Ximon had mellowed a bit too and said, “Understood. It can’t happen again – I need to be able to count on you. We all need to be able to count on each other.”
She nodded and said, “I totally agree. It’s been a while since I’ve had anyone to count on or who would count on me.”
Ximon, “So, we’re good but, Elsbeth, you have to know you have a drinking problem. You’ve got to deal with it so it’s not a problem on the job.”
She looked a bit abashed but nodded.
Then Ximon continued, “You know, you honestly might consider talking to Iday about it. I don’t know about his religion, but a lot of preachers have training in dealing with this kind of stuff.”
She looked skeptical, “I’ll think about it, but I don’t really want to discuss my personal life with my crew.”
Ximon smiled a bit, “You already are, right now … and you might laugh, but if you don’t want to talk to Iday, you can talk to Mantis – the computer has a bunch of self-help type routines, so Scouts don’t fall apart out here. Failing that, I’m sure you can find some vids or programs on the net.”
She nodded as she left and then stopped in the doorway, “Ximon, I won’t screw this up again.”
To which he nodded and smiled.
As the jump went on, Ximon called the crew together and laid out the plan. He showed some maps of where the outpost was, showed the closest the mission said they could land to the outpost, and then where they’d have to fly and hike. He showed blueprints of the outpost and summaries of the crew that should be there – 2 males and 2 female scouts specializing in scientific analysis. He also provided a planetary breakdown of Cybex Beta 3 and some info on the local creatures they were observing.
Cybex Beta 3:
Diameter: 15,000 km
Surface Water: 75%
Distance from sun: 0.9 AU
Atmosphere: Moderate density, oxygen/nitrogen, non-toxic
Gravity: 1.1 G
Temperature Range: -45 to 48 C
Lifeforms:
Heavy vegetation – grasslands and some forests
Variety of small, furred creatures that appear mammalian
Cybexapods - Large omnivores, primarily quadraped, but can also stand on hind legs to gather fruit and leaves from tree-like brush. Construct primitive shelters out of branches
The team had been monitoring various weather phenomenon and the general environment, but their main focus was on monitoring several large groups of Cybexapods. These large omnivores showed signs of being intelligent, but the team needed to understand their level of intelligence and development to judge whether, or when, some form of contact might be safely conducted or whether the planet should be ‘quarantined’ so their development wasn’t interfered with.
After briefing the crew, he asked for thoughts and concerns.
Iday asked, “I assume we’ll take weapons when we go to the surface. The information doesn’t say whether those creatures are dangerous, but they’re certainly big enough to be …”
Elsbeth interrupted, “… and we don’t know what happened to the team.”
Iday continued, unphased, “So, what do we have for weapons?”
Ximon answered, “Well, I’m not sure about y’all, but a good portion of Scouts I’ve served with have had their own weapons. If you do, that’s certainly fine. Failing that, here’s our armory …,” and he ticked off on his fingers, “One shotgun, 4 pistols, 4 knives, and a fair amount of ammo. We don’t have any armor unless we want to wear vacc suits.”
Elsbeth asked, “Are you suggesting we wear vacc suits? The info on the planet says the atmosphere is breathable and non-toxic.”
“I was still debating that. The atmosphere IS breathable but it’s thinner than we’re used to and a bit thinner yet at the outpost since it’s up a few thousand meters.”
Iday added, “I guess there’s also the possibility of some kind of disease or some dangerous chemical in the air.”
Ximon agreed with that, “That IS a possibility to consider, but I’m not sure we need to go complete vacc suits.”
Iday, “I agree. We could take oxygen tanks in case we need them for the thin air. We’d have some disease or chemical protection if we have our coverall sleeves down, with gloves, and breather or oxygen masks. I’d recommend hats as well. It doesn’t look like it’ll be too hot. Do we have backpacks?”
“Yes, standard Scout surplus. Of course, if you’ve got your own, you’re welcome to use them, likewise if you’ve got your own weapons or armor.”
No one did, which surprised him a little.
He continued, “Let’s take vacc suits in the air raft, but leave them with the raft and go on as Iday suggests. We’ll each wear a breather mask and bring an air tank. Everyone brings a pistol, a pack with at least 4 liters of water, a light jacket, and at least 4 REMs (ready-eat-meals). Iday, I’d like you to carry the shotgun and I’ll carry the water filter kit and a small tool kit just in case. We’ll all have our comm units for taking basic images, but Elsbeth you’ll carry the long-range camera. We shouldn’t need it because they should have observation gear at the outpost, but who knows.”
Then he added, “Raiza, you’re our quartermaster for this. I want you to check each of us to ensure we have the necessary supplies. Then, you’ll stay with Mantis and monitor our comms. You’re our final fallback plan in case we have issues and can’t get Mantis to us, but it’s a long way from the ship to the outpost on foot – about 30 km.”
Raiza responded, “As you wish, captain. If necessary, I can walk any distance to assist, though my performance across rough terrain is sub-optimal.”
“Thanks, Raiza, but I hope it won’t come to that.” While Raiza’s body did mimic human motion, it wasn’t really designed for extended walking on rough terrain. It was assumed that bots of her type would mainly be walking around a home, a ship, or on a night out on the town.
“Mantis, you’ll monitor our comms too and basically keep things buttoned up. I’ll pre-program a flight path that you can follow that’ll bring you a lot closer to the outpost in case things really go bad and we can signal you if we need you to land somewhere else.”
Mantis replied, “Roger, Captain. In normal conditions I can land on any flat surface approximately 10,000 meters square.”
The Ximon added, “OK, so have your packs put together as we discussed and stowed in the galley before we come out of jump. We’ll add the weapons after we skim. Any other thoughts anyone?”
Everyone just kind of nodded, so they went about their jump-time pastimes. Ximon watched some training videos, did a little reading, and spent time with Raiza. Elsbeth liked to drink and watch trashy videos in her quarters or, occasionally, in the common room. Iday studied ship systems studiously and spent a lot of time reading his holy books or watching religious videos, usually in his room. All of them also got to know one another better. Iday was, indeed, an ordained priest in his religion, but he had no congregation to tend so he was able to work and continue his studies until he was called to one. He was good company – a good conversationalist showing great interest in everyone else. He also never seemed judgmental nor pressured any of them on his religion.
A few days later Mantis came out of jump with Ximon, Iday, and Elsbeth all on the bridge. They were out near the Cybex Beta 5 orbit and headed for the Beta 5 gas giant to skim. Iday did long-range system scans as they headed in. He detected a tramp freighter with 2 shuttles deployed for skimming (since the ship wasn’t aerodynamic enough to skim) at the gas giant as they approached.
Ximon hailed them with their transponder code, raising his eyebrows at their name, “Scow 785, this is Captain Sabo of the KSS Survey Craft Mantis on a survey mission to Beta 3. Please state your mission here.”
“Mantis, this is Captain Brax of the Scow. We’re just a light freighter passing through for enough gas to get home. As soon as we bring these shuttles in we’ll be heading for our jump point.”
“Roger Scow. Have you detected any othe
r ships or anomalous activity in the system?”
“Nope. Quiet and boring. That’s much as we like it.”
“Sounds good, Scow, have a good flight. Mantis out.”
Iday and Mantis noted nothing else of interest and the skimming was without incident.
As they neared Beta 3, Ximon directed Mantis to do continuous baseline scans, while Iday did targeted atmospheric and meteorological scans. He also had Mantis continue to try to raise the Scout Outpost, but she got no reply and detected no other electro-magnetic signals. If nothing else, there should have been a beacon from the outpost sending station status messages, but nothing.
Mantis noted, “Captain, they have a comm relay in geosynchronous orbit in the arc above the outpost. I have interrogated it for messages using the command codes provide in the mission tasking, but the relay has received no signals from the planet for 27 days.”
They entered orbit and circled for about 12 hours, updating their mapping data and monitoring for any activity.
They confirmed their landing site and brought Mantis in for landing. The terrain approximated Terran-normal (the baseline they used for comparison), but with a darker atmosphere and a greyish green tint to the vegetation. They landed in a small valley near grasslands and met in the galley. As Ximon had directed, Raiza went down a mental checklist of gear with each of them and verified the pressure in their oxygen tanks.
Elsbeth had pre-flighted the air raft and said, “The raft’s as good to go as it’s going to be.”
The air raft was nothing so much as an old, convertible ground vehicle, but without wheels. It used some minimal anti-gravity capability, supplemented by vented engines, to maintain some altitude, and had small reaction engines that were largely sealed so they could work in a variety of atmospheres and densities. It had 4 seats and a small ‘bed’ where they could stow gear. Raiza had already placed some extra air, water, and food in there, so by the time they got their packs and vacc suits in, it was fairly full.
Ximon drove and Iday monitored the basis sensors up front. Elsbeth sat in the back so she was close to engine access in case something went wrong.
Before they pulled out of the cargo bay Ximon directed, “Mantis, shut the hatch after we pull out and activate ship defense weapons (there were 3 small weapons mounted near the main ramp and air locks to repel boarders), but prepare for the possibility that other humans could appear in case that scout team is wandering around somewhere. Raiza, don’t let anyone but us in without direction from us.”
They echoed, near simultaneously, “Roger, Captain. Standing by.”
Then they pulled out and took off.
Elsbeth reminded Ximon, “She can theoretically reach about 200 knots and 1 km in this atmosphere, but I’d recommend we stay low and don’t exceed 100 knots, both so we’re less likely to be seen and in case she falls out of the sky.”
“Very comforting. I’ll stay at about 30 meters and wasn’t planning to go more than 60 knots or so.”
Elsbeth, “With the top on, she should have enough air pressure that we won’t feel the effects of the thin air until we get out, but I’ll watch that.”
Iday said, “I’ll continue scanning and will occasionally hail the outpost I guess it’s possible that something is wrong with their comms.”
As they flew, the scenery was interesting, grasslands, a few forest areas, and some rocky hills. They tried to stay close to rougher terrain, but they saw (and were seen by) some groups of creatures that matched the images of the cybexapods, as well as some other grazers and some smaller creatures scurrying about. They saw a few bat-like flying creatures, but not many and none got anywhere near the air raft.
They landed on a flat plateau on the ‘back side’ of the hills that the outpost was on and got out, putting on their breathers and air tanks as the did so. Ximon contacted Mantis, “Mantis, we have landed safely. We’ll be in touch.” Elsbeth directed the air raft’s primitive AI to alert and send her comm unit video if any creatures approached.
They hiked about 1 km to a pass around the nearest hill and then another 2 km toward the stated entrance to the outpost, a tunnel away from the face of the plateau it was on/in. They kept signaling as they went, but got no response and noted no outpost beacon.
After a bit of a scramble up the back of the hill, they found a door recessed in a shallow cave. It was a fairly sturdy door such as one might find on an outside shelter and it had a key pad next to it.
Ximon said, “Well, I guess we’ll knock and see who’s home” and pressed the signal button on the pad. The screen came on, showing that the system was on, but they got no response. Ximon also noted that there was, of course, a camera in the keypad, so someone could see them. Yet, after waiting a couple minutes and ringing several times, they got no answer.
Elsbeth, “Well, naturally, the easy way didn’t work. What’s the plan now?”
“Well, we could assume they’ve just gone out for lunch and will be back soon, but that doesn’t appear likely. Elsbeth, can you see if there’s a way to override the key pad and open it?”
Elsbeth stepped up with her tablet, “I’ll look. The command codes should let us in, but it depends on the state they left it in.” She got a connection to the key pad and started communicating with it.
She said, “Well, it’s in a locked state, so it’s intentional. Let me see.” She punched a lot of things on her tablet and said, “Come on, baby” as she waited.
Finally, a light on the panel turned green and she said, “We’re in. Thank you, command codes.”
Ximon pulled his pistol and said, “Weapons out, just in case” and opened the door.
Inside the tunnel was only dimly illuminated, but it stretched for many meters through the hill. He signaled Mantis, “Mantis, we’re entering the access tunnel. We may have limited comms for a bit.” Then he put on a head lamp and moved forward with Iday trailing on his left and Elsbeth a bit farther back on his right.
After going a bit, he shouted, “Scout Outpost, we’re from the KSF Mantis. We’re here to check on you.” He got no reply so they kept on going.
After several hundred meters the tunnel branched with a thin, unlock door on each. Ximon double-checked the schematics on this tablet and said, “OK, the main outpost is straight ahead. This offshoot goes to another overlook spot and their landing pad. Let’s go to the main and then we can go from there.”
After a few hundred meters more, they came to another locked, heavy door and key pad that looked like the main outpost door. They tried the same process, but it was again locked from the inside. Again, Elsbeth was able to get it unlocked with the command codes. However, when Ximon tried to open the door, it was clear it was blocked by something heavy beyond.
“Someone, or something, has the door blocked from inside. Iday, give me a hand and let’s see if we can shove it in.”
They got in position and shoved. Whatever was blocking it was clearly heavy. They got it open 6-8 centimeters when 2 shots rang out from inside. One clanged heavily on the door, while the other struck the wall inside the room beyond the door. Ximon and Iday ducked down against the door quickly and pulled out their guns. Ximon yelled, “What the hell?”
Then a frantic voice rang out from inside, “One more step and I’ll take your heads off, whatever you are. I’m not going down like the others.”
Ximon shouted in reply, “I’m LCDR Ximon Sabo from the KSF Mantis. The KSF has sent us here to help you. Put down your weapon and let us in so we can talk this over.”
The voice said, “Oh, sure. I ain’t dumb. I see you’ve got weapons and I don’t know you. You’ve shown you’re pretty crafty, so I ain’t falling for it.”
“Ok, ok, but at least tell us who we’re talking to. Like I said, my name’s Ximon. My friends out here are Iday and Elsbeth. We’re here to help you. Our ship is sitting a couple kilometers away.”
“I think you know dang well who I am. You already killed Dowling and Al-Mufti and you ran Lu off. Go away – I don’t w
ant no more nonsense.”
The team crouched down on the other side of the heavy, solid door.
Elsbeth whispered, “Sounds like he’s batty. All we need -- a crazy guy with a gun.”
Iday said, “Let me try something.” He played with his comm unit and then quickly stuck it out so just the camera extended past the edge of the door.
A shot rang out from inside, but Iday got the phone back in time.
“Let’s see what we got.”
Iday pulled up the image on his tablet so they could look at it. It was a bit blurry and didn’t get them the whole room, but it helped. The room was a common room for relaxation, gathering, etc.
Ximon compared the image/video to the schematics on his tablet. “Ok, that looks like the galley off on the right and there’s a door heading off to some of the room on the right. Looks like a pile of furniture against the door.”
Then Iday said, “and that’s him sitting in a chair directly opposite the door, gun in hand, with a door behind him.”
Ximon added, “We can’t see it but there’s another door off to the left. Also, the names the guy mentioned check out – they were the rest of the team that was here.”
Ximon yelled to the guy, “So, I take it you’re Jaylan Zaitsev then, right?”
The guy yelled back, “Yeah, that’s me. What, are you reading my mind now?”
Ximon, “No, Jaylan, I’m just looking at the file the KSF gave me when they asked us to come here. Can you tell me what happened here?”
“You know I don’t believe you’re KSF right? You’re one of them.”
Ximon, “One of who, Jaylan?”
“Those annoying little guys.”
Iday whispered then, “He does sound very disturbed – paranoid and, perhaps, hallucinatory. He could obviously be quite dangerous.”
Jaunts of the Mantis Page 8
