Tales from the Rim: Ladies Night Crashes and Burns

This was a short story that I originally published on Tumblr in the '10s, based on a Rimworld colony.

Hi. I’m Sparkles. I’ll start keeping a record of what happens just in case anybody ever, like, finds this. Or maybe we’ll turn this planet into a glitterworld and become, like, totally important historical figures.

Anyways. I’d been having a rough time, and after my surgery, I decided that it was time to get away from it all. I love my parents and I’ll miss them, but they weren’t, like, supportive. They hated my decision. They, like, said over and over it wasn’t me they hated; but this is me. I guess I totally got what I wanted, in a round-about way...

The star liner. It was supposed to be a top-of-the line ship. We went into our cryocaskets, expecting to arrive at Yarvin. It would take about four hundred years, but it’d totally be, like, seconds for us. It’s a nice, progressive, planet. They wouldn’t know about my past, and even if they did, it totally wouldn’t matter to anyone.

When I woke up, the sirens were blaring. I totally freaked. I wouldn’t have realized they were decompression alarms if not for Kimmy. She’s sooooo calm under pressure. We ran for the escape pods. I think I saw like, five or six people make it.

The descend was totally terrifying. You’re in this little pod with, like, milimeter thick window panes. I know it’s probably, like, bulletproof glass or something, but you can see the fire all over your pod when you punch through the atmosphere. I guess I should be thankful that there even was an atmosphere; we could have crashed over, like, a lifeless moon or something and died.

But, yeah. Three of us made it down together. If the others are alive, we haven’t seen, like, any signs. Smoke plumes or dead bodies or anything like that, at least. I dunno what else to look for.

Kimmy, the woman I mentioned before, is here. She’s still totally amazing. We’ve made her, like, our leader. De facto. Or something. She was, like, a naval doctor or something. Booked on a civilian liner to get to her new post. I asked her how that works; it would take her like three hundred years to get there, same as the rest of us. She just shrugged and said the boys upstairs were good at planning ahead. Sounds totally mental to me.

Our other companion is Larissa, but she prefers to be called Eryl. I can totally sympathize with that. She was kind of distant the first few days. I think it took a while for reality to hit her -- she’s mega stuck here with us. She’s been kind of freaking out. Kimmy’s been directing us to build a little fort, and Eryl doesn’t consider herself, like, a survivor type. I don’t, either, but we just need to go with the flow, you know?

I asked her about what she used to do. Totally gave her my whole story, and I didn’t leave anything out. We’re stuck together, depending on each other for our like, lives, so I didn’t really see a point in hiding stuff. She started, like, crying. I just hugged her and told her that, no matter what, it was totally fine and okay. Just trying to be supportive and stuff.

Eryl told me a little. She was just, like, a stay-at-home mom, only without the kids. She lived in this, like, commune with four or five or six other people, depending on the season. Some of them were just, like, spiritual wanderers. It sounded really deep. But, she just kind of kept house for them, and they let her stay. I guess you could call that, like, an indentured servant? But she says she’s great at cooking, cleaning, repairing appliances, gardening, and that kind of stuff,

She’s totally freaking out because she doesn’t think any of her skills are valuable. But, when I said it would be totally fine, I meant it. I explained to her that we need all of that. Kimmy sat on her bed across from us, just nodding the whole time. I felt so great; she knew I totally had this on lockdown. But, now, Eryl is in charge of our food. She started off by planting a little potato garden, using some seeds from the emergency kits. I hope she, like, feels more in control now. That always helps me feel better.

Sooo. Here we are now. I don’t know what this planet is called, but there’s no way for us to communicate with anybody. There’s nothing around. I guess there could be, like, villages or towns or even maybe cities, but there’s just no way for us to, like, travel long distances. No scanners, no mechanoids, nothing.

We put together this, like, shack, from some ruins. It was, like, a stone room somebody had built out here for no good reason. Maybe it’s proof that something else lives here? We aren’t totally, mega-alone? Or maybe it was just some surveyors, putting a dry room together to run their drones from for a week. I dunno.

It’s still a huge sense of accomplishment. I know it’s not, like, fancy or high-tech or anything, but we made this with our hands and the junk from our escape pod survival packs. We’ve got beds.

Next up, Kimmy thinks we should survey the crash site. Stuff from the star liner might have made it down intact. Even if it’s just, like, scrap, we might be able to use it. I can tell you -- some electricity would totally be appreciated! It’s really, really cold out here.