The first thing I did after crawling out of my little pod was to start looking around. As I walked, having no desire to lose track of the pod, I started breaking small twigs to show the path I had taken. I soon found that the ground started angling upwards as I walked, and before long I had found my way to a hill.
I was quickly struck with one fact above all else: I was alone.
As far as my eye could see, there was nothing but thick jungle, and the few clearings I could spot were seemingly natural. There was no smoke, no visible sign of civilization, primitive or otherwise.
But I could spot large, menacing clouds. And they were moving towards me.
Crusoe seemed mostly unbothered, and was chasing some small insectoids that had been mindlessly droning from flower to flower nearby. No doubt the native version of a bee, although these seemed more harmless than the ones back home.
I could almost smell the oncoming rain.
I spent my first night in the midst of a storm. It was rather quaint for a storm, the lightning was rare and far between, and the wind never went too high. And the rain was almost pleasant in the endless heat of this jungle world.
My first action was to make something akin to a bucket out of flat, almostwaxy leaves of a local plant, and then placing it out to catch water.
True, my primitive construction was hardly sturdy, and could only hold so much water, but if there was anything I had learnt from the boyscouts, it was to not trust the natural waterways.
I didn’t know at the time that the planet I had landed on lacked the parasitic and bacterial elements that posed a natural threat, and the industrial toxins that posed a artificial one back home.
But I’ve always been one to rather be safe than sorry.
After that, I constructed a small shelter out of leaves and branches to keep me, and crusoe out of the rain.
As I sat down beneath it, Crusoe joined me and started to shake the water out of his fur, soaking me with more efficiency than the rain outside.
I glared at him for a moment, but sensing my anger he lay down placing his head in my lap and looked up at me with his large, chestnut-colored eyes.
I could never stay angry at him, and he abused that to its full extent. Manipulative bastard that he is.
I sigh, and started patting him on the head as I removed my now soaked shirt before I leaned back and let sleep take me away. The soft pitter-patter of rain and faraway thunder was very soothing.
As I woke up, I was nearly baking in the shade. Outside the sun had risen, and my poor ship-adapted metabolism found the tropical heat nigh murderous. I could immediately tell that Crusoe was missing.
Fearing for the worst, I clambered to my feet, and out of my shelter.
”Crusoe you bastard, where are you?!”
I shouted his name again and again, each time getting a little more frantic.
Then I heard the vegetation to my left rustle.
Crusoe came happily skipping out of the brush, carrying a yellowy-white orb.
”God damnit boy, don’t scare me like that!”
He drops the orb, and sits down on his hind legs, barking happily.
I sigh and give him a scratch behind the ear.
”So, what’d you find out there?”
I pick up the orb, and immediately notice that it isn’t a full sphere. I turn it around, and stare into the eye sockets of a long-dead humanoid.
I nearly got a heart attack, and frose up on the spot.
It was a bloody skull!
Crusoe had brought me a smegging skull!
From looking at it, it didn’t look too unlike that of a human, although I was under the belief that it was significantly lighter.
Well, that does it. I’m not alone here.
And I needed to get to a safer position.
What if these aliens are violent?
What if they wanted to eat me?
I didn’t plan on staying outside in the open to find out. I decided to head to a cave I had seen from the hilltop I visited last evening.
It took me a good hour to trek through the thick wilderness to find it, but I did. On the way I spotted a number of creatures grazing the vegetation, all turning tail and running at the bare look of me, I also spotted a little brook, peacefully flowing through the landscape.
This place is peaceful, and I might have thoroughly enjoyed my stay if I wasn’t, well, stranded.
Eventually I found my way to the cave. The mouth of the cave was wide, but it proceeded deeper into the earth, out of the light of the sun.
I picked up a rather large stick that had been abandoned nearby. Crusoe barked happily, and started running from side to side.
”Geez, boy. Not now. We’ll play fetch later.”
Quite oblivious to the meaning of my words, Crusoe didn’t stop his excitement for a minute, until he noticed that I wasn’t tossing the stick for him to chase.
I can only imagine his disappointment was profound.
”C’mon boy. Let’s see if this cave is occupied.”
As I marched deeper, I found myself staring down a large, scaly and rather ferocious-looking creature.
The beast snarled at me, revealing two rows of razor-like fangs, and some large, knife-like claws.
The beast roared at me, and threw itself towards me. Crusoe reacted instantly, his fangs burying themselves in the creature’s neck.
With a pull, Crusoe ripped loose a chunk of the creature’s flesh. The lizard-beast started piping in pain, and I almost pitied it.
Although it looked far more ferocious than my four-legged companion, and was twice his size, Crusoe had proven far more ferocious indeed.
”Loose, boy!”
Crusoe obeyed my command, and let the beast go as I struck it with my stick.
I struck it twice more, and then it had stopped moving.
I panted just a little, patting Crusoe on the head.
”Good boy.”
When I had gone and collected my supply of water-leaves I found myself half-starved. But there I was, sitting in a newly aquired cave with water and a dead lizard.
I felt like a proper caveman.
Well, I would be, if I could only manage to get the damn fire going.
I was furiously rubbing two sticks together, trying to cause a spark to ignite a bundle of dried leaves I had found on the cave floor.
No doubt the bedding of the previous inhabitant, which I had just started to prepare myself to eat.
The cave had also been filled with the bones of various creatures, all mangled beyond recognition.
Maybe the lizard had been the local apex predator?
Well, not that I cared really. Now he was dinner.
”C’mon goddamnit…”
I rub and rub. No result.
”SMEGIT”
I toss the sticks into the cave wall.
hm.
That reminds me of something. I remember that back in the scouts, we had used flint and steel to spark fires.
Now, could I find some flint around here…?
I set about looking.
I spent half an hour trying to bash various rocks towards the side of my pocket knife.
Eventually it proves successful.
A spark ignites the fire.
I feel my stomach groan, and Crusoe has already started poaching on our kill.
I shoo him away, and he reluctantly lets me take my pick of the meat.
I cut various pieces off, not caring too much to preserve the hide, and I put the pieces on sticks I suspend above the flames.
Crude, but they do the job.
I spent the next night in the cave. It was far more pleasantly cool than my previous shelter.
I awoke on my third day with Crusoe lying in my lap, stomach up, and with one of his hind paws in my face.
”….oh come on…”
I push him off of me, and he rolls onto his legs instantly, staring at me and panting.
I get up, and cup my hands, taking a deep drink from one of the water-leaves.
Well, let’s do something productive today.
I start heading back towards the crashed pod.
I had materials to salvage.
My first course of action was to rip out the power core. Thank god the Demiossians had made these things stable. If this had been back before first contact, removing it with knowing exactly what I was doing would end atomizing me.
As it was now, it was kind of like popping out an oversized battery.
I carried the generator all the way to the top of the hill, and then I went back to the pod to get the onboard computer.
After ripping apart every piece I could, I finally managed to get the computer out as well.
I picked that out, and carried it to the hill as well.
This part was far heavier than the generator, and took me a couple hours to lug around as I at several occasions had to stop as blood circulation in my fingers felt like it was being cut off.
But I succeded.
I had to grab some cable from the shuttle, but that didn’t take me long.
And then I got started.
It wasn’t especially complex. The intelligent. Modular design made that in the end it was just inserting cable A in slot B.
Thank god I didn’t have to deal with an Ikea instruction manual, though.
Finally, I managed to set it all up.
I booted up the computer.
I started the emergency broadcast.
I knew it wouldn’t reach subspace, but this way I at least had a chance of some ship stopping by the solar system and picking up my broadcast.
After building a small shelter to protect my beacon from the elements, I went back to the pod one last time.
I picked up all the metal plating I could carry, and ventured back to the cave.
Now I could make tools.