white walkways. There were overhead monorail systems running on what seemed like impossibly thin rails. Even the more congested parts of the city appeared pristine by Haven standards.
“I don’t much care for this auto-landing crap,” Josh complained.
“They probably already heard how you fly and are just playing it safe. Just relax and enjoy the scenery,” Loki told him.
“Listen to you two,” Marcus teased over the comms from the rear of the shuttle. “You sound like you’ve never been to a core world before.”
“I ain’t been off Haven since I was what, four or something?” Josh reminded him.
“I’ve been a few places besides Haven,” Loki admitted, “but never any place like this.”
“How many people do you suppose live here?” Josh wondered.
“Over 4 billion was the last estimate,” Tug reported over the comms. “Most of them are clustered on the main island nations in the upper and lower oceans.”
“How much of this planet is covered with water?” Loki asked.
“More than ninety percent,” Tug explained. “Most of their exports are water based commodities.”
“How come nobody lives in the equatorial regions?” Loki asked.
“This planet has no axial tilt, and its orbit is nearly a perfect circle; hence it has almost no seasonal changes. The equatorial regions are just too dry to support life.”
“How can any place on a planet that’s ninety percent water be too dry?” Josh wondered aloud.
The shuttle continued on its gradual descent over the city as it approached the local spaceport. The closer they came to the port, the more ships they saw coming and going. There was an incredible amount of air traffic, ships of every conceivable shape, size, and purpose.
“Jesus, no wonder they require ships to use the auto-landing system. Look at this!” Loki exclaimed.
“It reminds me of when you go into the kitchen at night, and turn on the lights, and all the bugs go running for cover,” Josh commented.
Outside, another larger shuttle appeared to be coming straight at them. “Uh, Loki?” Josh said, a slight bit of concern in his voice. “Is that guy coming right at us?”
Loki looked down at his scanner display. “I’m not sure.”
“Whattaya mean, you’re not sure?” Josh’s concern was beginning to show signs of panic as well.
“There are so many tracks on here, I can’t make out who’s who.”
“Well, are any of them coming right at us or not?”
“They all look like they’re coming right at us, Josh!”
Josh began to frantically try to disengage the auto-flight system. “How the hell do you shut off this crap?!” Josh was really starting to panic as the approaching ship drew nearer at an alarming rate.
“We’re going to collide!” Josh yelled as he ducked down, holding his arms up over his head to protect himself.
The massive shuttle skimmed over the top of them, missing by no more than a few meters. The jet wash from the larger ship’s engines shook the smaller shuttle for several seconds after passing overhead. By the time the roar of the passing ship’s engines subsided, all that was left was the sound of Loki’s laughter.
“What are you laughing at?” Josh demanded.
“I thought you never flinched?”
“Real funny, that was. Real funny.”
Ten minutes later, the shuttle was on the ground and had rolled to a stop at one of the countless cargo terminals. Tug and Jalea came down the boarding ramp almost before it had completely deployed.
“We’ll secure a transport for the ore and return,” Tug advised Marcus as they walked away.
Marcus watched as the two Karuzari walked across the tarmac until they reached the terminal building, where Tug went to the left towards the transportation office and Jalea went into the terminal building. Jessica had told him to keep an eye on the two of them. He didn’t know why she didn’t trust them, but as trusting people wasn’t in his nature any more than it seemed to be in hers, he had no problem obliging her request.
Jalea took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the interior lighting after coming in from the harsh afternoon sun of Corinair. After looking around to get her bearings, she spotted a communications service counter and headed toward it.
“Can I help you, Miss?” the clerk at the counter asked in the local language of Corinairi.
“I need to purchase five comm-units, please.”
“Of course. Will those be local, global, or interplanetary?”
“Two local, one global, and two interplanetary units.”
“No problem, just give me a few minutes to activate them for you.”
Jalea waited calmly as the clerk activated each unit. After paying for the comm-sets, the clerk placed them all into a clear plastic bag and handed it to her.
Jalea left without delay, heading for the exit. She stopped short of the doors, pausing to take the global comm-set out of the bag and put it into her jacket pocket before heading through the doors.
As she stepped out, Tug pulled up in a large, flatbed cargo skimmer. Jalea stepped into the open cab and took a seat next to him, the skimmer sinking slightly lower to the ground temporarily as it adjusted to the additional weight of another passenger. Tug immediately sped off across the tarmac on his way back to the shuttle.
“What do you suppose she was doing in there?” Marcus wondered aloud.
“Using the bathroom?” Josh offered.
Marcus just glared at him. He continued watching their skimmer as it hurtled across the tarmac, adjusting its speed and course to avoid ships and other skimmers sharing the tarmac with them. After a few minutes, the skimmer finally arrived and Tug backed it into position as close to the rear of the shuttle as possible.
As the skimmer backed up, Marcus raised the ramp so it was level with the tarmac. Tug adjusted the hover height of the skimmer until it was level with the shuttle’s boarding ramp, and backed it up until it was flush with the boarding ramps leading edge. A moment later, four legs extended from the skimmer and made contact with the tarmac below, after which Tug shut the skimmer down.
Marcus wheeled the crates of ore out of the back of the shuttle and onto the bed of the cargo skimmer, carefully positioning the crates in order to fit all of them onto the vehicle. The entire off-load took only fifteen minutes.
Jalea climbed down out of the skimmer’s cab and walked over to Marcus. “You may use this to contact us should the need arise. It will work anywhere within the Darvano system, even inside the asteroid base.”
“This thing will work inside a rock?” Marcus challenged.
“The external comm-array will relay the signal to the interior of the facility. It will work just fine. Unless instructed otherwise, you may meet us here tomorrow morning, between nine and ten, local time.”
“And what will you two be doing while we’re gone?” Marcus asked, trying, but failing to not appear abnormally inquisitive.
“Our instructions were to sell the ore and use the money to purchase supplies for the Aurora, which you will haul back to the ship tomorrow.”
“That shouldn’t take too long. Maybe we should just wait around.”
“That will not be necessary. We are also going to attempt to locate any friends on this world that might lend assistance.”
“Uh huh. What kind of friends?”
“I do not believe that is any of your concern,” she said as she turned and walked away.
Marcus looked down at the comm-set she had handed him, and then back at her as she climbed into the cab of the skimmer. Tug climbed in the other side of the cab, powered the vehicle back up, and retracted the legs before pulling away.
“That is one icy bitch,” Marcus muttered.
“So, time to blast off?” Josh asked.
“Soon,” Marcus told him. “First, let’s go and get us some real food.” A big grin came across his face. “I’m buying.”
It had been relatively easy to dispose of the Aurora’s shipment of raw ore as Tug had asked for a price that left the buyer with plenty of room for profit. Now that they had concluded the first task of their visit to Corinair, they
