Day 39.

The sound sent chills down the spines of the Pioneers. It was hated and despised. As sparks were heard, the furnace and conveyors whined down, slowly. Their hums going deeper in pitch until they went quiet. The lights dimmed. Both of the bioreactors on the hub ground to a halt, and the work site went silent.

"Oh, for the love of Space Christ!" spat Clint, "Alright, emergency meeting! Emergency site meeting, let's go!"

Thomas was the first to answer his cries. He stepped out of the hub and crossed his arms.

"I don't get it, we just got everything back up!" he said, "At this rate, I'll never finish orientation!"

"Belay that! We're undermanned as is and you've assigned yourself orientation!" said Clint, "I can't have everyone collecting nature trash!"

"I'm too tired!" said Simone, joining the group, "Can't we just die already! This is hard!"

Hari appeared from their sleeping position next to the freighter. The creature gave a loving chirp and rubbed against Thomas, almost knocking him down.

"I'm sorry, but leaves and twigs just will nae do it," said Clint, "I've been... where is Gunn?"

"Mike?" asked Thomas, looking around.

"He's still on wood and leaves duty from the last power outage," griped Simone, "We haven't even taken our breaks yet!"

"And there'll be no further breaks until we can get all this under control!" said Clint, "We're due a third Biomass burner for the additional machines we need built and we can nae keep the ones we got a burning!"

"Aberewaa is mad at us," said Simone, grabbing at her helmet, "She wants revenge for the death of her nature trash!"

"I... think we just don't have enough," said Clint, "But I've been doing some digging through ADA while on fuel runs and I think I've worked out two distinct things we need to do in order to never worry about power here again."

Clint reached behind him and pulled out a brown cylinder. It looked squishy, and as if it was made out of mud. Thomas and Simone shared a look.

"What is it?" asked Thomas.

"Solid Biofuel," said Clint, "Ficsit approved. It's perfect for our needs. It'll burn longer and brighter, being better fuel for our needs as well as lasting much longer than twigs and sticks."

"Alright, so where do we get it?" asked Simone.

"We make it," said Clint, "We're going to convert the constructor from making screws to making solid biofuel out of biomass."

"I'm going to regret this but, what is biomass?" asked Thomas.

"Biomass is a substance made up of mashed leaves, wood, and other forms of biological matter," started Cline, "Arranged in a Ficsit approved way to maximize burn time and allow us to fit more fuel in less space. This would also be a better fuel source then straight up leaves, but we will need them to make this solid biofuel."

"Oh no..." said Simone.

"Oh yes," said Clint, "I need the best handcrafter there is onboard, lassie. Can't waste a single leaf if we're to overcome these blackouts."

"Ugh! Fine. "I'll look up the recipes."

At this moment, Mike stumbled up. He dropped a bunch of wood and some twigs with leaves on the ground, and huffed a little.

"Well, ain't that something," gasped Mike, "I found a downed tree a while yonder and there were branches scattered everywhere. I just need a second to breath, but there's plenty of wood now."

"Ah, good. This brings me to my second thing," said Clint, "I have a recipe I need you to get to work on, Mike. Make some reinforced iron plates, grab some screws, rods, and cable, and come with me. We're making a chainsaw!"

"Oh, all right! Now that's what I'm talking about!" said Mike.

"Alright, so we're making a bunch of chainsaws?" asked Thomas.

"Ah-ah," said Clint, "Gunn and I are securing new equipment. However, you are on fuel duty until we can catch up."

"What?" said Thomas, "Alone?"

"Of course not," said Clint, "Don't be crazy. I don't want your beastie underfoot and Mike will be too busy to babysit it. You'll be taking Hari with you."

"Oh..." Thomas looked down at the Lizard Doggo, who was smiling with its long tongue hanging out. It blinked at everyone around it.

"Just grab what you can," said Clint, "Put it in the HUB crate for Simone. Simone will load up a crate I made near the constructor full of the biomass. We'll use the constructor to make Solid Biofuel. Easy as can be."

"But what if I run into something out there?" asked Thomas, "I also need to complete my Orientation! And my arms are really small and wobbly."

"Ah, fortify Patel!" said Clint, "We're a long ways off from achieving our milestones and we need every pair of hands to make it happen!"

Clint put a hand on Mike's shoulder, and the two of them starting chatting about chainsaw schematics as they walked away. Thomas balled his hands into fists. He turned and headed out towards the treeline.

"Oh, your heart is ready to burst," said Simone, "You are truly not doing well."

"I'm fine," said Thomas through some gasps.

He put down the collection of branches and leaves from his latest trip. Behind him, Hari was bouncing and making a humming noise.

"More twigs," said Thomas.

Hari approached the assortment of twigs and leaves and opened his mouth. The mouth kept opening, and with a slight cough a large wad of wet leaves and a few small twigs slopped out from his mouth. The pile landed with a splat on the pile of leaves and twigs.

"Ewww," said Thomas, "Come on, don't make it all wet."

"Awww... who is helping out?" said Simone, who turned to Thomas again, "I did not mean you are out of breath. You hate it here. On the planet. You are losing your light."

"Well, I am not supposed to be here," said Thomas, "So it's hard to even have a light. I mean, are you 'shining bright' hammering leaves into a mass of crap all day?"

"No, they didn't prepare us for this much hands-on creation," said Simone, rubbing her arms, "But... isn't this what we're doing out here? Taming the galaxy? Turning random evolutionary masterpiece into profit? Becoming the dominate species of the galaxy? Isn't it beautiful? We're so far away from where we began, our nieces and nephews have had grandchildren who have died of old age now! It's amazing!"

"I guess," said Thomas, "Terrifying, for me."

"Well, you're going to need to get back out there," said Simone, "Even with the wet bits, I'll blow through this crap in no time. I've even taken to hand crafting the biomass into solid biofuel in between your visits. Why are you bringing so little back?"

"Look, it's not that easy," said Thomas, "And you could help me out there. Instead of me being alone. There's only so much... perimeter."

"Why aren't you going deeper in the woods?" asked Simone, "Find that spot Mike was discussing. The tree grave."

"I'm not going in there!" hissed Thomas, "Do you see what happened the last time we were even close to the forest?"

Simone knelt down to pet Hari, "We found the most amazingness little lizard doggo in the whole widest world!"

"We found an alien!" corrected Thomas, "An alligator sized, dinosaur esque creature! With an appetite!"

"Technically we landed on his planet," said Simone, "We're the aliens."

"Technically where there is smoke there is fire!" said Thomas, "There's one, there has to be more of them out there."

"YOU THINK!" exclaimed Simone.

"And if there's these things, what about the things they eat?"

"Berries?"

"Other things," said Thomas, "Or worse. What eats them? What's the food chain up here? What's out there that wants a lizard doggo roll?"

"I assume that's Mike," said Simone, "But there could be a big thing out there."

"Exactly!" Thomas clapped his hands.

"But, there might not be," said Simone, "You see, Hari is pretty friendly for a prey animal. Like cats and dogs and bearded dragons, they could be the top, or at least mid-top, of their food chains and thus have nothing to fear from human interaction and only things to gain. In Hari's case, berries!"

"Or it's the salamander of pets," said Thomas, "And there's a big Allosaurus out there with my name on the menu!"

"Allosaurus? Really? You had a chance at a scary dinosaur and didn't say-"

"I don't mention that one since the Disney Empire won the copyright wars and won the rights to copyright the fossils."

"Hah, that was forever ago," said Simone, "The past was weird..."

"Look, I can't go in there," said Thomas, "What if I can't find my way back? What if I get lost? This planet is big."

"Lost?" said Simone, "Just ping the HUB."

"Just... ping the HUB?" asked Thomas.

"Yeah, they covered it in orientation," said Simone, "But I don't remember how to do it."

"You-what? How could you forget something like that?"

"Wasn't listening," said Simone, "I was drawing somersloops on my paperwork."

"You were... what the hell is a... no... I just," Thomas balled his hands into fists again, "I am honestly... Just... ADA."

Thomas turned and away and crossed his arms, "ADA, can you ping the HUB please?"

"In order to ping the HUB on your Heads Up Display as well as your map-"

"My... what? Map?"

"You should use the Ficsit Inc. Resource Scanner built into the Build Gun. With each scan, structures of note such as the Pioneer's HUB will also be displayed. Use this feature to avoid being lost while off the work site."

"I... don't know how to do that," said Thomas, "Do I just say 'Ping' or something? Is there a voice command? What is a Resource Scanner?"

"Would you like me to run the tutorial program?"

Thomas and Simone looked to each other and in sync said, "Tutorial Program?"

Thomas and Simone stood at the edge of the forest. Hari had just burst out of the bushes once again, earning a yelp and a slew of profanities from Thomas. With another gag, Hari dropped a collection of leaves and twigs on the ground next to their feet. Simone took the opportunity to drop to the ground and start petting Hari, a form of interaction he was quickly getting accustomed to.

Thomas lifted up the Build Gun once more. Looking it over in his hands, he now had a new understanding of the various controls and screens presented on the devise. Although not all covered in the tutorial, he now understood the resource scanner much better than he had previously.

"Alright," he said, finding an unlabeled, perfectly hidden little toggle switch on the underneath, "Let's turn you on."

With a flip of the switch, the tool came to life. Light blinked on, and the screens flashed grey, before returning to a black. The main viewer showed the Ficsit Inc logo.

"So... just hit... this one," said Thomas.

"Find and press the button labeled 'V'," repeated ADA, "You can easily remember this for, 'Verify Resource Locations'."

"Really?" asked Thomas, "Couldn't think of a single easier letter or symbol?"

"After opening the Resource Manager," continued ADA, "You may select a Resource of interest our of those you have available to you, or you may try a general resource search. After making your selection, pull the handle-trigger to activate the resource scan."

Thomas pressed the button and turned a dial, selecting the general scan.

"General Scan..." mumbled Thomas.

At this, Simone shot up to her feet again, standing at attention and saluting Thomas. At this motion, Hari ran back into the brush with a chirp.

"General Scan," said Simone in a lower voice.

Thomas shook his head and rolled his eyes, "Alright, here goes nothing."

Thomas lifted up the device, and carefully compressed the trigger. With a distinct 'DING' sound, the device vibrated. A teal holographic circle shot out from around Thomas, causing him to start. The circle rapidly expanded, shooting out from Thomas and expanded out into the field and into the forest.

"Woah," said Thomas.

"You've given birth," whispered Simone, "And it's ugly..."

'PING'.

And as quickly as it began, the Iron ore vein near their HUB lit up in Thomas' helmet. Thomas also marveled at a little item that appeared over the hub. Soon, there were several more little ping sounds, and looking around, Thomas could see the Limestone quarry they had found as well as a small Copper Ore vein Simone had found as well.

"Woah," said Thomas.

"Amazing," said Simone.

After a few moments, more things began to make little pinging sounds, all around them. More Iron, More Copper. A few things Thomas didn't recognize.

"This is amazing," said Thomas, "There's so much all around us."

An instant message alert popped up on Thomas' visor. It was marked urgent, from Foreman Clint.

-Hey, what the hell was that?-

Just then Hari burst out of the bushes again, giving Thomas another start.

"Stop doing that!" said Thomas.

With a cough and gag, Hari opened his mouth and unrolled his tongue. With a heavy thunk, a single motor landed on the ground in front of Thomas. Hari smiled, wagging its tail.

Thomas leaned down and observed the slimey motor on the ground.

"Is that..." asked Thomas.

"A motor?" answered Simone, "Oh... my god! Hari is a robot!"

Thomas sighed, "No! But... where did you get this?"

Hari chirped, but just stared back at Thomas with the blank stare of its several eyes.