Rescue is Not An Option

Fighter pilots knew rescue was not an option if an open FTL vortex sucked them into the active hyper-stream. They were at the mercy of the vessel with the faster-than-light drive, ending up in parts unknown, if their small ships survived the crushing gravitational stresses inside the tumultuous dimensional flow. Captain Barstow Carter found himself in that situation as the merchant marauder fled the battle. Only the advanced logical thinking of his fighter's AI navigational aide helped him exit the FTL bubble as it collapsed.
Captain Carter ended up in an uncharted star system, but he made it to a habitable world where he adopted a primitive but telepathic race that he called the imps. The officer helped the diminutive species without interacting directly until a vicious neighboring race attacked them. His military training kicked in, and he defeated the attackers but suffered a head wound in the fight. The village shaman priestess healed him but also used her telepathic abilities to learn all about this mysterious human. When Barstow awoke, the Nor'ia spoke his language and adopted him and his advanced tech they called magic.
Their priestess claimed the gods of their world brought the human hero from the heavens to protect them from the alien threats. Over time, Captain Carter comes to believe their gods are real as he fights invaders coming to plunder their world. His AI and he captured their less-technically advanced ships and built a tiny fleet to protect the planet. Who knew that the greatest threat would come from his own military?