Crashlanding chapter 28

[u/Engletroll]

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The storm was still raging the next day, but it had now buried the entrance in sand, so the hangar was dark but safe from sand.  Peter saw it as a blessing in disguise, as he started working on the container while the ship's motion tracker was running. Kiko started going through the list of metal they would need, then used the exoskeleton loaders to retrieve what she could find.  After a few hours of work, Peter joined her, and soon they had a different problem. They didn’t have a place to store the loader or the scooters.

“You know what? You said the trip back would take two hours, right? We fly back, unload, and restock, then come back here, then go exploring for a month. The repair system is automatic, right? The nano-repairs?” Kiko asked, looking at the full container.”

“Yes, and we still need a few different types of graphene for optimal repairs.” He replied, looking over his pad. “And a few other things.  We should probably hide the scooters and loaders as well. “

“And the exploring part?”

“Yes, we can go exploring. After all, we are staying here for three months.”

“Four and you have to get me a ring.”

“Four, and yes, I will look for a ring.”

She grinned at him and pulled him into the transport where they had moved the bed.

“I think it has stopped.”

She sat up and looked at him. “So how do we get out?  Digging?”

He looked out into the darkness and turned on the lights, a few critters fled the light immediately. “Well, they are back, so hopefully it's not that bad.”

He sat down in the pilot seat and started the engine. It quickly hummed to life.   And he flew towards where the giant hole had been. He could see a slight opening at the top where moonlight shone through.

“Are we trapped?”

“Temporarily, let me think.” He looked at the hole. If he flew closer, he could blow away some sand with the engine, but the system was anti-gravitational-based as the bike, so the effect would be minimal. He could blast a bigger hole with the scooter's cannon and risk a collapse of the whole ship. He silently cursed as he landed the ship.

“I have to dig us out. This will probably take a day or two.”  He looked at her, and she got up.

“I’m helping. We got two loaders. The faster we get out, the faster we can go exploring.”

He looked at her and winked. “As you wish.”

It took them six hours of constant digging to clear it enough to fly out, and when they left, they could see the ship was half-buried in the sand. Peter ran a last check-up before having the ship climb higher, and soon the blue sky changed to darkness.

“It’s beautiful. Would be great for colonization.” He said, and she looked at him.

“What about the locals?”

“What about them? They are all from spacefaring civilizations, just forced to live at what? Some mix of middle ages? Or Roman? They should be allowed to have access to what we have, right? Or you could just make a city where they don’t go and slowly educate them up to spacefaring standards. Besides, would you like to have a home here? Some tropical island, just you and me, and a couple of naughty kids?”

She tried to answer, but only a half-covered giggle came out. He winked as he dived down towards peppermint and connected to the ship. The ship was still in standby mode because it had used up all the repair materials.  When they arrived, he circled the area to check whether the aliens had returned. There was nothing outside the gave but further down they found a few Bynasop men long dead and crucified on the path up to where the lake outside the cave.  Kiko cursed and looked at him.

“Those monsters.”

“Yeah. Probably, a warning to not go up there. We can deal with it later.  Right now, we need to land and unload.” He flew the ship to the ice wall and found the cave entrance. 

“Fuck…”  They had flown about a hundred meters inside when they hit the ice wall. He parked the shuttle and looked at it. “Our great security system. This transporter doesn’t have any blasters to take down the icewall.”

“But we can use our blasters, right?”

“Yeah, and there are two more scooters inside, so all we need to do is get inside and get one. Okey, want to wait here or take the long, boring, cold walk with me?”

“What a stupid question!” She got up, grabbed a rifle, and got ready. He just smiled and did the same.

The walk started calmly, and politely enough, and then the teasing and jokes started. When they finally arrived at peppermint, Peter was kind of glad, as both of them had made some jokes that would have gotten them banned from several planets. He had been reminded yet again that she was not your average polite girl and could joke like a marine in a battlezone. Nothing was off limits.

They picked up the transporter the next day, and the two droids quickly started unloading as Peter examined the container's design and then began work.

“What are you doing?” Kiko asked as she brought him a cup of coffee and sat down on a crate, looking at him. He glanced at her and smiled.

“You know if you continue to tease me like that, then we are never getting off the planet.”

She looked at him, completely innocent, or as innocent as she could. “What?”

“Just my hoodie?”

“I got your boxers on, too. Now what are you doing?”

“That explains why you want it so hot.  I’m making it so the scooters can be attached to the roof and making a hatch so we can access them from inside. I’m going to add a windscreen, so you don’t get blown off while you get on the bike. Then I’m going to pick apart one of the scooters and attach the cannon to the front of the transport. That way we have some defense against Gymas.”

“Sounds like good.” She looked at some more furniture lying next to the container, as well as a tank and outer equipment. “What about that?”

“I’m going to rearrange half the container into the living space. A bigger shower. A workspace for you and a bigger bed.”

 “Bigger bed? Okay, the shower I get, but?”

“It’s not much bigger.” He winked, and she looked at it.

“It doesn’t matter how big you make it, I will still sleep on your half.”

Then she got up and walked over to the treasure container, as they had started to call it, and went inside. After half an hour, he heard her curse, and he quickly walked over to her. She was looking into a small business suitcase. “What’s that?”  

“Credits. Several million credits in goglun.”

“Goglun? The Gyrran currency?” He looked over her shoulder at the golden coins with a chip in the middle. The Gyrran never gave up on hard cash, and it made their currency very popular among criminals.

“Yeah, it looks like there were seven of these briefcases, only this one is left. And then there is this.” She picked up a smaller box and opened it. Inside lay several data crystals belonging to the official Earth United Colonies Law Enforcement Agency.

“What the hell? That is the ECLA stamp. They must really have something big going on.”

“Yeah.  But they didn’t get 'em, so I’m going to check what they are. Please don’t be too important so we have to go home.” She said as she stood up and looked around the container.

“So many things here, I wish I had a whole team to go through it. It looks like he was trying to get all the things he used to blackmail people to a safer location. Bring those dresses. They have DNA of rapist and murderers as well as recordings of their acts. Looks like he ran this undercover sex cult. Worshipping somebody's name Syg-ug-hitol. Some devour of worlds and giver of ecstasy.”

“Syg-ug-hitol? That name rings a bell. We got briefed about it in the Navy.” He said and she looked at him.

“We can check that later, you do yours, and I do mine. I still want some vacation time after this,” she kissed him lightly and sighed.  “You’re just too damn good for me.” She kissed him again, then stopped herself. “No.. work.. yes work. I got to work. “Then she kissed him again and walked away, cursing herself while muttering, “Work first, then pleasure... work first, then pleasure.”

 He watched her leave, then took a deep breath. “Work first, then pleasure.. yeah, I agree..” as he walked back out to finish the work.

[u/InstructionHead8595]

Hmmmm🤔 a whole shipping container of evidence.. how nice, 😼