As he entered the room, he noticed stacks of a few dozen data cores on one of the tables. There were at least four separate workstations setup, as well as a large, wall-mounted view screen on the wall.
“What are you watching?” Nathan asked as he entered the room.
“Nothing too interesting, sir,” Enrique explained as he kept skipping ahead in the video as if looking for something. “Just skimming through news broadcasts and marking anything that looks promising for translation.”
“Is this stuff live?”
“Naw, this is all the stuff we collected before we jumped into the system. So it’s all at least a day old. We picked up stuff that was just a few hours old while we were orbiting the gas-giant though. But for now we’re dark.”
“Why is that?”
“We can’t pick anything up while we’re inside this rock. At least not until they patch us into the facilities external comm-array. Vlad’s people are working on it with Allet, but until he gets the boarding ramp to secure properly to the ship, the only way over there is by EVA, so it’s slow going.”
“When does he expect to be finished?”
“Vlad’s working on the boarding ramp while Allet works on the comm-array. Last I heard, a few hours at least.”
“What’s with the data modules?” Nathan asked, pointing at the stacks of the black and silver components.
“Vlad pulled them from the damaged mainframe cores. Since they’re not being used, we’ve been swapping them out when one of ours gets full. Gives us a bit more storage capacity.”
Nathan nodded. “Good idea. If you want, I can scan through some of this stuff as well…if you could use the help, that is.”
“Sure. Take as many as you want. Just mark the file and location of anything that looks promising.”
“Okay. Carry on,” he ordered as he picked up a few data modules on his way out.
Josh and Loki gazed out the windows at the city below. It stretched out in all directions as far as they could see. Tall buildings, most of which came to points up high in the sky, surrounded by lush green parks and crystal 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.