I gazed down at my little sister, who lay asleep on my lap. Despite the rocking of the escape pod, she slept soundly. I envied her peace of mind, for my thoughts were a jumbled mess. We were in a dire situation, and the cramped space of the pod only added to the sense of dread that filled me.
I had promised my sister that everything would be okay, but I wasn't sure I could keep that promise. The pod was so cramped that moving around was difficult. Outside, the sea crashed against the sides of the pod, its salty water splashing against the window.
I tried to find comfort in the rhythm of the waves and the salty air on my face, but the cramps in my legs made it hard to relax. Every few minutes, I shifted position in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort, but it was no use. The cramped space offered no respite.
As I gazed out the window at the vast ocean, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at its immensity. It was a sight that I had never seen before, having spent most of my life on a colony with no open bodies of water. The waves were rough, and the sea spray was salty against my face.
As I looked around the cramped escape pod, I could see the other people who were with us, all sleeping or murmuring in their sleep. They were all members of our community, people who, like us, were discriminated against and oppressed by the world outside.
My eyelids felt heavy, and I soon drifted off to sleep while sitting. However, I was suddenly jolted awake by the sound of chopping that could be heard, sending shivers down our spines. Other people also looked in the direction of the sound. Soon after, a light was pointed at us and circled around, revealing a helicopter. It was an uncommon sight on space colonies, and one thing was guaranteed: ZAFT, my country's volunteer army, doesn't operate those in their submarines. Only a few ZAFT bases exist here, and the closest ones are in the Indian Ocean and Australia, thousands of kilometers away from Madagascar — making it unlikely for a ZAFT helicopter to be here in the remote region of Southern Africa.
Deploying surface combatants on Earth meant facing the numerical superiority of the vast armada of the Earth Alliance. ZAFT could only resort to covert ops and unrestricted submarine warfare to cope with the numerical superiority of the enemy that they couldn't hope to match head-on.
It is likely that the helicopter is not friendly and has discovered us. My sister, awakened by the panic of people, rubbed her eyes and looked confused. I hugged her and said, "Nothing, Isla. Whatever happens, your older sister will protect you." I murmured, "Sorry, Mom. I might come after you." Tears flowed down my cheeks, and Isla clutched onto my embrace.
The helicopter announced, "This is the Pan-African Federal Navy helicopter. Anyone with a radio, respond on our radio transmission. Rescue is on the way. If anyone is wounded, get out and wave a cloth or your hands. We will send in an immediate doctor and prioritize the medevac of that individual. Lastly, stay calm and collected."
All of us were confused by the announcement. "Is that the navy of the African Union?" asked one of the people inside. "No, they are not allowed to possess any armed service branch by the Brussels Treaty, and the Eurasian Federation won't allow any armaments or the creation of their own armed forces," clarified another.
I wondered who and where this helicopter truly belonged to, and I looked at my sister's face and smiled to reassure her. And said internally, 'Please don't be bad people,' hoping that they wouldn't harm us. 'At least don't harm...,' I looked at my sister once more and patted her head.
"You really should be resting. Why are you here, Lt. Cmdr.?" asked the gunner, who was manning the 7.62mm mini gun of the rubber boat dispatched towards the reentry pod that Durban had discovered, currently moving at almost 29 knots in the calm sea. The pilot smiled and replied, "Lloyd Semirov."
The gunner sighed and responded to his blunt manner, "I'm Max Tembe. Where's your hometown, Lloyd?"
"In Madagascar. And you?" asked Lloyd.
"Mozambique." He replied as a light splash of seawater washed over his clothes and vest.
"That's pretty far from here, isn't it?" remarked Lloyd.
"I got reassigned to Freetown, got no choice. You'll be randomly assigned to different parts of the country," said Max nonchalantly. "Still, why did the captain let you come?"
"I got excited when I heard it was a reentry pod. It looked exciting, so I asked the captain to allow me to join your SAR operation. I was a medic practitioner before joining the military, so I had a good background to be recruited here. There might be a need for first aid, so I jumped in and volunteered to be part of the team," he explained, smiling wryly as he laughed about the reason why he was here.
"You son of a bitch, you're crazy," Max looked at him with disbelief.
"Thanks for the compliment," Lloyd chuckled.
As the helicopter approached, the silhouette of the reentry pod came into view, and the Sea Hawk began giving orders over the radio.
"Sea Hawk to all units, approach the reentry pod with caution. We can see civilians, including a child, in the door-like hatch, occasionally peeping. All rubber boats should proceed with caution. Over."
"Copy that, Sea Hawk. Approach with caution," responded one of the rubber boats.
"Roger, Sea Hawk. We will proceed with caution," said another.
As the rubber boats approached the reentry pod, they could see the civilians inside more clearly. Max radioed back to Sea Hawk.
"Rubber Boat One to Sea Hawk. We can confirm the presence of civilians, including a number of children. Requesting further instructions."
"Roger that, Rubber Boat One. Maintain visual contact and hail for one last time about your approach. Over."
"Affirmative, Sea Hawk. Out." Max replied.
"That's sounds cool when you're talking that way." Lloyd teased Max for his grumpy face before Max focused on the task at hand. "Please set aside that idiotic side of yours, Lloyd," as he shrugged his words, "do you have your sidearm ready?" Max continued.
"It's already loaded since earlier," Lloyd responded seriously but with a playful face.
Max nodded and picked up the speaker. "Attention, attention. This is the rescue team. We are approaching your location and will soon be there to assist you. We will do everything we can to get you safely back to shore. Please remain calm and stay where you are."
He put the speaker down and signaled the boat operator to increase speed, approaching the reentry pod slowly. Lloyd had his sidearm at the ready, watching the hatch for any movement.
After reaching the hatch area, Max immediately jumped onto the inflatable floating device of the reentry pod, cautiously covered by Lloyd and the boat operator. They kept their hands ready to bring out their sidearms in case of a violent escalation.
"I am Petty Officer Third Class Tembe. I'm here to rescue you. Please don't be alarmed. Is anyone wounded? We couldn't confirm because none of you replied to our transmission and instructions," he said while hanging onto the hatch, tense and ready to leap backwards towards the sea to evade being shot if someone fired a shot.
As he scanned the interior of the reentry pod, he noticed that the civilians were huddled together, some of them looking frightened and confused. He repeated his message, this time in a calm and reassuring tone, "We are here to help. Please don't be afraid. Is anyone injured or in need of medical attention?"
One of the civilians, a middle-aged woman, stepped forward and said in broken English, "My son, he is hurt. He needs help."
Max instructed Lloyd via hand signals to stay outside and keep watch while he carefully climbed into the reentry pod, his hand still on his sidearm but now pointed towards the ground. He approached the injured boy and began to assess his condition.
"Lloyd, bring out the first aid," Max seeing the injury, immediately gave out an ordered. Lloyd quickly entered the reentry pod and was surprised to find that it was larger and more spacious than he had expected. It was even larger than their Dragon capsules, which they had bought and licensed built from SpaceX subsidiaries Mars Heavy Industries and Prometheus Space Yard.
Lloyd occasionally visited Freetown when the Pan-African Space Agency exhibits their indigenous satellite launch vehicles and other prototype rockets, including imports from other countries. As a result, he had a clear idea of how cramped the Dragon capsules were. They had been decommissioned by SpaceX in 2025 but were revived in 2029 after the Pan-African Federation acquired a license to produce them for their limited indigenous one-stage reusable rocket. This rocket was patterned after the Falcon 8, which was outdated by SpaceX standards but cutting edge for the Pan-African Federation. SpaceX did not mind granting a license since they received a penny for each Dragon capsule built for Pan-African use, as it gave the federation a certain degree of ability to reach low orbit for research and development of their space program.
Not until they finally acquired several old SN-700 series SpaceX Starships - second-hand interplanetary-capable ships that had only been used for a decade and had numerous upgrades that were far superior to what they had in hand - did they make the decision to schedule the Dragon capsule for final decommissioning next year. The SN-700 was the second type of Starship used by Elon Musk to colonize Mars; 320 of these were built for the second wave of colonization efforts and brought almost 19,000 people and a large amount of supplies to Mars in a single trip. The SN-700 was gradually phased out by SpaceX, together with the older SN-60 series, in favor of the newer, larger, more powerful SN-1000, or so-called Millennium series. The SN-1000 was almost twice as large as the original basic configuration used by SpaceX since 2015, with a total length of 97.5 meters (without the reusable boosters, which could account for a total length of 205 meters if combined). It was the largest spaceship so far, and no one had managed to surpass America in the race for colonization of solar system.
That's why Lloyd is perplexed by the technology of this reentry pod, which appears to be carrying at least 20 people, including children. "Double time," says Max, finally snapping him out of reality. Then, Lloyd notices a wound on a child's leg, which appears to have been caused by shrapnel, and is messy and bound only by a white cloth. "What happened to this child?" he asks, as it doesn't appear to be an accident.
"In... in the chaos," the mother appears scared to say a word, having a hard time responding. Seeing this, Lloyd realizes that something must have happened that has left the mother unable to speak. He sighed internally, and gave up asking, however, he'll pursue this later on.
"Max and Madame, properly hold the kid," he instructs. After following his instructions, Max and the mother put their hands on the clueless child. Without warning, Lloyd applies disinfectant. "That hurts! It hurts! Mama!" the child cries in tears. "It's alright, baby. The pain will soon disappear," the mother reassures her child, whom struggling in agony.
"Disinfectant is good, but where are my bandages? Ah, here they are. Please stay still," he says as he begins to wrap the wounds of the struggling kid. "That's good, but it's better to get on the ship to get better treatment. This is just first aid. Who's next?" he asks, noticing that no one else appears to be wounded or significantly injured.
However, in his sight, a child about 10 years of age looked at his hand. His hand looked like a mess, as it had been bathed in salty water for the last 8 hours. Thus, the seawater had practically chipped parts of his hand. She was probably curious about it, as she looked at it intently. "Does it hurt?" she said in a worried voice. However, soon, a female who appeared to be her sister gagged her. They had the same feature of green hair, which was unnatural from the point of view of Max and Lloyd. When they saw them, they originally thought they were artificial. The older sister said, "Sorry, my sister didn't mean anything! Please forgive us!" sounding defensive.
Lloyd reacted with a bitter smile due to her rather overly reacting tone, "Don't worry, you don't have to be hard on your sister, and for your question, little kid?" Lloyd looked at her. "It's not hurting, thank you for worrying," he said.
Then the child replied, "Why do you have that hand?" She asked in curiosity, and the sister appeared not to know why his hand was like that and did not stop her sister from questioning.
"Haha, long story short," he laughed bitterly and answered. "I got my plane accidentally fall into the sea, and I was forced to stay for a few hours in the water before being rescued. So while I was out there, the seawater ate my hands," he said.
"Why did seawater eat your hand?" She innocently asked.
"That's a bit complicated question to answer." Lloyd couldn't answer how the water turned his hand like this on this innocent kid's question. "But they will heal later," he said and grabbed a piece of chocolate bar from his pocket and handed it over to the kid. She looked at her sister as if asking for permission, which she reluctantly nodded. She received it and said, "Thank you. What's this?"
"Chocolate," then followed suit to be patted by Lloyd. "What's your name?"
"Isla! Isla Reconquista! She is my sister, Evian Reconquista!" She said happily while introducing them. The woman called Evian appeared to be embarrassed by her sister.
"I am Lloyd, Lloyd Semirov. And that guy is Uncle Max Tembe." He said, which made Max glare at him. "We're from the Pan-African Federal Navy, and you are in safe hands."
Isla smiled and nodded, seeming to be comforted by Lloyd's words. Evian also looked relieved and grateful. "Thank you so much for rescuing us," she said. "We were on a shuttle with our parents when it suddenly exploded."
Lloyd and Max exchanged a look of concern. "Do you know what caused the explosion?" Lloyd asked.
Evian shook her head. "We have no idea. It happened so suddenly. Our parents were... they didn't make it." Her voice choked on the last words, and Isla hugged her tightly.
"I'm so sorry for your loss," Lloyd said, his voice gentle. "We'll make sure you're taken care of and get the help you need. We're going to bring you to our ship where our medical team can examine you and treat any injuries."
Evian nodded, still holding her sister close. "Thank you," she said quietly.
Max stood up and gestured for them to follow. "Come on, let's get you out of these sweaty clothes and into something dry. We have some spare uniforms that should fit you."
Lloyd helped Isla up, and the group made their way out of the pod. As they walked and board the rubber boats, Lloyd couldn't help but feel sorry for the two young girls who had lost their parents so suddenly. They left the reentry pod and soon boarded Durban while their reentry pod was towed.
