Anna thought her life was over. She thought that thirty minutes ago by her count, though it had been over five hundred years since she was last conscious. The woman awoke on the cold ground in a place she could not remember, the ruined shell of her cryo casket around her.
A few blinks to acknowledge reality. She was naked and no longer on Astoria. Thirty minutes of her memory ago... she was being put into that casket by slavers that took her to the stars.
"Where are we?"
The voice that came was that of her son. Anna averted her eyes. He was naked... as was she. An instinct to cover up came, not just because the climate was a tad colder. Nathan was far more content with his nudity, mostly because his mind went into survival mode.
"I.... don't know."
"Not anywhere close to home, that's for sure!"
A third voice. A familiar one. Pami was just a bit further, sitting on the ground and wearing as much as they were... nothing at all. The girl had her eyes on an item that the astorians had never seen before, but Pam could figure out a book even if it was in another form. She was quickly absorbing a lot of information about their current condition.
"Pami... Nathan... we..." She was at a loss. Parents are supposed to be strong, but the mother has no idea what to say. Anna was as human as they were and it brought a sense of shame to not be anything greater.
"We're on a lost planet. What they call it when one of these places has nothing in the way of real civilization." Pami held up the holographic tablet. "We got a guide on how to live. Says it's mandatory with every cryo casket because every space travel can result in this."
"Space. Right... we..."
"They sold us into slavery!" Nathan practically exploded. "Our people sold us like damned cattle! And slavery's illegal."
Or at least it was on paper. Hypocrisy was practiced openly in the higher ranks of their medieval planet. Their lords not only used the tech they forbid but were in constant communication with space traders. It was the only way to hold an advantage over the rest of the people.
"Yes." Anna just acknowledged it. She was overwhelmed. "Now what?" She felt shame just asking that question.
"I don't know. At least... doesn't look like the slavers got us where they wanted to."
"Probably got attacked en route. And now we build a new home here. Not like we're gonna just go back home." Pami was the voice of wisdom.
"A new home? I... we have..."
Nothing. Not even the clothes on their backs. Those were taken before they got sold. Their house, everything they owned... their lives were confiscated just at the mere hint of the government not getting their way.
"We should have never taken in that guy. Him and his religion." And Nathan was the voice of anger. It was like each one was focusing on one part of what all of them were feeling.
"Nathan... I think... if they did it only for that... they would have done it for a thousand other things." It made more sense with the word of the Outsider.
"You think everyone else that got executed for heresy turned the same way? Sold?"
"I don't know. But it doesn't matter."
Deep breath from the mother. Okay, she was getting some control. Pam had a point. They had no hint of civilization in sight, they had nothing to their name... survive or die. The seven gods would possibly say something about trusting their lords to keep them against the world, but their lords just sold them like things. That religion was dead in her eyes and everyone else here... the other words they heard seemed far more tempting... as the way of the outsider would speak against those who have wronged them, even if they were government.
She stood up and resisted the urge to cover herself. Anna had reached some internal, subconscious decision to start following the Outsider, as did the rest. They would not start fucking each other with no concern, but those words started to make far more sense in their current predicament.
"Don't be ashamed of nudity. Cover it when you need to, but that is who you are."
Anna actually said the words out loud. She didn't mean to.
"Wasn't that what the guy said for his defiant god or such?"
"Yes. And I think it is a lesson for now. We can worry about seeing each other naked or we can work to stop being as such." Another breath. "I'll go see if I can forage us some food. We... need some sort of shelter."
"I'm on it!" Pam was the one to spring to the occasion. "I actually have a BIG idea. We could make a really big place here. And hey, apparently we now own this entire land because of some space law. We could build a BIG house."
Pami looked at the cliff rising to the north. The terrain was gently inclined, with rocky outcrops of small size or large peaks around them. She had a better idea.
"We could build it in there!"
"Maybe focus on just a small place that we can sleep in." Nathan did not discard the plan. It was ambitious... fitting for his little sister. He looked to the immediate problems.
Pam found something else to show them. The lawfully required survival pad came with many functions useful in such a situation. Map, communications receiver, galactic encyclopedia. It didn't tell them how to build everything, but it at least agreed that some utterly basic things could not be patented. She had been planning out things on it for the last few minutes. It was time to share the plans with her family.
"Okay, that's for... sometime later. Now... we could plan ahead. Here would be the entrance, so if we set up in this area, block off these spots... Nathan, I'll need you to carry some rocks around... we can build some crude walls. But we can build our first place HERE... and then expand. Yeah, yeah... I'll just focus on the basics for now. I'll need some wood, at least."
Anna felt proud of her daughter. Ambitious, practical... smarter than the vast majority of men around her. She had never found a boyfriend to even keep up with her. So many expected their women obedient and practically mindless... she was not that. And today she showed why the gods... no, fuck the gods... why the Outsider gave her such a daughter.
Because someone had to build the damn base, that's what James thought.
"Alright, that looks like a start. Fine, I'll get to the heavy lifting. Ugh."
Nathan complained, but this was already better. They needed direction and now they had it. The three naked people went to their respective tasks with an urgent drive. Survival was the game.
Ever since the humans of Earth took to the stars, the issue of no faster-than-light travel has changed any preconception of space colonization. Travel meant you threw away your old life for a new one... the world you arrive on being livable was a gamble. Until they sent out the terraforming mechs, most colony ships were doomed. Now, most worlds that could sustain life were seeded with flora and fauna to make colonization a trivial task. Their work was easier than nature would have decreed.
Nathan had an easy time felling some trees for his sister, just take a good rock to them and they break apart. There were plenty of rocks lying around for her to soon turn into walls, but that was for the perimeter... their initial room would be made of wood. And that wood also broke into rather easy-to-work lengths due to the genetic alterations every tree on these worlds had.
Pam had priorities. First, make the room... that wood not only fixed easily, but she barely needed any tools beyond rocks... some sharp, some heavy. In a few hours, they had an enclosed room, eleven by eleven meters. Why did she build it exactly like that? Plans. At times, not even her own. The center of that room would have a fire pit set up both for light so she didn't have to work in the damn dark with torchlight and for Anna's incoming cooking.
By the end of the day, their stomachs were grumbling. They weren't fed at all since the guards took them. The cryo caskets gave barely enough nutrition to keep them going. Thankfully, plant life was relatively generous. She had enough wild veggies, berries, and fruits to fix up an improvised meal for both today and tomorrow. Her cookware would take a bit of time to set up, but soon enough she was kneeling by the fire with a very basic stew cooking before her.
The simplicity of their actions was a focus to not collapse into some state of mental trouble. Yes, their old lives were lost, they were in a place that gave them no friends... only enemies. Betrayed already, they'd have a hard time trusting any outsiders... except for one.
*
Fire, shelter, food. Rarely were the three so grateful to have all three. Pam even had time to set up some decent enough beds. The three sat around the fire, still naked, though they were still trying to avoid looking at those parts of each other that they had rarely seen. Basic as the stew their mother made was, it would keep them going both today and tomorrow.
And with peace, came those thoughts that they had managed to force away.
"This is our life now." Pam said, though there was a sad tone in there.
"For now. Sounds like we can do better." The mother wanted to hold onto hope.
"I remember yesterday worrying about finding more work... finding a husband, other stuff." Her head turned as if to look at the cliff that would soon hold their home. "Now I'm the middle of who knows how far away from our home and...." A sigh.
"Yeah. Turned everything upside down."
Nathan was trying to be the strong one. It was hard. For him, it was much harder because he tried not to even think of the exposed breasts and other parts of the two women he had been taught to not even consider as sexual beings. Now even a glance might have him see his mother's full tits, her shapely ass... or his sister's more slender shape. Can't let an erection even form or he might be in trouble.
"So... mom. Can I say something? And not have everyone be mad?" Pam asked that.
"You know I will only be mad if there is good reason. And I don't see any."
"Well... I've kinda been thinking all day and... the people that followed our old ways just... fucked us over dry. If I hear anyone say the seven gods are absolute I kinda feel like beating them up. So... how about we not give a fuck what our old ways say?"
"I kinda agree. Seems like they were hypocrites." Nathan had a rare moment of agreeing with his sister.
"And I've had similar thoughts. Though, I guess we do need A way to follow. We could make our own or..."
"Well, that other guy did say some good stuff. That Outsider thing? I mean, maybe he was just saying the good stuff, but it was pretty good."
