The children did their morning routine with tense faces. The events of last night were still fresh in their memories. When Lazarus cooked water, her head always turned to the side, looking for predators. When Bob plowed the field, he occasionally stopped whenever the leaves rustled. Even Anna and Lexus, who brought water from the river, were nervous. When a cloud reaper flew overhead, they hid under a tree.
"I haven't asked this before, but how are we supposed to sleep now?" Lexus turned toward the lifepod, which was flipped onto its side.
In space, the orientation of the lifepod didn't matter. Even aboard the starcruiser, artificial gravity made the orientation of the ship irrelevant. But after the attack yesterday, the lifepod had been knocked onto its side.
"Well, we will just have to flip it back, right?" Laurel shrugged. She turned to Bob and Xiaolang and barked orders to right the lifepod. "The boys will push from the front while the girls pull from the back."
The lifepod, which weighed almost half a ton, was flipped upright. Several more plates came loose in the process, revealing how much damage it had suffered when the salamander attacked.
"Au…" Auscella chirped, happy that the lifepod was upright again.
"Hm… Do you think we could drag the lifepod to the ruins?" Laurel pondered. Of course, she wasn't talking about doing it today, but if they could move it a hundred meters a day, surely they would be able to drag the lifepod to the ruins in a week or two.
"Huh? Are you nuts? We could barely flip it upright!" Lexus said.
"No. She is right. If we could drag it little by little, we could probably move it to the ruins. That way, we would be safe even if something happened. Scarabs couldn't damage the lifepod, and those salamanders and Seliphesauruses couldn't get inside the ruins." Xiaolang nodded.
"Hell no. It's too heavy!" Lexus turned away.
"We could probably lighten it if we took out the EVA gear, EMS, and our supplies first. Mistral, how heavy was the lifepod again?"
[The weight differs between versions. But Lifepod Version 43, the latest in my database, developed in 2510, was 412 kilograms and 245 grams. This weight does not include the Automatic Medical Scanner, EVA gear, first-aid supplies, emergency rations, and solar panels.]
Laurel frowned. "This lifepod is Version 44…"
"It won't differ much. A kilogram at most." Xiaolang shrugged.
"I don't think we should bring this lifepod to the ruins. The water purification system is broken. Right now, we are dumping our poop in the sea. If we bring this lifepod into the ruins, where would we dump the wastewater?" Shingo raised his hand.
"Ugh…" Laurel groaned. Just when she thought the plan was feasible… Shingo had raised a good point. This lifepod also served as their toilet.
"Ah, there is good news. The farm was successful. They are already growing tubers. The tubers are still small, but I think we can harvest the oldest ones in three or four days." Bob raised his hand.
"Really? Amazing!" Lazarus brightened.
"Wow. They grew in just a week and will be ready to harvest in two weeks without fertilizer. Amazing." Laurel was amazed. Even USF GMO rice and potatoes didn't grow that fast. Two weeks on this planet was essentially one month according to the USF timezone.
"We could probably survive with just that field. No need to create more fields around the ruins." Shingo said.
"We still need to do it. Water is easier to obtain there." Xiaolang said.
"Hell no. I don't want to eat them for the rest of my life. We need to plant something else. Like fruits or those crystal watermelons!" Lexus said.
"Crystal watermelons don't have seeds. We don't know how to cultivate them…" Laurel rolled her eyes in frustration. For all she knew, this alien planet was a wonder. A natural seedless fruit. A tuber shaped like a bulb. She didn't even know whether to call those crystal watermelons a fruit. They didn't hang from its branches. They grew from the tree trunks.
"Auscella, can you ask the computers in the ruins about submarines? Are there other submarines in other places that you could call here?" Laurel asked.
"Yeah! Call other submarine here!" Lexus nodded.
"Hm… I don't know if we could use them. The submarine design for this alien planet is unlike any design I've seen in the historical wikis…" Shingo said. "Earth and USF explorers' submarines were huge, you know. Even the smallest submarines have a diameter of at least five meters. That's enough for one floor of a building. But those pipes we traveled through barely reached two meters. It's more like a minimalist subway system than a submarine station."
"It might be used for cargo instead of passengers." Lazarus said.
"We could probably use it as long as there's oxygen inside." Laurel turned to Auscella. But Auscella gave a grim answer.
"No… Unusable. Broken. No signal." She said.
"Great. What's wrong with this planet?! Was this place uninhabited? How could there be no submarines when they have a port or station specifically designed for them?" Lexus scoffed.
"Maybe only this port was disconnected. Maybe they abandoned this station because there are monsters?" Anna said.
"That doesn't matter! We are on this island and we want to leave!!" Lexus yelled.
Anna shrunk back, hiding behind Lazarus.
"This is the situation. Stop yelling, Lexus. Let's find out whether there are other options. Shingo, Auscella, keep exploring the ruins. Xiaolang, do you have anything else?"
"Nothing." Xiaolang shook his head.
"How about we try to build a house and a boat?" Bob said. "I mean… we have nothing else to do, right? We can't forage metallic onions during the day. We've already done our water duty as well. Lazarus and I have also made all the tools we need."
"Great idea! Let's do it!" Lexus nodded. In all the survival games he had played, they always needed to build houses. Shingo also nodded. Without games, there was nothing else to occupy their time.
"Hm… but where?" Laurel asked.
"Either near the lake or near the ruins…" Shingo said.
"Ah. I see." Laurel nodded. If they built it near the ruins, Shingo and Auscella could take a break in the house. If they built it near the lake, Bob and Anna could take a break while taking care of the field. They would still use the lifepod for sleeping. Or maybe they wouldn't. If the house was safe enough, they could stay there and use the lifepod only as a shelter if they were under attack by monsters.
"Let's do it. Mistral, what do we need to build a house?" Anna said excitedly. She had stayed silent, but life in the lifepod had been difficult. It was cramped. There was no privacy, and she had to sleep in a chair. She wanted to stretch out on a bed.
[A prefab polycarbonate house part should be all you need to build a house in a planetary system. There are four companies specializing in prefab house parts in the USF. In addition, you can call three furniture companies to fill your house with high-quality furniture.]
"Mistral…" The children sighed.
"Au…."
"We don't have access to any USF services at the moment. Is there anywhere we can build a house using prehistoric tools?" Lazarus asked.
"That game, Ancient Earth. There is a game there where you build a base. Is it realistic? If so, how would we build a house using the tools available in the game?" Lexus added. Sometimes, they needed to ask the right question, or Mistral might misunderstand the question and answer without context.
[Ah, I see. My apologies. The game Ancient Earth was a simulation. Everything inside could be done in real life, with a caveat. Everything was simplified. Tying ropes and cutting wood into logs is more difficult in real life. Logs typically weigh more than 30 kilograms. Children couldn't do it alone, unlike in Ancient Earth. Then there is also mud, which is used to close the cracks. The amount required might be different. And lastly, such houses might be less comfortable, less hygienic, and less safe.]
"Yeah. It doesn't meet the standard." Laurel nodded. There is no way they could meet USF building safety standards without modern tools here.
"It doesn't have to be. Let's just make one. Maybe we can also make a boat along the way."
"Are you still going on about that plan? There is no way we can leave this island. Monsters surround us on every corner." Lexus said.
"We don't know that. We only know about the Seliphesaurus in the east. We haven't checked the north, south, or west." Xiaolang answered. He planned to check them today. Or sometime in the future, once they could build a boat.
"Let's make a boat. Bob will be the leader for this task. He is the best one when it comes to making tools."
"Um… I think I'll leave Shingo to design the plan. Let's try to build a smaller shack for starters. How about a 10-by-5-meter house?" Bob said. He might be good with his hands, but building a boat required a different set of skills. A boat couldn't be repaired mid-sail.
"Will that be enough? We have eight people now, right?" Lexus pondered. Ten by five meters. That was about the size of three or four hotel rooms.
"Well… I think it's enough. Barely. We could make eight rooms. Each room would be 2 by 2 meters. Four rooms across and two rooms wide. Then we would still have 2 by 5 meters left for other things. Maybe we could split it into two rooms for cooking and workshops…" Shingo drew the blueprint in the sand. Lexus frowned.
"It really is just enough for sleeping, huh… We already have this whole island for ourselves. Can't we make it wider?" He wanted to complain. A room should do more than just provide a place to sleep. It should contain a wardrobe, a bed, a desk, and a chair.
"Bigger rooms mean more work, Lexus. Let's see whether we can finish this one first. If we do this one all right, maybe we can make the second house bigger." Laurel said. She then turned to everyone. "Let's do it. We will make a house beside our field."
And so, the kids began to work. Using stone axes, they went out to build their first piece of civilization.
Ugh!! Life on this planet was nothing like the game. I can't log out of this nightmare. There is no way out. Monsters surround us from every corner. I did my best. I did my best. But I guess it wasn't enough. Sorry, everyone. It's my fault.
~Lexus