Distress Sign

In the deep black of the solar system, a spaceship zoomed by, currently en route back to Port Borealis. Inside, a set of paws rhythmically tapped against the ship's steering wheel while a voice hummed along to the music playing inside. 

It had been a typical trip for Lyra, the driver, who had just completed the routine planet check she had been assigned. The planet itself was a bit strange, with everything on that planet seemingly covered in feathers, but that was typical for this specific planet, as noted to her beforehand.

Her song was cut off by a sudden loud beeping noise. A distress signal. She flicked a switch to turn the ship into cruise mode then opened the alert on her monitor. A light flashed on her radar, indicating the location. It was coming from a planet that wasn’t too far away.

Oh no, did someone crash? I need to check this out.

She pulled up the Space Positioning System on the ship, typing in the coordinates of the signal into it to find wherever it was coming from. To her shock, it was a planet she already knew about.

Isn’t this… Awan? I thought all the cirrocanius were evacuated from there already…

All spacecats were told about the planet of Awan and its population when the first round of cirrocanius came to the Port and how they came from a place that had frozen over and became unsafe for the cirrocanius to live. As staff of the Port, she was also let onto more than the general public, like the fact they also had to deal with a nuclear fallout in their hidden home, making the place completely inhabitable.

She looked at her wrist. On it was both a pawmade bead bracelet as well as a hi-tech watch-like device. It was an emergency pager and communication portal that had been made a requirement for all Port staff to wear on any mission even since the whole Awan incident. The device was reflecting the distress radar, confirming the location was indeed coming from that planet. She looked at it with concern and doubt.

This could be important… I’m not sure a cat like me should try and tackle this… but then again, if it’s just someone who got stranded, it would be better to check that out sooner than later. Plus, I am right here basically…

She shook her head. There was no harm in checking. She would just let everyone at the Port know about the thing she was doing. She typed into the communication device. The phone rang… and rang…

And rang…

Then it stopped. No one picked up.

Damn, is everyone busy or something?? Whatever… let me just send a message then.

She opens the communications on her watch, typing in a quick, telegram-like message:

“CODE R-96 LOC:AWAN, LYRA. INCOMP”

There. That message would get across what she was doing. Without any more hesitation, she put her paws back on the steering wheel and headed to find the source of the signal.

The ship had landed on Awan's snowy surface. Lyra had attempted to scan the planet's surface for any trouble before landing, but the area where the distress signal was pinging had no signs of anything being there. No crashed ships, no S.O.S messages written on the ground, just endless sheets of snow, trees, and ice crystals. It was all so strange.

Lyra grabbed her bag and headed to the door of the ship, only to realize she didn’t have any proper gear to deal with the conditions of the planet; nothing to protect her from the harsh weather and nothing to shield her from the possible effects of radiation. Her face fell. 

I’m not prepared for this at all… maybe I should leave it to someone who’s more suited to do this…

Then again, If there was someone who was seriously hurt, they’d need assistance as soon as possible, and she’s already landed anyway. Perhaps she’d just have to grin and bear the cold, and stay alert in areas that are radiated. Sighing, she pushed out the door, immediately shivering at the gust of frozen wind that whipped through her fur.

Tracking through the snow, she pulled up the signal on her watch again, following the pulse on the radar. It acted as a map, getting stronger or weaker depending on what direction she went. The weather of Awan was starting to get to her, but she kept trekking forward.

The pinging on the radar eventually led her to a place of interesting note, a large cave entrance came into view. The signal was leading directly to it. 

The cirros lived underground…  I wonder if this is how they got there.

Thinking for a moment, a terrifying thought entered Lyra’s head.

Did someone get left behind? Is that what the signal is? 

It made sense. It would explain the lack of any crashed or stalled spaceship if it was activated by someone who’s been here the whole time. It hurt her to think about someone being stuck underground here. Perhaps they had been attempting to send out a signal the whole time with the limited resources they had.

Stars, it’s been nearly a year since they all fled! Living alone on a planet like this for that long… it must be horrible. I should hurry!

With that, she hustled into the cave, thankful to be shielded from the frigid weather, but now on alert that she was entering an area that had been exposed to radiation. The quicker she found the source of the distress signal, the better it would be for everyone.

The cold rock of the cave floor felt strange on her already chilled paws, not due to temperature, but due to the fact it felt brittle. Pieces of it stuck to her pads. She constantly had to flick off pebbles as each step became more irritating to bear.

“Hello?” She called out, her voice echoing off the walls. “Is anyone down there? I’m here to help!”

There was no response. Not like she was expecting one so soon, anyway. She’d just have to continue further down the cave.

She brought out a flashlight and continued to explore the cave. In addition to the brittle floor, there were occasional patches of dirt scattering the floor. 

Who tracked dirt into here? And how? Is this from Moonbeam and Goldie?

She stepped over the dirt patches, not wanting her paws to get too dirty right now. However as she went on, that became harder and harder as the patches became more frequent and much larger. It culminated in an area so large it covered the whole cave floor, too big to step over. Lyra groaned.

No other choice… Looks like I have to get a bit dirty…

She took one big stride forward, trying to clear the patch as fast as possible, but once her paw landed on the dirt patch, it immediately sunk at a lightning-fast pace. Her body tipped forward as she was not expecting the lack of stable footing and crashed into the floor, or lack thereof. The “patch of dirt” in front of her was not something someone had tracked in, but a bunch of loose dirt that could not support her body weight.

“AHHHH!” 

Lyra yelled as she continued to slip through the dirt, tumbling down a hole that had been hastily filled by it, scream echoing for a brief moment before vanishing from the range of the cave walls and getting muffled by the dirt that came down with her.