The snake-like thing thrashed against Vaien's hold, but his palm tightened over its throat until the creature began to suffocate. His shoulders turned as he chucked the snake back out into the forest.
After a few moments the creature lifted itself from the ground and slithered away.
Vaien's hand was still clenched on Zhang Han's shoulder. His eyes were sharp with judgement.
"Are you dumb? If there's something there, open your damn mouth and say so! Or is it that you want to die early? Snakes like that sense with heat. If you just stand around you'll be killed soon enough!"
Zhang Han lowered his gaze. He didn't have much to say, because he agreed with Vaien. He should have just said something--Vaien had only been two steps behind him. Doing anything would have been better than nothing.
"Sorry."
Vaien just gave a scoff and leaned against the burnt hull of the ship. "Remember it from now. This place isn't like your neat and peaceful planet from before."
Zhang Han nodded once.
"Go on, then."
Well, his planet hadn't actually been peaceful, but perhaps it was better if Vaien misunderstood. Zhang Han was downtrodden as he stepped into the ship. The space, now smashed, only provided enough room for him to stand with hunched shoulders.
He began picking up useful parts without even thinking about it too hard.
Naturally his mind was focused on his blunder with the snake.
Vaien had been right behind him, but he still didn't say anything...yes, he knew it was dumb. Freezing in a desperate situation could ultimately lead to his death. But it wasn't as though Zhang Han was slow to respond to danger on purpose.
It wasn't just because he was inexperienced, either.
Zhang Han had one heavy flaw, and that was he had these annoying anxiety, panic, who-knows-what attacks under certain kinds of stress. His heart would clench, his head would throb, he couldn't think, as though all of the brain in his skull were pulled out and refilled with cotton. He'd blacked out in the final moments of his ship crashing, and it was in part due to this condition of his. He could only pilot the ship beforehand because everything appeared calm -at least on the surface- as he drifted through the outer reaches of space.
These attacks didn't always happen was he was in mortal danger, either. Sometimes they just came out of nowhere, even a mundane one. It all started when one of his childhood friends died in a freak accident at the training grounds. His friend had been practicing using ion grenades and somehow got blown to pieces.
That was a long time ago.
He wasn't really sure nor cared about what was wrong with him, and the doctors on Gaojun didn't really care about stuff like that either. They would just diagnose whether or not someone had a mental problem and if it would effect their usefulness.
And it did, in fact, make him near fucking useless in close combat.
On this godforsaken boonies planet, of course he knew that was a huge disadvantage. His intelligence was good, but...he doubted if he could ever have the quick reaction time necessary.
Even if he tried. And oh did he try.
Zhang Han quietly picked up a piece of scrap in the main room on his ship and threw it back onto the ground.
Useless.
So yeah, landing on this primal planet was about the worst scenario possible to him. It was why Zhang Han valued Vaien's protection so much.
But was lowering himself to do sexual favors even worth it? Or would he have been better off giving up from the start? If he couldn't ever learn to survive by himself maybe there wasn't a point in staying alive to begin with.
Despite the spiraling negativity in Zhang Han's mind, his outer expression was unreadable. He focused on throwing bolts, screws, ion batteries, and nutrient bars into his leather sack.
He thought about his mother again, how she said that she only wanted him to live a good life and survive.
...he didn't want to betray her wishes.
It was fine. Maybe there would be some way for him to figure things out. But Zhang Han feared it wouldn't be long before Vaien realized that there was something wrong with him beyond 'first experience nerves'. And maybe at that point he'd be abandoned.
His sack was halfway full by now.
In it was just about everything that he could think up a use for at the moment. His laser gun was lying in the back storage panel. He didn't take it with him during the crash because he feared it would accidentally go off during the collision.
Zhang Han glanced out the door, a lock of red hair fluttering in the wind caught his eye. Vaien must be leaning against the hull of the ship.
Getting what he wanted for now, Zhang Han stepped out.
Vaien glanced at him and didn't seem to remember the previous incident, that nonchalance face of mockery back in full force.
"If you brought any of those 'nutrient bars', I'm throwing them out."
Zhang Han stubbornly said, "They're useful as rations."
Vaien only rolled his eyes and sauntered a few steps closer to peer into the ship.
"Yeah, everything's all charred and broken to pieces. Looks pretty ugly. Huh...wait," he suddenly locked his gaze onto something, "what's this thing?"
Zhang Han peeked back inside. On the headboard for main controls, among many buttons and switches, was a small charm hung over a lever with a short gold chain. It was a 'beckoning cat', known as 'maneki neko' in its original language, and a charm Zhang Han found while he had visited another planet before. The fat and adorable little cat had one paw raised and eyes squinted closed, golden letters engraved on its belly.
Zhang Han just found the thing funny and bought it. It had no specific value to him. He answered Vaien's curiosity, "It's a charm that is supposed to bring about good luck. I don't particularly believe that, I just liked how it looks."
Yeah. If anything it brought him bad luck...
Vaien's eyes were at first narrowed in thought, then widened with a strange gleam. He pulled it off the lever and held it close in front of Zhang Han's face.
"What a waste to throw this little trinket away! Can you make the chain longer?"
Zhang Han had an expression like a dead fish. Is it really a waste? Why does he like this useless thing but not the nutrient bars?
"...it's possible if I have some kind of cord."
"You do that later. I want to wear it."
"...sure." Somehow the image of such a powerful and arrogant man wearing it was both...surprising and oddly fitting based on Vaien's flippant personality. Zhang Han added, "There's something else I need, but I could use your help to get it."
"What?"
Zhang Han pointed at the dented, but perhaps still functional right blaster of his ship.
"Really?" Vaien spoke dubiously, "It's black and ruined, just slightly less than the other one. Why do I have to get such a useless looking thing?"
"There's an energy cycling core in the center that I can use," Zhang Han paused, deciding to use his manipulative diplomat skills. "But I understand if it's too difficult for you to get it off. After all, it is reinforced to the ship with welded Yiratanium metal."
Vaien's face wrinkled with distaste, his eyes going flippant.
"Who said I couldn't do it?"
He stood beside the ship hull and reached up both his arms. They gripped onto the base of the blaster and his muscles flexed as he ripped it off. The loud squeaking and tearing of metal rung throughout the forest, causing a few gigantic grasshoppers to fly out of the nearby brush.
As a final boast of masculinity, he threw the 1,200 pound blaster into the sack like it was a piece of Styrofoam, then hoisted the bag over his shoulder.
Zhang Han almost smiled. Vaien was so easy to manipulate.
Great. Now he had what he needed to tinker around with the items he'd gathered. Maybe make a few useful things.
The two were heading back along the same route.
Zhang Han quietly listened to Vaien's descriptions of beasts. He was beginning to become used to the endless list of creatures that would prey on his soft-skinned body like the prime piece of meat that it was. He wouldn't let Vaien know that he was only remembering about two-thirds of what he was being told.
At some point he was staring at the massive leather sack, perhaps weighing over 2000 pounds. Vaien carried it along with no difficulty, but their hike back, for some reason, was not destined to be peaceful.
A tremor went through the ground, and suddenly all the surrounding wildlife went silent.