Epilogue

Max Hayes: The end

A deafening call bellowed down over the plains. This was it.

The rebellion on Dania had gone through a miraculous transformation. When we first got here, and this was only six months ago, they were a disorganised band of untrained soldiers. At least the group that picked us up after we came in hot. Apparently there were other groups under the umbrella of the rebellion which fared better, but these men and woman had fought like they lived, defiant but with a defeatist attitude. There was little spirit to their cause.
Kevin speculated the attitude was a consequence of the oppression they had lived under for so long. Something they took with them in their quest for freedom. At times it felt like they didn’t really believe in it. In the beginning we had to do everything.

I remember unstrapping myself from one of the cockpit seats.
“Are we on fire?” I asked Kevin.
“We’re leaking plasma. So yes: we are,” Kevin said.
In the whole cockpits lights were blinking on and off and the master caution had been beeping non-stop on our way down. I really had no idea what it al meant, except for the fact that something was wrong and in this case a lot apparently was.
“There seems to be some leaking inside the structure,” Kevin said. “Shutting down engines. Opening all hatches. We need to get off this ship now.”
“Got it.” A considerable part of our cargo was explosive.
I was waiting by the cockpit door for Kevin to finish shutting down the ship. As he got up from his seat he seemed to lose his balance for a moment.
“You alright?”
“Yeah, just a moment,” Kevin said as he leaned on the console. Our landing had been soft, considering the circumstances, so it was odd to see him dozed up like this.
“Okay I’m good,” He said after a few seconds. “Let’s go.”
As I opened the cockpit door a white fog drifted into the cockpit accompanied by the loud hiss of several fire extinguishers which produced the fog. It seemed like it would be hard to breathe through, but we had already suited up prior to our arrival in the system and put on helmets the moment the engagement started. I started moving into the compartment when suddenly a hand came forward from the fog and grabbed my arm.

“This ship is damaged. Are you injured?” A voice informed and inquired.
“Hello R. Follow us. We need to get out of here!”
“Understood. Please remain calm,” R said soothing.
“R shut up,” Kevin said.
“Emergency hatch?” I suggested.
“We’d be stuck on top of the ship. We need to climb down to deck one and use the airlock.”
There was a genuine staircase further back the ship, but the ladder just behind the cockpit somewhere to our right would bring us down, right next to the airlock. I couldn’t see it through the fog but I knew were it was.
“Sounds good let’s go,”

“There is a fire on the lower deck below,” R informed.
“Kevin?” I couldn’t see anything through the extinguisher agent while Kevin had infrared goggles build into his suit.
“I can’t see down there but I am getting a pretty big heat signature.”
“Emergency hatch?”

A heavy charge blew a thick square plate into the air. Through the hole it left, we climbed onto the top of the ship. At the back of the ship a giant geyser of fire, several times the length of the ship itself was spewing into the air continuously. Luckily it was angled away from the ship. The stream gradually widened and slowed down, further away from the ship. It seemed to boil the air itself, producing an ink thick smoke which emanated from within the stream along its entire length.
“There goes our gunboat,” Kevin sighed, looking at the fireworks and the wrecked hull around the rear and left of the ship.
“Things come and go,” I added cheerful.
“Right, let’s get off this thing,” Kevin said calm, before walking down to the rear right tip of the vessel.
At the tips the Eagle wasn’t as high as the central section of the ship; I’d say it was a two storeys drop to the ground. We lowered ourselves over the edge as far as possible before letting go. The soft sand helped break the impact.
Looking up I could see R still standing passively on top of the ship, looking down towards us.
“R, get down here,” I jelled up to R as I stood up and patted the sand from my suit.
“Let’s make some distance,” Kevin suggested as R casually jumped of the edge.

We started a slow jog through the loose sand. I stopped when we were about half a klick from the vessel.
“Far enough I guess,” I said as I turned around to Kevin who was only a few meters behind.
“Think so,” he said, breathing heavily.
I looked to the sky and wondered if we should be expecting any company.
“They won’t dare following us in,” Kevin said “We’re in the umbrella of rebel SBL’s.”
“Great.” That was a relief. “They could come in low; fly under it,”
“Possible, but pretty risky. For them.”
Using the small touchpad on my arm I brought up a map in my visor’s HUD. It told me we were in the middle of nowhere. Indeed surrounded by several SBL’s, but the closest one was still several thousands miles away.

“What about the risk of them checking out the ship? How long would it take them if they did decide to fly in low?”
“It depends. If they immediately send in a ship, the moment it was clear we were going crash here, they could be here by now. If they’re only now rigging a hypersonic planetary aircraft, we’ve got at least a couple of hours. So I don’t know. I’m guessing they won’t risk having one of their ships burned out of the sky just to check if they got us,” Kevin explained.
Hazechiël fleet wasn’t so big. He couldn’t afford wasting any ships. We knew he did have a sizable force of planetary aircraft, although nothing fancy.

“What about our ship?”
“We could wait for the fuel to leak out, but while we do so an internal fire could burn out the ship completely. It might also explode.”
The map didn’t show any place to go within a walkable distance. The closest settlement, displayed on the map, was over a thousand kilometres away. We would need supplies in any circumstance.
“There is a risk of them checking out the wreckage,” I thought out load. “I don’t feel like staying here.”
“Agreed.”
“We could put some more distance between us and the ship in case somebody does come to check it out. If they do we can try to escape. If they don’t and the ship runs out of fuel we can return and see if we can salvage something.”
“Excellent,” Kevin said.
“How long it’s going to take for the fuel to run out?”
“Well..,” Kevin started, “given the amount of fuel left in the right tank, and the rate of the leak based on the rough size of this, giant, plasma cloud shooting into the air,” he explained insincere, “I really couldn’t say. A couple of hours?” Kevin guessed as he shrugged his shoulders.

It took about thirty.

I stepped onto the narrow ramp, maybe three meters wide, at the back of the ship. The main cargo deck it lead to was significantly bigger than in any of the ships we had before, but it was still quite small in comparison to the rest of the ship. The entire deck was covered in a thin layer of a soft white powder. On the left side of the deck the wall and sealing had been bend and torn. The lighter cargo, and the cargo closer to the explosion, had been thrown across the deck. Some of the crates were blackened on the outside and had holes struck in the casing, of which the edges were brittle and coaled, suggesting there had been a pretty intense fire inside the cargo deck for quite some time.
Climbing over and between the heaps I reached the heavy blast door, which, if it could be opened while the ship was powered down, would give access to the rest of the ship.
“Can’t open the door,” I said over the radio.
“Airlock is open. How’s our cargo?”
“Pretty beat up. There has been an explosion here, but some of it is probably recoverable.”
“Looks like Christmas in here,” Kevin said.
“Same here.”
“Has been a fire on the lower deck. Haven’t closed the door to my quarters,” Kevin said plain.
“Though luck,” I said amused. “What about mine?”
“Yours is closed.”
“Nice.”
“Opening it right now. Standby.”
“I’ll be there in a second,” I said as I jumped of the last big container on my way to the ramp.
“Aside from a thick layer of snow, it looks fine,” Kevin reported.
There was some expensive equipment in my room, but nothing irreplaceable.
“Any expensive stuff in your room, Kevin?”
“No, not really.” Kevin said accepting.

The only object with ‘some’ sentimental value I could think of was my gun. There were some of my nicer casual clothes, but they could be replaced. My gun, of course, could too, I realised. It remained a popular model.
I heaved myself into the airlock and stepped into the hallway. I passed by Kevin’s room, where Kevin was sifting through the burned out remains.
“What did you store in your room Kevin?” I asked amazed. “A few boxes of gunpowder?”
“I have no idea.” Kevin said laughing.
“Man!”
“I know. I think it’s the mattress. By the way, you’ll be glad to know I also had the cash from Mevlin stored in here.”
“Great,” I said annoyed.
“My pilot license is burned to.”
“How ironic,” I said jokingly. “You know, after crashing a ship.”
“Yeah I get it. Good one.”
“You’ll always be a pilot in my mind Kevin,” I said overdramatic.
“And that’s why I love you,” Kevin said warm, before continuing more sneering, “At least you can take a moment to say goodby to all your own precious stuff; We can’t take it all with us.”
“Whatever.”

After picking my gun from one of the drawers under my desk and holstering it, I walked back out of my room and used the ladder beside the airlock to climb to the second deck. Emergency lights were off in the main hallway. The hallway itself ended about halfway to where our weapons room had been.
“We’ve got heavy damage on deck two. The armoury blew up,” I reported over the radio.
A big part of our cargo consisted of weapons and a good portion of it should still be intact, so I figured it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Roger. Now moving to deck three. Going to check out what’s left of the ship’s systems.”
“Copy. Not much to do here. I’m going to take R and go through the mess on the cargo deck to see if we can salvage some gear.”
“There are some boxes with backpacks and uniforms. I had R move them to storage on deck one.”
“I’ll swing round storage first.” “Any chance you can get the cargo bay door open.”
“Maybe. Powering up the system now.”
After making my way back down to the lowest deck, I searched through all the cargo in the rooms we had designated for storage.
“We’ve got radio,” Kevin reported as I took aside a backpack for each of us.
“Great. See if you can get in touch with anybody,” I suggested unnecessary.
“Opening the cargo bay door.”
“Copy.” “R come in. Are there any visuals outside.”
“No visuals.”
“R, report to the cargo deck.”
“Understood.”

“This cryo tank is warming up.”
It were the first words out of R’s mouth after he stepped into the cargo bay. “It could be malfunctioning.”
“What,” I said. I hadn’t really paid attention.
“This cryo tank is warming up. It could be malfunctioning,” R repeated.

I immediately dropped what I was doing and made my way to the cargo deck. Looking over and through the thrown about cargo I could see R standing on the other side. “Where?!” I demanded.
He pointed somewhere to his right, but I couldn’t see what he was pointing at from my position.
“How do you know it’s a cryo tank?” I asked .
“I do not understand the question.”
“R, stay there.”
I made my way across to him as quickly as possible.

“Is this the cryo pod?” I asked R. I pointed to a sizable, but about man sized, metallic case to his right.
“Yes.”
The case had angled edges and seemed to be lying on its side. It was trapped under a two by two by four container.
“Kevin, can you get down here?”
“I’ve got the rebels on the radio right now,” Kevin countered.
“Bring a medkit.”
“Roger. What’s the situation?”
“I’ve got a possible cryogenic pod here. R says it’s warming up.”
“Where?”
“On the cargo deck. It’s part of the cargo.”
“Wouldn’t someone have told us?” Kevin said, clearly on the move.
“Apparently not.”
We had helped loading the ship but we certainly hadn’t handled every item brought on board. I didn’t know the contents of most of the crates on the cargo deck. It wasn’t like it was secret, but since we were only moving it, it just didn’t matter to us. Although I do feel it would have good practice to inform us there were cryo pods on board.
Maybe they weren’t occupied.
“R, is there a person in there.”
“I do not know which location you mean.”
“Inside the cryo pod.” I said terse while trying to maintain my calm. “Is there a person inside the cryo pod?”
“I do not know,” R answered. “Would you like me to check the status of the cry pod?”
“Yes R. Please, check the status of the cry pod.”
As R opened a panel on the front of the metallic case, Kevin had arrived and started to make his way towards us over the heap of cargo.
“Cryo pod status: Cooling is off. Cooling malfunctioning. Temperature 23 degrees Celsius. Occupied. Subject conscious. Vital signs nominal.” R reported.
I restrained myself from asking for some additional explanation, since R likely had little conceptual understanding about what he was babbling about.
“What should we do now?” I asked R instead; in the hope there was some standard operation procedure.
In the many seconds it took for R to come up with his response Kevin joined us. I turned to him to bring him up to speed. “The pod is malfunctioning. The cooling system is down…”
“In case of a cryo pod malfunction the subject should removed from the cryo pod.” R interrupted.
“I think we should try to remove the subject,” Kevin suggested to me while putting a medkit down on the floor.
“R, go stand over there and lift up thát container on thát side,” I ordered R as specific as I could.

“Understood.”
“I don’t think he can lift it,” Kevin said.

He was right. “Let’s empty the container,” I said weary.

After emptying the entire container, which took us close to half an hour, we were able to remove the pod from underneath it and turn it on its back again.
“R open it.” Kevin ordered.
There was a mechanical sound inside the box as R used the panel to unlock the pod. The first thing I saw was the arm of person inside, pushing open the lid. While Kevin stepped in to pull the lid open further, I took a step back and grabbed my gun.
“Kevin!” I shouted.
But at that moment Kevin could already see what was beneath the lid he was opening, and he too took a careful but quick step back.
While opening the lid up all the way, a humanlike figure sat up from the pod; blue skin like all Senneth and wearing nothing beside a mask strapped tightly around her mouth and nose. She closed her eyes slightly, and slowly and coolly peered through the room.
She looked down for a moment and removed the mask form her face by pulling it forward and moving it back over her head. While looking back up at me, presumably because I was aiming a gun at her, she grabbed around the edges of the pod and pulled herself to her knees. Although on her knees, the bottom of the pod compartment was elevated from the ground somewhat, so as she stepped out of the pod it was as if she was stepping over a low wall. Although I had never seen one in real live, it was clear to me this was the real thing and not some woman wearing body paint. She calmly stood in front of the pod; legs slightly apart, but overall a non threatening stance.
“Please, put down, your weapon.” She said soft and polite, although there was a certain insistence in her voice.
“Very well.” I figured she didn’t pose a threat in her current state. So I lowered my gun, but didn’t holster it.
“Thank you. Tell me, who, you are.”
“We, are,” Kevin started carefully, “Kevin and Max, and this is our vessel.”
“I see.” “I, am a Senneth, as you, might be aware.”
“We know,” I said blank.
“But only just now,” Kevin added, “We didn’t even know there was a cryo pod on board our ship.”
“Yes, that’s true,” I quickly agreed.
“How, did you, not know?”
“Well. We’re in fact mercenaries, hired, by others, to transport weapons to the rebellion on Dania. We weren’t told there was a cryo pod in the cargo, and we don’t know why it’s here,”
Kevin explained diplomatic.
Normally we would avoid referring to ourselves as mercenaries, but I could understand why Kevin would want to create some distance between us and whatever it was that had brought her here.
“So, you, work for Therra?” The Senneth informed. Apparently she was well informed about the ins and outs of the conflict.
“In some way, yes.” Kevin answered.

“And where, are we, now?” The Senneth asked while looking outside.
“We’re on Dania,” I said. “Our ship got shot down and we crash landed here. We found your pod amidst our cargo. It was broken, so we opened it, and now we’re here.”
“Let me reassure you, that if what you say, is true, there is no reason, for you, to be concerned.”
“That’s good, to know,” I said, “Now tell us why you’re here.” Kevin gave me sideways look as I did so.
The Senneth looked at me straight for a few seconds before responding
“As, you, wish,” she said slightly annoyed. “I am here to meet, with the rebellion.”
“Why?” Asked Kevin.
“Our aid has been requested.”
I found this weird to say the least, but if true, it did seem we were all on the same side, which was good, and also better then I had expected. For a moment I was scared Therra had got us involved in kidnapping a Senneth or something similar.
“Excellent,” Kevin said almost relieved, “We, no doubt, can take you to the rebellion.”
“Would you like us to give you some clothes?” I asked to get on with the task at hand.
“My clothes, and other items, should have accompanied me. They’re enclosed, in a sealed box. It has Senneth markings. I must insist, it is returned, to me.”
“We haven’t seen it yet.” I said, gesturing to the carnage on the cargo deck.
“This is Senneth property; Therra has made itself responsible for its return,” she said with some accusation.
“We will of course do our best to find it,” Kevin reassured her.
“Very well,” she said mildly approving.
“In the meantime, we could lend you some clothing.” I suggested, remembering the Senneth didn’t like accepting gifts of any kind from humans.
She thought about this.
“Yes, if you please,” she finally said with a disinterested tone.
“I’ll get you some. Please wait here.”
“Very well,”
I looked to Kevin.
“I’ll try to get in contact with Therra,” Kevin said while glancing shortly to me, “ask them what’s going on.”
“R will stay here. He’s a military grade robot.” I explained to her as Kevin started to make his way out of the cargo deck.
“I am aware of this,” the Senneth said.
“Okay. I’ll be right back,” I said before bringing my gun back up to her. She flinched briefly.
“R hold this position,” I ordered.
“Understood.” R said and I brought my gun back down.
This exercise would better setup R to correctly respond to any undesired behaviour, than any explanation ever would. I followed Kevin off the cargo deck.


When I returned to the cargo deck I was carrying a black cargo suit and vest, a pair of socks and underwear from my own wardrobe and a pair of boots from the supplies for the rebellion.
As I stepped up to a crate to make the now familiar way back to the Senneth and R, I spotted the description ‘Widowmaker AR-54’ on the side of the crate. I lay the clothes down on the floor beside the crate and forced it open. The contents matched the description and I took one rifle out and put it beside the crate for Kevin to find and took another two with me. The rifles lacked straps and along with the bundle of clothes, they impeded me as I navigated the cargo.

As I reached them both the Senneth and R were standing in the same positions in which I had left them. The Senneth especially had a very serene stance. In this situation of apparent peace, calm and tranquillity I, without even consciously making the decision, casually threw one rifle towards R in a small arc.
Even before I actually released the rifle the Senneth had leaped forward to intercept it. R immediately responded and jumped in, grabbing the wrist of the Senneth and pulling her sideways towards the ground with one arm and exerting pressure to her upper arm with the other. Before I could add anything to the situation an audible snap indicated her arm had been broken. My radio clicked; it was Kevin. “I’ve spoken to Simmons, he confirmed there was a Senneth among the cargo. Apparently this is some high ranking Senneth diplomat, and we, of course,” Kevin emphasized somewhat jokingly, “should treat her with the utmost respect and dignity if not to upset human-Senneth, or more precisely, Therra-Senneth relations. He had no further explanation or orders on what to do besides mentioning he would get back with us on this one. So pretty helpful.”
“Indeed,” I said mesmerized as the Senneth before me groaned in pain.
R threw her back a meter or two, before kneeling down and picking up the rifle. He took up position next to me facing the Senneth, who got up on her knees and her good arm. She was silent, but from her expression it was clear she was in immense pain.
“I brought you your clothes,” I said with a sigh. They were lying on the floor in front of me as I gazed at her, through the sight of the second rifle. “This wasn’t really a smart move.”

I kneeled down, put the rifle on the ground and pulled the medkit Kevin had left here towards me. I dug up an auto injector, set it to morphine and threw it towards her.
“Morphine, ten milligram. Do you know what that is?”
“Yes,” The Senneth said before biting away an urge to scream.
After picking up the injector and inspecting it, she moved it over to the side of her neck
“You’re not allergic to it?” I asked, “because I wouldn’t know.” Although they are of human descent, I knew they had a greatly altered physiology.
She injected.


Kevin Clayton: Stranded

“So you broke her arm?” Simmons asked accusative over comm.
This really wasn’t our cup of tea.
“Yes, we did. She went for a weapon,” I explained.
“She’s our ally! She can carry a weapon. Do you have any idea what implications this might have Kevin?”
“I understand. It’s just…”
“I don’t think you do!” Simmons interrupted. “This incident could completely destroy our relationship with the Senneth, and we would have you to thank for it.”
It was nice to hear Simmons already make the effort to move responsibility elsewhere.
“We do in fact understand, and this would have been prevented if you had informed us she was an ally, if you had informed us she was even on the ship.”

“That doesn’t matter. This is a Senneth ambassador; the Senneth are not known for taking things lightly.”
“That’s very unfortunate,” I could hear myself say.
There was a silence on the other end of the line.
“What’s the situation right now?” Simmons asked.
“We’re keeping her on the cargo deck. She’s stable. We immobilized her arm.”
We did so at gunpoint, she refused treatment, but I didn’t feel the need to mention this to Simmons. Again there was a long silence.
“Kevin. I want you to listen to me very carefully. From now on you treat her with the utmost dignity and respect. No buts. I want you to make this perfectly clear to Max as well. Apologize, do whatever it takes. These are the Senneth. We don’t need things to get any worse then they already are.”
“Got it.” I did understand why Simmons was so wound up about this. The Senneth were not exactly easy going people. “Simmons, for what it’s worth. It’s not like she picked up a weapon and then we just broke her arm. She tried to wrestle it from us.”
“Kevin…” Simmons started. He sounded exhausted and didn’t bother to finish the sentence.
“We’ll do our best,” I said reassuring.
“Please ask Max to do the same.”
“I will.”
“We’ll get back to you. Simmons out.”
Before heading back to the cargo deck, I patched the channels of the ship’s comm system to Simmons and the rebellion through to my suit’s radio.

Arriving there I noticed the Senneth had put on the clothes we had given her. It was strange to see them in our clothes. It made them look almost human. Max was standing several meters away near the ramp. We decided to send R outside. As I approached the Senneth, Max did so as well.
“How are things going here?” I asked Max. We had already talked things through over the radio, while I made my way down here from the cockpit. This was just an act.
“Good,” Max said confident. “I’ve send R outside.”
I gave an approving nod to Max and turned to our guest.
“How is your injury,” I asked concerned.
She didn’t respond so I continued immediately, as if her silence was a consequence of a mutual understanding in which no words were needed, which of course was true is some sense, but for entirely different reasons. “We are extremely sorry for what happened. This was very unfortunate. In addition I just spoke with Therra command and they wanted me to express their immeasurable regret for what has happened as well.”
At this point my natural instincts would be to explain that, well, ‘these things happen’ and point out how she had contributed to the situation as well, but from the little I knew about the Senneth, I decided this wasn’t the best course of action. However I did feel it was necessary to address the realities of the situation.
“Besides these apologies, there is of course little we can do to undo what happened. At this point, I think, it’s important to see if we can find some way, to move forward.”

At this point the facial expression of the Senneth expressed meanly rage and annoyance as she stood upright in front of the pod, with one arm in a sling, earlier plastered with hardening foam at gunpoint. I realized there might be little we could say to make this all go away.
The Senneth swallowed once before speaking.
“I would like to talk to my government,” she insisted with a pent up rage in her voice.
“Very well,” Max said aloof. “We have connection with Therra, they can put you through to them.”


I opened the channel to Simmons.
“Simmons, this is Kevin. Come in.”
“Kevin. How is the situation?”
“She requests to talk to her government. Can you arrange for this?”
“Eh yes,” Simmons hesitated. “Tell her that we’re working on it.”
“Roger that.”
“I need to no how the ambassador is taking it.”
I turned around and while taking a few steps away, set my helmet to mute.
“She’s angry. She seems extremely angry,” I whispered.
“The Senneth abhor personal violence.” Simmons started, “They will not take this lightly and it’s not at all unlikely they will view your individual action as an action of our society, for an attack on one of them. They will hold us responsible, irregardless of the facts.”
“She tried to take a weapon,” I intervened. I was aware of the Senneths extreme stance against any form of physical violence within their society. They were far from pacifists though and even bordered on militarism.
“We have discussed this situation.” Simmons continued slowly, “and the possible consequences it might have, and we have come to the conclusion that she might have died in the crash. Killed by the UAP. Do I make myself clear?”
It was clear. However my first thought was we would never do such a thing.
“Have you thought this through?” I asked. It had been ten minutes tops since I informed them of the situation.
“We have. Can I talk to Max?”
“Sure, I’ll ask her to get to the cockpit.” I said as if I was standing there myself.

After disconnecting the connection I walked back to Max and the Senneth.
“…our robot acted on instinct. He perceived your actions as a threat.” Max explained to the Senneth, who was looking the other way. Max looked over to me.
“So what’s the deal?” She asked.
“They’re trying to get in contact with your government.” I told the Senneth “Once they do, they’ll contact us.”
“How long, will this take?” the Senneth asked annoyed.
“I don’t know exactly, but I’m sure they’re doing everything they can.”
“Have you, located, the Senneth property, aboard this ship?”
“No, not yet.” Due to other events we hadn’t gotten around to looking for it.
“You are to return this, to, me, as soon as possible!” The Senneth ordered.

“We’ll go looking for it,” I assured her.
A long silence followed, while the three of us just stood there on the cargo deck. It was an embarrassing situation. Should we start sifting through the entire cargo like she demanded, while she waited here? For some reason I didn’t feel like doing so. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to take orders from her. I could appreciate the political situation. She was a high place political official and if she expected me to be a lowly servant to cater to her on her every whim, I could do that. It also wasn’t because Simmons had ordered me to kill her. I imagined I should send Max to the cockpit to talk to Simmons or at least explain to her what he wanted us to do, but somehow I knew it wouldn’t matter. Max wouldn’t like the idea anymore then I did. From the corner of my eye I could see Max standing next to me. She seemed to be in some contemplation as well, staring into distance. For some reason I started to feel a joy inside. I didn’t know why.
“You went for the rifle. What did you think was going to happen?” I asked the Senneth.
She had her eyes pierced and was looking to some empty point in space, somewhere between Max and me. She looked angry, seemingly keeping in a fierce rage. I looked at her eyes. How could she possibly not see this was at least partly her own fault? I wondered, and then I started smiling. I realized she didn’t. All this anger and rage was just hurt pride, and Senneth pride was big.
She had probably thought she would get the rifle. Max had explained to me what happened. I imagined it would have been a pretty awesome display of Senneth superiority, her acquiring the weapon, in some superhuman move.
Next to me Max reached out her rifle towards the Senneth, holding it by its fore end. The Senneth looked at her for a moment and then, with her good arm, took the rifle from Max’s hand. She inspected the rifle, slowly canting it both ways. Then she threw it back to Max in a small arc.
A certain arrogance and disdain remained in the eyes of the Senneth, but I figured this might be normal for them.


Senneth Advisor for Dania: Delta

The humans had located the Senneth’s belongings on the wreckage. In all, it encompassed a single box. It’s outside featured the yellow pictogram of a radiant sun; thé symbol of Senneth society. The humans had placed it in one of the smaller rooms of their ship. Or maybe they had simply found it there, for there was an assortment of boxes standing throughout the room. I placed my hand onto the surface of the box. The moment I felt the interface below come alive I messaged the box to open.
The box indicated its compliance and subsequently its lid slowly opened to give access to the content it had secured until now. This situation was of course reason for concern; by opening this box I was giving the humans the opportunity to take its content by force while I did not have the means to enforce its security. Such an act would of course result in a response by the Senneth which would greatly offset any advantage which might be gained from it. As such it would not be in the advantage for any society to commit such an act unless they could do so without the Senneth knowing.

The current situation might however give exactly such an opportunity and it was my responsibility to eliminate those risks to the best of my ability. To do so I had delayed accessing the box until after contacting my command and informing them about my situation. The communication channel had been supplied by Therra and therefore could not be presumed secure from at least Therra itself, so the information I could relay had been scarce, but it had made sure the Senneth command was aware of my survival and the safety of Senneth equipment up until this point in time. This knowledge would greatly impede any violations Therra might make in secret against my person as well as Senneth property. There were of course no overt clues Therra would engage in these actions, otherwise the Senneth would never have agreed on sending me so far outside their direct control. Having set up this communication channel so quickly was in some sense a testimony to Therra’s goodwill. Something which reinforced their ongoing commitment to act in good spirit, at least in regard to us, just like the Senneth had always done and would always do so, to everyone.

The human who had escorted me to this room had accepted my request to be left alone. I removed all the human clothing from my body as well as the material they had put around my broken arm. My own clothing, folded up on one side of the box, was a survival suit. It contracted around me as it was put on, carefully readjusting itself to have its joints match up with mine.
When it was done, I messaged the suit my left arm was broken and to support it.
The suit became more rigid around my arm, immobilizing it in the process. I contemplated on using the sling contraption the humans had used to keep my arm in front of my chest. Although it more closely mimicked the pose in which an injured mammal such as myself would like to keep a broken limb, it did not supply faster healing or more protection than my suit was currently providing. In addition such an overt sign of injury could, how irrational it may be, convey Senneth weakness to some. I already had done enough of that so far, and my command would not be pleased in what position I had gotten myself to be, earlier this day.
This might well be, my last mission, in such a capacity, I thought to myself.



Max Hayes: Joint venture

“They’ll know you’re coming,” Kevin told the Senneth.
We’d just given her coordinates to a rebel base several thousand miles from our current location. There were other bases much nearer, but this was one of the nerve centres of the rebellion where she obviously needed to be.
“Very well,” the Senneth said solemn. “Will someone, come to assist, you?”
“Probably,” I said relaxed. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.”
“Then I, wish you, the best, of luck.”
“Much appreciated. No hard feelings?” I asked sincere.
“In a moment of mutual uncertainty, misunderstanding and the threat of insecurity, violence escalated. I see no reason, to continue to act on that moment, when it has ceased to exist.”

“We agree,” Kevin said.
In agreeance with Kevin, I in turn nodded towards the Senneth. “Good luck.”
The Senneth container was hovering in the air just beside and above her shoulder.
I stepped back as I felt the fluther of the grav-field emanating from her position. Grains of sand started to rise up from the ground around her. The sand tumbled through the air while at the same time being moved upwards by an invisible force. The Senneth closed her eyes in order to shield them as the sand rose further up and started to swirl around her head. With her eyes closed her own body was then slowly lifted from the ground. About two meters into the air the fresh supply of sand from the ground ceased and the air around her quickly cleared. She opened her eyes again, glanced down briefly towards us as she started to move backwards as well as further upwards, before she turned around and flew away from us with an ever increasing speed.

“It’s nice technology,” I casually said to Kevin who held his hands above his eyes as he tried to keep a trace of the disappearing Senneth in the distance.
“It sure is.” Kevin said still focused on the Senneth.
“She’s attractive too,” I suggested.
“Not this again,” Kevin said with feigned annoyance.
“I’m just making an observation, Kevin,” I said smiling.
“Sure you are. So what’s next?”
“Don’t know. I think we should try to reach a rebel base ourselves.”
“Closest one is due west in those mountain ranges, according to Simmons.”
“Distance?”
“About 600 kilometres. Simmons is going to send me the waypoints.”
“I’ll check in on R,” I said before heading back to the ship.
Just off the ramp R was assembling a buggy we’d located in the cargo. He had already attached the wheels and chairs to the chassis and was now busy with the roll cage. R had been standing beside the vehicle intensely staring at it for a serious duration of time. As I arrived I saw he had already attached the roll cage on the left side of the chassis. It was quickly clear there were four attachment points for the roll cage, two on either side. The holes on right side of the cage weren’t properly aligned with their attachment points on the chassis; maybe the cage had been slightly bent during the crash, or maybe the cage was just slightly flexible, allowing it to fall in between the chassis. The required action involved simply physically moving the cage upwards and sideway to align it properly with the attachment point and put a screw through them, but there were just two more chairs and a steering column lying about, it was a simple assembly, so I chose to not to intervene and leave R to it.

When Kevin and I returned to him an hour later the buggy was fully assembled and R was standing guard next to it.
“Excellent,” Kevin said.
Kevin and I had gathered supplies for a week which should be more than sufficient to make the trip. Simmons had insured us we would be able to make radio contact with the base once we neared the mountains. We strapped all the supplies to the vehicle, made a last survey of the ship for any valuables or essentials we’d forgotten and drove off into the desert.