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Author's Note: Sorry that I haven't included a MacGyvered solution yet, that wouldn't really even occur to my character except as a (very) last resort, so that should come towards the climax.
CRASH! Sending up debris for quite some distance, his pod smashed into the forest floor. When the dust cleared, he remained hesitantly inside for several minutes before slowly exiting into a new world.
Juxtaposed against the commotion of the crash, the silence and stillness was oppressive. Orion glanced around at the lush, exotic foliage around him. High above in the canopy, a curtain of green and blue obscured the sky from view. The underbrush was a tangle of creeping vines bursting with tubers and flowers and fruit and things Orion couldn’t even identify. As he trudged out of the ruins of his ship, the sharp, bright metal stood out starkly against the springy ground. Tickling his nose, a breeze brought unknown scents, reminiscent of a tropical rainforest but somehow strange. Slowly, cautiously, the avian creatures began to settle back in the trees, bright feathers rustling in the zephyr.
Orion sighed. Well, as nice as this place was, he had a meeting at 0800 Galactic Standard that he would rather not miss. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the transmitter he kept for emergencies - it had batteries (the primitive thing), so the power disruption wouldn’t affect…
Something was scrambling his signal. Something was scrambling his signal! But that was impossible… the only inhabitants of this planet were primitives… it just didn’t make sense…
For once, Orion felt uncertainty stirring, but he pushed it down. Slowly, his eyes swept the wreckage as he attempted to take an inventory of his supplies. What did he have?
Nothing, as it turned out.
Agitated, he began to turn slow circles around the clearing. This kind of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to him! He was famous, rich, powerful! He wasn’t supposed to end up marooned on some stupid backwater with no resources… except for some berries.
They were small, bright green, and shiny. Orion snatched one eagerly, scoffing it in one bite and reaching for another. They tasted sweet… sickly sweet… almost like… sleeping syrup.
Orion crumpled to the ground.
CRASH! Sending up debris for quite some distance, his pod smashed into the forest floor. When the dust cleared, he remained hesitantly inside for several minutes before slowly exiting into a new world.
Juxtaposed against the commotion of the crash, the silence and stillness was oppressive. Orion glanced around at the lush, exotic foliage around him. High above in the canopy, a curtain of green and blue obscured the sky from view. The underbrush was a tangle of creeping vines bursting with tubers and flowers and fruit and things Orion couldn’t even identify. As he trudged out of the ruins of his ship, the sharp, bright metal stood out starkly against the springy ground. Tickling his nose, a breeze brought unknown scents, reminiscent of a tropical rainforest but somehow strange. Slowly, cautiously, the avian creatures began to settle back in the trees, bright feathers rustling in the zephyr.
Orion sighed. Well, as nice as this place was, he had a meeting at 0800 Galactic Standard that he would rather not miss. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the transmitter he kept for emergencies - it had batteries (the primitive thing), so the power disruption wouldn’t affect…
Something was scrambling his signal. Something was scrambling his signal! But that was impossible… the only inhabitants of this planet were primitives… it just didn’t make sense…
For once, Orion felt uncertainty stirring, but he pushed it down. Slowly, his eyes swept the wreckage as he attempted to take an inventory of his supplies. What did he have?
Nothing, as it turned out.
Agitated, he began to turn slow circles around the clearing. This kind of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to him! He was famous, rich, powerful! He wasn’t supposed to end up marooned on some stupid backwater with no resources… except for some berries.
They were small, bright green, and shiny. Orion snatched one eagerly, scoffing it in one bite and reaching for another. They tasted sweet… sickly sweet… almost like… sleeping syrup.
Orion crumpled to the ground.