Bestial Planet

Chapter 7: Unforeseen

"Nature's creative power is far beyond man's instinct of destruction."

- Jules Verne

The buggy-looking roadster arrived at the pier sideways. All four wheels, as far as Yora was concerned, were pointed in the wrong direction. As they slid to a stop he was hoping the vehicle didn't flip over and crush them.

"Delivered to your ship Yora, safe and sound!" Lancieta said, pointing to the 140 foot boat with the name "Toadstool" on it's side. The car finally came to a sideways stop and Yora noded just before opening the car door and unceremoniously falling out.

"I think I need directional recalibration."

"Awww, you'll get over it. I'll stay with the car. Have fun!"

Yora half stumbled to his ship and clambered aboard using a rope ladder he made after watching a pirate movie series. The water in this harbour still had a murky look to it. It seemed that it would take the Earth a little longer to recover from the dumping of waste materials into her oceans, accidental or otherwise. Still, the water all over had cleared up. In New York, the Hudson river with its fabled 3 eyed fish was now as clear as the water out in the deep ocean. The Plastic Beach on the other hand was a different matter.

A few things had been thrown about from the last time he was on board. He checked the air tanks for healthy quantities and then his diving suit to see if any animals had come along and torn some holes in it. The last time he went out to sea, a storm seemed to have come from nowhere and he was forced to dock quickly, leaving his equipment out in the open. He'd rather go hunting for new equipment than get struck by lightning out on the blue.

Yora hadn't gone back to his ship recently because of "two" reasons. First hadn't found it necessary to repair a vehicle for himself as Lancieta and Roisin, the third of their Section, had done. He also hadn't asked her to drive him because she was the complete opposite of Lancieta. She was deathly terrified to bring her vehicle above 30 miles an hour. Which meant that going anywhere with her was a full day trip. He refused to drive Lancieta's car himself because the one time he tried to drive, he accelerated into a tree. Lancieta didn't mind having to repair it but the experience scared him away for the most part. Those experiences in mind he decided that he'd leave driving to the two of them. He much preferred his ship.

Satisfied with the condition of his equipment, Yora climbed back down the rope ladder, walked over to a large tank he had fastened to a set of wheels and rolled it towards Toadstool. He grabbed the fuel hose and jiggled it into place. Previously the ship required a different fueling method but he preferred this way better. It made more of a man out of him he thought. In Android years he was young, by human years he was a senior. He had gained sentience 68 years ago and just like many other Androids he always thought there was something else to learn. When they arrived on Earth everyone who had survived Hyrda felt like they would be learning here until they were able to leave. That was the hope.

The fueling system rang a bell letting him know it was full, a little something he added for fun. He wheeled the fuel tank back to its spot away from his ship. God forbid it exploded, he didn't want it to damage Toadstool. He boarded, waved goodbye to Lancieta and started the engines which he did his best to improve by combining his engineering knowledge with the primitive design. He turned to an MP3 sound system he had installed throughout his ship and selected pirate themed music. A collection he had amassed when he started the new week.

"Yo ho ho, it's a pirate's life fer me."

He sang and laughed all the way to the coordinates of Section 9. For all he knew this trip would be a wash seeing as Tould nor Vould were no longer able to reliably connect with Section 9's systems. However, just being on the Ocean made this trip worth it. He arrived at his destination a few hours later and started humming along with a song as he geared up. He ran through the diving video he had watched hundreds of times in his head and did each check as a professional might although most of the equipment was built into his body.