A Protogen's Misadventures

Signaling

‘Man, nothing good is on TV right now,” I thought to myself. ‘I wonder when Jack will get back.’ As if on queue, I saw Jack’s car pull into his parking spot. ‘About time.’ I stood up from my spot by the window and walked near the door, waiting for him to come through. Around 30 seconds, I saw the door knob turn and the door swing open. There he was, in all of his adorableness. ‘Wait, did I just call him adorable?’

“Hey there Ever-” I interrupted him by giving him a hug. I missed him while he was gone. “Woah there, miss me buddy?” Jack said. “Yeah, it’s so boring when you aren’t here,” I said. “I wasn’t gone for THAT long,” he said smiling. “I know, but it felt like forever!” I said dramatically. “Aw, well I’m glad you missed me, now, we have the rest of the day to do whatever!” he responded. I thought for a second. “What should we do?” I asked. “We could go on a walk, but on a different trail. We could do the one I went down when I found your escape pod thingy,” he suggested. “Sounds good!” I said enthusiastically. “Alright Evergreen, simmer down, let me go change into more comfortable clothes before we go,” he said. “Ok, I will wait on the couch until you are ready,” I said. He nodded and went into his room to get changed. While I waited, I checked to see if my visor was operational again. To my surprise, it was, and I was able to open the menus and other helpful items, such as a vital reader, and a map. I scanned the map and noticed that the escape pod was giving off a signal. ‘Weird, once it crashed, it should not be doing that,’ I thought. I started to panic a little. This was not normal. I had a gut feeling that something, or someone, was tracking that pod. If that was the case, this would not be good. I don’t want to get Jack involved in people I had to deal with. We would need to check it out and see if there was a way to disable that signal.

As I was in thought, Jack came out of his room in some new clothes. He was wearing some grey khaki shorts and a green striped T-Shirt. He also was wearing a white hat. It made him look super cute. ‘Why did I keep thinking of him like that? Was I developing feelings for a human?’ I blushed at the thought. “Well, I’m ready to go, are you?” Jack said. “Yes sir, let’s get going,” I said.

We exited the apartment and started our walk to the trail. I followed closely behind Jack. The sidewalks and streets were relatively empty, aside from a few people occasionally walking by or a car coming by. No one even gave us a second glance. “Odd, I wonder why people aren’t staring at us,’ I thought. Before I could even think about it anymore, we arrived at the entrance to the trail. “Welp, we are here,” Jack stated. “Thank you Captain Obvious,” I joked. He started laughing and so do I. After we laughed, we started down the trail.

The tall trees towered over us, blocking some of the orange evening glow from the sky. The sound of dirt crunching could be heard. As we got further in, I noticed something. It had gone completely quiet aside from our footsteps and the sound of the breeze. I stopped. “H-Hey, Jack?” I said, starting to get nervous. “What’s up?” he said. “Do you notice anything about the sound?” I questioned. “Yeah, it’s completely quiet...wait,” he said. “Why is it so quiet?” he asked. “I’m not sure, maybe it has something to do with the escape pod,” I said. “What makes you think that?” he asked. “Well earlier, when you were getting ready, I checked my visors systems and noticed that on the map, the escape pod was giving off a signal,” I answered. “Interesting, we should check it out, make sure it isn’t doing anything bad,” he said. “Good idea,” I responded.

He led the way to the escape pod, and I could immediately tell something was wrong. Instead of the usual blue light, the light was blinking red. “That can’t be good,” I said. As we got closer, I could hear the pod’s system giving a message. “Warning, multiple ships detected entering the solar system,” it said. “Uh, Evergreen, this wouldn’t have anything to do with you, right?” Jack questioned. I only looked at him with a scared expression. “I expected the people you escaped from to start looking for you, but how did they track you to here?” he said. “Another thing I forgot to add was that the escape pod’s beacon system should’ve been destroyed in the crash, but it seems it was protected somehow, which lead to it most likely getting remotely accessed by them,” I said. “Who is “them”?” he asked. “They are the GMC, or the Galactic Mining Corporation. No one knows how they gained so much power, but they were able to invent technology that could allow them to take over planets and turn them into mines. No one has been able to get enough dirt on them to get shut down, as no one can stand up against the GMC without being taken prisoner and forced to work at one of the mining planets. They are terrible places, once beautiful planets, now exploited for their valuable resources,” I finished. “Oh wow, that sounds terrible!” Jack said. “It is. I would have first hand experience with seeing their corruption,” I added.

After a minute of silence, I noticed something interesting on the pod’s logs. It seems a scan was run of the surrounding area. “Hey, I noticed something interesting,” I said. “What is it?” Jack asked.“ A scan was run recently of the surrounding area. It reveals some strange underground facility,” I answered. “What? There is no underground facility in this area. People would know about it,” he said. “From what the scan is showing, it looks like there is,” I said. “Well, if there is, how deep is it?” he questioned. “It says that it is about 200 meters below the surface,” I answer. “Interesting, how do you get to it?” he said. “I’m not sure, it doesn’t show the entrance or an exit. Maybe the scan was stopped before completion?” I said. “Was it now? This is all too confusing for me right now,” he said tiredly. “Do you want to head back now? It’s almost 8,” I said. “Yeah, let’s head back,” he responded.

We started our way back through the dark forest, as the sun had completely set by now. With my visor now fixed, I could use my night vision so I could see in the dark. “Stay close to me Jack, I have night vision, so I can see better than you can, at least until we get to civilization,” I ask. He nodded and moved over closer to me. As we were walking, I could see civilization start to come up. I felt something grab my paw and I looked down to see Jack holding onto my paw. I immediately start to blush, and I can see him going a bright shade of red as well. We continued for a little while longer and we finally reached the street lamp lit street. The glow of the moon was present, but was blocked by clouds and the building that surrounded us. The streets seemed even more empty. Eventually, we finally reached Jack’s apartment. He opened the door and closed it behind us and locked the door. We both flopped down on the couch as we were too tired from all the things that had happened today.

As we both were falling asleep, I wondered. ‘Who is tracking us? Is the GMC? Or is it someone else?’ and probably the most prominent question, Do I have feelings for Jack?

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Phew finally, 1348 words, that's a lot but there is also a lot of dialogue, so that makes sense. Anyways, thank yall for reading! I really appreciate all of the views, comments, and votes you guys have been giving! I would also like to thank everyone for #1 on protogen! That's insane! It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of you guys.

I wonder if Jack feels the same way towards Evergreen? 😳 Find out soon.

And as always, if there is anything you noticed or something I could improve on, please let me know in the comments, as commenting helps recommend the story to people! (also the help is greatly appreciated!) Anyways, yall have a wonderful day!