“Oh yeah, you guys were talking about the CSR Archimedes. It’s a Confederation Search and Rescue ship, hence the SR in the prefix.” The shuttles aboard the Starbound seemed to be much more basic than the rest of the ship. They were taking the creatively named Shuttle One down to Arvaikheer. It was nice, yes. No doubt about that. But the impact-safe deck, plain unadorned walls, and lack of chandeliers gave it a function-over-form aesthetic that Alex preferred when being slung through an atmosphere in a small craft.
The plush seats were an upgrade over the military shuttles they had used coming and going from the Sword, and the layout of it felt more civilian - a central aisle running down the cabin, with two seats on each side. A few rows all facing forward in the front, and then little clusters of four seats each facing each other in the back half. Right now, Carbon and himself were sitting facing Keta and Desaya.
He wouldn’t say they were friends, but they were on good terms. Lots of questions, lots of interest in things Alex could actually speak on.
“How is... How is that used in Search and Rescue? It is enormous and its function seems- It seems unrelated.” Desaya was the lead on interior maintenance, which operated under the Engineering team. Everything that was inside the habitat frame, save the engine room and bridge, was under her care.
Keta had come around to the bar a few times since the hot spring, and had mostly asked about the travel related subjects Alex heard them talking about. Turns out Desaya had been working on the Starbound for five years, and had lived aboard the entire time. Keta had only come on after the Cataclysm, but likewise hadn’t left the ship in that time save for brief trips to get supplies. Nearly everyone onboard had been cooped up in it for at least the last two years. Most for longer. None of them had anywhere else to go.
Alex had politely requested that the Captain allow anyone who wanted to get out and stretch their legs on a planet, do so. He had hemmed and hawed a bit, being concerned about letting the crew of a civilian craft loose on a foreign planet, and everyone’s ability to keep the whole Prince and Princess thing under wraps. Understandable. A call to the Empire’s diplomatic affairs agent fixed up half of that - the Avraikheer government was fine with it as long as they were following the law, and even included a copy of the local legal code.
Only six people wanted to go down to the planet anyway, so they all fit in Shuttle One. They all seemed to be ready to go with the whole keeping secrets thing, which was unsettling in its own right. Shuttle Two was getting a quick trip down to the spaceport at Lhasa in order to pick up his online shopping spree.
It was interesting that the Captain himself was one of the people coming down to get off the ship for a while. He was sitting in the front row, white knuckling the armrest before they had even left the bay. Didn’t like other folks being in charge of the vehicle, apparently.
“Well, it’s more on the rescue part of the equation. You saw the Trailblazers, right? Imagine trying to pull that to a station with tugs, at sublight. It’d take years at best. Way easier to just bring the repairs to it. If the damage was catastrophic, it can stabilize the hull and frame then waveride it back to a shipyard. I think they’ve got accommodations for a few hundred as well, so the crew doesn’t even need to be separated from their ship.” Alex loved talking about this stuff. The Pearl-class was not a ship that ended up on a poster or as anything but set dressing in a movie, if it was even appropriately called a ship. The raw capability it possessed was striking, as was its design - a gleaming wall that had been stretched out a kilometer vertically, and another three in length. The top and bottom widened out, hiding away absurd amounts of retractable scaffolding used to secure ships being worked on.
He did not mention that these were retired military craft, previously used for mobile repair and resupply work, though the ability to manufacture military grade armor, weapons, and ammunition had been stripped out.
“That is quite impressive.” Keta nodded. He wasn’t into this stuff, but he was polite about it.
“So it is.” Desaya had the look of someone who was in the middle of having their worldview adjusted about her. “How many of these are there?”
“In the CSR? I think four. The Archimedes, Heyerdahl, Vitruvius, and Popeye. Yeah, four.” One of those had been named by the public. ”They built a bunch of them during Unification and most have become shipyards out on the frontier. What had been the frontier, anyway.”
“That-” She paused with a nervous grumble as they hit the atmosphere, a significant bump shaking the shuttle, the sound of a ship slicing through air starting to fill the cabin.
It was a bit loud. The compact size compared to the military shuttles didn’t leave a lot of room for noise abatement. “It seems excessive. But they can make damn near anything and have a slush reactor on board to keep everyone flying, so they fill a role that carriers usually would in planetary recovery operations. Just without the guns and bombers to make people nervous.”
“That is...” She squinted, trying to determine exactly what it was.
“Humanity’s often tumultuous past has yielded some interesting engineering feats, and in turn, solutions to problems we simply have not experienced.” Carbon joined in, recognizing someone getting lost in a conversation. “I have had the chance to see both our races' first Waveride drive in museums. The Tsla’o version was carefully built, every bit custom machined for the creation of this new thing. Conversely, the Human drive was made out of mostly pre-existing parts from a few different, competing provinces. Despite the differences, they both worked.”
“That’s true, our past has been marked with many disasters, plenty of which were our own making. The intent to avoid that, and the ability to reduce the harm that might come from them has been a central pillar of the Confederation since its original charter was written.” The statement felt ashen in his mouth. For the most part it was true, but the actions of his current employers didn’t align with that sentiment. They invited war with a technologically superior ally, who currently had a lot of ordinance sitting in Sol.
“Is-” Desaya was interrupted again by turbulence, the shuttle bouncing and rattling as the pilot leveled them out. She gripped the armrest like the Captain had been doing before they departed.
Alex glanced out the window. Well, the screen that was being used as a window. There had been no such feature on the hull for the cabin. The weather was currently dark clouds, despite it being midday where they were setting down. They had been told to expect rain, and that forecast traditionally included clouds.
Keta set his hand on Desaya’s and watched out the window as well. The other conversations in the cabin had drawn silent, the very Earth-like planet below about to resolve into something more tangible as soon as they were out of the clouds.
It took a few minutes more, their descent a little easier than Alex would have done it. It was raining, but the lush green prairie still drew some quiet comments and an audible gasp from the front of the shuttle. It was something like early spring, Arvaikheer not having as much wobble as Earth, and it took some time to spot where they were going.
“Are those yurts?” Alex asked, mostly to himself. As he said it, he realized that no one else on board would have any idea what a yurt was. There was a village of mostly round structures they were currently skirting around on approach to a marked landing pad wide enough for the two shuttles that would be coming down here. One of those buildings, yurt or otherwise, was markedly larger than the other dozen or so. Thirty, thirty five meters across, in the center of the town.
There was a small covered area by the landing pad with a handful of people waiting in it as everyone filed out of the cabin, the military shuttle from their escort following them in and landing beside them. About half the crew that had come down was prepared for it, having at least some sort of rain-resistant jacket or cloak. Alex did not. He hadn’t expected to be stopping off anywhere with a real atmosphere, so the best he could do was heavy work pants, boots, and his least decorated jacket. No other indication that he had any sort of status among the Tsla’o aside from being good pals with Carbon.
Their security team was likewise dressed as though they were other members of the crew.
Alex didn’t recognize anybody waiting for them, one Human and two Tsla’o. If Baatar had taken a regular ship back, he’d still be weeks out. The Human - a middle aged woman with short black hair tucked away under a flat-brimmed stetson and clad in a long duster for the rain, stepped forward with a bow. “Mister Sorenson, Lan Tshalen. I am Choeyang Gyal, administrator of this prefecture. Welcome to Arvaikheer II. This is, forgive my pronunciation, mayor Raseta Kaso and his son, Disata.” She spoke clear English with an accent that Alex couldn’t place, and his translator could handle her Tsla just fine.
The two males beside her, both with dark grey fur, stepped forward. The older of the two, Taseta was very stout for a Tsla’o and quite jovial looking. He wore a jacket that was in the style Alex was used to seeing them in, dark green and decorated with an adornment that he suspected was of Human origin. Beadwork didn’t seem to be a thing for the Tsla’o, but it was used sparingly here, a hint of the vine motif that Carbon favored around the hem.
They offered Carbon a bow, not as deep as they might have if they thought her to be a Princess, and then Taseta shook Alex’s hand with a friendly smile. Easily the most competent handshake he’d gotten from a Tsla’o so far. The mayor said something that was not in a language that Alex or his translator understood - he suspected Mongolian based on the name of the planet - and then switched to Tsla. “I welcome you to Verdant Haven. It is fine to meet you both, thank you for coming. May we invite you all to the great hall?”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Alex gave Carbon a look. He didn’t want to be presumptuous, particularly when it wasn’t his species doing the asking.
“Thank you for the invitation, it would be our pleasure.” She said with a bow back.
They did wait for the military personnel to join them out of the rain - the Captain and Head of Medical as expected, a couple of personnel each with crates of gear, plus one guy that Alex did recognize from Imperial Intelligence. Then they all immediately walked back out into the rain across the gravel street and up the handful of steps to the big yurt that marked the center of town.
He took the opportunity to slip his phone out of his pocket and check the network here. One bar of satellite connection. The ARGUS would be keeping his secrets stored safely inside his head for now.
Returning to reality, Alex’s guess of 35 meters seemed accurate now that he was right at ground level with the big central building - the great hall. Probably three stories tall at the center. It felt huge, which was a weird realization given he had lived in a building a million times larger for most of his life. Half a dozen steps up a wide set of synthetic wood stairs to the landing out front, an awning keeping the drizzle off the doors. Alex wasn’t familiar with yurts beyond recognizing one, but he had a feeling the bright red doors with big clear windows were not traditional. The rigid outer wall printed to look like cloth. None of it was traditional, ultimately, save for the shape.
The inside was cavernous but inviting. The lighting and air were warm, homey. Even the wooden ribs that supported the outer wall had a warmth to them. The back half of the interior was taken up by a two-story structure with a loft on top, concealing a kitchen, school, clinic, offices, and bathrooms, going by the signs pointing various directions. The open area had a core of dining tables arrayed around a small stage directly beneath the skylight at the apex of the roof. The outer layer was more seating, couches and chairs and low tables arranged around a handful of small electric fireplaces along the walls to create semi-private social areas.
Also inside were about sixty more Tsla’o scattered throughout the hall, a little over half adults and the remainder being children of all ages. They all stopped what they were doing to see who had come in. The group were expected, clearly, as a handful of adults got up from the various places they had been and made their way over.
Alex recognized pretty much all the furniture as being Human made, and it varied widely in origin and age. Not a big surprise, but the layout he wasn’t as sure about. None of it looked bolted down, and it wasn’t what he was used to seeing, so presumably at some point Tsla’o sensibilities informed how this was organized. He elbowed Carbon gently while Taseta wrangled the group that was forming in front of them, and nodded at the furniture. “They have couches.”
She rolled her eyes but there was a smirk at the corner of her mouth. Before she could say anything back, Taseta returned to their small group of outsiders.
“Lan? Captain Kasa? I understand that you would like to speak to the leaders here?” He asked more than said it, voice taking on a tone Alex was used to hearing when the Empress was involved, as he looked from Carbon to the Captain of their escort frigate. A little more careful, more properly enunciated. “What little we have, at least. A clan mother and three keepers.”
They were still doing the ‘pretending to not be a couple in public’ thing. Alex understood why, but he found it was getting more annoying each time.
“Of course, Mayor. Excuse me, Pilot Sorensen.” She bowed with a little smile directed at Alex, a subtle wave of the hand towards their security detail before she departed, following half of the assembled adults towards the stairs.
Well, that was expected too. He was the tourist here.
“Please forgive our limited hospitality, Pilot. There has been little time to prepare for guests, and there is much to catch up on.” Taseta was nervous about talking to him directly despite Alex just being some guy right now. “There is tea in the kitchen, if you are inclined, and please make yourself comfortable here.”
“I understand, we were just recently made aware of this stop as well.” Alex waved a hand, keeping it lower than he normally would and sort of patting the air to echo a motion he had seen Carbon use to dismiss similarly overwrought worries on the Sword. “Tea sounds like a delight right now, given the weather.”
Taseta’s antenna raised subtly, surprise gracing his features. He had not expected that to go so smoothly, or to see a Human make a gesture he was familiar with. “Of course. I- I need to speak with the doctor. We have a medic among our numbers, but no one with a deep understanding of our biology on this planet until now.”
He put on his most charming smile and gave the Mayor a bow. “Say no more, I can keep myself busy.”
Taseta hustled over to the Head of Medical, a brief conversation getting him and his nurses into gear, escorting them to the clinic, a line of parents with children already queuing up.
Everyone here looked a little ragged. Even Taseta, while friendly and the only Tsla’o Alex had seen that he would call barrel-chested, looked haunted. Now past the greeting phase, he had relaxed and his eyes were tired and sunken, and there was a nervous energy to him that didn’t quite line up with what Alex had experienced when Tsla’o were faced with the Empress.
Whatever these people had gone through, it was enough to think that getting on a ship bound for a planet they didn’t know, that was owned by and populated with aliens being run by an alien government, was worth the risk.
It seems to have paid off, at least. They had access to clothes that were new looking, and they appeared to have all the comforts of an alien home. The children in particular were wearing obviously Human made coats, again in a variety that suggested a lot of donations. Shoes were clearly an issue, though. At best, Alex found the adults had boots that were well worn and repaired, but the kids mostly looked to be wearing something a cobbler would make during their first week of training.
He was sure Taseta would be bringing that up, but he filed it away as something that needed to be addressed. The Starbound didn’t have fabrication facilities for things like clothing and he assumed their escort didn’t either, not that they could print much in the few hours they would be on site. The Sword of the Morning Light sure as hell did though, and whatever ship they were taking back from Na’o would be able to at least drop things off. Two options, ready to go.
His phone vibrated. A text from the provisioning agent he had been working with, including a picture of Shuttle Two and its visibly annoyed pilot, a member of the Engineering crew, parked in the Lahasa spaceport.
Another picture arrived in the messaging app a second later, a Tsla’o military shuttle and the much more relaxed looking crew sitting on the loading ramp, with the question:
Alex returned a quick affirmative. The agent had been told to expect aliens. Those were his guys and the shuttles he wanted everything he bought loaded into, and he included a reminder of which manifest went to which shuttle.
Yeah, they could figure out what to do with four hundred kilos of fresh meat and vegetables on the Starbound, but they’d really be shorting the frigate crew. They didn’t have anything to play on his brand new projector, either. Probably. And if they did, they had their own viewing solution already.
The agent sent him back a thumbs up emoji.
That wasn’t exactly reassuring, but he let it slide. He was well reviewed and Alex had just told him how to do his job, so a little shade being thrown his way was within reason.
That settled, he looked around for something to do. The line for the clinic was full now, two of the nurses set up in the seating area nearest the clinic doing checkups on the kids. It was warm enough in here that the tea was starting to feel a bit redundant. The handful of crew members they had brought down had just settled in and were chatting with - hang on. There were only four of them, and the security team arrayed around the front of the building... Where had Keta and Desaya gotten off to?
The crew had been told not to wander off - everyone must stay with the group. They weren’t leaving anyone behind for any reason, and Arvaikheer II still contains a lot of wilderness that the little town was clearly in the middle of.
Kanath was standing by the door, keeping an eye on the front of the structure. Alex walked over to her a little more briskly than he intended. “Did you see where Keta and Desaya got off to?”
“The lovers? They are outside.” She tilted her head at the door.
Alex took a look, and sure enough, they were standing in the gravel road, in the rain, pointing at the stuff that was visible in the distance. The clouds were high and there was a treeline a few kilometers off, foothills that lead to mountains just beyond that. The things they had been talking about visiting.
It was strange to see people willingly standing in the rain, not wearing appropriate gear for it. He hadn’t been cooped up in a small ship for years - yes, he had intended to do that on the Kshlav’o, but the difference there was volition. Alex had known that was the gig going into it and there were any number of things for him to do after it was done. There was no way Desaya had the slightest inkling that her job would turn into her home when she took it years ago.
He watched them for a few more minutes, an energetic discussion going on that hopefully did not include abandoning their jobs and disappearing into the woods. Love makes you do weird stuff, but at least they both seemed level headed.
“Keep an eye on them. If they want to be in the weather for a while, that’s fine, but they can’t wander off.” Alex would never hear the end of that one if they did.
Kenath nodded, giving the pair outside a look. “It will be done.”
“Thank you. Gimme a call if anything comes up.” He had both of phones on him, of course. The one of Tsla’o manufacture was being routed through the frigate’s comms. Turns out it wasn’t a regular phone.
He turned back to the interior of the massive yurt-shaped building. Nothing had changed, save for the line to see the docs having advanced slightly.
Maybe a cup of tea would have to do for now.