Chapter Text
-See you at supper.
-See ya.
Ozzy had finished the menu for the day already. Veloutte, meat pie and nut surprise. He had prepared everything with great pride and Ryley went early to be his taster and give him his approval... and to get gourmet food at discounted prices... he had offered him himself, of course. It didn't actually bother him, on the contrary, the fact that his friend came to say hi to him and enjoyed his food made him happy. Besides, it would be unfair not to give him a discount. Ryley was the only chief-ranked person in the whole ship that treated him like a human being and not a servant, and coincidentally, for a "weird" reason, he was the only chief-ranked person that hadn't a Plus Meal Plan previously paid by the corporation. That and his pay... Damned Alterra.
He really shouldn't be speaking ill of them. They gave him the chance. To him, out of so many bigger and more stablished businesses than his.
Ozzy had been born in alterran territory but had never been very "patriotic", specially being born in Terra 3, the martian colony, one of the first and poorest.
-I'm home, ma.
-Hi, sweetheart. Could you make dinner? I have to go to work now.
-Oh... they gave you the graveyard shift again.
With six younger siblings his parents could barely maintain, Ozzy had to work since he was very young to help to put food in their mouths, and that was his inspiration.
-It's delicious, Ozzy.
-Hehe, what can I say?
Food, his passion. His wish was to share it with everyone. But not just disgusting nutrition bars that dissolved like wet paper when it touches your mouth, no. Real food, warm, restorative, delicious and at prices that wouldn't leave people homeless if they weren'r part of Alterra Directors' Board. He lost his youth saving up to go to Culinary School but he got out there as chef. CHEF! The first graduate from his family in more than a century.
-Congratulations, son. We are so proud of you.
-Thanks, pa.
Being organic, real food, something so extremely rare, and chefs who could made it even rarer, Ozzy had no issues in getting a job in one of the most luxurious restaurant in Mars. Salary was so good he could pay for the college tuition of three of his siblings alone. He even became chubby. But the pompous attitude of those who could pay for that "luxury" reminded him daily that was not the dream. He went back to saving up. Saving and Saving until he could have his first business. One of his own, one people could pay for. And so, in his thirty-some, he opened the Snap Blu. His own low cost cafe. His clients? Anyone who wanted a good Mac and cheese, a delicious medium cooked steak, a real salad...
-Just 200 credits? It's basically a steal.
His dream didn't took off immediately. To mantain a good business that offered an expensive product at a cheaper price than normal was hard. But, by his forties, he was able to get a second location. The dream came true. But, could he make it even bigger? Alterra had presented their A- class services contest a year before the launch of their most recent Capital class ship, the Aurora.It was the chance he needed. If he could put a Snap Blu in that ship, he could expand his business to any place in the Orion and Ariadne's Arms.
_Tell us, Mr. Lawson Why we should pick you?
It was hard, there were much more ancient businesses, with previous contracts with Alterra, bigger and more prestigious. But when he presented the tasting of his products... It was his, damn it! He had to cave in a bit and make his prices more expensive to please Alterra, but it didn't matter, he could establish whichever prices he wanted in the future. His dream was in-route to the stars.
And then, like a meteor, the dream plummeted to the ground in flames... very literally. First, it was like a roar, a massively big thunder. he was in his cafe when it happened, of course. And the floor moved so strongly that him and all of his delicious tardigrade veloutte fell to the ground.
-Ughhhh! Damn...
Then, there were the alarms, the red lights that wouldn't stop blinking. Something was wrong, very wrong, but he could not comprehend how much until the automated voices started to speak.
-Abandon ship.
-What?
It was not happening. It could not be happening. He want out his cafe to confirm that wasn't what the speaker said, but a swarm of panicked people not only confirmed it the contrary, they drag him with them.
-What's going on?
-There was an explosion in the leisure deck!- someone shouted in the distance, but there was no further explanation. The ship kept shaking like there was an earthquake. Was it an asteroid field? Did a comet crashed with them? No one knew anything, just that the ship was falling and fast, and they needed to get out there fast.
The human stampede took him to lifepod deck alpha, which was a fortune because he probably would have never arrived on his own, he was in complete shock. Once there, he stayed put, watching how the round little ships filled up quickly and disappeared. He watched Officer Yu being helped in the one with the number two by that Berkeley moron. Rosa Dosamantes from the accounting department was trying to get into the 12 when this one was suddenly shot before she could and the poor woman stayed there, lying still in the floor, maybe for the shock or something worse but nobody stopped to help her. He watched two guys he recognized from robotics lab getting into number four just to dissapear afterwards. And so they left, ona after another, and with them, the alpha deck gradually became empty, until...
-What the hell are you doing!? Run!
Someone took his hand. A woamn with blond hair and curiously sporty clothes. If it wasn't for her, he would have died because she dragged him to the safety of the seventeen. Not knowing even how he got seated and safely restricted, Ozzy suddenly found himself immersed in the weightlessness of free falling, the tremor from the fireball that had been the Aurora and the boiling stinging of the planetfall. Then, everything came to a sudden stop, the lifepod parachutes had activated and now they were slowly falling to an unknown world.
-Where the hell are we!?- that's what he managed to say. Apparently, the shock had been quickly replaced by panic.
-Calm down-said the woman who dragged him there, trying to contain her own nervousness.
-What's going on!?
-I don't know, I don't know!- the poor woman lost it, to the point Ozzy's desperation make her want to asphyxiate him. Nevertheless, before she could do something she would regret, gravity disappeared again, replaced by the free fall.
-AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! -was all that came out of their throats. Debris from the Aurora that kept falling tore the parachute. And it was not just any flying bit of metal. No. It was a whole piece of the ship! Ozzy could see a Seamoth being crushed after crashing with the pod through the hatch's glass and with horror could infer correctly that it was these vehicles' whole bay what was falling upon them.
All they could do was to wait for the hulk to crush them but, before that could happen, the 17 hit something hardly and shakes around everywhere. Ozzy and his lady partner would have been whipped up, down, right and backwards if not for their seatbelts. The Seamoth bay passed near but it didn't crush them, surprisingly, it send them away, as if it raised a wave. It took them a few seconds to realize that was the case and now, they were falling slower than with the parachute. They fell in the water and were sinking slowly.
- Are you... Are you alright?- said the woman breathlessly and the only thing the enormous man could do was to nod. Why was he nodding?! He was not fine! H was not fine at all! The Aurora exploded and now they were sinking slowly in God knows were. With their luck of today, they were falling in the acid swamps of Boreal 9 and would dissolve in agony in any moment.
He had no idea what to do, neither his partner really. It was their PDA's who gave them info, after being restarted in Emergency mode.
-Let's seem. It says here we are in 4546B and it is an oceanic planet- said his partner. Great! It was not acid, just an ocean who knows how deep it goes.
-What...what do we do!?- he tried to calm down but his voice came out squeaky with fright.
-It says here the air is breathable and when should find other survivors- the woman responded.
-We are... a hundred meters under the sea.
-I know! I know!... I know.
They were silent for a few minutes, evaluating their options, collecting their resources, catching their breath. In the end, they came to a conclusion.
- Maybe... we should wait to be rescued.
- Yes... Yes, that's a good idea- said Ozzy back.
And eventually, rescue would come, but not in the way they were both expecting.