uprising on Solamea?”
“ Yeah,” Kage said from the copilot’s seat. “Why? There were demonstrations in a lot of places ... why is that one special?”
“ That would be the first time there has ever been any organized violence on that planet,” she answered, now skimming the associated file. “The indigenous species is completely pacifist. They have no concept of using violence to secure political objectives.”
“ I’d say that makes them stand out as unique,” Jason said. He was anxious to get underway and start doing something useful instead of burning fuel hiding in slip-space. “How far away is it?”
“ A little over six days’ flight,” Kage answered.
“ Plot it. Let’s get moving,” Jason said as he swung up into the pilot’s seat. “What is the indigenous species called?”
“ They’re called kelpens,” Kellea provided. “There are some peculiarities that you’ll need to be made aware of.”
“ Such as?” Crusher asked.
“ I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise,” she said with a half-smile.
*****
The anti-collision alarm was sounding loudly as Jason cursed and pushed the nose of the Phoenix over to dive under a fast transport that had flown in front of them with no warning. The increased angle of attack to their entry vector caused the shields to flare brighter as the gunship pushed her way down into Solamea’s atmosphere.
“ What the hell!? I’ve landed on smuggler’s moons more organized than this,” Jason nearly shouted as he had to again adjust course to avoid a ship that was blindly climbing up from the surface on chemical rocket boosters.
“ I told you,” Kellea said tensely, “there are no traffic control systems for orbit or approach. It’s a free-for-all and you just hope you get lucky on the way down. Good job missing that rocket booster, that was a kelpen ship; they’d have flown right into us.
“ This is insane,” Jason muttered as he yanked the Phoenix hard to starboard and throttled up to send them streaking out of the high traffic area and into the less-populated airspace of the northern hemisphere. “So no spaceports either?”
“ Nope,” Kage answered as he looked at his display. “The only launch facilities are equatorial sites for those kelpen rocket stacks like the one you just dodged. To be honest, it looks like we’ll be landing in a clear patch of dirt if we can find one.”
“ Do you have our coordinates?”
“ Coming up,” Kage answered. “There’s no centralized network so it took me a minute. I’m sending you the nav data now. This is the actual site of the reported incident, it’ll be up to you to find a place to put her down.” Jason just shook his head again and settled in for the two hour flight to their destination.
He swung them in a wide, sweeping turn around the settlement (it was so small it almost couldn’t be called a town), dipping the left wing down so everyone could get a good view. He almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing as he cycled the landing gear and made for an open patch of ground just off the main drag that looked like it was solid enough to support the Phoenix ’s weight.
He touched down smoothly and began to incrementally pull power back from the grav-drive, watching a video feed from the belly of the ship as he did to see how far the landing gear was going to sink into the ground before she settled. After compressing the soil a mere eleven inches , the ship groaned slightly as her weight fully transferred from the drive field to the landing gear struts. After leveling them out, Jason placed the primary flight systems into standby and stood up to stretch out his back. The harrowing flight to the surface had tensed his shoulder muscles up and left his neck sore.
“ This is your show,” he said to Kellea. “How do you want to do this?”
“ This is a simple trip to look around and ask questions,” she said. “Who do you think is best suited for the ground team?”
“ Crusher,
“ Yeah,” Kage said from the copilot’s seat. “Why? There were demonstrations in a lot of places ... why is that one special?”
“ That would be the first time there has ever been any organized violence on that planet,” she answered, now skimming the associated file. “The indigenous species is completely pacifist. They have no concept of using violence to secure political objectives.”
“ I’d say that makes them stand out as unique,” Jason said. He was anxious to get underway and start doing something useful instead of burning fuel hiding in slip-space. “How far away is it?”
“ A little over six days’ flight,” Kage answered.
“ Plot it. Let’s get moving,” Jason said as he swung up into the pilot’s seat. “What is the indigenous species called?”
“ They’re called kelpens,” Kellea provided. “There are some peculiarities that you’ll need to be made aware of.”
“ Such as?” Crusher asked.
“ I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise,” she said with a half-smile.
*****
The anti-collision alarm was sounding loudly as Jason cursed and pushed the nose of the Phoenix over to dive under a fast transport that had flown in front of them with no warning. The increased angle of attack to their entry vector caused the shields to flare brighter as the gunship pushed her way down into Solamea’s atmosphere.
“ What the hell!? I’ve landed on smuggler’s moons more organized than this,” Jason nearly shouted as he had to again adjust course to avoid a ship that was blindly climbing up from the surface on chemical rocket boosters.
“ I told you,” Kellea said tensely, “there are no traffic control systems for orbit or approach. It’s a free-for-all and you just hope you get lucky on the way down. Good job missing that rocket booster, that was a kelpen ship; they’d have flown right into us.
“ This is insane,” Jason muttered as he yanked the Phoenix hard to starboard and throttled up to send them streaking out of the high traffic area and into the less-populated airspace of the northern hemisphere. “So no spaceports either?”
“ Nope,” Kage answered as he looked at his display. “The only launch facilities are equatorial sites for those kelpen rocket stacks like the one you just dodged. To be honest, it looks like we’ll be landing in a clear patch of dirt if we can find one.”
“ Do you have our coordinates?”
“ Coming up,” Kage answered. “There’s no centralized network so it took me a minute. I’m sending you the nav data now. This is the actual site of the reported incident, it’ll be up to you to find a place to put her down.” Jason just shook his head again and settled in for the two hour flight to their destination.
He swung them in a wide, sweeping turn around the settlement (it was so small it almost couldn’t be called a town), dipping the left wing down so everyone could get a good view. He almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing as he cycled the landing gear and made for an open patch of ground just off the main drag that looked like it was solid enough to support the Phoenix ’s weight.
He touched down smoothly and began to incrementally pull power back from the grav-drive, watching a video feed from the belly of the ship as he did to see how far the landing gear was going to sink into the ground before she settled. After compressing the soil a mere eleven inches , the ship groaned slightly as her weight fully transferred from the drive field to the landing gear struts. After leveling them out, Jason placed the primary flight systems into standby and stood up to stretch out his back. The harrowing flight to the surface had tensed his shoulder muscles up and left his neck sore.
“ This is your show,” he said to Kellea. “How do you want to do this?”
“ This is a simple trip to look around and ask questions,” she said. “Who do you think is best suited for the ground team?”
“ Crusher,
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