“Listen kid, I’ve only got only one more chance! You’re the last full match within this galaxy. I don’t care what you think is important, you’re playing on scales of towns and castles while I’ve got to deal with galaxies within the local group. You’re supposed to be me right?” He quickly checks the monitor. “Yeah, you should understand! There are things far greater than yourself, and far greater than the things you consider worth dying for - you may want to die for king and country, I’m telling you to live for the sake of reality!” The frustration was evident in his voice. I had no idea who he was, only that he was from somewhere far away and needed me. Supposedly… yet I can’t help but feel an unfamiliar kinship.

  I thought back to how I had wandered into this situation just minutes earlier…

  “Do you guys see that?” I pointed towards the strange mass of metal hovering directly above the village, yet not covering it in shadow.

  “See what?” Mitch called back. The others echoed him. I gave them a quizzical look. “Look a little harder,” I said, pointing straight at the mass. They took a moment to look.

  “No way!” James exclaimed, to my relief. I thought I had been seeing things. “There’s a fire at Luewin’s forge!” Him and the other boys started running to get to the village in excitement, leaving me behind. A moment of fear, and I decided to run after them. I never get along with them. Ever since my childhood it had always been like this, like I was missing something everyone had - or maybe I had something I shouldn’t have. I don’t know, nor do I care to reflect on that right now.

  ~

  He arrived shortly after them. It was obvious which one of them he was - only one of them kept glancing upwards. Even without that, the shape of his face compared to everyone else was a pretty dead giveaway. Same eyes, dip of the brow, sharp front and visible corners next to the neck. Despite his unease, he didn’t seem to be panicking. He peeled away from the group to grab something, only for me to beam them up.

  The reaction was immediate. A lot of shouting - a lot of screaming, a rather pathetic attempt of running only to run into the transporter door… followed by immediate confusion and terror. Christ, he doesn’t know what glass is. I turned on the mic.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Hey!” I shouted. That quieted him down quick. “Yes, you’re in the… thing you saw above the village. Yes, you got brought up here. No, I’m not gonna kill you. Now stop running around before you break something either around or in you. Capiche?” He was looking round left and right. “I’m talking to you through a microphone, you can’t see me. Just - christ I’ll just come to you. Wait a moment.”

  ~

  COMPUTER LOG: 4207/08/24 // CAPTAIN 41 LOG 7204 (V)

  Recording in progress…

  “So I made my way down to him, calmed him down, made the grand spiel and tried to answer his questions. It took a while, but it worked out…” The pilot remains silent, yet seems to be imitating the motion of strangling someone, before bursting back into speech.

  “IS WHAT I WISH I COULD SAY. Hoooooo my god. This.. dense, godforsaken idiot. I now understand the long held policy to not recruit pre-medievals. Like, my brother in christ, how can you not comprehend the concept of the SUN. BEING.REALLY. FAR. AWAY." The pilot screams while clutching his head. "Was I really this stupid sounding when I was brought aboard? I never thought the sun orbited the earth, much less was attached to it! Is he just stupid? I thought intelligence was a compatibility requirement? Why’d my voice go all high pitched and self referential? Maybe it’s cuz this kid is quite literally a brick with sentience and human limbs." The pilot returns to normal pitch. "I’m going insane.” A groan, followed by silence follows for 20 seconds. A sigh can be heard.

  “Alright, I’m good now. This kid’s gonna be an utter pain though. End log, begin daily diagnostic.”

  Recording finished.

  COMPUTER LOG: 4207/08/24 // EVENTS OF INTEREST

  Writing to disk…

  >BERYLLIUM DEPOSIT FOUND

  >> 86%~ PURITY

  >NEW PILOT ACQUIRED

  >>60% INTEGRATION CHANCE

  >>>PRE-MEDIEVAL SOCIAL AGE, TRAINING/EDUCATION WILL TAKE LONGER

  >>>NEURAL PATHWAYS ARE OF NOTEWORTHY COMPATIBILITY

  Saved to disk… Computer diagnostics complete. Moving to low power mode.

  Penumbra.ai booting up. Low signal broadcast initiated…

  Progress is good. Mother will be pleased. A second pilot has been found.

  Broadcast ended. Penumbra.ai offline. Log history for the last minute cleared.

  Theme: Identity Crisis

  Objects: Starship

  Dialogue: "Only one more chance!"

  Setting: A small, rural village

  It happened when I was walking in the forest. A bright light, a flash, and then a giant mass of metal shaped strangely was in front of me. It was bent and curved in strange ways, with parts of it glowing, others darker and lighter. It was like nothing I had ever seen. And yet it was so large and unmoving that it almost looked like it had to be there - the only real indicator of its strangeness was the flash of its arrival and its strange material. Making my way towards it, I wondered what it was. Perhaps it was a shipwreck, except instead of broken timbers on the seafloor it was twisted metal on forest ground.

  As I neared it, a piece of the craft… moved, while the rest stayed there. I couldn’t see anyone pulling the door open - it almost looked like the ship itself was opening up to me. Should I go inside? I looked behind me and saw the outline of my village along the trees. It would only take ten minutes to run back and everyone could figure out what to do. But this entire thing could be gone as fast as it arrived. Reluctantly, I moved to go inside.

  ~

  “What in the world…” The boy said as he entered Valkyrie II. Well, to be fair - he was from a village before they discovered steam power, much less hyperdrive potential. He probably thought the lit up hallway was a doorway into heaven. I rubbed my head in frustration. Well, no use delaying the introduction. Pressing the speaker button, I introduced myself.

  “Hey there!” He jumped in surprise, looking around for a speaker. “I’m talking to you through a microphone, you can’t see me kid. Take a left.” He looked around confused, like a rabbit. Christ. Accessing the lighting panel, I turned on the floor arrows. “Follow the arrows.”

  It took a couple minutes, but he got here. Sighing, I prepared the grand spiel again.

  “Have you ever noticed that you felt different - that you were different from others in some way…”

  ~

  COMPUTER LOG: 4207/08/24

  NOTABLE EVENTS: BERYLLIUM DEPOSIT FOUND, PILOT ACQUIRED

  DESC: PILOT IS FROM SUB-DEVELOPED RURAL VILLAGE. TECHNOLOGY LEVEL IS IRON AGE. COMPATIBLE WITH NEURAL MAINFRAMES. LEARNING PERIOD WILL TAKE LONGER. INTEGRATION SUCCESS PREDICTION AT ~80%.