Aiden stood in front of the secured storage door, his palm hovering just short of the surface as he studied the markings etched into the metal. The door was thicker than most others in the ship, layered with reinforced seams that hinted at just how important whatever lay behind it was meant to be.
He let out a quiet breath and spoke casually, more out of habit than expectation.
"J.E.M., do you know what's inside this storage?"
There was a short pause before the system replied.
[ACCESS DATA UNAVAILABLE]
[SECURED STORAGE CONTENTS REDACTED]
[REASON: RESTRICTED ACCESS DATA PURGED]
[HOST VERIFICATION REQUIRED]
Aiden raised an eyebrow slightly and shifted his weight.
"Wow. So even you do not know what is inside." he said, more amused than worried.
[AFFIRMATIVE]
[CONTENT DATA WAS WIPED AT TIME OF SHIP COMMISSIONING]
[ONLY HOST CAN VERIFY CONTENTS DIRECTLY]
Aiden nodded slowly, then tilted his head a little.
"Do I even have the authority to open it now."
J.E.M. answered without delay.
[AUTHORITY CONFIRMED]
[CURRENT HOST RANK: FEDERATION PIONEER CLASS OPERATIVE]
[CLAUSE ACTIVE: SOLE SURVIVOR AND HIGHEST RANKED PERSONNEL ONBOARD]
[NO EXTERNAL COMMAND LINK AVAILABLE]
[ALL SHIP ASSETS HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED TO HOST CONTROL]
That made Aiden pause as he read through the confirmation, a hint of surprise crossing his face. He had never realized there was a clause like that built into the ship systems, one that handed over full control so cleanly when no one else remained to give orders.
He nodded once and lowered his hand.
"Open the door."
The panel lights shifted.
[OPENING SECURED STORAGE]
The door released with a deep mechanical sound.
wHoOoShh
The heavy plating slid aside, and Aiden blinked as his eyes adjusted. Another door stood just beyond the first, identical in build and thickness.
He frowned.
"There is another door?"
J.E.M. replied immediately.
[SECURITY DESIGNATION: MULTI LAYER VAULT SYSTEM]
[REASON: HIGH VALUE ASSET PROTECTION]
[IF FIRST DOOR IS BREACHED WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION, FIVE ADDITIONAL DOORS WILL HARD LOCK]
[HARD LOCK STATE: ABSOLUTE SEAL]
[OVERRIDE IMPOSSIBLE EVEN FOR AI CORE COMMANDS]
[FINAL FAILSAFE: CONTENT DESTRUCTION IF LAST DOOR IS COMPROMISED]
"That is a bit much, no?" he said quietly, more to himself than anything else.
Aiden kept his eyes on the door, studying the layers of reinforced metal and the way each lock sat perfectly aligned with the next. Security like this was not meant for spare parts or routine equipment. Whatever had been sealed away here had been important enough to justify every extreme measure built into the system.
His thoughts drifted back to the first days after the crash, when the ship had been silent and power had been almost gone. He remembered considering the fact whether he should force the lock open if J.E.M. never came back online. At the time, it had felt like a risk worth taking.
Now the idea made his stomach tighten.
If not for the monster core he had found, the one that gave him enough power to stabilize the ship, he would have gone through with it. He would have tried to breach the door blind, without knowing what kind of failsafes were waiting on the other side. Realizing that made him pause, a quiet sense of relief settling in as he understood how close he had come to making a serious mistake.
Delaying it had been the right call.
He straightened slowly, focus returning as his gaze stayed on the door, ready at last to see what had been protected so fiercely.
"Open all doors."
[SECURED STORAGE ACCESS CONFIRMED]
[OPENING ALL AUTHORIZED VAULT DOORS]
One by one, the doors unlocked.
kLACKwhUUMTHoom
The final seal slid open, and Aiden stepped forward before stopping short.
A low gasp escaped him.
Rows of rooms spread out before him, each one organized and clean, filled with equipment, storage racks, and sealed containers. Soft white lights illuminated polished surfaces and reinforced casings.
"This is better than I expected...." he murmured.
He moved from room to room, his boots echoing softly as he passed equipment he recognized immediately and others he had only ever seen in manuals or heard about during training. Some devices were familiar, tools he had used before. Others were rare, advanced, and far beyond what he ever expected to see in person.
"J.E.M., log everything."
[LOGGING CONTENTS]
The system began listing items one by one.
[Portable Atmospheric Analyzer]
Checks air quality, toxins, and long term breathing safety.
[Soil Composition Scanner]
Analyzes soil structure, nutrients, and contamination risk.
[Handheld Geological Survey Tool]
Detects mineral deposits and underground structures.
[Modular Solar Generator Kit]
Provides renewable power for long term surface use.
[Water Purification and Analysis Unit]
Cleans and tests unknown water sources.
[Portable Repair and Assembly Bench]
Enables field repairs and basic construction.
[Material Refinement Unit]
Processes raw materials into usable components.
[Emergency Medical Fabricator]
Produces basic medical tools and treatment supplies.
[Thermal Regulation Suit Add On]
Protects against extreme temperatures.
[Portable Shelter System]
Deployable protection against weather and hazards.
[Energy Storage Cells]
High capacity energy reserves. Quantity: multiple units.
Aiden listened as the list continued, his eyes moving constantly as he took it all in. This alone could change how he survived on this planet.
At the far end of the storage area, he noticed another section sealed off more tightly than the rest. He approached it slowly.
The label read SEED BANK.
He opened it carefully.
Inside were rows upon rows of sealed containers, each labeled and preserved. Crops, grains, vegetables, and variants designed to adapt to different conditions. Everything was categorized and stored with care.
"This is huge!" Aiden whispered.
When the seed bank opened, Aiden stopped in place.
He had expected a few containers, maybe enough for emergency use, but what greeted him was something far beyond that. Row after row of sealed cases filled the space, each one carefully labeled and preserved.
Crops, grains, and carefully engineered variants designed to adapt to many different conditions were stored with precision, able to grow faster without stripping the soil or causing long term damage. It was as if whoever prepared this had planned for years of living responsibly on an unknown world.
Aiden drew in a slow breath without realizing it.
This was not just about surviving another day, but about having the means to build a stable future over time.
He quickly sobered as another thought followed.
"J.E.M., before planting anything, remind me to analyze everything first with the geological tools.." he said as he looked back toward the scanners.
Aiden kept his eyes on the scanners as the thought settled deeper in his mind. Planting without care could cause damage that could not be undone, changing the soil, spreading plants where they did not belong, and affecting the native life that depended on it.
He still remembered the case they were taught in school, a famous example from the early days of exploration where a team planted foreign crops without proper testing and ended up compromising an entire planet, leaving it unstable and nearly unusable for decades.
If he was going to live here for a long time, and he had already accepted that he might, then he needed to be careful with every choice he made, starting with understanding the world before trying to change it.
[AFFIRMATIVE]
[ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS REQUIRED PRIOR TO OPEN FIELD PLANTING]
He nodded, committing it to memory once again.
As Aiden stepped away from the seed bank, another thought began to take shape in his mind. With J.E.M. online, he finally had the means to learn the native language properly instead of relying on slow guesses and broken exchanges.
The retinal scan transfer would speed the process greatly, even if the strain meant it could only be done once a week, and he knew better than to push it. Doing it manually without J.E.M. guiding the process could overload his brain with unfiltered data, scrambling memories and turning useful information into dangerous noise that could leave him confused or worse.
With J.E.M. handling the transfer safely, that risk was controlled, and the limitation no longer bothered him. He had time to spare, and more importantly, there were people on this world he could work with.
People who understood the land and could help him farm it properly. If he could earn their trust and confirm that cooperation was possible, then the effort would benefit both him and them.
After finishing the inventory, Aiden noticed a narrow corridor branching off from the storage area. He followed it, his pace slowing as the walls widened and the ceiling rose.
At the end stood another massive door.
"J.E.M., access the last secured door."
[ACCESS CONFIRMED]
The door opened slowly, and Aiden stepped inside.
His breath caught as the space opened up in front of him.
The corridor widened into a massive chamber, and the ceiling rose high enough that the lights above felt distant. This was not a storage room or a maintenance bay. It was a hangar bay, sealed and reinforced, built to hold something large and important.
It was a mech.
A nearby panel flickered to life as he stepped closer.
[EXPLORATION MECH MODEL: ATLAS PATHFINDER]
The machine stood nearly twenty feet tall at the center of the bay, locked in place by thick support arms that wrapped around its limbs and torso. Heavy cables ran from the walls into its frame, feeding monitoring systems and keeping it perfectly still.
Its body was broad and reinforced, layered with plating meant to endure crushing pressure, extreme heat, and violent terrain rather than direct combat. Every line of its design spoke of purpose and reliability instead of aggression.
Aiden stopped without realizing it, his eyes moving slowly from the mech feet all the way up to its head. Recognition hit him almost immediately.
This was a well known exploration mech, one he had studied in theory but never expected to see in person. It was designed to traverse hostile environments, walk across unstable ground, descend into deep oceans, and endure temperatures that would melt lesser machines.
It carried defensive systems and limited weapons stored internally. It wasn't meant for battle but it had enough things to protect itself from threats while completing its mission.
With the right modifications, it could be pushed even further.
That part did not worry him.
Creating something from nothing was always harder than improving what already existed, and this machine was already built on a solid foundation. A very very solid one.
"Man, I love my parents!"
He took a few steps closer, excitement building with each one, until a subtle sense of wrongness made him slow down. Something about the mech felt incomplete, and once he noticed it, he could not look away.
His gaze dropped to the center of its chest.
The armor at the center of its chest was open, not from damage or impact, but completely empty, as if the reactor had been removed on purpose.
Aiden pace quickened, his boots striking the floor harder as he closed the distance.
"No way....." he muttered under his breath.
He stopped directly in front of the mech and stared into the hollow cavity where the reactor should have been. Thick cables hung loose inside, neatly disconnected rather than torn free. Mounting brackets sat empty, clean and intact, waiting for a core that was no longer there.
His stomach sank as the realization fully set in.
"It doesn't have a reactor....." he said quietly.
"This is a joke...right?"
The mech stood over him in complete silence, its body undamaged and fully built, but unable to function without a power source. All of its capabilities were useless in that state, leaving it stuck in place and unable to move at all.