Aurora

Finn slept well and undisturbed. No predator coming for him or bad weather conditions that would require his attention. When he woke up he felt much rejuvenated but still groggy meaning he was asleep for a long time, though the sky was still dark. This was the first time he got the opportunity to observe the absolute beauty of the shining celestial constellations. No pollution or clouds blocking his view.

It was a wonderful sight to behold. Stars so bright they replaced the light of the missing moon. There was color to the sky like nothing he would think possible. Nebula colors ranging from a soft jade color to some that were bright red with purple accents. Between the different constellations was the occasional void that contributed great contrast to the rest of the canvas.

There was enough light to explore some more, now that he had more time and nothing else on his immediate agenda. He rather had some light when examining all the different trinkets and gadgets he scavenged. Walking along the edge of the decent into the quarry, he noticed the unusual excavation method that was used. Everything was cleanly separated from the rest of the rock, no markings that suggested explosions or other heavy machinery was used.

He also wondered how the giant blocks were even elevated out of the deep hole, there was no ramp that lead down or signs of a crane having placed anywhere at some point in time. The blocks were the size of shipping containers and had to weight at least a hundred tonnes if it would have been normal and brittle sandstone. But this variant was actually very durable and had other contents mixed in, so it had to weight a lot more, if not double that.

There was a very accessible way up to the top of the plateau that he could take that looked safe. Arriving at the top he had an even better view of the surrounding landscape and quarry. It was maybe a hundred and fifty meters across and a third of it deep. Looking into the direction of the horizon he could make out an orange and pink aurora dancing high in the sky far into the north.

The events of the past day were truly surreal. Now sitting on a comfortable rock, watching the stars and the distant auroras, Finn had some time to think about exactly that. He made a lot of very decisive decisions in the heat of the moment that didn't really fit someone like him. He was just some everyday guy before. Before whatever happened, his thoughts seemed to veer away from that topic whenever he tried to think about it.

Was he just some everyday guy? He didn't know why he thought that. For all he knew he was Finn, just some guy from Planet Earth, now that a title like that made a difference. Where exactly he had no memories of, but he had extremely much information in his head about a specific part of Germany. He was very sure he was still human and looked the same, no mirror anywhere to check. The protective glasses were non-reflective, that was already on his mind earlier.

Slinging his rifle around from his back, he again looked at it and tried to remember where he'd seen something like this before. Pretty sure not earth, the theme and state of technology didn't overlap at all. There was a lot of other information that responded in turn and again had connections towards the blaster rifle. 'That's what it was called. I'm feeling a bit stupid now for calling it a laser gun'.

There was also the speeder bike that fit into that exact category. He was very sure about that after thinking about some more stuff that came into his mind. Though there wasn't much else he could piece together that could help him now. There was a certain red and dusty planet that came into his mind where he could currently be at, but something immediately told him that that wasn't true. It was somewhere much worse. Blurry pictures filled his mind that he couldn't really decipher, he could only get a weak feel of them somehow.

There wasn't much else that came to his mind in the hours that he sat in peace upon the boulder. At sometime it got little cold so he draped his cloak around him, it was very insulating and helped him stay comfy and warm. The nights were much longer than he knew they were back on earth, the days probably too, so he had a lot of time on his hands that he spent marveling at the new alien environment.

He came to the conclusion that he had to absolutely find a way to acquire a spaceship somehow, and then go further from there. Again, something told him that it wouldn't be so easy, but it was the right thing do, to eventually continue further on his journey.

The sun finally began to rise and painted the sky in a smooth mix of pink and orange. Now that there was more light, he saw a storm raging in the far north. Even from this distance he could see it move extremely fast, it seemed his worries were not wasted. Luckily it didn't race towards his position. Lightning streaked within, illuminating the clouds of dust and rock. Occasionally a massive bolt of destructive energy visible streaking from within it into a nearby mountain peak. No doubt absolutely annihilating it. Finn wondered if his speeder was fast enough to escape such a force of nature. Something to keep in mind.

Now that it was morning he decided to wander down, back to his camp. Time to go through everything, and hopefully find something valuable or useful that could help him. Strutting down the manageable path down, he could see small pools of fog floating deep down into the quarry. Occasionally licking past the edge and falling down, further towards the center.

Maybe he's gonna check out the bottom of the quarry at some point. The presence of fog suggesting a lot of humidity and just maybe a source of water he could use in the future. For now he had enough, but at some point it's going to run out. He also needs to find a source of food, he didn't really knew how much he had, at least how much was edible for him.

He spent a lot of time sorting through everything that he took with him. There were a lot of small bags and pouches with different objects he had never seen before in them. Ammunition, cartridges of some sort he guessed belonged to a different sort of blaster pistols or rifles. Trinkets, like chains and leather bands that had attachments like giant teeth of some predator, shiny stones and pieces of metal that were only borderline artistic. He wouldn't wear any of those, not his style.

Different pieces of tech, with some that projected a hologram screen in a written language he could not read, depicting some sort of runes that were surely a very developed language. For him it just looked alien and reminded him of the primitive ones from earth. Some things he could not activate and some he didn't understand the purpose of. The only thing he did understand were the grenades, but only after he nearly blew himself up.

Not understanding the purpose of the piece of metal tech he had in his hand, he tried to activate it somehow like the other similar looking ones. After one of the three buttons was pressed it made a *peep* sound, but still nothing happened. Pressing another one a few times, it peeped accordingly, only for this time to begin peeping without him pressing a button. The only thing that threw him off was the gradual charging sound that reminded him of something dangerous.

Only then he realized the error of his ways, frantically turning around and to his feet he threw it as hard as he could. It exploded only mere moments after being thrown, blasting Finn down with it's shock-wave. It hurt extremely bad, the force crashing against his already hurt body. Only one piece of shrapnel biting itself into his thigh. He was very lucky, the grenade not being constructed to throw shrapnel or a fiery explosion, but produce a massive blast wave, which it did a very good job at. He was more careful with the rest after that. A few more grenades were found and handled more respectfully.

The most important thing he found was a makeshift first aid kit. Which he used immediately after he got hurt. In it were patches of clean cloth, synthetic bandages and some small packets of gel like liquid. Some tools and other things were also included but nothing really unusual. It was a very uncomfortable moment when he had to remove the piece of shrapnel with thin tweezers out of his thigh.

It wasn't the most painful moment he ever lived through, but doing it yourself produced a natural recoiling effect which he had to overcome. Luckily it wasn't that deep and the gel like liquid worked wonders. It was numbing and at the same time stopping the bleeding almost immediately. He was pretty sure he just imagined it, but he could almost feel his flesh knitting itself back together.

After that there wasn't much more of note that he found, a few pouches were stuffed full with parts of machinery that made no sense to him.

All in all he had water for another few weeks left and enough food for a little more. Turned out it wasn't just crackers he found. Those were actually the minority of food items. There were a lot of bars and fatty preserved substances. He though they were maybe some sort of protein bars and soup supplements.

Too bad he didn't have a pot, but he was fairly sure he could pry one of two round metal parts off of the back of the speeder bike that weren't really important. For the problem of a missing heat source, he found a small plate with holes that served as a futuristic bunsen burner, seemingly not requiring any fuel. He would have to find out if it stopped working at some point in the future.

He didn't really have any way to get down the quarry yet to check out his theory. The way down wasn't that bad, only a lot of three meter drops. The problem would be getting up again, he would need a sizable amount of rope for that. Or he would just think of something else in the future.

The speeder bike was still in very good condition, but he planned to at least try to maybe fix some problems it had. The slight veering to the left was a top priority. The constant slight moving it did was also a major problem he would need to solve somehow. It couldn't be that complicated.

Loosening the many screws of it's body parts, he took most of them off. There was only the frame and all the internal parts left. He also didn't touch the console and seat in fear of breaking something or removing glue that he couldn't replace. It looked pretty manageable and even less complicated as he had expected. He had some mechanical knowledge that would help him immensely in finding out what exactly had a problem, and the according solution.

One of the repulsors looked a little bent, and the base which it was attached to wasn't screwed on properly. The repulsor he couldn't fix, that would require taking it off completely and taking it apart. What he did was screwing it's base on properly again and changed out a screw that was broken.

The electronic parts that were observable at the side of the bike were looking bit scuffed. There was black grease all over them and a few cables looked damaged. He was pretty sure they would start sparking if it would be turned it on.

The only thing he could do about that was cleaning it with a rag and a little alcohol. With the damaged cables he did the best he could, which would ensure that they there were less if not completely spark free. There were no replacement cables anywhere. The only place where he could find some being the broken hover crafts that were left behind, but he would never find the way back, and even if, someone must have already returned there or something.

All this, and screwing it back together took a few hours. But it was worth it, after he turned it on again, it sounded just a bit better than before and didn't really move and veer anymore. A job well done. A sense of accomplishment filled him with having done all immediate tasks that needed to be done.

While eating a protein bar while sitting on the same rock he sat the morning prior, he was ready to move on and accomplish more. The day was still long and there were a few things on his mind that he could spend his time with.