Alan’s body was severely sore as his eyes opened, and awareness took hold of him. Daylight was still apparent through the escape pod window. He moved his left leg. It hurt the most, but it didn’t feel like anything was broken or sprained.

“How long have I been out?”

“Only two hours and eleven minutes.”

Alan took a moment to collect his thoughts. “How long is the day/night cycle on this planet? And how much daylight do we have left?”

“Current cycle is 37 hours 21 minutes. We have 8 hours and 16 minutes of daylight left.”

“Damn... it’s going to be a long night tonight.” Alan struggled to his feet in the cramped space. He looked out the window. The raw carnage that had taken place was very evident. He wondered how long before carrion creatures showed up to scavenge the bits left behind. “Anything out there that you can detect?”

“Not at the moment.”

Alan hit the switch to open the pod door again. The familiar hiss of the lock mechanisms and the door jerked open. The smell of rotting flesh flooded the pod and nearly made him puke. Blue blood and small patches of meat covered the scene along with deep gouges in the ground. The blood had dried in the sun. Something resembling flies were gathering.

Alan stepped out and went right for the survival prefab unit. It had been knocked over but was undamaged. He found up all the parts to the shotgun the device had unceremoniously dumped on the ground and put them in the escape pod. He setup the survival prefab unit again. Seeing it still had steel, he ordered up several slugs for the shotgun.

He took the two energy clips for the shotgun and hooked them up inside the pod to charge. Alan then went about salvaging other unnecessary parts and those items he could live without for now from the escape pod. He built a small addition for the survival prefab unit to attach to the outside of the pod and be accessible from the inside. He also added a large resource chute to feed the device and a cargo box for it to drop finished parts into.

By that time, the clips were charged, and it made the slugs. He assembled the shotgun, rammed one of the clips into the butt of the stock, and loaded half of the slugs that had been made. He test fired it on a smaller tree nearby. The small tree exploded at the base from the impact.

Satisfied with the results, he grabbed his mining gear and went hunting for materials. He stayed much closer to the pod this time and kept a much closer ear out for wildlife.

Sunlight began to fade and Alan had enough materials recovered to keep busy for a long while. Alan’s nerves were about shot from nearly jumping at every little sound around him. He packed up his things and headed back to the pod. He loaded up the chute again with all the material he brought back this trip. The survival kit was still working on the material he had dumped into it from previous trips.

Light was taking forever to fade, reminding him how long the night would last. He could already hear in the distance an increase of activity as the predators of the dark began their hunts. Alan circled around the pod to make sure he hadn’t forgotten to seal up any holes that might allow something to get at him during the night. Feeling confident, he climbed into the pod and sealed the door shut.

He checked the display of the survival kit. It would be several hours before it finished processing all the materials he had retrieved. He cued up a list of parts that he wanted made. It would take several hours more. He got into the cryopod and relaxed in the slightly reclined position.

“Sleep well, Alan.”

“It’s been a hell of a first day. We’ll see how the night goes.” Alan triggered the synth glass door to close. He pulled up the menu on the glass before him and activated the option for weightless sleep. He felt the shift in gravity inside the pod to his backside, giving him the feeling of laying down on his backside. He could feel the different areas of throbbing in his body change as blood flow adjusted as if it was now prone. The sense of weightlessness came next. Alan quickly drifted to sleep.

Several hours later Alan woke up to sounds of dinos roaring not too far from the pod. “Sara?”

“We don’t seem in danger at the moment. Some small creatures came a while ago and ran off with the chunks of flesh left behind from earlier today. One creature seemed to be curious about the pod, but I was able to drive it away with high-pitched tones. I think I’ve been able to keep some of the other creatures away with that same tactic. Others don’t seem to care.”

“Nice!” Alan shutdown the cryopod and got out. He checked on the survival prefab unit. All tasks had completed and there was plenty of refined materials to make other things. “How long before daylight?”

“Four hours, 18 minutes to daybreak.”

Alan nodded as he attempted to stretch sore muscles in the confined space. He accessed the large cargo box from inside the pod. He pulled out components and assembled them into tracks, idler wheels, motors, and other things, putting the assembled parts back into the large box. It took him an hour after the sun had fully risen to get everything ready.

With full daylight and the forest once again calm, Alan ventured outside again. To his surprise, every trace of blood was gone. All the flesh bits were also gone. All that remained were gashes in the ground. The fresh smell of forest once again reigned, for which Alan was grateful.

He didn’t waste time. He went right to work building the undercarriage frame and tracks that would make the escape pod mobile. His experience of having built such things in the past, made the work go fast. Within a couple of hours the tracks were assembled, and setup with drone controls. The tracked undercarriage was up against one side of the teardrop-shaped pod.

Alan used the data pad and activated the pistons at the base of the pod to pivot the tracks to the ground. He disengaged the landing gear locks. The pod shuttered as its balance shifted. He retracted the pistons and the pod gently tipped sideways until it came to rest fully against the tracked undercarriage. Alan had mounted a camera to the top of the pod, which now was the front. The door to the pod was now on the left side of the makeshift ground vehicle.

“I’m not sure if I’m happy to be mobile or scared.”

“I’ve gotten around on much scarier vehicles. This should actually be pretty safe.”

Alan got in and shut the pod door. He accessed the camera on the datapad. So far, so good. He tested the full range of motions again. He started out slowly at first to get a feel for weight distribution and handling. As he got more comfortable with the limitations and response to controls, he picked up the pace. He wanted to get to the cavern soon and get a proper base established. He had genuine work that needed to get done. He just hoped it wasn’t already occupied.

A few hours later he arrived near the entrance. He had Sara use some of the tones to potentially irritate anything that might be in the cavern. Nothing moved. Alan put the data pad away and got out his shotgun. He checked it over to make sure it was in working order, full of slugs, and fully charged clip put in it. He took a deep breath. It was almost midday by now. Sara couldn’t detect anything of real size nearby as far as wildlife.

Alan opened the door to the pod. Fresh air poured in, making him realize he wasn’t smelling too good at the moment. Water and a shower were going to need to get up there on the list too. So much to do and so much needed to be done ASAP. He got out with the shotgun, ready to shoot at anything that hinted at being a threat.

He gradually walked up to the edge of the entrance of the cavern. The cavern was at the base of a very sizable hill. He activated a flashlight he mounted to the underside of the shotgun. The light cast a very wide and bright beam that lit up most of the cavern. Nothing moved. Yet he was startled by what he saw.

The cavern, which at the mouth was about fifteen meters wide and nearly eight meters tall, was nearly forty meters deep. It was entirely composed of stone with dirt only covering the outside. The startling part was the floor of the cavern. It was completely level and smooth, as though it had been a polished surface. The walls were blackened which Alan recognized to be from something like an energy weapon.

He searched the entire cavern with his light. Absolutely empty. There was a twinge of hesitation to move in here. He didn’t have a choice though. This was a perfect setup to seal himself away, to keep safe. He turned around as a branch snapped behind him. Alan spun around and fired off a round. He was breathing a little heavy.

“Hey!!! You are so jumpy! I would have warned you if something was coming around.”

The escape pod was nearly right behind him. Fortunately, he had jerked back at the last second and only did a glancing blow off the armor plating. He’d been so far in tunnel vision he hadn’t noticed the pod gradually coming in closer behind him.

“Yesterday’s memory is still fresh. Warn me next time before you sneak up on me like that.” Alan took several deep breaths to calm down. “Sara are there other caverns like this nearby?”

“Not that I can tell. The surveying that was done during our descent wasn’t conducted with top quality equipment though. Why?”

“I’m fairly confident this cavern is not a natural occurrence. I hope I don’t regret moving in here.” Alan did one more look around inside the cavern. A distant roar of some gigantic animal sounded off in the far distance. “I don’t have any better options.”

“This seems to be and ideal find. Especially considering the level floor.”

Alan didn’t waste time getting setup. Sara drove the escape pod into the center of the cavern and put the pod back up right. She locked the landing gear to the ground, making the pod a solid object on the planet surface again.

Alan detached the tracked undercarriage from the escape pod to serve as a remote hauler vehicle. He mined out plenty of stone and moved it to the entrance of the cavern and sealed it off from the outside world. He put in a manual steel double door on one side of the entrance for him and the hauler to get in and out. He finally had a safe shelter to work from just after dark of day two.

Over the next several days he setup his new base of operations. A biofuel generator, lights, power storage system, and an industrial grade assembler and refineries were first up. Once the refineries and assembler were online, things progressed much faster. Alan was able to dive into his treasure trove of blueprints. Next up was a build and repair device that Alan named Bob. This device would act as a helper and speed up the building process. Bob had a very basic AI that utilized nanites to construct or tear down structures and other machines, freeing up Alan to take care of other tasks.

Proper automated mining equipment was built and deployed at locations with favorable deposits underground. With the now sizable mass of raw resources being collected, other options became readily doable.

He constructed a full sized tracked vehicle to drive around in and bring back materials. It was complete with a rotary cannon turret mounted on top just above the industrial style cockpit. The weapon proved its worth more than once. A new, vehicle sized, automated door was installed in the cavern entrance. Defensive rotary cannon turrets were setup outside the mouth of the cavern. Ammo feeds ran through the wall of the cavern, being supplied by large ammo boxes on the inside, ready to be fed in case of a long encounter. LCD displays above the containers gave an ammunition count in bright red numbers. 2,000 rounds each at the moment.

A food processor, sleeping quarters, and other needed amenities were built. Resource and parts storage systems were built to handle the influx of what was being brought in and produced.

A proper computer server was installed for Sara to inhabit. With the massive increase of processing power and data storage, Sara was able to decompress all the modules of abilities that were backed up in the escape pod. More specialized modules would still need to be retrieved from the wreckage of the Neri’s Opportunity. Particularly the advanced starship control functions. Alan hoped those had not been destroyed.

The last thing Alan got set up was communications equipment. It would allow Sara to operate remotely to keep tabs on Alan at a distance and render some assistance as if she was right there with him. It would also function for Sara to monitor common frequencies for other sentient beings that might come around. After the communications equipment was setup Alan finally felt like he had a decent shop to achieve other goals.

With basics under control, it was time to go investigate the remains of the Neri’s Opportunity and begin a salvage operation if it was still worth it.