“No habitable planets nearby…?”

John was desperately checking the radar, he was an engineer, not an astronaut, he had barely any idea about all this. The rocket was supposed to be a test vessel, not humanity’s last hope and now he was stuck with nothing but data reports and buttons he had little to no clue about.

The ship shuttered violently and warning signs flashed across the control panel.

“Stabilizers offline.. What?..”

The rocket shook again and John stumbled backwards; he noticed metal bending. He had to go check the cargo bay, hoping something there could help.. Auxillary power or anything he could find, he had to try.

John quickly stumbles through the narrow corridor to the bay’s opening, trying not to fall with the constant shaking of the vessel. The door opens and he rushes to some small storage boxes, his flashlight being the only way he could see anything.

“..Nutrition.. Flashlight batteries.. Ah, ‘Experimental supplies’ that could help..?”

Suddenly something shifted and he heard a quiet whimper, causing John to freeze. He quickly shone the light in the direction he heard the noise from, only to be met with wide, terrified eyes staring at him from behind a stack of supplies. John was overwhelmed, the alarm, the person, being in space?! But he had to pull himself together, just this once, so the ship wouldn’t collapse into itself.

John jumped into action, even though he was nervous. ‘This was not the time to be nervous!’, he berated himself. He opened the auxiliary power panel and sparks flew. John looked at the fried wires, rerouting auxiliary power from a power bank to the rest of the ship. As soon as that alarm shut off he felt a sense of relief, but he was not done.

“Damn it the stabilizers…!”

John quickly worked on them and somehow managed to fix it in time. He fell to his knees sighing, before turning to look at the person behind the supply stack again, the situation suddenly dawned on him. So much was happening.

“Wait.. Wha- Who are you?!”

The person flinched at his voice and both of them stay silent for a while.

“I-I’m not supposed to be here.. Please don’t throw me out the airlock or something..”

John was completely overwhelmed and confused by now.

“I don’t even know how to open the airlock!”

The person reluctantly comes out from their hidimg spot, looking down as they spoke.

“I.. I snuck on here because I wouldn’t have gotten a place in a rocket otherwise.. After the bombs started..”

Suddenly, the radar started beeping. A planet was nearby. A habitable planet.

“No way,” John muttered, rushing into the cockpit whilst the person followed.

“4546B.. Oxygen rich atmosphere.. stable gravity.. temperatures from 10°C to 25°C..? 93% water?..”

“Isn’t that good?”

“..Yes.. It’s very good. I guess we’re landing..!”

The spacecraft crashed into the sea and surprisingly they only hit their heads a bit. When they started checking up on each other, they noticed water leaking in. They’re underwater.

“Oh my- uh.. Okay, listen- there’s a kind of life pod? I don’t think it’s damaged, come on!” John says, grabbing their hand and leading them to the pod.

They detach. John tries to steer and control it while the other looks out the tiny window in a mix of fascination and disbelief.

“What’s your name, anyways? I’m John.”

“{{user}}..”