[Flashback Week] First Impressions

[OOC: This is my entry for Flashback Week. Technically I could enter several times with the ammunition I have over 10 years of being marooned on a Jungle planet... But I figured landing there was the place to start. I figured the most dramatic part would be landing there, and making first impressions.]

A lone escape pod, a high-tech model with built in Cry-Stasis floated through space, on a seemingly endless path towards Earth, it's single occupants home planet. Behind it, an airlock door closed, re-sealing the environment within, and strengthening the hull that it escaped from.

This wasn't enough protection. Not when the damage is from the inside. A chain reaction was already in effect, the Space Corps Battleship Hercules was on it's last legs, and with the Hymenoptera onslaught slapping it's weakening hull, the core overload wouldn't have mattered.

In the emptiness of space, no one can hear you scream. No one can hear the whoosh of a rocket, or the explosion as it reaches its target. No matter the size of the blast, everything outside was silent. As if to prove a point, the SSS Hercules silently exploded. The shockwave, while silent, definitely had a presence. It rocked the escape pod, and changed its course. No longer was it on the way to Earth, but out into deep space. A long, several million year trip was looming ahead, through several wormholes to shorten the trip.

One could speculate that Wormholes also have the chance to affect the passage of time. One could also speculate that a Cryo-Stasis escape pod would not have the power reserves to last three million years, plus change. A final speculation would suggest that an escape pod on a random course would be very unlikely to find a habitable planet. Coincidence exists.

Three million years after the launch of that escape pod, a pair of eyes flutter open, stiff and unused for a long time.

He raised a hand to his head, scratching an itch that could have been stuck in stasis for all this time, then down to his neck, where it squeezed experimentally. No, still there. All appeared ok.

He sat up. Very slowly, at first. Cryo-Stasis recovery was never meant to be a natural process. It was artificially created, and was designed to be artificially shut down. A deep breath. Training kicked in. Upon recovery from Cryo stasis, check everything, and do it slowly. Several hours of checking later, and he was able to stand up, and survey the landscape.

He whistled. A long, low whistle of awe as he surveyed the Jungle landscape all around him. Sounds of life permeated the canopy of the jungle, and let him know that he was not alone. It definitely wasn't Earth, though. Unless this was some kind of Planet of the Apes ripoff. He turned back to the stasis pod, and jabbed at the computer. Nothing. No sounds, no lights, no movement. His toolkit sat at the foot of the stasis pod, for this survivor was an engineer. He pried the control panel from the side of the craft, and peered inside.

"So why aren't you working?" He said out loud, to no one as he prodded with several devices. Each one a probe designed to show signs of electronic and mechanical life. Nothing there either.

As he sat there, staring at the devices that failed to start up, a rustling sound alerted him to the presence of something. Something alive, maybe? Something intelligent? Hopefully.

A fern fell to the ground, making way for a huge, muscular and furry foot trampling across the undergrowth. It was as big as he was, yet far more muscular. At a glance, it would tear him apart without breaking a sweat.

Training. Remember training. Hostile life form? Non-Intelligent? Stay still. It won't attack unless you make sudden and dangerous movements.

Training isn't always right. A blood curdling roar, followed by a charge. Instinctively, the lone engineer dived behind the only cover he had - his escape pod. The huge beast rumbled towards him at an alarming rate, and back handed the escape pod out of the way.

Tearing him in half without breaking a sweat... Understatement of the century. His escape pod smashed into a tree nearby, and buckled under the force of the impact.

Another roar, this one sounded like pain. He looked up, fearing for his life. If this thing could smell fear, he hoped it was a nice smell, or it might kill him just to stop the stench. A shaft of wood protruded from the beasts flank, while thick red blood poured from the wound.

Then several more shafts of wood - probably spears - slammed into the beast from different directions, and it fell.

"iachsunamaranaght."

A voice? It came from behind a tree.

"Hello?" returned the survivor.

A humanoid being stepped out, followed by several others. They seemed vaguely lizard in appearance, probably well adapted to the Jungle climate.

"iachsunamaranaght." it said again.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand you." The survivor said, shaking his head.

The newcomer levelled a spear at his head, and seemed angry. Difficult to tell with a species you've never seen before, but it seemed relatively obvious.

"woah!" hands up. Submissive stance. Not a threat. Must not seem dangerous.

"iachsunamaranaght." again. a different inflection, possible irritation.

He nodded this time. When he had shaken his head, they had taken it as aggressive, and pointed a spear at him.

The spear was removed. Ok, that went well. Perhaps "iachsunamaranaght." meant "are you a friend?"

"iachsunamaranaght." he said in return, hoping he had pronounced it right, and the lizard-ish man seemed to laugh. Perhaps he had said it wrong, but the point made was obvious.

The lizardman turned to his companions, and said something else, equally hard to say, and they all laughed.

"Me." the survivor said, patting his chest. "Jamie." He continued, trying to explain who he was. He then pointed at the escape pod. Then he pointed up into the sky. The lizardmen nodded in understanding. Perhaps they were an advanced, space faring race? Maybe they could get him home.

Then the lizard man patted his own chest, and said "Umusk."

Jamie repeated the word, much easier to say, which he found helpful, and stood up slowly. He extended a hand, to which the lizardman looked quizically at it. Jamie knew it was a sign of friendship, dating back thousands of years (millions by now) to when people on Earth used similar weapons.

"Uhh..." Jamie said, trying to think. "iachsunamaranaght." He said, offering his hand again. The lizardman looked up at Jamie's eyes, and studied him for a moment. Then he put his spear in his other hand, and reached out the same, mirroring Jamie's movements.

Jamie smiled, and grasped the hand, with a smile. Umusk smiled back, then dropped his spear, and hugged Jamie.

They led him back to their camp. A wide area devoid of trees, instead replaced with wooden huts. Obviously they had cut the trees of the area to make their homes. Civilisation. Perhaps not as advanced as he had hoped, but never mind. Civilisation was still civilisation. These people looked friendly. As he entered the camp, they all looked up with curiosity, but no fear. Perhaps they were powerful enough that they didn't need to fear him. They definitely had strong throwing arms, to take out the beast that had attacked him.

As the group approached the centre of the camp, a large flat stone was propped up against a not so flat stone. An elderly lizard man was sat in front of it, on a carved wooden stool. He had what looked like a paintbrush in his hand, and was painting something on the flat stone.

It looked like the jungle canopy, and a shooting star entering it. Jamie cast his eyes over the other images that were painted all over the surface. There were paintings of the beast that had attacked him, with what looked like images of themselves lying dead around it.

"Ahh, you were hunting it for hurting you?" Jamie said, pointing at it.

"Dynrak." Said Umusk, taking Jamie's hand and pointing it directly at the beast. He understood that Jamie didn't understand their language, and Jamie nodded in understanding. He then looked at the elderly lizard, and pointed at the work he was doing. Specifically at the shooting star.

"That's me." He said, pointing at himself at the same time as the shooting star. Immediately, the elderly lizard put down his paints, and hugged Jamie.

"An'tany." He said, slowly and deliberately. "Radrisackmora." He continued. When it was over, Jamie turned back to the paintings, and so began pointing at different things. In moments, he had discovered several words of their language, and exchanged names with them by pointing at each of them, starting with the one he knew - Umusk.