Challenge #02142-E313: Been There, Done That
Alien: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CRASH LANDED ON YOUR HOME PLANET!?"
Human: "I mean we are on Earth, my home, somewhere in Central Africa...I think."
Alien: "We are doomed"
Human: "No we're not. Don't worry, I'll teach you everything there is to know about surviving on a Deathworld, we'll be fine." -- Anon Guest
Human Yoss clambered up the wreckage of their vessel. The bad news was that they were in the middle of flakk-off nowhere with busted comms. The good news was that the landscape was vaguely familiar as savannah. The really bad news was that there was no obvious water anywhere in sight.
"Okay," sighed Yoss. "Good news, bad news, possibly disturbing news, and optimistic news."
Grex couldn't roll hir eyes, but ze knew the shape of the news regardless. "I think I can guess," ze said. "You know where we are, but it's extremely distant from anywhere Havenworlder-friendly. There's wild animals in the scenery, but you think you know what you're doing and can get us out of here."
Yoss grinned. "You read my mind."
Grex tucked hir wings up and grumbled, "I'm getting to see the larger pattern in your thought processes. Step one is going to be salvaging all my anti-stress medications."
"Already on it," Yoss could go into places that a Havenworlder like Grex couldn't. Emergency packs and supplies amounted to twenty days' worth, even on hard use. "We got twenty days to get to somewhere that could help," said Yoss. "I can forage a little, but you... you need easy-to-digest stuff and none of that is what I can find out here. That's why you get the supply packs by default."
"I don't have my livesuit in a functional state," said Grex.
"Yeah, but it's armour. That's good. The great news is that most predators out here know that Humans are dangerous, so they won't mess with us. The great news is that I can keep us moving for really long distances over long periods of time."
"The bad news?"
"If I pick the wrong direction, then we might be screwed. South is better than North. East and West are pretty much even. If we find running water, then we're almost all the way saved. If we just find water, then I have the distillery kit so we can refresh. It's going to take me today to build you a travel harness to ride, but after that? We're off."
They built a smoky fire, just in case some teams had mobilised to find them. Yoss continued their work rather than waiting for rescue. When the light faded, they used the crashed ship as shelter and kept the fire burning brightly through the night.
The following morning had Yoss making an isosceles triangle out of stones on some bare dirt. Pointing in the direction of the greenest patch of land that they'd spotted from the vantage point of the highest point they could clamber to. Yoss gave Grex the scopes and the job of spotting hazards, and began a gentle, easy trot.
Grex learned a lot of things about Humans, during the five days they trekked. First of which being that their pareidolia was a survival trait. Yoss often veered away from predators before Grex could even see them. Yoss' advice was mostly things to do, rather than the reasoning why.
The green was not an oasis of groundwater, but the edge of a river. Once a river gave the direction -downstream- Yoss' prediction about being 'almost all the way saved' became obviously accurate. Human settlements came naturally to flowing, fresh water. Even the most remote of outposts had comms and it wasn't long before transport came to whisk them both to far safer civilisation.
Grex reviewed the footage from hir cams, with pareidolia filters to highlight what the Humans could easily see. Ze also ran through the list of things that could have killed hir, knowing that Human Yoss had kept hir safe.
Realisation was slow, because ze had to approach it in small doses, but it came nevertheless. I survived a Class Four Deathworlder environment.
If Grex could wear T-shirts, ze would definitely get one with that declarative legend on it.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / RyanFaas]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [24 remaining prompts!]
A t-shirt for havenworlders "I survived a class 4.5 deathworld and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" LOL