Chapter 2: Out of Gas? Already?

The Man in the Jacket was still on his way to find the Inhabited Regions. He sat on the pilot seat, looking at the computer screens and at the many distant suns. All these dots, many light-years apart, looked so tiny and so far away; suspended in the Yawn. He sighed. Ironically, the ship was not filled with breathable air (well, not breathable for certain types of normals, at least). But it didn't bother him, he didn't need to breathe.

“What am I even doin', do I even know wher' I'm headin'?” he asked himself.

“Well, Sir, we are on our way towards planet Reglom, but you should already know that.” DEURMOD answered.

“Yes, Durmod, I know. I'm jus' speakin' to myself, thin-thinkin' out loud n' stuff...” he said, with an annoyed tone.

“Yes, Sir, I understand this must feel cramped and dull to you.” DEURMOD said again.

“...I'm jus' bored, when we get somewher' and I get somethin' to do I'll... feel better.” he lied.

The ship was going extremely fast in space, but it would still take quite some time to reach the destination. At least, enough for it to be monotonous. 

“So h-how exactly are things in 'Reglom'?”  he asked DEURMOD.

“Well, it's the center of Nikean territory, for one. I must warn you Sir, Nikeans aren't very keen on foreign visitors.” replied DEURMOD.

“Heh, not exactly surpi-surpra-surprising. What else can you tell me about these 'Neequians'?”  he asked.

“You've never heard of nikeans, Sir? How unusual!” the computer pointed out.

“No, no... Iv' heard of them, but I... I want actu-actual details.” clarified the Man in the Jacket.

“Well, going from what little information I have, they have a very similar body structure to your own, have a very fancy way of dressing and can be potentially dangerous.” answered DEURMOD.

Troubled by that last part, Forge asked: “Wh-What d-do ya mean, dangerous? Also, fancy?”.

“Unfortunately, Sir, I don't have that information in my data. All I have is the very basic facts I just told you.” replied the computer.

“Wha'!? Why?”

“I'm supposed to assist the pilot and the crew on the ship, most of my knowledge is directed towards this. I'm not a database, especially if I'm not connected to a greater information network.”

“Well... d-do ya think I'm gonna be in danger?”

“Unfortunately, I don't have enough information to make such a judgment, all I can tell you is be careful.”

“Be-Besides that... how come you don't have a connec-connection to a web or a dat-database?”

“Two reasons: the InfoBahn connection core is missing, apparently, it was never installed properly in the system; and, even if it was, the energy supply is too low to risk making connection a top priority.”

“Waaait..... what was that 'bout the... energy?” he asked, alarmed by the statement.

“In summary, the ship is low on fuel. So, the ship has been running on energy-saving mode for almost an hour in order to make the journey possible. If it didn't, it could risk breaking down the engine and shutting down permanently.”  DEURMOD bluntly answered.

“Bu-But.... the dis-displey doesn' say anythin' 'bout the fuel...?” Forge questioned, confused.

“It says it in the left monitor right there.” replied the A.I..

“Wha- no, it is-” he paused.

He looked and, of course, there it was, it was a complicated mess of numbers, but it clearly had a yellow flashing light shaped like a sign of fuel. He sighed in exasperation.

“Ya know... you coul' have tol' me it was low.”

“I figured you knew.” the computer bluntly replied.

“Wh-Why did ya think that?” Forge asked, in the edge of shouting.

“You didn't ask.” the computer bluntly replied, again.

His eye twitching, the Man in the Jacket asked:

“Ar-Are you ser-  We still goin' to Reglom, right?”

“As long as we are on energy-saving mode, specifically.”

“Got it, got it... w-when did the energy supply becom' low, 'xactly?” the Man in the Jacket asked, attempting to calm himself.

“Around an hour ago. The energy supply was almost full when we took off. It appears the fuel has run out faster than it was supposed to. Possibly because of it's age.”

“I-Is there a chance it runs out eve-even quicker? And let's us stren-stranded?” he asked, feeling paranoid about the situation.

“It shouldn't. It being at energy-saving mode should allow it to last enough for the journey.”

Still feeling paranoid about being stranded, Forge continued to ask: “Ar' you... sure?”

The program, trying to calm him down, answered: “Don't worry Sir, if the energy keeps going at it's current rate, it should... Unfortunately, I must inform you, the energy-saving mode will make the journey at least twice as long as before.”

Forge sighed again. “I... think I'll go lyin' down now.....” he said as he sat down on ship's cold floor.

For around 10 minutes, Forge sat on the floor, against the wall. He almost felt like sleeping until, suddenly, a light flashed with a beeping.

He stood up, yawning. Sitting on the pilot seat again in resignation, he asked: “What now....?”

“I regret to inform you, Sir, it seems the energy has drained faster than anticipated. Reaching Reglom now is not possible.”

Forge loudly groaned in anger gripping the right arm of the chair and easily ripping it off, letting it fall on the floor. He stood up, rubbing his skull with his hand, asking:

“Ar' you...wha-what's gonna happen to us now?”

“The ship still has enough energy for a few one hour of journey, after that, the thrusters will shut down. This will not, unfortunately, be enough to reach our destination.”

At this, Forge slowly walked towards the wall and rested his forehead against it. He simply sighed.

“Sooooo..... we ar' stuck. In the mi-middle of nowher'. With no way to reelly get anywher'.”

“Well Sir, the ship doesn't have fuel to reach the closest planet, but it may be possible to at least get close to other lesser destinations.”

At this, he quickly approached the computer.

“Wh-Wha' do ya mean? Tell me!!!!”

“We might, and I say might, be able to reach one destination with inhabitants. There, perhaps, it could be possible to refuel in some manner.”

“Where is the closes' one, then?”

“Hhhhhmmm, the closest inhabited planet would be one orbiting the Star Regionalis Alpha-On, the basic info I have says it should be inhabited. But it's a habitation, not a fully inhabited planet.”

Sighing, the frustrated Forge asked: “What... is this planet like an'way?”

“It's not in my data. All I know is that should have technology and a sufficiently large population.”

“...Fi-Fine, I'll tak' what I can get...” the Man in the Jacket finally accepted, before continuing with:

“But I'd ra-rather at leas' know of wher' I'm goin'!!!!”

“The ship will then reduce it's thrust further to conserve energy, and should arrive at the desired destination in about 6-8 hours.”

Forge sighed at this. “I wish I had a built-in astrolabe...”

After a few more equally monotonous hours, they finally got close enough to the planet. It looked generally brown and gray, with a few small oceans.

“The info I have, plus the scanners, indicate this place, at least, has functioning communications.” said DEURMOD.

“V'ry good. Let's go wherev' the people ar'.”  he replied.

“Right away, we will be landing close to the scanned areas.” said the computer.

The ship slowly descended through the atmosphere.

“#I've been wasting my time waaaitiiiing, aaaalllll the live long daaaaaayyyy...#”  Forge sardonically sang to himself as they descended through the atmosphere.

“#I can feel myself getting older, just wasting the time awaaayyyy...#” he continued, as "enthusiastic" as before

Not much later the ship arrived and landed. He exited the ship, leaving behind his jacket, remaining in a dirty white shirt. The man in the white shirt wandered the planet for a while, noticing it was (again) mostly barren. Although it did have some amount of plant growth, with some trees. But it quickly became dark and lights shone in the distance. Figuring that must be intelligent life of some sort, he quickly flew there. It was on top of a large hill-like place, lights coming from the flat area on it's top. The whole placed looked like it had been flattened to make the space.

He saw some withered-looking, but still functioning buildings, with light coming out of the windows.

“The lights, that shoul' mean they've some sort of energy source... I just hope it can help me.” he whispered to himself.

After a short while he arrived in the place. Basically a town, none of the buildings had more than eight stories. Oddly, he noticed what looked like deep craters around some streets alongside some empty, damaged buildings.

By now, it would have been pretty dark, if not for the many light-posts. Many, if not most, houses had light shining out their windows.

His curiosity led to him to look through a building's fourth floor window, and he saw two weird-looking inhabitants with long, pointy noses talking; each eating some fish-like roast in a table. He couldn't hear what they were saying. One was busy eating, while the other began face towards the window.

He quickly moved besides the window, hiding, not wanting to start a panic on this place. Going back to looking through the town, he figured most people here had retired to their homes.

“So... what do I do now?” he asked to himself.

Flying to another area, he suddenly noticed in another building a local cleaning a staircase, removing overgrown vines. The local wore brown shoes, blue overalls and a yellow t-shirt, while his skin was   pink and had a short black beard and a round-looking nose (but not just nostrils this time). He was unsure on whether to approach, wondering if it would be a good idea. He slowly descended. Suddenly, the inhabitant noticed him, jumping in surprise.

“Uhhm, hi?”

The inhabitant quickly panicked and ran back inside the building, locking the door behind him. He could hear people inside mumbling with each other. Some began to stare from the windows.

“I hope I don' cause a mess here...”

He stood there for a while until, after a short pause, a bunch of car-like vehicles arrived to his location. From the vehicles speakers a loud voice could be heard, saying something in a language he didn't understand.

“I... I'm sorry... I don'... unde-understan'.” Forge tried to gesture with his hands that he couldn't understand what they said.

They repeated the same phrase a few times, until some of them emerged out of the vehicles.

“Oh... what now... I guess these ar' cops... or somethin'?”  he said to himself.

One of them approached him. This one was an upright biped, similar to himself, but his head looked large, strangely shaped (almost like a slice of bread), with two big bug-like eyes. He also had two fly-like wings on his back. 

As the individual approached Forge he held his three-fingered hands in the air, showing he didn't mean want to provoke him. 

“Uhhhmm, he-hello?” Forge said, unsure on how to react.

The individual looked confused. He looked back and spoke loudly to those in the vehicles with a strange dialect. Unsurprisingly, they didn't understand Forge either.

Besides the small group that approached him, other inhabitants could be seen looking from the windows of their houses. They didn't seem used to visitors.

The leader again spoke, but in vain, as he didn't speak the language.

“I-I'm sorry, I... I can' undre-under-understan' your language.” he said as he gestured to his ear and shook his head.

The one who approached him said something again, pointing upwards, in a questioning tone.

“Ye-yes, I... I c-came from 'nother planet...” nodded Forge, as he continued with “and came here 'cause I need help.”

He gestured to the inhabitants by pointing upwards and indicating he indeed arrived from another planet, from space. The leader took out a small device, communicating to those in the vehicles. Three others emerged from the vehicle, and carefully got closer. The leader again spoke, while gesturing to him, asking him to approach their vehicle.

“...Uhhhh, okay... I hope I'm not goin' to jail or somthin'...” he again said while attempting to gesture that he will comply. He wasn't exactly enthusiastic to participate, but he didn't want to get in trouble at the moment.

One of the cops pulled out the phone-like device and showed it to Forge, gesturing him to speak to it.

The Man in the White Shirt reluctantly did so: “Uhhhh, I co-come from... 'nother... planet. I came here in ser-search of fuel for my ship.”

 

Upon the device translating, the leader (now understanding him) informed the others. They then used the phone translator again, but this time on themselves to tell him:

Evidently this was in case that he had weapons or anything on the matter. Of course, this would be very fruitless done on him.

“...Al-Alright... be...be done with it.” said Forge after sighing as they checked one arm and then another arm and the rest, one by one.

After quickly searching him, they asked him to enter their vehicle. Forge reluctantly entered the vehicle, seeing the other guards still looking rather scared of him.

After a not-very-long (but awkwardly silent) drive he was led into a select building. There many other inhabitants there, dressed in the same way as the ones that brought him here.

“So this be a cop station? I hope they don' try an' jail me.”

He passed through some sort of detector gate, probably to see if he had weapons or something similar. Of course, nothing was detected.

Once there, the officers used the translator phone to ask him to repeat why he's here.

Sighing, the Man in the White Shirt explained: “I...I came here fr-from a distan' planet. I was actully on my way to an-another, complet-completely differen' planet, but my sh-ship ran out of fuel. I arrive' here t-to see if there's, uhhh... anythin' you can do to help me.”

The police and their leader talked for a while. Gesturing him to follow them, he was soon led into what seemed to be an interrogation room, But they didn't actually question him, merely signaling Forge wait there.

They did keep some watchers to make sure he didn't move, not that they could do much to stop him.  Hearing the police go on and on arguing about something he didn't care about, he waited a few minutes (which felt like an hour for him). Suddenly, the monotony was interrupted by a very loud crashing sound, alerting the guards and the rest. Another loud sound could be heard with many guards running outside.

“What's going on now!?!? No way, if these guys get kill'd or som-somthin', i-it'll only meens more time wasted and... I'm not waitin' longer!!!” said Forge, losing his patience.

He went ahead, pushing the door open (breaking it's lock and handle) and walking quickly outside. The Man in the White Shirt then finally saw what was happening. There was what appeared to be a large creature attacking a street.

It happened very quickly, so Forge was rather obfuscated by the whole thing. He couldn't make out exactly what it was in the smoke, only a large, bizarre figure wrapped in bandages.