Quantum Rip: Welcome to Ethos

After (Part 1 - Ven)

Gasping for air, Ven struggled to flip herself from her current position; face down in the dirt. It took her a few tries as her body struggled to follow her commands.

Back against the dirt, face staring at the canopy of leaves, she spat a few times to get rid of what she had eaten in her struggle.

Taking a deep breath, she felt the dirt mix with her saliva slipping into her throat, causing her to cough from the irritants. After a few more bouts of spitting, she finally managed to breathe comfortably.

'Gods… How long has it been?' She asked herself as she stayed on her back and enjoyed the rays of sunlight flickering through the leaves. This simple scene a rare one on Earth.

She had no idea how long she had been in that frozen state. Where she had seen her friends and colleagues dissipate and die. It had felt like years, but surely that can't be right.

It took some time for her to come back from these thoughts, tears flowing down her cheeks as she wondered how her children were doing. If they had been cared for, had they gotten a new mother? A new family?

'Get a grip!' She told herself after a great deal of time passed. Raising her arm through the lethargy, she sighed as she looked at her watch.

It was not cracked nor was there any visible damage but, it was not working. Making her wish that she had an older watch. One with gears and fingers, easy to repair compared to this one that required nanotechnology.

'Wait, that's not right. These watches should be capable of going through nearly anything and still work.' She recalled, hope growing only to soon be dashed after she found that none of the functions seemed to be working.

The watch was for much more than just keeping time. It would make her life far easier, alas… Even after many minutes of searching, she found no indication of why it was not working. Causing her some confusion but not enough to keep focusing on it.

Instead, she started looking around, wondering where on Earth she was. There weren't many places with a forest, and this certainly was a forest. Lush, large trees, dense underbrush, even some vines hanging from the canopy of leaves.

Traversing the area would certainly not be easy, and Ven quickly started worrying about insects and snakes. 'Relax, these clothes aren't just for show.' She told herself as she finally pushed herself up. Her legs were shaky, but not so much that she would be in danger of falling.

She was still in her work clothes, a white lab coat which easily shrugged of the moist dirt. It was designed to be strong, resilient, and sterile. Expensive to make, and a great comfort to Ven in an unknown area.

'What on Earth happened?' She wondered as she looked at the area, not recognizing a great number of the plants. Which was impressive, considering her habit of reading. Not fantasy nor storybooks, but rather about plants, animals, physics, and anything humans had come to discover or question.

"Well, no matter what happened, I need to find something to drink." She mumbled as she moved closer to the fern-like plants making up most of the nearby underbrush.

'Ferns… At least that means this place gets a decent amount of rainfall.' She thought as she started moving the leaves out of the way to see how dense the forest was.

Sighing, she realized that walking was going to truly be a pain. Adding onto this the ground was soft and moist, almost muddy. Making each step take even more energy than she was used to.

Luckily, somehow, she had managed to keep a regular workout. More on weekends, but it meant that she might be able to cross some sort of distance before becoming tired.

As she trudged on, she felt more and more confused as the plants entering her vision were not what she expected. They all seemed extremely exotic, and some of the plants even moved.

The first time this had happened had was scared out of her wits, believing some animal was pouncing. The strange sights just constantly reminded her that this seemed to not be a place discovered on Earth. Which was simply impossible, considering that the entire planet had mostly been converted into buildings and ecological gardens.

After hours of trudging alone, she decided to take a rest when she found a particularly comfy rock to sit on. As her weight lifted from her legs, she realized just how tired she was. Making the original shortly planned rest turn into a far longer one.

'What am I going to do?' She wondered as she massaged her legs to ease the soreness.

During her walk she had failed to see any edible food, other than mushrooms. However, like the other plants, she did not recognize them. She did not wish to tempt fate.

As she massaged her legs, the leaves above parted and a ray of sunlight reached her. The sudden increased warmth made her look up, leaving her without words.

The sun she had expected was not there, instead what she saw was a light blue circle. Almost half the size of the sun.

"Ho-how? How is this possible?" She questioned, realizing just what type of star this planet was orbiting. And it made no sense.

"How are we alive, how is there anything on this planet?" She asked, this star was not nearly as bright as the Sun. Looking at it directly did not hurt her eyes, confirming what she thought it was even more.

Flickering in the sky, the circle clearly not solid, a pulsar spun around its own orbit thousands of times per second. Sending millions of kilograms of matter straight at the planet.

'This… This must really be a different planet then.' She thought, the strange plants suddenly making sense but her hopes for survival quickly diminishing.

She tried to distract herself with questions, such as how far in evolution this planet was. Clearly, it was already fully formed with an ecological system fully developed. Else there would not be a forest, and not to mention one as dense as the one she was in.

'Are there any people, or sentient beings? Wouldn't that be something? After a few hundred years of space travel, if I was the first to meet aliens.' She chuckled at the thought, however, she soon realized that there was no knowing how advanced such a race would be.

'Oh god, just be past the medieval times!' Hoping for this small miracle and wondering whether or not she should try and meet the people, she rested for another hour. Forcing herself up as it was now about midday. She couldn't waste precious daylight. Not after confirming night was still far away.

'I hope physical laws are the same… And natural ones…' She felt this would be highly likely. All the planets the human race had colonized and visited had the same basic rules.

Evolution might have led to a different outcome, but in the end the planets had plants. Plants that needed water and good soil, plants that needed a sun. However, the last part was not as clear for this planet's sun was truly not a normal star.