Cleaning up the mess took a significant chunk of time, though Harrison joined her efforts after a little while, helping to clear the filth off of the walls. The process was much the same as a few days ago, this time requiring a longer hose to reach the hallway entrance. Shar’khee kept an eye on the male regardless, wary of his condition even when he strayed into conversation to help alleviate the monotony.

  He asked if she had found Akula airily, a slight edge to his voice telling that he was still thinking of the reason they needed to look in the first place. She responded with an affirmative, then added that she believed the fisherwoman would return shortly, electing to not mention much of the conversation the two females had.

  The star-sent and she had moved onto other topics while they cleaned. It was a nice respite from her own internal voice, mocking her for the failure to protect the Goddess’ chosen when no other distractions were present—listening to Harrison speak of his plans and ideas for the upcoming days was infinitely more preferable.

  The wood they had harvested the other day would be turned into sharpened barricades for his castles. He mentioned a ‘Fresian Horse’—whatever that described—and reasoned that some spiked emplacements would be optimal, as the beasts often ran straight at their target without much consideration for what was in between, so they were likely to skewer themselves as they charged.

  The mainland animals were much too unusual compared to those which called the islands home. His assessment was accurate about the abhorrent; they had very little self-preservation when it came to attacking her or the star-sent. There were many times that they had just… run into her awaiting spears or talons, so maybe his brilliant idea might just turn out to be the perfect defense against the beasts.

  Though it would be much work to cut, sharpen, then fit the wooden pieces together—especially with how much area they needed to cover if they wished to surround at least one of the castles—it was nothing she was unwilling to do. If it was for the protection of the star-sent, then it would be completed without complaint.

  After the remnants of the fight were finally washed away, she and Harrison returned to the barracks, a certain green-skinned female awaiting them by the campfire outfront. Shar’khee scoffed at the lowly one for daring to show her visage, but elected not to say anything further upon seeing the star-sent approach her. Hopefully he would reprimand her properly.

  Yet, he did no such thing. Harrison greeted her kindly with a wave; he gave no admonishment for her actions, no curiosity as to why she left, and displayed no change in attitude. His menial reproach—or lack thereof—was much too little for what Akula deserved after causing such chaos that morning. Then again, his reaction to Shar’khee’s own failures was much the same, so perhaps it was to be expected.

  The Goddess’ chosen took one look at the gore that covered himself and skipped straight to that day’s affairs, informing her of his plan; they were to wash up, eat their morning meal, and then get to constructing the spiked barricades.

  Akula slowly nodded as he quickly noted the tasks required of the three of them for that day, the star-sent taking no time for questions to be asked as he was starting to look visibly uncomfortable with the unsanitary daub of blood that enveloped him. The shorter Malkrin seemed to understand his unspoken urgency, saying she would be patient for them to cleanse themselves.

  Her form returned to the grass beneath her shins, hands placed within her lap calmly. She was awfully ignoble for daring to accuse the paladin of sinful lust without basis, failing to assist the star-sent in a time of need, then continuing as if nothing had happened, simply resting on the ground like she had no part in these events.

  Shar’khee wished to reprimand the uncouth one in Harrison’s place, but held her tongue and followed the star-sent in, giving one last look towards the treacherous female. It left a hole of heat within her chest to leave the fisherwoman without so much as a single word of scolding. At least the paladin would be given an opportunity to let her frustration simmer away soon enough, the warm waters of the showers calling her name.

  The wash was just as satisfying as the first. The only thing out of place this time was that Harrison elected to take one… at the same time. He walked in after she had started her own and hung his clothing atop the tarp a few stalls down, the dividing walls not quite reaching up to the ceiling. The design did not take into account someone with a taller stature…

  She quickly refocused on her task at hand, rubbing soap along her arms to occupy herself as much as possible. There were several showers, so she understood that multiple people were expected to be able to wash themselves at the same time, and she had been required to bathe in the same waters as the other paladins… but it was never with a male—even if he was technically out of view; it left an odd feeling of being a perpetrator as well as being woefully exposed at the same time.

  Thankfully, Harrison’s shower did not take much time at all, letting her exit the stall a little while after and don her clothing without embarrassment.

  The three colonists grouped up in the workshop, standing around a fabricator as they finished their meals, the paladin standing closer to the star-sent. Harrison cleared his throat, garnering the attention from Akula and herself.

  “So, instead of wasting our precious time measuring, cutting, and sharpening wood for the barricades, I’m thinking about automating the process so we can save some of the manual input. Though, I’m still gonna need you to lug the lumber around. Sorry, Shar.”

  She shook her head. “It is no issue for me.”

  He nodded, pointing to a bulky machine on the other side of the room behind the green-skinned Malkrin. “Glad to hear it. So the idea is to slide the logs through that big mechanical separator over there—it’s essentially a bigger fabricator which focuses on cutting and the like—then it’ll feed its output into a smaller fabricator, which will quickly and precisely sharpen the ends of the wooden pieces into spikes.” He paused for a moment, scratching the back of his head. “The only issue is that big fucker is gonna take a bit of energy, so I’ll need to connect the workshop up to barracks to connect to its excess power.”

  “Will that be difficult?” Akula spoke up.

  His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Don’t think so. I’ve found some excess universal cables in the workshop’s storage, so we don’t need to print any. The only strenuous thing will be the manual labor required to bring the logs into the machine and fitting the pieces together to form the barricades really.”

  “Then what is prevent—g us from starting?” the paladin asked.

  He smirked. “Nothing, let’s get to it.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  = = = = =

  A week or so had passed since Harrison told himself that he would start progressing things on the red planet. He might have made many strides to amass the required faculties, but it didn’t feel like progress. Not until now.

  Automation doesn't need to be a fully functioning ‘input, conveyor belt, output’ mechanism; it only needed to have a reasonable removal of human involvement. This start was little, sure, but he would be lying if he said it wasn’t a relief to finally start some sort of process manufacturing on this foreign hellscape.

  Connecting the cables between the modules went without a hitch, the barracks interface allowing him to set a limit on the output. Setting up the apparatus was also pretty damn easy; he had the Malkrin help slide one of the fabricators to the mechanical separator and connect them up. The machine programming took a little bit more thought as—believe it or not—there wasn’t exactly a file that took logs through two machines and made them into perfect spikes as he needed.

  It was fine though, since it was literally just two machines, so he set the separator to chop the lumber into a specific size and eject the boards of wood into the fabricators, where they’ll be sharpened based on a simple blueprint he cooked up. The extra material would be piled up nearby to be used for firewood and whatever other purpose they could find for the miscellaneous bits and pieces.

  The best part of the project was the fact that it wouldn’t be him dragging the logs into the mechanical separator. He did feel a little bad about making Shar do the heavy lifting again, but when he saw her bring them to the machines with even more vigor than last time, his guilt was replaced with admiration for her strength. Seriously, not even an exosuit-powered human could haul logs so effortlessly.

  With the help of the aliens, fabrication was done pretty damn quickly, and a few dozen logs were all turned into spikes in under an hour. Some more lumber was used to construct the structures that the stakes would be attached to for support, a second process requiring some more 3D modeling and thinking.

  The second bout of automation was tailed by the unfortunate requirement of manually fitting the damn things together within the workshop, but Akula found her rhythm and outpaced both him and Sharky. He couldn’t help but smirk as he watched the green-skinned Malkrin work; she would really like that Old-Earth Swedish make-furniture-yourself company, assuming the enjoyment she got out of fitting spikes together was anything to go by.

  The process of construction wasn’t that mentally taxing—though it was a good bit physically stressful—so he ended up conversing with Sharky for most of it. They never spoke of anything super personal, more or less just passing ideas about the work at hand and sharing their opinions. The paladin sure knew her stuff when it came to sieges and defense, and it was a pretty damn relaxing experience in comparison to that morning’s events.

  He put the fact that he nearly died far into the back of his mind, focusing more on the here and now rather than what could have been. If anything, there were lessons to be learned from the stressful stint of fighting; having a killing corridor would be essential for any fighting, so that the slugs he’d been using could make quick work of any lined up monsters. The only problem he came across with the weapon was having to reload after just two shots.

  The relentless beasts didn’t care for their fallen comrades, using any momentary reprieve between volleys to crawl over the carcasses towards him. Each time he reloaded, the spider-crabs only got closer and closer until he was fending them off with the end of his shotgun’s barrel. He was damn lucky there was only one left by then—and even luckier he had a giantess rip it apart to save him.

  He let out a sigh as he fit the last spike into place. Each of the four-meter wide blockades were lined with spikes staggered like ancient earth pike walls, making for a quite imposing sight. With the pieces finally constructed, all that was missing was to actually dig them into place and see dead bugs impaled along its perforating edge.

  Looking out the open cargo bay door, he guessed it was a good hour or two into the afternoon, giving the group enough time to haul defenses out of the workshop. Of course, that would come after lunch. Neither of the two giants could get that done today without food, especially with how much energy they needed to do all of the heavy lifting.

  He let out a short whistle, getting the others’ attention. “Hey, I’m gonna go grab some lunch for us, you two think you can finish the last barricade in the meantime?”

  Sharky stood up from where she was working, orange eyes staring into his soul. “Do you mean to leave the workshop by y—rself?”

  Right, she was bound to react like this in one way or another after her self-described ‘failure’ earlier. He slowly nodded, bracing for… something.

  “Then I will accomp—y you there. I do not wish to leave you unprotected,” she stated, already making her way to him. It didn’t really give him any room to argue or disagree as the paladin was ready to go. Still, if he was vulnerable to an attack by himself, then wasn’t it dangerous to leave anyone alone, namely the newest addition to their group?

  He raised a hand to stop the giant alien mid-stride. “Then what about Akula? Shouldn’t she come along too?”

  The green alien perked up at the mention of her name, looked at him, then the paladin, a glowering expression coming over her.

  Shar’khee shook her head, a touch of venom in her ‘voice.’ “My concern is with your protect—n, Harrison. She can take care of herself well enough.”

  He folded his arms across his chest, giving the giant an unamused stare. “So you think I’m too weak to defend myself?”

  Her confidence diminished suddenly, the stalwart energy she had breaking down. “W-Well I do bel—ve you to be quite capable, I j-just—”

  “—Exactly. I’m sure we can all defend ourselves in some shape or form. The idea is that we work together, right? I may not know her well, but Akula is every part of our group as either of us are.” He pointed to himself and the red-colored Malkrin. “So either you trust me enough to protect myself, or we all stick together if you believe it’s too dangerous to be alone.”

  “H-Harrison, it is my duty to protect you. I only wish to k—p you safe,” she pleaded in a softer tone.

  He huffed, staring back up at her with a tired expression. “And it’s in my best interest to keep anyone helping me out safe. So that’s what I’ll do.”

  He looked over at the other alien, raising his voice to reach her. “Akula, you should come with us, I don’t wanna leave you alone here.”

  “I… suppose it would be better to refrain from being senselessly vulnerable to an attack.” She had tried to act like she wasn’t listening in on the conversation, but he could see the way her tail came to life when he mentioned her being a part of the group.

  He nodded and motioned for them to follow, the two Malkrin looking at each other for a moment before making their way to the exit alongside him, keeping distance between themselves.

  The group returned to the barracks without a word. Believe it or not, no monsters proved ready to pounce on him, which was nice. Upon checking their stores of food within the kitchen, he noticed a startling lack of meal boxes. The stacks looked small that morning, but not… ‘three meals left’ small. Damn, he guessed they might have needed Akula’s fishing talents sooner than he thought. Maybe Shar’s foraging knowledge too; he was starting to miss those delicious cooked roots and vegetables she used to bring.

  They could eat what was left and get some more fish later in the day or the next. They wouldn’t starve, no. His issue was what they’d do for dinner that night. Then he got an idea; a beautiful idea so great that it rivaled the invention of sliced bread.

  It had been so long since he had something from Sol—and no, nutrient paste didn’t count—but they could totally dig into the stores of food they had aboard the barracks. He had a good excuse too. After all, wasn’t automation and fortification something to celebrate? So why not? The aliens could probably use some good ‘ol human cooking to shape up all of the… less-than-desirable… conversations that happened that day.

  He turned around, staring at the two Malkrin who were off doing their own idle nonsense. Shar was waiting patiently for him to speak, talons silently tapping against each other, while Akula was fiddling with her tail, holding it with two arms as the other pair scraped off sawdust and pieces of wood.

  He stuck his hands out like he was offering them a deal. “Alright, looks like we don’t really have much food left. So here's what I’m thinking: we finish off the food here, and I’ll fix up something nice this evening. Tomorrow we can do some more meal prep. How’s that sound?”

  At the mention of food, they both visibly perked up, eyeing him intensely.

  Oh yeah, they were going to fucking love burgers.