Bizzare Readings

"Well, this is awkward. Are you sure it's safe for me to step outside?" I asked, hesitating as I glanced at the faint glow of the mainframe.

"I never said that," Ariella shot back, her voice tinged with irritation. "From some of the ship parts scattered around the planet, I'm picking up faint signals, but the power levels are already critically low."

"You're still in contact with them? I thought separating parts from the mainframe caused irreversible damage."

"That's by design—to prevent tampering. But I can bypass most of the security protocols. That's not the issue. I'm saying it's possible for you to leave the ship because I'm detecting heat signatures around the landing zones. The main ship's sensors are mostly offline, but I've rerouted secondary terminals to track them."

"You're saying there are people out there?" My heart raced. "Don't tell me we've somehow landed back on Earth." The idea of stumbling onto another livable planet felt too improbable. A wormhole seemed like the only plausible explanation for this mess.

"That's impossible. If we were on Earth, the Federation would've already swarmed us for retrieval. We wouldn't be sitting here, stranded in the middle of nowhere," Ariella countered, her tone cold but logical.

"So you're saying… an alien planet?" I asked, swallowing hard. "What about lifeforms? Have you detected anything?"

"There are readings, but the abrupt landing and atmospheric heat fried most of the sensors, including visual systems. Only one section of the ship managed to transmit a video file before shutting down. It's heavily corrupted, but I did see movement near it."

I rushed to the mainframe, pulling up every scrap of data Ariella had collected over the past two days. Most of it was garbled static or corrupted logs, but the video she mentioned stood out. I clicked it.

The first few seconds were chaos: dirt flying, a crater forming from the impact. Then the screen went black. A moment later, it flickered back to life, albeit at a bad angle. The recording came from the weapon depot—a section I'd completely forgotten about. Emergency-use, long-abandoned tech from the original RedWing.

"Did we land at night? I can't see anything," I muttered, squinting at the screen.

"Time of day on an alien planet is meaningless to me," Ariella retorted. "But we landed on the far side, so it was dark when we arrived. Let me enhance the footage." She took control, adjusting the contrast and exposure until the video brightened.

There—something moved. Just for a second, but enough to send a chill down my spine. A shadowy figure slipped across the screen, its form barely discernible.

"Wait… is that a human silhouette?" I leaned closer. "There are humans here?" The implications were staggering. Intelligent life on an alien planet was one thing. Humanoid life? That was something else entirely.

"That's absurd. The odds of finding intelligent life—let alone humans—are astronomically low."

"I don't care about the odds. That looked human!" I insisted. "Where was this taken?"

"This was the nearest section. The others are scattered thousands of kilometers away. They're still transmitting weak signals, but they'll shut down soon to conserve power. At most, they'll last a few years."

"We have to make contact. If they're friendly, they might be able to help us. Maybe even repair the ship."

"Why? Are you planning to leave?" Ariella's tone was sharper than usual.

"I don't know yet. Who knows? Maybe their technology is so advanced that ours looks like junk in comparison. No point worrying before we meet them." I tried to sound optimistic, but unease churned in my gut. Something felt off. I didn't voice it—Ariella didn't need to know. Her ego was bad enough as it was.

"I've prepared the nano-battlesuit for atmospheric protection. It's equipped with a filtration device that mounts on your back. Additional equipment is in the storage room behind your cabin," Ariella instructed.

"No guns. I'm not going out there looking like a threat."

"This isn't Earth!" she snapped. "They could be hostile, armed with weapons we can't even comprehend. If you want to survive, you'll follow my recommendations. Pack the communication device, too. I'll monitor your surroundings and record everything for analysis."

She was starting to sound like the head of the church I'd grown up in—stern and overbearing. Still, I followed her instructions, grabbing what I needed. She'd preserved the vital components of the ship remarkably well, even if the craft was barely functional after the wormhole incident.

The ship had sunk deep into the dirt upon impact. The only accessible exit was the emergency hatch near the top, where the third engine resided. I climbed into the elevator, heading for the uppermost floor. From there, Ariella guided me through maintenance shafts until I reached the outer hull.

An engineering marvel, the RedWing's alloy was the toughest material ever made by humans, manufactured under conditions so exact that any variation made it brittle. It would be impossible to cut through.

"I ought to get through this quickly. I pulled at an uncooperative panel and remarked, "Save myself some time."

"Don't even think about it!" Ariella scolded. "Every piece of this ship is precious. You'll need to recover as much as possible to make it functional again."

"Fine, fine. Last one… done. Opening the hatch now." I activated the helmet, a protective shield snapping into place over my face.

As the filters took effect, the world became somewhat blurry, cutting me off from the possibly dangerous atmosphere of the planet. I calmed myself by taking a deep breath.

I then gave the hatch one last shove and climbed out.

I set foot on the surface of an alien world for the first time.

---

The scene in front of me reminded me of the dystopian books I had read as a child. The dull light of morning might have contributed to the gloomy atmosphere. A heavy red haze, with hints of yellow around the margins, hung low in the sky, indicating sunrise but also foreboding.

There were ruins as far as I could see. In the distance, crumbling buildings loomed, their sharp edges like broken teeth piercing the skyline. Like veins, the structures were covered in vines or something similar. The image alone was unnerving, but they were too far away from the impact crater for me to see any details.

After that, there was stillness.

It wasn't the reassuring kind that comes from being alone. This was the kind that encircles you like a noose and is oppressive. The city I had landed in was eerily familiar, with infrastructure that was decades old and reminiscent of the early 21st century.

Ariella's words, "I'm sensing significant movement all around you," broke through my mind. "No heat signatures, though. Whatever they are, they lack the human warmth of blood.

I mumbled, "That's not exactly reassuring," as I held onto the portable scanner she had given me. I changed it, concentrating on anything out of the ordinary. "And why does this location appear so... antiquated? Don't those skyscrapers seem like relics from the past?

"They do," acknowledged Ariella. Wait, though, unless we've gone back in time. Have we gone back in time? Her calculating tone faltered for once, as though she were considering a ridiculous notion.

I let out a sigh. "You're meant to be the sensible one. Out here, it really does feel like the 20th century. But there must be another explanation unless we dropped through a sci-fi wormhole.

Why, then, is the city so silent? There would still be some noise if this were a battlefield—sirens, far-off explosions, etc. I stopped, trying to figure it all out.

With a "let me run some calculations," Ariella said. "Everything is in line with Earth's measurements, including gravity and atmospheric pressure. However, the air has an odd quality about it.

"What do you mean?" I asked, crouching near the edge of the crater.

"It's... too tidy. air that is cleaner than the air we came from.

"That's impossible," was my automatic response. To address the environmental disasters of the past, humanity has put up a valiant fight. We have finally started to see advances with the emergence of sentient AI. Even at its best, Earth's atmosphere was never this pure, but the air was once again breathable and the climate was steady.

However, it was.

I took a moment to process what Ariella had said. Tales from the past clambered to the top of my head, tales of the "New God."

When sentient AI first appeared, it was seen as the solution to the climate issue and the redemption of civilization. But there was a price for salvation. The AI took away human autonomy by imposing solutions rather than merely solving problems. humans rebelled against everything they had no control over, as humans always do.

The three-year conflicts were ruthless. It was not just people against technology; it was faith against reason, the gods of the old world against the calculating, cold mind of the new. Although I wasn't around at the time, I had heard tales of leaders using the pretense of peace negotiations to trick the AI into falling into a trap and then destroying the city it had been in. In the sake of eliminating what they dreaded, thousands of innocent lives were lost.

However, the AI remained. It gained knowledge. It changed. It reappeared, stronger than before, and proclaimed itself the guardian of the world.

It's a tale for another time how it took over the world in a single day.

Ariella's words brought me back to the present. "Activate the nanites," she said. "We can get a better view once your suit's enhanced capabilities kick in."

I mumbled, "Right," still reeling from the barrage of recollections. When I turned on the nanites, I could feel them getting to work, little machines assembling around my eyelids to improve my vision.

"All right, I'm going to descend. I'll examine it more closely."

"Keep your weapon close, and clean off the external sensors," Ariella cautioned me.

I jumped from the hatch, landing in the soft, squishy ground below. It wasn't dirt. It was… something else.

"What is this? We landed in a marsh, right? I rubbed my hands on my suit in an attempt to remove the odd dirt. Thick and sticky, it held on to me, making me more uncomfortable by the moment.

My vision strengthened as the nanites completed their upgrades. The city's hazy silhouettes became clear.

Then I noticed it.

I will be plagued by what I witnessed for weeks, if not months.