A Mysterious Door

Waking up more refreshed than ever, Jax quickly set about his day, making sure to first retrieve the rest of his furniture from the lake. Arriving there, Jax saw that the furniture remained in the same condition as before. Carrying them back to his cave and decorating as he saw fit, Jax felt that the cave was starting to truly become a good home.

Continuing on with his day, Jax followed his usual routine of washing, starting a fire, boiling water, and gathering fruits and berries. He was especially lucky since he found a tree growing nuts near the lake. The nuts had shells like peanuts, but after cracking them open, the insides were similar in appearance and flavor to salted almonds. Returning to his cave, Jax tried many new ways of cooking fruits, berries, nuts, and seeds. He attempted making flour out of the nuts, which partially worked. He also tried making jams with the berries, which also again, partially worked. The problem wasn't the ingredients, it was just that Jax was a poor cook overall. He had mostly relied on pre-made foods his entire young adult life.

And so Jax continued on, following this routine. Waking up, cleaning, gathering, attempting to cook, busying himself, and going to sleep. Strangely, in a sudden burst of boredom, Jax decided to try to read one of the copies of the book he found in the wreckage, the one featuring a man and his harem of alien wives. The first few pages made Jax throw the book into the nightstand, unable to bear the cringe-worthy story. But boredom overtook him again, and Jax stuck with it since it was his only form of entertainment.

Occasionally Jax heard the flapping of the beast, but he never ventured outside at night to spot it, and Jax also did not return to the crash site, not out of fear, but simply because he believed he scavenged all that he could for the time being.

This cycle went on and on, for 10 days with nothing of interest happening.

Laying down to sleep on his couch, having spent almost two weeks on this planet, Jax felt like he needed to figure something out. Fruits and berries were fine, but he wanted something more satisfying and hearty, like meat! But there weren't any animals nearby. If he ventured far away, then maybe he would find some, but that would mean either abandoning his cave or having to travel during nighttime. Neither of these options seemed appealing to him. He also would like to get some sort of blanket, as the occasional wind blowing through the cave made him shiver.

Closing his eyes, Jax began to fall into slumber again, ready to continue his routine the next day. Suddenly the ground began to shake, and the entire cave shuddered, rumbling ominously. Sitting up right away, Jax saw that small bits of the cave ceiling began to fall. If this continued, then the cave would collapse! Jax quickly ran out through the crack, not caring if the winged beast spotted him out in the open. He would rather be given a chance to escape from the beast than be buried alive in his cave.

Hiding behind a nearby tree, Jax held on tightly, until the shaking slowly began to stop. Silence returned to the area, and there was no sign that anything had happened just seconds before.

Reentering his cave, Jax began to assess the damage. The couch and nightstand were only covered in some dust and small rocks, but the chair had been completely crushed by a large falling rock. Only wood and cloth scraps remained. The table was also hit by larger rocks, but only sustained some small dents.

The most noticeable change to the cave, however, was that a large hole had opened up on the back wall, seemingly leading into the darkness. There seemed to be a small blue-ish glow towards the bottom, but whatever emitted it was obscured by the winding cavern walls.

Jax carefully took out his kitchen knife, prepared for anything to spring out at him, and began slowly walking towards the glow at the bottom of the cave. If there was some creature or some sort of danger, Jax would really need to abandon his cave and find a new place to live.

The newly formed cavern walls felt smooth to the touch, as though they had been freshly carved out of the wall. Approaching the turn that the glow was coming from, Jax pressed himself against the wall, before carefully peeking out from behind cover. Instantly his eyes widened and his jaw went slack.

The blue-ish glow was being emitted from a large doorframe, with what seemed to be exposed circuitry slowly pulsing with energy over its surface. There was a set of large metal double doors, sealed tightly in front of Jax. He had never seen anything like this before, as he had only worked on low-level civilian ships and facilities. This was clearly a whole new experience for him.

Entranced by the doorframe, Jax sheathed his knife into his harness and walked up to touch the doors. They were cold as if the other side held a strong winter storm blowing against it. His warm handprint could be seen smudging the surface with its oils.

Just as he was pulling his hand away, a holographic display flashed on, showing a small AI figure before him. It looked directly at him, seeming to be scanning his face.

"Identify," the AI said suddenly.

I looked much like a young human girl, maybe 5 to 7 years old. The AI was only around 6 inches or so tall and was modeled to wear a long baggy robe with a large hood. If the robe was real it would disrupt the girl's walking, as it dragged behind her. The girl was only modeled in a blue hue, with no color applied to her face, hair, or clothing. Other than this fact, the AI seemed like quite a cute young girl.

Again the AI asked, "Identify".

Jax was unsure how to answer. He wasn't some celebrity or anything so no one would know his name. Instead, he explained his circumstances to the AI.

"Um- I was -uh you see -what happened was..." Jax had trouble putting his situation into words. Thinking back his whole survival seemed pretty unrealistic and bizarre.

Catching his breath and formulating the sentences in his head, Jax said "I crashed landed on this planet, and was living in the cave up above for a couple weeks. I didn't know you were here at all. My name is Jax."

The AI looked at him for some time after he spoke. In fact for quite a long time! Almost 10 minutes had passed since Jax spoke, and he was beginning to worry it was broken.

Finally, the holographic girl spoke again. "Analysis complete, individual recognized as "Jax" deemed non-hostile. Allowing entry to facility." Immediately after the girl disappeared, and the metallic doors began to shudder to life, slowly swinging inward.

There before him a large hallway opened, not unlike the ones that he had seen back on the cargo ship. Dim lights activated near the floor, illuminating the hallway, showing that it led to a singular room at the end.

Walking towards the room at the end of the hallway, Jax tried to call out to the AI girl, only to hear nothing back. Entering the room, Jax was astounded at what he saw. A metal cylinder sat directly before him, reaching from floor to ceiling, with countless metal tubes and wires connected. The tubes and wires hung loosely from the ceiling and some seemingly running into the ground.

There in front of the cylinder, the AI girl watched Jax as he entered the room.

Quickly running over to the AI, Jax began asking frantically "What is this place? What's going on?"

The girl did not respond, except for a simple statement.

"Insufficient power, please restore fuel reserves."