Chapter 3 - The Ship

As Kaede woke up from his daze, it seemed that only mere seconds had passed, but he was unsure. And this is why we wear helmets kids. He heard hissing once again and was, once again incredibly fearful of it.
"Sstupid fish man," came a voice from somewhere in the darkness, snickering.
As one of the ship's lights flickered he saw that it was a Floran with leaves coloured bright blue and skin coloured a light beige. The Floran wore what seemed to be a crudely made orange t-shirt and grey long pants, although they were lined with scratches and cuts.
Beside the stranger, to Kaede's horror, appeared a green snake, with purple scales, a blue underbelly and what seemed to be green leaves, resembling ears, on its head. Panicking Kaede shuffled back, still lying on the ground, and with surprising force kicked the snake. It snake flew high, almost hitting the roof, and landed near the teleporter.
"What did sstupid fish man do?!" yelled the Floran, rushing to the aid of, what was presumably their pet, snake. Seeing the snake was still alive, but unconscious, the Floran returned its attention to Kaede.
"Oh god, is he alright?" said Kaede, realising what he had done. As he started to sit up, the Floran brandished a small, rusted dagger, from seemingly out of nowhere.
"Sstay back evil fish man!" it yelled, hissing, growling and making all manner of angry facial expressions.
"I'm sorry okay, just let me help," said Kaede calmly. But as he got up the Floran threw the dagger towards him. It bounced off of the console behind him, but not before making a cut in his arm.
Oh... WOW THAT HURTS. I mean, it's only small and I deserved it, but it HURTS LIKE HELL! Ahh jeez, this day goes from worse to worse-er.

As Kaede moved behind the captain's chair, the flickering light started working correctly and almost lit up half of the ship. He drew his broken broadsword, just in case, and decided to scavenge what he could. He found a compartment which would drop down, when he pressed a button, and small drawers either side of the chair. The compartment contained a rotting banana and a blue flashlight. Kaede winced at the sight of the banana. Ugh the thing smells like monkey butt. Next he checked both the drawers. There were notes with incomprehensible writing and a 4 cans of food.

Kaede tried his best to decipher the notes, but to no avail. Instead he used it to wipe away the blood that was slowly dripping from the cut. His stomach grumbled, making Kaede realise that he has had little to nothing to eat as he was too focused on the graduation. Grabbing a can of food and slowly pulled it open. Inside Kaede saw what he thought looked like dog food and what smelled like rancid meat. Pinching his nostrils, he grabbed a piece of meat from the can, slowly bringing it to his mouth. He closed his eyes and chewed. It.. doesn't taste like anything. But everything else about it isn't too great, I think I can settle for not eating right now. Sorry little buddy. Kaede lightly patted his stomach, setting the can aside. This was until his stomach started grumbling loudly, worsening his hunger. So Kaede decided to eat it, with great disgust.

What I would give for some real food right now. Actually I'm not quite sure what I'd give, I do own very little... Anyways, on to more pressing matters, the Floran. I've got so many questions. Wait no, just 3. Why are they on this ship? Should I say that they're a he or a she, cause I mean... they're plants for Christ's sake. And lastly, why, why would they keep a snake as a pet. Snakes just hiss at you when they want you to go away, they get angry at you if you don't give them enough attention, and they just slither everywhere. I'd rather have a pet bird, they're cute, not including hawks and such. Oh gosh I'm getting off topic again. Well should I try and help him, or her, whatever? Hmm what would my friends do... Oh crap! I completely forgot about Trix, Tepilih and Jayden, I'm a really bad person, but I hope they're okay. I mean they're much more capable than me, they'll be fine, maybe. Wow! I'm a horrible person...

Okay then me, what to do? If I try to help, I might get bitten to death. If I stay here I might run out of food. If I try to attack them I might die or live to be a horrible person. If I just try to talk to them they might get angry or let me help them. And lastly I could just open an airlock, but not just yet, maybe later. So out of those options talking seems to be the best. Let's try it. Wait how do I introduce myse... Before he could finish that thought he heard the sound of a stomach grumbling, extremely loudly. Looking around he saw that the Floran and the snake were hiding just beyond where the light shone, but their eyes shone yellow in the dark.

"W-would you like some food?" Kaede said nervously.
"Floran doessn't need fish man's help."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
The Floran hissed at him
"Okay then, if you say so..."

After some time of waiting in with little to no light and nothing do to Kaede again tried to help, or at least make conversation.
"Look I'm sorry for hitting your pet. I just got really scared. And if you're not going to take the food, at least give it to him."
After nothing but silence, Kaede decided to give them the food regardless. Although the plan was great the execution was less so. Instead of rolling it slowly towards them, he instead threw it upwards, where it hit the ceiling, bounced on the ground and landed with a meaty thud.
"I'm so sorry! I'm really bad at throwing! I-I... I'll just stop, I'm sorry, again.
The Floran stayed silent.
God I'm hopeless, it's not even funny. Can't even introduce myself or help. It's a miracle I was even invited to the graduation.

Another light started flickering, showing that Kaede most likely knocked the Floran unconscious.
Oh.. That would explain the lack of hissing, swearing and most likely bloodshed. Guess I can get up now. Let's see do I go help the plant man and snake, or loot everything and leave them for dead? I mean I really should leave them for dead, but I owe them, as I knocked them both out, accidentally. God I'm horrible. Let's see here, a Floran with possible concussions and a snake with, scratches and bruises on the underbelly and also a probability of concussion. All of which can be left to heal without surgery, unless it's severe. So I guess I could get them something.

After searching the ship's locker, Kaede found some bandages and torches. He used the bandages and his makeshift cape-banner as a pillow and left a can of newly opened food next to his 'patients'. While waiting for either one of them to regain consciousness he tinkered with the S.A.I.L. console, trying to find a way to communicate with other Terrene Protectorate members or regain power to the thrusters. At first Kaede didn't know how to remove the front panel, then he remembered that he possessed one of the most versatile tools ever created. Using the Matter Manipulator he removed the panel, which made a plopping noise. Inside he found all manner of wires and cables, but there was also a small red button on the side that had the label 'Restore factory settings' which Kaede thought would reset and restart the AI and the ship. As soon as he pressed it, all the lights turned off and the heating/cooling systems powered down, lower the temperature drastically.

After about a minute or so in the dark, the ship came to life, all the lights shone brighter than before, the heat returned and to Kaede's pleasure, it hummed and whirred.
"Hey that's pretty good," Kaede said to himself.
Soon after the power returned a familiar, robotic voice announced "Good day captain and crewmembers. I am S.A.I.L. Your Ship-based Artificial Intelligence Lattice, designed to help and accompany you. How may I assist you?"
"Ahh S.A.I.L. buddy it's good to have you back!"
"Please note that when restoring to factory settings all new information, such as the names and personal information of crew members, will be forgotten."
"Nooo, all of our precious memories."
"I'm am sorry for the inconvenience. But for me to assist you please provide details of your mission."
"Well, not exactly on a mission, but I'll fill you in. Earth, home-world of the humans has been destroyed by tentacles monsters. I escaped in this ship and found this Floran and their snake. But accidentally rendered them unconscious and they probably want to kill me now. That's about it, I think."
"I see that you have tried to aid in their recovery. I recommend attempting to wake them every 2-3 hours to check for further symptoms."
"It's been about an hour since the Floran was unconscious and the snake might try to bite me when it wakes up."
"I see. What would you like me to do in the meantime?"
"Hmm, let's see... Could you..scan for any nearby inhabitable planets and check if the teleporter works."
"Acknowledged," with that S.A.I.L. dissappeared from the console with a beep and the screen turned black.
Well what to do now? May as well set a timer to wake up the Floran.

While trying to find something to do for the next hour, Kaede decided to search the entire ship. He found some pens and pencils, along with even more notes containing unintelligible writing. Again with little to do, Kaede returned to his spot behind the captain's chair and sketched his view of the ship on the blank side of a note. While drawing he again pondered the questions about the Floran he had asked himself earlier. Sometime later the alarm singled that an hour had passed, which slightly startled Kaede.

Anxiously he got up and tapped the Floran's shoulder while saying with a lowered voice "Hey buddy, wake up. Don't die just yet."
Its eyes flickered open and groaned slightly.
"Huh? Who iss that?" after recognising the person in front of it, the Floran backed itself against the wall and drew another dagger from, again, seemingly out of nowhere "What did fish man do to Floran?!"
"Well.. uhh, I noticed you fell asleep. And thought I could make up for kicking your snake. Is he alright by the way?"
"He iss a she and she will be fine."
"That's good to hear... Anyway, the name's Kaede, nice to meet you, and uhh sorry again."
The Floran grunted and nodded slightly.
"And also, you might want to eat something, we could be a while."
The Floran was reluctant at first to eat the food offered. But after tasting it, they quickly wolfed it down.
"Please tell me you don't actually like those things," said Kaede in disbelief.
"Floran like it. Tasstes better than meatss back home."
Kaede noticed that the Floran's can of food had a label imprinted on it that read 'Canned tuna.' He checked for a label on the can of food that he ate. On the bottom there was a sticker that read 'Food for growing pups' along with nutritional information. Oh dear. Oh god. That is disgusting. I never want to eat canned food again. Suddenly Kaede started to feel sick, and for the next few hours he was extremely bitter.

Author's note
I just have a couple of things to say. One, I'm sorry this one took so long to write, I haven't had much time. And two the next one will probably take a while too, but I'd like to thank the people who've been reading this and any sort of criticism would be appreciated. Anyways I hoped you enjoyed reading this chapter.