Josh woke up, to find himself in the cockpit of a shuttlepod. The last thing he remembered was going to bed in his quarters.

Josh reached over and picked up a scanner off the floor. Once he made sure he wasn’t injured, a concussion could have caused him to imagine this, he looked around. Looking outside through the forward view port, he could see that the pod had come to a landing in a field. He stood up and could see dirt piled up from where the shuttlecraft plowed through the field as it came to a stop.

Next, he looked around the pod, and didn’t see any other crewmembers. Then return to the cockpit, sat down, and found that main power was offline. So were the engines and the comms. He checked the status of the emergency beacon, to see if he could launch it….offline. 

Things were not looking good. He saw that one of the pod windows had broken, probably on impact. “At least that means that this planet has a breathable atmosphere.” he muttered to himself.

He opened up the cargo hold, found an emergency kit, containing cold weather gear, food and water rations, and a phase pistol and a holster. He attached the holster to his side, checked for more rations and more power cells. Then he found an emergency transponder, in a carrying bag. He put the bag on his back, pulled the straps tight, picked up the ration bag and tossed it over his shoulder.

The hatch was jammed, so he blew the emergency escape and exited the shuttle. He walked around, inspecting the damaged…looked for evidence of possible weapons fire…or signs of anyone being caught as the shuttle crashed.

He climbed on top of the pod to survey the terrain. Using the scanner, he determined which way was north. To the north there were snow covered mountains. Northeast, more mountains. East, a vast desert. The desert extended to the southeast and the east. To the southwest, an ocean. West, more farmland, and to the northwest, a vast forest.

He decided to start walking in a westerly direction, hoping he’d find some farmers or a town. 

He started walking. 

It was only now that he noticed that this a binary system, with 2 suns. When the primary sun set, the smaller sun gave the landscape an eerie site. Plus with the primary sun down, the temperature started dropping quickly. He pulled out the cold weather gear and put it on. He found a suitable place to make camp, gathered some firewood and used his phase pistol to start a fire. He hadn’t seen of heard any animals in the area. 

He didn’t sleep. 

When the primary sun rose, Josh put away the cold weather gear, had a ration bar as his breakfast and opened a water ration pack and drank it. He put out the fire, then started heading west again.

5 hours into his walk, his scanner detected life signs about 2 miles ahead. He picked up his pace, and when he got closer, he located the area that the scanner detected the life signs. He approached and hid, and waited.

After 30 minutes passed, someone vaguely humanoid walked out of what can be best described as a farmhouse. Josh watched as the alien using a large animal to harvest his crop. Josh watched intently, then decided to show himself and started walking towards the humanoid. It appeared to be almost 2 meters tall, seemed somewhat skinny, had 6 fingers on each hand it’s facial features were almost bird like. 

When the alien spotted Josh, he starred for a few seconds, then made a noise, and more creatures emerged from the structure. Once they saw Josh, they picked up some what appeared to be clubs. They didn’t approach, so Josh started walking slowing towards them. As he walked, he spoke softly, and kept his hands to his side. 

The aliens seemed puzzled and afraid, but they didn’t move towards him and away from him. As he drew closer, they seemed calm….when suddenly, riders on what could be described as horses, appeared. The aliens disappeared into the structure. The riders move towards Josh. He could now see they were carrying long spears. The riders surrounded Josh. Josh pulled out his phase pistol and kept it lowered. 

2 riders started towards him. They started urging their mounts faster. Josh held his ground and when they were 3 meters from him, he raised his phase pistol, shot one rider then turned and shot the second.

One rider, Josh assumed that ‘he’ was the leader, started shouting. Was it to his riders, or was it to Josh. If only his UT was working. 

Another rider charged at Josh….and when it got closer, Josh shot him. The others now seemed afraid. Josh walked over to the fallen rider, and removed their helmet….it was a human woman!!

The leader, dismounted, handed ‘his’ lance to one of the others, and walked toward Josh. Josh kept his pistol lowered. When the rider was 1 meter away, ‘he’ removed his helmet. He was a human male. He started talking but Josh couldn’t understand him. Josh kept pointing to his ears, hoping that the alien would understand.

While he was distracted, one of the riders had managed to sneak up to Josh and knocked him out.

When he woke, Josh found himself in a room, in a bed. The door opened and a woman brought a tray of food and drink. She placed it on the bed, then left. Josh sampled the food and found it was tasty.

15 minutes later, the door opened again, 2 guards walked in and took position on either side of the door. And when the door opened again, a human female entered and walked to the bed. “My name is Corena. I am the leader of this place.” She spoke in English. “You are human, correct?” 

Josh stood up. The guards watching him closely. “Yes I am. I am Joshua Randall.”

The woman moved closer. “Our ancestors were human, brought here millennia ago by the old ones.”

“The old ones?”

Corena nodded. “They brought my people here as slaves, but we rose up and destroyed them.” She moved closed to him. “We have prayed for us to be found, and you have arrived.”

“I crashed on this planet. My ship was damaged.”

Corena smiled. “It does not matter…you are here now. You will be my side. Our males can no longer give the women children. With you, that will change.”

“How many women are you talking about?”

Corena smiled. “Hundreds.”

“WHAT???”

Josh sat up in bed. Sweat covered him. He looked around, found that he was back in his bed, in his quarters. 

“No more caffeine before bed.” he muttered. He pulled the covers over his head, and went to sleep.