“A secret past?”

“Not so much secret as not accurately represented in my records.”

Sara was silent a moment. “Guessing it has to do with your desk jockey military career? Your records show you were a parts engineer for the 27th Specter Marines of the Frontier Federation.”

“Yeah sounds boring, doesn’t it?” Alan smiled. As he paused his thoughts drifted into his past, and his smile quickly faded. “Far from boring.” He turned the palms of his hands up and looked down at them as if there was something on them. He said nothing for a long while as memories played back vividly through his mind. “Thousands for nothing more than a political stunt...”

“Your last statement didn’t make sense. Thousands of what?”

“No! That’s not something I want to talk about.” Snapping out of his memories, Alan detached a portable display off the wall panel inside the pod. “Show me a topography map of where we are at. We need to get started.”

Sara sent the map to the display. “So what was your job with the military, really?”

Alan stepped out of the pod and placed the display on the ground after switching its mode to holoprojector. He seemed hesitant to talk. Using hand motions, he pulled up the map from the display and made it larger. The three-dimensional map hovered in the air. Alan zoomed out and rotated the map several times.

“A better description of my actual job would be advance battlefield prep and field manufacturing. I would be sent behind enemy lines and establish small facilities covertly ahead of the fighting force. Depending on what they lined out for me, those facilities could be emergency medical setups, communications relays, supply caches, manufacturing facilities, or whatever the battlefield general asked for. I was sometimes called upon to dismantle those facilities, and at times move them. As fighting progressed, sometimes I would have to build battlefield equipment or vehicles under fire.”

Alan pulled up the menu for different map keys to look for things like water tables and places he suspected there might be ore deposits he would need.

“Everything I have just told you is confidential. I don’t want people to know about that part of my past. Especially Paragon.”

“I understand. I calculate the probability that Paragon Fabrications already knows this is 82%. It would serve as the justification for sending you out here on this mission to test if their theory is correct.”

Alan looked up from his map and stared at nothing in particular for a moment. After thinking it over, he closed his eyes, “Damn it! You’re right, they must have found out somehow.” He looked back at the pod, “Letting me know stuff like that is exactly why I need your help.” He shuttered at the thought of what they might strong arm him into doing.

He shook his head and continued to look over his topography map. He found what looked like a sizable natural cave halfway between his current location and the central point of the resources he wanted to position his new base in. It wasn’t ideal, but it would save him a lot of time.

“Heads up!” Sara called out.

Alan looked up and was about to ask what she was detected. He didn’t need to. High in the sky a glint of sunlight reflecting off the metal of a very low orbital object. A thought struck him with a rush of panic as he watched the glittery spot traverse the sky.

“Your heart rate is awfully high, Alan. The vessel hasn’t changed course or stopped. I don’t think it sees us.”

“Is the pod emergency distress beacon on? I didn’t think to turn it off.”

“I turned it off before separation from the Neri’s Opportunity. We are in hostile territory, and there is no deep space communications relay in this system. There was no point in wasting power or luring a threat to our presence.”

Alan breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they would get lucky.

“The vessel seems to be moving in the direction of the crash site of our ship.”

“Hopefully there’s not enough there for them to warrant landing for salvage. With any luck, they will just scan for survivors at the site and move on when they don’t find anyone.”

Alan’s stomach rumbled. Yet another issue that needed to be resolved very soon. Food and water. Wildlife threats were a big unknown too.

He pulled the survival prefab unit out of the escape pod and set it on the ground. After powering up the device, he let it run through its internal checks. Alan pulled a data storage device out of his left breast pocket and attached it to a data port on the side of the machine. Using the small data screen on the device, he searched through the records on the data storage device and copied all the items that the survival unit could make. The memory available for blueprints was limited and near capacity with just a few items.

He disconnected the data storage device and put it back in his pocket, then went back through the items he had just loaded up. After finding the first blueprint he wanted parts produced for, he cued it up. A list of missing raw materials displayed on the screen. After studying it for a minute, he turned his attention to the escape pod.

“If I’m not mistaken, those blueprints you have are military designs.”

“Yup,” he said before climbing on top of the escape pod. He cut loose the parachute set that was still attached to the pod.

“The military just let you keep all the blueprints you had access to?”

“Not exactly. My unit didn’t realize I had a full set of copies on my person when they left me to die on a destroyed remote outpost on a god-forsaken planet. I always have backup copies. Backups have saved my bacon more than once.”

He then dismantled the deployment mechanisms to recycle the parts. He went to the survival prefab unit and unfolded the small chute that would feed its small refinery. Once that was complete he loaded up the parts he had just pulled and added it to the chute for the kit to breakdown and use to make new parts.

It went to work right away. Alan monitored its progress. It was going to take a very long time for it to chew through all the parts he had given it to breakdown. He knew that would be the case. Multitasking to get established on a planet was paramount. Normally he would start with better equipment, but he had been trained to start with bare basics too.

He went back to the pod and pulled out the small metal briefcase looking container that was the eatables scanner. Reluctantly he also got out a tube of nutrient paste. There was enough nutrient paste in the pod to keep him going for 2 weeks. He looked at the thing in disgust. Popping the sealed top, he squeezed the contents into his mouth. He tried really hard not to gag as he swallowed the contents.

“I take it you don’t like the paste?” Sara laughed.

“I have yet to meet a sentient being that does. I don’t think rats will even eat it willingly.” Alan pulled out a small container of water and washed down the remaining bits in his mouth. He detached a head piece and slipped it over his ear. It powered on and activated the mic. “I’m off to find out what plants are eatable around here. Let me know if I get over 400 meters out. I don’t want to get too far out.”

“I will. Do be careful!”

Alan went to the nearest plant and put the scanner on the ground near it. Opening it up, he powered it on and followed the instructions on the display. He put probes into the ground near it. Attached probes to the various places on the plant itself. After a few minutes of analysis it asked for samples from the plant to be deposited into the machine. A few minutes later the machine put out the results. The plant was suitable for biomass fuel and fiber to make cloth.

He retrieved the probes and put them in their slots to be sanitized for the next plant. He picked up the device and moved to the next plant and repeated the process. He continued to do this for the next several hours.

Alan put the device next to the next plant to be scanned. He arched his back to stretch the sore muscles before starting the process again. “Sara, how far away am I now? I lost sight of you in the thick of trees awhile ago.”

“You’re 387 meters out.”

Alan put the probes in place around and on the plant. “I’m setting up to scan the last plant for today. I...” Alan’s heart started to pound as he realized the birds stopped chirping and the little noises in the forest all fell silent. There was no sound except the gentle breeze through the trees. He had no idea how long it had been that way.

“Alan? You might want to head back this way soon.”

He didn’t say a word. Keeping his eyes on the surrounding woods, he picked up the probes and shoved them in his pocket then picked up the device and closed it up without powering anything off. With the briefcase device in his left hand, he drew the near worthless pistol with his right.

“Alan!?”

He hoped he remembered the direction of the escape pod accurately. He turned and sprinted as hard as he could. A deep roared erupted behind him, followed by crashing foliage. Alan chanced a glimpse behind him. He immediately wished he hadn’t.

A massive creature the size of a bus was chasing after him. How the hell did something that big sneak up on me. It was like a green sea eel that looked like it ran on a dozen or so small stocky legs and clawed feet. It seemed to slither around the trees instead of crashing into them with its massive long bulk. Its wide maw was lined with hundreds of thin needle looking teeth. Two massive black eyes at the top of its head were fixed on him.

It roared again as it gained on Alan. Alan’s full focus was on getting to the pod. What he was going to do once he got there, he wasn’t sure yet.

“Alan! It's gaining on you!”

“No shit!” He nearly stumbled on a tree root he didn’t see. He managed to correct and stay upright, but it cost him split seconds. Split seconds could be the difference of life and death. The reward for second place in this race would exit the south end of north-bound creature.

Alan could see the escape pod through the trees. The eel looking thing was only a few meters away. Alan took a chance and blindly fired a hand full of shots behind himself. The creature roared in pain and veered off from following directly behind Alan. He saw out of the corner of his eye the creature went off to his right.

Alan skid to a halt at the entrance to his escape pod. He got in the doorway just as the gapping maw appeared out of nowhere and snapped closed. Damn thing had veered to circle around and cut off his retreat, Alan suddenly realized. He scrambled to get all his body parts in the tight space behind the cryopod in the middle of the pod. He wished he had sealed the main door to the pod.

The eel coiled around the base of the escape pod and it put one of its black eyes near the entrance where Alan had just escaped. The eye was nearly as big as Alan’s torso. The head of the eel creature backed away. Its mouth opened wide and put it over the entrance of the pod. Alan was enveloped in darkness, and stench of rotting flesh flooded the compartment. He heard something wet slap around inside the pod.

Alan realized he still had the briefcase still in his hand. He dropped it and transferred the pistol to that hand. Using muscle memory, his right hand went for his welding tool. The tongue of the creature found his leg and tried to wrap around it. It was supper sticky, and it pulled, hard.

The welder lit up and Alan put it against the now attached tongue. The tongue spasmed violently. Alan wondered if it would rip his leg off in the process. Eventually it let go.

The eye came back to search through the entrance of the pod. Damn thing still hadn’t given up yet. Alan fired off four more rounds at the eye. It roared again in pain. Claws beat and scratched at the exterior of the pod. So far the landing gear were still locked to the ground holding the pod in place. Thank god for that much.

“Another life form incoming. This one is even bigger.”

Alan slumped down against the wall behind the cryopod. So this is one of THOSE worlds, he thought to himself.

There was a loud screeching followed by the sound of talons tearing into the flesh of the eel creature. Alan caught glimpses of massive feathers. The flying creature seemed to make short work of the injured eel. The smell was nauseating. The trashing of beasts quickly subsided.

Blood, dirt, and debris filled the air as massive wings beat hard and fast. Alan watched part of the eel’s limp body get dragged upward and out of sight. Alan braved getting out from covering long enough to hit the switch to seal the pod doors. As soon as the hiss of the locks sounded, he relaxed. His entire body was shaking. Fatigue fell on him like a wet, heavy blanket.

“How the hell am I going to survive this planet?”

“A better weapon might help? You do have your work cut out for you.”

He closed his eyes as exhaustion won the moment.