Hidden in the Depths

Chapter 2

The systems whirred back to life, lights turning on with a little flicker. "Yes Yes!" Techno immediately went for the main computer every pod had, checking if it still works. A little monitor to the side booted up first, showing the status of the pod in terms of charging and damages. The main one stayed off. "Of course, this was too good to be true anyways." But hey, at least he knows the solar charging is working fine, batteries fully charged. The life support is also back online, filtering oxygen into the pod and warming up the freezing metal plating around him just a little bit.

Techno sat back in the single chair on the wall, sighing into his hands. First step completed, a functioning shelter and base of operation. Next step, get the radio back online and try to contact other survivors. By the looks of it, the fire did some serious damage, as well as the crash. He won't be able to fix it without any tools. And to make tools, he needs resources, which means... fuck he had to go outside. Outside where there could be all kinds of threats, animals or an environment that will immediately kill him.

Weapon... he needs a weapon. Something to defend himself with.

He began to look through every little storage space he could find. There was something close to a diving suit, made to withstand high pressure, as well as a small oxygen tank and a mask, even a little scanner for ores and lifeforms. But no weapon, not even a little knife. He's starting to hate this company more and more. Who equips pods for alien world survival and doesn't include a weapon? The only option was a broken off part of a panel, one edge sharp enough to at least give a serious injury, even if it wouldn't be that deep. Hopefully enough to just scare off whatever is attacking him.

The suit was a tight fit but he managed to zip it closed, strap on the tank and mask and equip himself with the scanner and metal shard. It was almost scary, staring down into the water from the side of his pod, carefully balancing on the floating devices. "Here goes nothing..."

The water wasn't as cold as he expected it to be, it was actually quite warm compared to the air outside his pod. How odd...

His train of thought halted when he took in his surroundings. A large, colorful coral reef spread out over soft sandy dunes, brightly colored fish swimming around in large groups. They looked odd, with giant eyes and boomerang shapes, but they resembled fish close enough to calm down the human just silently taking it all in. If he ignores the odd looking creatures, this almost looks familiar. Like home, when his family went diving while on vacation once. Well, mostly him and his dad, his siblings were too young. Some of the fish started swimming around him, just passing by, not threatened in the slightest. Techno took the opportunity to scan one of them. He can view the data later when he is back in the pod.

Slowly, he began to swim along the sandy ground, making sure to always stay in viewing distance of his home. The last thing he needs right now is to get lost. There were some rocks, but nothing seemed too useful to make a tool out of. Until he came across a half buried metal box, the coloring looking awfully like everything they had in the ship. It makes sense, a lot of debris and crates have probably been blasted away from the ship as it crashed, but most of it is probably broken. But hey, maybe it had some useful things inside.

Pulling it out of the sand was a bit of a challenge, but he got there eventually. Inside the crate he found some tied up cables and some screws, but sadly no tools. But this should be helpful regardless, if he needs to replace cables. Or maybe when he finds other survivors and one is a mechanic or technician, they will find the cables helpful. With that in mind, he began dragging the box back to his pod. It was mostly walking along the bottom, since the weight dragged him down, but it would still be faster than doing multiple trips to get all the items.

It took a while, but when he finally reached his pod, he realized a new problem. How in the world will he get the box up into it? It was too heavy to swim with and the bottom hatch too high up to try and lift it inside. Alright then, other plan. Find a safe area nearby and turn it into some kind of storage for the heavier things. Not that he would have a lot of storing space inside the pod anyways. For now, he just pushed the box against a little cliff like wall near his pod, praying none of the animals would mess with it too much.

After checking how much air was left in the tank, he started to explore a little more, soon pulling a second box with some metal plates and more cables over to the first one. It wasn't a great haul, quite terrible actually considering it won't do much to help him survive right now, but at least it was something. The animals kept on swimming around him, often giving him a heart attack when one decides to zip past his face unannounced. It was weird how they didn't seem to recognize him as a potential threat. He might as well become one soon, if they turn out to be edible and he is out of rations. But that wasn't right now, so there was no reason in going after them and waste his strength.

Finally, with barely any air left, Techno dragged himself back into his pod. The original adrenaline boost started to fade, taking what's left of his energy with it. He was fucking exhausted. So, he grabbed a single one of the ration bars and slowly chewed on it as he stared out of the open hatch at the darkening sky, thousands of stars starting to glitter in the darkness. The reef below him also seemed to start glowing as well, hundreds of little glowing spots zipping about underneath the waves, some plants also started to emit a soft glow. He couldn't see much through the two hatches, but what he can see was enough for him.

And despite his awful situation, he admired the sight just for a little bit, until the protein bar was gone and he had taken a small sip from the water bottle.

With nothing left to do and absolutely rejecting the idea of diving while its dark, Techno dragged himself up the ladder and closed the hatch, locking it. He absolutely doesn't want any animal in here or a storm and waves flooding everything with water. When everything was secure, he simply curled up in the corner of his pod, leaning against one wall. There was no soft surface, no blanket or even scrap of cloth outside his own charred jacket laying on the floor beside him. He wrapped it around his shoulders, finding little comfort in the soft fabric of it.

That was how Techno's day ended, silently staring at the wall opposite of him, slipping in and out of consciousness in a restless, light sleep, awoken by every little rocking of the pod or too close for comfort sound from outside.