3 Hideout

The disturbing sound of alarm wasn't much helpful when it came to making proper decisions. He knew that if he had to survive the upcoming army of whatever lifeform that inhabited this place he had to make a run for it.

There was a tiny chance that they might back off once they find out he means no harm, or might even welcome him warmly. But that chance was too thin for him to be willing to risk it. He would not put himself and his mission in danger like that. Captain Kazaliur was brave, but he was not an idiot.

He knew that it would be hard to survive on an unknown planet with no help, but he recalled a tip his once mentor told him when he was young and opened the panel in front of him. He dug out a major chunk of wires that rendered the ship thoroughly damaged and useless. He dug deeper and took out what appeared to be a tiny device and made a run for it.

Everything was very dark outside, he assumed this place of the planet must be facing away from the sun. There were no artificial lights that made him wonder where exactly was he? He ran like crazy, like an animal on fire. He didn't know how long it took him but without any device or ZIA he was a bit useless at detecting anything. He had to rely on his instincts and his primary senses.

After a long while he found a big yard where tiny green and yellow eruptions, on the ground. It was plain empty space and he found nowhere else to go except a tiny construction which seemed like a place for living on this planet. The big construction was attached to a comparatively smaller one on its left. He assumed that it would be less risky and decided to take a peek inside it. He searched all around it and found a tiny grill like opening on its back.

He was tall enough for the window and thus peeked inside. Inside it was pitch dark and found nothing inside that could suggest that something was wrong in there.

He was contemplating whether or not to take the risk of going inside when he suddenly recalled the transponder he was wearing on his wrist. It had a special ability to scan its surroundings but to a minimum radius. He switched in on and was glad to see it functioning properly when he received the input in it. It was a tiny watch like device with specialized features meant for survival in difficult situations. This particular one was closest to his sentiments as it was gifted to him by his mentor on the day he first qualified for the space exploration team.

His scan displayed that there were no signs of lifeform. He entered inside through the main entrance but he was careful not to be caught. After successfully finding a place to hide there in case someone decides to visit it he sits down finally taking a rest. He closes his eyes as he recalls back to the days of training and simulations where he was put up in similar situations like this. Never did he ever imagine he would have to go through with this. Of course it is as they say, reality was much worse. There was no sense of security or guarantee that he will ever make it out of here alive. Even a brave Captain was capable of being scared.

He did not remember what happened but he felt himself feeling dizzy. There was something in the air that made him weaker than his usual self. He recalled having much more stamina, or maybe it was due to lack of any intake of nutrition for a long time. He has no idea how long he was stuck here.

A strong ray of light hit him in his blazing red eyes when he opened them. He realised that he must have gone into stasis and spent hours in the same posture. He checked his transponder that was recharging itself with the solar power. It was charging itself at a much faster rate than it did in ZMR-47. The primary star here seemed indeed powerful. He looked around to find a huge machine with big round wheels in the same room as him. There were two giant wheels on the back, and remarkably tinier wheels in the front. He recalled colliding with it in the dark that made him cautious of any movements that were going on here. He wondered what was this machine capable of, it appeared really peculiar, was it capable of peculiar stuff too. Would the machine detect his presence and alert anyone?

He dismissed the thought quickly as he realised that he had been here for a really long time, and if he was to be caught by this peculiarly asymmetric machine he would have been caught by now.

He dug his pockets and took out the device he retrieved from the S-capsule. He looked around it for any marking when he found '126YD' written on it.

The device was nothing but a primary holder for the operating system of ZIA. He assumed that if he ever managed to survive this place it would be a valuable asset to his search. At a moment like this, where he was stuck in an unknown terrain, of which he had no knowledge about, he could use something that was familiar.

He looked around the whole place for any equipment that can come handy to execute his plan. He found a long metal rod supported by some other material for holding purposes.

He positioned it's sharp edged tip in such a way that it separated the two metal flaps in a manner of seconds. He did some manipulations on the circuit present inside and when he was done he connected it's socket with the tiny device. It showed a rotating hourglass on it's screen that denoted that it was loading.

Soon enough the screen went red as a voice spoke up "UNSUITABLE ENVIRONMENT".

He decided to test the installation and used his voice commands. "What is the cause of the unsuitable environment"?

"The amount of oxygen present in the atmosphere is roughly 21-percent". 21? Wasn't more than five lethal to their system? How was he still alive here? Was there a glitch in the OS ( Operating System) of ZIA? Did he damage her by trying to load her in an manually expanded memory zone?

He was busy wondering about the integrity of ZIA's OS when he suddenly recalled a long forgotten fact. The only known planet that had such high amounts of oxygen was earth, so did he end up earth? He was going to andromeda but THE SUN and ANDROMEDA were two closest star systems, could it be that he was misguided?

He was pondering in his own thoughts when he heard a clicking noise. He tried to hide carefully but for some reason it seemed that whoever was here did suspect his presence here.

"Who is there"!! That person shouted at him. He could make out the sound but he could not make out the words or the meaning of the words spoken. He stood still attached to the wall as he anticipated getting caught when he heard the footsteps getting louder by the minute.

(QUICK EXPLANATION: The language used by Zimerians and Earthlings are different. For the sake of reading I am using English for both for now.)