Providence

Chapter One: In The Black"Somewhere up above the stars

the wreckage of a universe floats past."

In dreams, one can see the faces of their past. He watched his early years float by. His mother... all he could remember was she. Not even his dreams could show him the rest of his family memories. Her smile was shining on him, full of love. Fast forward through the years he couldn't see. Who knows what happened all those years ago? He didn't care, though. He looked to the future, but not before reminiscing about what brought him to it.

A simple little rocket had landed on the barren planet. That was the start, but it happened many years before he was born. Soon, that rocket was joined by others, and soon, actual people. Shortly thereafter, the barren planet was destined to transform into a new paradise, and it was done. People were ready to finally go there to live. Ships full of "sleepers" would be launched on that day, carrying them to their future home among the stars. In his heart, he knew that when he woke up, he would see his future.

He saw their faces. His new “friends”, all thirty of them, all grouped together, forming the seed of a colony that would be named after their vessel: Providence. Who knows how far they would go? Would they be a little wreck of a colony – a terrible disaster? Would they be a well-known city? Or would they just be a modest little town, not well known, but not unheard of? Only time would tell. But he couldn't see the time in his dreams, through the timeless depths of his mind.

They started to twist, though. Fears and worries emerged, along with everything they bring. He died in his dreams.

He was killed by...

Suddenly, he was awake. Bleary and dazed, he attempted move. Feeling came back to his fingers, then toes, and then he could see again. The metallic insides of his pod were coated in a dull blue light. The glass that was used for others to see in was foggy. He slowly raised an arm – punctured by life sign detecting needles – and wiped the fog away. The outside was dark, but lights were clearly flickering. They should have been in working order, though. He rubbed his eyes, rubbing away the dreaminess and becoming fully awake. Someone should have come by now to get him out of the pod, but no one was coming. Looking around for a way to get out, his eyes suddenly encountered a stabbing sensation. He frantically tried to get whatever was stabbing them out, only to find that his hair had gotten in them. His hair... he almost forgot how long it was. Not TOO long, but longer than most young men his age – that being (let's see...) sixteen.

When he could see again, he looked up and above the glass window in front of him and spotted a lever of some sort. The words "EMERGENCY POD OPENING: PULL LEVER TO EXIT" gave him an idea of what would happen when he used it. The lever was stubborn and it took all of his strength to turn it. When it budged, the metallic creak slowly became a puffing sound, as the air from inside the sleeper pod mixed with the air from the outside. The door swung away, and he raised a leg to step out. He miscalculated though, and almost landed on his face. He caught his fall, landing on his hands and knees on the metal floor with a thud.

On his knees, the first thing he noticed was the cold. It was freezing, and the fact that the only clothing he was wearing was a pair of standard issue sleeper undergarments – a pair of boxers and an undershirt – that freezing cold was like hell to his exposed limbs. He needed to find some extra layers quickly or he might freeze to death. The pod was so warm in comparison to the outside, and that thought made him almost want to go back in, maybe sleep a little longer. That wasn't an option. He absolutely needed to know what was going on. Standing up on his feet and shielding himself against the cold, he turned around in a full circle to get his bearings. In one direction he would find the main bridge of the ship, in the other there was a storage area. There were a few more pods against the wall, adjacent to where his empty one was. The light on the inside silhouetted the occupants. His priority changed then, he had to see if he could wake them up.

He approached one of the pods and tried to look inside it. The fog, like that from his own pod, obscured his vision. He raised a hand and ran it across the glass in a single wipe...

What he saw couldn't have been so. The fear from his dreams took him again, making him shake more than the cold did. Once again, he ran his hand over the glass, wiping away all the fog, only to confirm the impossible. Whoever was in this pod had been long dead. Only brownish skeleton remained.

"Impossible," he whispered in disbelief. That was the first word out of his mouth since he woke up. He backed away from that pod, grasping at some hope. Maybe it was only that pod that was compromised. Maybe the others were alive. He went to another pod, then another, and another before giving up. All of the other pods had a skeleton in them. He slumped against the metal wall opposite of the pods and pressed his wrists against his eyes. This couldn't be... this shouldn't have happened. Was he dead? Was this a nightmare? No, it wasn't a nightmare, and he didn't even want to think of the possibility that this may be some sort of hell and that he was dead. It was real, he realized. Am I the only one left? was the last thing he asked himself before standing and moving on towards the storage area.

Grazing a hand along the wall, he felt for the storage room door in the darkness. Finally, he found it. Inside the storage room, the white lights were in perfect working order, making his skin look a pasty white. He looked at the boxes around the room and noticed something. One of the boxes was open – the box full of clothes. So someone else was walking around on board, he wasn't alone! That in mind, he didn't want to be caught with his pants down. He searched through the box and began to lift jumpsuits out, looking for one that fit. Too small... too large... way too large... and finally, a perfect fit. He slipped it on and instantly began to feel warmer. He then moved on to the other boxes to see what he could find. Freeze-dried food – specifically the eggs – caught his eye. He put that in his jumpsuit pocket, along with a jar of water, just in case he got hungry looking around the ship. In another box he found a small, compact rifle. Who knew what the other people wandering around would be like – probably driven insane by the dead bodies and the darkness. He took the weapon and grabbed a box of ammunition (seven clips, six bullets each), loading the gun with one of the clips. Taking a last look in the boxes, he opened a box full of clip-on flashlights. True it's their name, the one he took out clipped to his jumpsuit without bouncing around when he moved, so he could have a steady beam. Satisfied, he left the room and headed for the bridge with the little light on.

When he passed his pod, he heard something in the hall. Something was moving around... or someone. Taps on the metal sounded like footsteps. He turned around and shined the beam of light behind him, his rifle at the ready. But the sounds weren't coming from behind, but rather...

He turned back around quickly and his beam caught his shadow, who raised their hands in defense. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" she pleaded. "It's okay, I'm a survivor, too!" He kept the gun raised for a moment, then lowered it when he was sure she wasn't a threat. She was his age, wearing a jumpsuit like his, and her light brown hair was done in a ponytail that draped over her right shoulder.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

"Kit, I'm an engineer," she answered. "Yours?"

"Jordan, I'm in agriculture." He took a step forward. "Do you know what's happened?"

Kit shrugged. "I woke up... four days ago, I think. There are other survivors, though. Three others, in fact." She got up and looked into his face. "Let's get to the bridge, we practically live there." She began to lead him down the hall. "Follow me. Also, if you see anything that looks like us, shoot it."

That suggestion struck Jordan as a bit shocking. "Why? Aren't you..."

"It's better to explain on the bridge, just keep in mind that we – you and me – are the only survivors out here, got it?"

He followed her without saying another word. Their footsteps ringing out in a metal "thump thump thump" as they made it to the big, round door that led to the bridge. Kit approached a console next to the door and pressed her hand against it. "Found him, guys. Open the door," she said. A mechanical whir sounded as the door separated into two halves, top and bottom, as it opened, ending with a clang as they were done. Jordan and Kit entered the bridge, which was lit up by emergency power. There were three other people in the room. An older man whose jumpsuit indicated he was one of the captains, a man that looked only a little older than Jordan wearing tinted goggles, and a girl with short hair who was about eighteen.

"Jordan, meet Captain Vash–" Kit gestured to the older man. "–Gwinn, but you can call her Gunny–" she gestured to the girl. "–And Bryant," she said as she pointed to the guy with the goggles.

"Jordan Polter," he introduced himself to everyone. "Agriculture. Anyone know what's going on?"

"Well, don't you just want to dive into everything?" the Captain laughed, but stopped himself with a cough. "Sorry, this isn't a laughing matter."

"What he means to say," Bryant said. "Is that we're in some serious shit. Or manure, my farmer brother."

"I build the greenhouses," Jordan said. "I'm not a farmer."

"Getting off track, guys," Kit pointed out.

"Right, anyway..." the Captain started. "Gunny and I were the first to wake up. When we did, we found that we are, as Bryant puts it, in some serious shit."

"That being?" Jordan asked.

"Four things," the man continued. "One: A lot of the pods failed, as you may have seen. Everyone in the failed pods died a while ago. We'll get to how long ago that was later. Two: We picked up some kind of space termite."

Jordan was dumbfounded by that. "What? You can't be serious!" he said.

"Calm down, kid, I'm not done," the Captain said, raising a hand. "We may have picked them up from a small meteor that hit one of the lower sections of the ship. Fortunately, that section was sealed off."

"So we don't get sucked into space... yet," Gunny said. "It's only a matter of time before one of them chews through the hull. These guys are termites from Earth on steroids. They eat metal!"

"Three," Vash continued. "This." He pushed several buttons on the console in front of him, and an external view of the ship popped up on the main screen. A large object that didn't match the main structure was attached to the ship. "That is a ship."

"So... what?" Jordan said. "We've been boarded by aliens?" It sounded ridiculous, but it wasn't as far-fetched as it seemed.

"Yep, these guys." The Captain pushed a few more buttons that brought up a still frame. Two people that looked human, but something about their hair was different – unnatural color for a human – standing over a man in their pod undergarments. The two standing over the man were wearing capes of some sort. "They call themselves 'Adapters' in this video, and this is what they do." He pushed another button and a video began from the still frame.

"Please, what do you want?" the man on the ground begged. "I'll do anything! Please!"

"You'll do anything?" the Adapter with red and blue hair said. “Why does that sound familiar?”

"We don't need to do this, Oroon," the other, with white hair, said. "This is not a good idea..."

"Shut up, Regged!" Oroon yelled. "I do what I want – what I’m ordered – and what the others want!"

"Not all the others share your opinion about them," Regged pointed out. "If we could just–"

"No!" Oroon pulled out some kind of sword and waved it at Regged. "I am the leader of this crew! We are Adapters!” The other “Adapter” looked confused as he mentioned their name. “We ADAPT to EVERYTHING. That means we come out on top, and everything else should be squashed like a bug!" Oroon pointed the sword at the kneeling man and brought it down. Jordan flinched when the metal came out of the man’s chest and he started to make a gurgling noise. Blood started to pour out of his impaled body as he slumped, dead. Then the video ended. Jordan rubbed his eyes in disbelief. How could they do that? Regged seemed almost decent, but he didn't even physically try to save the man. Who knows if he could be trusted if he contacted them?

"In case you haven't noticed, we're going from bad to worse on our list," the Captain said. He had said there were four things that Jordan needed to know, and that was the third – that a kind of alien wanted to wipe them all out. What could possibly be worse?

"Four..." the Captain said, drawing it out with a sigh. "We've been asleep for longer than a year... much longer."

"How long?" Jordan asked. Part of him didn't want to know.

The Captain rubbed his eyes and didn't answer. Bryant took that duty upon himself. "We've been sleeping for... eighty-five years."

It felt like Jordan was punched in the gut. He got down on his hands and knees as the full weight hit him. Eighty-five years! He was 101 years old now! His family, his friends he knew on Earth... all gone! He had missed everything! Who knows what else they've missed. What if... what if the world ended while they were asleep? What if the Earth was gone? They would never see it again, anyway, even if it were still there, eighty-five years away. They were lost in space. "No way..." he muttered. "No way!"

"I know," Bryant said with a solemn voice. "We've been asleep for that long."

"Damn!" Jordan yelled, punching the metal floor. Amazingly, he didn't break anything. Unbeknownst to him, this was how the Captain reacted when he heard the news.

"Look, Jordan: there is some good news," Bryant told him.

Jordan looked up, face ridden with sadness. "There is? Bullshit..."

"I wouldn't be morale officer if I didn't have any!" the crewman joked. "Anyway, guess what? We have a planet on the scanner, and it can support life!"

Jordan couldn't believe what he was hearing. They weren't lost in space, after all? There was hope? Somewhere they could restart?

"Yeah, but it's weird," Kit said. "The sun and moon go around the PLANET. Last time I checked, that isn't normal."

"It isn't normal that there is a bizarre energy field around the planet, unlike one we've ever seen before," Gunny said. "Forget the freakin' orbit! It's the unexplored universe, Kit!"

"Point taken, Gunny," Kit sighed. "So, what are we going to do?"

"...Land," the Captain said simply. "Why not? Providence has more than enough energy for it."

There was a silence. Not an awkward one, not a tense one, but a hopeful one. "Alright, let's do this," Gunny said finally.

The Captain approached the main console and started pressing buttons. "Engaging pre-landing protocol. Approaching Planet Prov." Planet Prov, as in Planet Providence. More technical babble from the Captain followed, Jordan sat up against the door to the bridge with his hands behind his neck and a smile on his face. Kit sat next to him.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Well, yeah!" Jordan exclaimed. "We have a chance after all!"

...But his joy was soon shattered. A buzzing sound came from the console the Captain was manning, and he paused, looking grim. He turned to the others, looking at him expectantly as the ship entered the planet's gravitational pull. "It's them."

He pushed a blinking button and a face appeared on the screen. It was an Adapter with blue hair. He had a smirk on his face as he waved a finger in the air. "Ah ah ah ah!" he said, chuckling. "Naughty naughty naughty! We can't have you landing on a foreign planet now, can we? Oroon said you might try it!"

The Captain pushed another button, and an image in the top left corner of the screen showed a view of the bridge. Vash snarled. "Eat a dick, son," he said indignantly.

"You first, old man," the Adapter said. "Well, that won't matter. After all, we just finished preparing for when you decided to do this! Happy landings, or should I say crashings?" He turned away from the screen and nodded. "Do it."

Shortly after the screen went blank, a blast shook the ship. A siren went off and the screen flashed red with a warning: "Engineering section breached. Sealing off area to prevent core breach from destroying ship."

"No! We won't make it now!" Kit yelled over the siren, panicked. Jordan was starting to panic as well. They were doomed for sure, now! All because of some bomb these assholes placed in engineering!

"Not quite!" The Captain shouted back. "I bet I can crash land this thing! I've done it before!"

"Really?" Gunny yelled.

"Well... no, but I can do it!" Jordan felt so much better.

"Here's something!" Bryant yelled, looking at a console. "The pods in area A5 can still be ejected. Jordan, that's your area. I'm deactivating ejection protocols for the other pods except yours and–"

"What do you want me to do?" Jordan shouted. Did he want only him to escape, leaving the others to crash?

"We'll be fine when the Captain crash lands, but e may need you to open the ship from the outside since the controls are busted by those Adapters!" Jordan understood this and nodded.

"You may wanna hurry to your pod!" The Captain yelled. "Impact in one minute, ejection in forty-five seconds!" with that, Jordan started to leave out the now open bridge doors. Kit wished him luck with a hug before that.

"Don't get killed," she said. "Don't tell me that, because I'm not gonna die here. You, on the other hand..."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Jordan mumbled before he ran out of the bridge and into the hallway. The flickering lights were getting faster and more repetitive. Fortunately, he wasn't epileptic. If he were, then he would have been dead before he entered the hallway. As he neared his pod, he stopped as something hit him. Looking down, he saw that it was a small communicator that would fit in his ear, with a microphone that would point to his mouth. He looked up to see how he got it and saw him. The white-haired Adapter was retreating back down the hallway. Did he throw him the communicator? There was no one else there, so that was a yes, but why?

Unsure of the answer and in a hurry, Jordan put the device on and entered his pod, closing the door, and strapping himself in. Seconds later, he was shot out of the ship. For a moment he saw the blue sky, the clouds, and the early morning sun shining into the pod. Then the pod turned over and he saw the ship screeching onto the ground, which was fast approaching, making him nauseous. Just as the pod turned over for a second time, he passed out.

The pink pony's head was full of dreams of sweets, gifts, and partying. Suddenly, she was jolted awake by a violent shaking. Was it an earthquake? Were there giant machines coming to take over Sugarcube Corner and end partying in Equestria?!

No, it wasn't those. It was her Pinkie sense! It was a doozie, whatever was going on! As soon as it stopped, another thing started, her twitchy tail! Something was falling down and – whatever it was – it was going to be a DOOZIE! Who knows what kind of doozie it could be, but she had a bad, party-pooping feeling about it.

"I gotta warn Twilight!" Pinkie Pie shouted, leaving her room in a blur. "She'll TOTALLY know what to do with something this bad! Like when that one ship crashed on Applejack's farm! Wait, that didn't happen, that was a dream I had because there were cotton candy monsters in it! Silly me! Silly willy me!"