My knee joints were killing me. Uncle Marty had complained about knee trouble, but I was pretty sure what was happening to me felt different.

Then my thigh muscles started to twitch.

Oh fuck.

I got into a sitting position, my back against the wall, and started to massage my legs. It helped a little. Still, it fucking hurt. But I didn’t want to waste a second feeling sorry for myself.

I was trying not to panic because of the ring in my finger. At least the bleeding stopped. Basically, with all the shit going on, I knew I needed to focus, or I would lose my shit. Maybe I’d find more answers somewhere on the ship. What else would I find? Hopefully not another piece of jewelry that would wrap itself around my bones.

Getting to my feet, I ignored the pain. Instead, I focused on my survival. I went to one of the cupboards and opened it up. Hanging there were more of the gray jumpsuits that the dead guy had been wearing. I thought one just might fit me. I fought through the pain in my thighs and put it on.

It felt good to get dressed. Being naked on alien world was tough.

Even better, the clothes seemed to change a bit, making me more comfortable. Was it special air-conditioned fabric? There were sandals there as well, and I strapped them on. I had clothes. This was good.

Randomly opening cabinets on an alien spacecraft probably wasn’t a good idea, and yet, what choice did I have? I wanted to find more gear—a blade, a bucket, or something to start a fire with.

That was probably unlikely.

One cabinet might’ve had food in it, but most of the it was dust.

Another cabinet held tools, and I found something that looked vaguely like welding torch. A metal tube jutted out of a metal cannister. It didn’t exactly feel natural in my hand, since I had a pinkie, but I could press the trigger. A blue flame erupted out of the tip.

I had a way of starting a fire.

The good news didn’t end there. The torch—along with some other tool-like instruments—were in a metal container that I could use to collect water. I picked up what I thought was a hammer, but no, I’d soon realized it was something else entirely.

The next cabinet over held guns. At first, I was fucking laughing.

Then I was screaming. The scan had hit my groin. It was like someone kicking me in the balls.

I went down, gasping, trying to breathe as I looked up at all the weaponry. There were three rifles and three handguns, all made from the same dark, blue-black metal.

Abruptly, the pain in my balls turned into pleasure, and my cock got hard as the scanning went up and down my length. It was like I was getting sucked off.

I found myself on my back, grunting. Damn, but it felt good.

I’d never been hornier in my life. My first instinct was to grab my shaft and relieve myself of some of the pressure. My heart was thundering, and I couldn’t breathe.

The strange display came back after a pop of static.

<<< >>>

Primate species confirmed.

Genitals analyzed. Nerve endings provide pleasure and reward for procreating. Function detected for successful ejaculation.

Anomalous energy detected: Unknown source. Magic???

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Biosystems scan resuming…

Further results pending….

<<< >>>

It was the second time the readout had mentioned unknown energy. Magic wasn’t real, right? Then I remembered the red crystal. It had disappeared, and a second later, the ring had hijacked my finger. They had to be related.

While my mind whirled, I felt the scan rise up into my abdomen. At first, it was painful, then it was nausea, and then it was a bad mixture of both. Luckily, I’d skipped breakfast before the field trip.

My lungs were filled the fire, and then I felt ice in my heart. The goddamn scan was going through my ventricles, and atriums, and aortas and shit, and that was bad, but the cramps in my shoulders, arms, and forearms were worse. The scan went through to the tips of my fingers, which tingled, and then, nothing.

I expected to see the results.

None came.

All that pain and strangeness for nothing?

I felt cheated.

Picking up a pistol, I aimed outside the ship and pulled the trigger. A flash of red light struck the sands, making it smoke. I didn’t know if it was simply an energy weapon or if there was a projectile.

On the side was a screen, and it showed a rune, which my brain translated into twenty-four.

So, the pistol had twenty-four rounds. I didn’t see a magazine or any other way to reload, so I have to use those rounds sparingly.

Grabbing a rifle, I touched the trigger and saw the screen light up. Twenty-five shots in the rifle as well.

Slinging it over my shoulder, I scooped up the toolbox.

I guess my bioscan results were still pending. Now, at least, I had some supplies.

I tried to open up other cabinets, but they seemed locked. I couldn’t find a way to open them. Maybe you needed claws, I didn’t know. I could always come back.

The jumpsuit had a pocket, which is where I put the pistol.

I retraced my steps across the sands to get back to the bus. There I stashed the tools from the metal box and took the box to the rain forest but not before scrubbing the container with sand. That probably wouldn’t do shit to disinfect it, but I had to do something.

Rain still drizzled down onto the tall trees, as big as redwoods…no, these were bigger and stranger. In clearings I found ferns as well as strange broad-leafed plants that naturally collected the rainwater. Tipping them to one side, I could drain the moisture into my toolbox. Lucky for me, it was watertight.

I collected up all the water and then drank all I could from another leaf. It tasted perfect, the best water I’d had in a long time. It completely quenched my thirst.

My water situation was good. That meant my chances of survival had gone up exponentially.

Not that I really needed a fire now, I figured it was a good exercise anyway. If nothing else, I needed the company. Besides, it was going to get cold once night fell. I knew that from experience. The rain forest might not, but the desert would.

Finding dry wood wouldn’t be easy. Good thing I had the perfect way to dry it.

I found a dead pine, far smaller than the redwoods, and drug it out of the forest.

It was strange going from the damp cold of the rain forest and back into the desert heat. It was a sixty degree drop in temperature by taking a single step.

Some of the tree limbs broke off as I pulled it through the undergrowth, and I made a ton of noise.

In the distance, I heard a loud roar. Whatever had made that noise was big.

Okay, so I wasn’t alone. That fucking didn’t make me feel any better, I can tell you that. Not at first. Then I realized that if there were animals there was food. I didn’t have a knife, not that I knew of, but there were rocks in the rain forest. I could chip away stone to get an edge.

Professor Kroft had talked about early stone tools, and I’d gone down a rabbit hole on YouTube searching for information. Creating edges was an artform, and you needed the right kind of stone, but I might have a ton of time to practice.

Or would the energy storm come back? Maybe I would suddenly wake up and it had all been a dream.

My throbbing finger told me I wasn’t dreaming. I’d washed off the dried blood. Now I had to hope I didn’t get an infection.

Another roar echoed through the redwoods. It was closer.

At least I had guns. And if the guns failed me, I had the hammer which wasn’t a hammer, though, again, I didn’t know that.

I went back for the limbs that had broken off. Under some ferns, I found some dry grass and a few long, rotten branches, which were relatively dry.

I dragged all my fire-building supplies back to the bus. It would provide me with some protection if the beastie came for me. I needed more ways to collect water other than those big leaves and my toolbox. There had to be more containers back at the spaceship. I’d have to search more.

I’d just dumped the wood on the ground when another message flashed in my eyes.

<<< >>>

Possible optimizations detected.

Biosystem scans resuming.

Further results pending….

<<< >>>

Part of me wanted to stay on the bus, but I was getting hungry. Skipping breakfast was good for not barfing when your biosystems were being scanned by alien technology, but it sucks when survival was on the line.

Besides, I wanted to see what was doing all that roaring in the rainforest.

I could let the wood dry while I went on some recon.

I had taken three steps from the bus when suddenly, out of nowhere, Professor Kroft tumbled out of the air and onto the ground.

I’m not sure which surprised me more…the fact that she appeared out of nowhere or the fact that she was completely naked.