“Calm down!” I demand, but still people are fighting over who gets to go with me. “SHUT UP” and I push with Primus authority.

The bay is silent now except “I can only reliably teleport one other person. It has to be a tech that can monitor systems. This is not just a joyride.” More arguing erupts.

/Senior, figure this out or I’m taking my girlfriend./

/Little Merc, a Navigation LT will accompany you. He is helm qualified and a certified HUD tech./

/Brilliant, thanks Ivanka./

/I am next, of course/

I laugh in her comms circuit.

“Alright team, Sea Bees, clear the bay and prepare for mechanical ejection.”

“Copy. Ready to depressurize fab lab in ten.”

“Nav, recommend directional control testing of wing thrusters. Performing pressure checks on cabin and supply module.”

We managed to integrate the electronics to my rune systems. It is ugly and wasteful, but it works. I have a runic control console for a backup, but we’re here to test systems. Green across the board.

“Shuttle, Nav reports starboard maintenance bay clear for depressurization and manual launch.”

“Copy Nav. LT Tokara transferring control to Shuttle Commander Mercer.”

/Fuck you Sir./

/SIR YES MA’AM/

Tokara is good people.

“Copy LT, Ejecting Shuttle on Commander’s mark.”

“Manual Eject, Mark.” The Sea Bees engage the compartment lift crane and move it toward the airlock, the oversized airlock, and we coast out.

“Fab-Lab, Shuttle has cleared the hatch.”

“Copy Shuttle, God speed and fuck you.”

“I’ll bring you a souvenir Callahan, dry your panties out.”

I hear laughing over comms. “Switching channels, emergency only.”

“Alright LT, what’s your game here?” I ask, pulling my face shield back.

“Game? If you ask why I was selected. I develop training programs for Japan Defense Force. I am also well rated in interactive HUD design. My game is to develop piloting program while assisting in Piloting HUD development.”

I look into his eyes and see nothing but a straightforward demeanor. “Alright. May our exercises be productive Lieutenant.” He nods at that.

He pulls up a test maneuver sequence for me to execute like a video game. It takes us an hour to work through the squirrely-ness of the maneuvering thrusters but we figure out the magitech control just fine as Tokara is a quick hand at control modification.

“LT, do you have any swarm modifications?”

“Not at this time.”

“Aye sir, set yellow brake at 8g, suit pressure mod at 10g and decel at 12g.”

“Are you trying to kill me MM2?”

“I’m using NASA breakovers, sir. Save the suit pressure trigger. It should let you keep consciousness to 11g and keep from vacating blood volume until 13-14g”

“Copy. Testing suit pressure systems. Transferring controls to suit HUD.”

“Good call LT. Can you design a holo-grid for twitch control at high-g?”

“Perhaps, not now, however.”

I nod at that. “Initiating atmosphere entry thrust and angle maneuver.”

We worked out a HUD-this ping before hand and I ping this planetary maneuver. “testing no-power reentry plating.”

The data comes in and the enchanted, heat-resistant panels are holding up like a dream. “Nav, signal go or escape every twenty seconds.”

Ping.

My surface area is lower than the shuttle, but atmo is thicker than Earth, so we slow faster and harder. I get go’s until I fucking see the ground. LT might be trying to talk to me, but boots on ground is occupying my every thought. Universe be damned ground. I go in hot with skid thrusters and ride it into some silver grass with pink trees. I use reverse control thrust to keep us out of the trees and disengage my seat harness and both airlock doors. I run, though labored, out the airlocks for the cabin and supply module and put my boots on loamy silver plant stuff. I see atmospheric yellow and pop my face shield

“FIRST!! PENNY HAS LANDED BITCHES!!” I scream into atmo then breath in and cough my lungs out. Fuck that sulfur itches.

Um, yes. Mine?

Tessa, I get a planet? She doesn’t respond. Oh, this must be an Andromeda thing.

“I claim this planet for Astoria!” the system asks if I want to name the planet Astoria and I say yes.

Oh, well I name the system Astoria, the slightly larger sun Solastra and the smaller Solastrab. The rest of the planets can be location numeral based from the center until named or claimed by competent authority.

Really, Penny?

I’ve been thinking about it a while, if given the chance. I figure no one can take this from me.

Well in that, you are right. Through magic, you have registered our claim.

Magic, I mean, Aether, is pretty sweet.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I cough again, hard enough to put my face shield back up.

“Shuttle Command, I must protest. We are not authorized for surface excursion.”

“LT, were we cleared for surface launch testing?”

“Tertiary priority at best.”

“Alright then. Nav, board the shuttle and prep for emergency surface launch. T-30.”

“Oh! Oh, so little time for pre-launch and menu config! So much to change!” He runs back into the shuttle as I chuckle and jog.

“T-10, cabin check and purge.”

“Check sat, purge . . . now.” Our Air tanks flush out the sulfur atmo util trace amounts linger.

“Purge sat. Warmup sat. lift to max.” Controllers pop me down to 12g, when my order was over 25. Well shit. Maybe 6 tonnes was conservative. I shift from VTOL to wing thrusters and flex our wings for lift control.

“Copernicus, this is Shuttle, the LT is unconscious, assisted approach requested.”

“Copy shuttle, this is Copernicus Nav, approach to track, transfer to Fab-lab comm within 500m.”

HUD approach aims us to Propulsion airlocks. When I transfer to Sea Bee comms I am directed to far side lock, which is a lot more maneuvering than I wanted, but with hull targets and auto control the airlock interfaces engage and pressure test sat. I purge the supply module before opening the airlock door. And wait for equalization for connecting to my cabin space.

“Shuttle docked to Copernicus. Pressure check sat. Shuttle crew request to come aboard.”

“Permission granted Shuttle, congratulations on planetfall.”

Andromeda that sounds good. I made planetfall. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Hold it in. I can’t so I blink to Meli and smooch her face.

She laughs deeply, “What are you doing here, go to your debrief you scoundrel.” Pinches my butt like a proper girlfriend and I’m back to propulsion to de-brief. Ivanka shakes her head at me. Whatever Senior.

“Land teams should have a filter, but it’s otherwise manageable.” I say to the XO.

“You went outside of approved testing.”

“I expanded surface thrust testing to atmo crew testing. Also on the list.”

“Mercer, the CO wants to crucify you at every turn and you remain defiant.”

“Ma’am, respectfully, I’m a G-D space wizard, my job should be to test the limits of what I can do to benefit the crew. We have a shuttle because of it.”

“Mercer, while I understand, you are making enemies.”

“Ma’am, I know that, but the CO would never accept me or the Botanist for alien tech reasons. I have a plan to survive without sacrificing the crew, I promise you.”

She non-verbally swears at me with pacing and looks for 30 minutes before releasing me. That woman is intimidating. Like if she’d asked me questions, I would have answered, but she’s smarter than that.

***

“Shuttle, loading bay, final pod checks pending. Load your shit.”

“Shuttle, this is engineering, do your job and check second supply module loadout.”

I forgot that first transit was two modules. Our target is a rocky outcropping on the ocean side of the planet. She’s got a 55-45 water land configuration on a globe 1.5g two times surface area upscale of Earth. Astoria is a berfy girl.

“Cabin loaded with demon bench, fabricator, and basic fab tools. Pods one and two contain empty tanks for future transfer.”

“Copy shuttle, engineering confirmed. Prepare for disconnect.”

“Shuttle crew, lock in, pressurize for high-g and synch for vitals”

“Seat 1, check. Seat 2 check. Seat 3 check. Seat 4 check.” My crew plus nav and I are re-enry confirmed and ready. Detach commence. Departure pressure confirm, and . . .

“Hold onto your butts.” I say before I twist my control cube to re-entry flop.

Ten minutes of heavy atmo later, “De-pressurize suits and prepare for quarry landing.”

I engage with the bottom thrusters with a roar, creating a landing zone and crater to arrive by.

We land rough with a hard skid landing and some back thrusting puffs, but no one gets hurt. Solid win.

“Shuttle teams, Landing secured, execute orders, Nav, debrief.”

I spend 30 minutes with Nav before he gives me a list of fab requests. Turd. My forward teams start surveying and reclaiming as much as possible and I wait on planet for the teams to fill up a supply module full of regular dirt. Fastest load and they need it for the recently cleared HAB space for long-term botany.

I help drag out the equipment as the construction team starts bring material for a fab-shelter.

I keep working with Tokara to target the HUD approaches to this location to accommodate a full-burn decent and others.

The forests are cellulose based, but not consistent with Earth-based plants because of their conversion of atmospheric sulfur to ground particles and the differences in solar radiation and the planet’s magnetic field. I shuttle back up to Copernicus to grab a tank-riddled pod and start the search for water. Characteristically easy as half the planet is a water mixture with . . . yeah, no idea. That’s for botanist betty to figure out.

“Summers, do you have a ground pool constructed?”

“100 cubic meters as ordered.” She seems pleased. That’s a lot of shipments Good gravy.

“Copy summers, three loads and a rest incoming.”

“Penny, there should be burning fields for all of this sulfur. If we can douse it, it would help a lot of things.”

Yeah, space cargo transport, firefighting resupply shuttle incoming.

I get dozens of pings and it’s starting to drive me nuts and it is only week one. “Starting now, we’re going with a que flag system. If I find it categorized outside my published priority, I will cancel and kick your next request to the back of the line. Don’t screw over your crew mates.”

As is expected, I get a plethora of pings and I put them in the dumpster. Reading is important.

/Katie, you planetside?/

/No, but Fran is./

/No shit, but unless she has the ansible plans, she’s useless/

/Penny, I need to be on your next shipment/

/Katie, you are one step removed from supply chief. Get yourself on the roster. I can obviously be bribed./

I get a supply confirmation of 50 packs of strudels to planet with supply tech and other standard rations. Jeebus. No wonder I dated that monster. She’s magnificent.

***

“Penny, why am I being asked to start the first colony on Astoria?”

“Human rules dictate that the first cultivated crop makes a colony. You have colonized Astoria. Congrats Doc.”

“Right, but who claimed the system? Wait nevermind. Of course I know. Confab?”

“Yeah Summers, Katie and Melissa should come. Shuttle or Summer Station?”

“Screw you, Penny, there’s no way. . . oh, you bitch. Already named it. Fine. At least summer station has a roof.”

I chuckle that I did that on purpose. We corral scientist and GF smarties and confab.

“What does our emergency response look like team?” Francesca asks.

“He’s going to arrange that we get stranded here and I propose we let him.” Fran and Katie roar, but Mel grabs my waist and pulls me close.

“Ladies, Summers and I are persona non grata. There is an eventual arrangement where the four of us are left on planet. I believe Morris will arrange for Progenitor Summers and I to be left on planet, damn the consequences. We need to make that mean we get left with our lone fabricator. I can make another Sundering bench, but the fab is still beyond me.”

“With that, I also assume you’re lumping our paramours in with our sentences?” I nod,

“He would have to be a blind idiot not to see that we shared swarms. Especially post lvl. 16.” There’s some more chatter, but they all see my deadly expression. “I believe he is training Nav to take over pilioting before we get stranded, and I propose we let him.”

Chat erupts with controversy: as expected.

“Planet chat. Listen. This is not a guarantee. And there are two plus months before this should manifest. But keep an eye out.”

***

We spent the better part of four months shuttling raw materials, water and compressed air to the Copernicus. I had to work on making a portable sundering device which ended up having to be large staves that progressively charred and disintegrated if forced over their daily charge limit. Our mining operation got big fast.

Francesca transformed many acres of our landing spot into farmland and used her tech upgrades to design the plants to grow faster and more bountiful in the current environment. Plant life on this planet seemed pretty robust and the animal life was weird, but manageable.

Melissa and Gelnick do stellar work of guiding the repairs to the thrusters and the heat-damaged side if the ship. When you’re in a crew of talented people, no one is irreplaceable.

I feel that’s exactly what has happened to me. While the nav LT that was training with me was a quick learner, he kept getting pulled away for control and HUD issues in the bridge, or to fix that Captain’s E-reader or something. So I spent most of my time being a dump truck driver. Until today. LT Finally did his three unassisted flights and I’m comfortable letting him fly solo.

“Copernicus, DE Astoria Control. 80% water load ready for transport.”

“Roger Astoria, transit vectors confirmed, Nav Tokara primed for Solo Ascent.”

“Astoria copies Solo ascent. Congratulations Lieutenant Tokara on your shuttle pilot qualification.”

We get scattered comm chatter as expected from the deceit Fran and I expected.

>P] Meli, confirm you want to be confined with me?[<

>M] Beam me up Hottie. [<

I’d complain about the scandal, but I bet we’re being stranded against Tokara’s knowledge.

I walk to Mel and bring her back, ready to vom. “Mel, 100km is too far. Fuck bae.”

“If you tell me your vomit is not worth my prison sentence I will . . . thank you less enthusiastically.”

I can’t help but laugh. She knew too.

“Astoria. There is a moderate chance we are about to be betrayed by our captain. Stand by.”

We all look skyward, comms disabled to the ship as soon as Tokara docked. Francesca maneuvered this and that to keep the fab and half the seed stock. It was a bet against her disruptive worth. I also made a bet. But it’s far more risky. I bet on the lives of all my compatriots that wanted to get home.

“Fuck kids. Main propulsion test complete. Get inside any structure available.” No one moves.

“Get in the Andromeda damned building before I beat you all teh fuck!”

They get in the nearest buildings that get ravaged by surface winds and debris as the Annihilation drive activates in atmo. I hope they get 2k ly out of that, or they will never make it home.

Multi mind and mind over body wasn’t enough. My mental defense lasts for moments against such overwhelming Aether pressure, and at the last minute I shunt myself and Melissa halfway across Astoria to avoid the aftereffects.