The storm-damaged ship manages to land safely on a planet where resources are minimal at best. The entire crew are level one and level two haven-worlders, but they have one death-worlder aboard. An 8 year old human child. They were transporting the child to a space station as the child had recently been rescued from kidnappers who were now sitting in prison.
On this planet, not everything is what it appears. Food keeps showing up at the entryway and footsteps can be seen in the mud after a rain, but no one's there. It's only after the child can be seen sitting, quietly playing with an unusual, humanoid-shaped, being about the size of the child, that they realize their "helpful ghosts" may not be ghosts at all. The being looks at the much taller crew members and suddenly, they disappear, though the imprint in the dirt shows, they're still there. -- DaniAndShali
Seemingly abandoned planet? Check. Survivable wreck? Check. Eerily empty structures that could be the result of intelligent life or could be the work or some natural thing? Check. One Deathworlder? Sort of check. These are the things that serial dramas are made of. Or, considering this was an eight-year-old Deathworlder and therefore a minor, true life horrors.
Things could be worse, but nobody was going to tempt fate by saying so, nor by asking how things could get worse. After all, it has long been established that Mother Nature is an abusive parent and actively seeks out opportunities to remind people of this.
Human Vi was still recovering from their trauma and therefore didn't want to go anywhere without adult company. The world wasn't exactly hostile but it did seem to delight in upending assumptions. Small, cute, fluffy things were deadly predators. Big, spiky, armoured things with huge claws and sharp fangs were harmless herbivores. Scanners were essential, as delicious-looking fruit were toxic and toxic-looking leaves and flowers were actually the most nutritious foodstuffs they could want. Here, a Deathworlders' instincts were almost useless. And, on top of that, there were the ghosts.
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