Chapter
One
N oelle jolted awake with a gasp, looking around the escape pod in a confused panic. Squeezing her eyes shut, she dragged in one deep breath and then another as she allowed her thoughts to settle. The exploratory vessel was gone. She had watched the lights die from it seconds after her pod was launched safely into space along with the other three containing the other members of her team. Her memory was fragmentary after that, but what she was sure of was that the entire team was now stranded on the planet surface… wherever the rest of them were.
Samara Daniels. William Kim. Amanda Kastle. She had no idea where their escape pods had landed, or even those pods where their supplies landed that they had thankfully already sent down planetside the day before. At least she had a tracker for the supply pods and could only hope that she would meet up with the others as they also made their way to their provisions.
Her hand shook as she tapped her comm, bringing up Kim’s link. “Kim, you there? William?”
Her bottom lip trembled, his name falling from her lips with a stressed sound of despair when there was no response. Every mission they survived, she always had Kim watching her back. Without her partner, she didn’t even want to lift the latch on her pod. Mist World lurked just beyond it, more threatening than ever. Somehow she had gone from having even more people to count on to being completely alone in an environment so potentially dangerous that United Earth had scrapped the project.
It should have stayed scrapped. It was clearly cursed from the start.
She shivered as an icy dread filled her. Somewhere there was an entire camp just waiting for its ghosts to return to it. She definitely didn’t sign up for this. She was a successful member of her exploratory team because of her willingness to explore alien environments, as it seemed to be a good way to use her lifelong experience living in potentially hostile landscapes that she had gained growing up in the swamps. But this—this was something different.
Some things should just be left alone.
Noelle gave her head a firm shake, her hand going to the charm her mother gave her to ward off evil. All the stories her grandmother told of angry ghosts came rushing to the surface of her mind. A world filled with heavy fog would be the home of ghosts. She was certain of it.
She bit her lip uncertainly and hunkered down in her seat. She definitely didn’t want to go out there alone, not with her grandmother’s old ghost stories brewing in her head. Maybe she would just wait for a bit. If Kim were also temporarily rendered unconscious, it could explain his lack of response. Her fingers continued to tremble as she ate some of the stored rations, the water pods slaking her thirst. Thankfully, the life pod was equipped with a small toilet that pulled out of the wall for use when an inhabitable planet was within immediate delivery range, so she was able to take care of her needs. If there was anything to be grateful for, it was that and the fact that the planet hadn’t been so far away to necessitate cryogenic sleep after entering the life pod. A good thing, too, since emerging from cryogenic sleep while traveling only to be submerged right back into it by the life pod could have ill effects on the human body. In her current situation, however, that was the least of her worries. Every hour she tried again to comm Kim, only to be met with silence. Eventually, her eyes grew heavy and she dozed in her seat.
“Registered occupant Noelle Xander.” She jumped awake as the fragmented voice filled the pod. “Darvel Corporation protocol prohibits any loitering in pods or vessels upon planetary arrival. It has been recorded that you have been within the pod for one full day and night cycle. Please exit and proceed with your mission.”
She rubbed her eyes at once both groggy from sleep and utterly bewildered. Corp actually programmed time limitation into the AI for their life pods?
The sound of moving hydraulics filled the cabin, and she jumped again as the hatch above her burst off its hinges with a loud pop. The sound of unfamiliar insects immediately surrounded her as the early morning air filled the cabin. Her pulse raced, her breath rushing in and out of her in frightened pants. Overhead, she could make out trees with dripping bioluminescent growth. This didn’t look like any mountain plateau. It reminded her of the swampy region she grew up in which might have been reassuring if there wasn’t one glaring problem with that—she wasn’t supposed to be in the swamp.
A very dangerous swamp that had already claimed two human lives—a rumor Garris had not bothered to discredit.
“Oh, gods. Oh fuck,” she whispered.
“Please exit, Noelle Xander,” the AI reminded her.
“I am,” she hissed back at it, even though it was ridiculous to argue with a life pod’s AI. They didn’t even have the kind of advanced AI that the ships possessed. It wouldn’t register a conversation, so it couldn’t be reasoned with. It would merely record and report. And there went six years of work down the drain for “noncompliance” with regulations once the recording got back to Corp. “Fuck,” she whispered again. “I’m going now.”
Grabbing the small survival bag equipped within the life pod, Noelle immediately filled it with what remained of the food and water rations, adding to the enclosed supplies before closing it. Hitching the bag over her shoulder, she gave one last forlorn look around at the relative safety of the life pod before reaching up and pulling herself out of it and out into the swamp.