It was a slow process, hardly helped by my need for discretion and proximity to my target.
Even days after I met Lieutenant Keshig, I hadn’t learned anything that I didn’t already know about the Astral Fleet. So far, there had only been some message logs between the Lieutenant and his superiors, but they were as strait-laced as they come.
If there was something nefarious going on within the Stratos Apolytos, Lieutenant Keshig was as unaware of it as I’d ever been. There hadn’t been any discernable recognition when it came to Kassem either.
Still, even if the man seemed like a dead end, I continued to dig deeper whenever I could. Which wasn’t often.
Ever since we left New Hub, Kassem had taken every opportunity presented to order me around, only half of which seemed driven out of spite.
Between two survey crews that hated each other’s guts – my earlier notion that they disliked one another had been sadly narrow sighted – along with the addition of our overseers, it was fulltime work keeping everything in order.
Besides leaving Mikayes to always be walk on eggshells these days – having the authorities breathe down your neck as your operation leans on questionable licenses and work permits tend to do that to men – Mr. Biggins escorts wouldn’t have sat well with any self-respecting resident of New Hub.
Our crews were rim-folks through and through, and me and the Slobber Knuckles had been forced to sleep in shifts just to ensure a smooth journey. Not to mention all the other duties I’d been assigned as Jenna’s auxiliary on a shoddy salary.
At least the days passed fast, if not pain free.
𐫰 𐫰 𐫰
I wasn’t sure if it was the way we were approaching, leaving the burning star of this system to break along the planet’s crust, but Migur-NE-11 seemed to almost glow in a pinkish, light-brown hue in the Void of space.
“How fascinating…” Drudgery — the first of Mr. Biggins assistants — said in his usual, metallic voice. He’d proved another major headache the closer we drew to Mikayes’ claim.
The middle-aged alien stood about 5’5, with countless cybernetic enhancements and tubes running out the back of his skull. It was a more intrusive form of the UI, I’d understood, fitted with a mental uplink, and a, supposed, proxy of the Great Libraries.
His knowledge about the most arcane subjects was near eidetic, at least, there to serve as diplomatic relay for Mr. Biggins, as well as a documentarian of our discoveries. Subsequently, his ideologies were seemingly more aligned with preservation rather than profit, and his daily lectures hadn’t gone down well with the crew.
Least of all considering the tone he used. “You hairy small folk are shedding all over the place, yuck, be careful with the samples… What an unsavory way of extracting genetic data. It would never be accepted on the main planets… I told you to lean down when you’re next to me, boy. Never look down upon a Grand Librarian…”
Worst of all, whenever he was aboard our Transporter, I was assigned as his escort. Kassem had a good laugh about that one.
“You say there’s a crystalline layer within the planet’s crust?” Drudgery continued, turning the purple, pinkish piece of crystal over in his hands. Several different lenses were constantly shifting over his eyes, and he let out marveled hums and ahs whenever he moved it around, causing the light to refract in different ways and the color to shift.
“Or so it appeared,” Mikayes said, clearly exasperated. Most likely, he hadn’t expected his off-hand comment to our Ruskel crew to turn into an interrogation, less so for his sample to get confiscated. “That’s the only sample we managed to bring with us, so it’s quite pre—”
“Very well,” Drudgery said, ignoring Mikayes’ outstretched hand as he instead gave it to Mr. Biggins second assistant. At least the youth was supposed to be the diplomat’s second assistant.
In truth, Suno seemed more like the slave of a servant. He — she? — was maybe 19 or so, relatively short, mostly human, though the tattoos etched into his skin were reminiscent of those the Luminesari wore. His features were also similarly androgynous, which almost made me wonder if he —she? — was of mixed blood.
“Store it away for careful study,” Drudgery ordered. “I’ll be expecting a preliminary report on it tomorrow, along with a successful completion of your usual tasks.”
Then again, statistics suggested it was merely cosmetic surgeries or the mods of a fanatic which lay behind Suno’s appearance. The Luminesari, although willing to work with the other sentient species of the Triumvirate, seldom saw the “lower species” as worthy partners. For anything.
No self-respecting Luminesari would ever work beneath a lowly diplomat or cyborg librarian stationed this far out on the rim. Now, however, Suno obediently received the sample, never meeting anyone else’s eyes as he stored it away.
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Mikayes’ hand remained frozen in the air all the while, lips half parted in a silent protest. I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“Don’t worry, boss man,” the Ruskel company’s leader, Arus, clucked. He was a hairy, ginger thing with dense, black goggles.
He’d been the original recipient of the sample, and now, he revved his drill-glove for a few spins. “We’ll soon have a lot more of those crystals extracted for you in no time, if they prove worthwhile.”
Drudgery looked appalled. “We might be on the precipice of a new discovery here,” he fervently said. “The preservation of such knowledge is worth far more than whatever coins you hope to extract from this planet. We can’t risk damaging it.”
“Yeah, yeah. You worry about taking notes and we’ll take care of the heavy work.” Arus snorted, his dense facial hair parting to show a toothy, blackened smile. “We’re only setting up sonars anyway, isn’t that right, lads?” His company quickly chimed in with their disorganized, impolite agreements – snorts, coughs, sneezes, or other bodily sounds.
Heavy equipment was being assembled all throughout the cargo hold. There were vehicles, machinery, and boxes by the dozens being prepared. Many of which carried markings that warned of either fragile or highly volatile contents. Sometimes both.
“Won’t be any notes to take if we don’t feed the right data into your pen anyway, Mr. Cyborg-wrinkles,” Arus finished, never letting go of his sooty smile.
There were several loud laughs from his company at that, but the lights of the cargo space had already started blinking around us, and a few rustles and tugs of the Transporter told us that we’d at last broken through Migur-11’s atmosphere.
Before any objections could be raised, the Ruskel men all let their masks slide up over their faces. I didn’t.
We’d already been briefed on the Migur-11’s data, and even if the air was a bit thin by human standards, it should still be breathable. Nothing my body wouldn’t be able to handle, or so I’d concluded, at least. Not that I didn’t have a spare oxygen tube tucked into my jacket. Just in case.
Either way, I drew a sigh of relief as Mikayes subtly gestured for me to get moving. My escort duty of Mr. Biggins’ assistants was over.
I’d be the first to land alongside Georgie and our Ruskel crew, and the furry Slobber Knuckle had already lumbered over to the exit without bothering with any safety equipment. I followed shortly behind, long before Arus could take the initiative and call out to me.
We weren’t hired by the miners; they were hired by us. Or so Mikayes had insistently reminded us over these past few days. Out here, those things were important to keep in mind, and I was just glad Georgie didn’t need any leadership or instructions. I had no clue how to do it if he did.
Even after a week of knowing him, I’d never once heard a single word uttered from the man. At most, I’d get a blank stare or, if I was lucky, a short nod.
I could still hear Drudgery and Mikayes communicate something in loud voices behind me as I reached the exit, but I didn’t bother trying to hear them over the ship’s roaring engines, all too audible as the hatch began to hiss open before me.
We were still high up in the air, and the sky was ripping by outside, tugging at me the moment the wind was let inside.
Truth be told, I was eager to get away from it all. Even if just for a little while.
Subterfuge, espionage, or just worrying about when a careless step of mine would invite disaster was a stressful game. For days now, I’d constantly waited for the moment when Kassem would finally put a bullet through the back of my skull, for my data scraping to be discovered, or for me to learn there really was a conspiracy that spanned the entirety of the galaxy.
Another week of it, and stress alone would have pushed me into something even more reckless than trying to hack into the Astral Fleet’s restricted servers. I was still working on it at this moment, and every new piece of data that appeared on my interface threatened to overturn everything that I knew.
It was a shitty feeling, and I much preferred this one – the wind whipping through my hair, and an alien planet stretching out beneath me. Nothing but me, the gun tucked into my jacket, a knife at my hip, and a simple mission.
For efficiency’s sake and to keep complaints at a minimum, we would be splitting up even before we landed. Me and Georgie would stay with the Ruskel company, Colors and Edris were assigned to the Gethrogs — who seemed to live under the assumption that any problems could be solved by throwing servants at it, and had subsequently not cared for who they were assigned — while the rest of the crew continued towards this planet’s only civilized hub as a diplomatic envoy.
It was the only way for Mikayes to move things along without completely trampling over Mr. Biggins’ toes, permitted only after our crews had made a few, not-all-convincing promises.
Now, with our landing spot confirmed, and the Transporter ripping down towards the planet’s surface, I didn’t seem like the only one eager to stretch my legs.
The indicator on my interface told me we were still fifty meters off the ground as Georgie swung himself out of the exit without warning. I waited for another thirty-five, about where I trusted that my legs wouldn’t break, before jumping after him.
Aerial Movement made the landing softer than I’d expected. I could’ve gone for more.
Me and Georgie had only just secured the perimeter as the Transporter sunk low enough for the landing ramp to touch the ground. A second later, the Ruskel crew followed after us.
Stacked vehicles, billowing smoke and with rattling engines, chugged out onto the untouched grass of these flatland plains.
The grass rippled beneath the thrusters of our ship, and a few scattered, birch-like trees seemed just some encouragement away from snapped apart nearby.
Everything in our surroundings was touched by that same pinkish-yellow hue, and I knew from my earlier view that the plains weren’t as flat as they appeared. They were scattered by thousands of deep, winding craters.
Exactly where those craters led, we wouldn’t know until the sonars were up and running. The one thing certain was that this planet held some secret.
This was where Mikayes had found that Artifact, and the moment I hit the ground, my interface had briefly flickered out of focus. It was as if some part of my UI was struggling to hide how excited it was getting.
Even if the enigma resting over the Stratos Apolytos and the rebels remained, I was at least getting closer to some answer here.
“Alright, lads!” Arus yelled out, pumping his fist into the air the moment our transporter had left us behind. “Time to get to work!”
The words had barely left his lips as an even denser cloud of black smoke billowed out of the Ruskel trucks, and an instant later, heavy music had started blasting across our surroundings. Moments later, a violent inferno devoured grass and trees alike.
With roaring flamethrowers and shrieking bombs, the singing and chittering Ruskel crew began clearing the vegetation from our surroundings, gasmasks safely secured over their faces.
Drudgery would’ve had an aneurysm if he saw them now. I nearly had as well as I swiftly checked the magazine on my gun.
If anything came their way, I was the one who would have to protect this manic crew, and Georgie was suddenly nowhere to be seen.