Sanders easily left them alone after Howard spoke up. There was an awkward silence for a while before Selina spoke up.

“I thought he was too friendly for a government official,” she chuckled lightly.

Her chuckle was forced and no one felt like pushing out a fake laugh of their own at the moment.

“Are we even in reality anymore?” Leon complained.

“Not the one we are familiar with at the very least,” Natalie replied, a bitter expression on her own face, “I have always hated this kind of thing. Aliens, paranormal, magic, monsters, or whatever else you want to call it. The last thing I want to do is live it.”

“At least Sanders isn’t like any of the aliens from those horror movies,” James agreed, “but do we even believe he is an alien in the first place? A psychic might have been more believable, or even a wizard.”

“With everything he was going on about he might be a psychic wizard alien,” Selina pointed out.

“And that psychic wizard alien owes us,” Leon realized, leaning forward, “He seems to have a heavy sense of responsibility, right? He got us into this mess so he is going to have to help us survive here.”

“That’s not a bad plan, but how can you be certain he won’t just get tired of owing us favors and get rid of us?” Natalie pointed out.

Howard finally spoke up again. “I don’t think we will need his help for that long,” he told them, “Once we figure out the basics we should be able to survive on our own without relying on him. I think it is in our best interests to trust him for now.”

“I agree,” James gave in, “but we have a more pressing problem. If this planet is as liveable as it seems to be so far, I doubt it is uninhabited. Sooner or later we are going to meet the natives.”

Natalie scowled. “That’s true. The natives are a bigger problem than Sanders right now.”

“How do we find out about them?” Miranda asked, “We can’t just wander around until we run into some.”

“Definitely not,” Selina agreed, hugging herself, “They might be some kind of barbarian or practice a strange religion that requires sacrifices.”

“The sun is blue and the world is new,” Jonathan chuckled, “It is possible.”

“That is not something to smile about,” James snapped.

Jonathan’s smile stayed clearly in place as he clasped his hands. “There were many things to discover back on Earth, but everything is new here. It’s like a paradise.”

“We could ask Sanders to do reconnaissance,” Leon suggested.

“Now that we have had this lovely discussion, shouldn’t we get to fixing the leak in the water?” Jonathan brought up.

Several people froze, having completely forgotten.

Howard was the first to make it to the water storage. Luckily, the one container was only damaged near the top so it had only leaked while the ship was sideways. The other was laced with cracks and the water would have to be transferred somewhere.

“We need to find containers we can transfer the water to,” Howard called.

“I will check the water bottles,” Miranda volunteered and quickly headed to the cafeteria.

“Girls, go to the cafeteria,” James decided, “We should check the storage.”

Everyone split up.

Natalie and Selina brought some dishes from the cafeteria, but there wasn’t much since normal eating and cooking wasn’t possible in space.

“A few of the water bottles busted, and the rest are a bit crunched, but they still work,” Miranda reported, holding up a cheap store brand water bottle.

“Why did those even get sent with us?” James asked.

“That was by my request,” Howard said, “and it paid off, didn’t it?”

“Definitely,” Natalie agreed, “Was the extra food you as well?”

Howard nodded.

“Good, we should be able to use the bins the extra food packets are in to hold the water for now,” Natalie said, “Is there any room in the first container?”

“Yes. It is only about half full,” Howard replied.

“Then we should start by transferring the water there.”

Natalie naturally took over, but because of that, the water situation was dealt with quickly and they could make sure there was nothing else that would cause problems in the near future.

Jonathan discovered some engine problems, but he took care of them himself, and Leon helped Selina alter the settings of the ship to deal with their current environment better. Night fell while everyone was working.

“Do you think we should try to sleep or stay up and keep watch?” Leon asked.

“Ugh, sleep,” Miranda groaned, “Those sleeping bags are not going to be comfortable on this hard floor now that gravity is back.”

“There are the chairs in the control room, but that is where people will be keeping watch,” Selina said, “If we are keeping watch.”

“I think we should,” James said, “The natives here might not even be humanoid or sentient, but they might also be powerful like Sanders.”

“That would be scary,” Miranda shuddered, “A whole planet of baby-faced brunettes in suits…”

“Miranda,” Sanders broke in, “My appearance is not the absolute standard in my world.”

Miranda let out a screech when she saw Sanders. “Where did you come from?!”

Sanders looked at the chair in the control room he was sitting in. “I have been right here since you told me you needed time to think.”

“Ah.”

“Right, I will take the first night shift,” James said, “Try to figure out some way to sleep and I will check up on you later.”

Everyone scattered but Howard sat down in the control room with James. “I doubt I could sleep right now,” he said as he fixed his eyes on the window. Many of the branches had fallen off when Sanders had tipped the shuttle and they now had a clear view of their crash site. It was deep inside a forest, but the light of three moons easily filtered through the leaves. Howard could see the moons themselves because of the destruction their crash had caused.

“It is beautiful here,” James murmured, staring at the sky, “I can see the stars clearly. During the day the sky looked so different, but at night it seems familiar.”

“As long as you ignore the extra moons,” Howard agreed.

One of the nearby trees trembled slightly and Howard caught sight of a tall humanoid peering at them through the branches, but they had hidden so he couldn’t see much detail. Just as he felt that he locked eyes with the being it left.

“Did you see that?” Howard asked.

“Yeah,” James agreed, “There was someone there, but I think I know why they left.”

James pointed at the teal leaves on the trees which had begun faintly glowing.