I couldn't remember anything.

Heaving, I lifted my head from the dashboard. Where am I?

It was green, with mushroom trees and rocks littering the landscape. Odd flowers sprouted from the ground.

Thrusters, Critically damaged – Repair Required

I blinked at the words that appeared in front of me, and there was a sputtering of the engine before everything went silent, save for the chatter of organisms outside the ship. I rubbed my temples, a dull headache setting in quickly. What was I doing here? I fumbled around for my scanner, and a robotic voice crackled, telling me it was offline.

Planet Discovered, said the voice next. Dread quickly filled me.

I discovered a planet, and crash landed on it. I'm stranded? I thought. I need food.

I pushed my seat back and stood on my wobbly knees, my gaze avoiding the outside world. It made me sick to my stomach to look at it. Rummaging through my room in the back, there was enough food to last me a month, a few months if I really ration it out. I threw the prepackaged, preservative filled packages of food onto my bed.

I checked my ray gun, sitting next to the food packages. I had enough juice to collect isotopes to charge it, and my scanner. That, I did remember.

I don't even remember my name, in all honesty. I knew I was a woman, late teens judging by my bodily development. A beeping came from the front of the ship and I jogged up to the main cabin. The date pulsed in blue letters, AUGUST 9.

There was another beep: Pulse Engine Critically Damaged – Repair Required

August, the month was still in my mind.

Well, my name will be August, then.

I frowned, finishing off the flora with a green zap, and storing the bits of carbon in my backpack. I rapped once on the, making sure it filtered out the toxins in my body. The greenery was lush and soft beneath my fingers, I toyed with the leaves, before sitting up and continuing on.

I have been on this planet longer then I expected too. Materials were in an abundance, yes, but my progress across the plane of green was hindered by my life support conking out on me, leaving me crawling to fill it with the correct isotopes. So far I have encountered only one hostile lifeform, but it wasn't exactly a lifeform. More sentinel robots that pop up when I get close to something important. Other then that, furry animals ran anxiously around, following my every move cautiously.

I returned to the ship, peeling off the blue rubber suit and hanging it up on a hook. The loniless hasn't yet effected me, but I did feel a pang for an animal companion as I passed a feline, furry life form that had been following me, and waiting outside my ship door.

Gripping tightly, I pulled off the hatch that lead to the low-ceiling of the underside of my ship, where the damaged thrusters and ion cannons sat smoking.

I tied my hair up and got to work quickly, replacing parts and building new ones quickly, my tongue poking out of the side of my mouth.

Wiping my hand across my forehead to rid the thick coat of sweat away, I stood up, and used my foot to lock the last thruster part into space. I coughed and switched on the vents to let the room air out. I dug through the folds of my exo suit, bulling out glowing pieces of Thanium9, and Plutonium. I shoved them into the pockets of my cargo pants before returning down to the lower levels, and pushed through the power generators to get to the back shelves.

On this tiny ship, I had limited room, which annoyed me. I unscrewed empty bottles, and after breaking the minerals into smaller chunks, I filled the bottles up with the various flora and fauna I had collected.

Using my labeler, I taped electric details of what was in each bottle onto the containers, and stored them on the shelves.

Sitting down against a generator, I thumbed through reading material on the tab I had. There were no hotspots, though I do suppose, with the right ingredients, I could make my own- but there were hundreds of articles on the Gek, an alien race that I have had yet to encounter, and various star systems and planets. All I knew is that I was in the Euclid Star System. I had repaired my scanner, taking note of odd life forms and the various flora and fauna that grew here.

I kept getting odd transmissions from someone-something-and I didn't know who/what they were. They would tell me what type of fuel my ship runs on, how to repair my life support, and what things are edible. Which, on this planet, there aren't many things

It also showed me how to connect the exo pack to my body, so it would filter out the radiation on this planet.

My tab suddenly went dark, and new words popped up.

Planet: Galanko AA300

I rose and eyebrow, and tapped repeatedly on the screen, trying to make the words go away. It pulsed a bright yellow, and then returned me to the article I was reading on the Geks.

"Oookay, then." I stopped, putting a hand to my throat.

It was the first time I had verbally spoken, and my voice was gravely and almost…sultry. Suddenly, I had a flashback of a woman, older then I am, in a red, sparkling dress and a glowing purple amulet resting on her chest. And her voice, I remember thinking, was low. And suggesting. Sultry.

My eye twitched and I grasped my neck in annoyance.

Mental Note, August: Never speak again.

"Hello?"

I stopped, my heart rate quickened and my tab loudly spoke: Heart rate increasing rapidly.

I know that.

Someone's here, someone is here. Someone that speaks English. My hands shook and I grabbed my mining beam, ready to extract materials out of whoever's ass was near my ship. I pulled my cap over my head to hid some of my face, and I hefted myself out of the underside and up to the first level of the ship.

Slamming my fist against the red pad beside the hatch, it opened, folding down to meet the ground. I held my breath. Toxic protection dropping, I heard behind me as I stepped out, with no suit on, my bare feet touched the neon green grass.

Could I have been hallucinating? Am I lonelier then I consciously think I am? Maybe so. The little creature circled my feet, purring emitting from its throat. It's wide, purple eyes stared up at me and I scowled and turned my attention back to around the campsite. There were storage boxes I had yet to move into the ship, and a flag waving in the wind that I had set up. But no other life form aside from myself and the creature at my feet, were near.

I bristled, I couldn't stay out here for much longer. The tips of my fingers were staining green with radiation in the air.

Exhaling, I moved farther away from my ship.

There was a crack, and the sound of movement behind me, and I whipped around quickly. There was a man, a few years older then myself, standing in front of me. His skin was entirely green and glowling. He was human, but more radiated then imaginable.

"You're the one who camps here?" He rasped.

I nodded quickly and jerkily, my lips opened to say something, but I thought better of it, and snapped my mouth shut.

"You're human?" He asked. As far as I know, I am. I nodded. His shoulders relaxed, and he looked up at me with blue eyes. "Help me." He said.

My finger hovered over the trigger on the beam, and I had half a mind to shoot him. He was trying to sneak onto my ship without my noticing. I shouldn't even think of letting him on.

But I did, I walked up the hatch, ushering him in. This time, I let the little creature in with us.

'Toxin protection back online, filtering out harmful substances.' The AI said softly, and laminated the ship in a blue glow. The green man looked at me, breathing labored. How long had he been out there without protection? A good day and a half, by the vibrancy of his skin. I hooked my tab up to him, and set my exo pack on his back, and read over his vital signs.

He was human, but he had been exposed to more then a day of radiation, and I doubted that my exo suit would be able to wash everything out of his system. But I watched as his heartbeat decreased and his toxin level stabilized. The creature wound itself around my bare feet and ankles, purring as I watched the man.

His breathing was still labored, his head was laid back against the headrest of my desk in my room. On the good side, and most surprising, was that his skin was ridding itself of the greenness. Under all of that, he was tanned and had dirty blonde hair that hadn't been cut in weeks. His breathing stabilized and the beep from my tab told me his vitals had gone back to normal. I leaned over him and slid my tab into my desk drawer to charge. My ears picked up his voice.

"Thank you."

I nodded wordlessly.

"Do you not talk?" He questions, shifting in the chair with a smile. It may be considered charming to another human female, but I counted it as creepy.

I narrowed my eyes at him, and he nodded. "Just not to me, though I doubt there is anyone else to talk to. You probably think I'm a dream." And I did, it seemed way to surreal for me to find a man on this desolate planet. Crossing my arms, I sat on my bed and gave him a look. "You want me to explain?"

I nodded.

He then launched into a story on how he woke up, a couple tens, twenties, of miles away from here, in a ditch. And how he didn't remember how he got here, and so he had spent days and weeks wandering around, eating whatever he deemed remotely edible, until he saw smoke coming from my ship –I knew I shouldn't have left my vents on- and traveled towards it. Well, me.

He clapped his hands together, "And now I'm here." The charming smile dropped, revealing tiredness and wariness.

He's wary of me? I saved him. My incredulous thoughts seemed to be showing on my face because he said; "It is just odd that you don't speak. Do you have a name? Jason, by the way." He stuck his hand out and I looked at it. What did he want me to do?

"You shake it." He clarified for me, and took my hand, swiping the pad of his thumb over the back of it.

I gripped it tightly and shook it jerkily. It felt right, like I had done it before.

It had been a week and this stupid man didn't leave. We had come to an agreement: He helps me repair my ship, and I offer him passage off this planet and to the next colonized planet we come across. And until then, he will remain as a thorn in my side, his words. Not mine.

"Done!" He shouted from the lower levels. I nodded even if he couldn't see me. "I'm going to assume you heard me?!"

Oh I did, buddy. I did. I rolled my eyes and stroked Pluto's fur. Pluto was the creature that now lives in the ship with me. Upon later research and examination, I figured out Pluto was a girl. And she likes to play with Plutonium, as she was hopping all over the mineral while Jason was trying to fill up the fuel tank with it earlier.

I had figured out a lot about Jason. He liked my curry flavored nuts (that I have to hide now), and he is very good at reading me. He also likes to take my tab away and slink down to the lower levels to read for hours on end. Out of all the people to be with me on this planet, it had to be him. I growled at the thought, stroking Pluto more vigorously. We also agreed that he is to be the one to collect minerals, because when I got into that skin-tight exo-suit, I did not enjoy his look of odd hunger. He refused to explain it, and I refrained from asking.

Well, not asking, since I refuse to speak to him.

So he donned the blue, rubber cat suit and I helped him put on the round, glass helmet before he went out. I made sure to pack his bag with enough carbon oxides to feed his life support for twelve hours.

While he was out, I would weed through the metal boxes around the crash site. He didn't like me going out when he wasn't here, and honestly, it was annoying. I shortened the flag pole and wrapped the flag around it, stuffing it into an empty box. I quickly got everything I need from outside before hurrying inside before he noticed I had go outside the ship. Pluto followed behind me obediently.

Setting the box down and shoving it underneath my bed, I heard his footsteps. I stood up straight, and he was looking at me. I brushed my hands off on the pair of leggings I had on, and adjusted the blue tunic that covered my torso.

'Toxin levels stabilizing,' I heard the AI and I cursed mentally.

"You went outside, Green Grass." He said in a low voice. I cringed mentally at the new nickname. He gives me multiple nicknames a day, just to get a reaction out of me. He shook his wrench at me. "I told you no." I deadpanned. Really? I'm not helpless.

He rolled his eyes. "And I was about to tell you…" He paused, looking me square in the eye. "We're ready for takeoff."

What? I almost verbally said. My mouth open and closed in disbelief. We can leave? We can leave Galanko?

Before he could say anything else, I launched myself at Jason, wrapping my arms around his muscle bound frame. It was something spontaneous, I didn't know what I was doing. But I know I'm happy. I sighed into his chest. We'd be getting off this planet. I felt his arms wrap around me in return.

"Well, grey-eyes, I never took you for a hugger." He mumbled against my hair. I tightened my hold on him briefly before I let go, and I raced to the main cabin. I leaned over the keypad, and rose the ship stats. The glowed before, showing everything up and running and in yellow words, LAUNCH READY, was down at the base of the holograph.

I felt him rather then heard him behind me, his chest was pressed to my back as he looked everything over with me.

"What do you say? Ready to get out of here?" He asked softly, and closed the hatch leading to the lower levels. I looked back to him and nodded, scooping up Pluto into my arms. He peeled off the exo suit, and hung it on the hook by the exit. He was dressed in a pair of ragged shorts and a shirt with an odd symbol on it that we had found in my wardrobe, and I felt his blue eyes staring into mine intently. I smiled.

I crossed my legs in my chair, looking at him expectantly.

"Do I get to learn your name now?" He asked, pulling down two levers from the pilots seat, my heart jumped around in my chest as we rose from the ground. The humming sound made the blood in my veins thrum.

I smiled wider and he rose his eyebrows, no doubt interested by my sudden show of emotions.

"Autumn." I told him. "My name is Autumn." I still didn't like how my voice sounded.

He gave a deep chuckle, "Well, hello, Autumn. Ready to explore?" He asked, breaking from the Galanko's atmosphere. I stared in awe.

'Cabin pressurized, free for movement.' The AI spoke, I looked from Jason back to the star filled abyss.

I said nothing, keeping my gaze on the purpleness we rose up into. Stars glimmered and, not far from Galanko, was it's moon. My stomach felt like it was about to implode. I was excited, I was finally off that green planet. Pluto let out a feline meow, crawling out of my arms and settling down onto the table in between me and Jason.

I wanted to ask what this place was, but I didn't. I could figure that out later. Moments of silence passed, and I found myself wanting to speak to Jason.

"Jason?" His name slipped easily off my tongue.

"I like your voice, not what I imagined it to be." He said nonchalantly. "But, yes?"

"Where are we, do you think?" I asked softly, staring at him. He chuckled, and looked away from the space in front of him to me.

He tapped on the star system that was displayed on the screen in between us. "Autumn, this is no man's sky. No man owns this sky." He said, in the most deepest of voices, then added; "It can be ours."

Ours?

I shifted in discomfort when my chest constricted, not painfully, but oddly. I looked ahead, my head feeling light suddenly. Had I not eaten enough this morning? Oh, no… where would we get more food once we ran out? I must've not eaten enough, I kept thinking to myself when he flashed me his small little smile he gave me every now and then. My heart rate rose once again, and I mentally cursed.

"Do you mind if I stay?" His voice was faint. And I thought I was going to faint. What? Stay, with me and Pluto? What does Pluto even eat? I wonder if she would eat some of the flora I had tucked away in air tight jars. Maybe? "Autumn?" My head snapped up to look at him.

He looked almost uncomfortable with the question he asked. I was uncomfortable too. But, who would fix the ship? I was barely getting along before he showed up, all green and sick looking. I sat in silence, his eyes were trained back to swerving past the asteroids and floating rocks. The past week and a half with him was…interesting. He was not as bad as I at first thought, though still annoying and incredibly odd, he was company.

No, he can't stay.

Could I get close? Not too close…but close? I already felt more involved with him then I should be. What if something happens? And I loose him? Self preservation. Selfish. I sighed mentally, I'm thinking about myself and not him. Yes? He could stay? My head started to hurt from the onslaught of my mental questioning. Do I want to wander the universe, alone? Or do I want to have someone with me?

"You can stay."

His sparkling blue eyes looked at me for a moment. I fought a smile. "I thought of a surname for you, Autumn." He said, with a smile as he navigated out of the planets atmosphere. I rose a brow at him in question.

"Sky. Autumn Sky." He said, reaching over to pat my hand. "Because now, this is your sky."