Challenge #01699-D238: Everything You Can
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt. -- c/- Anon Guest
Improvisation goes well with inspired desperation, so it's said. Having been marooned on more than my fair share of asteroids, I can say it's a definite thing. Many a time, my arse has been saved by the ability to bodge up a life-pod out of wreckage and whatever the asteroid was made of.
And there was one time that I got eaten by some other far-scout's Hungry Caterpillar, but that's not this story. No. For a change, the world was quite comfortable and the habitat only mildly perturbing. Almost made me want to set up stakes, there. It had just about everything. Beautiful scenery. Plentiful edibles. Mostly-wonderful weather...
Unfortunately, it also had natives.
Which meant that it could not be my missing-presumed-dead retirement home. They were about at the Copper Age, just working out that metals could be useful, and baking clay was the biggest thing since bashing two rocks together. I had to stay well away from any kind of their civilisation, and go out foraging when they were most likely to be dormant. And I had to hide everything I was doing from them, too.
Ever tried to run a forge without making smoke? It's not that much fun. Neither's rigging all possible chimney-holes with the air-scrubbers from the wreckage of your ship. At least I got plenty of carbon for the fabricators, that way.
My kind's pretty good at brachiating, so not leaving boot prints wasn't more than I could do. Hunting and foraging took up way too much of my time. But I couldn't afford to leave traps or farms and pollute a baby society. That's more trouble than I could afford.
And let me tell you, taking off during the storm season is a pain in the arse. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Did you know that Copper Age hunters have a really wide range? Or a really efficient sense of when they're being watched? I didn't. Not until I narrowly dodged a few spears and got the flakk out of there. Good news, they mistook me for prey. Bad news... they mistook me for prey. If I wasn't careful, they'd have me on a spit for the big feast. Without ever knowing I was a cogniscent being like them. I knew better than to head straight for my temporary home. I'm wild, not stupid. I don't think a prey animal would think of doubling back, sneaking over their heads, and then hightailing it for home.
Thankfully, neither did they.
I want you to remember that I did my utmost not to infect a baby society. I did everything I could to avoid detection. Hell, I even made sure everything left over could easily be explained by the right kind of sceptic. Freak mineral deposits happen all the time.
And yet, here I am. Getting interviewed -interrogated- by the Infant Society Protection Agency. Their cloaked probes found images that could be interpreted as my crash and myself. Despite my best efforts. My only hope lies in repeatedly asking if they have proof that those images are a recent phenomenon.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Leaf]
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nice read! will check out your other stories as well! thank you for this.