Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / 740

Duncan sighed as he looked around the top of the crater, trying to gather his thoughts. He saw the clearing and the remains of the lizard scorpions around him, what remained at least. Last night, something had come and eaten most of the corpses, leaving only some pieces behind. He was thankful he had gathered the tails of all of them. This way, they could create antidotes for their poison, and the samples said that the meat was mostly safe to eat.

He chuckled as he thought of how the captain was so proud that they got a chief who could prepare poisoned fish. Of course, he just asked, why not use a scanner, find the poisoned parts and cut out those and serve the rest? The way the chief had looked at him when he asked the question still got a laugh. The Chief Engineer had gotten a scanner set up in the kitchen and the new chief had stared at it in total shock before he exploded. He had shaken Duncan’s hand and declared that his idea was revolutionary, visionary even. Because of that, all the restaurants aboard now served the fish and Duncan had gotten a nice increase in his paycheck. The captain had even put him in for a commendation, and he was made the ‘Employee of the Decade’.

“But this time I’ve got to come up with a plan to keep us off the menu,” He muttered as he looked around the clearing. The attack yesterday showed him the truth, they were too exposed. He had ordered the deckhands to look through all parts of the escape capsule, there had to be something they missed! If they could find anything, from a hover motor to maybe a grav-sled, they could try and make a wall around the crater. And then they could fortress up and let the creatures out here die against their walls.

He sighed as he thought of his other problem, Jones. There was nothing that said the scum had lied, but something about him just bothered Duncan. He didn’t know what it was, but something about him just rubbed him wrong. He had always trusted his feelings, and something about Jones was just wrong. He knew what the deckhand believed in, and he didn’t want to say that was part of why he didn’t trust him. But Duncan’s hand went to an old scar on his right leg and remembered how he had gotten it.

He took a deep breath and pushed those memories down. He had gotten out of the service because of what caused that scar. And he didn’t need to even think more about it. He just needed to think of the normal problems now.

“Sir?” A voice from behind him caused him to turn and see Terra walking towards him from the capsule.

“I know you…… Terra right? Did they find anything?” Duncan asked and Terra nodded and smiled.

“Yes sir. We found two small grav-sleds, a large laser cutter, and a radar unit! The escape capsule isn’t as damaged as we thought too! The batteries were missed and the damage only caused a 5% decrease in collecting solar energy!” Terra said with a smile.

Duncan smiled, a sense of relief going through him. With this, the plan was a lot easier than he thought it would be. “Good, great even! Terra, choose five other deckhands, you’re on guard duty! I need to call for volunteers, we need to start cutting down the trees around the clearing! I want to start building a small wooden barricade by lunch!”

Terra saluted him and nodded.

Duncan looked out at the forest around them and sighed. Now all he needed was for that fool Jones not to cause any trouble and he might get everyone through this alive. But he had a terrible feeling that this was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

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Jones looked around the bathroom as he tried to plan his sermon. He needed to find a way to gather all the believers together, to show the unenlightened the true path. This world, this place was just what the Order was founded to heal. The world and beast must be trained to obey their natural superiors. And he was lucky enough that this capsule only had members of humanity in it, the highborn needed to lead. The lesser races were meant to serve and protect their betters after all. But like the teachings said, sometimes the leaders needed to go first to show the way.

But he should talk to Sir Bradford first, he seemed like a smart person and Jones needed advice. He had never had any of the training needed to show others the right path forward. He needed an advisor, and the elder was the perfect choice.

He stood up and nodded, putting a smile on his face, and walked out, only to stare in shock.

Duncan was standing within the open airlock, looking at the deckhands and passengers as they stood before him.

“Everyone, I’m going, to be frank with you all, we’re in danger! There have been rumors since yesterday, so I’ll put them to rest. We did send out a group to gather food, that’s true. All but one of them are missing, and they might be dead. But when the survivor got back here, he led a pack of strange creatures. And they were followed by something else,” Duncan admitted and looked around at his listeners. The passengers looked at the deckhands, and every one of them nodded.

A flash of shame hit Jones, but how was he to have known a greater beast was tracking him? There was no way at all, and at least Duncan understood that at least.

“Now that means that this place is more dangerous than I thought, I’ll admit it! So to try and get any single advantage for us, I ordered this capsule to be searched. We found enough supplies to let us start to work at making this place safer for us, but we’ll need help!” Duncan admitted and the passengers all looked at him.

Jones just listened in shock, not understanding just what he was saying. He saw Sir Bradford at the edge of the crowd and started to move towards him slowly so Duncan wouldn’t pay any attention to his movement.

“Now we, the crew need help! So I’m asking for volunteers to help us move a few trees! We’ve got the equipment, but we need personnel to help make it a reality! So I’ve had no choice, but to ask you! We need twenty people, and that’s not counting the guards they’ll need to watch! So I ask you, will you help us protect you all? Help us make a small barricade to deny the monsters in the dark?” Duncan asked and looked at the passengers.

As Jones made it to Bradford, every passenger roared, not in denial but in agreement. Jones just watched as the people all seemed to volunteer to die to help the old fool’s plan. He didn’t know what Duncan was doing, creating a wall to keep the wilds out was the last thing they needed!

“Sir Bradford, what is this?!” Jones whispered urgently and Bradford only turned to look at him and shook his head.

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Bradford looked at his possible pawn and wondered just what he could do now. When he had been approached he had thought the fool would be more help. But this, what Duncan had just done? It changed everything! Now Bradford couldn’t paint the old man as someone who was waiting for the monsters to come at them! And asking for help? That was a perfect way to make the passengers think they were helping protect themselves! That was the greatest thing Duncan could do to improve morale, and the worst for his prospects for power!

“A well-thought-out plan to protect everyone I should say,” Bradford said softly to Jones, keeping an eye on his face as he did. He hoped that the fool would understand just what he meant, what he wasn’t saying.

But he doubted it. Jones's Order was very structured, and ones like Jones were all blunt tools for the ones with minds. His only hope was that this fool was something that could help him before he died.

“But to block us off from the wild!? That would just make our task to tame this place that harder!” Jones said quietly with passion.

Bradford almost didn’t succeed to keep the sheer shock Jones's words caused him from showing on his face. He had hoped that Jones was a bit smarter, but that caused those hopes to die. This fool was nothing but a fanatic! He had such hopes for this one, but now he saw the truth. He had to hope he could find his people soon so that one of his men could ‘handle’ Jones properly.

“The wild is dangerous, that is always true. If the mad ones come, not even the voice of their master will let stop them. Those are the teachings of the Order are they not?” Bradford asked and Jones looked at him.

All that Bradford was hoping for not was that the idiom would understand what he wasn’t saying. If not, then Bradford would have only one choice left.

“GOOD! Now everyone who wants to volunteer, we’ve got jumpsuits you can all change into! And don’t worry, I’ve got some guards already to protect you and I know who can lead the work!” Duncan bellowed and this was met with more cheers.

“Then I’ll go and volunteer to lead the guards then, it should let me talk to them about the Way,” Jones said and Bradford just felt a headache start to grow.

“Of course, go ahead my boy! I’ll be staying back, we need to keep a watch on Duncan after all!” Bradford said.

As Jones walked off, Bradford frowned. That reaction made him wondered just how soon he would be able to arrange Jones’s ‘Retirement’.

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Terra looked around as the third tree was cut down. As she watched one of the grav-sleds lower it onto the ground, she felt a spark of hope. So far everything was going perfectly, and she hoped it would continue for another hour. So far, besides the trees they had cleared bushes out to a hundred feet around the right side of the crater. If they were lucky, they’d have that side ready before they stopped for lunch, and then they could work on the next side.

If they could get a good defensive perimeter up, then they would be able to protect this place that much better. After all, like she’d heard growing up, a structure was easier to defend than a line.

“Hey, Terra?” A voice behind her caused her to turn and see one of the other deckhands coming towards her. She frowned as she saw him looking up at the sky, and she felt a spark of fear. She looked up, seeing nothing and looking back as he made it to her.

“What is it, Richard?” Terra asked and Richard shrugged. He was a bit taller than she was and his white hair was in a ponytail. He said it was natural, but then she’d seen worse. The look in his blue eyes caused her to frown and she looked up, trying to find what he had.

“I don’t want to make any noise, but I thought I saw a wing up there dart behind a cloud… it was big. Maybe bigger than a shuttle wing big. And it looked like it didn’t have any feathers,” Richard said in a whisper and Terra felt her heart stop for a second.

Her home world had stories about winged creatures with fleshy wings, and they were always the darkest ones. They said that such creatures were bringers of diseases and woe, that to see one was to court death.

She looked up, trying to see if she could see anything but after a few moments, she turned and looked at him. She didn’t know what to do, Richard wasn’t someone who played pranks like this. If he saw something, he saw it.

“Keep looking up, I… we need to tell Chief Duncan, he needs to know about it!” Terra said and Richard nodded and clutched his rifle harder.

“Yeah but who’s going to tell him? If it's waiting for an opening, then someone going to tell him is that,” Richard said softly, and Terra felt her heart freeze as she heard the truth in her voice.

Terra nodded as she looked at the tree as it was slowly lowered. The grav-sled was a large circle that attached to something and manipulated its gravity. They were using one to carry someone up and attach the other to the tree they were cutting. Then once it was sliced through the other sled slowly caused it to fall to the ground. Then they attached the other one to the tree and one person could push the tree to where they needed it to go.

So far they had just been sending one person to push the tree where they needed it to go. Then they rode one of the discs to the next tree, with the guards leading the group to the same tree.

But maybe this time they could all go? Moving as a group, that might scare off whatever Richard had seen. Terra looked at the tree as it was lowered down and nodded her head. That was the best plan she had and the only choice that made sense.

“GOOD WORK!” Tara called out as the tree was lowered to the ground. “That’s the third tree! Let's all move it back to the crater and get something to drink! Gotta stay hydrated after all!”

As the group looked at her Terra spoke softly. “Richard, talk to the others and keep a watch upwards, you see anything scream and fire!”

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Richard nodded, a strange feeling going through him as he walked towards the other guards. He reach one who was far away from the passengers and grabbed his shoulder, bringing up his finger to his lips. “Don’t react, but we might have something big watching us from above. Guard the passengers and keep an eye upwards. Orders from Terra, tell the others.”

As the deckhand nodded, Richard looked up without moving his head. He had passed his home’s adulthood ritual, but this was worse. He had spent a half year out in the wild with only a knife, clothing, and a simple bag of supplies. He had made a bow and hunted the worst predators that area of his world had, but never had he been chased by a flyer!

Most animals that could fly weren’t very big, they favored speed over bulk. But if he had seen something that was real and not a trick of his eyes, this had both. He didn’t want to believe that this was real, but he had seen it, his nanites had recorded it. He called up what he had seen again it took over his right vision. He increased the magnification and saw a black claw on a white hand-like wing. He kept walking, looking at the limb of whatever was within the cloud and he hoped it didn’t attack, this might be deadly if it did.

But what was whatever it was up trying to do? Was it hunting them, waiting for some of them to drop their guard to attack? Was it trying to see if they were threats, did they crash in its territory, or something like that? There were any number of reasons and he just hoped that this wasn’t some of the more……. Predatory reasons.

As the group looked at Terra, Richard only kept his eyes locked, one on the sky and the other on the tree. So far everything was good, they were moving it just like nothing out of the ordinary, that was perfect. He spared a closer look at the passengers, each one wearing a black jumpsuit. He saw looks of confusion on a few faces, but he hoped they wouldn’t make a mess. All it took was one person who saw that Terra was nervous and they would react. If they started a riot, then they might just invite the creature to attack them.

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Above the flyer looked on as the group moved along with one of the plant things. When it had woken up from its long sleep, it had felt hunger. It had taken flight and found enough to eat and then decided to go and eat some of its favorite things. But when it reached the closest source, it had been surprised. It had seen many newcomers land over the time it had lived, some died, some left and one group thrived. But they always left the places they came down in, but these stayed. Just looking at the group it had seen enough sires to birthers to grow. But that didn’t matter to it, all that mattered was how they affected its life.

It had flown over the clearing last night and had seen the scavengers eat the bodies. That was their way and it didn’t think much of them, they took the leftovers. They had cleared the bodies of things it had killed before, and they would live until the island died.

It had flown over the clearing last night and had seen the scavengers eat the bodies. That was their way and it didn’t think much of them, they took the leftovers. They had cleared the bodies of things it had killed before, and they would live until the island died.

When it had seen the new one's nest, it hadn’t given them much thought. But they were breaking the territory, and that was something it wouldn’t allow! If they were going to damage its chance to eat some of the best food-things, then it would scare them off! But before it flew down at them, it stopped and flew upwards. The food here wasn’t the only place to get them. It would just need to fly farther, but then that might hurt it. It thought about how any rulers might see what it would or wouldn’t do, and that was when it knew it had no choice.

As it turned its wings downwards, it decided to grab one of the grown things they had put by their den. At least this way it would get some food out of the deal.