Chapter 20 - Groundwork

The rest of the night had gone down pretty much as expected.
Dukk slept for much of the morning’s watch. He had to get out of bed briefly, on two occasions. The first time was near seven a.m.. He had to let Bazzer and Mentor out. They were off skiing. They had hired armed escorts so they could spend a couple of hours off-piste and do some exploring beyond the fences. The second time was just after nine a.m.. Annee had returned. She was looking pretty happy with herself. She winked at Dukk as he open the door. Dukk just smiled as he closed the door and return to bed.

It was near ten a.m. when Dukk made a proper effort at starting his day.
The crew mess was busy when he left his cabin, showered and dressed.
He felt a little late to the party as everyone was there. They were seated around the table having breakfast.
“We crossed to the valley behind the resort,” Bazzer said to the others. “We went to the original settlement and second space port. It must have been some sight in the day. With dangerous indigenous creatures running a muck. Now it just looks abandoned. The fences are broken in places and the pads are mostly hidden beneath the snow.”
“Did you see any creatures this morning?” Luna asked.
“Nope,” Mentor answered. “There were lots of tracks, but our escorts said we were making too much noise to come across anything.”
“What was it like in just the red sunlight?”
“Much the same as getting around at night, back on Earth.”
“The infrared goggles solved that problem,” Bazzer added.
“I will definitely have to give that a go,” Luna reflected.
“Well not today. We’ve got a full schedule,” Marr interjected. “You have to show me the hike you did yesterday and then we have our skiing lessons at midday.”
“Yep, not today,” Luna conceded.

“You two are back?” Dukk observed as he approached the table and looked at Bazzer and Mentor. “I didn’t hear the door open request?”
“Yep, I was up and saw them approaching the rig. I opened the door before they made the request. Figured, you’d already been up twice this morning,” Marr answered for them.
“Thank you,” Dukk replied, smiling over at Marr.
“What’s the story with the packs?” Dukk asked pointing at the two medium size backpacks near the crew mess door.
“Precautions for the hike,” Marr answered quickly. “Mentor mentioned it was much colder outside this morning than yesterday. So, I’d figured we’d pack extra warmth. Just in case.”
“Wise move.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you coming back here between the hike and the ski lesson? I was thinking of getting some skiing done before loading.”
“Yes, definitely. If it is anything like snowboarding yesterday, we won’t want the extra jackets for the ski lessons.”
“Great, I’ll wait and come with you. Perhaps we can get some lunch after? It would be good to find another steak like the one last night.”
“That would be good, except Luna has to be back for two p.m. for her watch.”
“I’ll come too,” Bazzer interjected. “The off-piste foray was too slow going for my liking. I’d like to come down the mountain a few times at speed. Luna and I can come back together just before two p.m. and in time for the start of watch.”
“Didn’t you swap some hours with Ann?” Marr asked.
“Yes. Ann is covering a few hours this afternoon,” Bazzer replied. “But, I’ll need a nap after the early start today, so coming back at two p.m. suits me. It will be all hands from four p.m. with refuelling and loading.”
“And, Luna and I will have plenty to keep us busy. We have passengers to find and get locked in,” Annee added.
“Excellent. That’s settled then. Ready Luna?” Marr concluded and smiled at Dukk, oblivious to the fact that she had just asked Luna a question.
The others grinned, having thoroughly enjoyed watching the exchange between Marr and Dukk.

A little later, Dukk was doing some paperwork at the console in the back of the cockpit.
“There you are,” Annee said as she entered.
“Hi Ann. What’s going on?” Dukk said pleasantly as he looked up.
Annee sat in the seat next to him. “I have received some proposals for the return leg. Four passengers. Two couples. They are mining scientists. They have just completed a six month maintenance contract on the deep drilling equipment.”
“Does their story checkout?”
“Yep. I contacted their maintenance supervisor. He confirmed the end of the contract. I also checked our copy of Earth’s transit logs from six months ago. It shows them receiving a contract to work on the extraction equipment that collects fuel for the resort’s reactors.”
“That sounds a lot more solid than what Wallace got us leaving Earth,” joked Dukk.
“Yes, it does,” agreed Annee.
“Are they paying?”
“Their proposals are low. Well below what we got for the outbound leg. And they want to pay partly in crypto. They said they’ve accumulated more than they can spend here and want to get rid of it.”
“I am happy to make less if it means we aren’t watching our backs the whole time.”
“Agreed. Should we use the standard arrangement for the crypto?”
“I think so. I for one don’t want to establish a black-market wallet here. It makes more sense to maintain them at the hubs as we pass through them more often. Besides, the rig wallet at Kaytom Beach is basically empty. I organised a transfer to Maple Tower just in case Wallace didn’t come good on his promise.”
“Great, I’ll ask them to organise some transfer slips and tell them to hold onto them until we get to Kaytom Beach.”
“Sound. Better they get caught with them than us, if we get inspected before leaving here.”
“I’ll instruct them to be at the hanger entrance by four thirty.”
“Perfect,” Dukk answered as he turned back to the departure request forms.

Annee didn’t leave straight away. She just hovered.
“What?” Dukk said empathetically as he turned back to look up at her.
“Our neighbours have gone. The interceptor.”
“Yes, I noticed.”
“While I was in the databases, I did some digging.”
“What did you find?”
“The Ukendt’s registration is private. The registration is hidden behind a legal firm in a central system in the Atesoughton cluster. The registration record simply says that it is a merchant vessel. No further details. The Mayfield Port Authority lists it as arriving three days ago with four crew, no cargo and no passengers. I ran the crew IDs through our sync of the Earth’s databases. Nothing showed up.”
“Mercenaries? Sanctioned thugs?”
“I guess so. Odd place for them to be, here in a resort settlement?”
“Yep, it is odd,” Dukk answered sincerely.
Annee tried to force a smile for a moment. Then she turned and left Dukk be.

(to be continued...)

[Rule of Twelve, Double Take, Chapter 20 - Groundwork (Passage 1 of 5)]

All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2022 BJ Allen