Offshore

"WhEre iz thiz, human?" Jack spoke in this planet's universal language, English, slightly unfamiliar with the way he was supposed to put his tongue to make the sounds. Advin was supposed to do the talk; some would say he was even more proficient than the natives.

"¡No hablo ingles señor!" the man shouted, terrorized, almost pissing his pants from fear.

"?" Jack was puzzled. He didn't remember that phrase in English.

"What is thiz conztry, zity, land?" Jack said, looking deeply into the fisherman's eyes as if one looks into its pet's eyes trying to understand them better.

"Déjame vivir por favor señor, por favor," the man begged.

"Useless," Jack said ripping his head too.

As he was now the only survivor aboard, he would need to take care of all of it by himself. Well, he and the moving fishes in the back.

Jack took some scrolls around the boat, inspecting, searching, exploring for something, anything that'd give him a hint on how to operate this big machine.

He knew the general mechanism but he hadn't ever stepped on one of those before so he still had many things to figure out.

"Advin, you would've been really useful right now. You knew about this stuff. You had a true engineering obsession. Me though? I'm not interested in what punny humans make, I said. I could revolutionize their entire mechanical franchise with my 6 senses turned off, I said. What an Ignorant fool I was." Jack grunted like an old man.

"Oh, is this it?" Jack said after searching through the cabin and finding what looked like a manual.

[Boat Manual]

"Yep, that's it," he said while rumbling through the pages until finding the 'Operation Instructions' section.

Step by step, Jack followed the manual's guidance, tracing the words as he adjusted the throttle and toggled the navigation controls. Though he had to reread some paragraphs multiple times, Jack persisted. And then:

*Purrr*

Jack had gotten it up and going. The only thing stopping him was...

"Wait, my ship's still here... in the middle of nowhere. Doubt it's gonna as much as make a sound if I try to drive it, but I still need that damn device and radio," Jack said, frustrated. He needed to go down and get his stuff but he didn't know how. Although he could hold his breath much longer than a human and pressure wasn't a problem, it was still not enough.

While scrolling around, he caught a glimpse of a yellow suit. And that was enough, enough to get his hopes up. He didn't ask himself why a group of fishermen had a scuba diving suit with an air tank - for it mattered not. He got his hands on it and tried inspecting it. It was too small, too human size.

"Foolish humans, you haven't played me yet. All I need to do is use my molecular reconstruction and assume the skin of your kind. It had to be done in the end, no trouble if it's now," Jack said and looked around at the dead humans onboard, looking for one of them that would fit in the suit best. The youngest and fittest guy on board, he looked to be the best subject. A handsome young lad who seemed to be in his late 20s. That did not interest Jack, though.

Slippery, gelatinous human flesh, it moderately disgusted Jack but he had to get used to it. He slipped the diving suit on, without any protective clothes in between. He thought it wasn't necessary, but then:

*Zip*

"Augh, aaah, oof..." Jack's molecular reconstruction did not only copy the appearance but the arrangement of the pain receptors as well. Now, his lower part was in great pain.

"Note to myself. Never carelessly copy someone's body again," Jack said while reconstructing his lower part to stop feeling the pain.

Jack confidently jumped out of the boat, forgetting that he still hadn't learned how to swim. For 5 minutes straight, Jack struggled. He was using a new body and in an unfamiliar environment. At least he had a canister with air attached to his back. After getting the hang of it, though, things were easy. It may take a human adult months to learn how to swim, but Jack was no human.

*Vshhh*

Jack dipped, violently. As fast as he could, while using as few breaths as possible. Passing countless numbers of fishes and creatures in the process. Luckily, there was no whale anymore, and even more importantly, his ship was emanating its red emergency beacon so finding it was a piece of cake.

Minutes later he had gotten to it. Thankfully the ship wasn't lying on the bottom of the ocean - it would've been too much even for him - but it still could if he had let it sleep there for another day or so, or maybe even less.

After he had gotten to it, he started rummaging to pick up anything that could've been of use to him. Starting from, of course, his radio, his mission device, and some other alien equipment that he thought could've been of use to him. Including a multifunctional space-shifting weapon, or well, utensil (he wouldn't need a weapon if it meant dealing with humans, he thought). Two compact boxes of alien nourishment supplies (which was just better air). And an invisibility cloak which he later used to cover the spaceship, in case he ever intended to come back using his radio that doubled down as an extraterrestrial tracker.

After he was done - although hindered by his occupied arms - he swam back without much of a difference in speed as before.

*Plugh*

Head over the water, he started looking left and right for the boat. After finding it, he got up and started walking to the cabin before stopping and deciding to dump the corpses and the fish in the ocean. It irritated his nose.

But first, he needed some clothes. He couldn't use the young lad's bloody shirt, so he only took his pants and underwear, and another shirt from a different guy that fit him well enough.

He felt something in his pocket. A golden pocket watch. It didn't seem cheap to the human eye. Opening it, he saw the face of a woman and the young lad's portrait together. A lovely and normal couple. After not even much pondering, Jack threw it into the ocean along with the bodies. The concept of human love did not interest him.

And off he went to the nearest piece of land he could see. A habitable island the fishermen came from. It'd take him around a day to get there.

He figured that it would be a good time to start singing something at that moment, as his fingers felt the cold steel wheel and his body felt the engine's vibrations but the only songs he remembered were about domination and cruelty. He figured he wanted something more calm while on that beautiful sea so he turned on the boat's radio where a Latina sang about love and broken hearts. Jack did not understand one word but still tried to sing along.