Stellar Survival Quest

by Jalf Whitemage

  Outside he moved to the closest landing pad. There he clamped down a magnetic clamp and attached a tether to it and the panel. Then with a slight shove he pushed the array into the void.

  The array fully configured and spread out was nearly twenty feet wide by 10 tall. It consisted of two rows of 8 panels. Each panel was dual sided so regardless where the light was the array could catch it. Normally the array would even have small micro jets to auto align itself for max power generation. But Nathan had covered more than a few of them with the tape to hold the damn thing together. He figured once he had some power saved up he could pull the array back down and put it together correctly.

  After watching the array move away from him and reach its tether’s limit, he made sure that it did not rebound back toward him. Assured that it was okay for now Nathan returned to the relative safety of the station.

  Inside he checked the connections and then looked at the read outs in the Transport. With a curse he frowned.

  His jury rigging had reduced the arrays max power generating capability by a lot it seemed. Or perhaps the solar energy here was just not good to begin with.

  “Nothing for it> But at this rate it will take over a year to fully charge the Transport.”

  Feeling defeated he returned to the Habitat ate some food and went to an early bed.

  Boov seeing her master so upset decided to help where she could. She knew he was wanting QOBOP and more over that he only used one of the four arrays inside the transport. So while he slept she went to work…

  Some twelve hours later when Nathan awoke he was startled to find someone cool and soft, yet firm laying on his chest.

  Opening his eyes he looked down, in to the light grey orbs of Boov’s eyes.

  “Did you sleep well, master?”

  Nathan’s brain went through a couple restarts only to shut down again. Every time he got to the portion that he had a naked woman on his chest and that his obviously excited male parts were plainly poking her stomach… well the thought it was her stomach; than did it have to restart.

  Boov growing concerned for her master rolled off the bunk in a hurry, “Master? Are you okay? Your face has grown flushed and your heart rate was fluctuating rapidly. Then your eyes were dilating rapidly. This one is no expert in human conditions but this one is sure that is not normal! How can she help?”

  Finally able to start to think again Nathan took in a deep ragged breath, then winced when he noted the moist spot in his boxers. It seemed that other organ groups had not known what to do and been a little too excited…

  Flushing red all over Nathan stood and made his way out the room’s flap. He took just long enough to grab his spacesuit as he left.

  15 minutes later and he was freshly showered. Nathan was even super stoked to discover that the Habitats clothes cleaning equipment was able to work while he showered. So fully dressed Nathan emerged, belly growling.

  Boov stood near the bathroom flap pensively. Nathan did not meet her eyes just stepped into the hall and went to fetch something to eat. Boov close on his heels.

  The following meal was probably one of the most awkward in human history. Nathan was utterly mortified. Boov had no idea what she had done, but worried somehow this was her fault. Either way, the strained silence stretched until both parties finished eating and cleaned up the debris.

  “Right, I’m going to explore the station today. It is past time to figure out where we sit. Now that the transport is charging I have little else to do.”

  Boov nodded her agreement, then ducked into the storage area and withdrew the two heavy lamps from the transport and the half dozen portable glow orbs.

  Nathan considered the lamps for a moment. From what his scanner told him about them. They were battery powered, with chargers similar to the plasma torch. So, once they died he would have a hard time recharging them.

  With a shrug, he decided to take them along. They could always use them as a last resort or if they had an emergency. He also grabbed the one small tool kit the transport had for repairs. Never knew when it may come in handy.

  Stepping out of the airlock Nathan froze, in surprise. Boov nearly ran into his sudden stopped back.

  Nathan turned to look back at Boov, his face a contortion of wonder and confusion. Boov seeing his look smiled, before she leapt toward the lower deck plating above.

  Nathan watched her float upward and looked around more carefully.

  Four cables ran from the mostly closed outer hatch. Coming inside they each moved to the converter, which in turn was still plugged into the Transport. Now though the Transport was brightly lit up. Lights along the entire ship had been turned on and aimed as to provide light for most of the cargo bay. Only the farthest corners, and the area behind the habitat was still in shadow. Even then though it was shadow not the utter darkness he had grown used to.

  Nathan had thought about doing the same thing, but with the little power that the solar array was bringing in, he decided it was better to save it. Following Boov toward the Transport Nathan landed near the closed hatch she pressed the button and the hatch took a few seconds to swing upward allowing them inside.

  Nathans confusion was increased seeing the interior of the ship. The storage lockers that he had mostly emptied were now closed and secured. The extra transport stations were in some kind of dormant status. But most alarmingly the floor panels around most of the craft had been pulled up to reveal tightly packed wires, pipes, and machinery.

  Boov stepped carefully to the control panel and with a tap the hatch began to close. Seconds later the sounds of air hissing into the transport could easily be heard in Nathans helmet.

  Checking his suit to confirm, he removed his mask. “Why? How?”

  Boov shrugged, “Master sleeps a lot. Boov only needs a couple hours of rest in your day cycles. So she used the rest of the time to connect the other solar arrays.”

  Nathan frowned, “I didn’t want to use all the tape. I was going to save it for something else we may need it for.”

  Boov bounced once in place clapping her hands, “YAY! She thought so too!”

  Nathan narrowed his eyes at the flummoxing creature so cutely bouncing in-front of him.

  Boov detecting Nathan’s ire, but unsure to its cause explained. “This one started by placing the panels of two of the arrays on the landing pads to gather what solar radiation they could.”

  “Using that extra power generation, she charged the Plasma torch and then assembled the fourth array. Once done, she took the assembled array out and set it to gathering. Then this one collected one of the unassembled array from the platform. When this one had the three finished she even pulled the one you worked on down… Oh is that why you are mad? Did she do wrong by ruining your magnificent artwork? This one is extremely sorry master!”

  Nathan worked his jaw open and closed a few times then spoke, “No… that is fine… You did good Boov…” In Nathan’s head he was berating himself for not thinking of doing the same thing. In hindsight it was an extremely obvious work around. Moving to the Control Panel he tapped the controls and his mouth fell open.

  Nathan had done some math to determine that the arrays were rated to create 1 QOBOP in a Galactic standard day, or 32 Earth hours. Then from what he understood, the distance from the Systems primary star and other conditions would reduce that further. Not to mention that it was a red dwarf and not the best for solar collection anyway. Epsilon Endi BA and BB being brown dwarfs were rated as being next to useless for these particular collection arrays. At least from what information his scanner and the Galaticpedia could tell him. Yet here plain as day Boov had somehow gotten them to pull in what he figured to be close to 5 QOBOP between the four arrays in that same time frame.

  Before he could think about it Nathan spun and reached to give Boov a large hug. Instead though as he spun his foot slipped on the open panel below him and he ended up falling forward. Boov seeing her master’s plight acted quickly and caught him mid fall. With a whomp he s
truck her chest with his face in a manner that would have been painful for any normal adult human woman.

  Nathan took a second to realize his newfound heaven then jerked himself upright. Red-faced he whispered an apology and slipped his mask back on, before hitting the hatch release button.

  With a step he stood before the hatch, his back turned to Boov. Gratitude and the question why she had opened up the transports inner floor panels forgotten in his embarrassment.

  Stepping out of the transport Nathan looked around the cargo hold and turned toward the inner hallway. For the next several hours, the two of them explored the station immediately around their small slice of heaven. To the left, in the direction of the respawn point, they found two more cargo bays similar to the one they already had. The first was empty with the exterior hatch closed. The second was full of heavily damaged crates. Nathan noted the area to come back and search for anything useful later. Somehow though they never found the location where the respawn point was located. Its door must have matched the walls perfectly, because even having an idea of where it should be they were not able to find it.

  To the right of their bay they quickly came to another intersection. This one went straight and left deeper into the station and straight ahead.

  After a brief pause they went straight. The corridor went some 500 yards. Two closed doorways were on the right and it looked like a set of lifts resided between them on the left.

  After spending a few minutes to try and open the doors they moved on still unaware of what was inside.

  Returning to the intersection they went down the split. Some seventy five feet in the corridor was blocked by the biggest set of doors yet. With no power these doors were obviously not going to open either. Turning around having fully explored their small part of the station that they could, Nathan noticed two doors one on both sides of the hallway. They were set into the wall so they were almost hidden from view. If it wasn’t for an odd play of shadows the explorers would have missed them entirely.

  One of the doors was closed securely blocking them from exploring further. The other though was slightly ajar. The sliding metal door was open just enough for Nathan to set a crowbar from the tool kit into the opening.

  After a few minutes of prying, they pulled the door open.

  Inside was a narrow control room. Computer terminals lined one whole wall. Dark screens and unresponsive interfaces composed the only décor. A few dark grey chairs sat before the terminals. From the chair count it was clear normally it took four people to fully staff the room.

  Nathan sighed, “Maybe, if I can get power to this place, then I’ll be able to open up the other doors. It would be nice to fully explore this area.”

  With a shrug they returned to the habitat to discuss their adventure.

  Returning to the bay Nathan was nearly shocked out of his skin. There hovering into the station was three slick black bubbles.

  They zoomed over to him and popped like a soap bubble depositing three variously sized boxes into the space before him. One box was the size of two fingers held together. Another one was almost flat but barely as long as Nathan’s arm and a half foot wide. The last however, could have fit a large microwave in it.

  Boov did not hesitate she walked around Nathan’s startled form and picked them up before leaping up toward the habitat.

  At the Airlock hatch she turned to look up at Nathan who was still frozen looking up at her.

  Shaking himself out of the stupor he leapt toward the naked grey woman, did a flip and landed next to her. Glancing once more at the boxes in her arms. Then lingering at her chest for a little longer than polite. Finally he hit the hatch button and stepped inside as the airlock opened up for them.

  Inside Boov spoke while Nathan began to remove his mask.

  “Ah, your deliveries have arrived it seems!”

  Nathan looked the boxes over then grabbed his scanner from his belt where he had been recently keeping it.

  Starting with the biggest first, because you know size matters… He began to open the packages. The first one opened to reveal a heavy duty plastic like bag. After searching for a few moments Nathan found the opening and looked inside. There in a pile of dirt was a foot and half tall tree. Or maybe it was a bush? No, Nathan decided it had to be a tree. The trunk clearly separated the red leaves from the ground, even if by a short distance.

  The tree was oddly beautiful. Pitch black rough looking bark covered the trunk. The roots were a blood red color and glowed a slight bit. The leaves were a shade of pink… no maybe mauve… no it had to be purple. With a start Nathan realized the leaves were changing colors. They were shifting tones on the red access. More interesting though is they were shifting separately. Each leaf was its own unique color. Nothing too far from the others. Not enough to clash, but enough to still be individual.

  Nathan reached out to touch the soft looking leaves but Boov grabbed his hand.

  “No, do not touch it master!”

  “W… Why?”

  Boov shook her head and pointed at the tree, “Look carefully!”

  Nathan did. He looked past the superficial beauty and really looked at the tree. To his growing horror a few things sprung out. First in the soil at the bottom of the bag almost completely covered by the red roots was the bodies of several tiny animals. The roots pierced them and weaved so tightly around them that he had missed them the first time.

  His attention went next to the leaves that looked so thick and soft. Each leaf had a beautiful vein coming from the branch, with tiny veins fanning outward. The red plush looking fibers between each vein was a darker color near the main vein and lightened in color ever so slightly as it neared the edge…An edge that tapered to a fine point. Almost like each of the leaves was a blade able to cut with the slightest whim.

  Lastly the bark. It was hard to tell because of the black color but after a moment Nathan could almost swear he saw a face in the bark.

  Three eyes, a nose and a wide mouth that almost went all the way around the trunk. It was there though Nathan was sure.

  Pulling his hand back he growled, “I had to order some kind of carnivorous plant didn’t I?”

  Boov frowned, “No master, you were given this plant. If you do not want it though we can dispose of it.”

  Nathan considered for a moment, then shook his head. “No, as long as we are careful, it should be fine. It is really pretty after all. This place could use some color.”

  Boov looked down at her ample grey chest, “The master likes color?”

  Nathan unaware of the situation nodded sure who doesn’t? A little color gives life and depth. Without some color things just look bland and lifeless. Now what should we plant this in?”

  Boov’s shoulders slumped as her face blanked of all emotions, “This one is not sure master. This one could go to the cargo bay we found and salvage some of the crates to make a container.”

  Nathan smiled, “hey good idea! I’ll leave that up to you. Shouldn’t need to be too big. This little monster is … well small.”

  Boov stood quickly, picked up the plasma torch and went to the air lock. “This one will get right on that, then master.”

  Nathan still looking at the tree remained unaware. A minute or two after Boov left Nathan set the bag down and moved to the next box.

  This one wasn’t anything special. Inside were a set of what looked like thumb nail sized LED lights on a long wire. The lights had a box on one end with a simple switch. The box looked like the chargers the other devices all seemed to be using.

  “Right these could be useful, I guess…”

  Setting the lights aside he picked up the last tiny box. Opening it up he found a hypodermic needle with some kind of neon yellow puss like substance inside. Red lightning bolts were painted on the outside of the tube along with some kind of what Nathan assumed to be writing.

  Pulling up his scanner he ran it over the needle and looked at the tablet display.

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
/>   Mplo’Qark Inc. Psionic skill infuser – Psionic Interpreter.

  This I Class skill Infuser made and patented by the Mplo’Qark Inc. has the micro nanite swarm programmed to train the recipient in the skill Psionic Interpreter (I). The user must already have Psionic training and the proper abilities prior to use of the skill infuser. The Mplo’Qark Inc. holds no responsibility for the use of it’s’ products and suggest that all owners do not use this item internally.

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  “What the hell! What kind of shit is this! I can’t use it because I need to have Psionic abilities! OH OH OH AND HOW DO YOU Use A FUCKING INJECTABLE WITHOUT IT BEING INTERNAL!”

  Seething Nathan set there glaring at the device in his hands. Then with a grunt he stood. Placing the needle on the shelves in the storage he returned to the main room and began to clean up the mess from the delivery. As he deposit the last of the empty boxes into the waste he turned to face the main room and froze. There directly in front of him staring into his eyes a mere foot away from his head was the tree. Its tiny foot and half tall top and trunk were being held upright by a mass of thin spindly roots stretched to their utmost!

  The face Nathan had thought he saw was now obvious as solid dark purple eyes glowed as they stared. No pupil or iris was visible at all, in their glowing depths.

  The tree split nearly in two as its maw opened wide to reveal 5 rows of tiny sharp spiked teeth. From deeper in the mouth a long vine like tongue snaked out like a snapping viper to flick across Nathans face.

  With a scream that a Scream Queen from an 80’s b budget horror movie would have been proud of Nathan Jumped backward into the wall holding the waste bin.

  As MRE wrappers, water bottles and other refuse fell all over the chamber, Nathan went to the ground with them.

  The tree seeing its object of interest lowering did the same on its roots.