CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JAI
I stood at attention beside Kade, keeping a surreptitious eye on him for any cues about what I should be doing.
Being thrown into a military operation with no briefing whatsoever on how the Alliance ran things was daunting, but at the same time, I’d had extensive training from the Eumadian military, and I didn’t think things could be too different.
A large Denzogal was speaking up the front of the room, brown fur covering his entire eight-foot-tall frame, and I thought it likely that this was Colonel Henderson.
I’d only seen one brief picture of him, and before that, I’d never seen a Denzogal before, so I was keeping an open mind about the possibility that I could be wrong.
“The AEV Navigator,” Henderson was saying, “has two hundred and seventeen crew on board. They’ve crashed into the desert south of Hon, touching down roughly…
” He checked the time on his comm. “…twenty-three minutes ago. Initial scans indicate that they’re here…
” He pointed to a region of the large holographic map lit up at the front of the room.
“Their communications have stated that there are multiple injuries and several crew members unaccounted for.
“There are known Geshtoch in the region, but we’re not expecting them to be hostile. We’ll be sending a team to distract them and keep them away from the crash, since they’re likely to try looting things from the wreckage, and we don’t need them getting in the way of the rescue operations.
“Roughly a quarter of the crew of the Navigator are military, the rest are civilians – astronomers, cartographers, physicists, and various support staff. They’re returning from a mapping mission of the Raydal sector, and there’s likely some valuable data on the ship’s computer systems, but recovering that is secondary to saving lives.
Your teams and team leaders will be sent to your comms. Teams one through five, your mission is search and rescue.
Teams six and seven, you’re on security and resource recovery.
Teams eight and nine, you’re going to be in the air, keeping an eye out for any additional hostilities from the pirate vessels.
Our beacons detected two unregistered vessels which appear to be of Rentral design, but that says nothing about who might be piloting the ships.
Initial attempts to apprehend them by Wormhole Security have failed.
If you have any questions, direct them to your team leaders. Move out.”
I didn’t have a military comm, so I turned to Kade, hoping he’d know where I was supposed to be. It seemed an obvious assumption that I’d be on a team with my master, but I didn’t know any more than that. But before he could check the instructions, our master’s voice got our attention.
“This way,” he called, waving to us from across the room, and we both hurried after him.
He was busy talking to someone via his comm, so I simply fell into step behind him, travelling across the base at a jog.
“Transporter bay three,” my master was saying.
“Can you meet us there? Yeah, that’d be perfect…
Yes. Has Henderson approved that? Fantastic.
See you soon.” He ended the call, glancing around to make sure I was following him.
I felt a brief regret for my uncooperative behaviour so far.
Military missions came with an inherent level of danger, and I wanted my master to know that he could trust me to follow orders, at the same time as I wanted to be able to trust him and Kade.
Belligerence in life threatening situations was what got people killed, and I wasn’t reckless enough to want to throw a spanner in the works under those circumstances.
We stopped by the armoury on the way to the transporter bay.
I would have had trouble navigating the base by myself, but I recognised enough of the landmarks from my brief tour.
My master told me to wait at the entrance to the armoury while he and Kade went inside to collect their weapons, and I was concerned to realise that I still didn’t have proper clearance to access this part of the base.
While this was primarily a search and rescue operation, there were potentially going to be hostile forces around, and heading into that without any kind of weapon was making me nervous.
“”We’re on team three,” my master informed me, when he emerged from the armoury again, two pistols secured to his belt.
Kade had two more. “Six more soldiers on our team as well. We’ll meet them at transporter bay three.
” He was talking quickly, ducking around a flurry of soldiers heading in every different direction as we tried to get through the crowd.
“The medics are going to be dealing with the more serious injuries, so our job will be to help anyone who’s stable enough to be able to walk.
We’ll be freeing anyone who’s trapped, then getting them out of the ship and onto transporters to be brought back to the base.
Don’t move anyone who can’t walk or who seems seriously disoriented.
Just let the medics know where they are and they’ll take care of it.
These are short range locator beacons,” he added, handing me a packet of small, dome-shaped objects.
“If you can’t find a medic, stick one of these on the floor beside the injured person and press the top firmly to activate it. ”
I wanted to ask questions – the most urgent one being how I was going to communicate with the rest of the team if I didn’t have a military grade comm – but my master wasn’t giving me time to get a word in edgewise.
“Don’t go into any enclosed spaces alone.
Parts of the ship might be unstable and we need to make sure all members of our team are accounted for at all times.
” We arrived at the transporter bay, and I could see that there was already a team from the ground crew loading crates of medical supplies and rescue equipment into the transporters.
One Wasop woman dashed over to my master when she saw him, carrying a metal box.
“Got what you need right here,” she said, then set the case down without opening it and tapped at her comm. “Here’s Henderson’s authorisation. You’re responsible for any of Jai’s actions and all his equipment, until you get back to the base.”
“Understood,” my master said, accepting the document with a stern expression. Then the woman picked up the case and opened it, presenting the contents to my master like this was some kind of smuggling ring presenting valuable crystals to a pirate leader.
My master picked up the items and turned to me.
“Here’s a military grade comm,” he said, handing it to me.
“Rila will look after your civilian one until we get back. This one’s already loaded with the contact details of everyone you’ll need to reach.
And here’s the file with our mission details,” he added, sending me a document as I strapped the comm to my wrist. “And you have two handguns,” he said next, handing me the first weapon.
“I’m hoping we won’t need them, but there’s a risk that the pirates will come back to collect whatever it was they were aiming for the first time.
I strongly recommend you don’t fire them anywhere near the downed ship.
There could be fuel leaks or chemical spills. ”
“Yes, sir,” I said, feeling a rush of relief as I attached the holsters to my belt. I couldn’t help but add, “Thank you, sir.” I’d been a pain in the ass for the past day, but he was still concerned about my safety.
For now, at least.
“Right, let’s get this show on the road,” my master said.
The Wasop woman scurried away, taking my civilian comm with her, and my master led us to the transporter, where he did a quick roll call and briefing to the rest of our team – two Denzogals, two Wasops, one Solof and one Derelian.
The Derelians were small and not particularly strong, but they were also light, and being small, they were able to squeeze into spaces that might be too tight for the rest of us.
They were also fast, as I’d been told before, so I could see the benefit of having one on our team.
Two minutes later, we were all strapping ourselves into the transporter’s seats, and the engines revved up to a steady hum that vibrated dimly through the hull of the vessel.
We listened to the chatter on the pilot’s radio of all the various air traffic around the base.
A tense wait followed, then finally the air traffic controller said, “Azure Three, you’re cleared for take-off.
Destination one-three-nine, south-south-west. Over. ”
“This is Azure Three departing Hon base,” the pilot responded. “Releasing clamps. Engaging rotors. We are clear of the platform, heading south-south-west en route to the AEV Navigator.”
The transporter shook as we turned in a tight circle, and I looked past Kade, seated to my right, to get a view of the city out the window.
It sprawled on for kilometres, and I was immediately struck by how green the whole thing was.
Cities on Eumad were overwhelmingly grey, and Hon looked startlingly beautiful by comparison.
Kade noticed the direction of my attention and he smiled. “It’s quite a sight, isn’t it?”
“It’s so different seeing it from above,” I said.
“Better than Eumad?” he asked, and I smiled, glad that we agreed on that part.
The transporter headed south rapidly, clearing the edge of the city in about ten minutes.
Buildings and parks gave way to jungle, and I craned my neck to peer down into the swaying mass of trees and vines.
Jagged peaks of rock rose out of the treetops, and here and there, I could see the glittering hint of blue rivers winding across the landscape.