Sometimes preparation combined with the right opportunity could realize interesting results. At least that was what I hoped.
Roh was darn certain that the Volk were being lazy and not really looking too closely at the camp itself. The only thing that they ever did was target practice with their rifles, but we hadn’t really seen them do much else. When they did come into the camp proper, they swaggered about as if they owned the place and all of the mane stayed far out of the way. Roh said that he’d heard that they were the least professional Volk he’d ever had the displeasure of having to work with,
We had a few prototype spy drones that we were testing on the edges of the camp, and we were getting good coverage in the camp. Our eye in the sky had been putting in work on these. They were about the size of a baseball and they could blend in with the tents and a few other things. We were spending a lot of time working on omni-camouflage and the results were a near total coverage of the camp area. At any time, we could see most of the camp. If a butterfly farted, we would know. That is if we were paying attention.
In anticipation of the arrival, we hid our assets as best we could. The falcon dropship was fully covered by a layer of earth and we’d hidden it further with lead sheeting that we’d disguised as a large rock formation. It would take the better part of a day to undo all that work with all three of us working. Killmonger had taken care of that with an assist from Levi. Levi provided the lead and Killmonger specified the molds he wanted, and we were good.
With our probes in cold storage that as well changed the calculus. We needed to make sure that nothing could trace us back home. Levi had scouted out a good asteroid and he had dug a deep hole over the past month and deep in the core our three probes slept awaiting out return as well as a ton of scrap metal and nearly all of our 3d printers. He found more than enough material to get us video feeds from across the system on little drones he’d placed. If we were attacked by any other earth probes, we’d have advanced warning, but we still didn’t know enough about the Volk to be considered a near peer threat.
Towards the end of the month a probe sent a proximity warning. Levi hit the button that indicated to cease all back on forth communications and to keep a low profile. Everything went radio silent after we got our message. I only hoped that Levi was well under the crust of the asteroid core.
We were gathered in our regular meeting place. I climbed up to act as a lookout. They would take stock of the situation first before landing. I’d be sure to be surprised to see them landing anytime soon. The Volk were buzzing with activity. It seemed like they were cleaning up messes that they had long let slide. The Mane had no idea what was going on, but it seemed that they were often kept in the dark as of late.
Roh was sipping on the Fauve. He set a cup down and poured some for me. I nodded in thanks.
“Roh, you should know that we think that the Volk are arriving.” I said to him, “The Volk here are spun up like they’ve received a message from up on high.”
“Ah. We shall see. Maybe they wind themselves up over nothing, maybe it is our time.”
The tent rumbled. Killmonger peeked outside of the tent, checking? What was he checking? Was it the tent spikes? They seemed to be still intact. I walked over to lift a corner flap and peer out myself.
I walked up behind Killmonger and tracked my eyes to where he was looking. All the Mane we were likewise looking up at the approaching craft. It was all sleek steel color as it approached. A tiny, blackened window at the top of the craft was the only possible view inside. As it got closer it appeared to look a lot like a giant shiny whale, rounded and cylindrical with two sets of wings on each side. I made a mental note to give this ship the designation “Whale” in my reports.
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To my best estimation, this had to be a smaller ship, more of a dropship. This would have to be carried here by a much larger vessel. The ship must be packed wall to wall with food based on the exterior dimensions. It was at least as large as the entire mess area and the pantry area, and there were clearly at least three decks of usable space on it. If that was a good estimation, then I’d also have to account for the size of the Volk crew. Damn. Some schematics would have been nice at least.
I half expected to hear a loud thumping sound as the whale landed. Other than the initial rumble if I hadn’t been watching it descend, I wouldn’t have known something was happening. Then large rear engines and lower thrusters then turned off.
There was a marked absence of noise following the landing as the Mane went back to what they were doing. Some still stared as I left the half-opened flap and tuned into my drone network.
The closest drone to the field showed a large ramp lowering down from the front of the whale. Two male Volk stalked up to the lowering ramp and then they walked into the ship, returning with a large floating pallet roughly two meters on each side as well as tall.
As the two male Volk pulled the antigravity pallets out, a large Volk female stomped out of the interior of the whale. This Volk didn’t have any of the body armor that the Blademother wore most of the day, in fact it seemed like this one was wearing the Volk equivalent of mechanics coveralls. If my little probes eyes were a bit better, I swear I would be able to make out oil or a gas station logo on the female.
The Blademother, K’ellvandra meandered out of the safety of her hard structure and moved to talk to the Volk mechanic. They seemed to talk as they waved their short arms at each other. I wasn’t sure if this was a sign of respect or if they were expressing some alien emotion of joy. The mechanic concluded the short talk with a sign that clearly came across as disrespectful in my eyes…. and then K’ellvandra left her as she stomped back.
It was probably bad news, which could be problematic for us. They could be re-organizing. On the other hand, I was completely lacking in Volk etiquette training as I’d never talked to a Volk myself. I should add that to the bucket list. In all my diplomatic training as a Civil Affairs NCO I had never been trained on how to talk to someone of a different species, so I would probably be writing the field manual on the fly. It couldn’t be much more difficult than talking to someone from a different culture, like say a Soldier in the US Army.
Minutes later, the Blademother returned to her creche. A male Volk sauntered down the path like a velociraptor eyeing a cow with its leg caught in a trap.
“Hama, one of the Volk is coming down to the camp.” I said.
“I’ll go see what he has to say.” Hama said as he got up. “He’ll want to speak to Julan…”
We knew that Julan would pass along whatever word he got directly. There was no point in being coy with the people you were stuck with. He had a terse working relationship with some of the Volk.
It was going to be another round of hurry up and wait.
Hama returned with dire news.
“They’re leaving.” His face looked as if it had lost all luster.
“They’re what now?” Killmonger said. He was sitting in the corner. He got up and started pacing.
“If the Volk pull out…” I mused. “What does that mean for the Mane?”
Hamas arms shook as he poured himself a cup of fauve.
“The Volk no longer consider this planet a worthwhile outpost, or at least the Red Claw clan is pulling out. Blademother K’ellvandra as a representative of the clan is taking the option given her, or she is ordered to return to the Clans home world to sit in their judgement. They are giving us ten days to wrap up everything and they are going to take us all home. There’s something else going on, but they didn’t tell us.”
I could see that he was starting to look hopeful.
“They uh …. threatened to leave any of us behind if we didn’t move fast enough. They sound quite serious.”
Ah that was the rub.
“If they left with you, where would they take you?”
“They are going to stop over at a way station on their way back to the Mane home world. From there we’ll be waiting for the next transit home. It’s a short ride back and I’ve been to this station… it’s large enough that you can get lost in it. We could stay there for months and it would be better than this.”
“We’re going to need to talk this over Hama. This changes a lot.” Killmonger said. “One thing… can you sneak us aboard?”
Kiernan and I turned to him and Hama looked shocked. His large, tufted ears drooped.
“And leave Levi?” I said to Killmonger.
“If we could get one of their ships… if we could get a design for one of their engines … for whatever does the wormhole… we could change everything. It would be worth everything.”
In one moment, all my plans went up in smoke.