Mark did his best to patch his arm up, but it took a lot of cleaning up and a steel stomach. But, he got it stitched up thanks to his survival training.

I just hope somebody finds me now, the engineer prayed as he turned his LifeBit on, worried for the rest of the crew. Looking at his vital signs, Mark noticed that his number of calories were low, and he sighed.

"Karen, does my fabricator have enough organic material left to make a sandwich?" He asked.

"Affirmative sir." As Mark started pushing the buttons, the computerized AI added, "There is not enough materials for anything else but just a sandwich, captain." Mark hesitated, but then he went ahead and fabricated a tuna sandwich.

"I'll live." To conserve food, Mark ate only half of the sandwich and found a Ziploc bag so he could stuff it in his pocket. All he had to do now was wait for the lizard to leave, and then he could so see where exactly he was. He could still hear it outside, clawing and snarling as it tried to get in, but the metal was too sturdy for the creature to bend the ship's cracks open and get in.

Mark decided to take shelter under the desk panels anyway, just in case it decided to look through the wide open windshield to get in. Luckily it was too stupid to figure that out, but the racket it was making at the door was horrendous. Its claws scratched against the metal as the lizard shrieked and hissed, still trying to find a way to make the entry reveal itself. Mark was finding it more appropriate to call the angry thing an alligator, or a flightless dragon. No matter the name, the lizard suddenly stopped, and it growled before it climbed off and scurried in the undergrowth. The engineer felt a relieved breath escape him before he even fully registered the quiet.

But while he remained huddled under the desks, Mark felt something before he heard it. Tremors lightly began to shake the ground, but they quickly got louder and more violent, increasing in magnitude. Mark squeezed his eyes shut and clung to a handle under the desks.

Fuck, the last thing I need is an earthquake! The ship shuddered with each rhythmic thunder, and Mark's eyes opened when he saw the world go dark. An eclipse too!?

Mark gasped into his shoulder when the ship suddenly rocked and rose up in the air, and he gripped the handle tightly as he pressed himself against the wall to fight against gravity.

"Whooaa! This is so cool, a toy ship!" Mark's eyes widened as a loud voice exclaimed. He felt the ship tilt, and the engineer clung to the handle for his life. "Aww, it's broken though." Whatever was the owner of the voice, it had an accent that kind of reminded Mark of Ireland. The ship was tilted again, and Mark kicked his foot against the counter again to steady himself. Whatever had picked up his ship, the last thing he wanted was to let it discover him.

"Is there a remote control somewhere?" Mark's eyes shut tightly as he was rocked back and forth, and his breathing grew heavier as his mind thought of the ocean. No, no! This isn't the ocean, this is land! Mark wanted to slap himself.

"Huh. Maybe someone crashed it accidentally. Oh well." Mark felt his blood run cold when the sentient monster started walking off with the ship, taking Mark with him. Mark's arms were starting to get tired, and he was holding his breath and laying as still as possible.

"Warning, ten seconds of oxygen remaining." Karen! Mark cursed to himself as he felt the giant creature stop.

"You can talk!?" It gasped.

"Affirmative, sir. Scanning."

"Karen stop it!" Mark whispered, gasping in a quiet breath of air. But the damage had been done. His eyes were wide behind his cracked glasses, and his core was tightly filled with fear and adrenaline. But while his instincts screamed fight or flight, Mark knew that he could do neither. Only wait and hope.

"Awesome!" The giant creature shifted the ship. "I didn't know they were making toys that could talk now," it exclaimed. Whatever it was, it was almost shouting with excitement and deafening Mark, but Mark couldn't help but feel a little curious despite his fear; whatever had picked up his ship, it was smart enough to process and express thoughts and emotions like a person. And, coincidentally, spoke a comprehensive language? What are the odds?

"Scan complete," Karen replied. "Detecting humanoid traces of deoxyribonucleic acid, and showing similar oligonucleotide patterns. Detecting high traces of serotonin and somatotropin. The pituitary gland is releasing significant amounts of growth hormones, exponentially influencing height, bone density and muscle mass."

"... what!?" Mark winced and continued to lay low, pressing against the floor even more. "That sounded like a lot of science gibberish to me!" The giant creature said firmly.

"Levels of aggression, extremely high. Lethality is severely dangerous. Continuing to-"

"Karen shut down, shut down! Stop it!" Mark shouted desperately in a hissed whisper. To his relief, Karen stopped and suddenly powered down with a whirling noise, and the ship turned completely off.

"... okay, that was really weird." Mark felt the ship rock again as the giant creature resumed walking. Mark had no choice but to stay huddled under the desks and remain hiding. Wherever it was taking him, he would just have to make do and find somewhere safe to go.

At first, it was a normal day for Jack. He'd greeted the cheerful morning feeling energetic as ever, and when he walked into the living room he saw that his friend Felix was already awake.

"You woke up early," Jack remarked.

"Thought I'd get some hours in." Felix was pushing the buttons of a controller repeatedly, staring intently at the holoscreen. Jack grinned when he saw that his friend was playing Shadow of the Colossus, and he decided to say nothing more. He walked into the kitchen and fixed himself some breakfast and coffee, and then he sat down and began to eat.

"Have you seen the news yet?" Jack asked Felix.

"Nope."

"Well when ya get to a stoppin' point then? I wanna see if anything interesting is going on." Felix simply nodded, biting his lip as he continued to stare at the screen.

"I doubt there's anything," He suddenly said after a few minutes. "There's always nothing, just boring things like a neighbor saving a cat from a tree."

"Well, I don't have neighbors," Jack reminded. "It's just me and my old log cabin out near the woods, remember?"

Felix muttered an agreement under his breath, but then he suddenly shouted "NO!" when his character died. He cursed and threw his controller into the safe embrace of the couch cushions, and he quickly got up and left the living room while swearing foreign words. Jack giggled and finished eating, and then he carried his plate to the sink and set about washing the dishes.

He smiled at the window as he looked out at the trees, appreciating the pretty forest that he lived nearby. While having a cabin a few miles out from town meant more time consumed to run errands, Jack knew that this place was his home. He closed his eyes as the birds tweeted and whistled their songs, and he let out a relaxed sigh.

When Jack opened his eyes again, he noticed a small trail of what looked like smoke, and he frowned. What's that? He turned the faucet off and dried his hands, and he decided to investigate. Not a lot happened out in the woods, and even when he invited Felix over, Jack was sometimes bored. It was worth checking it out to make time go by, but it was probably just nothing.

Humming to himself, Jack slipped his shoes on and grabbed his jacket off the couch's back, and he slipped it on before venturing outside.

He walked around with his hands in his pockets as he passed beneath the shadows of the large familiar forest. Though he looked around for the source of the smoke, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. There was nothing but trees, bushes and grass.

After a few minutes of walking, Jack finally saw smoke. His stride lengthened, and he walked over quickly to see what the source was. To his surprise, he saw what looked like a hunk of metal sticking out if the ground. He studied it for a few seconds before he knelt down and carefully picked it up, and his eyes widened. It was a tiny space ship!

"Whooaa! This is so cool!" Jack put his eye to the windshield, peeking inside. "A toy ship!" The interior design was realistic, but Jack realized that somehow the toy had crashed and broke. "Aww, it's broken though..." Jack got up and looked at the ship, noticing that one of the wings were torn off. He looked at the ship for a wireless device to turn it on and off, but he found none.

"Is there a remote control somewhere?" Jack wondered out loud. He turned and looked around at the ground, peering at the encompassing mess. Tiny bits of metal littered the foliage, and the ship's crater had been left in the ground.

"Huh." Jack peered at the ship again and grinned. "Maybe someone crashed it accidentally," he told the trees. They didn't respond, of course, and Jack shrugged. "Oh well," he sighed happily, still content with his discovery. He held the toy ship to his chest and headed back to the cabin, but as he reached the edge of the woods a robotic voice made him stop abruptly.

"Warning, ten seconds of oxygen remaining." This made Jack confused, but that was short-lasting before his eyes widened, and he gasped in realization.

"You can talk!?" Jack held the ship up and peered at it again.

"Affirmative sir." The computerized voice then added, "Scanning." Jack frowned with intrigue and confusion as blue lights turned on at the front of the ship; it scanned as much of Jack as the tiny spacecraft could, but it could only reach his facial features.

"Awesome!" Jack exclaimed, studying the ship. He couldn't make much sense of what it was saying, but since it was broken he decided to let it slide. "I didn't know they were making toys that could talk now!" Man I wish I had one of these when I was a kid! Jack was still grinning ear to ear. Felix is gonna be so jealous!

"Scan complete," the voice said. Then it bewildered Jack with what it said next: "Detecting humanoid traces of deoxyribonucleic acid, and showing similar oligonucleotide patterns. Detecting high traces of serotonin and somatotropin. The pituitary gland is releasing significant amounts of growth hormones, exponentially influencing height, bone density and muscle mass."

Jack stared at the ship with his eyebrow raised; one blink, two blinks, then, "What!?" He shook his head with a scowling grin. "That sounded like a lot of science gibberish to me!"

"Levels of aggression, extremely high. Lethality is severely dangerous. Continuing to-" He waited for the computerized voice to answer him, but it never did. The lights turned off, and he heard a tiny whirl as the ship finally shut down.

Jack stared at the ship for a few seconds before he finally turned and continued walking. "Ok, that was weird," he muttered to himself. Was it not a toy? Maybe it had some other purpose. Maybe it was a drone, but then why did it have all the cool details on the inside? Drones didn't need interior design, and for a toy it just seemed too real-- and what was it doing out in the middle of nowhere? If it was a toy, no one would have flown it so far out of town.

Jack stopped on the porch and looked back down at the ship. Unless it has a camera...? Jack frowned and decided to worry about it later. Mysteries could wait a little longer, it wasn't like the ship was in flying condition anyway. He unlocked his door and slipped back inside the cabin, walking into the spare bedroom to set the ship down on the cool covers.

"Alrighty," Jack sighed and knelt down at the bedside, and he peeked into the windshield again. "What the fuck are you?" He whispered.