-Galaxy of Wonders: The Cold's Chosen

## **Preface**

Rindia Samula, a simple man with an even more simple trade of mining across various planets and moons of the Ambrosia Alliance, had just suffered through the worst pain one can experience in life, losing his beloved wife; *"Helen Tancard"* only a few standard years prior. Deep in sorrow, Rindia secluded himself from the rest of the world, losing his job in the QUI and causing his family and friends to grow increasingly distant.

Despite his grief, Rindia longed for companionship, seeking it out in many forms. Eventually, he would make contact with a woman on the planet of Dralora, and he would depart from his home world of Haven to said planet in order to finally meet her in person.

However, after beginning his warp jump towards the Talora System, a mysterious gateway would open, swallowing his star ship whole and instantly sending him hundreds of thousands of light-years away above the galaxy's plane. His ship would then become gravitationally attracted to a nearby uncharted ice planet, and would crash land on its barren landscape. With his ship damaged beyond the capabilities of flight, and his on board communicators being destroyed, he must use the planet's natural resources to repair his communicators and make contact with the Ambrosia Alliance of United Systems.

## **Chapter One: Cold and Alone**

Rindia awakens to find himself lying on his back on the cold metal floor. The air is thick with carbon dioxide and he can't see anything but blackness ahead of himself. He tries to move, but nothing happens except for pain and fatigue.

As he comes to, he groans from the extreme pain in his back, struggling to return to his feet. His body aches and hurts like hell, but he manages to stumble onto his feet, but quickly falls back to his knees.

Slowly, he would drag himself towards a small cabinet located at the bottom of his ship's control console, rummaging through it until' he found a small bottle and began injecting it into his injured leg. It feels like someone has stabbed a hot iron straight into his flesh, but after awhile, the pain would subside.

As his leg recovered from its wounds, he would begin to sit up slowly and look around. Across the now darkened halls of his ship, massive sparks of electricity shoot up from broken wiring, with ventilation shafts recaching downwards towards the cold ground. His eyes quickly scan the room and finds that it's not connected to any kind of power or communication systems, as they had gone offline when the ship made land fall. There isn't even a single working computer terminal anywhere within the room. If one didn't know beforehand, this place could easily be considered abandoned by now.

Rindia thought to himself. *"Power's gone. Looks like the communication systems have been destroyed, and none of the computer terminals appear to be operable."*

As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he wanders over to a wall panel and begins pressing down on it. Nothing happens, so he pushes harder and hear sa click followed by static. He continues pushing until the panel begins to spark with static, and Rindia soon feels electricity coursing through his entire body, forcing him, to let go of the panel and fall backwards, hitting his head on the metal floor and immediately fall unconscious again.

He would remain unconscious for several hours, until' he regained his composure and returned to his feet, now with extreme pain in the back of his head.

With his consciousness restored, he would begin to scan across the room, The ship has regained a small amount of power allowing for the lights to turn on and life support to remain functional, but as he attempted to reactivate the ship's on-board communication systems, he would discover that none of the computer systems worked.

With the ship's lights restored, Rindia would walk towards the ship's window, peering at the new environment his ship was placed. He would see an endless icy snowscape, that looks very desolate and barren. He would then begin to wonder where he was exactly; did he still belong to the Ambrosia Galaxy?

After taking a moment to process what exactly was happening to him, he would then carefully search the room and find several broken computers and circuitry scattered about. He started looking for a connection point between them, but he couldn't find anything useful beyond fried wiring.

Eventually he would manage to find a small patch of exposed wiring and in a last desperate attempt, would connect it to another patch of exposed wiring. With the two coming into contact with one another, a large spark of static would ring across the wires, and one of the computer terminals screens would come alive, displaying text that Rindia could not understand.

*"Looks like the crash restarted the computer's language settings. Could be Ugnarain or Ko'rr, but that doesn't help me as I can't make heads or tails of any of it. Damn it! Of all times to not have my artificial translator!"*

As he observed the screen, he would begin to attempt to revert the terminal back into a language he could understand, hitting various combinations of keys. The screen changes in accordance to his attempt, to one displaying a series of numbers and letters. He then tries entering some words into the keyboard and keeps trying different combinations until he gets something that finally makes sense.

*"Great. I fixed it, but it doesn't seem like any form of communication system is operable."*

Rindia scrolls through the computer system to see if there's anything that would indicate whether the ship's on board AI is operational, but finds nothing useful here either. Afterwards, he would attempt to ascertain the damage done to the ship's atmospheric scanners, grabbing a small probe from the table and pressing it against the scanner. A light flashes briefly, but nothing else happens. He tries pressing it again, but you he does not receive any response.

*"Damn it. I can't get the atmospheric scanner to work. Maybe the temperature readers are operational."*

Rindia then presses a button on the computer terminal and waits for it to heat up. After a few seconds, he hears a chime sound and the scanner starts emitting readings. It seems that this sensor is reading that the outside temperature is currently around -15 °C.

Rindia would take a moment to ponder on the readings given by the computer. *"-15 C, huh. So I will need some heavy duty temperature regulation if I want to go outside. Luckily I happen to have my control suit during my work on Douma. Heh, Mom always did tell me I was prepared for anything."*

Rindia quickly puts on his control suit and begin setting it to hospitable settings. He also takes a flashlight with him just in case he needs to check on things while wearing the suit. He steps outside and takes notice of the infinite barren snowscape that lay before him. Then, he would quickly turn around and point his flashlight at the ship attempting to ascertain the damage received by the crash. As the shine of the light hits the ship, Rindia sees that its structure is badly damaged. The engines are melted, there's holes in the hull, and parts of it are missing altogether.

Turning off the flashlight, Rindia would look upward towards the sky, and he would notice the giant ice moon dominating most of his view, causing him to believe he is most likely located on a dual-planet of some sort, as well as three other icy moons in different positions of the sky. The frame filling Amaranth-colored star light of the galaxy's Realm of Resonance he was accustomed too was also no longer in his view. Instead, it appears that he was above the galactic-plane, meaning this planet is in the Heavenly Faraway Region.

He finds himself enchanted by the dazzling cosmic display, until' a gust of cold wind hits the suit, and he begins to wonder what he should do. After a few moments, he remembers that within his suit, a small personal resource scanner was located. Kneeling down on the ice-laden earth, Rindia would run his hand over a patch of snow, feeling a slight tingling sensation on his fingertips. He then pulls out his personal resource scanner and places it against the snowy surface. It registers an amount of hydrogen gas which is more than enough to power his own life support unit for several days.

Rindia would exhale a breath of relief, then return to his ship, opening the large metal door located on the far right side of its port section. He enters the cockpit and sits down at the computer terminal and turns it back on, then begins logging on to various systems. Once within the system, he attempts to ascertain the length of daylight experienced by the planet, with several numbers flashing, indicating that the average day length on the planet lasts around sixteen standard hours.

As he sat in front of the computer terminal, Rindia would lean back towards the chair he sat upon, wondering what his next move should be. He would sit on the chair for several minute, until' he would then pull out a small personal recorder from a drawer at his feet. Turning it on, Rindia would begin to record a personal log:

*"This is Rindia Samula, former directions officer of the Terraforming of Solmyr on behalf of the Ambrosia Alliance of United Systems. On my way to visit someone on planet Dralora, my warp drive launched me to an uncharted ice planet in the Heavenly Faraway where I have crash landed. I am marooned on the surface of the planet. My ship is damaged beyond the capabilities of flight, and my on board communicators have been destroyed...I'm not exactly sure if there's anyway off this planet, but I hope I'm able to find enough natural resources on the planet to either restore my ship's engines, or its on board communicators, so that I may call for help. I have enough food and water to last me a few days, so if I don't dawdle, I may just be able to pull this off...I hope at least."*

Afterwards, Rindia would shut the recorder off, placing it on the desk the computer terminal sits upon. After a few hours, Rindia would begin to feel his eyes grow heavy, and he would walk to his small bunk, laying upon it. He would stare upwards at the steel roofing of his ship, listening to the quiet flecks of snow landing upon the walls of his ship. The subtle rhythmic tapping of the snow would eventually lull Rindia asleep, and he would remain in deep slumber for several hours.