For a spaceport, Aten, wasn’t as loud as Lizan had thought it would be. She stood leaned up against the main post of the tiny boat she had been living in for more than a month. Over the usual murmur of a market, she heard music playing somewhere nearby. Despite all the colors and fantastic sites, boredom gnawed at Lizan.
A muffled explosion from below the deck started Lizan out of her bored thoughts. She whipped around and saw wisp of smoke coming from the trap door leading to the lower levels. Lizan ran over to the door and threw it open, getting a face full of smoke. Coughing and waving the smoke away, she tried to peer into the engine room below. “Eb? You okay?”
“Yeah,” came a raspy reply, “Yeah I’m alive.”
Lizan heard Eb running for the ladder and coming up. Once at the top, he tumbled out and crawled away from the smoke, coughing the whole way.
Lizan knelt next to Eb and patted his back gently. At least, what she thought was gentle; Eb almost had the air knocked out of him on a few of them.
“Is anything on fire?” Lizan asked.
“No, thank the mountains, it’s just a part gave out.” Eb said
“Gertins Lizan, I’m a biologist, not a mechanic. It looked important though.”
“Can’t we hire a mechanic to look at it?”
Eb shook his head and stood up. “We don’t have enough credits for a professional mechanic and the replacement parts.”
Lizan cursed under her breath. “Then how are we supposed to get to the Electric Storms HQ and back in time?”
“Simple, we can’t. I’m not even sure if we can even make it home with the engine that way.”
Lizan cursed again and began pacing along the short deck of their ship. A bit of smoke was still spewing out of the engine room. Her anger rose when she saw it. Finally, she couldn’t contain it longer, “Splatstic!” she cursed and kicked at the door leading to the cabins. The door flew off it’s hinges and made a dent in the wall on the other side.
Lizan stared at the damage she made. She groaned out another curse and sat down in the open doorway. Eb placed a hand on her shoulder, “I’m sure we can find help. Don’t worry, It’ll be alright.”
Lizan sighed and looked to Eb. “I hope you’re right.”
Someone nearby cleared their throat. “Hello?”
Lizan leaned over to look past Eb. Standing halfway up the plank to the ship was an alien. She vaguely remembered learning about it in academy training. It was a terran, or human as some of them preferred. Lizan didn’t note much about the terran’s appearance other than her clothes seemed to have scorch marks and oil stains on them.
Eb addressed the alien, “Greetings. May I help you?”
“Actually, I’m here to help you.” she gestured to the thin trail of smoke that was still coming out of the trapdoor, “Is that your engine?”
“That is correct.” Eb stood up and took a few steps towards the terran. “You said you could help?”
“Yep!” The terran stepped onto the ship and to the trapdoor. “I couldn’t help but overhear your problem. Let’s see what I can do.” She went down below with Eb following close behind. Lizan walked up to the trapdoor and listened in.
The terran whistled. “Thats an impressive blast. Let’s see.” Some clanging sounds came up. “Well this isn’t good.”
“This was your power regulator. Without it, the energy collected from the sails are useless. I don’t have a replacement, but maybe I can get-”
“No, I won’t have you spend your money on us if it can be avoided. Is there a way to temporarily repair it so we could get home? The organisation we work for will be able to repair it then.”
For the next hour or so, the terran worked on the broken part. Eb took to having a friendly conversation with the alien. Her name was Rowan and she was the engineer for a ship called The Next Horizon. She went on to tell some of the crazy misadventures she and the others of her crew had been on. When Rowan left, she pointed out her ship and told them to come by if anything else came up.
Lizan and Eb stood on the deck of their ship looking out to where the terran had walked off. They didn’t say anything, but Lizan had been with Eb long enough to know what he was thinking. She was thinking the same thing.
Lizan sighed, “They’re the best bet we have at this point. I know what you’re planning, let’s go.”
Lizan and Eb stood across the desk of the captain of the Next Horizon, another terran named Pilot. Eb stood more forward as he addressed her and presented their situation. Lizan, meanwhile, leaned against the wall behind him with her arms crossed.
Eb went over the basics. Their star system, the Lamina system, had a unique galactic animal. The solturtle could only be found in the asteroid plane. Over the last few years, the population has gone down at an alarming rate due to poaching. Their organization is doing its' best to research these creatures and get rid of the poachers hunting them. Recently, their numbers have been stretched thin. The heads of the organization sent Eb and Lizan to recruit help. Since this ship had both scientist and fighters, they would be great for the job.
Of course Pilot was concerned for the safety of her crew. What kind of captain would she be if she wasn’t?
Eb reassured her that her crew would be far from the main action. They would be helping to protect the the biology team and the turtles from any poachers. This way, the organization could focuses its’ main efforts on taking care of the poachers themselves. The Next Horizon will also be paid well for their help.
The captain mulled over the offer. Lizan studied her expression. She was thinking it through with care, that much was certain. As Lizan searched the captains features, she felt that they were suppressing something. What, she wasn’t sure.
The captain cleared her throat and looked at them both. “Alright, I’ll accept your offer.” Then she and Eb shook on it.
“We’ll leave in the evening. First, we’ll be going to the planet Prandium.” explained Eb, “There we will meet with the officials of the organization and get everything sorted out and get supplies. Then we can head to the asteroid plane.”
The captain agreed. Lizan and Eb left to get food and other supplies from the market. Lizan, for one, was glad that she’d be returning with the help they promised to get.
