Bootstrap (FAWM 2026-4)

D C G D They told me not to take it but the navigation showed C D C I could cut down half my travel time the way the starstream flowed D C G D But the path would take me outrim ‘cross a long-neglected arm C G D And if I went that way I'd come to harm D C G D I knew they meant to guide me down the old familiar way C D C Crossing half the galaxy and never go astray D C G D But this new path looked so tempting and I set the comp to go C G D In trouble once I felt the stardrive blow C G D C Now I'm stranded on this planet with no way to get a fix G D C D The technology is primitive little more than sticks and bricks C G D C G The natives here are curious and fairly quick to learn D C D I'll teach them what I need so they can help me return D C G D I came out of the stardrive with a system fairly near C D C Cut loose the rescue beacon though none close enough to hear D C G D Augured towards a planet in the hospitable zone C G D Realizing that I'd be on my own D C G D A thermal scan showed settlements along a delta beach C D C I left my craft beneath the waves and safely out of reach D C G D It took a couple days to learn their simple native tongue C G D As races go, theirs was pretty young C G D C Now I'm stranded on this planet with no way to get a fix G D C D The technology is primitive little more than sticks and bricks C G D C G The natives here are curious and fairly quick to learn D C D I'll teach them what I need so they can help me return D C G D I'd mapped the ore deposits with a survey from the sky C D C The natives proclaimed me a god because some saw me fly D C G D I taught them mining, smelting, more; it took a dozen years C G D Their weapons went from clubs to iron spears D C G D And medicine, the healing arts, agriculture, too C D C Never was a shortage when I taught them what to do D C G D A hundred years, their children born, grew old before my sight C G D Never did I once forget my plight C G D C Now I'm stranded on this planet with no way to get a fix G D C D The technology is primitive little more than sticks and bricks C G D C G The natives here are curious and fairly quick to learn D C D I'll teach them what I need so they can help me return D C G D Bronze and iron, government, politics and war C D C Upon the seas their transports moved, but still I needed more D C G D Uniting half this native world, a thousand years it took C G D My hand was everywhere I'd look D C G D Steam and industry came next, the factories made steel C D C I introduced technologies to make the senses reel D C G D They learned to fly, they learned to soar, they found the atom's fire C G D I was just a little short of my desire C G D C Now I'm stranded on this planet with no way to get a fix G D C D The technology is primitive little more than sticks and bricks C G D C G The natives here are curious and fairly quick to learn D C D I'll teach them what I need so they can help me return D C G D Microchips and nanotech, computers that could think C D C And interface my ancient ship in moments like a blink D C G D Soon they'd build the tools I need to build the tools I need C G D Getting out was getting up to speed D C G D Another hundred years or so, my work was finally done C D C My tech repair was finished and my craft was good to run D C G D I got back on the starstream path, my goal in sight at last C G D These natives beat me to it! How did they get so fast? C G D C Stranded on a planet where I met a backwards race G D C D Taught them what I knew and then they followed me to space C G D C G They were so very curious, so very quick to learn D C D I wonder what they meant "It's now OUR turn!"