Sadly, he shut the capsule door again. He went from pod to pod opening them, but his friends were all long gone, save for the other man whose capsule had not malfunctioned.
After the initial shock wore off the silence was broken once more by a human voice. It was the one who spoke first, who now regretted his choice of words.
“So that’s it then. Seems like only yesterday we were climbing into our chambers to sleep and embarking on our first trip to the home world of Earth,” he addressed his brother solemnly. “Nothing we can do now except move on.” The appearance of the brothers would betray no deep feelings of loss. A naive observer might comment that living in space for one’s whole life makes one cold. However, deep down inside they were torn up. They had learned how to control their emotions a long time ago. Unrestrained emotions in space could be quite deadly, not only to the individual but to the whole crew.
“Mark, inventory and gather what supplies we have. I shall determine what happened, and try to get help,” the ruddy-eyed man directed. His brother nodded and left the room to roam the ship for items of utility, leaving the other to investigate and to put out a call for help.
The panel showed that the main computer was destroyed, however a log had been made in the system of past events of the disastrous voyage. From what the log contained, he was able to piece together a rough idea of what had transpired to land them on this rocky gray world. Unluckily for them, the ship was so broken that no signal could be sent. He walked to a porthole and looked outside. The terrain seemed familiar, like a world he had seen somewhere before, but he could not remember it. Then he thought of the ship, and realized that he could no longer remember its name. He realized there were significant holes in his memory. Most likely due to being frozen for however long, he though. Upon the horizon he glimpsed a low rising structure that appeared manmade.
“Max!” Mark’s voice shouted as he hurried into the chamber, “the airlocks are all buried under solid rock and completely damaged beyond all repair, we’ll never be able to open them. Most of the supplies are trashed except for a few space suits, some cutting tools, and a very small amount of food.”
“We’ll have to cut our way out then, and try to reach that building on the horizon. Maybe they can help us,” replied Max, as he pointed out the structure in the distance.
“There’s something else too,” Mark explained, “I can’t seem to remember quite a bit, such as the name of this ship, or even what type it is. What have you been able to discover?”