It would take a couple of hours for the ship to be ready for me, power supplies were building back up but slowly. So in the meantime we decided to set up a little camp and find some food.

We didn’t need to go far to find anything. I spotted what looked like a little ginger rabbit but the creature darted away before I could get anywhere close. Not that I had any chance of catching the little thing.

Instead I grabbed some dry looking sticks and some stones to assemble a campfire with. There was plenty of other broken bits of wood around that we could use to keep the fire going, but we’d need a proper fire first or the fresh wood probably wouldn’t catch.

That was unfortunately the extent of my bushcraft knowledge. I wasn’t sure how we were going to start a fire. Rubbing sticks together was something I’d heard about and seen on TV, but never actually tried.

When I got back Rel had her arms full of what looked like berries.

“Thought these looked edible,” she said. “Spotted some birds pecking away at a few of them.”

“That sounds good enough for me,” I replied.

We set ourselves up near the entrance to the ship and I assembled a rough circle with the rocks I’d gathered. Then it was time to see if daytime Tv had lied to me.

After a few minutes it seemed it probably had, or I was doing something wrong.

“Hey, let me,” Rel said. I looked at her and saw she had her laser pistol out and was fiddling with one of the dials on it.

She came a bit closer and saw the small pile of dry twigs and leaves I’d gathered, then she aimed her weapon at it.

Instead of a single beam of plasma or whatever instead there was a short lived beam of red energy that came out of the weapon. The twigs immediately ignited, bursting in flames and I reared back slightly.

“Thanks,” I said as I tried to stoke the fire a bit more.

“It’s something my mum taught me,” Rel said before shuffling a bit in place and watching as the fire began to lick at the other bits of log I’d gathered. She offered me one of the berries and I eyed it. It didn’t look entirely like anything I recognised. More like a slightly rounder strawberry, but blue instead of red.

When was the last time I’d eaten anyway? I thought as my stomach rumbled again.

Hunger won out over my fear of the unknown and I took a nibble of it. It was actually pretty good.

“Tastes like a raspberry,” I said. It probably counted as a fruit instead of a berry, more fleshy like the strawberry it resembled.

We ate and then sat in front of the fire for a bit. I didn’t really have anything to say and neither did Rel it seemed. So the fire crackled away merrily in front of us, keeping us warm while the sun ahead began to set.

“I think I’m gonna see if Starship Rex is ready for me,” I said.

“Are you sure?” Rel asked. “Maybe we should wait a bit and make sure you’re okay after that first time.” I shook my head.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Before, the ship had also given me a warning that I couldn’t just keep doing this one time after another. If I did a third one of these downloads again within the next year then I was running the risk of a brain haemorrhage.

That had put a bit of a damper on things, but Starship Rex thought it was safe for one more right now and my mind was made up. “I’d rather do this sooner than later,” I told her, making Rel frown.

“Alright,” she said, frowning. “I’ll be here when you’re done.”

“I’ll see you later,” I promised before climbing back aboard.

“Starship Rex, do we have enough power to do that education download?” I asked.

“Yes. Power supplies are regenerating at a steady rate,” the vessel told me.

I needed something to ground me, something to show that I wasn’t so monumentally out of my depth here on an alien world, an alien universe, alone and relying on someone I’d only just met for basically everything. We’d already risked dying twice since I’d woken up here and both times were because I hadn’t been in a position to do anything.

After not being able to stop those spaceships when they attacked us before, I absolutely didn’t want that to happen again and I knew I was going to be spending a lot of my future time in space.

To fix that I wanted to be able to fly the ship. Starship Rex had told me that there was an education download of flying skills to suit my needs and I was more than ready for it.

The helmet was waiting for me but with the ship lying at an angle I wasn’t going to be able to lie down on the bed without falling off. Instead I settled for half lying, half sitting against the side of the bed, holding the helmet in my hands.

“I know it’s not my first time, but please be gentle,” I joked weakly before putting the helmet back on my head, taking a deep breath and bracing myself for the discomfort that was about to come.

I put on the helmet.

“Ready when you are.”

“Commencing upload.”

A moment later and my brain was being assaulted by images and sensations like before. It was all too fast to take in properly but I got glimpses of a few things. How to control a spacecraft seemed to be the primary focus, which was good because it was what I wanted to learn. There were other things though, like the way a jetpack felt on my back and how to control it in both atmosphere and space and there was tons of other stuff too. I came away with more than I’d honestly wanted, or probably needed, but then the package had been described as teaching me how to fly things.

My head began throbbing as it kept going. It felt harsher, or perhaps more rapid than before, picking up speed and whether it was because I was learning more stuff this time or because it was the second time doing this in such a short space of time, it really started to hurt.

I couldn’t stop though, I could only bear through it until the plethora of images and feelings started to die down, the education download completing. Relieved, I tossed the helmet to the side to let me rub my temples.

“Yeah, maybe leave learning Kung-Fu for a year or so,” I agreed with the prior warning. I wasn’t looking forward to a repeat experience until I needed it.

If I went in for a third time I was sure I’d have my brain leaking out of my ears by the time it was finished.

But it’d worked!

I made my way back towards the exit of the ship.

Getting out was a lot easier than getting in and feeling slightly giddy I dropped down to the firm ground.

The fire was still crackling away merrily.

“Rel, I’m finished,” I said brightly, standing up and looking around and my eyes widened in surprise.

Rel was on her knees, a knife pressed against her throat and a dozen figures stood around the campfire, armed with bows and arrows.

Slowly I raised my hands as what I could only assume were the local population levelled their weapons at me threateningly and I said the first thing that came to my mind.

“We come in peace?”