“What are you doing here?” a voice asked behind him.

He quickly turned around and saw a standing figure, dressed in a large dark cloak. He couldn't tell much in the way of physical features.

“As I asked, why are you here?” the figure said. He could notice the voice was distinctively feminine. 

“I-I just... wanna find cilivi-civilization... so I can return home.” he replied. 

Of note is that our friend here tended to fumble and misspell words often.

“You aren't exactly in the right path, who are you?” the figure asked again.

“M-My name's Forge, I... I come from a place call' Poluum... Iv'.... Iv' ended up... lost. Now, I'm just tryin' to find a civly-cilviezation, so I can find a way back home.” Forge (spelled “for-heh”) answered. 

“There isn't any civilization in this solar system,” she explained “nor has there been for the past century.” 

“I was worryin' about that...” he groaned. 

“Hmm, well, the mainline Inhabited Regions are pretty far from here... and you don't have a ship, do you?” she asked. 

“No... you're not surprised I flew down here by myself?”  asked Forge. 

 

“You are one of those... what they have called... 'anomalies', beings with abilities far beyond of 'normals', right? More like us have been popping up lately in the Normal Zone than in the past.” she explained. 

“In-Indeed... and... uhhhmm... ain'... you an 'anomaly' too?”  he kept asking. 

“...what do you think?” she replied with an air of sarcasm. 

“Huh... an-anyways... I guess there isn' any way to civili-cilv-... place with mor' people, riiiight?” 

The figure thought for a moment. Suddenly getting an idea, she replied: “Well... if you need a ship, you could try finding one in the Dump.” 

“...the dump?” Forge asked once again, not understanding. 

“One of this very planet's moons, turned garbage dump. But I must warn, there's no guarantee you'll find anything useful there.” she explained. 

“Aren' they any workin' ships here now? Or do they ever pass?” 

“This planet doesn't have any functional ships anymore. Anything that wasn't salvaged was deliberately thrown away, left in the Dump. And ships don't pass here any longer.” 

“How did you get here then?” he asked.

“Not by a ship.” she simply replied, not elaborating further.

“Okay... I gotcha... Well, wha-what do I do if I don' fin' anything ther'?”  

“I don't know, but you can't stay here.” she, rather coldly, answered him.

Feeling oddly threatened, Forge continued with the issue at hand: “So, uhhh, wher' is it?”

“It's big and red, it's not really far. It shouldn't be too hard to find, at this time, it should be the big red dot next to that white moon.” she said.

“Tha-that... I don' think it sounds very easy.” Forge contested.

The Man in the Jacket soon flew towards the moon. Going at a leisurely pace, it took him a while. He passed the bigger white moon as the red dot got bigger and bigger, slowly. After almost twenty minutes, he finally reached the Dump, and saw it was indeed an enormous trash dump. Everything was broken and scattered, heaps of scrap everywhere. It was lifeless and desolate, with a foreboding sky as orange as its ground. Buildings could be seen, but all abandoned and rusty; with broken windows; and a few even missing their doors. 

From east to west, there was trash. As he flew over the piles, looking for anything that stood out, he soon began searching and digging them up. Most of the things he found where either trash, broken metal or broken metal trash. He also found a dumpster filled with bricks (and only bricks) made of pyrite. For some reason. 

Forge searched and searched and searched, but he couldn't find anything useful. At least, not useful for what he needed. He found what looked like old rusty armor, but for individuals with some very unusual body shapes; broken gas masks; a bunch of canvases with random splatters of paint; a large rusty shield, with inscriptions written in a language he didn't understand, which broke apart soon after he lifted it; a locker which, disturbingly, had what appeared to be a skeleton inside it; a dumpster filled with helmets; plus another one filled with worthless things like shoe-umbrellas, purity rings, pet stones, horoscopes and college degrees. 

He also came across a somewhat rusty but still good looking bident. 

“Wow, this thin' is so cool!!!” Forge began to make stabbing motions at the air. 

“I coul' take-” he was interrupted by the bident snapping in half, not being in the best condition. 

Forge sighed, dropped the bident away and moved on. 

After over two hours of looking at trash and very tedious searching; he came across a group of ships buried under trash. Of course, he began to dig them up, but was disappointed each time. Any ships he found where either damaged beyond any repair or had their engines and other pieces removed long ago, probably before even being left here.  

“I'm really, really doubtin' mor' than ever that there's anythin' at all that can help me 'ere, this is just trash. Sirusly, why woul' they even leave a functi-foncton-... useful ship here? Is like searchin' for one stupid fish in an sea full of more stupid fish!!!” Forge thought out loud, then suddenly shouted: “I'M SO STUPID!!!!” 

In frustration he lifted his fist and punched the ground, making a huge explosion-like shockwave. There was a  noticeable aftershock that pushed tons of trash and shook the entire area. With the tremor quickly ending. Forge sat down in the ground, still frustrated. 

But suddenly, a nearly patch of trash began to shake, even as the rest laid still.

“Hhmm?” he noticed and approached it cautiously. 

The small trash pile shook more and more. And then, from the trash there emerged a large robot in a shape resembling an earwig. Evidently, this was a security robot from long ago, one that was left behind. 

The insectoid automaton quickly charged at Forge, hitting him hard with it's projecting pincer-tail. He was knocked, but not hurt, just annoyed. The machine quickly charged and grabbed him with its jaws. Man in the Jacket managed to snag open the jaws and remove himself from it's grip. The machine attempted to slash at him with it's long, clawed forelimbs. but he quickly flew out of reach. 

“Where did this thing come from!?” he wondered out loud, still confused.

Very quickly, the automaton aimed at him with it's tail and fired a projectile. Man in the Jacket prepared to swat it away with his hand, but the moment his hand hit the projectile, it lost it's shape and splattered against his arm. It was a dark-gray wax-like substance that quickly began to harden, making it very difficult to get off. 

“Oh, what now...”  he groaned in annoyance at the situation, trying to get it off. 

Distracted, he failed to notice that he had reduced his distance from the machine, causing it to jump at him, crashing them down to some trash. 

Now, the machine held him in it's tail, as it shot still more wax at him. This time it hit his other arm, that he used attempting to cover his face. To no avail, it just stuck his arm partly to his head. 

“Oh, uffern!!! N-Not the face...” he exclaimed.

The machine now grabbed and slammed him into the ground with it's tail, at full force, with the ground shaking and trash flying all around.

Forge wasn't moving for a moment; the machine took a moment to process if he was actually neutralized, but suddenly, blue light came from the wax and blasted it away, with that, he flew upwards and quickly dislodged the tail from himself. 

He quickly lifted his hand against it and, from the palm of his hand, blue energy began swirling and glowing. Soon after, a ray of blue power fired from his hand, hitting the robot and causing a large explosion. While the smoke settled, pieces of metal and trash rained around the area, and all that remained were a few limbs. 

“That was jus' annoyin'....” he said to himself. 

He looked around and saw the crater he made, seeing the many things thrown by the blast out of the heaps of trash. He quickly noticed the same cloaked figure from before floating in the air, watching. 

“You-you're here? Wer' you here all along?” Forge asked. 

“Since before you fought that facade at least...” she answered.

“...Fa-facade..? ...An-Anyways, couldn' you have... said somethin'?”  he asked.

“Why? I don't see the problem, it wasn't necessary. You handed yourself pretty well too.” she dryly answered.

“We-Well... whatever... how... did ya know were I 'xactly was?”  pointed out Forge.

“I followed you. I'm stealthy like that.” she replied.

Forge felt a bit unnerved by this, but he brushed it off. He still couldn't make out what exactly the figure was. She was fully covered with the dark cloak. 

Thinking his options, Forge murmured to himself: “Maaaaayyybe... I coul' try to vanish again... No, no, I was luck to end up this close to a planet. Next time I coul' end up outside this galaxy completely...” 

Ultimately, Forge simply searched in the garbage that he accidentally dug up. Near the area where the automaton had emerged, there was a ship. Still buried, but he could see it was the size of a bus, looking well preserved (for something buried in the trash). He approached it, and looked at the windows, they weren't cracked and were still clear enough to see inside. He tried to lower his expectations, not wanting to be disappointed. First, he removed most debris he could find, freeing the ship from the garbage. From what he could see now, the ship's paint job looked somewhat neglected, but in still passable condition. 

He found a handle at it's side, pulling it revealed a door. The inside of the ship looked surprisingly pristine. There was no indication that it had been stripped of it's parts. 

“I guess that robot was here to protec' this ship, that's why it didn' get stolen. No one dared to take it.”  he figured.

“You found something?” the figure asked, suddenly appearing.

“Yeah, this ship is in supri-sur-surpis... thankfully good condition, I jus' need to figur' out if it still works.” 

“Good, I look forward to you leaving.” she said.

“Well, that wasn' very nice.” Forge said, turning his head at her. 

“Yeah well, I don't trust you, I only came here to make sure you leave if you get what you need.” 

“Undre-undertrood-under...  got it. I just hope it doesn't need... fuel.” 

“I mean, of course it needs fuel, unless you find an engine powered by blencol or something like that.” 

“...Blen-what? Wha'ever, I'm jus' gonna check if it can even turn on.” 

He quickly got inside the ship. It felt cold, and asleep, but not decayed. It was like a room that hadn't been opened in a long while. The Man in the Jacket reached it's front, with the controls. It had a lot of buttons he didn't understand, plus a steering wheel of some sort. He quickly got worried. How will he even use this thing? He knew very little on how to use a spaceship. 

He also noticed the cloaked figure had left. 

“Who was she anyway? What was she?”  Forge asked to himself. 

“Wha'ever... I reelly should' thought of what I'd do now... I'm not knowin' what...” 

He continued looking into the controls, there were many buttons of many colors. Most of them did nothing. But among the buttons he pressed, one finally did something. The motors began to make some noise, until they began glowing and a voice came from the speakers. 

“Greetings visitor!!!”  a jolly voice came from the computer. 

“Uuuhhhh, hello...?”  he exclaimed, confused. 

“My given name is DEURMOD, I am this shuttle's Artificial Intelligence Assistant. I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I----” *BLEEP* “Sorry, visitor, I appear to be having technical difficulties. I haven't been active for the last..."  A buzzing sound could be heard from the computer “...40 seasonal ages.” 

“Huh, we-well... are you some sort of... security installed? You're not going to attack me, right?”

“No to both, visitor. I'm simply here to assist.”  it quickly answered.

“What happened to the previous owners?” Forge asked. 

“The previous owners abandoned ship here and haven't come back for a very long time. Enough time for the ownership to expire.” it explained.

“So, does that mean you'll do... what?” he asked.

“I take a new owner and assist them” replied DEURMOD.

“So you go wher' the new owner says to ya'?” 

“Correct.” 

“How you choose a new owner?”

“I don't, I just wait for someone to take the key. They will become the new owner by default.”

 

“You... mean... this key?” he said, holding some key-like object on that he found on the floor. 

“Congratulations, you're the owner now!”  DEURMOD said. 

“Are you saying seriusly now?”  an incredulous Forge asked.

“Of course.” DEURMOD simply answered.

“Well... anyway... does this ship work still, as in, it's still fligh' capable?”

“Checking this very moment.”  the computer replied. 

There was a loading symbol in the screen as it checked the ship. 

“Good news, the analysis has shown that this ship is flight-capable.” DEURMOD eventually announced. 

Forge sighed in relief.  “Alrite... so you'll take me anywher'?” 

“I'll take you any place that you wish, as long as it's feasible, Sir.” answered DEURMOD.

“Huh, well... can you... take me to the 'Inhabied Regions', at least the closest viable planet, as fast as be can?”

“At the position we are in, the closest viable non-habitation planet inside the Inhabited Regions at the moment would be planet Reglom.” DEURMOD responded.

“Hmmmm... what type of people are in... Reglom?”

“Reglom is the the home planet of the nikeans.” the computer clarified.

“Ahhh, those. Sounds exiting... go ahead then.” the Man in the Jacket confirmed. 

“Are you sure about your decision, Sir?” 

“...Of course?” 

“Very well, sir. Heading to the Inhabited Regions' closest viable planet, Reglom!” DEURMOD responded.

The ship began to float slowly from the wreckage, and took off, like a very fast plane, into the deep Yawn... 

Back at the moon's planet, at the tower's gates two individuals stood in front of the tower's looking at the reddish Dump moon on the sky. 

One asked the other: “She's... gone?” 

“Hhmm, I think that blue guy was her ticket out of here...” the other replied.