Jason woke early the next morning. As usual, he had fallen asleep comfortably away from anyone but now he had someone pinning him down in one fashion or another. Today, it was Xev, a seven foot tall android made on alien world for the pleasures of the organic sentient beings of that world. Of course, she was just teasing him. It seemed to be her favorite pastime since they had met some months ago although she did seem to have some true affection for him it wasn’t possible for him to determine how much or if in her eyes he was nothing more than just a pet to toy with. Jason knew she was just having fun though, because firstly, she doesn’t need to sleep, and secondly, if she had unconsciously wrapped herself around him he’d be dead, crushed by her massive weight. He grumbled. He had grown used to this and even to some small degree that he didn’t want to admit to himself, enjoyed waking to having at least one attractive female around when he woke up, but it didn’t make it any less annoying or uncomfortable to wake up to. Some parts of his body maliciously disagreed with the sentiment, but they surely had formed an alliance with the women to make him uncomfortable upon waking. Jason pulled himself free from her and struggled to push her away so that he could get up.

After clothing himself, he left the small temporary shelter to join the rest of his party who had long since risen and were preparing breakfast. Before getting to far he commanded his ARMS device to deconstruct and store the shelter away inside of it. Within seconds it turned into a cloud of and absorbed into the small octagonal disk on his chest leaving only the naked Xev, still trying to pretend that she was unconscious. She turned her body in mock innocence to show off her form and entice him into more than just getting an eyeful, but all her attempts fell flat. Jason just continued on about his morning as if he didn’t see a thing even though the campfire’s light was bouncing off her flesh in just the most enticingly delicious ways, erotically lighting her in a seductive golden light. Jason made up his mind to not fall for her charms and that was that. The scent of the meat cooking over the campfire on the other hand drew him to take a seat on log that had been turned into a makeshift chair by his companions.

Rina, the nine year old girl that he had rescued on their first day on Debris, was busy helping Sú-Sheh cook. It’s amazing how well kids can adapt to new situations but Rina had adapted even better than most. Here she was helping an Eugr`n, an alien that looks something like an upright walking and talking gorilla alien, without the slightest hint that there was something even remotely out of the ordinary. They had only just learned that aliens were a thing 3 months ago, and now, they were having their morning meal with them as if they had lived around them all their lives. In all the science fiction that he had read, even in the best conditions and first contact going well, it would still be generations before most people would be able to intermingle like this, but they were. Maybe it was that they didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was either adapt and learn to live with each other or die. Jason did really much care for dying so there was only one option for him, but even if that were the case he was one of the few open minded and educated enough on the subject that he’d have been comfortable regardless of the situation.

Sú-Sheh’s husband, Awlrek, grabbed a bowl of the morning offerings and shoved it at Jason as he sat down next to his, now former, classmate and sorta friend, Gael. Jason smiled at her wishing her good morning as they had done many times in the past, but today she had a very complicated look about her. He had never seen her without her glasses and normally that would be enough for him to put off his thoughts, but after having spent the greater part of the last few months locked in a cage and probably whipped he thought that she’d have been happier than she appeared. Instead her large sky blue eyes beneath her silver hair radiated sadness more so than any other emotion. She’d never been one to be very energetic, but something had changed her in some way that he just couldn’t put his finger on. Jason however brushed it off as It had been less than 24 hours since she was rescued. Sometimes these things take time to register he told himself. He took the bowl he was offered and quietly began to eat.

Despite the lack of resources that the Tik`rs could save from their burnt down inn whatever Sú-Sheh had made it was delicious. That had become a common experience for him. There was barely any food that he was familiar with on Debris, or at least, he hadn’t come across much. It was entirely possible that the ones who brought them here could have large stores of it and the local residents just didn’t find it appealing or they hadn’t distributed it into the locals’ hands for some reason. At some point Jason would have to try to inquire about such and fairly soon since it was likely that it would be hard to start a sustainable settlement, let alone one without type of food stock that Humans knew about.

His thoughts were interrupted by the slurping and crunching coming from the other side of the campfire. Their names were Dork and Frisxea and they were, as far as Jason could tell, artificially created beings who were an Orc and a Goblin Princess, but they could change their appearance to that of fairly attractive human versions of themselves. Whatever allowed them to do that had no effect on their mannerisms, so there they were making a gigantic ruckus as they ate. Well they ate whatever got in their mouths anyways. Jason hadn’t ever seen them eat nor did he know they needed to. The duo were bound to a pendant that he had found and lent Rina to keep her safe. If anything happened she could use the pendant to call them and they’d manifest in front of her. Likewise, she could dismiss them and they’d seemingly stop existing. This being the case Jason had thought that they were likely nourished in some way by a power source inside the pendant and didn’t need to eat. This was now questionable. They could just be playing at eating to fit in. It would explain how they could look full even though most of what they attempted to eat landed outside of their mouths.

Jason looked down to the gauntlet on his right arm and called, “Gabi, come on out.” From the gem on the gauntlet slime began oozing out of it, clinging and pulling itself out of the gem, growing bigger until it was large enough to touch the ground and continued to grow until it was large enough to form into a girl made of slime about the same height as Rina. She seemed to be another artificially created summoned being and so he thought that the same rules applied to her that applied to the pendant duo. “Good morning, Master!” she cheerfully said. It hadn’t occurred to Jason that he didn’t need to call out to her. The ARMS devices and attachments had to create a low level connection between them and their users. How else could they be in synch if they didn’t do that. Gabi patiently waited for him to say something.

“Did you want to eat?” Jason motioned to food being cooked.

Gabi looked towards where he motioned. She saw the fire. Without a second’s hesitation she jumped behind him, hiding, peeking out just a bit from behind his shoulder, locking her eyes on the fire. She skipped over the pot and instead saw Rina, “Master, the fire witch is at it again!” In his curiosity he forgot that Rina and Gabi didn’t hit it off. That was an understatement. They tried to kill each other. “It’s ok, she’s just cooking up some food. Would you like some?” he asked her again. She looked at him as if he were saying something crazy, but then thought better and that he wouldn’t lie to her. So, she began to inch towards the fire, staring at it and Rina, switching her gaze back and forth till she got to the pot. It was at just the right height that she could look over the edge. What she saw didn’t appeal to her at all. She gave a look of disgust, then Immediately moved back away from it, to behind Jason. “No thank you, Master. That looks disgusting.” All Jason thought was that maybe this was just a way for whatever the AI that controlled these beings to react to food. It was in line with their personalities, however, so mayhaps this wasn’t just some play acted illusion. Eventually he’d find out.

Jason finished his breakfast, stretched and made for the gate of Gondaluke, he’d said he’d be there in the morning and he would keep his promise. As the artificial star of Debris rose in the new day’s sky he approached the town’s gateway. The day before he had left the mobs and slaves to their own devices after telling them a bit of his idea, but he wasn’t anyone to them. There was no reason to listen to or believe him, let alone actually take him up on his offer, but when he reached the gate house he was surprised to find that there was three large groups waiting for him. There were the Humans who had rallied to avenge Rina, more so out of hunger and bitterness than righteousness. Then there was the Thesin, reptilian aliens who had somehow become somewhat of a slave class on this world, who Jason had freed yesterday. Of these two groups to his eye it seemed that most of those who had been there had decided to join his attempt at building a society for themselves. What surprised him however was that there were almost an equal number number of the other alien species from the town. There wasn’t an even mix, but the groups were in sizes that Jason thought weren’t overly large nor so small that they’d feel alone having no one like them around. The only group that seemed to be in larger numbers were the T`kata, a race of ant-like insectoid aliens, and they probably would be extremely useful to the task at hand. There was something that bothered him about the t`kata though that he just couldn’t put his finger on, but like the other things that had puzzled him this morning he thought that he’d figure it out eventually.

For all of that, he wasn’t all that surprised by it, but he was dumbstruck when he saw Mittana, a cat-like Sil`phane that is an ARMS engineer and representative of the local branch of the Debris Reclamation Association, At first she was just lazing about next the groups, but the moment she saw Jason she made a b-line directly for him, “I- I demand you take me!” She though for a second before she realized what she had said, “T-take me with you, I mean.”

Jason was baffled, “Why would I do that?” he asked, but he didn’t really care.

“Y-you’re going to start a new town. It needs a local DRA branch. S-so I’m gonna run it! Whether you like it or not!”

Jason shrugged, “Sure. I can’t really stop you. Anyways, it’s time to go,” He moved Mittana to the side and bellowed out as loud as he could, “ Let’s go everyone. Check your stuff one last time and let’s move out. it’ll take a few days to get there and we’ll have to go through some tough terrain, but if we make sure we’re prepared and willing to help each other out we’ll make it!” He then turned and started walking away from the gate, assuming that whoever was going to follow him would and those who didn’t care to would stay in Gondaluke where many a thing could destabilize their order.