---[ POV: Flynn ]---

Three weeks had passed in the blink of an eye since Flynn had met Athena and fought the invading little imps.

It was barely dawn and the young man was outside tanning the skin of yet another wolf creature he had hunted yesterday. There were a couple of similar pelts placed on rudimentary wooden racks near the lowered ramp of the corvette.

Well, those creatures were not exactly wolves but it was close enough that Flynn had decided to simply call them as such. The main difference was that they were a bit bigger and had black fur with a pattern of gray stripes on their back instead of the more uniformly white and gray you would expect from an Earth wolf.

Flynn had kept himself busy since the attack.

In addition to patching up the corvette and restoring its most useful systems, he had explored his surroundings enough so that he was now familiar with the lay of the land in a couple of kilometers around his base camp.

During those explorations, he had hunted the local fauna and collected all kinds of plants, both to learn more about this planet and to discover what was edible. The fact that the scouting corvette was often used for exploration and thus came with a rudimentary research station made the study of the local ecosystem a lot easier than it would have had Flynn crashed in a combat corvette instead.

So far, he had discovered that the meat of all creatures he encountered up until now was edible. The only one that represented a slight problem was the small crab-looking bugs that populated the canyon as their flesh was toxic but Flynn was not interested in eating bugs for the moment anyway. Even if he had, his lymphites would probably neutralize the poison.

Eating ration pills was enough to keep him alive but it was far from being as satisfying as a real meal. In addition, if he was to stay here for years, he would run out eventually. Discovering and securing sources of food was essential to his continuous survival.

"On the job early as ever, Lieutenant?"

Flynn looked at the young girl walking her way down the corvette ramp, her footstep perfectly silent. The girl composed of shimmering blue light approached him.

It was none other than Athena.

The night after they got attacked, Flynn had searched for the best possible 'body' for her. He had proposed to repair one of the broken reconnaissance probe of the corvette since there was not much else readily available. Athena had accepted and they had worked together on a way to encase the brain matrix of the AI in a protective pod that would then be integrated into the drone.

Not satisfied with her newfound mobility, she had badgered him for almost a week about repairing the cloaking system of the drone and adding a holographic projector to it. Since it was far from a necessity, Flynn had refused at first, but rapidly grew tired of the annoying AI pestering him nonstop about it and finally gave in.

She now went around with her real body - the probe - cloaked with stealth technology at all times and presented herself via projection as a girl in her mid-teen years instead. Flynn had found this depiction strange at first; she wore a simple toge, with some primitive armor - bracers and plastron - as ancient and simple as those found in the shrieker's cave, but decorated with feathered wings and snakes motifs. This strange attire was completed by a helmet too large for her head, that often fell in front of her eyes and that she had to put back in place; she called it the Corinthian helmet.

She had explained that this form was fashioned to represent a younger version of the traditional depiction of the goddess Athena, since assuming the appearance of an adult woman would be of poor taste for a ‘child’ such as her, with so much left to learn. Flynn doubted she could really be considered as a child, but who was he to argue with AI logic? The AI also liked to project herself as a snake or an owl since it "fitted her character as the goddess of wisdom". Flynn was not sure what she meant by that but she seemed happy with her choice so he went with it.

"Yeah,” said Flynn, “despite what’s already done, there is still a lot to do. We are protected from the weather for now but those are only temporary patch-up. If we want to ever get that ship flying, I can’t really afford to slack off."

"And animal hides are supposed to help?"

Flynn did not answer. After tanning the shrieker’s hide and crafting himself a cloak with it out of pure pride and vainglory, he had taken a liking for the hunter's lifestyle and was simply enjoying the process of laboring on the fruit of his latest hunting expedition. He was not about to admit it, though, and Athena knew it. She liked to tease him because his grouchiness apparently made him an easy target.

That damn little pest… A man need a hobby after all. I can’t just work all day, every day. Especially since we are not under any particular time constraint right now.

Seeing Flynn was frowning and keeping silent, a mischievous smile appeared on the AI face but she did not press the subject.

"Well, keep up the good work. I will be back soon," she said.

"OK. Take care, don't take any unnecessary risk."

Athena was about to ‘transform’ into her owl form and leave for her daily reconnaissance. Why she would decide to go with an owl projection rather than completely cloaked was completely beyond the young man. Just another of the AI antics I suppose. I would have never imagined an AI to be so… human-like. I always thought even ‘true’ AI would be logical and practical to a fault. Well, I have a creeping suspicion Athena is not exactly like other AI anyway.

Flynn was against the idea of Athena flying off alone at first but she had insisted on making herself useful since there was nothing else she could really do to help him in his repair work with her small body and limited interaction capacity.

Flynn was worried each time she left that she would get attacked and not come back. The idea of losing his only companion terrified him. He had grown to appreciate her company quite a lot even if he was not about to tell her directly.

She’s almost like an annoying little sister.

"Sure dad!" she answered with a mocking tone.

Or daughter?

Flynn clicked his tongue in annoyance and rolled his eyes. Athena laughed while her human body phased out of view to be replaced by an equally blue owl with regal motifs on its feather.

The young man pointed toward the pile of charred and burnt bones that belonged to the humanoid creatures that had ambushed them three weeks ago.

Athena had explained to him that they somewhat fitted the description of goblins, creatures that first appeared in the folklore of primitive Earth and had later become prevalent in the works of fiction of what was now known as the 'First Information Age'. Flynn was not particularly interested in historical details ten thousand years old but he still decided to go with the name anyway. It was better than the 'twisted-imps' he was planning to go with.

"If you see anything similar to those goblins, you inform me right away and you come back, understood? One of them was able to shoot fire so who knows what else they might have in store. I can't afford to lose you."

"Because you like me and I am just that charming?"

"Because I need your knowledge to repair the corvette!"

"OK, OK. I'm going now. See you soon."

She took off while cackling happily. Listening and looking at her be so carefree, Flynn could almost forget he was stranded on a hostile alien world. It was refreshing. He smiled and returned to his task.

The young man was planning on finishing the basic work on this pelt before starting to prepare for his next endeavor; an expedition into the forest to the east.

For the moment he had only explored the slopes of the mountains but he was planning to slowly expand his prospecting efforts. He needed to locate more resources and a good spot to set up a real base once he would be able to move the corvette around.

There was also the matter of discovering where the humanoid remains in the shrieker's lair had come from. The analysis of the samples he took had not revealed a lot, other than the humanoids almost all had DNA or something really close to it as their genetic code. The goblins, in comparison, had a different genetic code than both DNA - or other known genetic codes from Earth - and that of the shrieker. Finding three strands of genetic code on the same planet was strange. Real strange.

Well, not that strange if the Empire has tried to colonize, but by now, I am pretty much sure the Empire was never here in the first place. That, and the variance in DNA also somewhat discredit my proposition that those might have been descendants from early attempts at space exploration; Humanity had not yet started to branch out its genetics to adapt to new planets yet.

Flynn brushed those thoughts aside like he had so many times before. Since he could not force an answer to fall from the sky, it was best to simply ignore it for now and focus on things he had power over; mainly, his survival and exploration.

Since all the urgent work such as patching the walls, floor, and ceiling of the corvette had been completed, he could afford to leave it alone for some time without worrying about rain flooding in or wild animals coming around to wreak havoc.

Noon came and he was done with the wolf hide so he went inside and collected some meat he had stored in the galley refrigerator. He had taken a day soon after the attack to repair most of the galley utilities as it was now what he could consider his home.

He sliced himself a large piece of wolf meat and threw it in a pan with some fat. He had nothing else than salt to season it but it was enough. The meat was not particularly good but it was a hundred times better than a bland ration pill or the nutri-paste from the food distributor.

Once he was done, he went to the cargo haul and started to assemble some equipment on the tables of the engineering bay he had transformed into his work environment. It was the only place with a working bench and flat surfaces other than the small table in the galley.

It was not much but he counted himself lucky to have it. If it had been a combat-class corvette, not only the galley would have been replaced by a combat deck, but he would also have been deprived of such well-furbished stations. Small combat vessels were stripped to the minimum and optimized for battle. No one had much time to repair a ship or dine in the galley in the middle of a fight.

At the same time he was gathering the equipment, Flynn retrieved from his neural stack the map he and Athena had started to piece together and started to plan his itinerary for the trip to the east.

He was about done, and mostly satisfied with his preparations, when the voice of Athena echoed through his communication system.

"Um...? Lieutenant?!"

"Yes?"

"Um... I don't know how to say this but you should come here ASAP."

"What do you mean? Are you in trouble?!"

"No. Not me."

"What?"

"Well, look at this."

A window appeared on Flynn’s HUD, displaying what Athena was currently seeing through a video feed. She was flying high in the sky somewhere to the south. Beneath her, the young man could see the hills and mountains slowly passing by.

At first, he saw nothing out of the ordinary but Athena focused her sensors on a specific spot of the mountain ahead of her and outlined multiple moving forms.

Flynn immediately recognized an agitated horde of goblins. Some of them were mounted on feral and mangy-looking wolves. They were all running in the same direction along the natural paths of the mountain.

Athena then shifted her focus to another point, some distance away.

This time, Flynn could spot the cloaked silhouettes of two human proportioned creatures running away from the incoming horde.

The smaller of the two silhouettes had difficulty walking and seemed in a really bad shape. There were splatters of blood on both their garments.

"I don't know for you, Lieutenant, but those almost look human."

There was no need for her to say it.

Flynn had already made the same observation and was rushing out of the corvette faster than he had ever run in his entire life.