Special A/N: The Seamoth Glider was my original design, and not in the game. It was made to conserve energy, if you want details, go ahead and ask in the reviews. The Seamoth Glider is long and slender, enough for a chair, which spins when the engine is off, a human to sit in the chair and crouch in the back near the engine. (Details are also on my Tumblr account, subnauticalover, it should be tagged SubnauticaWander,and fanfic, just search that in my blog, or however you feel like finding it.)
Ned woke, still frustrated, although with a new plan. He slipped off the bed then grabbed the tanks -which luckily weren't damaged- and grabbed the tube that was still useful. Ned fed the tubing between the tanks so they were connected like before, the Ned used some glue-like substance he found in the cube of coral he got to seal the tubes to the tanks, then Ned, before doing anything else, needed that oxygen intake.
"Sydney, I need a oxygen intake thingy, quick."
"Building…"
Ned divided down back into the water and grabbed some stuff then resurfaced a few meters away from the pod, even though he had gone straight down. Ned climbed up into the pod, dumped all the stuff then looked for the oxygen intake.
"Sydney, is it done? The oxygen thing?"
"Yes, it is in the storage."
Ned opened the storage to see only some titanium, copper, and a small amount of silver left, with the oxygen thing on top. Ned picked it up then moved backwards and tripped over all the clutter on the ground, landing straight on some rock.
Ned groaned then got up and and looked around. Everything seemed to be on the ground. Minerals, equipment, rock, suit pieces and tubing, and even the extra suits were on the ground. Ned moved back to the tanks and lined up the oxygen intake tube with the tube. Ned then angled the knife just right and cut the oxygen intake tube a hole to the tank's tube. Ned slowly lifted in the tube and then stopped when it was just in, glueing it in place.
Ned waited, holding it for a little until it dried. Ned then put it on and jumped up and down, making sure it was all okay. The oxygen intake didn't even move, though the vest felt heavier from the new tank.
"Sydney! Do you have blueprints for any transportation device?"
"I have four, but only one seems useful at this time and it is the second cheapest. It only requires three light titanium bars, five glass, a wiring kit, two powercells, nine motors, advanced control system kit, draining system kit, oxygen kit, and one compression system kit. We have a little more than half of the resources."
"Okay, uh, make all that we can, and extract materials from anything I put on the floor."
Ned put everything but rocks and metal bits into the storage, picked up the knife and builder, then put the repairten in the bed. Ned then used his seaglide to grab as much stuff as he could, and after just a few hours into the afternoon, Ned had gone through all his batteries, and was on his last leg in terms of confidence. He was just sitting around the pod, watching stuff get extracted from the rocks, as if slowly being pulled apart.
Ned sighed. He hadn't been completely full or satisfied with a wet mouth for the past few days and it was doing a number on his physical and mental state. Ned yawned as he looked up through the hatch, seeing the sun peek slowly into view, and after only a few hours it had filled the entire hatch and hurt his eyes. Ned got up and sat in a corner. He watched in awe, seeing the effect of the sun shining directly in the hatch. It looked like a thin line of sunlight shown in, but didn't really reflect from the floor, making the rest of the room be dark, and it looked other worldly, which was ironic because it truly was.
Ned watched as the light slowly shifted to the wall, until it hit the wall and the whole room brightened faster than Ned could see. He yawned, staring at the same spot as his eyes slowly glazed over, making it look like he was dead, or un-seeing. Ned blinked and shook his head, trying to refocus from his thought process. He got up and jumped into the water and grabbed some acid mushrooms, then returned to his corner in the pod.
"Sydney, spare some copper and make some batteries with these." Ned said, pushing the mushrooms aside.
"Sure."
Ned grabbed one of the water bottles and sipped from it, it somehow still being cold. He sipped from it until there was no more water in the bottle, at that time it was night, so Ned climbed into the bed, throwing aside the repairten.
Ned woke with a jolt. The emergency lights were on and the lights were off, everything was off, and the shutter for the bed was almost fully closed. Ned crawled through the small gap and leaned against the ladder, still half asleep.
"Sydney! Sydney what is going on?"
"The pod only has one third of it's power left, due to it being still night, and I'm taking up too much power making things. By the way, we just have the oxygen kit and control kit left, along with two glass and three motors."
"Holy crap! Just, please turn off the lights and that damn noise, I need sleep, I can already kinda see the sun on the horizon, you're fine."
"Ok."
The lights turned off, then the noise. Ned sighed, getting back into the bed and staring through the gap and through the hatch, at the stars. Ned remembered exactly which one was THE Sun. It was the one that was, somewhat looking like the North Star, but if Ned could remember, the direction The Sun was in was pointing west. Ned started to remember the month he spent on the Aurora. Ned remembered that he was in the S Section, and that his dad was in the T Section, and their rooms were right next to each other, their halls separated only by a door.
Ned's eyes teared up as he thought about his dad, the tears turning into sobbing as Ned remembered his dad. Ned calmed himself down a bit, remembering how his dad was behind him all the way into the S-T Section pod cabinet, and how while getting in his pod there was an explosion that caused his pod to become loose and fall out sooner than it was supposed to. But there was still more than twenty pods to pick from.
Ned had even seen his dad climb up onto another pod before his fell. He sighed and got up after Sydney alerted him to the pod having sufficient enough power input to continue making things. Ned got everything on and dived down, grabbed every resource he could hold, then returned to the pod, repeated the process twice then he sat down again.
"I need seven quartz, a lot more copper, and some more silver." Sydney alerted Ned.
He sighed and lowered back into the water, collected lots more, everything. Ned was starting to get dangerously hungry, so he got three more peepers and two airsacks, as he only had two water bottles left.
Ned cooked two peepers and cured another, then turned all the airsacks into water. He sat down and ate the peepers. Although eating the eye was gross, Sydney had informed him that the eyeballs would give him enough protein for a few days work, and creepvine would give him many vitamins he needed, even if it had high amounts of bacteria on it, a lot of them were helpful, like all food.
Ned started to sip from a water bottle, waiting for Sydney to finish. He sighed and turned over to the wall, resting for a while. Ned had been drowsing for a while when Sydney's voice spoke again, telling him to get a powercell.
"What do I need?"
"A silicone rubber roll, and two batteries."
Ned whined then said,
"Don't I already have stuff for that?"
"No, you are missing silicone rubber, and the resources for silicone rubber."
Ned groaned and dived down, zoomed to the creepvines and filled up on as much seeds as he could possibly get. He zoomed back with some seeds slipped down his suit. Ned got up the hatch kind of awkwardly then unloaded everything, which made a decent pile of creepvine seeds. Ned sat down and watched a few disappear and then the two batteries that were on the ground.
"Everything has been built and are in the storage."
Ned got up and pulled stuff out of the storage and put it in his storage, but it got full so he had to carry the three light titanium bars, which were huge, and despite being light, they were really heavy. Ned got into the water and struggled to get to the surface, then climbed just barely up the constructor. Ned typed in what he want and suddenly the bars were taken from him and the Seamoth Glider began to get constructed. He slid off the constructor and waited for it to be built. It finished and it fell down, making a awesome splash. Ned opened the hatch and swam in, closed the hatch, then the water quickly drained, and Ned took of his oxygen mask.
Ned looked at the display in front of him that showed his depth and his speed, along with his power and how much time he had of power, which said, '10 days'. Ned looked at the side display that were closer, the left one had four large bars, all of them empty, with a label saying 'No Upgrade modules'. Ned looked at the right one which showed how much oxygen was being taken out and what levels it should be at and the rate of input into the chamber. Ned looked at the buttons above him. One said, 'Engine on/off', another said 'Boost', and the last one said 'Missiles', but it wasn't glowing.
Ned looked at the controls. It was simplistic, two handle bars, shaped how you would see one in a airplane. Ned looked for anything that would make the engine run, then pressed, "Engine on/off", and there was a loud humming then it turned to soft humming.
Ned looked on the ground and laughed. The other designers must've thought of the old cars from the 2000 years or something, because there were some lousy but cool pedals. They weren't labeled so Ned just tapped one, but nothing happened. He then tapped another and he moved forwards and drifted for a long way and a decent speed, even though the engine wasn't pushing. Ned looked ahead and saw the ground. He quickly hit the pedal that did nothing and he quickly stopped. At least he knew the go and stop. Ned then looked at the other one. It looked odd, but Ned tapped it and found himself going backwards. Ned stopped and again, he drifted. He tapped the stop and he stopped instantly. Ned then looked at the handle bars.
Ned grabbed them and held down the gas, zooming forwards, then, when he only moved the left handle bar about, he did this little shuffle to whatever side he angled it in, and if he was forwards it was like a little dodge movement.
Ned had so much fun he nearly forgot about everything, in his Glider. Ned was brought back to reality when he tapped the boost while almost above water and angled up. Ned shot up above the water, so high. He was so high, he could see everything. His pod looked like a little cute ball from the height he was at, at least for a second, then his Glider started to fall.
Ned panicked and looked around. Ned looked up at the hatch, and jumped out. He knew he wasn't nearly high enough to break any bones, but he knew that he wasn't going to like it, and he wasn't going to like it any more in the ship.
Ned spread out his body like a skydiver used to do to slow them down, and kinda succeeded. Ned hit the water with a thud, and instead of going instantly right through, he kinda hit the water, then fell in. Ned quickly got up above the surface, surprised he didn't hurt that much, just some red face and, that was about it.
The suit had finally done it's job about protecting him. Ned went under, trying to find the Glider. He couldn't see it anywhere, so he decided to wait for it to be a bit brighter, as it was almost morning. Ned swam back to the pod, and when he looked up at the pod, he laughed. The Glider had landed perfectly on the pod, and better yet, it wasn't even really damaged. After pushing it off the pod, he saw the real damage. The pod hatch was shattered, and the pod was kinda dented on the corner, and he could see the fabricator off the wall with some wires still connecting the wall and the fabricator.
Ned opened the hatch for the Glider and closed it after getting in. He checked everything, and it was all fine.
Ned even checked the exterior, and it was still fine, just a small dent on the very bottom of the ring and the back, just before the engine. Ned swam back to the surface and took a sharp intake of breath. Ned swam over to the pod and climbed up onto the top looking at the two moons. The closer moon had already swung nearly halfway around the sky. He dropped right through the hatch and landed on the floor in the pod not so gracefully. Ned got up and looked around.
The repairten had ended up near the storage, the fabricator was dented on a side, and the ladder had collapsed onto itself a little, and the ceiling was slumped.
"Two solar panels have gone offline, and a powercell is broken." Sydney said.
Ned groaned, sitting back down and looking at the mess his pod was, mostly filled with useless rock. He looked up at the hatch, and finding it disgusting, the glass just sticking on the sides of the hatch, Ned reached up with his knife and knocked off remaining glass, making it look better.
Ned grabbed the fabricator, trying to fix it onto the wall. In the end he gave up and set the fabricator down, leaning it against the wall. Ned reached into the storage and took out all the water and food, finding a cured "Boomerang", two cured Peepers, and seven water bottles.
Ned grabbed some things, all the equipment including the repairten, and the ripped off fabricator, and all the resources he could carry. Ned climbed out, finding it a bit difficult. He jumped into the water next to the Glider and got in, then pulled out the builder, and scrolled until finding "Locker". Ned clicked it, and looked at the screen, which showed what was in front of it but with a see-through 'ghost' of where the locker would be.
Ned put two in the back, then pulled up the fabricator and had the builder deconstruct it. Ned then selected the fabricator and placed it right up close to the locker, but on the left piece of the chamber. Ned left a small area in between the lockers, for the small engine bay door, which really was just a small in-the-wall-hatch for you to do maintenance on the engine or let it cool. Ned then went through anything, finding a medium wall aquarium, which was short, small in width too. It had rims at the top and bottom, then it was just glass and a small hatch.
It was labeled as being able to store three small-ish fish. Ned placed it opposite from the fabricator. Ned opened the engine doors and then sat down, steering the ship to point away from the Aurora. He got up and climbed out, getting into the pod.
"Sydney, do you think you could download yourself onto a Seamoth?" Ned said, looking around for anything extra or something he needed. "And do you think you transport the data of the healing thingy over to it and heal me when I sit down, if I need it?"
"If you took out the three computers, the laser, and the rotors that control the laser, then yes. I could instal it in if it was hooked up to something like a fabrication, it has a small port on the bottom." Sydney explained.
Ned tooked out his knife, then laid down on the bed, then cut off the wires connecting the computers to the wall, then removed the rest, hauling everything into the Seamoth Glider. Ned stuck the computers were off to the side under the displays, and the laser next to the hatch.
"Hell?"
"Fuck!" Ned yelled, startled by the sudden swear from somewhere.
"Hello, how did finding all the wires go?"
"Painfully long." Ned said, sitting back into his chair.
"Installing data to computers."
Ned had tucked the wires away along the wall, and it looked good. It wasn't the best, but it would be helpful, Ned knew it. He shifted in the seat, waiting for Sydney to be done.
Ned went over his plan once more, trying to find confidence in it. He was to drive over to where the pod had landed, and searched. They would probably find the pod before finding anything else. Ned would try to find the survivor, but it was doubtful.
Ned fell asleep at one point, where he lay for a few hours, before the morning sun woke him. He blinked and looked around, his back feeling a bit stiff from not being able to lay down. He would have to find a way to make the chair reclinable, or that would hurt his back. Ned took hold of the handles, and remembered he knew nothing about the location.
"Sydney?"
"Up are you?"
"Yes, obviously, but could you mark where the pod that sank landed?"
"Sure."
Ned looked around, until looking all the way west, where he saw a purple pulsing dot. Ned sped off, enjoying the fact he could tap the gas only a little bit and accelerate so much. He sped off, dodging a few things, but most was empty landscape below, until it got too deep to see the bottom, and Ned was flying through water.
Ned looked at the beacon, it saying there was about seven miles left. Ned looked up at the boost and made sure he was angles only a few degrees up, then he tapped boost. He shot forwards and kinda skipped over the water, emerging, then barely being above the water, then diving back in.
Ned started to become unfocused, as nothing interesting was happening. He checked the beacon. Five miles. Passed a odd underwater mountain, nearly crashed. Four point five. Feels like floating. Four miles. This is very similar to the journey through space, only less long, and less eventful. And less happy. Three point five. Falling asleep slowly. Three miles. Fighting sleep at this point, wouldn't like to fall asleep brain. Two point five. So close. One mile. Ned blinked, it had become dark and more uninteresting, so much so he was slipping away faster than before.
Ned took a drink from his water and started to take small bites out of a Peeper. He sighed. Even if he was trying his hardest, his vision would kinda crap out on him and go really blurry. Ned blinked again, trying to see straight. He had to squint from the light that was coming in from the morning sun behind him, which made the water a red, orange type of color.
"Zero miles left. Calculating distance and calibrating depth with sonar. Installing …" Sydney said, waking Ned up a tiny.
Ned looked up at the beacon and saw only 1607 Meters left under the purple dot. He yawned. He would only close his eyes for a second, and… Ned rested his body, aiming the Glider down. Ned shook himself awake, getting back on driving, now not just having to squint because of the light, but also because it felt hard to keep his eyes open all the way.
Ned looked at the beacon, seeing 97 meters. He tapped the brake a little, slowing until he saw land. Actual geology, not made by man, naturally made, land. Ned moved around a few meters, until he was right on the waypoint.
"Hey Sydney?" Ned asked, pointing the Glider down.
"Do you think the woman could've survived? And please keep my depth updated."
"There is 30% chance she died, in a rough guess. If she fished like you do, about 50-50 chance. If she didn't manage to get out of the pod in about 30 seconds after the radio cut she is dead, and if she didn't get appropriate health attention or rest like you have, she has a high chance of being dead by now." Sydney explained.
"Passing safe depth. About 129 meters and growing."
"Sydney? Aren't pods waterproof? So if-"
"Objects."
Ned looked through the glass and swerved a piece of rock with pink things on it. He looked around and saw many little pieces of rock, not too big, but even more dangerous.
"Many objects ahead. A huge cloud, and a small underwater island, if you would call it that. It's rising."
Ned looked in the darkness, trying to clear his vision to look. Ned slipped through the layer and saw the island. It was small, but bigger than those rocks. And the pink things on the bottom were way more big. Ned saw the bottom of the ocean, and looked around.
Ned could only see a few outlines, but saw a light source from something that looked like a rounded, white object. He went right above it and looked down, seeing a light through the hatch, some flickering, and the outside was kinda dented, and it seemed squished.
"Hey Sydney, mind scanning this pod?"
"Sure."
Ned looked around, waiting for Sydney to be done.
"The life pod has sustained damage before being deployed, which was part of the floatation devices. When it sank it hit all those rocks, which was what gave it those small dents. It has sustained damage to its solar panels and has only twenty-six percent power. Pressure squished it down a little, but the seal seems to be intact, so does everything. Fabricator seems offline. The pods AI seems to be on, but the healing system seems offline, along with the emergency protocol system."
"Okay, could you download the AI into anything?"
"I could, but I would need a basic computer chip, and a hard drive, along with preferably a RAM, or my system data would become overwritten."
"Sure, just, do we have everything?" Ned asked looking back in the lockers.
"Everything but silver. We need five silver." Sydney said.
Ned searched around for something to use as a replacement.
"Uh, couldn't I take the computers, you take the silver, then we'll have enough." Ned said, getting up to get out.
"Don't open the hatch. Give me two seconds."
The fabricator made something white and seethrough that was like a sheet of gel. Ned picked it up and looked at it.
"What is this?"
"Basically a pressure repellant sheet."
"So I put it on the hatch? How does it not fall off?"
"Magnets, just put it on then open the hatch, go through then close the hatch and take it off." Sydney said.
Ned did what she said, then pulled up the gel sheet, then closed the hatch. He pulled it off and swam over to the pod, feeling odd pressure on mostly his face, which was the only part that the environmental suit wasn't on. Ned put the gel sheet down on the hatch of the pod and opened the pod hopefully.
It worked. Ned climbed down. The walls were all dented, and there was a slight inside tear on the metal, but most was intact. He opened up the storage and saw two silver, one water bottle, and one copper. He took it out then went to the healing area. It seemed really bad when Sydney said it, but most was intact, just the top was a little squished. Ned laid down and cut out the computers, and laser along with laser rotors, just in case.
Ned then cut out a few things, and pulled out some wires containing silver. He then climbed up and closed the hatch, sealed it, then took the sheet off, then got in the Glider using the gel sheet. Ned dumped the stuff in the lockers then sat in the seat that was turned, and flipped to face the front.
"Okay, use that silver." Ned said, starting the engine.
"The computers you brought would be good enough. There are five computers. We only need half of one, though a computer would let the code accessible."
"Sure, go right a- fuck!" Ned said, swerving a rock but still hit it.
Ned sped up, seeing only a few rocks with more than enough space in between them to fit a Glider and a half. Ned hit the boost after clearing the rocks, which pushed him only slightly above the surface, then back down. Ned braced himself for impact, which wasn't that bad.
Ned got up and out of the hatch, looking around, as the top was above the surface. He looked at the status of the Glider and saw one un-powered engine taken out with the ring twisted, and the top of the glass was slightly cracked, and the metal around the glass was cracked. Ned sighed and went kind of down, just to have a quick look around. He looked at all the weirdest fish he never saw, caught some and put them in the aquarium on the wall.
Ned jumped up on the surface and looked at the now night sky. Until then, Ned hadn't noticed how long it had been since he had last slept. He looked back at the island and saw a small overhang with a small ledge underwater that he could stop and sleep at. Ned drove over to the ledge and went forwards until he felt the Glider hit the sand, then he drove up bit, trying to get a firm hold, but the engine stopped pushing. Ned got up and out of the Glider to see the problem, figuring he would fix it in the morning if it wasn't anything too bad. He saw that the powered engine wasn't in the water and giving any thrust. Ned pushed the Glider up a bit then got back in, then tried to find out how he could lean back in it, because a stiff back wouldn't do him good.
Ned found two small levers on the chair's side, and pulled one up, making him get pushed back, so he pushed the lever back down and he slid back to the front. Ned then grabbed the second one and pulled it up, and his chair leaned back into nearly a flat surface. Ned sat down and relaxed, and in only seconds he was asleep.
A/N: There isn't many reviews so I'm definitely able to respond to all of them, given some time.
