Back at base, I brought the resources I had just acquired towards the refinery, I had no idea of the refinement level on them, so just to be safe, I loaded them up. It turned out that all three had to be refined, so with that in place, and the accidental shattering of one of the urns, I now had the three components needed to fabricate the Component Factory.
Quickly loading everything into the Fabricator, out came the Component Factory, now I could make some higher quality stuff, first things first I made some actual Cuprite wire, and created some higher quality speakers. They didn't sound garbled and I was able to "talk" semi-fluidly with them, there was about a second delay.
Now that I had everything I needed to actually start building a functioning base, I realized my next problem, a very limited amount of resources. Sure there was enough Fibrewood available, but there was only that small vein of Plumbite in the ravine, and that piece of Cuprite I found out in the forest. If I wanted to create better stuff, I'd need the materials to build it. Thankfully I knew someone who knew where to get some, and with that, I headed back out of the ravine and to the striped person's house.
Arriving at the house, and with better functioning speakers, they still weren't the best, all GSO blocks weren't, but it was good enough to hold a conversation.
"HELLO" came a much more clear voice, still monotone however.
"Back so soon I see, have you already come to repay me?" said the voice, from behind me actually, I didn't even notice them on my radar.
"UNFORTUNATELY. NOT. I. DON'T. KNOW. WHERE. TO. FIND. MORE. MATERIALS. THIS. IS. PART. OF. THE. REASON. I. AM. HERE."
"It seems you have fixed your issue, but what have you come here to do?" asked the person,
"SEVERAL. THINGS. FIRST. TO. FIND. OUT. WHERE. I. CAN. GET. MORE. MATERIALS. SECOND. TO. ESTABLISH. RELATIONS. WITH. LOCALS. THIRD. TO. SAY. THANK. YOU." I had the speaker say.
"You are quite welcome, and I may be able to help you and then some. You could come with me, to repay me the materials three. If society is what you want to be apart, then with me you can start." said the person.
An interesting response, which just left one burning question, why? Why would anyone want to associate with the likes of me? I had a fairly good idea that techs and their technology weren't available here, so why isn't this person afraid? Scratch that, they weren't afraid when I first arrived either. I wonder why. So I asked.
"WHY. ASSOCIATE. WITH. ME. I. AM. A. STRANGER." I sort of asked, the speaker not being able to make it sound like a question.
"Because you are like me, a stranger to these lands, for I have not seen the likes of you anywhere else." said the person.
Like her? A stranger to these lands? That made some sense, this meant that they probably weren't the best person to gather information from, but it's not like I had any other options.
"I also saw you last night, you gave me quite the fright." admitted the person, I really should get their name.
Apparently I did scare her, but she seemed to have gotten over it in the time it took for me to actually establish contact. Now though, I had another question to "ask".
"WHAT. IS. YOUR. NAME." I said through the speaker.
"My name is Zecora, might I ask yours?" said Zecora.
I had to think on that one, I haven't used a name in a long time, no other person really asked, always calling me "kid" or something. The last time I used it was probably when I first signed up to be a prospector, all that time ago. But did I really want to use that one? I really didn't identify with it since I became a prospector, only really famous prospectors used names, that or people that used their techs for gladiator style battle. I could always come up with a new one, I would need to go by something since I'm alone in this world. I decided after a bit and answered.
"MY. NAME. IS. TECK." came from the speaker.
"Very well Teck, then let us begin our trek. You still have to repay me after all." said Zecora.
We're going already? I mean I had nothing else to do, I guess going to find resources was what I intended to do either way, just with Zecora. Maybe I could learn about the other people on this planet, if only a little bit. With access to a larger power, like a government, I could get the resources I need to get home, or at least contact it. Not that I'd tell them much about my situation, at least until I got some proper footing. I didn't need techs raining down in an attempt to make a quick buck on this planet. Even though there were laws that protected planets with intelligent life, the corporations had more power of the law, and would take any chance they could to make more money.
I did not want to condemn this planet to that fate, so I came up with a new goal, establish rough planetary control before either being discovered or contacting the Federation. I suddenly thought of six-legged horses, but quickly lost that thought. I didn't like the idea of squatting, it wasn't illegal, but it didn't feel right anyway, but in order to protect this planet and it's inhabitants, I'd have to accomplish the monumental task of making enough money to buy this planet, and to build a planetary defense system.
Getting enough money was easy, mainly due to the chunk of Harmonite I found, I could probably buy several planets with that. The next task was a bit difficult though, getting enough resources to build a planetary defense system was not easy. It was entirely dependent on the size of the planet and it's resource rank, two things that I did not know.
I didn't even know If I had a time limit or not, I had no idea how far away I was from Federation space, and if this planet is discovered before I'm ready, then I lose everything. Even if I did manage to sell the Harmonite when the planet gets discovered, there wouldn't be enough time to even process the sale much less the deeds to the planet before it gets swarmed by prospectors.
My grim thinking was interrupted by Zecora jumping up onto my tech with some equipment of her own, tapping the top two times.
"Let us embark." She said, ready to go out and gather.
What have I gotten myself into? And why was Zecora so friendly with me?
To Be Continued...