Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 3
Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405
Galactic Standard Time / After 1800
Jessie
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Jessie looked up at the sky through the shield. Over the last few hours, they had been able to add cables to the other shield stations. Dalila and Vivian had switched all of them to a wired connection and shut down the wireless network. They had set up one final station that they left the network on, and tried to use it to communicate with the AI. But even no, nothing.
He looked up at their two captives, and one of them was looking back with its eye. He only nodded at it and tried to keep calm. There was something about it, something that resonated with him. It was strange, but the more he looked at the being, the more that he saw someone like him.
A roar of victory caused him to turn. He saw some of the other deckhands had finished creating the ramp. Once they moved the last null generator, they would cut into the plates and then they would have an entrance.
“I can’t believe that’s everything going so well,” Zevortro said bitterly behind him.
He looked over his right shoulder and saw Zevortro looking at the two captives. Jessie just sighed and shook his head. “You think that their people will try and rescue them?”
“You don’t leave your own behind! That’s just how it is! I can’t accept anything else!” Zevortro said with force in his voice.
Jessie sighed and shook his head. Zevortro was a lot like he was when he was younger and in training. Before he understood how different the universe was. How many different ways of thinking there was.
“First law of first contact kid. You don’t put your own culture into the minds of aliens. We don’t know anything about them. For all we know, if they tried to help them, the captives would just kill themselves,” Jessie said softly.
Zevortro looked at him for a few moments before he nodded. “I understand. I don’t agree with it, but I understand. So got any more repurposed tech to use down there?”
Jessie only chuckled and shook his head. “No, but I have a few skills that might help us. And a few strains of nanites that will let me make a map.”
“Really!?” Jessie asked, with a bit of envy in his voice. “No chance that we can’t get any of those?”
“Sorry, I need a nanite bath to grow enough for anyone else. And I don’t carry one of those with me,” Jessie said in a joking manner.
Zevortro laughed a little, shaking his head as he looked around the shield. “Funny. So we should all get to sleep soon I guess. Think I’ll do another lap around the shield and then find a place to clock out. See you on the bounce!”
Jessie only nodded, looking towards one of the shield consoles, and moved towards it. That idea to get some sleep soon was smart. But he had to do a few things before it was his turn. The shield was even stronger than it was with the wireless option. He wanted to check over the power drains before he went to sleep. He just wanted to make sure the back was safe before they went down.
He found one of the other deckhands manning the station and coughed. The deckhand looked up and blinked as they saw who was there.
“Hey, you’re Jessie, right? You helped set up the new console!” The deckhand said looking around. “Is everything okay?! I didn’t miss anything, did I?”
“No, I just wanted to make sure that everything’s okay for my peace of mind. You understand how that is, right?” Jessie said with a small smile.
The deckhand looked at him and stepped away, letting Jessie look at it. “Well, the drain is a half percent less with the wires. They also carry a bit of charge to each other so the power’s a bit more stable. We shouldn’t even lose half of the batteries even if it’s forced to regenerate a half percent all night.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Jessie looked over the settings before he sighed. The deckhand was right, the battery was holding a charge better, something to think about. But as he sighed and got up, he smiled at the deckhand. “You’re right, it holds a charge better. Just let the person who takes over for you to watch the readings.”
“Got it!” The deckhand said as they nodded.
Jessie walked away, looking at that one Cyclopes for a few seconds before nodding again. They would have to find a way to communicate with them. There was something about that one that told him that they had a lot to talk about.
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Blorspi
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Blorspi looked around as the clearing was lit by strange lights. It was as if the sun was here, everything was as clear as noon.
“What magic is this!? What can’t they do?” Recor asked, awe in his voice
Blorspi kept silent, but he agreed with his young friend. This was beyond anything that the tribe had. And he still couldn’t even think of anything that could explain how they were acting. They had sent another two bundles of that strange material. They were given more food, this time with strange plants. It was tasty and juicy. He didn’t understand what they could gain, but there had to be.
“They are strong, and they are diffident. That is all that there is. But remember, watch and try to awaken,” Blorspi said softly.
Recor looked at him and then away. There was something in the youngling’s eye that bothered Blorspi, but he had bigger things to worry about. As he looked around, he saw something from beyond the strange barrier. He couldn’t see what it was, but it was something moving in one of the tees. He looked at it, wondering if it was one of the Small Walkers. They were often underfoot, always watching. The fact that one of them might be watching this place was strangely comforting.
The Small Walkers were strong and smart and they were never caught unaware. They were a force that could stand against the toughest of foes. And no one in the Tribe had any idea how many of them there were. They moved through the island, there seemed to be multiple clans and they always struck to kill. They both had helped and fought the Tribe. He thought of them as those who wanted every tribe to survive. He had to wonder what they thought about these people, they were so strange.
“So, where did these people come from? I mean, I’ve never even heard of anything like them. Maybe the edge of the land?” Recor asked as he looked around.
Blorspi nodded absently, but he remembered some old stories that the old ones told. About how they had fought free of a terror that had tortured them. And those new monsters that sometimes appeared with no idea where they came from. Old stories that said beyond the great water were other lands, places that they came from.
How once, the tribe was mightier than they were now. Of strange and terrible knowledge that was as Dangerous as the Power. Of things that fell from the Great Above, how they carried new people sometimes. He had never believed them before, but now? There was something about the crater and the thing there that these people went into. The strange thing beneath them that they had dug out. Something told him, that if he ever found out the truth, he would never believe.
“I don’t think we have the words to describe where they come from brother. But I think we might have to learn,” Blorspi said with a hard edge to his voice.
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Leonator
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As he looked around the small side chamber where the cooks handed out food, Leonator tried to keep calm as he stood in line. He thought about the blood samples that Duncan had, that he had stored away safe. He thought that the old man was shocked by how he had reacted to the ambush hunters' deaths. He didn’t understand why, those that hide to kill were monsters, that was fact. They were pure predators who learned to fight and kill with the worst traits of the thinkers.
He knew that those things only deserved one thing, death. But the other information that Duncan had passed on before supper, he was shocked. And he heard the others talk about it.
“I can’t believe that a sentient race attacked us!” A woman with a pearl necklace in a blue dress said absently as she took a soup bowl.
“Or that they would be attacked? And because of how long it took to figure out the password to add a console to the shield? I was thinking of buying some of their stock before this!” A man in a suit with a red tie said as he shook his head in disgust.
Leonator tried and failed to think of something, anything to get his mind off this madness. He knew that there was something that was bothering him about this, but he couldn’t figure it out. If he was being honest about everything, that was part of his mind that he hated. He always remembered everything, but he rarely consciously remembered it all. But now and then, it helped him figure out things that he needed to. That same sense had been bothering him since he heard about it, and he hated it!
“I wonder what Sir Bradford will say about the fact that we have captives?” One of the men behind him said as he grabbed a bowl. Je1 kept his mind on the food as the cook spooned some broth into his bowl. He nodded as he moved, still listening to the others and their conversations.
“I still think that those fools are hiding something! I mean, it can’t be all that happened! What were they doing that let those predators get into the shield in the first place?” Another woman asked her friend.
“I’m sure that there’s something that they're hiding. They must not want us all to be under control. They must fear us all!” The second woman said with a sneer on her face as she looked at the servers.
Leonator hid a scowl. He knew that he had thrown a tantrum, but he had done a report about contact with Virgin Worlds. He knew that he had been unreasonable then. But he was on the Federation's committee that reviewed Planetary Eco crimes. To think that even against his will he was a party to one? His foes in the government would use this against him! And most of them, he thought had taken bribes.
The few cases that he had helped save pre-sentient species? Those sources of wonder would have died without him. So he needed to be lawful.
“They fear Sir Bradford you mean! And they should! When I think of what the Senator could do if we could contact the Federation!” A man said with slight manic loyalty in his voice.
Leonator didn’t like how some of the other passengers were starting to think that Bradford could do no wrong. And even worse, the way that Jones was starting to make speeches. That man rubbed him the wrong way, and he couldn’t understand why. He sounded like any other person with nothing but hot air, but something more was there.
He absently drank some of his meal and tried to think. He needed to talk to Duncan and bring up why he had acted the way he had. And he had to tell Duncan about Jones. There was something about him that was so similar to something he had seen before. But where? He had been a member of the committee for this Work Cycle. So where had he heard something like Jones? It was almost like……..
Leonator went completely still as the terrible thoughts invaded his head. He swallowed as he called up a few other speeches he had saved, and he felt his blood leave his face. Absently, he drank the rest of his soup and cleaned off his face with an arm. He had to talk to Duncan now!