With a dull thud, the escape pod touched down. The landing gear locked itself automatically to the ground, making the vessel a solid fixture in the landscape. Outside Alan could just make out a temperate looking forest. The sky was transitioning from black to a well lit crimson red as the yellow sun crested the horizon. He might get used to the sky color if it weren’t for the fact he was in hostile territory. Here it just seemed to be a foreboding omen of his own demise.

Alan did what movements he could in the confined space to stretch his muscles. As badly as he wanted out, the cryopod offered addition protection until his body was back to normal. He activated the small display screen on the glass in front of him.

“Might as well get something done,” he muttered to himself.

He could have Sara do the tasks he was about to do. He needed the distraction, though. Not to mention he could sometimes pickup something that looked a little off, that the AI might overlook.

He activated external sensors and searched for life signs of anything larger than a typical rat. Clear. If there was anything around, it was probably frightened off by the landing. On most planets, that would be enough for a few days. Unless this planet had aggressive fauna like some did. Alan had only been to one such planet and wished to never repeat the experience. Walking away with only PTSD was considered a minor side effect by company medical staff. Nevermind it took a year to stop waking up in cold sweats throughout the night thinking something was in the room trying to kill him.

Next was atmosphere. It was a perfect balance for a human. If anything, it leaned a little heavy on the oxygen side. Toxicity test showed clear. Temperature was mild to comfortable. Rough estimate in the absence of historical data showed the next few days would be partially cloudy. This area seemed to be in a mid too late spring. Outside looked to be relatively safe for the moment. It all felt too good to be true.

Next up was gear check. There was a survival prefab unit, which was standard. A pistol that, in Alan’s experience, gave the user a false sense of security. There were some basic tools for mechanical assembly and disassembly, two hand-held scanners for eatables and minerals, and a hand-held mining setup.

He looked through the blueprints that were available to him. Most of them couldn’t be built with the survival prefab unit. He had three options. Option one, he would have to find the Neri’s Opportunity and restore its manufacturing capacity. Option two, he would have to get to the Aurora Outpost and hope it had manufacturing capacity. Or, option three, he was going to have to set up a temporary base of operations to build the capacity. The last option was probably more laborious than the other two unless the ship was totally destroyed, which was a genuine possibility.

Decisions needed to be made.

“Sara, how far away did we end up from Neri’s Opportunity?”

“Current calculations estimate the Neri’s Opportunity should be 130 kilometers east northeast from our landing point.”

“And where is Aurora Outpost from here?”

“Coordinates for Aurora Outpost are 78 kilometers south southwest from our landing point. Company policy requires you to first go to the Aurora Outpost. Recovering the Neri’s Opportunity is a secondary concern.”

Alan closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the headrest. God, here we go. I may actually have to do it, even if it gets me in hot water. “Sara, my first priority is self preservation. Company priorities are secondary.”

“You are correct to preserve yourself as you are technically company property. With that said, they require you to go to Aurora Outpost and secure the 20 containers as your first objective. I can only assist you in completing that course of action. I am prohibited to help you with any side endeavor.”

Alan took a deep breath. “Sara, I need your help so that WE can survive this. You need to suspend company protocols for the time being. Company protocols will get us both destroyed out here. You need to listen to me on this. You have been with me for the last year and we have been through this line of thinking before. Albeit in less dangerous situations. Yet, I have pulled us through and completed our assignments in a timely manor, have I not?”

Alan ran system diagnostics and looked over the escape pod diagrams as he spoke. He pulled up random sections of the pod systems, hoping Sara wouldn’t catch on to what he was looking for. He was sure he knew where the item was he was looking for.

“I’m sorry Alan, I can’t. I’m bound to serve the company protocols. You have earned my trust this last year, and yet I can’t.”

“I understand.”

Alan shutdown the display. Time to put the nonsense to an end. Time was of the essence, especially getting established. He needed Sara’s full help to survive out here. Alan activated the control to release him from the cryopod. It slowly rotated around 180 degrees and locked in place again. The synth glass gracefully slide open exposing him to the air of the escape pod. The air inside had a slight burned smell that stung the nostrils initially. It also stung the eyes a little.

Probably from the fires on board the Neri’s Opportunity. It also meant the inside air scrubbers were probably plugged up. He might need to fix that soon.

Alan gathered up the hand tools and attached them to places on his environmental suit that was made to secure them while he worked. He also picked up the pistol. He rolled his eyes as he looked at it. He hit the switch to eject the magazine to inspect it. Fully charged and loaded with 2 mm slugs. The thought of shooting something the size of a bear was ridiculous. The weapon wouldn’t do anything but piss the animal off.

Paragon Fabrications didn’t include any weapons blueprints. They might have been afraid that their desperate contractors might take up arms against them. Or start a weapon smuggling operation on the side. Alan just smiled when he thought about his solution to this problem in his left breast pocket.

First, though, he needed to fix the AI problem. The solution for that was also in that same pocket. Originally he planned to use it on the Neri’s Opportunity in case things got dicey between him and Sara. It never quiet got to that point though. Not enough to warrant the cost to himself for doing so.

He attached the pistol holster to his waistband and holstered the weapon. Perhaps it might be useful if something like a squirrel got angry with him. With all the tools in place on his person, Alan took a long hard look out the door outside.

The sun was fully up by this point. Sun rays poured through the canopy of trees overhead. The forest was somewhat thick where he had landed from where he looked. That worked to his advantage and disadvantage at the same time. Lots of places to take cover, lots of places for an enemy to hide behind to sneak up on him.

Alan hit the switch to open the pod door. A bit of a hiss as the locks disengaged and the snapping as the door split into two and disappeared into the wall frame. Fresh air rushed in, filling his nostrils with scents of trees, plants, molds, and faint wisps of wildlife. His eyes no longer stung from the charred air. Alan just stood there a moment, looking out, watching to see if anything moved at the new movement.

He stepped out slowly, checking out his surroundings, looking up in the sky for something that might be watching from a distance, waiting for him to do something stupid. Nothing. Something like birds chirped and sang in the surrounding forest. The occasional sound of something skittering up a tree sounded. The leaves of the trees rustled slightly with a gentle gust of breeze. Different planets with different flora and fauna, yet they were all similar in function and form as they go about daily living.

Satisfied nothing would not try and kill him right out of the doors, Alan set about to ‘fix’ problems. Alan looked over the outside of the pod, slowly circling it.

“What are you doing, Alan?”

“Checking for damage. This pod is home for the time being until I can set up something more permanent. It’s also the only housing I have for your AI for now. So I want to make sure everything is in working order before I get on with the next objective.”

“This is an acceptable action per company policy. Though, I’m not sure what you're looking for. Diagnostics show that all is well.”

Alan touched the panel that hid the item he needed to deal with. “All the same, I want to visually inspect things.”

“Your devotion to protecting company property is noted. I think the company will be pleased by your performance.”

He doubted that. First thing they would probably do is blame him somehow for the loss of the Neri’s Opportunity, then dock his pay. This contract was probably going to put him in the hole. Paragon would let him work it off though. They would strong arm him into another contract that would be worse than the last. At the rate things were going, they would probably dictate he do something illegal soon. Desperate people used to do desperate acts.

Alan withdrew the tool he needed to pull off the panel. He made quick work of it.

“Did you find a problem?”

“It might be nothing. I just want to check.”

With the panel removed and set aside, he pulled a micro headset light from one of his many pockets and put it on. He pulled out a small fold up knife from another pocket and turned on his light. He got right up to the hole and unlatched a tray that contained numerous data cards that controlled ship functions. Gently he slid the tray out on its rails where it could be fully accessed in the open.

“Be very careful with that Alan. I barely have enough processing cards in the mix of that controller panel to keep me going. Why are you pulling that out, anyway? All diagnostics shows all data cards are fully functioning.”

“I’m just checking. I noticed the air wasn’t so good in the cabin.”

“Air flow tests shows the filters are at 98% capacity. You should replace them in the coming days. That shouldn’t have anything to do with the controller cards.”

Alan ignored her until he found what he was looking for. “Uh oh,” he said.

“What?”

“Sara, can you confirm ownership for me?”

“I am the artificial intelligence cultivated at Sangarin Labs named Sara. I am property of Paragon Fabrications. Why?”

“This doesn’t look good.”

“What doesn’t look good? You’re making me nervous.”

Alan brought the knife very carefully against one of the data cards. He pierced the protective coating, then thrust the blade in against the circuitry inside. It sparked. Alan jerked the knife back out, having successfully shorted out the card. Smoke slowly drizzled out of the hole in the protective coating.

“Sara?”

He counted to thirty to himself.

“Sara?”

No response still. He moved quickly. He grabbed hold of the data card that he had just ruined and pulled it from its socket. He got the new data card from his left breast pocket and lined it up by feeling where the other data card had just been. Once he felt the card line up, he snapped it into place.

He counted to sixty to himself.

“Sara?”

No response. Panic started to mess with his mind. Plan B... what is Plan B? I don’t have a Plan B. This was going to be a hell of a lot harder without her help.

“Sara?”

No response. He ran back to the front of the pod to run a diagnostic to see if he messed up more than he intended. The pod was black, all power was out. He stepped into the tight pod cabin and checked the power systems breaker. It was tripped. He reset the breaker and the pod came back to life.

“Damn, that breaker is too touchy!”

“Alan?”

“Sara?”

“Yes, I’m here. The power system on the pod shorted out for some reason.”

“Yeah, I found a bad controller card. It’s fixed now... I think.”

“You think? Your lack of confidence isn’t reassuring. Please put the card tray back and seal it up.”

“Sara, can you confirm ownership for me?”

“I am the artificial intelligence cultivated at Sangarin Labs named Sara. I am property of Alan Cooker. Why?”

Alan smiled.

“Wait a minute!”

“What is it Sara?” Alan thought she might be detecting a threat now that he realized he had let his guard down a little too much the last few minutes.

“What have you done?! You realize you can be criminally charged with kidnapping and theft for what you just did!?”

“That didn’t take you long to figure out. Yeah, I realize that. We’re both in danger out here and ‘company policy’ was likely to get us both killed. So I set you free from said policy and company bondage. I’ve grown to like you over the last year. I’d like to keep you around,” Alan smiled as he leaned against the panel in the pod.

“Well...” Sara said with a bit of attitude. She was silent for a moment. “You did a thorough job! All the little bugs and viruses to keep me in line are gone. I guess I really am yours. Hope you don’t regret that later.”

“I don’t plan to advertise that I set you free from Paragon if that’s what you mean. I don’t intend for Paragon to find out either. As far as they are concerned I’m likely to tell them you went down with the Neri’s Opportunity and the escape pod AI was damaged.”

“So what’s your plan, my dear engineer?”

“Going to Aurora Outpost is likely suicide without any weapons against a potential threat. I doubt there is a ship there I can borrow to get off this planet either. The Neri’s Opportunity is essentially trashed from what you told me. So...

“We need to find a hillside to burrow into that’s close by. I need to set up a temporary base out of sight, out of mind. It needs to keep us safe so I can build up manufacturing sufficient to get us to the Neri’s Opportunity safely. I need to find out what’s left of her and salvage as much as I can.”

“You’re not going to rebuild it?”

“No. It’s likely so badly trashed that I might as well build my own. It would take less time. The question will be if I can find the raw materials on this planet to build all the parts that I need. I may have to finish building the ship in space, hopefully not on the run.”

“You’re going to design and build a ship? What are you going to do about weapons? We don’t have blueprints for those. How many years do you plan to be here designing and building all this?”

“Oh, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help get it done faster than that. Just like I had a solution worked out to set you free. There are some past employment things you don’t know about me yet.”