-colored Leviathan clatter in response, as if they were having a discussion. Your eyes fell on the first Leviathan, the one that had now hunted you twice. Seeing you in the clutches of its fellow creature, you saw a big smile spread across its lips and his tail wagging wildly as it rushed towards you. You tensed up before trying to struggle once more, to no avail, as the blue Leviathan continued to prevent you from escaping. 

The burnt orange Leviathan suddenly stopped in front of you, all his teeth exposed in a carnivorous smile as bubbles created by the movements of his tail and hands crashed against your suit. You felt your body begin to shake involuntarily as the Leviathans looked you up and down, a long, pointed, pinkish-orange tongue leaving his mouth to lick his lips, a purr of satisfaction echoing in the water around you. You saw it open his mouth wide before leaning toward your throat. Not brave enough to face death head-on, you closed your eyes, squinting so hard that your ears rang, one of your hands rising to grab your pendant and clutching it in your hand against your heart, whose beating echoed throughout your body.

But before the orange Leviathan's teeth had time to graze your suit, you heard the blue Leviathan let out a hiss before suddenly backing away, one of his hands releasing your waist. Panicked, you opened your eyes only to see that the Leviathan holding you had placed one of his hands on the other Leviathan's face to push him away and keep him away from you. A growl formed on the orange Leviathan's lips as he abruptly pushed away the hand on his face, his jaw snapping a few inches from his fellow Leviathan's webbed fingers. What followed was a series of clicks and growls that sounded full of annoyance to your ears, the first Leviathan you had encountered staring intently at the one who continued to hold you pressed against him. 

You found yourself trapped between two Leviathans who seemed to be fighting over who would get to eat you first, the cold-colored Leviathan growling and snarling at the other Leviathan with the same intensity, if not a slight touch of mockery. You felt panic seize you again, a scream escaping your lips as you saw the orange Leviathan lunge at you and the blue Leviathan. You felt the cold-colored Leviathan's hand release his grip on your waist, your body escaping his hold as the other Leviathan collided with it head-on, their sudden movement pushing you back.

As you watched the two Leviathans begin to fight, your first instinct was to start swimming away, wanting to take advantage of their distraction to flee like any self-respecting prey. But you didn't get very far. The third Leviathan, the pale yellow one, which you had almost forgotten about when faced with so many claws and large creatures, towered over you, his silhouette blocking what little light was left from the setting sun. The little hope you had was drowned as you felt its large clawed hands grab your waist and pull you toward it. However, unlike the other Leviathan, it did not press you against it, but kept you at arm's length, lifting you up to his face as if to examine you. 

You remained frozen in his hands, your eyes plunging into the Leviathan's blue-rimmed pupils. His expression was almost curious, like a predator discovering a new potential prey, wondering whether or not he could devour it. You felt his hands tighten around your waist, a squeak escaping your lips as you squinted your eyes, preparing for the pain. But once again, it didn't come, the pressure of his hands relaxing around your waist. You slowly opened your eyes to see the Leviathan continuing to observe you with the same curiosity, his eyes leaving your silhouette for a few seconds to look behind you at the two other Leviathans who were still fighting noisily.

One of his hands rose and rested on your arm, his fingers easily encircling your muscles as it once again pinched your skin beneath your suit. His hand then slid down your arm, gripping your forearm, before he grabbed your hand, his clawed, webbed fingers playing with your fingers as if he were trying to understand what you were and how you worked. The Leviathan's blue eyes followed the movements he made with his right hand, his left hand remaining carefully wrapped around your waist to ensure that his curious prey did not escape him. You suddenly felt like a guinea pig, a test subject being examined and analyzed from every angle. 

The Leviathan's fingers finally stopped against your hand, intertwining your fingers with his, his huge hand seeming to engulf yours. His eyes then slid back to you, his expression even more troubled and curious than before, as if his examination of you had not given him any answers but only raised more questions. You then saw him suddenly lean toward you, and you had the reflex to back away again to try to get away, but his fingers against yours and his hand against your back cut off your retreat. Panicking and gasping, unable to flee, you watched the yellow Leviathan move closer to you, his mouth close to your windpipe. You closed your eyes again, hoping that death would be quicker than the pain. 

However, you didn't feel teeth against your suit and skin, you just felt a large snout pressing against you before hearing the Leviathan sniffing deeply at your scent. You jumped slightly, your pupils dilating as you found yourself looking over the Leviathan's shoulder as he continued to smell you as if you were a dish, trying to guess all the ingredients that made you up. Your vision was largely obstructed by the Leviathan's rays, which moved gently in the current, like flags in the wind. The spines between the rays seemed removable, because when he pressed hid face against yours, they didn't dig into your cheek but folded back against his skull.

You felt his nose move slightly up your neck, passing over the collar of your suit, which was almost one with your body, to rest directly against your nape. Suddenly, you regretted having exchanged the mask of your radiation suit, which covered your entire head, including your ears and even your hair, for the basic one, which only protected your face and ears. You had traded in the radiation mask some time ago because you found it a little heavy and cumbersome for swimming, but now you would have preferred to be encumbered rather than feel the Leviathan's nose, lips, and breath against your skin. 

You gasped slightly as you felt the Leviathan's hot breath crash against the sensitive skin just below your ear, ruffling a few strands of your hair. Despite the fear that twisted your insides, you couldn't help but let out a sound somewhere between a surprised gasp and a laugh, wriggling in the Leviathan's hands to try to escape as he tickled your neck with his breath. Your reaction, or rather the little noise that escaped you, seemed to surprise the yellow Leviathan, as he suddenly backed away, his pupils dilating as he stared at your face with his four eyes.

You held his gaze, your little laugh stifled in your throat and your heart skipping a beat as you stopped moving again, not knowing if your movements might provoke the creature. The Leviathan frowned, tilting his face to one side, its eyes looking you up and down again before leaning back against your neck and sniffing you again. As its breath tickled your skin again, you couldn't help but snicker once more, your hands rising to rest against the creature's chest and try to push it away from you. You heard the Leviathan let out an almost joyful clicking sound, the sound echoing in your ears as he moved his nose to sniff your hair, which was blowing in the current.

«Warning: 30 seconds of oxygen remaining.»

The warning from the PDA made you jump, the cold voice of artificial intelligence disturbing the strange and bizarre moment you were in. Your eyes immediately went to your oxygen gauge to see it decreasing a little more with each passing second. Suddenly, the fear of being killed by the Leviathans was overtaken by what now seemed a much more imminent fear of suffocating to death. Your face turned toward the surface, which was less than 30 seconds away, but that was without taking into account the fact that the yellow Leviathan was still holding you. 

You focused again on the Leviathan, which, like a curious puppy, continued to sniff you almost everywhere, lifting your two hands, which you placed against him, one on his shoulder and the other on his chest, anywhere you could, before pushing it away as far as possible. Despite his strength, the Leviathan yielded to your movement, allowing you to move away from him without his hands completely releasing you. You could feel the panic rising a little more as you realized you only had 15 seconds left. You knew that panicking would only cause you to consume more oxygen and that it wasn't the best thing to do, but that's what you did. 

You detached your hands from the Leviathan's chest before placing them against his wrists and pushing on his hands, trying to pull your body out of his grip. A series of small noises escaped from the Leviathan's throat as his fingers tightened against your skin. You let a grimace form on your lips as you raised your face toward the Leviathan's. He continued to look at you with the same curiosity that was almost harmless now that you thought about it, but his curiosity would kill you if he didn't let go of you quickly. You continued to struggle and wriggle, the sound of the other two Leviathans now only a distant noise as the lack of oxygen began to take its toll.

Raising one of your hands, you clenched it into a fist before striking the Leviathan on his forearm. Underwater, your strength was reduced and your movements slowed, so you knew your blows would do nothing to him, but it was the only thing you could think of doing. You began to pant, your hot breath creating condensation on your mask, the fog obstructing your vision on the side. And as the amount of fog increased, your oxygen supply decreased. You now had only ten seconds of oxygen left, barely enough to return to the surface. In desperation, you lifted your face toward the Leviathan, your eyes meeting his, your vision half-obscured by the fog.

"L-Let me go, I beg you !" You managed to exclaim. 

You saw what could be described as a hint of surprise cross the yellow Leviathan's expression, his fingers loosening slightly around your waist. You seized the opportunity, pushing his hands away from your body before suddenly kicking your legs and flailing your arms to propel yourself toward the surface. Your movements were disorganized as you swam as fast as you could toward your source of oxygen. Your available oxygen had now dropped to 5 seconds, and you knew that was only one deep breath. So you took it, filling your lungs before watching your gauge drop to zero. 

The surface was slowly getting closer, but darkness seemed to be closing in on you more and more slowly, not only because night had fallen, but because your vision was beginning to darken due to lack of air. Your legs felt heavier with each stroke of your fins, and a tingling sensation began to spread through your fingers and up your arms like icy claws digging into and tearing your skin. You heard the clattering and other sounds made by the three Leviathans becoming less and less audible, replaced by the dull hum of the ocean and death. 

Above you, you could see two large bright spots shining, imperfect circles with contours blurred by the waves on the surface, points you tried to cling to as you watched them slowly, very slowly, draw closer, their glow dissipating to give way to darkness that was not even pierced by stars. You reached out one of your hands toward the surface, toward the sky, as if hoping to grab hold of one of the moons of planet 4546B, but your hand closed around empty space and you couldn't hold your breath any longer. You closed your eyes, feeling your whole body begin to go numb, your lungs filling with emptiness as even the buzzing began to fade.

Everything was black and silent until suddenly it wasn't. You took a breath and felt the air fill your lungs abruptly and painfully. Your throat felt like it was on fire, but despite the difficulty, you couldn't help but take breaths, the oxygen filling your lungs before pouring through your body, carried by your blood. Your heart pounded in your chest at a frantic pace, forcing your blood to circulate again, helping your body to gradually revive, your senses and feelings returning to let you realize that your eyes were open and now staring at a sky unclouded by water, the sky above the surface. 

Everything was dark, but it wasn't a pristine black. Randomly scattered and varying in size and color, you could see as many stars as there were grains of sand on a beach, twinkling and flashing gently alongside the two moons of this planet. They were there, floating aimlessly in the sky, watching you as much as you watched them, helping you chase the last shadows of death from your field of vision. Now that you were regaining consciousness, you could feel the water against your skin, how you were half submerged, with only your face out of the water and your fingers barely touching the surface. Water dripped from your hair onto your forehead and neck, falling onto the surface and creating tiny droplets that fell back into the ocean, becoming one with it.

Then your hearing returned, the buzzing fading away to leave only the sound of the water swirling around you, disturbed only by a few cries from alien birds that had been caught unawares by nightfall. But another sound disturbed the relative silence, clattering and other noises echoing beneath the surface of the water, rising rapidly, loud and terrifying. Your eyes focused on the water, trying to see beneath the surface, which had now become dark except for a few small moving spots of light that were Peepers or other luminous alien fish. 

You then saw colored spots appear, yellow on your right, a little orange on your left, and a flash of white that quickly disappeared from your field of vision. You knew that the Leviathans were surrounding you, closing in on you like sharks on bleeding prey in the water, and that should have scared you. However, you couldn't even feel fear anymore. you felt far too weak, your body barely able to keep you afloat, and anyway, no matter what you did, you couldn't escape them. Your vision was now zero. Out of the water, the moons provided enough light for you to see, but under the surface, you couldn't tell a wall from a Creepvine until you bumped into it. You also no longer had your Seaglide, lost somewhere below you, if it hadn't been swept away by the current or one of the Stalkers.

A splashing sound caught your attention, causing you to turn your face toward the Leviathan that had surfaced first. It was the dark orange Leviathan, the one that had hunted you before. It hadn't completely left the water, leaving only his four eyes protruding so he could stare at you, his red irises seeming to glow in the darkness, painting the waves beneath its eyes with red reflections. Thanks to the moonlight, you could see that out of the water, the rays surrounding his face were slightly drooping, but the spines remained straight. You saw him approaching you, a predatory growl echoing in his chest. But you didn't react, simply blinking as you continued to breathe in and out to catch your breath. 

The Leviathan raised one of his hands toward you, placing it on your shoulder, while you felt his long tail wrap around your legs, squeezing them before pulling you toward him, forcing your body closer to his. You knew that wasn't his intention, but his tail around your legs supported you and allowed you to stay afloat without effort, so it was a strange and pleasant respite. You felt his claws dig into your suit as he opened his mouth wide, showing you his teeth that reflected the glow of the moons. You slowly closed your eyes, taking one last breath, accepting your fate. At least you could say you had tried to survive, and that you were perhaps the one who had survived the longest among all the Lifepods that had crashed on planet 4546B. 

You waited for pain that didn't come, you heard the Leviathan's jaws snap near your mask, a series of small shrill cries and coos escaping him as his hand on your shoulder relaxed. You opened your eyes to see that it had emerged a little further from the water, his shoulders now protruding from the water, his four eyes lowered in your direction, his pupils slightly reduced as a small pout formed on his face. As you opened your eyes again, he growled once more, baring his fangs again as he leaned toward your neck. You thought this time was the right one, and you even tilted your head back, hoping he would hurry up and end your agony by biting your windpipe, but you didn't feel any teeth sinking into your throat.

A huge, wet, warm tongue caressed your neck, brushing against your suit and the small area of unprotected skin beneath your mask. You let out a small gasp of surprise, your eyelids fluttering rapidly as your eyes remained fixed on the two moons still shining brightly above you. The orange Leviathan stepped back to observe your face with a touch of surprise after hearing you make that little noise, which must have seemed strange to him. You felt his other webbed, clawed hand slide against your mask, slipping into your hair, which was wet and sticking to your skin with the rhythm of the waves, while his red eyes were intensely fixed on you. You felt it lean against you again, and this time you didn't even close your eyes, simply remaining still as it sniffed you, just as the other two Leviathans had done before. 

A series of new clicks and growls could be heard around you, the other two Leviathans responding to him, as you heard them break the surface of the water in turn before hearing their voices express themselves in their strange dialect, of which you couldn't understand a single word. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the blue and white Leviathan coming towards you. You turned your face in his direction, watching it use one of his hands to lift one of yours out of the water with his clawed fingertips, watching the seawater drip from it before pressing his nose against your palm to sniff and chirp what was perhaps a question or an observation about what it had learned about you. 

The third Leviathan, the lighter-colored one, circled around you, and indirectly around the other two Leviathans, examining you with large blue eyes and dilated pupils. The little noises he made were more cheerful than the others, at least that's what his intonation gave you the impression of. Disappearing behind you, you heard it dive underwater, and after only a few seconds, you felt a pair of hands grab one of your legs stuck in the orange Leviathan's tail, his fingers palming your skin beneath the suit with varying degrees of force, but never hurting you, muffled cries being heard through the water. 

You were simply too shocked to do anything but remain motionless, blinking and breathing. You felt a little overwhelmed by the presence of these three enormous Leviathans, who were now probing and poking your body with their clawed paws and curious noses. You felt like a small exotic animal presented to a group of curious children who were going to lift it up and turn it around and touch it in every direction to try to understand it. It was a rather confusing situation, the mixture of fear, shock, and incomprehension running through your veins not helped by the Leviathans' ticklish exploration, like the one in front of you that had started sniffing your neck, almost making you want to laugh.

But your laughter didn't have time to leave your throat before you felt the orange Leviathan open his gaping mouth and close it around your shoulder. Strangely, once again, it didn't bite with the full force that its jaws were surely capable of exerting, but it surprised you enough to make you react. Your hand, which was not trapped in the blue Leviathan's, rose up and pressed against the orange Leviathan's chest as you pushed him away slightly, pulling your body away from him as his teeth released your shoulder. You saw his two pairs of eyes rise up toward you, its dilated pupils staring at you as he closed his mouth, which had remained open after you pushed it away.

"Hey, hey ! Don't... Don't bite. And, um... I think that's enough examining for now... Please ?" You whispered, confused, not knowing if they could understand you. 

Suddenly, the blue Leviathan, which had been sniffing your arm, stopped abruptly, his eyes fixed on you, his pupils dilating widely, its expression of surprise similar to that of the orange Leviathan, which was staring at you with his pupils so wide that only a simple red circle remained for its irises. You heard the surface of the water suddenly and loudly pierced, droplets splashing in all directions, even crashing against your skin and your diving mask. You turned toward the yellow Leviathan, who let out a series of small cries, his hands waving and hitting the surface of the water as his eyes moved from his two companions to your silhouette before settling on you with a big smile on his lips, revealing the fangs that had almost killed you. 

The silence that followed was almost deafening, even the sea seemed to make no sound as you found yourself facing three enormous Leviathans, with 12 eyes watching you intently. The blue Leviathan had finally released your hand and the orange Leviathan's tail had also loosened its grip on your legs, allowing you to swim again on your own. Now that you were a little calmer and had managed to catch your breath after nearly drowning, your mind seemed to be functioning properly again, and the first question you asked yourself was why the Leviathans hadn't devoured you. They could have, oh so easily, but they hadn't. 

You waved your arms and legs, your movement causing you to move back slightly, away from the three aliens, as you wanted to test their reactions. Immediately, the yellow Leviathan let out small squeaks from his rib cage as it followed you. The blue one dove slightly into the water, leaving only his eyes above the surface as he closed the distance you had put between you and him. The third, orange Leviathan let his predatory smile spread across his lips again as he almost threw himself at you once more. You jumped slightly at his sudden movement, your heart racing as you closed your eyes again. You felt the water swirling around you, tossing you about as the Leviathan stopped right in front of you.

You could feel his breath crashing against your face, so you opened one eye and saw him towering over you for a few seconds. As you continued to remain still, you saw his smile fade, small sounds leaving his throat as a slight pout of annoyance, or perhaps just disappointment, appeared on his face. You blinked as he dove back into the water, leaving only his eyes above the surface, bubbles forming just in front of his face as it growled softly. You could have sworn that the Leviathan was sulking with that little pout on his face. The other two Leviathans let out small sounds, causing the orange Leviathan to frown a little more. 

Was he annoyed because you hadn't run away ? It certainly looked that way, at least that's what his reaction and the situation told you, because after all, you were still alive and not in their stomachs. So all this time, when he had chased you away the first time and again just now, it was simply because he wanted to chase you and also out of curiosity. A curiosity that the other two Leviathans also felt, given the way they had examined you and were still watching you, as if waiting to see what you were going to do. It was new information that made you question the planet you had crashed on a little more.

So these three Leviathans were more intelligent than those with mandibles and no arms. These three were curious and intrigued by your presence, and by you in general, and you could understand why. While you were simply concerned with surviving on this strange and threatening sea planet, from their point of view, you were something completely new that they had never seen on their own planet before. So their curiosity was justified; after all, humans had already done far worse to the aliens they had encountered than simply touching and sniffing them. You still remembered how the orange Leviathan had chased you, but perhaps if you hadn't run away, you wouldn't have ended up being afraid when they weren't actively trying to eat you. At least, you hoped so. 

"Um... So, you're not going to eat me, are you ?" You asked, your question leaving your lips with a hint of anxiety and hesitation. 

The yellow Leviathan was once again the first to "answer" you, letting out small shrill noises as it approached you once more, circling around you and waving his large caudal fin, which appeared and disappeared in the waves. The orange Leviathan growled a little more, his red eyes looking at you with a little less anger than before, but quickly turned to the yellow Leviathan and hissed in his direction, silencing the yellow Leviathan for a few seconds. The rays around his face, which was already flattened due to being out of the water, lay down even further as it hissed back at the orange Leviathan. You watched their exchange before turning your attention to the blue Leviathan, who had remained silent, simply continuing to observe you, although he had perhaps moved a little closer to you. 

You didn't understand what they were saying to each other, but it sounded very much like a quarrel between brothers, and the idea that this might be the case made you laugh a little. You couldn't remember the last time you had laughed, even a little laugh like this, since you had arrived on planet 4546B. It really did you good, making you forget for a few seconds the constant danger you were in, making you forget how hard it was to survive, and alone at that. Their little quarrels also reminded you of Vanessa, Gregory, and Cassie, your cousins who were older and younger than you, respectively, and with whom you got along wonderfully. You remembered the evenings spent together listening to them argue about which movie you were going to watch. It was a sweet and warm memory that contrasted with the icy water you were currently swimming in. 

Suddenly, fatigue overtook you, your smile fading from your face as the heaviness in your muscles and the confusion that had settled slightly in your mind reminded you that you needed to sleep. Blinking to try to shake yourself out of your thoughts and slightly reawaken your attention, you turned back to the three Leviathans, the yellow and orange ones having stopped bickering to observe you again. You hummed softly, trying to decide what to do with them around. For now, they seemed curious enough not to want to eat you, and you hoped that even once they had finished examining you, they would not decide to devour you, so you did not have to fear them.

You looked down at the small indicators on your mask, searching the built-in compass for the direction of your base. In your flight, you had strayed quite far from your new resting place, too far to simply swim there, but your Seaglide had been lost somewhere below you. You sighed, and the possibility of returning to Lifepod 16, as you had originally planned, crossed your mind, but the idea of having just made a real bed only to find yourself sleeping in that nest of fiber and plastic again made you grimace. Yes, you were exhausted, but you wanted to rest properly. So you decided to go and look for your Seaglide. The device couldn't have gone far after the blue Leviathan caught you, as there wasn't much current near the Kelp Forest. You just had to hope that the Stalkers hadn't caught it.

You looked up, meeting the gaze of all the Leviathans who were indirectly keeping you company, before diving gently so as not to give the orange Leviathan the impression that you were playing with him. Looking down at the ground, you couldn't help but regret your decision not to make a flashlight. The water was so dark that you could barely see your feet, which would only make your search even more difficult. You reached into one of your pockets and pulled out your scanner. It wasn't much, but the small built-in light would be better than nothing. The sudden presence of the object in your hand seemed to attract the attention of the three Leviathans, who swam toward you with new, high-pitched, curious chirps.

The blue Leviathan stretched out one of his clawed fingers and touched your scanner with his fingertip before looking at you with its large, almost luminous red eyes and touching it again. You didn't try to stop them. As long as they weren't stealing your little device, you saw no reason to stop them, and you could let them satisfy their curiosity in exchange for them not eating you. After a few seconds of letting them touch your hand and the scanner you were holding, you decided to dive a little deeper, still cautiously, as you saw the orange Leviathan's pupils dilate. It was really strange, swimming with the three enormous creatures following you more or less closely while conversing in their strange dialect. 

Arriving near the Creepvine forest, you began swimming at ground level, sweeping your scanner from right to left to observe the ground and hoping to see your Seaglide. You swam for several minutes, coming up to the surface twice in the meantime, accompanied, of course, by the three Leviathans, who every time you did something new began to flounder, touch you with their fingertips, or swim backwards in front of you. You really felt like the sharks of planet Earth, always accompanied by their little fish that followed their every move, even though the difference in size between you and the two Leviathans made you look more like a little fish than them. 

A reflection of light on the ground between two Creepvines filled you with a wave of hope. You swam quickly, kicking your feet, closing your eyes, and crossing your fingers that it was indeed your Seaglide and not a piece of the Aurora. A small cry of joy escaped your lips as your eyes saw the distinctive shape of your Seaglide, which you quickly picked up and held in your hands as if it were a precious object. You would be able to return to your base without too much effort, and you wouldn't need to build a new Seaglide. Putting away your scanner, you grabbed your Seaglide with both hands and turned it on to find that the battery was now empty. But this small detail didn't bother you since you always had spare batteries with you.

Holding your Seaglide in one hand, you reached into another pocket for a small, fully charged battery. As you looked up to check your Seaglide again, you noticed that the three Leviathans had been attracted to your gadget. The yellow Leviathan had come closer and was almost wrapped around your Seaglide and indirectly around you, his tail resting lazily against your back as he sniffed your means of transportation. It was almost amusing until you saw it open his mouth, exposing all his teeth, his pupils dilating. You pulled your Seaglide toward you, saving it from the Leviathan's bite, his jaw snapping at thin water. You breathed a sigh of relief, but it didn't last long when you felt another Leviathan sniffing the battery you had in your other hand. 

You barely had time to turn your face to see the blue Leviathan's mouth open to swallow the battery and your hand along with it. You felt his teeth clamp down on your wrist but without closing completely, without separating your hand from the rest of your body. You felt a huge, sticky, warm tongue brush against your gloved fingers and the battery between them. You felt a shiver run down your spine as you let go of your Seaglide once again to reach out with your other hand and place it on the blue Leviathan's face, which turned his four dilated eyes toward you as you pushed him away. Without too much effort, you managed to pull your hand and the battery out of the Leviathan's mouth.

"No, no, don't do that ! It's dangerous ! The battery is toxic, you could die if you eat it." You said with a sigh, waving the battery between your still sticky fingers. 

The blue Leviathan simply blinked, licking his lips before trying to communicate with you, letting out a series of clicks and chirps. You grimaced behind your mask, not understanding what it was trying to tell you. You looked down at the battery again and frowned slightly. Why did you care whether this enormous monster lived or died ? Yes, they weren't eating you, but they had still chased you like prey, and you didn't know them. What's more, you didn't know if they would remain friendly for long. Maybe they were just taking their time to decide whether you would make a good meal or not. 

A sound to your left snapped you out of your thoughts, and you saw that the yellow Leviathan had caught your Seaglide before it had time to be carried away by the current. He held the vehicle, which looked so small in his enormous hands, carefully, his clawed, webbed fingers relaxed but careful not to touch the metal hull of the Seaglide. Your heart skipped a beat with surprise and joy when you saw the creature hold the Seaglide a little closer to you, his large blue eyes dilated and impatient, the rays around his face slightly reclined, twitching slightly. You reached out your hand and took your Seaglide from the yellow Leviathan, who suddenly let out a little cry of joy, the ruff around his face unfolding completely.

You couldn't help but let a little laugh escape your lips at his joy, watching him swim and turn slightly on itself. You began to understand why you cared about them a little. It had been so long since you had been in the company of anyone, and you didn't count the Stalkers because, despite their intelligence, they were more like dogs you would have trained. Just the presence of these three Leviathans calmed you a little. Despite the fact that they had hunted you. Yes, you were going to remain bitter towards them for a long time to come. Your survival instinct was probably completely deranged by loneliness if, after only ten minutes in the presence of these three, you saw them more as potential companions than as a danger. 

"Thank you." You whispered to the Leviathan who had returned the Seaglide to you. 

The orange Leviathan, which had been strangely quiet behind you all this time, let out a growl, his tail fin flapping as he moved in front of you and chased away the other two Leviathans, which growled and roared in return, moving away so as not to be hit by his tail. Humming with amusement at not understanding the antics of the three creatures, you focused on your little device. You popped the used battery out of its slot, quickly slipping it into one of your pockets before inserting the new battery. You watched the Seaglide come back to life with a soft whirring sound. At the same time, you heard your PDA warn you that you were running low on oxygen. Pushing away the orange Leviathan that had leaned over to look over your shoulder when he heard the sound of your Seaglide, you rose to the surface.

You were only partially surprised to see the three alien creatures following you. You stayed at the surface for a few seconds, taking in air to fill your O2 tank completely before diving again, deciding this time that it was really time to go back and rest. The two moons had continued their course in the sky of planet 4546B, and you knew that there weren't many hours left before the sun would reappear. Locating your base on your compass, you turned in that direction, but your eyes fell on the three Leviathans, which had started communicating again. You didn't know if they were trying to communicate with you or with each other, but it didn't matter—you couldn't understand a word. 

You turned on your Seaglide, feeling the motor gently pull you forward, your body relaxing and moving into a horizontal position as you let the small device do all the physical work for you. As you had anticipated, the Leviathans abandoned their meeting to follow you, the yellow Leviathan letting out little squeaks of surprise. The orange Leviathan let out a satisfied growl, his pupils narrowing as it seemed ready to chase you again, but unfortunately for him, you decided to keep your Seaglide's speed fairly low.  As for the third Leviathan, the blue one, he remained silent. It was the least talkative of the three, you had noticed, but it was the first to join you and swim alongside you.

The trip back to your base was strange, not only because it was the first time you had been out so late, but also because of the three enormous Leviathans accompanying you. Suddenly, you weren't so afraid of being outside at night. You doubted that anyone else would dare attack you while you were surrounded by the Leviathans. As quickly as the idea popped into your head, your memories decided to be cruel and reminded you that these three Leviathans weren't the biggest you'd seen. No, there was the enormous beast from Lifepod 4, the one that lived in the Sand Dunes beyond the Grassy Plateaus, where you had set up your base. A shiver ran down your spine. Even as big as they were, you were sure that the Leviathans swimming beside you must fear these kinds of monsters as well.

When you finally saw the outline of your base in the distance, the white of the building standing out against the ink-black background of the ocean, you let a small smile appear on your lips and forced your Seaglide to accelerate a little more, your action eliciting an approving coo from the orange Leviathan. When you finally arrived at the entrance to your base, you let out a sigh, feeling increasingly tired as your eyes struggled to stay open. You began to place your hands on the entrance hatch before stopping when you felt the water stirring beside you. You looked over your shoulder to see the three alien creatures staring at you, their eyes almost burning your skin beneath your suit. You turned toward them. 

"Well, guys... If you are guys. I..." You stopped, murmuring to yourself. "What can I say to you, knowing that you probably don't understand me ?" You paused again before continuing, looking at the three of them: "Well, I'm going back to my base now. Thank you for not eating me."

With that, you turned to open the small porthole door of your base before slipping inside and closing the door behind you, the few squeaks and chirps of the surprised Leviathan muffled by the thin metal walls. Within seconds, the water that had rushed into the airlock drained away, and the other automatic sliding door leading to the rest of your base opened to let you in. You took off your flippers, leaving them lying in the airlock, because no one could blame you for leaving them there, and you needed them every time you went out. Your bare feet on the cold floor echoed softly inside your base, the sudden silence almost disorienting after you had been in the water surrounded by the sounds of Leviathans and alien fish in the distance. But your silence did not last long, as you quickly heard the Leviathans begin to communicate, before hearing a high-pitched squeak. 

You grimaced slightly, easily imagining all three of them biting and scratching the hull of your base to try to understand it, or perhaps even wanting to join you. You seriously doubted that they could fit through the porthole given their size, and you weren't even sure they could get out of the water entirely. Now that you thought about it, you were a little curious about them, to understand how they breathed since they didn't have gills, what they ate, if there were others like them. You hadn't thought to scan them with your scanner, your PDA would surely have had lots of information about them. You hummed to yourself, thinking that if they were still there tomorrow and didn't decide to devour you, you would scan them. Tonight, you were too tired to worry about anything else. 

You slowly crossed your base, leaving all your instruments in the room where all your cabinets and other storage were located before moving on to the room where your radio was, which you barely looked at, seeing no small red dots. Your gaze, however, went to the large glass window that gave you a view of the vast dark expanse of the ocean and the invisible silhouette of the Reefbacks. You began to walk away toward your room when a flash of color appeared in front of the window. The silhouette suddenly stopped, allowing you to contemplate the orange Leviathan, his pupils reduced to small slits widening as he now saw you behind the glass. You saw a few bubbles leave your lips, its cry almost inaudible inside your base.

The Leviathan moved closer until he placed both hands on the glass, his claws clattering against it. You pressed your lips together, praying that it wouldn't decide to attack the window. But it didn't move, simply continuing to watch you and try to understand what you were doing inside your base, which was surely a completely strange thing for him. And quickly, the other two curious Leviathans joined the first one at the glass. The yellow Leviathan seemed almost happy to see you again, as he let out a series of clicks so shrill that you could hear them even from behind the glass before starting to pace back and forth at the glass, trying, you assumed, to join you. The blue one landed near the orange Leviathan, staring at you intensely with hus red eyes before opening his mouth wide and letting his teeth meet the glass.

You could see the inside of its mouth, which you didn't necessarily want to see, knowing that you could probably disappear into it if they decided to eat you. You noticed, however, that his mouth was composed almost exactly like yours, with a hard palate, a soft palate, an uvula, and a tongue that was slightly purple in color, reminding you of a giraffe's, not only because of the color but also because of the length. You grimaced before shaking your face, moving closer to the glass, the three Leviathans immediately stopping what they were doing to lean over and try to get as close as possible to your silhouette, which was quite complicated since they were enormous. 

"Don't eat my base. I just built it. You can at least wait a day before destroying it." You said, raising one of your fingers to tap the glass gently. 

You saw the eyes of all the Leviathans dilate, their pupils following your finger intently before returning to your face. Suddenly you understood how fish in aquariums felt when faced with curious children; the three Leviathans had almost crushed their faces against the glass. The yellow one in particular, with the rays around his skull pressed against the glass, made him look like a big flower. You let a little laugh escape your lips as you shook your head. You were sure he hadn't understood a word you said, he looked at you too much like puppies being taught a trick for the first time, adorable with no idea what they were supposed to do. You frowned at your reflection, adorable was probably not the right word for them. They were predators, you reminded yourself. 

"Well, guys... Good night." You said. 

You raised your hand and gave them a little wave goodbye, which they probably didn't understand since it was something very human, although you knew that some alien peoples had this kind of gesture too, but you suspected they didn't know his meaning. Lowering your hand, you turned your attention away from the three Leviathans, who, seeing you move, swam after you to the edge of the glass, until you disappeared behind it. As you entered the room that served as your bedroom, you heard the Leviathans begin to chatter among themselves again, the sound eventually being completely muffled when the automatic door closed behind you.

Once in this room, which contained nothing but a bed and a storage cabinet, fatigue overwhelmed you even more, and all you wanted to do was lie down under the covers. However, you didn't want to wet your sheets, so you forced yourself to go to your closet to get some clothes to sleep in. You were happy to see, while rummaging through your PDA, that there were blueprints for clothes. It wasn't much: a long-sleeved T-shirt pattern and a short-sleeved one, a pair of shorts and a pair of jogging pants, underwear, socks, and a pair of sneakers. All the clothes were unisex and required the same materials to make them, namely fiber mesh, silicone rubber, and acid mushrooms. The last ingredient seemed strange to you, but your scientific mind concluded that it was to help melt the two materials together so they could fuse. 

You made two of each item of clothing, except for shoes, which were completely useless in this aquatic environment, and underwear, which you had made more of. The question of how you were going to wash your dirty clothes crossed your mind, but unfortunately, the PDA only had blueprints to help you survive, not household appliances such as washing machines or stoves. Yes, you had thought about a stove with an oven and all the usual cooking equipment because, although the Fabricator was handy for making your meals, you were starting to get tired of eating the same thing for over a month, i.e., nutrient bars and grilled Peeper, and you really wanted to be able to prepare something yourself, especially since the PDA told you what was edible and what wasn't.

With a sigh, you knew that at some point you would have to go to the wreck of the Aurora to see if you could salvage any equipment from inside the hull, or at least some blueprints that could make your wait and survival on this planet much more pleasant. You slowly changed into clean, dry clothes, and it was only while changing that you noticed you had kept your mask on your face, so you took it off, after checking the integrity of your base to make sure that the three Leviathans hadn't decided to attack the metal, placing it in the storage cabinet next to your still-wet diving suit. However, you kept your PDA, preferring to keep the small device close to you in case it had something important to tell you. 

You then walked over to your bed, placing the PDA on one of the pillows before letting yourself fall into bed. Your bed. You repeated the word in your mind over and over as you wriggled like a caterpillar against the blankets and sheets, lifting them to slip underneath, where you continued to fidget, savoring the feel of the blankets against your skin. The sheets were still a little cold and made you shiver, but you could slowly feel your body heat warming the air under the covers. You rested your face on the other pillow that wasn't occupied by the PDA, unable to stop yourself from letting little sounds of contentment escape your lips like a small animal returning to its nest. 

You closed your eyes, your mind still working a little despite the sleep that was slowly clouding your consciousness, telling you that you would have to go to the rendezvous point previously given by the Sunbeam, then you would have to explore the Aurora to obtain new blueprints and potential materials for your base. You mustn't forget that you had already completed the blueprints for a Mobile Vehicle Bay as well as for a Seamoth and the Moonpool that went with it. And maybe you would have a new communication on your radio as well; there was so much you had to do. And as you began to fall asleep, your last thoughts turned to the three creatures you had encountered today. You didn't know if they were still hanging around your base or if they had decided to leave. Who knows if they will still be there tomorrow those three Leviathans.

Chapter Text

For a brief moment, during that time when you were not fully awake but not asleep either, you thought you were back home. The bed was warm and soft beneath you, and there was not a sound except for your own breathing. You thought you were in your room, in your small but comfortable house that you loved so much. But your reverie was quickly shattered when you heard the Reefbacks singing their melancholy song in the distance. You opened your eyes and contemplated the slight darkness around you, pierced by the blue glow of the various electronic storage units in the room. You were in your bedroom, but not at home. 

Letting out a groan, you moved under the covers, shifting your legs and arms, which were heavy and numb from sleep. Your whole body was rebelling against the excessive physical activity you had done yesterday. Slowly, as your mind synchronized with your body, you remembered what had happened yesterday and felt as if you had been swallowed by a Leviathan. That had almost been the case; you had been licked, nibbled, sniffed, and touched by not one, but three Leviathans. You sat up in bed, the blankets gathering around your waist and legs. You blinked, waking up a little more with each passing second as you listened to the world around you outside your aquatic base. 

You could hear the hum of electronic devices scattered throughout your base, the distant cries of Reefbacks, and the closer chirping of a few alien fish, but you heard no sound that could come from the three Leviathans you had encountered the day before. Lazing around in bed for a few more long minutes, just to savor the comfort of the mattress and the warmth of the blanket, you finally got up, shivering and letting out a little "brr" when your feet touched the cold floor of your base. Walking slowly, your body still protesting a little, you left your bedroom and entered the small hallway in front of it before coming out into one of your main rooms, the one you had decided to decorate with a large glass panel. 

You approached the window, letting your eyes wander over the blue expanse illuminated by the sun, which was probably at its zenith. You had slept for a long time, all evening and most of the day, but that was no bad thing; you clearly needed to rest properly after spending so long sleeping in a miserable makeshift bed. You could see the silhouettes of the Reefbacks moving slowly in the distance, their song still audible. Among the red algae covering the plain stretching out in front of your base, you saw a few Sand Sharks stirring, one of them coming out of the sand to try to catch a Boomerang, which managed to escape him. 

You continued to watch the waters, your eyes searching for the silhouette of one of the three Leviathans, but you saw nothing approaching them from near or far. You hummed softly, a small part of you almost disappointed that they weren't there, but the other part of you told yourself that it was better for you that they didn't stay too close. Because even though they seemed more intelligent than the vast majority of creatures you had encountered on this planet and had not actively tried to devour you, they were still predators to you, and who knew if they might decide to see you as a snack at some point. But... You had to admit that you were curious about them. You definitely should have scanned them with your scanner the other night to see what your PDA had to say about them. 

After all, despite the fact that you had crashed and were struggling to survive on this planet, you were still a scientist, and your inquiring mind wondered about these three creatures and the species to which they might belong. What did they eat ? Probably fish, judging by their carnivorous teeth. Where did they live ? Well, they obviously lived in the water, judging by their fins, but were they nomadic or sedentary ? Were there others like them in the area ? And if so, would the other specimens of their species be as peaceful as them, or should you expect them to try to eat you ? 

Too many questions for answers you didn't have and might never get if the three Leviathans didn't return. With a small sigh, you moved away from the window and turned toward the next room, where you kept all your tracking equipment and manufacturing components in various cabinets. You opened the cabinet where you stored the various alien fish you had caught and not immediately consumed. While building the cabinets, you had noticed that these very practical storage units had an electrical system that you could connect to the base to turn them into a kind of refrigerator. You had to admit it was well thought out, as the cabinets could be used as simple cabinets if needed, or as refrigerators for what you assumed were samples or various chemicals that needed to be kept at a low temperature. 

Opening the door of this two-in-one cabinet/refrigerator, you looked inside and met the empty gaze of several Peeper, Bladderfish, and other fish that you had managed to catch during your exploration trips. You grimaced slightly; you clearly didn't want to eat grilled fish for breakfast again, but you had no other choice. You preferred to save the nutrient bars for when you went out, not only because they kept longer than fish cooked in the Fabricator, but also because they took up less space in your suit pockets. With a smile, you grabbed another alien fish you had managed to catch, as well as a Bladderfish, to make yourself a bottle of water before going to the Fabricator. 

After processing the two fish to make them edible, you leaned back against one of the walls, sliding down to sit on the floor with your legs crossed, your grilled fish in one hand and your water bottle in the other. Unfortunately, you didn't have a table or anything else, so you had to eat right on the floor. Between each bite of fish, you took a sip of water to wash it down and fill your stomach. What you wouldn't have given for a piece of bread, even if you didn't have any butter, jam, or chocolate spread to put on it. Just a piece of the most basic, classic white bread in the universe would have satisfied you.

With the distant memory of the taste of bread on your tongue, you got up, grabbed the empty water bottle to put it on the table, and would get rid of it when you went out later. Another practical thing was that the water bottles were made from Bladderfish, so not only was their contents usable, but the plastic that made up the bottle was biodegradable. It took a few days, but the bottle eventually melted away, and you had even seen a few fish come to eat pieces of plastic from the bottle, even other Bladderfish. You had laughed a little, thinking it was cannibalism, but here on this planet, you understood that desperate measures had to be taken to survive. 

With a full stomach, a clear head, and your energy levels back up to full, you decided to take action. You had lots of options and lots of things to do on your list, starting with exploring the wreck of the Aurora and heading to the rendezvous point given by the Sunbeam before its mysterious destruction. And to reach either location, you could also build your famous Seamoth, the plans for which you had had for so long now. You hummed softly, trying to weigh the pros and cons of what you should do first, before deciding to head for the rendezvous point first, for three reasons. First, you wanted to see what the little bit of land on this planet looked like. Second, you wanted to find out what could have destroyed the Sunbeam. And finally, the most important reason was that, as you had discovered when trying to get to Lifepod 4, the mandible-wielding Leviathans were near the Aurora. 

You weren't ready to encounter another one, and you might never be, and after your encounter with the three passive Leviathans, you wanted to stick to a simple, safe reconnaissance mission for the time being. Well, relatively safe, or at least less risky than exploring the wreckage of a damaged spaceship surrounded by monstrous creatures that could devour you in a single bite. You also decided to postpone the construction of your Seamoth. You knew full well that it would be useful, but you seriously wanted to do a simple reconnaissance mission of the meeting place first to see what you could find there, then come back later with your Seamoth if necessary. After all, the marker would not disappear from your database.

For the next half hour, you busied yourself preparing your equipment, organizing it as efficiently as possible so as to have the most space and be as unencumbered as possible. You made a lamp, taking care, of course, to use one of your old empty batteries, which, somehow, recharged when used to create a new device. After stocking up on food, water, spare batteries, and first aid supplies, you finally left your base. Outside, you heard the door of your base close tightly behind you, your eyes leaving the metal structure to rest on the sandy-colored rock cliffs in the distance. Instinctively, you looked around, swimming a little further and a little higher above your base, listening to the sound of the ocean and the creatures that lived there. 

Once again, there was no sign of the three Leviathans, but you saw claw and fang marks in the paint of your base. You had noticed several marks near your entrance airlock, as if they had tried to force their way in. Luckily, they had finally given up before causing too much damage to the structure that served as your survival hideout. You would have to repair it when you returned, since you had left your Repair Tool in your base, assuming you wouldn't need it. Turning on your Seaglide, the engine began to hum softly before gently pulling your body forward, causing you to cut through the water quickly. You activated the location feature on your mask, and a small logo appeared northeast of where you were.

The distance between you and the meeting point was not great, less than a kilometer, compared to the Aurora, which was 1.5 kilometers away. This was one more reason that reassured you in your decision to go to the rendezvous point first. You also noticed this as you advanced, but these were landscapes and biomes that you had already explored and even traveled through several times before. This made you realize once again the immensity and complexity of the place you were in. If you had been unable to discover a place so close to your base, you didn't even want to know what lay beyond the limits you had explored. 

You crossed another Kelp Forest. The few Stalkers who were there watched you, but you moved on quickly enough that they didn't try to approach you, whatever their intentions might have been. Then you walked along another Grassy Plateau, the one near the area that was home to giant mushroom species and where you had received the strange call from the mysterious voice. Slowly, you could see the landscape changing. Where the depth had been up to 100 and 200 meters at most in the red algae plains and Kelp Forest, here the ground began to rise gently, the depth decreasing until it almost reached the surface and level 0. Aquatic plants were also becoming rarer, with only a few small corals or algae remaining, but of reduced size and stature. 

As you began to rise to the surface, you heard a distant cry. You blinked, stopping your Seaglide before turning around to see what could have caused the noise. You were surprised to see a whole school of alien fish swimming quickly towards you, brushing past you fearlessly as they tried to flee from something bigger and more dangerous than you. When the colorful blur of fish and bubbles in their wake finally faded, you saw the enormous silhouette of yesterday's blue Leviathan hurtling toward you at full speed, his powerful tail leaving a trail of bubbles behind him. You instinctively closed your eyes, torn between the fact that they hadn't tried to eat you yesterday and the possibility that they might try today. 

You felt the water swirling around you, tossing your body between the different currents created by the Leviathan as he suddenly stopped. You heard him let out a few high-pitched sounds from his throat, the noise soft enough to reassure you and make you open your eyes. The blue Leviathan had stopped in front of you, his four ruby-red eyes staring at your face and your own eyes behind your mask. You let out a nervous little laugh as you saw him raise one of his clawed hands to touch your legs, which you had been moving to resist the current. The sudden tension you had felt when you saw the Leviathan faded away, your shoulders relaxing as you let out a small, almost amused sigh. 

"Well, hello to you too." 

Hearing your voice, the Leviathan raised his two pairs of eyes, which he had lowered to examine your legs, back up to your face. His expression was similar to that of a curious feline with dilated pupils, and his lips stretched slightly, revealing the sharp teeth behind them. You heard him chirp and make various vibrating noises before suddenly falling silent, staring into your eyes as if waiting for a response from you. You had no idea what he might have said to you, but the last note he made was higher pitched, which gave you the impression that he had asked you a question, but that was just a guess, and even if that was the case, you had no way of knowing what the question was. 

"I'm sorry, buddy, I have no idea what you're asking me. But if you're asking if you can eat me, the answer is no." You said, raising one of your index fingers. 

You saw a smile spread across the Leviathan's lips, revealing teeth that were every bit as impressive as those of the sharks on Earth or the jaws of the Leviathans on this planet. For a moment, you thought he was amused by your answer, but you quickly dismissed the idea. Rather than understanding you, he seemed more logical that he was simply curious and therefore satisfied to hear you speak to him. You then heard a soft purr escape from the creature's blue and white ribcage as his pupils dilated even further. You let him do so with much less fear when he leaned toward you and began to sniff your skin. And as he grabbed your hand to examine it, your PDA reminded you that unlike him, you needed air to live, and you needed it quickly.

Slowly and delicately, careful not to provoke the same reaction in the Leviathan that you had elicited from a playful kitten when you waved an object quickly in front of its nose, you removed your hand from his. The creature watched your movement with intense attention, his face tilting to one side, causing the strange, long fin around its face to twitch. Seeing that he did not react with a hunter's instinct, you backed away slightly. You don't know what came over you, but you pointed to the surface with your hand, making a small movement as if to let it know you were going back up. You started to lower your arm, thinking it was stupid, but then you saw the Leviathan look up at the sky after watching your hand. 

You let out a small cry of surprise when you saw the blue Leviathan's eyes alternating between your silhouette and the surface, his body as still as possible as it seemed to wait for you to make a move. You didn't have time to dwell on your mixture of astonishment, shock, and joy because your PDA reminded you that you were about to run out of air. Turning on your Seaglide, you placed it above you before quickly returning to the surface. Once partially out of the water, you watched your oxygen gauge slowly fill up before your eyes looked beyond your mask and settled on a piece of land, an island that now lay before you. 

It was the most basic and one of the smallest islands you had ever seen, yet you had never been so happy to see mountains and sand in your entire life. The island consisted of a prominent mountain made of fairly dark brown rock, here and there with smaller peaks eroded by time and weather. From your low vantage point, you could also see a few small paths, which seemed passable, between tufts of greenery and the mountain walls. A little further east of the island, you could see a stretch of beach and sand of a soft, warm yellow color that reflected the sun and gave you the impression of being made of gold particles. 

Your quick examination of the landscape made you realize that you would not be able to access the island from the south, including the part of the island you were facing. The mountain plunged directly into the waves, which crashed against it with some force, creating foam that you could see even from a distance. Not only was the slope too steep for you to climb, but the waves also threatened to prevent you from getting closer or even moving away. The risk of being smashed against the rocks discouraged you from getting too close to this part of the island, and the beach you could just about see was far too tempting and safe an option for you to pass up. 

Chirping and other muffled sounds could be heard below you just before you saw a large light yellow shape appear between the waves. Emerging suddenly from the water, the yellow Leviathan splashed water onto your mask. Instinctively, you raised one of your hands, blinking to protect yourself from the drops of salt water hitting your mask. The yellow Leviathan's excited squeals were now much more audible, ringing in your ears loud and high-pitched enough to make you wince. You were no longer used to so much sound after spending what was now a little over a month alone and mostly underwater. 

"Yeah... Hello to you too." You said with a small laugh, lowering your hand to look at the Leviathan facing you. 

The creature had let his face come completely out of the water, his strange rays falling limply on either side of his face as there was no longer the pressure of the water to make them float. The creature's four eyes, pools of blue as clear as the sky on a summer's day, were fixed on you, scanning you once again from head to toe, a broad smile revealing all his teeth plastered across his mouth. His two hands reached out and grabbed the gloved hand you had raised to protect yourself from its splashes. With a sigh, you let him do it, not only because he had caught you delicately, his large sharp claws barely grazing your skin, but also because his curiosity was matched only by yours, and his examination of you allowed you to analyze him visually as well. 

You watched him lift your hand up to his face, one of his hands holding your wrist while the fingertips of his other hand separated your fingers, his eyes fixed so intensely on your digits that you could almost feel his gaze caressing your skin. Now that you were out of the water and didn't have to worry about running out of oxygen, you decided to give in to the Leviathan's curiosity and spread your fingers apart. The Leviathan let out a small surprised sound, his eyes moving from your hand to your face before returning to your hand. You saw him gently extend his index finger, letting the tip slip between two of your fingers, and he repeated this with each space between your fingers. You let a small laugh escape your lips as you watched it try to align his hand with yours to compare them, but struggling to do so given the difference in size. 

The blue Leviathan, which had simply been circling around you and the other Leviathan the whole time, rose to the surface, leaving only the top of his skull and his eyes above the water. The yellow Leviathan looked at the blue one, his lips moving to let out a series of more or less high-pitched sounds as he looked at your hand again and waved his fingers against yours once more, repeating the same movement as before, sliding one of his fingers between your fingers protected by your diving gloves. The blue Leviathan seemed to respond to him, his red eyes moving from your hand to your face before returning to your hand. Silently, you watched the two Leviathans talk, the yellow one withdrawing his hand from yours only to be replaced by one of the blue Leviathan. 

You were as intrigued by their interaction with your hand as they were by your hand. With each passing minute, you could only marvel at how intelligent these Leviathans were, much more so than any other creatures you had encountered before, perhaps even on a par with humans. They had their own dialect, composed of sounds and onomatopoeia, which you couldn't decipher, but some of their gestures, such as the yellow Leviathan pointing to the membrane between his fingers before lifting your own hand, which had no fins, allowed you to understand them. You understood that they were wondering about your nature, about your ability to swim without webbed fingers and with legs instead of a tail.

A loud splash accompanied by a deep, vibrating growl shook the surface of the water enough for you to feel it tremble even beneath your wetsuit. You immediately felt your body tense as the third Leviathan, the orange one that seemed to take the most malicious pleasure in roughing you up, pressed against your back. You could feel his tail brushing against your legs as you kept yourself afloat, your attention remaining fixed suspiciously on the two more docile Leviathans in front of you. The Leviathan behind you let out a growl, which sounded angry at the other two. But the two didn't seem to be bothered, barely looking up at him. You saw the yellow one let out a series of chirps while the blue one let what was definitely a mocking smile cross his face. 

The orange Leviathan let out a frustrated hiss before you felt him lean a little closer to you, his shadow falling over your silhouette and almost obscuring the sun shining high in the sky. Hesitantly, you took a deep breath before very slowly tilting your head back, only to see that the Leviathan had placed his face above yours, seemingly waiting for you to look at him so he could flash you a toothy grin, his pupils wide and dilated like those of an animal playing or hunting. You blinked, waiting for some kind of reaction from him, especially for him to bite you, but his eyes fell on your hand, which was being examined by his two companions.

The orange Leviathan let out a deep chirp, his face tilting slightly to one side, the triangular fins around his face brushing against the visor of your mask. The other two Leviathans responded, the yellow one chirping quickly and almost enthusiastically, while the blue Leviathan's response was slower, his mysterious words a long, faint hum. The orange Leviathan seemed to hum, the vibration reverberating into your back as you felt one of his hands rest on your shoulder. You lowered your face, your eyes following the Leviathan's hand as it slid down your arm, touching the muscles beneath your suit before reaching your hand. He pressed the palm of his hand against the back of your hand, spacing his webbed fingers like yours before closing his hand around yours, his fingers sliding into the spaces between yours as you felt his claws resting against your palm, enough for you to feel their dangerous pressure but not enough for them to pierce your suit. 

As much as you would have liked to continue studying the three Leviathans while they analyzed you, you had an island to explore and the sun was unfortunately continuing its course without regard for you. Wiggling your fingers slightly, you managed to free them from the orange Leviathan's grip, who growled slightly, not very inclined to let you go. But you finally managed to convince the three Leviathans to stop examining you with their clawed paws and curious eyes. Floating for a few seconds on the surface, you grabbed your Seaglide again with both hands before diving slightly below the surface of the water. The three creatures did the same, making a series of small sounds. 

You look in the direction where you spotted the beginning of the beach where you planned to reach dry land before looking again at the three Leviathans around you, who all have their eyes fixed on you. You were now more than certain that they would follow you again, so you shrugged your shoulders, accepting your fate and the fact that you would now be followed by creatures that could probably eat you at any moment. And you preferred to be followed by them than to be hunted. Turning on your Seaglide, which began to hum softly, you heard the orange Leviathan let out a high-pitched, excited sound. You saw his pupils dilate before shrinking, and a predatory smile revealing his teeth as he opened and closed his clawed hands. 

"No. No." You declared, raising one of your hands and pointing your index finger at the orange Leviathan. "I'm not playing chase with you."

The orange Leviathan's four eyes focused on your outstretched finger. You had time to see a glint of malice flash across hus eyes, but you didn't have time to react. In the blink of an eye, the orange Leviathan had lunged toward you and leaned to the side, his wide-open mouth closing around your finger as a small cry of surprise escaped your lips. You suddenly pulled your hand back, examining your finger to make sure it was still perfectly intact. In fact, the Leviathan's bite hadn't hurt you; you hadn't even felt it. You looked up at the orange Leviathan to see that he was amused. You didn't know it was possible, but his smile seemed to widen a little more and his red eyes narrowed in mockery. 

A gentle, soft cooing sounded beside you. You turned your head to see the yellow Leviathan approaching you, leaning down to be at the same height as your hand and examining your finger in turn. After stretching out one of his fingers and touching yours to make sure you were okay, he turned to his orange-colored companion, letting a growl escape his lips, the rays around his skull slightly lowering. The yellow Leviathan's fan-shaped tail rose and waved in front of the orange one, as if to chase him away. The orange Leviathan emitted a low sound in response before blowing hundreds of small bubbles through his nostrils, which quickly rose to the surface. 

Did you just see the orange Leviathan being scolded by the yellow one ? You had a strange feeling that this was the case, and you also had the impression that the orange Leviathan had responded with a sigh, saying something like "yeah, yeah" or "I know." Despite your fright, you couldn't help but let out a small laugh. The sound seemed to draw the attention of the three Leviathans back to you, causing you to gently stifle your laughter with your saliva, intimidated by the sudden weight of all their eyes on you. The blue Leviathan moved closer to you, his long body almost wrapping around you as he stared at your face through your mask before lifting one of his fingers and pressing it curiously against the glass, his nail clicking against the window. 

"Geez... I really have to go now." You said as you heard your PDA beep again to tell you that you were running out of oxygen. 

Deciding this time not to let the three Leviathans distract you, which was difficult given that they were swimming and splashing loudly beside you, you rose to the surface, filled your oxygen tank, and then dove down and headed seriously toward the beach. The ground was becoming sandier and higher, rising more and more towards the surface, leaving no chance for marine life to thrive. Rising to the surface once again, not for air but to take in the landscape now that you were almost completely to the west of the island, you saw the beach stretching out much wider and larger than you would have imagined for such a small island. But it wasn't the beach that caught your attention. 

At the northwestern tip of the island was a structure that was neither natural nor human-made. The construction was the closest thing to a large, complex rectangle of irregular, dark metal. The structure was on the water, or perhaps even extended below it—you couldn't tell from where you were standing—but all that protruded from the surface was a kind of square base that merged with the rectangular tower. But the structure was connected to the beach by a kind of walkway, or a bridge, or a corridor. Once again, you weren't sure what this structure could be until you got closer to it. What you were sure of, however, was that you had never seen this kind of structure before, even on the different alien planets you had had the chance to visit. 

Staring at the alien structure on this small island, you began to walk along the beach. Beneath you, you could feel the sand brushing against your flippers, making you realize that you would soon be able to walk again. And as you began to place one of your feet flat on the unstable sandy ground, you felt a hand close around one of your ankles before pulling you back. You blinked, unable to resist, as you found yourself once again in the arms of one of the three Leviathans. You looked down and saw the Leviathan's white forearms with blue highlights wrapped around your waist. The yellow Leviathan stood in front of you, his expression serious, his eyebrows furrowed, letting out a series of high-pitched, almost anxious sounds. 

You blinked at their sudden reaction. Even the orange Leviathan seemed agitated, his tail whipping the water around you as he looked toward the beach. All three seemed wary of something, though you couldn't tell if it was the structure or the beach itself. For sea creatures like them, dry land could surely pose a danger, as was the case for whales, dolphins, and sharks on planet Earth, which could die of dehydration when they washed ashore. And if it was the structure that scared them, then surely you should be afraid of it too, but you couldn't just not go because of fear; you needed answers. 

Gently, you untangle the blue Leviathan's hands from your waist, kicking your feet to move away from him slightly, watching his expression change from suspicious to serious, his crescent moon-shaped tail wrapping itself around your legs. The yellow Leviathan tries to block your path when he sees you turning back toward the beach, his broad tail fanning out in front of you with small, pathetic, almost sad sounds escaping him, his pupils wide and dilated like a puppy's. And while he seemed to be trying to gently dissuade you, the orange Leviathan growled at you, baring his teeth as if frustrated that you weren't listening to them. 

It was confusing, intriguing, and comforting to see that these three creatures, these Leviathans who didn't know you, didn't know your species, except for the few interactions you had with them, were trying to protect you. For their behavior was definitely something you would describe as protective, similar to that of some marine mammals on planet Earth who teach their young not to approach certain things. This thought made you reflect a little more on its implication. The three of them had definitely established that you were different from them, enough to surely understand that you were not of their species, yet they cared enough about you to warn you of potential danger.

Perhaps, once again, you were going to compare them to cetaceans, but like adult humpback whales who, having decided to fight against the orcas that attacked their young, would place themselves between the orcas and their prey whenever they could. Or, even more similar to humans, the three had not finished studying you and had decided that they could not let anything bad happen to you until they had reached a satisfactory conclusion. You hummed for a few seconds, hoping for once that the three Leviathans were a little more animal than human. Humans had too easy a tendency toward cruelty compared to animals, who sought only to survive.

"Guys... It's strangely kind of you to worry about me, but I have to go see what's on this island and what exactly this structure is." You declared, patting the blue Leviathan's tail to try to get it to move. 

A mixture of growls, chirps, and other sounds echoed in your ears in response. You realized that discussion would not work, as neither side could understand the other's language, so you decided to take physical action, hoping that they would not try to hold you back again. Kicking your legs and pushing with your arms, you managed to free yourself from the blue Leviathan's tail, moving quickly toward the beach to stand up with difficulty with your fins on your feet on the unstable ground and pull your body out of the water up to about your elbows. You hear a series of noises echoing in the water around you, prompting you to walk a little faster to get out of the water despite the difficulty. You find yourself on the beach with only your feet still equipped with fins in the water when you turn around.

The three Leviathans were standing there, partially lying on the beach with their long tails still below the surface of the water, which they were disturbing with their movements. Their torsos were out of the water from the waist up as they leaned on their hands, their claws digging into the wet, soft ground at the edge of the beach. You hummed as you realized that they had approached the beach and seemed to have experience in how and how far they could safely advance onto the beach. "So it's the structure they're wary of." you thought, letting your eyes rest on the alien construction. You took another small step back, trying not to trip over the flippers, coming completely out of the water, and you heard a series of high-pitched exclamations.

You turned your head back toward the Leviathans, who had begun to wave their tails vehemently, seawater splashing everywhere each time their fins struck the surface of the water. All their eyes were fixed on your legs, expressions of surprise and shock on their relatively flat faces, the ruffles of membranes around their faces, especially those around the orange and yellow ones, fluttering limply. Your first thought was to wonder why they were surprised, as they had already seen you walking around your base, and the orange one had even seen you climbing a ladder when you tried to escape from him. But then again, they probably didn't know that there was no water inside your base, and the orange one might have been too happy to have something to chase to think about it. 

Letting out a small laugh, you began to take a few small steps to show them your ability to walk out of the water, something you were naturally capable of, but you almost tripped over the enormous flippers attached to your feet. With a small grunt, you sat down on the sandy ground, your movement drawing a new series of curious looks from the three Leviathans less than a meter away from you. Pulling your legs up toward you, you detached the flippers from your feet before placing them next to you on the beach and looking up at the three Leviathans. The three began to communicate, exchanging glances between each other and between your now bare feet and the diving fins.

The dark orange Leviathan, after communicating fairly calmly with his two companions, froze and let a growl escape his lips as you saw his clawed hands close around the sand before his eyes returned to your face. It seemed to you that he suddenly remembered that you had kicked him squarely in the face. In his ink-red eyes, you could see a touch of anger but also malice, as if he were already planning to torment you in revenge. Frowning, you stood up, using your hands to brush the sand off your wet wetsuit, and pointed your index finger at the orange Leviathan again, not afraid this time that he would try to bite you since you were far away from him.

"Hey, I only hit you in the snout in self-defense. If you hadn't scared me and chased me, it wouldn't have happened. Besides, you deserved it, you jerk." You declared. 

The orange Leviathan growled softly, snapping his teeth at your finger as his tail thrashed in annoyance at not being able to bite you. The other two Leviathans turned to him to say something. The blue one, who was closest to the orange one, being positioned in the middle, let out a sound that resembled something close to a snicker, a mocking smile on his lips as his eyes shifted from your silhouette to that of the orange Leviathan. The latter let out a vicious growl, the ruff around his face trying unsuccessfully to spread out as he lay down a little closer to the ground like an animal ready to pounce. The grayish-white creature glared at the other, and you thought the two were about to fight again before the yellow Leviathan intervened, emitting a series of annoyed clicks. 

You let out a small, amused sigh, your hand rising with the intention of pinching the bridge of your nose, but your fingers bumped against the visor of your oxygen mask, a small "oh" escaping your lips. Now that you were out of the water and could breathe, you clearly no longer needed your mask to breathe, so you decided to remove it. Lifting one of your hands, you slid your fingers under the mask on one side before pulling it up, forcing the mask to come away from your skin. The mask resisted a little, but you managed to pull it over your face, a few strands of your wet hair catching on the strap behind your head before finally letting you feel the outside air against your skin. You breathed a sigh of relief, your free hand sliding into your wet hair to push it back and clear it from your face. 

A cacophony of chirping, twittering, and splashing suddenly filled the air, the sudden noises after a few seconds of silence almost making you jump as your face turned abruptly toward the three Leviathans to see what had gotten into them. You were greeted by six pairs of eyes staring at your face with an intensity that sent shivers down your spine beneath your diving suit. It was another detail you had forgotten: the three creatures had never seen you without your mask, so it must have been completely disturbing and shocking for them to see you peel off your mask as if it were old skin you were tearing off. They had probably never seen and certainly didn't understand the concept of clothing, given that they were completely naked and had no need for clothes. 

The yellow Leviathan let out a series of high-pitched squeaks before pulling himself a little further up the beach with his forearms, his tail raised high out of the water like a curious dog. You then saw him reach one of his hands toward you, more precisely toward your face, while supporting himself with the other, his pupils dilated with curiosity. The message was clear : he wanted to examine your face as he had done with your hands and almost the rest of your body. You let a nervous little smile appear on your lips before taking another small step back, away from the beach and the three curious Leviathans, whose eyes were fixed on your face. 

"Ah ah ah... I'll be happy to let you pinch and poke my cheeks later. Right now, I really want to go see what's inside that alien structure before nightfall." You said to the Leviathans with a small smile and small hand gestures to accompany your statement. 

A chorus of different sounds echoed behind you as you turned your back to walk a little further down the beach, a mixture of what was probably concern, warning, and frustration. Strangely, it wasn't very difficult for you to tell which of the Leviathans felt what about your decision to leave them like that. Grabbing your flippers with one hand, you walked a little further along the beach before finding a fairly prominent rock next to which stood a strange little tree that looked like a strange mix between a palm tree and bamboo. The upper part consisted of fairly long, thick stems ending in long, broad leaves with blue highlights, and the lower part resembling a large sweet potato. There were holes in the lower part of this plant, from which a clear liquid similar to water was escaping. 

Putting your fins, mask, and Seaglide, which you probably wouldn't need, next to the rock and the tree, you took out your scanner and began to analyze the plant. Far away on the beach, you could still hear the Leviathans communicating with each other and even with you, who was still in their field of vision, but you decided to ignore them. The scan results brought your attention back to your PDA, on which information immediately appeared. Quickly reading the information the PDA provided about Bulbo Trees, you were surprised to learn that this plant was currently edible and digestible by your human body. The idea of being able to eat something other than alien fish and nutrition bars made you immediately take out your knife. 

Crouching down next to the bulb, which you thought was the most edible part, you cut off a piece of flesh from it, watching the same liquid that had been seeping from the small holes at the base of the tree, which was now water oozing from the wound you had just inflicted on it. The piece of Bulbo Tree had a peculiar texture, like polystyrene, light with a grainy appearance, and the color was similar to the inside of an apple or pear. As for the smell, it was quite exotic, reminding you a little of pineapple but with something different. Despite the fact that the PDA, which had never been wrong before, told you that the plant was edible, you didn't bite straight into the piece you had just cut off, preferring to lick a small piece of the bulb before taking a small bite. 

The Bulbo Tree bulb tasted similar to its smell, and you didn't dislike it. On the contrary. You had already eaten half the piece of bulb before you even realized it, your taste buds suddenly awakening after weeks of eating only salted fish or tasteless bars. Although you would have liked to linger and eat an entire Bulbo Tree, you decided to move on, but not without taking the time to cut a stem and a leaf from this alien tree to test their taste and see if there was a difference. You were a little surprised that there was. While the bulb part had a more fruity and sweet taste, the leaves reminded you of lettuce, which was a pleasant change but would taste better with a little vinegar, while the stem tasted like a cross between asparagus, palm heart, and bamboo. 

Chewing on the Bulbo Tree stem, you continued walking along the beach, letting your eyes wander here and there in search of... you weren't sure what. A noise to your left made you turn your head, and you saw in the waters near the beach that the three Leviathans had followed you, staying in the water, their tails or heads occasionally appearing above the surface. You rolled your eyes, a sound between a sigh and a laugh escaping your lips. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a strange shape on the beach near a rock, which itself was close to the alien structure. You approached it, took out your scanner, and ran an analysis on the object. It was a kind of pyramid engraved on the side with various symbols, or perhaps writing. Its top was cut off, leaving only a strange little phosphorescent green square. The PDA then informed you that the technology was alien and unknown in the database, but according to calculations, this relatively small structure served as a street lamp.

Stopping at the alien lamppost, you crouched down to examine it, placing your hand on it before letting a small expression of surprise appear on your lips as you felt a sensation like static electricity. Standing up, you saw two paths opening up before you, two possibilities for exploration. The first, to your left, continued along the beach, and just a few meters away, close to the water, was a huge angular arch-shaped opening that led into the interior of the immense alien structure. To your right, a narrow, slightly steep but passable path climbed up the mountainside, winding around and disappearing behind the mountain, leaving you unable to see where it led. 

You were as eager to find out where the path led as you were to dive into this strange alien structure, but since the structure remained your priority, you decided to stay on the beach, much to the delight of the Leviathans, who continued to make noise. However, their chirping suddenly seemed more urgent. You looked up in their direction and saw them fluttering about, hitting the surface of the water with their tails while keeping their faces fixed in your direction. You didn't understand why they were suddenly so agitated until you heard a strange noise not far from you. You barely had time to turn your head before you saw something jump on you. Numb after spending so long in the water, you had trouble dodging the creature that was attacking you. 

You let out a cry of pain as you felt something cut your skin on the outside of one of your thighs. Whistling in pain, you turned around to see that the alien that had attacked you looked like some kind of arthropod, a deformed and rather enormous insect. The alien had a round, flat body, and on top of its body was a huge eye, a slightly shiny blue circle pierced by a large black pupil. It also had four segmented legs like a crab at each corner of its body. Then, on the front of its body, which must have served as its head, was a mouth with mandibles, which was surely what it had used to cut you. 

As the mutant crab prepared to attack again, you noticed that its eye wasn't moving, making you wonder if it was really an eye or just a pattern that allowed it to scare off predators. A mixture of adrenaline and fear spread through your veins as the alien jumped at you again, its mandibles open to bite you once more. This time, however, you managed to dodge its new attack, your hand instinctively grabbing your small survival knife to defend yourself. And as you watched the crab make very aggressive sounds, you felt a little anger rising in your veins along with the adrenaline. On this cursed planet, even the crabs were aggressive, and even though it was smaller than you, the salty creature saw you as a source of food. 

Deciding not to give the creature time to attack you again, you lifted one of your bare feet and slammed it down on one of the alien crab's frail little legs to pin it to the ground. The arthropod let out a small cry, but before it had time to bite you, you pounced on it, your hand raising your knife high before plunging it into the middle of its body and the strange eye that the crab had on its back. The creature's angry cry turned into a gurgle of agony before it finally fell silent. You took a deep breath that made your body tremble before sighing and removing your foot from the dead crab's leg. Your knife was still stuck in the crab's body, so you retrieved it, confirming that its eye-like feature had a texture similar to that of a shell and was not an eye. 

You lifted your knife, seeing green and yellowish blood dripping from it. Shaking your knife to clean it, you put it back in your waistband before focusing on your wound. The alien crab's mandibles had cut through your diving suit and the flesh underneath. It wasn't a deep wound, nor was it very serious, but the cut in your thigh was quite long, about seven or eight centimeters long and a few millimeters deep. Your own deep red blood began to flow from the wound, soaking into and disappearing against your diving suit. Grabbing your PDA, you checked your vital signs and found that your life level had decreased by 5%. It wasn't much, you reassured yourself as you put your PDA away. 

You could have used a first aid kit, but that would have wasted time, and if you were attacked again afterwards, you would have wasted a treatment on a wound that wasn't that serious. Well, the wound burned every time you moved, and salt water was still dripping from your wet suit, but it was nothing. You had your arm almost torn off by a Stalker and you almost ended up in the belly of a jawed Leviathan, so a cut wasn't the worst thing that had happened to you since you arrived on this planet. What's more, the sense of satisfaction you felt at having managed to defend yourself and prove that you weren't just prey made you forget the pain.

Going to retrieve your scanner, which you had dropped during the altercation, you return to the alien crab's corpse and scan it to find out its name and some other additional information. Cave Crawlers were definitely a type of parasite that usually lived in caves, which made you realize that there must be one or more caves on this small island. You were surprised to find that, according to the PDA, the Cave Crawler was edible. Your face turned toward the dead Cave Crawler, your eyes sparkling at the thought of eating something other than grilled fish. Maybe if it looked like a crab, it tasted like one too ? You probably couldn't salvage all of the Cave Crawler since you had killed it rather messily, but at least you could salvage some of its flesh.

Returning to the body of the alien crab, you bent down and retrieved your knife, which you had put away and cleaned unnecessarily. You cut off one of the Cave Crawler's legs, noticing that, like real crabs, there was a good amount of meat in the leg. You then used the pommel of your knife to crack the Cave Crawler's shell and expose the meat underneath. You weren't disgusted by the sight of the entrails and other organs protected by the flesh and meat of the alien crab. As a scientist, you had had to cut up and dissect creatures and other animals more than once for analysis. However, you made it a point of honor never to do this kind of thing to animals that had been killed solely for the purpose of analysis. No, you were a scientist, but you had ethics and a conscience. You took samples and performed dissections on animals and creatures that had died of natural or mysterious causes, sometimes due to new viruses or other bacterial infections. 

"I don't like violence. But you didn't give me a choice. You tried to eat me, and now I'm going to eat you..." You said as you cut off a large piece of Cave Crawler flesh and put it in one of your pockets along with the leg. 

And as your words echoed in your own ears, you stopped, one of your hands rising to your face before you stopped when you saw the blood on it. You were losing your mind. Two months on this planet and you were already talking to the corpse of an alien crab. Worse still, you were so desperate to eat anything other than fish that you were going to try to eat something that had itself tried to devour you. Suddenly, a mixture of high-pitched screams and chirps echoed around you. You turned toward the sea to find that the three Leviathans were there, their round eyes of various colors fixed on you.

"Yeah. You're right, I'm not talking to myself. You're here. But you don't understand anything... Well. It's better than nothing."

You looked at the rest of the Cave Crawler lying next to you, your eyes moving from the corpse to the three Leviathans. You could see their large predatory eyes contract at the sight of the carcass, a strange expression crossing their faces. Now that you thought about it, you understood that they had tried to warn you about the Cave Crawler's attack, and realizing this, you felt a sense of gratitude wash over you. Once again, these alien creatures who didn't know you and had no reason to help you had tried to warn you, just as they had done before at the beach and the alien structure. 

"Well... I have to thank you three again. Maybe I would have had more than just a cut if you hadn't been there." You said, waving your hand in their direction.

They responded with a bunch of sounds, and you nodded as if you understood, imagining what they might be saying to you. The yellowest and happiest of the three was surely saying, "You're welcome." The blue one seemed to be saying, "You should be more careful." As for the orange one, his proud smile conveyed something like, "I'm the only one who has the right to eat you." You chuckled to yourself at this idea, and even if he really thought that, you were going to have to find a way to thank all three of them. Your eyes returned to the alien crab as you wondered what the three Leviathans could possibly eat. Considering their teeth, you knew they didn't eat algae or plankton. They probably ate fish, and given their size, they must have eaten a lot of Peepers or maybe even Stalkers.

"Hey... Can you eat this if I give it to you?"

Your voice rose, mingling with the sound of the waves and the cries of the alien birds flying all around. Knowing you wouldn't get a clear verbal answer, you grabbed two of the Cave Crawler's legs and pulled it a little closer to the water and to where the three Leviathans were half-submerged in the salt water. Deciding not to get too close to the water yourself, as you didn't want them to take you prisoner for their curious examination, you pushed the alien crab's body towards them, onto the beach but close enough to the water for them to reach it, waiting to see their reaction. You wondered if, like some animals, they had a hierarchy that dictated who ate first and who waited until last. 

The orange-est of the bunch looked at you, then at the Cave Crawlers, his pupils dilating as he moved forward on the beach and a little further out of the water. Leaning on both hands, he bent over the carcass and began to sniff it carefully, the rays around his face lifting softly before falling back against the back of hus skull with a small "plop." The other two Leviathans did the same, almost climbing and pressing themselves against the orange Leviathan, which growled and sighed, before beginning to sniff the carcass carefully, small chirps and other sounds of communication escaping them. You hummed softly, frowning slightly, a small expression forming on your face. 

"Was it a good idea to give you this... Maybe you can't eat it ? I don't want to poison you or anything. Or even I don't want you to think I'm trying to poison you..." You muttered as you continued to watch them analyze the Cave Crawler. 

But as if to contradict you and reassure you, the blue Leviathan leaned over, opening his mouth wide and closing it on part of the Cave Crawler's body, his jaws also grabbing some sand. There were several cracks as its teeth pierced and broke the alien crab's shell easily. You saw it eat and chew the piece of Cave Crawler before swallowing everything, including the sand. The yellow Leviathan let out what sounded like a growl of disagreement as it struck the water with his tail in the direction of the blue Leviathan. The orange one was the second to crunch into the Cave Crawler before lifting the remaining pieces with a clawed hand and giving them to the yellow Leviathan, who retreated a little further into the water, plunging the rest into the salt water as if to clean it of the sand that had inevitably covered the carcass before taking a single bite. 

You had to admit that you hadn't expected that. The Cave Crawler was quite large, not huge, but it was compared to normal crabs, but that was just your opinion. However, for the Leviathans, the Cave Crawler probably didn't even represent a quarter of the amount of food they needed to consume to keep such large and imposing organisms functioning. You would have thought that one of them would have eaten the Cave Crawler alone and in its entirety, but no, they shared it equally so that everyone got to eat, even if only a tiny bit. This new information only added another layer to their intelligence; they did not operate with a hierarchical survival mode, but rather an equitable one. 

A curious little cry brought you out of your thoughts to see that the blue Leviathan's eyes were fixed on your wounded hip, his eyes staring at the blood staining your skin as he sniffed the air, his pointed tongue almost licking the air like a snake. A small shiver ran down your spine as the thought that the smell of your blood might make them hungry crossed your mind. You instinctively took a small step back. If they hadn't eaten you by now, you weren't going to let your wound and your blood tempt them to do so. So you decided to move a little further down the beach, not only out of fear, but also because you had lost a little more time with this attack by the Cave Crawler and these strange Leviathans. 

Heading back towards the entrance arch of this alien structure, you stopped there. The interior seemed to be a long, dark corridor leading off to the left, but before venturing inside, your attention was drawn to a kind of large block made of the same metal as the alien structure, located to the right of the entrance. Everything that seemed to have been built by these mysterious aliens had rules and small green lights. As you approached, the block suddenly opened, the panels separating to reveal a kind of bright purple-pink symbol. Reaching out, you traced the shape of the symbol with your fingers, wondering if it meant anything in this alien language. That's when you felt small ridges under your fingers all around the symbol. Curious, you pressed on them and felt the purple symbol lift up, allowing you to see that it was not engraved in the structure itself but in a kind of stone tablet carved and cut into a very strange and peculiar shape. 

An electrical noise then rang out, causing you to look up from the tablet you had grabbed with both hands to see that the entrance to the alien ark had suddenly been blocked by a kind of glowing green electric force field. As confusion overwhelmed you, you placed the tablet against the block to get closer to where you had wanted to enter. You reached out and placed your hand against the force field, realizing that this intangible barrier was as solid as a real wall. You tried pushing against the force field with varying degrees of force, even trying with one of your shoulders, but nothing moved. You couldn't understand why you were suddenly denied entry when you hadn't been a few seconds earlier. Your eyes fell on the strange panel, which had closed when you moved away from it, now located a little further away, more precisely on the purple tablet you had grabbed. 

Returning to the security panel, you lifted the tablet and placed it back on the block, inserting it into the slot that perfectly accommodated its shape and thickness. There was a small humming noise, then as suddenly as it had appeared, the force field evaporated, leaving no trace of its previous presence. Returning to the arch, you reached out your hand, this time your fingers meeting no resistance as your arm found itself inside the alien structure. Taking a step forward, you now found yourself inside the structure, your mind conjuring up the possibility that the purple tablet must surely serve as a key and that the block engraved on the outside served as a lock. 

A small shiver ran down your spine. It seemed strange to you that someone, whoever or whatever they were, would leave their "home" open with the key still in the lock. This thought made you wonder if this structure was home to living creatures, the same ones who had perhaps built this gigantic building. If there really was someone there, how could you know if they were friendly or not? Since your arrival on this planet, you had only encountered things that tried to kill or eat you, with the exception of the three Leviathans outside, but you still didn't know what to think of them, and the orange one was suspicious. So you preferred to tell yourself that if there was someone there right now, they would certainly not be an ally.

And as you cautiously began to venture into this building, completely alien and unknown to you, you heard the three Leviathans once again begin to emit a series of high-pitched cries. You looked up at them, meeting their colorful eyes before smiling and waving at them, watching their round eyes stare at you until you disappeared between the dark metal walls speckled with green. The interior of this structure was just as strange and complex as the exterior. To your left, a corridor stretched out, ending in a door frame with an upside-down keyhole shape. Near the entrance arch was the same security panel as outside, but this one did not appear to be active. 

The walls were all the same color, a dark gray with green reflections caused by lights of the same color. But here there were no light bulbs or neon lights; instead, the lights were embedded in the wall, thin strips of light, simple lines that were distributed everywhere, along the contours of the floor and ceiling or against the geometric protrusions on the walls. The light emitted was dim but just enough to perfectly illuminate the path and make you understand the complexity of the place you had just entered. On the floor and engraved in the walls were abstract patterns, but always with straight, geometric, rectangular contours, resembling the view a bird might have when looking at a maze from above.

Near the entrance, you approached one of the walls and placed one of your hands on it, tracing one of its strange engravings with your fingertips, which was definitely more decorative than utilitarian. Beneath your gloved fingers, you could feel the same strange vibration, that distant sensation of electrostaticity that meant this place was powered by an energy that was completely unknown. Taking out your scanner, you began to analyze all the walls and everything you could in what was clearly an entrance hall. The PDA told you nothing new, informing you that it was a structure made of alien metal and that it had no further information on the subject.

This corridor, devoid of any useful information, was quickly abandoned as you headed towards the archway that led into the depths of the building. Your bare feet made no sound, the cold metal contrasting sharply with the warm sand you had been walking on just seconds before. Trying to remain silent, you couldn't stop a small exclamation of surprise from escaping your lips when you arrived in the next room, which seemed to be another corridor but much more complex. You hid behind a wall that blocked the view and lingered there for a few seconds to make sure there was nothing else alive in the room but you before moving forward. Once again, the room had the same design, except this time there were pillars and columns here and there, framing a raised block in the middle. 

You couldn't see the purpose of this architectural feature, and the PDA was as confused as you were, as it had nothing more to say for the moment. Continuing cautiously, with a mixture of fear and curiosity twisting your stomach, you climbed a small ramp that led to the back of this room, and after passing another imposing structural block, you arrived in front of what you could consider a new room. Directly in front of you was a kind of pedestal, highlighted because it was isolated from the rest by a pillar frame and small ledges that formed a raised platform. On either side of this platform were two long ramps that descended to the lower part of the room and seemed to extend below the platform housing the pedestal.

As this strange structure seemed to be highlighted, you approached it, thinking that you might be able to glean some information from it. With each step you took toward this part of the structure, you could hear a kind of buzzing sound, but the sound was not regular; you could hear pauses and variations in volume. But despite the fact that this "pedestal" had a kind of keyboard, you found nothing useful and didn't dare touch the keyboard for fear of triggering or activating things you wouldn't be able to control. Keeping your scanner in your hand, you were still able to run an analysis of this alien device. With a small "beep," the PDA announced that what you had taken for a pedestal was in fact a data terminal. 

You could have been happy about it if the PDA hadn't told you that this database only worked with a strange radio signal that the PDA was unable to translate. According to your little device, the aliens who built this place had evolved to be able to hear the data, a feat that required this mysterious species to have evolved psychologically to a level far superior to that of humans. This idea sent a chill down your spine. With such a high level of intelligence and technology, what could the aliens have created ? Why did they build this base on this planet ? Why did the PDA know nothing about this mysterious civilization that was supposedly so advanced ? And above all, how was it that you had not yet encountered any of these so-called aliens ? 

Biting your lower lip, you forced yourself to let go, sighed, and turned away from the data terminal that had only brought you more questions than answers. So you descended the ramps that led deeper and deeper into and beneath the alien building. For what seemed like several long minutes, you walked through rooms and corridors. The architecture was the same everywhere, a mixture of pillars, ramps, and alcoves, with technological blocks here and there, but there was almost nothing else. It was horribly empty of anything that could help you or inform you about what was happening on this planet and what this structure meant. However, you finally found another data terminal, and unlike the first one, this one gave you more information about the alien structure you were in. 

Thanks to the PDA, you learned that this structure was called the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. The PDA detailed various points about this platform and how it worked, including the construction materials that were alien to this planet, the energy that powered the entire structure and came from a thermal source somewhere else on the planet. There was then a vague description of the layout of the Quarantine Platform, which had an upper and lower section, and you were in the upper section, which normally included an elevator, which you had not yet found, as it was blocked by a security system. You assumed that the security system was the purple tablet that served as a key. This brief but useful summary of the labyrinth told you that there was a moonpool somewhere on this platform, indicating aquatic access to it. 

But the detail that intrigued you the most and gave you a search objective was the mysterious control panel located in the lower part of the platform. Continuing your exploration, you entered a new small corridor near the data terminal, but it ended in a dead end and a gaping hole that sank into the depths of the platform. Looking at the walls, you searched for something that resembled an elevator switch, but you found nothing of the sort, only the same engravings that were everywhere else. Moving closer to the edge, you leaned over slightly to try to see something. That's when you felt a slight tingling sensation on your skin, the same feeling as static electricity, but stronger. Looking closely, you saw lots of tiny green particles floating, rising and falling lazily in the void. Reaching out your hand, you felt that tingling sensation again, but this time it was accompanied by the floating sensation you felt when the artificial gravity systems were not activated inside special ships.

The word "quarantine" made you frown. What kind of virus could possibly warrant an entire platform dedicated to enforcing quarantine ? You could feel your mouth go dry at the implication, but you reassured yourself that if this place was so deserted and inactive, it was surely because it was no longer needed. 

With a touch of anxiety and doubt, you stepped one foot into the void, feeling that sensation of weightlessness take hold of your entire body as you placed your second foot into the void. You felt your whole body begin to float, a small cry of surprise escaping your lips as you suddenly felt yourself descending. The ground slowly approached and you touched it gently with both feet. You couldn't help but smile, letting out a small laugh of amusement and admiration at this mysterious alien technology that had taken hold of you. If these aliens were friendly, if they were still there, it would be extraordinary to be able to work and exchange ideas with them about their technology and scientific advances. 

In front of you now stretched a new corridor that opened up, as you saw, onto a gigantic room, much larger than all the previous ones, and above all, where a moonpool had been installed. The moonpool here was a huge rectangle approximately 50 meters long and 30 meters deep, filled with water that came directly from outside through a rectangular opening. You approached the water, looking into the large pool to see the same kind of architecture but nothing else; the pool was completely empty. Your gaze turned towards the opening that led to the ocean of this planet. You were only a few dozen meters below the surface, 92 meters to be precise, but the water seemed dark and opaque, full of danger. 

Shivering slightly, you moved away from the water, not wanting to be too close to it, not knowing what kind of creatures, or ships, might need a moonpool as large as this one to enter the Quarantine Platform. To the right of where you had exited, on the perpendicular wall, was another archway that led further into the structure. Following the path that seemed to be clearly marked, you arrived in the second largest and highest room on this platform. This room was a complex mixture of landings and ramps that led to the top of the structure and seemed to continue through a door at the far end of the room. 

Once again, you were surprised at how empty the place was. You even began to wonder if the aliens who had built this place had all left after probably curing this mysterious virus. Entering the Ramp Hallway, your gaze was immediately drawn to a strange structure where there was the same kind of force field as at the entrance. Mounted between two large blocks of alien metal, like in a museum display case, was a kind of pistol with a completely alien curve and barrel. Impressed, you began to reach for this weapon, which could surely prove useful, but as with the previous force field, your hand collided with a solid wall. And unlike the entrance arch, where the strange purple tablet had served as a key, here there was no sign that you could deactivate the protection surrounding this weapon. 

Sighing with annoyance and despair, you took your scanner from your belt and launched an analysis of the Alien Rifle. The PDA only confirmed what you had already guessed: that the weapon could be used by humans, a sign that the aliens who built it were humanoid or worked with humanoids, but were not the same as those who built this quarantine platform, as the design was too different. The weapon was used to defend the platform, but it was impossible for you to retrieve it. With a small, annoyed click of your tongue, you turned on your heel, exploring the lower floor of this area first. You found a new door but decided to explore it after examining the hall. 

At the other end of the room, in a small, somewhat dark corner, was another display case. Like the first one, it contained an alien object. This one was a kind of three-dimensional diamond shape with cut corners. Dark red, shifting triangles, as if lava were behind them, decorated all sides. As you approached close enough to touch the protective field, the different parts of this strange device suddenly opened, startling you as it revealed a kind of energy core, a bright blue ball that moved and trembled, causing the different parts of the device to move as it hovered in midair. You could also hear a high-pitched whistling sound. You then assumed that it might be another kind of data terminal. 

Lifting your PDA to see what it might tell you, you analyzed the small device, and your PDA almost slipped from your fingers and crashed to the ground as you assimilated the information provided. The Doomsday Device, which seemed harmless at first glance, was a weapon of mass destruction capable of destroying the entire planet 4546B and most of the solar system where the planet was located with the energy it contained. You immediately took several steps back, watching the small device close immediately with a small click, sealing its energy core once again. According to the PDA, the Doomsday Device had malfunctioned, and the years spent locked away had only degraded it further, but you didn't want to risk activating the device by accident. Perhaps its power was no longer at its maximum, but you had no doubt that it could still cause damage. 

Moving away from the display window and looking over your shoulder as if the Doomsday Device might activate at any moment, you decided to explore the room behind the door you had found earlier. After a short zigzag corridor, you finally came face to face with a huge Alien Ark. And it wasn't used as a door; no, the Ark was in the middle of this empty room. There was nothing else but this metal structure, as well as a few cube-shaped protrusions on either side of the Ark, which formed a kind of aisle leading to it. Like everything else in this Quarantine Platform that you could analyze, you scanned the Arch. Your PDA told you that it didn't know what the Arch was for, listing a series of possibilities. You walked around the structure, observing it from every angle, but you couldn't find any way to activate the Arch. However, you had a feeling that it was a portrait. 

Unable to do anything else, you turned on your heel and abandoned the arch, which you couldn't do anything with, as you began to climb the various ramps leading to the upper floor. You took the time to look carefully at each new landing, searching for other possible alien artifacts, but apart from the two weapons you had found, there was nothing else. When you reached the top, you found yourself facing the door you had seen from the lower floors. Right next to the small archway that led to what you thought was definitely the last room in this alien structure was the same kind of control panel. As you approached, the panel opened to reveal another purple tablet. But you didn't touch it this time, thinking that, as with the entrance to the Quarantine Platform, if you removed it, an electromagnetic field would block this very last room. 

This room consisted of a long corridor framed on each side by three large metal pillars, with lights embedded in the walls and ceiling that seemed to be directed towards the far end of the room. Cautiously and silently, you made your way along this alien corridor. The air seemed heavier in this room, and there was something very solemn about this place. At the very end, placed on a small raised platform, was what looked like a new protective glass panel, but behind it there were no weapons or objects, just a kind of very large beam of light that glowed the same green color that illuminated the entire Quarantine Enforcement Platform and was surely the energy that powered this place.

And right in front of this source of pure energy was a new structural block, similar to those at the entrance to the Quarantine Platform and in front of it, but much smaller, much thinner, and slightly taller, reaching just above your height. As you approached, you were not surprised when the small device opened, two plates above it separating as a new piece of the pillar moved aside to reveal a small red circle, below which was a large square of the same color. You couldn't help but tilt your head, finding the red strange here since everything else seemed to be phosphorescent green. 

You began by visually examining this strange device, trying to understand what it might be used for without touching it yet. According to the PDA, this room was a control room, but what could it possibly control ? After walking around the small device, approaching the source behind it to examine it and feeling a slight warmth emanating from it, you returned to the control panel. You hesitantly reached out, pressing the small red circle with your eyes closed, but nothing happened. You could just feel that this strange circle didn't seem to be part of the structure itself but was embedded inside it. Perhaps it was some kind of key, and to remove it you had to press the square-shaped button. 

So that's what you did. You pressed the red square, and immediately, on either side of your hand, two bars slightly curved inward lifted up, and a force field activated around your hand, suddenly locking it in place. Frightened, you tried to pull back, but it was physically impossible for you to do so. And your panic only grew when you suddenly saw the red circle come out of its place, extending like a mechanical arm. Like an evil eye at the end of a metal tentacle, the device seemed to analyze you for a few seconds as you stopped struggling, intrigued by this thing. But suddenly, a long, thin needle emerged from the middle of the red circle. Your face paled as you didn't even have time to think about trying to break free again before the needle pierced your arm. 

You let out a small cry of pain and surprise, watching the mechanical eye disappear back into its socket as the force field deactivated, releasing your hand as the two bars generating the force field sank back down. You stumbled back slightly, the entire device retracting with a mechanical hiss. There were a few seconds before a low, rather disturbing sound rang out, reminding you of the kind of noise you heard when you lost at a video game. There were several long seconds before the voice of your PDA rose, disturbing the deathly silence only to tell you something much more frightening: 

«The control panel is broadcasting a message. Translation reads... WARNING: Infected individuals may not disable the enforcement system. This planet is under quarantine.»

For a few seconds, you remained frozen, struggling to understand what was happening and what the control panel was saying, then when your scientific mind finally took over, you took out your scanner and performed a self-scan, watching the circle indicating the analysis level slowly fill up before the small completion notification sounded and the PDA spoke again to once more give you bad news. 

«Performing self-scan. Detecting statistically significant bacteria levels. No adverse effects detected. Be vigilant for symptoms.»

You felt your legs tremble slightly beneath you, threatening to give way, forcing you to gently slide to the floor, your back pressing against the control panel as you raised your hands to your face. The wheels of your mind were turning and locking up as you tried to figure out when you could have been infected by bacteria. You wondered if it was because you had eaten infected fish or because you had been bitten by Stalker. But then you thought back to the first self-scan you had done and how it had already informed you of the presence of alien bacteria. So that meant you had been infected in the first few days, maybe even the first few hours after your arrival on this planet. As soon as you came into contact with water. Your scientific mind whispered, reminding you that water was one of the favorite places for bacteria to grow. 

"Fuck." You muttered, feeling the need to express your distress. 

«Translating background broadcast. Downloading summary to databank.»

The PDA decided to interrupt your train of thought, but you had a feeling that it wasn't necessarily a good thing to receive data after learning that you were stuck on a quarantined planet where there was an unknown and extremely contagious bacterium. Sighing, you grabbed your PDA and watched as small notifications appeared. The first new entry concerned the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. The data about the facility was now more precise, informing you that the platform housed a 100MT nuclear detonation. A power that could be channeled and used to destroy ships orbiting planet 4546B. This new information made you understand why the Aurora had crashed and why the Sunbeam had been destroyed. The ships had been shot down by the Quarantine Enforcement Platform, for fear that the ships would get too close to the planet and spread the bacteria. 

It was stupid. The aliens who had built all this, weapons of destruction capable of shooting down ships on the other side of the planet, capable of building bombs capable of destroying almost an entire solar system, but they were unable to install radio systems to warn those approaching the solar system. Especially since you were sure that scientists would have volunteered, at the cost of risking their lives, some were like that, to come and explore this planet and find a cure for this unknown virus. It was so paradoxical to you. Maybe they didn't want to worry the rest of the universe, but turning this planet into a no man's land clearly didn't seem like the best solution, especially since the virus was clearly still there. 

Pushing aside the information you had obtained about the Quarantine Enforcement Platform, you opened the other data set, which was much more substantial. In fact, this data contained information about other alien facilities. A Disease Research Facility located 800 meters below the surface, and a Thermal Power Facility located more than 1,200 meters below the surface. Both were currently inaccessible to you because the deeper you dived, the less effective your oxygen became and the more you had to consume just to stay alive. You had managed to dive below 200 meters a few times, but you clearly couldn't stay there for long without fear of suffocation.

So for the moment, these two places were completely out of reach, at least until you could build a Seamoth or another module that would allow you to come up from time to time to refill your oxygen supply or dive deeper. You were almost certain you had seen the blueprint for a Rebreather somewhere in your PDA, but you had never built it because you didn't really have any use for it since you had been confined to the surface all this time. However, as the days passed, you realized that you would have to dive into the depths of this planet to survive and, above all, to learn more and discover a cure for the infamous Kharaa Bacterium.