At the front of the building, the Doctor was waiting for Scarlet, Mendar and Nedri to join him and Keera. Scarlet noticed that Keera looked a little rattled, maybe the situation they were all in had taken until now to fully seep in. Once they were assembled, the Doctor looked them over and spoke.

“Now, you all have your first crystal. To warn you, the strength of the projection is limited, you saw how my monster attacked the wild ones before I let you try to dominate them. It works in both directions, if your monster is attacked too much, the crystal can’t keep it active and the projection will cease to exist and the crystal will enter a dormant state, similar to the one you force it into.

In that state, other crystal monsters can devour the consciousness held in the crystal, leaving it as just a pretty rock, devoid of power and incapable of ever forming a projection again and the devouring monster gets stronger. That process is deeply ingrained into the monsters, even if you dominate one, it is quite hard to stop it from following its deepest instincts and devour its prey.

Over time, we have experimented with crystals and their projection and developed something that helps our crystals to recover their energy faster, using a liquid that has the shattered remnants of other crystals suspended in it. If you rub that liquid over your crystal, it will recover some of its strength. Aida should hand out a small bottle of that suspension to everyone of you, just in case. It would be quite bad if you were to lose your first crystal, you know?” The doctor explained and as he did, Aida came from the back, carrying four backpacks.

“Sadly, not everyone has the necessary strength to keep their crystals under constant control and it would be bad if your control fails in town. So, you will have to spent the next five days outside of town as final exam, concerning your ability to be a valued part of our community.” he continued, as Aida handed him the backpacks.

He opened one of them, showing the group its content. There were a few pre-packed rationbars, obviously shipped in from offworld, two water bottles, two changes of clothing, a strange small bottle with a screw-cap, a small rag, a sleeping back and a thin tarp to place under the bag. The personal supplies were rather basic but it was to be expected, for one, it was questionable if they would survive so giving them a lot of gear could be tantamount to throwing the gear away but another thing was that they had to carry it, possibly in rough terrain. In addition to those supplies, the Doctor suggested that they split up into two groups, as there were only two small shovels, but for not having a shovels, the other two backpacks came equipped with matches. Either tool could be fashioned from local resources but having them encouraged cooperation between the newcomers, or it would make them steal from the others. Either way, it was added fuel to the crucible that would harden them to the mercilessness that was Verdun.

“This is the suspension I spoke about, I suggest using the rag to rub it onto the crystal. We have yet to encounter any adverse effect to humans but it would be bad if you were the first one and we had to amputate your hand, wouldn’t it?” he gestured to the small bottle.

“Do we get any water purification tablets or anything of that sort?” Mendar asked after the doctor had finished.

“No, you better get used to the water we have here. You might get the runs and I hope if you do, you get over them.” the doctor answered, his voice clearly unconcerned.

Frowning and digging deep into the recesses of her mind, Scarlet found a half forgotten memory of the survival training she had done. It had dealt with not sourcing as much food as possible locally, keeping the long-living supplies in reserve whenever possible. Sadly, even if some plants or even animals on a new planet might look just like their counterparts elsewhere, their biochemical makeup might be different, causing problems.

“Is there a guide what of the local biosphere is fit for human consumption?” she asked the doctor who nodded, looking slightly proud as if one of his students had just come up with a good solution.

“Yes, we have one. You’ll have an hour to look through it and in that hour, we’ll also have to calibrate your handheld-scanner, so that you can access the strength left in your crystal. Once you get more used to your crystal, you will be able to do so without the scanner, just by feeling and experience but until you get there, you can use the scanner. We go in the opposite order compared to before. Aida, please give Scarlet the folder of digestibles.” the doctor continued, gesturing for Keera to follow him again, heading into another part of the building.

Aida handed a thin binder to Scarlet, who sat down with it, causing Nedri and Mendar to set up behind her, looking over her shoulder. She felt deeply uncomfortable with them being so close to her back, but once again, she forced herself to accept it as something not worth causing trouble over. But only part of her mind was focused on the binder in her hand, the rest was distracted by the figures looming over her.

Luckily, the folder was not thick and the pages mostly filled with images, showing which parts of the local biosphere could be consumed by humans and what caution needed to be taken. For some plants, only the root was edible, with others the leaves needed to be cooked in water before drying them, there was a variety of possible edibles, if one knew where to look. When it came to carnivorous tendencies, most animals were edible when cooked but a few could only be eaten raw and bloody, as cooking them would cause them to become inedible, poisonous even, making their consumption something only done when absolutely necessary for survival.

There were even recipes how to prepare the various items for a halfway decent meal, causing Scarlet to half-remember an old joke, told by the instructors on the survival training, it had never made sense to her, something about southern zoos and having not only descriptions of the animals but also recipes for each of them. She was not quite sure what the cardinal direction had to do with it, but the one telling the joke had seemed to consider it funny.

After a few minutes, Keera returned and Nedri was called off. Keera seemed to take one look at Scarlet’s face before interposing herself between Mendar and Scarlet, pushing him back. She didn’t take up the same position of looking over Scarlet’s shoulder but sat next to her, looking sideways onto the folder. Mendar grumbled a little but a glare from Keera caused him not to press the issue.

Scarlet took the opportunity to engage with Keera, using the files in the folder as a pretext to make smalltalk, commenting on particular looking plants or making jokes about the names noted for some species. It helped Scarlet to get a feeling for Keera, not just using her psionic powers but mostly using instincts honed on the streets of Nova Yor, what felt like a lifetime ago. But even after years of training, those instincts came back in a rush.

They went through the folder together, each of them trying to commit as much as possible of it to memory, knowing that it might be the difference between living or dying.

Their studying was ended by Nedri coming back and the Doctor calling Scarlet into the back, causing her to hand the folder to Keera so she could continue.

In the back, the Doctor stood next to a strange contraption, another piece of hardened technology. The doctor gestured for Scarlet to place her crystal in a container filled with liquid and her scanner was plugged into a receptacle.

“And that is?” she asked, once she had done so. Asking for information seemed to be encouraged, disobeying orders, not so much.

“It’s the same suspension as in the bottles, just much more concentrated. The idea is that your crystals power will be completely restored and measured afterwards. That gives your scanner a baseline with which it can compare later scans. Sadly, we have yet to come up with an absolute measurement, research is rather complicated without the required machines.” the machine ended his musings by beeping and Scarlet was sent on her way with her newly calibrated scanner.