It's an odd thing to wake up with a set of warm breasts pressed against your face. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice feeling and all even if it's unexpected. At least until the pain sets in and the room starts to spin.

"No. Bad Alex. You're going to sit back and rest for a little longer. When the wormhole collapsed, you being a giant dumbass managed to unhook your harness somehow and fly headfirst into the rear bulkhead of the engineering bay. You're going to have a hell of a migraine once you get feeling a bit better though, but I managed to get you something for it."

Every time I tried to speak, Rose would press a finger against my lips and shush me with a giggle. Apparently spending a lot of money on an upgraded chassis for her was a bad idea. She was about as close to human as you could get without being biological. She had all the senses that people and and then some due to her AI nature. Not that I was complaining about a petite redhead in a form fitting suit of armor holding my head on her lap. At least she got the gist of what I was trying to grunt.

"The damage to the Corvus isn't too horrible all things considered. I managed to get us crash-landed on a nearby planet, but I have absolutely no idea where we are. From the little bit I could see before I got too occupied, the stars don't match up to anything known. At least we got a comm beacon launched before we hit atmo. "

Call me crazy but I swear she was fidgeting on purpose to wave around her new cleavage while talking. For a robot body, Rose was pretty comfy at least as whatever sedative started to pull me back under. My last thought as the abyss took me was wondering why everything outside the canopy was rippling and blue.

I'm assuming a few hours had passed since I was awake last. The blue slight spilling through the windows was more of a deep indigo, even though I still had no idea what was causing it. For now, nothing hurt so I was content to lay in my bunk and enjoy the feeling of a warm blanket against my bare skin and a large bed. Wait.

"ROSE! Why am I naked?!"

It took everything I had not to jerk away when a sultry voice came through the speaker next to my head as just a whisper, "Because you were bleeding in your flight suit, you idiot. I get that they’re modern fabrics and polymers but blood is still a pain to get out of some things, and we don't have many extras." That was actually a good point considering god knows when or if help would be coming, let alone how bad the ship was.

"So you don't hurt yourself getting out of bed yet, just watch the projection on the ceiling and I'll show you what's going on."

At least she didn't start the lights off too bright as an image began to form on the ceiling from hidden projectors. It only took a moment for my brain to wonder what the hell I was seeing though. Obviously the short and curvy woman was Rose, but the shimmering wall of blue behind her and the dried cracked earth confused me the most. Purely mechanical frames plodded along behind her, showering sparks as they worked on one thing or replaced another with a lot more urgency than I was expecting.

"The good news is we didn't blow out anything major when we landed. The weapons and comms gear were all retracted well before we came in. Bad news is the shields were way overstrained. Both primary and secondary generators overheated and went into emergency shutdown. That tertiary backup you had installed saved our bacon, BUT it was so stressed I had to do something drastic to keep it from frying itself. You know the shimmering behind me and all? I maybe...kind of... had to park us in a lake to use it as a heat sink. I should have the main systems rebooted soon, then we can get out of the water. Both of us know the shields weren't designed for this."

That was something I certainly wasn't expecting to hear. At least the ship was in decent shape, not that we knew where we were. Losing all of our supplies or the ship would have been an even larger setback though. If that comm beacon managed to connect, rescue would be quick and easy. We just had to get out of this lake first.

It wasn't too long before the clank of the airlock sealing and cycling grabbed my attention. I'd managed to make my way down to the engineering space a bit earlier, in a failed attempt to try rebooting the shield generators. Unfortunately with so much of a draw and heat output from the emergency backup, there was no way it would happen. At least Rose was working on it from her end of things as well.

"Ugh, remind me to give my body a shower when we get out of here. I had to leave it in the troop bay so I wouldn't drag mud around the decks. I know it would be easy to clean, but we have bigger things to do. Getting out of this lake is a good start, and I think I've got the engines primed enough to get out of here. SInce you have a concussion, just strap in and I'll handle the flying. We won't be going far."

By the time I'd managed to stumble into the cockpit, the engines were already spooling up to lift us away from the lakebed. Amazingly enough, it didn't look like there was more than a few feet of water above the top of the shields. A small grace I guess. Dull shaking rocked the Corvus as we rose slowly against the water pressure. The engines weren't designed for this, but they were working at least as the water changed from a deep blue to pale, to a view of the evening sky.

"Engines operating at Forty-one percent. Once I find a place to set down, we'll be here a while. I'll need to set up a canopy and do some in depth maintenance on both primaries."

A darkened forest met my eyes as we climbed above it, heading to somewhere that only Rose knew.

Unbeknownst to our heroes, their departure was viewed in the distance by the searching Night Guard. To them, all that was seen was a burst of light and the roar of an angry dragon. By the time they arrived at the site, all that remained was a boiling lake full of dead fish and a strange series of scorch marks. Princess Luna would need to be advised of this. Next Chapter: 05. Strange Lights and Stranger Sights Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 31 Minutes