This next one is from our dear friend Zarrelion who, in an unexpected twist, decided to delve back into space where all of this nonsense started.
Seymour looked up from his Clefairy provided tablet and sighed. All he had on it were assorted films and other Human media salvaged from Earth. In the meantime, he had managed to pick up some of his celestial savior's language. Yet he was still dependent on the tablet for he was deaf compared to the Clefairy.
He leaned against the bulkhead with a barely audible thump. It was at times that he desperately wished for someone else of his species to speak with…and for something to do. The Clefairy were kind enough to him but the language barrier was insurmountable.
The scientist folded in on his thoughts. How long has he been out in the dark cosmos? Days? Months? Years? Decades? He hazarded guess as he looked at his tablet. There was on program that he never opened out of principle: the Undampening Time. This time, he did so.
And staring at him was the cold, hard fact of how long he had been with the Clefairy.
Seven years.
Despite his efforts a sob escaped his lips. With the unbridled ferocity of the Undampening and the millions of deaths in mere hours, was he the last Human alive? Or had Humanity managed to beat back Ho-Oh's fanatical troops?
"Clefairy." The gentle tone broke Seymour out of his pit of rumination. The pokémon gently pushed the tablet towards him and pointed to the upper corner where an icon blinked, indicating that there was a new message.
He tapped a finger on it and read the message.
Attention, Shard of Moonstone has detected a suitable planet for landing on. Orbital insertion will commence shortly.
"Guess I better get ready." Shard of Moonstone was the approximate translation of the fleet's flagship and if it indicated a suitable planet, that meant a colonization effort was underway. Seymour got up and stretched as he headed to his muster station
Dom looked out from the cave he had called home. It was lonely out on the lush plains of Cruithne Aten II but the weather was peaceful. A field outside was replete with pearlpeas and carrots. He turned around as he heard the whistling of a poptop. The creature ambled over to a small pond and began drinking from it.
The man tossed another twig onto the campfire as he boiled some water. He wondered if there was anyone else on this planet. He knew the planet to have been inhabited once — the cave he lived in was actually an abandoned mine with all the attendant goodies of one.
Dom was suddenly snapped out of his reverie when he saw a ship landing in the distance. He frowned. He was immediately able to peg the ship as being either Human or Apex in origin. Regardless, he felt it would be safer if he kept to himself.
Seymour's ship touched down in a plain next to a lake. The Clefable were the first to exit. Shielded by a combination of Light Screen, Mirror Coat and Reflect, they began establishing a perimeter and scanning the air. Upon pronouncing the air safe to breathe and with no pathogens, they had the scientist exit the ship. As he was not in need of a spacesuit, he was wearing his usual uniform of a stained lab coat and tattered rubber boots.
The man inhaled the refreshing air. He wondered if this was what the air on Mount Quena was like.
A Clefable approached him and asked for the tablet. He obliged and the pokémon began typing out a response. When the response was finished, the tablet was handed back to him and he read out the response.
We are setting up a base camp. I know you would like to assist but your lack of psychic powers prevents you from doing so. Instead, we have given you a new task. Search around the area to see if there is anything that could be of use or hostile. Two Clefable will accompany you as guards.
Seymour nodded and hefted his backpack over his shoulder as he scanned the area. Already, he could see Clefairy and Clefable setting up tents and prefab shelters they levitated out of their ship. There was nothing that really stood out but something told him to approach the shore of the lake.
Seymour looked over the lake. It was crystal clear and deep with small fish swimming in it. But there was nothing to indicate any previous landings. He made motion to continue further when he noticed something white standing out against the green grass surrounding the shores of the lake.
The two Clefable followed closely as the scientist approached the anomaly.
He frowned as he looked more closely. The white material was clearly bone and there was a skull visible. What was odd was that it looked like the skull of an oversized Mudkip with a third eye. What tipped him off that the skull did not belong to the local wildlife was that the remains of what looked to a traditional Johtonian kimono surrounded the creature's weathered ribs.
Seymour's two guards approached and started chatting in their low, musical language.
The first Clefable examined the remains, focusing mainly on the Mudkip-like skull. "Are we not the only pokémon from space?" she mused aloud.
"Do not jump to conclusions, Selene," the other Celfable said as he examined the remains alongside Seymour.
"I was just entertaining idle thoughts. Must you be so uptight, Chandra?"
Chandra crossed his stubby arms. "We do not have time for idle hypothesizing. That can wait once the base camp is properly set up and working."
Seymour looked at his two guards bickering. He knew that while everything was inaudible to him, the duo were definitely conversing…about what, he could not decipher.
The scientist spotted something yellow sitting in the dirt next to the skeleton. Curiosity aroused, he carefully began digging it out with a nearby stick he snatched from the ground.
The nearly deafening sound of Seymour digging at something got the attention of both Chandra and Selene. The two silently bounded over to him, ready to take action in the event he unearthed something dangerous.
A few minutes later, Seymour had excavated possibly one of the strangest things he had ever found. It was a worn, yellow painted boxy device composed of two halves of straight line hat curved towards a lens in the front which joined the two halves. Several several buttons and switches adorned the side of the mysterious item. A trigger was placed on the handgrip in the middle of the device.
The only sign of its origin was a faded black marking on the side of the device that looked like the device superimposed on a set of wings.
Seymour beckoned over Chandra and Selene. The two Clefable examined the device before it was gently taken away from him by their telekinetic grasp.
A series of shimmering barriers materialized around him as the two pointed the device at the ground.
Seymour could only watch in amazement as a perfect cube was cut out of the ground as if by a cookie cutter. Some more fiddling with the buttons and triggers and a wavy blue beam shot out of the device and seamlessly replaced the dirt that had been excavated. Indeed, it was as if the ground was never even disturbed.
Little did he know he had stumbled upon one of the most prized items in the entire galaxy: a genuine Terrene Protectorate issue matter manipulator.
"Well, this doesn't look to be dangerous," Chandra said as he continued examining the device in his telekinetic grip. "Perhaps it would be wise for Seymour to take this."
Selene silently agreed and dispelled the barriers before she passed the device over to Seymour.
Seymour took the strange device and examined it. Clearly it didn't seem to be a weapon of any sort. "Come on," he said to his two guards. "Let's get back to base."
It was late afternoon by the time he and his retinue had returned.
The tents and prefab shelters were already set up and the scent of cooking berries hung in the air. The lead Clefable took his tablet, typed in something and handed it back to him.
Have you found anything?
Seymour nodded and showed off the mysterious object he found. "Also, we may not be the first ones here," he added.
The lead Clefable took the tablet again, typed in something and returned it to him.
This complicates matters. We do not know if they are hostile or friendly. In the meantime, could you please join our foraging party?
Seymour nodded and followed the group of Clefairy headed out of the camp.
The group found themselves at an abandoned house. Pearlpeas, potatoes and corn grew outside the dilapidated stone structure. Eager to try out his new item, he pointed it at the plants outside. To his amazement, information about those three plants popped up in the display of his new tool. And they were proclaimed to be safely edible. Of course, he was curious as to why potatoes and corn was found on a planet hundreds of light years from Earth, but he wasn't going to complain. It was food after all.
Switching modes, he pointed his new matter manipulator at the plants and watched in astonishment as they were sucked into his new tool. He flicked through some screens and squeezed the trigger again. This time, six perfectly ripened ears of corn appeared out of thin air and landed at his feet. He stored them back in his matter manipulator and watched as the Clefairy started felling a tree with their psychic powers.
The scientist looked at the dilapidated house. The crude wooden door was intact (and jammed shut to his displeasure) but a few seconds of matter manipulating put the door away and revealed the interior of the house.
Calling it threadbare was generous. Light poured in through crevices in the stone walls, revealing a rough hewn wooden table and chair. On the table was a single wooden chest. Seeing as there was nothing else, he quickly grabbed those items with his matter manipulator and headed back outside. The Clefairy were levitating the logs back to the base camp and seeing as he was done as well, he followed them.
The group arrived back at the camp and the Clefairy began putting their foraged goods away. Seeing as there were no tables, Seymour fiddled with his matter manipulator and the outline of a table was projected in front of him. Upon squeezing the trigger, the table instantly materialized where the projection was. Another two squeezes and the chair and treasure chest joined the table. All without him moving an inch.
All the Clefable and Clefairy watched and then returned to their work.
Selene and Chandra approached the captain of their ship who was overlooking the camp with its numerous structural pieces floating through the air.
"Captain Chang'e," Selene said. "Seymour has found an alien tool that allows him to manipulate objects and dig as if he had our telekinetic powers."
Captain Chang'e looked over the camp. "Perhaps we can reverse engineer this and give this to all the Humans who are aboard the ship."
"We must find another copy first," Chandra cut in. "If we destroy the one we have by mistake, Seymour will no longer be able to help us to this extent." The Clefable gestured to the scientist, who was quite literally painting a small wooden hut into existence with his matter manipulator.
"Very well. See to it that the artifact is kept well-guarded at all times." Captain Chang'e motioned the two Clefable to accompany Seymour as he finished painting a thatch roof on his hut.
As she watched the two bound towards the Human, she wondered, could this mysterious artifact help Humanity rebuild their ravaged civilization?
Curiosity finally overtook Dom and he decided to make his way towards the landing site. If they were Humans, he could chat with them, possibly trade supplies. If they were Apex rebels, he could trade with them as well. If they were Miniknog agents, well, pixels were pixels.
He held up his worn but still functional matter manipulator — the sole remnant of his life as a Protector before a Floran raiding party ate his crew and stole his ship.
As he trekked along the dirt path, he had no idea what awaited him at the landing site.
Author's notes:
The remains they found are what's left of a Hylotl adventurer. Hylotl and Apex are two of the playable alien species in Starbound.
Seymour's two Clefable guards are named after the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene and the Hindu god of the moon, Chandra. The lead Clefable is named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e.