“That must be those vents we saw on the sides of the buildings.”
“Yes, they blow warm air out into the street. It is wasteful, but necessary. There were plans to enclose much of the city in a dome, but it is doubtful that they will spend the time and money to do so.”
“Sounds rough to me,” Jessica said.
“You don’t like the cold?” Vladimir asked.
“I grew up in Florida,” she explained. “We don’t do cold there.”
“Where I grew up, we had snow and ice for at least half of the year. Very cold,” Vladimir said. “But when the snow would melt, everything was green and beautiful.”
“Well, it never gets beautiful on Haven. It isn’t pretty, but it is out of the way and we are left alone. And because of the rings, we can get what we need out here.”
Nathan continued to gaze at the stark landscape as they traveled. “You know, there isn’t any wildlife here,” he stated. “I just realized-I haven’t seen so much as a bird, a squirrel, or even a dog the entire time we’ve been here. Don’t you have any animals on Haven?”
“There are some,” Tug assured him. “None that are indigenous to this world, as it was a lifeless rock before it was reformed.”
“Not even pets?” Nathan wondered.
“A few. But most people cannot afford such luxuries.”
“Surely you have livestock of some type?” Nathan asked. “You know, cows, chickens, pigs, goats. Animals you can eat?”
“Yes, of course. But again, such creatures are expensive to acquire and to care for. They are rare on Haven and only for the rich. And those that own such keep them indoors, to protect against the cold as well as theft.”
“There are bugs,” Jessica commented, as she swatted something that had landed on her neck.
“Yes,” Tug laughed. “Somehow, they always manage to find their way onto every human inhabited world.”
“He’s coming in awfully fast,” Ensign Yosef warned. By now, news of the harvester pilot’s skills had spread, and there were a few more people on the bridge than usual, all wanting to witness his first landing.
“Put up the flight deck approach camera,” Cameron ordered. On the main view screen, the image switched from the standard view ahead to one facing aft toward the open flight deck between the center of the ship and the massive drive section at her stern. A small point on the screen, nothing more than a glint of reflected light, was dropping toward them, growing larger as it descended.
“He’s coming in high as well,” Cameron noted.
Everyone on the bridge watched the main viewer as the little speck quickly grew in size as it continued to descend toward them. Within moments the speck grew into shape of the harvester. It came in low, skimming quickly over the tail of the ship. No sooner had it cleared the drive section than it dropped further, pulled its nose up, and flared its landing thrusters to decelerate sharply.
“Volander, Harvester,” the pilot’s voice came over the comm-channel. “You might wanna open your outer bay door so I don’t roll right into it.”
“Open it,” Cameron ordered.
The outer transfer bay door began lifting open as the harvester finished its flaring maneuver, settling onto the deck with enough forward momentum left to roll into the primary airlock bay. Without hesitation, the small harvester rolled under the rising airlock door, barely clearing, and then slammed on its brakes to stop just as it was about to kiss the inner door.
“Volander, Harvester. We’re in, close her up.”
The airlock bay door immediately began to slid back down as the harvester powered down her main engines in preparation to enter the hangar bay.
“Damn. Was that really necessary?” Cameron asked. Although his skills were impressive, she wasn’t too pleased with his reckless landing on her ship.
“Probably not,” Ensign Yosef agreed. “But it was impressive.”
“You have the Conn, Ensign. I’m going to have a little chat with that hot-shot about proper landing procedures.” Without waiting for a response, Cameron turned and headed out of the bridge.
The harvester rolled into the hangar bay, turning sharply to port before stopping. As it came to a complete stop, one of the ground crew ran underneath and opened up a control panel along the harvester’s undercarriage. After manipulating the controls, several locking mechanisms disengaged and the entire collection pod dropped smoothly off the bottom of the harvester and onto the deck. Moments later, two more workers were rolling the massive pod away to be unloaded. Meanwhile, others were connecting a refueling line that came from one of their nearby cargo shuttles.
Cameron came charging into the bay, marching up to Ensign Mendez, who was overseeing the security of the operation.
“Ensign Mendez,” she snapped. “I want to have a word with that pilot,” she ordered, pointing toward the cockpit of the harvester.
“Uh, yes, sir. But I think you’ll have to talk to their crew foreman, sir.” Mendez answered.
“And who would that be?”
“That would be me, lady.” The old man that had challenged Mendez back on Tobin’s shuttle stepped over from where he had been overseeing the manual off-load of the harvester’s collection pod.
“Commander,” Mendez started. “This is the foreman.”
“Marcus Wallace, at your service, ma’am.”
“Mister Wallace, I’d like a word with one of your pilots,” Cameron insisted in no uncertain terms.
“I’m assuming you mean Josh?”
“If he’s the reckless jerk flying that harvester, then yes.” Cameron looked over at the cockpit windows of the harvester. She could see the helmeted pilot as he checked his systems in preparation for departure. His face was obscured by the reflection on his faceplate, but he saw Cameron looking his way, and gave her a little mock salute. For a moment, she could’ve sworn she saw a smirk on his face.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, ma’am. You see, he’s in the middle of a hot refuel, so he can’t leave the cockpit. Besides, he’ll be taking off again shortly.”
“Well you tell that little hot-shot that he needs to call in for approach and follow the controller’s guidelines. Because the next time he comes in to my flight deck like a bat-out-of-hell, he’s going to find himself slamming headlong into the outer bay door. Is that understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Marcus chuckled.
Ensign Mendez started to smile, then stopped when his eyes met his commander’s as she turned and charged out of the bay.
Marcus lowered his headset mic. “Joshua? I trust you copied all of that?”
“I gotta ask nicely next time?” Josh joked over the comm.
“If you don’t mind? And maybe you can ease up on the throttle as well?”
“Okay, but that’s gonna take all the fun out of it.”
“All right!” Marcus hollered. “Let’s get that pod unloaded, strapped back on, and get him the hell outta here! MOVE IT, PEOPLE!”
Workers scrambled to remove the last of the rubble from the collection pod before rolling it back under the harvester. With the touch of the controls, the pod raised up until it mated with the underside of the harvester, its latches grasping tightly and its wheels retracting up into her undersides. A warning klaxon sounded once from the harvester, and its motion warning lights began to flash, warning everyone on the deck that it was about to start moving. A few seconds later, the harvester backed up slightly, pivoted its nose aft, and started rolling out of the hangar bay and back into the transfer airlock.
“Volander, Harvester. Requesting permission for departure,” Josh’s voice crackled over the comms.
Marcus smiled. “Good boy.”
As they got farther away from the city, the farms became more spread out, with greater amounts of undeveloped space between them. Eventually, they turned off on a small side road that led into a canyon of sorts. It was about a hundred meters long and forty meters across, and it looked like a large trench.
