AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Provided he didn’t turn against her once he no longer needed her piloting services. Which could happen sooner rather than later if there was no ship for her to pilot.
“Stay here while I check if it’s safe,” Therak instructed her before he opened one of the doors with a hard pull. Those things were dusty all over, as if battered by sand-filled winds for months.
She nodded and watched as he took one of the heavy chains off the ground. Thus armed, he disappeared in the darkness beyond the entrance.
As she waited, Miya began wondering if sticking to Therak’s side hadn’t been the better option. Especially since two minutes later, she was yet to hear an all-clear call from him. Yes, it was bright and sunny outside, but she was alone with her thoughts now. And in addition to worrying about him and the existence of an evac ship, she couldn’t stop thinking about the state of the dining hall.
About the missing bodies.
Killed or badly injured, the owners of all that blood could not have been moved out of the station by other colonists. Not without leaving behind bloody traces along the floors. Had they been rescued through the hole in the dome? No, that would have been dangerous, not to mention it would have taken much longer than a land rescue. Unless the station had been under siege or something, but in that case Miya and Therak would have found all the doors locked and barricaded.
It was as if the colonists had thought they were safe in the dining hall. Until they weren’t.
Therak had left her here, thinking Miya would be safe, but what if she wasn’t?
She looked around at the deserted settlement. At the outlines of terraforming machinery inside the storage space that she could distinguish from the entrance. There was no movement anywhere. No sign of life. She might as well be the only person on this planet.
What would happen to her if that was, indeed, the case? Without Therak…
Miya was going to die. In lace underwear.
She was close to full-blown panic when Therak came out, perfectly fine. She had never been happier to see a naked guy before. She barely resisted the urge to hug him.
“What happened?” she asked as she watched him open the second door, letting more natural light in.
“It’s safe. Come.”
Miya quickly followed him inside. “Are there any ships in here?”
Then she saw it herself. A small evacuation shuttle. Basically a rectangular dark-blue box with short wings, but still a model capable of interplanetary travel within a system. Some good news, finally!
The shuttle was parked to the right of the entrance, close enough for some daylight to illuminate the Birmiang Mining logo on the hull.
So, the colonists were not only terraforming this area of the planet but also digging for whatever the company funding their residence here was interested in. A quick look around confirmed it: there were drills, carrier bots, one of which a human-driven one for lifting massive rocks, and pickaxes for the more delicate mining work.
A very wide well in the center of the storage space had to be where spare power cells were kept, since per safety regulations flammable and explosive stuff were stored below surface. There had to be fuel down there as well, given how outdated some of the equipment was.
Birmiang Mining was clearly not interested enough in this planet’s resources to invest much space credits. As well as to follow safety protocols, for that matter.
The standard practice was to have enough ships on site to evacuate everyone in one go. The amount of crazy stuff that happened on newly found planets usually required that no time be wasted in getting every single colonist off the surface. Here, however, there was just one shuttle that could carry up to 30 people, if packed like sardines. The lack of empty space in the building indicated there had never been another spacecraft for emergency purposes.
Meaning that whatever had happened here had resulted either in the colonists being rescued by a special ship, which was highly unlikely in this backwater system, or in no one getting evacuated.
At least 30 people could have left Xera, but instead the shuttle was just gathering dust in here. The transport rovers at the other end of the storage space, with no empty parking places visible, suggested no one had fled the base either.
Where was everyone?!
“Miya.”
She nearly yelped in surprise. She had gotten so lost in her dark thoughts that she had missed Therak coming to stand right beside her.
“Can you fly this shuttle?”
Trust Therak to always stay focused on the mission. She should follow his example. “Let’s take a look inside.”
A slide of her palm under the wing produced a hissing sound, followed by the opening of an oval-shaped hatch in the hull and the unfolding of a small boarding ramp.
“Easy-peasy thus far,” she muttered and stepped on the ramp.
