Page 11 of Crash Landing
I rubbed my brow awkwardly. “Cool.”
“But I’m from the Alberta campus.”
“Does that mean you don’t know who I am?”
“Oh, I know who you are. I’m from a different campus, but you were on the news, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” I sighed. “You should know I was rejected up until someone had to drop out, though. I’m not getting any special treatment.”
“Aren’t you, though? NexCom is funding your education, right?”
It was a burn, but it was true.
I crossed my arms over myself and nodded. “What about you?”
“Oh, my dad’s rich. And he doesn’t want to spend time with his kids, so he sent us all off to be big shots like him.”
“So, do you even want to be here?”
She shrugged. “Whatever. It’s easy work. I’m excited to be here on the Nexus, though. Holy shit. We’re in space. How amazing is that? I never thought I’d get here.”
“Yeah. Pretty amazing.”
“Oh, sorry. I know you were in some big tragic accident last year. This probably isn’t as glamorous for you, huh?”
“It’s fine. I actually love the Nexus. It’s ships and open space I hate.”
“Sure, it is. Well, see you around, I guess.”
With that, she started walking ahead of me again, bobbing her head to some song no one else could hear. For a couple of seconds, I thought I’d have a friend on the expedition, but Candice was a little sporadic. It was time to return to my original plan. Focus, ignore everyone else, be my best self, and work hard.
5: Saleuk
At least I was piloting a ship…
Even if that ship was about to fill up with a bunch of science geeks from Earth looking to dissect a few alien plants.
Science geeks andSam.
We departed Caeol and set a course toward the Nexus. Myself and four others manned the Haelo, which I could see now was a junker from before we all went into stasis. Lucky for me, I learned on the same model so flying it wasn’t a problem. Wondering if we would need to use the two escape pods at the back was.
The design wasn’t as aerodynamic as what I had grown used to. It had a spacious interior with the bridge being only a stairwell away from the passenger cabin. But its shields were refurbished, so it was a good ship for entering atmospheres multiple times without problems. In theory.
The four other crew members were somewhat new to… well… everything. None of them had seen humans up close and none of them had been in combat outside a training simulation and only two of them were wilderness experts. I tried to put that all out of my mind, though. I was a military guy expecting the worst, but we were just escorts. Glorified babysitters. Our job was to taxi the humans around, watch themoooandaaahhat a bunch of plants, and then taxi them back to wherever they needed to go.
Highways were built between major solar systems. Wormhole gates that only valerian officials had the means to open with codes transmitted from authorized ships. Once I reached the nearest one, I shot right through it until we were in Nexus territory. From there, it was a few hours in FTL to even reach the barricade. Since the gek attacked a human cargo ship a year prior, the Nexus had doubled their security. Not that it would matter much if the gek ever decided to launch a full-on attack. Which, to our luck, hadn’t happened yet and Vahko and Innifer were out there somewhere trying to find out it if ever would.
“Approaching the Nexus,” I announced, punching my docking code into the comms as the blockade came into view.
Hundreds of drones surrounded the Nexus, scanning space for threats. Without contact codes, a ship was flagged before it even came into view. But we were valerian and the valerians had been trading with the Nexus since it first turned on its lights. We gave them syfer in exchange for genetic samples. Syfer was a crystal that could be transformed into a powerful energy source. It was one of the most valuable resources in the galaxy. In return, the humans gave us specimens to study so we might one day fully cure our fertility issues. Human and valerian DNA was so close that it wasn’t that farfetched to think it could work. Perhaps we could even cross-breed. Innifer hadn’t gotten pregnant yet, but the mere fact that they surged was a complete wonder.
The docking bay was ready for us when we crossed the blockade. There was a spot on the far side that I always took if it was available. I didn’t like being sandwiched between human ships.
“Helmets on,” I said to the team.
Stars above, I sounded like Vahko. Some humans had discovered that we didn’t need our helmets on their spacestation, but Vahko always preached that no one should know all of our weaknesses or all of our strengths. Although, despite not needing them to breathe, the tinted visors did help with the blindingly white light that lit up the inside of the Nexus. Humans seemed to need massive amounts of light at all times.
Once the ship was docked and my crew’s helmets were on, one of the men lowered the boarding ramp. A gust of filtered air flew through the cabin and that white light seared my visor. I stood from my pilot seat and walked to the front of the crew. Zoval had made me captain for a short while in order to get through the assignment. Not that it meant much with a crew of four, but it was nice to be barking orders for once.
