Genesis 62

Disclaimer: If you, or anyone else, have ever been in any such situation, I didn't know of it. Just a product of my imagination. No intention to portray any real persons or situations etc.

Chill, this is fiction!

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CHAPTER 1

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No sound.

Explosion. Beauty. Pains the soul with a poison from heaven. Colours. So many, new, impossible colours. A whole pantheon of colours never imagined or witnessed before by the human eye. Coming from, and going, everywhere. Ever-changing, ever-evolving. Lasting forever. The most beautiful forever known to man. Even if it lasted for only so long.

A feeling of a presence of... another? Where? Can't be seen. But can be felt.

Someone else is here too.

Black.

Thud.

Excruciating pain.

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Dizziness.

A thunder in the ears.

Air so heavy. Like honey in air form. Cannot breathe. Have to.

Heavy, forced breath. So much oxygen! So, unimaginably tiring. Air so thick! Too tired to breath again.

You have to breath, you idiot! You ain't gonna die on me now, you hear me? Just one more fucking breath! A small, shallow breath. Come on!

Small, shallow panting. I can hear it? Internally... yes. I can.

Thank God. Or whoever else.

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Thunder in the ears starts subsiding. Ears hurt so much. Air so thick. Gulps down again and again, hoping not to pierce eardrums.

What the hell is this? No place on Earth with this kind of atmospheric pressure. Its like in the sea, scuba diving. Not doing that now, though. Just breathing. Barely.

The thunder is the heartbeat. At least there exists one.

Start focusing on the sounds outside. Nah, too much pain.

Eyes seem to function too. Behind the eyelids. Light. Just open the eyes. You can do it, you fucking infant.

Eyelids have never felt so heavy.

Come on, you can do this.

Still dizzy.

**********************************

A rhombus of a strangely-coloured light as eyelids softly and tiredly open a small hatch.

Closing again.

Dizziness subsides. Another attempt to open eyelids. Rhombus again. Still opening.

What the heck?!

A white-ish, magenta-ish, grey-ish gorgeous beauty of a sky. Stars faintly visible, through the clear light.

Ok, this must be the afterlife. Or similar.

Time to stand corrected: this is a hallucination. Or schizophrenia. Or, how the hell do they calls this, genius? The impossible worlds created by an ever-fertile mind?

Your mind is fertile alright. As fertile as a fucking rabbit. Screw that. As fertile as an army of microbes in a Petri dish eating agar and reproducing themselves like batshit crazy. Fitting description for you, my man?

Hell yeah.

Two suns? Both of them smaller than the real sun? Bright White-Magenta-Bluish? And what are these? One, two, three moons? The magenta-like colours of dusk and dawn, only so more magenta than in reality?

You must have consumed a factory-load of industrial-quality LSD or equivalent, my man! Too bad there is no recollection of such an event.

And that gas giant right there, like the Saturn, as seen from, well, Enceladus? A partial view of the giant covering about one quarter of the visible sky? Its beauty beyond description. The whole scenery beyond description. So beyond description, it likely doesn't exist.

Well, fuck, it really doesn't. You are stoned as fuck, asshole.

Ok, this is fucked up. I am officially fucked up. Or plain fucked.

Damn it.

Take a breath now. The elephant on your chest will grant you one small pant, gasp or equivalent.

I must remember to not die.

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"help..."

Just a faint, panting whisper.

From a girl?

Fuck. Hallucinations again.

"...help..."

Gasps, panting, an octave higher from the usual. Definitely a girl.

Rotations of the head are very, very tiring. As if the head weighs twice its normal weight.

Rotating head left, at the very tiring, very upper top of the field of vision.

Shit.

Vanessa.

Shickity Shit.

Fucking Vanessa. The Goddess. Of ice, attitude and torment. And painful, gorgeous, extra-terrestrial, divine beauty.

She doesn't seem to be doing well.

"...help, please..."

Shit. She will die.

-"Vanessa?"

-"...yes..." a whisper, inside a strained breath. Hint of crying unable to surface. Too much shock. Too much pain. Too much weight. Too much oxygen. Too much air pressure. Too much everything.

I know how that feels.

-"Take small breaths, shallow". I take a breath. "No deep ones". Breath again. "Swallow", breath, "for your ears".

Pants at first, finds a rhythm. Swallows. Sounds painful.

Ok, she sounds safe for now. She is a star athlete, it should help.

-"Have you opened your eyes?"

Pause.

-"No", feminine breath, "dizzy."

-"I must tell you", breath, "you are in for a surprise."

Pause.

-"Wha...?", feminine gasp. Panting, panicky.

Shit.

-"Vanessa", breath, "Breathe", breath. "Find your rhythm".

I hear her doing just that. No other sound. She is obviously taking in the sights.

-"Where", feminine gasp, "are we?"

Shit again. The million dollar question. As if dollars mean shit here. Two suns, a Saturn and three moons. Dollars don't mean a rat's ass here, asshole.

-"Looks like another planet", breath, "in another solar system", breath.

An applause for the genius, ladies and gentlemen. Hats off, Einstein, for so eloquently stating the obvious. As if two suns, three moons and a Saturn-like planet are everyday occurrences on Earth. Or our sun is actually two. Blue-ish stars, to boot. Which incidentally means, hotter.

Pause.

-"H...how?"

Poor Vanessa.

Away from your social status, your circles, the potential suitors that line up single-file, fifty desperate people each time you go out, just to talk to you. The absolute, undisputed epitome of feminine perfection. The Queen Mother of the campus Goddesses. The dream of centrefold sexuality with classy beauty in one, unaffordable package. The top of the top.

And from all that, here, in this... obviously alien world. Alone. With me. You sure know how to pick your dates.

-"I have no idea. I was just leaving the Accelerator Building, ready to take my bike. That's all I know."

Breath.

Shit, that was a long sentence! I must be beginning to get accustomed to the air pressure and all. It didn't come effortlessly, but it did come.

-"I... just closed my locker", breath. Crying ready to surface, too much pressure and weight to let it.

Poor Vanessa. I understand, more than you know.

-"H... how did this happen?", small, feminine sob. "How did we end up here?"

-"I have a hunch, but I need to think."

-"Did you do this?"

Shit. Hell no, but I have an idea what happened, and then I don't. What does one say? The truth, asshole.

-"No. I am not a God or a teleporter or own a star gate", breath. "I cannot ever do this". Breath. "However, I do have a hunch on how it happened, but I need further data to be sure". Breath. "I am not responsible for this in any way, but I have", gasp - too long a breath, Superman! - "an idea of who is responsible, how and why", breath, "but I need more data".

Pause.

-"Josh?"

Breath. From me. The first time she refers to me by name. No "loser", "geek", "nerd", "Einstein", or other decoratory names as casually created on the spot by her Homo Erectus male companionship, or Kim Kardashian wannabe girlfriends. Just my name. She actually knows my name! Now this is a discovery worthy of interstellar travel.

If this actually is interstellar travel, and not something even worse.

-"Yes?"

Pause.

-"I can't move", breath. Pause. "Can you move closer?"

Shit. The Queen Goddess asked for me.

Ok, time to move.

Lets turn face down, Hercules.

On my left side. Oh God, my ribcage! It feels like it is going to get crushed by my weight. But I am not that heavy! What in the name of fuck is going on?

After some strenuous time on my side and my suffering ribs, I manage to get on a face-down position. I actually felt myself falling while rotating. But that's impossible, right?

Well, only if the gravity here is higher than on Earth. Considerably higher.

Oh, so fucking super great. An alien planet on which we will probably die of decubitus or starve to death, die of thirst, or broken bones after a freefall from the wuthering heights of half the size of my dick, and still worrying about scientific facts. Once a nerd, always a nerd, muthafucka. What a fucking loser.

The shape of the horizon is very non-Earth-like. It seems flatter than the Earth's horizon, as I see it. I have actually measured its curvature as a kid as a part of a science project, so I can tell. And yes, there is a thing that one can measure called 'curvature', look it up.

Which, if everything else is to scale, this planet has a gravity, radius, diameter and great circumference larger than the Earth's, a mass quite larger, etc. Its atmosphere is rich in oxygen, and very heavier than Earth's. But you can't tell atmospheric density based on planet mass alone, so this is just our luck.

Hell, this actually IS incredible luck. We didn't 'arrive' inside the planet, buried in turf or magma. Or in outer space, where we would not know what to die from first. Or higher above the surface, which, given the higher gravity, would result in us having the mother of freefalls, with the predictable, messy results. Or in, at or above the sea, if there is a sea here. The planet that we arrived at has a breathable atmosphere. And we were eased in on it.

It could have been so, so much worse.

My third worry now is if we find drinkable water. My second, if Vanessa is ok, although I believe so.

My first worry is to get up on my two feet.

Doesn't seem likely.

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Ok, let's try doing one little pushup. To get on my knees.

Yes, it is official. The gravity is quite higher than the Earth's. I feel the same as when I did pushups with weights on my back. But this time, I can feel my insides being the weight, and it is absolutely horrible. I feel as if they are going to fall off, inside my body. I have to keep my muscles tight to a certain degree at all times, otherwise I can have multiple internal injuries.

We weren't designed to have our internal organs this heavy.

-"Vanessa?"

-"...yes?..."

-"Don't move yet. I'll come over."

-"...ok..."

I start to move on my knees towards her. Not a nice feeling at all. Like a post-operative haze, only worse. There is no part of my body that was designed for any of this. Nor Vanessa's, come to think of it. I must help her, but how?

We'll cross that bridge when we get there, Romeo.

Covering the distance, I realize I have to make myself used to this. I must get stronger or die. So does she.

Shit.

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Looking around, I can only describe what I see as a scene of devastation. Remnants of walls, ceilings, some clean-cut parts of a few birds and an unlucky cat lying around.

Vanessa and I are inside the circumference of a circular ring, about 2 meters in width and about 200 meters in diameter. Whatever was outside the ring was clean-cut. Inside the inner part of the ring stand the various demolished parts of walls and the maimed creatures. Which tells me that whatever brought us here chopped up a two-meter-thick spherical shell of whatever was there, with the same diameter as the ring. Anything outside the outer or inside the inner boundaries of the shell was sheared. Once here, anything below surface was probably buried in the ground. Anything too high above surface crumbled due to gravity.

Nice work Sherlock!

We still are in one piece. I have seen no human remains anywhere. Ok, Vanessa and I were so fucking lucky. And so is everybody else as it seems. If not, they are buried below surface, we'll never know about them.

I take a look at Vanessa.

Yes, it is her alright. She wears tight jeans that showcase the body made for sin. Her boobs a bit flatter than what I remember, yet another sign of the increased gravity here. Normally they stood proud no matter the angle. Here, their weight matters. Her hair as beautiful as always. Her face strained from the shock.

I am starting to feel the beginning of an erection, but my dick starts to feel so much heavier than it is used to that I worry it will fall off. That is enough to send any sexual thoughts away.

She keeps her eyes on me at all times. The closer I slowly get, the more comfort I see in them. She is really relieved that I am there.

Hey asshole, this is not personal. You are a human being on an alien planet. The only one except her, most likely. Of course she would feel comforted by your presence. You are not her human of choice for this, but since you are here, you will have to do. The logistics of being stranded with the loser. What the hell did you think?

She tiredly sends her right hand towards me. I lower myself on the ground, lying face down, and crawl towards her. I am right next to her. In spite of my pain all over, my kneecaps, my palms, elbows, torso, everything hurts. Even my brain seems dizzy from its own weight. Or is it the blood that goes lower because that too is heavier?

I truly don't know if we will survive, and for how long. The only thing I know is that we have to keep moving and changing positions, otherwise we will have internal injuries. Our insides weigh too fucking much.

I cover the distance between us and I touch her hand. She grabs mine with a vengeance.

-"Please come closer..."

Who can say 'no' to that?

I turn on my side and then facing up, looking at the sky. I can actually feel the blood flow inside my head. Fucking gravity! I toss and turn and come near her. Ending up right next to her. Our heads a few centimetres apart. Holding hands. She looking intensely at me.

-"What do we do?"

Looking at those seas inside her eyes, the answer is easy.

-"We live".

Or die trying.

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I truly did expect our first date with Vanessa to be different. I expected it to be on Earth, at a nice, cosy little place, were we would be chatting away, me wooing her with my grandeur and innate charisma and her falling for my charms. I also expected it to never actually happen.

Well, here we are.

Holding hands, each other looking inside the eyes of the other through heavy, tilted heads.

She, trembling. Shocked. Shell-shocked would be better. Me, a bit more used to this, but not really. Still feeling lucky in all our proverbial asshole of a luck.

-"Can you tell me what happened?"

-"I can only make a guess. For some reason, a chunk of our world, a spherical shell roughly two hundred meters in diameter and about two meters thick, was chopped off our world and sent here."

I can really utter longer sentences. This is truly a good sign. I am getting used to this.

-"Whatever was outside the boundaries of the shell was clean-shaven. Once here, everything crumbled due to gravity, or buried underground. We are at the happy middle, I suppose. Lucky we weren't maimed, buried or sent high up in the air or outer space."

Ok, time for the bad news.

-"By the way, the gravity here is higher than Earth's."

I let that one sink in.

-"So, we are heavier here than on Earth?"

-"Yes. Based on the time it takes my sweat droplets to reach the ground, I would say about fifty percent heavier. And this is all of us, every organ, our blood, our brain, our limbs, everything."

-"And the air?"

-"It is super thick, and the pressure is higher too. Like scuba diving or something. Definitely a thicker atmosphere than Earth's. Lots of Oxygen too. But gravity alone doesn't account for that. It is complex."

-"Maybe that's why I am so dizzy all the time."

-"Could be."

Pause.

-"We are actually lucky on that as well. Planets in the habitable zone with breathable atmospheres are not very usual in our galaxy. In our solar system, only Earth is like that. We could have gotten it so much worse."

We stop chatting for a bit. I see her look at the heavenly heavens above. She tightens her grip on my hand.

-"It is so beautiful", breath, "I have never seen or imagined anything as beautiful as this in my life."

Longer sentences. She is getting used to the air and gravity, as well. Great news.

-"Me neither, Vanessa. If it weren't for the gravity, it would be heaven."

-"Yes. Heaven."

Pause.

-"Vanessa?"

-"Yes?"

-"If we wish to live, there are a few things we need to do".

-"What?"

-"We need to be shifting positions, to make sure we have no internal bleeding of any kind."

-"..."

-"And then we have to kneel".

-"Kneel?"

-"Yes, to begin movement by kneeling."

-"oh..."

-"And then, we have to start walking. Slowly at first, because bones can be very easily shattered in high gravity. Given enough time, we can make it. We will adapt. But - "

Gasp and pant.

"... we need to do all these, otherwise we are doomed."

-"Oh..."

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And thus begun our stay at our new home.

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CHAPTER 2

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It wasn't easy.

It took for ever for us to find out how to move without hurting. We got used to it little by little, but it was not easy.

Shifting positions at first, a bit at a time. She was good at this, being a truly good athlete has many perks. She helped me too, I wouldn't have imagined it in a million years.

Then the kneeling. And the "stop staring at my ass" jokes. She was actually quite fun. The bad part is that I have been infatuated with her for a long time, as long as I have known her. Along with everybody else. And she knew all along. But here, we definitely needed each other to survive. Even that gave me a chance to interact. And I took all I was given.

When we walked our first baby steps, it was a sweet victory. We actually cried a little, with joy. In each other's arms. It was a no step for one man or woman, but a giant leap for our survival. Good ole' Neil "Not playing the cornet or riding a bike" Armstrong would have been so proud. Only he had a nice, light gravity to tackle. And no air, and an infernal environment. Shit, I preferred our own little big chunk of heavy hellish heaven.

Her locker 'arrived' here with her, and it had enough dry food and water to last us for a short while. I then found quite some more supplies in the wreckage in the inner part of the ring. For any dirty business, we each designated a spot outside the circle and used it when the need arose. Not much privacy, but we respected each other. At least, I know I did. I didn't really care if she didn't.

Our metabolic rates went sky-high pretty fast. We were frequently hungry but lost fat because of the sheer difficulty of existing in a high-gravity environment. Our bodies rebuilt themselves to cope. In a short while we were very stronger than before, with a denser bone structure; in time, we could actually mimic our basic movements on Earth.

Time here seemed not to really pass. The two stars, the gas giant and three moons moved in the sky, but the overall lighting seemed constant. There were almost always multiple shadows. Although the rotation seemed to be smooth, the relative lighting shifted in a more-or-less unpredictable way. Many sources of light in their own, intricate dance, can do that. All electronics were dead from the very day we arrived, so there was no objective way to measure time. And I was not going to spend an entire chunk of time measuring how many hours passed between two instances of a similar configuration of the celestial bodies in the sky, especially when I did not even possess a true clock.