Chapter 18: Planet Fall. Rallying from the Derrick

The boatswain’s whistle sounded on the public address system throughout the Nestia’s decks to alert the passengers and crew of an imminent message. “Attention everyone,” Inta’s pleasant voice echoed throughout. “We will be arriving in the Khosrow system in one hour. All teams have been requested to confirm their readiness for action. Thank you,” she signed off.

The ship suddenly became a hive of activity. Time-passing games were abandoned, cups of coffee were forgotten, and napping team members were roused to help begin final preparations.

On deck seven, in the Linyphiidae team leader’s private room, Emily slowly stirred from a wonderful dream of being tied down and used roughly, smothered by a large pair of warm breasts. She woke to find her reality wasn’t too different; she lay in a hammock of fine silk, pulled tight against the woman she had unexpectedly fallen in love with. Her head rested on one gray-skinned breast while the other pressed down from above, comfortably snug, nestled deep in warm cleavage. She felt safe and protected in Rhenna’s embrace; she held Emily possessively with her humanoid arms and several arachnid legs.

Rhenna reached down and brushed the hair from Emily’s face. “Time to wake up, darling. That was the announcement that we’ll be arriving at Khosrow shortly,” Rhenna said lovingly.

“I don’t think I want to,” Emily said sleepily. “ staying right here sounds much more appealing.” Emily’s hands wandered across Rhenna’s skin, sliding back and forth across the boundary between soft gray skin and smooth ebony exoskeleton. She marveled at the sensations beneath her fingers and delighted at the shivers she elicited from Rhenna when she caressed the imperceptively fine hairs covering her chitinous half.

After waking from their Broodmark consummation in the med bay and finishing their preparations with Inta’s help, the wonderful silver girl escorted them back to Rhenna’s quarters. After a quick kiss for each of them, Inta left them to their own devices, instructing them to let her know if they should need anything.

They spent several hours exploring each other’s bodies and many variety of ways to bring each other pleasure. Exhausted for a second time, they fell asleep blissfully in each other’s arms.

Emily gave Rhenna a playful pout. “You’re right, I suppose,” she said, maneuvering herself out of the hammock and onto her feet. “I’m going to need to head back to my quarters, put myself together and go check in with Devens.”

Rhenna hopped out of the hammock behind her. “I’ll need to check in with my team as well. There won’t be much to do until we have a better understanding of the situation on the ground and the team leaders come up with a game plan, but we need to be ready, none the less,” she said as she pulled a fresh tunic on and began brushing out the tangled evidence of ‘just fucked’ hair.

It only took Emily a few moments to dress; then she stretched up to kiss Rhenna, who leaned down to meet her halfway.

“I love you,” Emily said, her eyes full of emotion.

“Love you too, Darling,” Rhenna replied, her eyes moistening at a sudden rush of joy and contentment washed over her. Emily turned back once in the open doorway, blew Rhenna a kiss, and then practically skipped down the corridor toward the lifts. Rhenna watched her go and felt the slight ache of watching a part of her leave, however briefly.

“Decelerating to sub-luminal speed now,” June called aloud. The full Nestia crew was on the bridge as they entered Khosrow space; June and Will were in their usual spots at navigation and tactical, Ben sat at his preferred station in the back, Thea next to him; Be’tule was the Grove’s representative on the Bridge today, his large frame occupying most of the bench built with the Toparian physique in mind. He leaned into Artona with an arm around her as she took up the remaining space on the bench. Diana sat at a darkened station at the back on the opposite side of the room from Ben and Thea, Inta at her side. She idly fidgeted with her cane in her left hand while Inta sat on her right, holding her hand.

They received a hail as they cruised at half-luminal speed into the system. The image of a tall, slender woman in a sharp black and silver uniform appeared on the screen. She wore a black beret on her hairless head and a welcoming smile on her blue face. “Greetings, Nestia. This is Captain Lethri Pherlune of the Cantroni frigate Vespera. We were appraised of your imminent arrival and were instructed to greet you when you got here.”

“Hello, I am Captain June Harding. Thank you for your welcome,” June responded. “You’re a ways out from Cantroni space, aren’t you Captain?”

“Aye, we are,” Pherlune answered. “We were on a scouting mission in a nearby system when the tragedy struck. The AAN, fearing pirates and others who would exploit the tragedy, asked for security services when they issued their general request for aid. We were the only naval ship nearby, so we were sent to patrol Khosrow space.”

“Where’s Khosrow’s navy? Why aren’t they providing security?” Will asked, confused.

“Khosrow has no navy,” said a deep, resonating voice just off-screen. Captain Pherlune looked to her right and waved the unseen person over into the field of view. Lumbering into view was an enormous man, all rippling muscles, covered in thick, rough hair. He towered over the Cantroni, at least eight feet tall and as wide as two Urarcs, side by side. The hair on his head was braided into one thick rope running down his back, and his thick beard was braided into two smaller but similarly braided strands.

Two foot-long ivory tusks poked out from his beard, the blunt ends capped in ornately filigreed steel. Two piercing blue eyes, full of intelligence, stared out over a long, thick nose hanging loosely over his mouth, hidden under a thick beard. He wore a light vest covered in pockets, leaving his broad shoulders and massive arms bare. A heavy steel prosthesis with three iron fingers and a thumb replaced his left forearm, which must have been lost in some industrial accident.

“This is Jynthal Quoros, the second in command on the Netherlands,” Captain Pherlune said, introducing the man dwarfing her. “He came out on a shuttle to help guide you.”

“You may call me Jyn,” he said in a slow rumbling tone. “Currently, there’s no traffic control for approaching craft; it would be easier to guide you if I came aboard, but, if you wish, you can follow my shuttle down to the planet.”

“The hangar bay is a little tight right now, but I think we can manage,” Inta told the crew.

“Then it’s settled,” June said definitively. “Come on over, and someone will escort you to the bridge. Thank you, Captain Pherlune, for your help.”

“I wish there was more that we could do,” Pherlune replied, “but we’re a light frigate with a small crew; there isn’t much we can do for the people down there other than what we’re doing now.”

“And we thank you for that,” June offered appreciatively. “The last thing the people of Khosrow need to deal with is raiders on top of everything else.”

Pherlune nodded in acknowledgment. “If you find that there is something that we can help with, please do not hesitate to send word. We will do whatever we can to help. Good luck.” The captain gave a small wave and then signaled to her comms officer to close the channel. The screen on the Nestia bridge reverted to the image of the smaller ship a short distance away.

A few minutes later, a shuttle disengaged from an airlock on the frigate’s port side and slowly wheeled away, heading for the Nestia.

Standing at the far end of the last open space of the hangar, Inta raised the atmospheric force barrier and then opened the hangar doors as Jyn’s shuttle lined up on approach. Over the comms, Inta called out to the approaching shuttle. “Please bring the shuttle within one hundred meters, hold your position and shut down your engines. I’ll bring you in from there,” Inta directed.

“Understood, Nesta,” Jyn rumbled in reply.

As soon as the shuttle powered down its engines, Inta engaged the tractor beam, pulling the shuttle in and depositing it softly on the deck. While the hangar doors were melting closed, the small two-seat shuttle door hissed as it opened. Their guest, an enormous man, practically a wall of muscle, pried himself out through the door. Once he stood upright, he bent backward, stretching out.

Welcome to the Nestia,” Inta said cheerfully, craning her neck to look up to him. “My name is Inta.”

“Jyn,” he grunted, monosyllabic. Inta decided he wasn’t much of a talker and that his talents lay elsewhere. Determined to have a conversation, she persisted.

“If you’ll follow me,” Inta said, leading him to the lift. “I haven’t met anyone like you before,” Inta continued, “if you don’t mind me asking, what species are you?”

Though a man of few words, the corner of his eyes crinkled with the beginnings of a smile at his host’s insistence. “Mammuthus. My people come from Tarabolsk; I left when I was very young.”

Inta’s smile was infectious as he began opening up to her. “Left home to see the wide galaxy?” she asked as they stepped into the lift. There was barely enough room for them, Jyn’s massive form taking up most of the space. Inta couldn’t help but lean into him slightly, her head close to his chest. His slow, steady heartbeat was unusually loud in her ears.

“No, I left to find work. Tarabolsk is a poor backwater world; I would have ended up working the Tenten fields as a farm hand like my father and his father,” He paused, momentarily lost in memory, but only a moment. “I was an impetuous youth. Farming didn’t suit me.”

Everything Inta had observed about Jyn to this point indicated that he was slow and deliberate, which she suspected was how he dealt with everything. If he was an impetuous Mammuthus, then the rest of his people must be glacial in their dealings.

The lift door opened onto the command deck, and they stepped out, Jyn nearly filling the hallway. As they stepped onto the bridge, he had to dip his head to get through the doorway.

“Everyone, this is Jyn,” Inta said, introducing their guest. The crew pivoted in their seats to greet him and paused, eyes wide at the enormity of his presence.

After a beat, Will got up from his seat and extended a hand. “Nice to meet you, Jyn. I’m Will.” Will’s hand disappeared in Jyn’s fist; Will guessed that he could have crushed rocks bare-handed, judging by the rough calluses and thick, meaty fingers, but the handshake was firm and cordial.

“Let me introduce everyone. At Navigation is June, Ben’s at the science station, and that’s Thea next to him,” he said, gesturing to each in turn. They waved in greeting. “Over there is Artona and Be’tule, and of course you’ve met Inta.”

Be’tule tried not to stare, but he rarely met someone larger than he was. Artona eyed him suspiciously, evaluating how much of a threat he might be and likely calculating how she would need to take him down if necessary.

Inta stood beside Jyn, put a tiny silver hand on his massive forearm, and shot Artona a quick wink. The Urarc relaxed visibly. Inta had already decided that she liked him, and Artona had absolute trust in Inta’s judgment of people. “Please come sit over here, Jyn; I have a seat just for you.” A wide, low seat raised itself from the floor as she spoke, fitting Jyn’s dimensions.

“Thanks,” he said with a raised eyebrow, watching the chair form before his eyes. He settled into it gingerly, half expecting to crush it with his weight. When it did not collapse, he leaned back slightly, making himself comfortable.

“When you get to Khosrow, enter into an equatorial orbit. The Netherlands is currently located five hundred clicks north of the equator, roughly halfway between the mountains and the East Coast. Once you’re close enough, you should pick up our guidance beacon,” he said slowly in a low rumble.

“Alright folks, time’s a wasting. Let’s get going,” June declared, engaging the Nestia’s drive, beginning their final approach to Khosrow.

Will set the view screen to look forward, displaying a pale blue dot that swiftly grew larger. As they approached the planet, it grew in apparent size on the forward monitor, expanding into a primarily blue sphere dotted sparsely with land masses that could be seen beneath scattered puffy white clouds.

High in Khosrow’s orbit were three small moons, leftovers from the planet’s primeval accretion disk that hadn’t been pulled fully into the planet’s mass nor managed to gather together in orbit; they were grouped close enough that at night on the planet, one could look up and see the three make their way across the night sky together.

Too small for practical outposts, the moons of Khosrow remained barren and unpopulated, only providing the planet below with relatively minor tidal action.

A blinking indicator on the navigational control caught June’s attention. “We’re picking up a whole bunch of Nav transponders from ships in orbit, about a hundred or so,” she said, looking back to Jyn hopefully. “Did someone get here ahead of us?”

Jyn shook his head. “Those would be the automated freighters,” he explained. “Only high value ore shipments, like Tantalarium, get escorted, crewed transports. Everything else is loaded onto automated freighters. Some bean counter in the corporate office did the math and determined that only the high value stuff was worth the expense of protecting.”

“And eventually, the shipping companies grew tired of paying the ransom for crews captured by pirates,” Will interjected, “and went with the automated freighters. Dumb move, if you ask me. Now they lose even more because attacking them are low risk, creating even more incentive to go after them. Completely short sighted on the part of the shipping company.”

“You sound like you have experience,” Jyn observed.

“June and I used to do short haul runs like this for Peirault. Pirates think twice when they know there are people on board who’ll fight back. Peirault’s not like that, but some shipping companies are run by idiots who’ve never set foot on a freighter.”

Jyn nodded in agreement, then narrowed his eyes, questioning. “Used to? You don’t work for them anymore?”

“Not full time. We run as independent contractors now. That allows us the flexibility to do what we want while still being able to pay the bills,” Will answered.

“Like go on humanitarian missions,” Jyn rumbled approvingly.

“Exactly.” June confirmed. She looked back at the sensor readout and frowned. “So what’s up with the freighters? Are the going to be reassigned or just hang out in orbit?”

“The latter, most likely,” Jyn said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “It’d cost the company too much to send them away empty. These were queueing to be loaded, but now there’s nothing to load; there’s no one left to do it but the Netherlands’ processing facility, but we’ve basically shutdown all operations and have been focusing on rescueing those we can from the mainland. I would expect that these will end up staying in orbit for a good, long while.”

June shrugged her shoulders at the waste of it all, then returned her focus on the task at hand. She slowed their speed as they entered the atmosphere, punching through a thin layer of cloud cover until the unbroken expanse of the ocean opened below them. Following Jyn’s directions, June shifted course, heading Northward.

After a few minutes, they began picking up the faint ping of the beacon signal. “Huh, you’re picking the beacon up a quite a bit further out than I’d thought you would,” Jyn commented. “You’re going to want to follow that down, and when you get to the Rig, there will be several landing platforms surrounding the main facility. You’re a little larger than the freighters we usually load up, so we’ve cleared the largest pad for you.”

June piloted the Nestia on the Northern heading for several more minutes, then slowed their approach as the silhouette of the derrick appeared on the horizon. Calling it a derrick didn’t do justice to the scale of the floating facility. The floating refining facility was a small, self-contained city covering roughly twenty hectares, with several multi-story buildings packed tightly together, all at different heights. It looked like they were added as operations expanded. Each building had several large smokestacks, now dormant, designed for whisking heat and fumes away from the heavy industrial processes occurring inside. All the buildings were sealed and secured from the harsh ocean environment outside.

Surrounding the main facility was an array of floating landing platforms, all labeled with large yellow lettering painted onto the deck. They were connected to the main facility via wide gangways and were robust enough to support heavy machinery. Several of the smaller landing pads looked badly damaged, with dozens of surface plates missing and gangways twisted to the point of being unusable.

“We took some damage as the tsunami rolled past underneath us,” Jyn explained as they made their final approach, “a few of the platforms took the brunt of it, though it took a few days to clean up the mess inside from being tossed around.” Sadness leaked into Jyn’s usually stoic expression, “all told, we faired much better than the folks on the mainland.”

June slowed the Nestia almost to a hover, circling the facility slowly. “Put down on A1, over there,” Jyn said, pointing to the largest landing platform on the northern side of the facility.

Swinging the Nestia around, June extended the landing legs and touched down softly, dead center on the platform, before shutting down the gravity drive and running through the shutdown sequence, ramping down the power core to a low power idle.

“Softest landing I’ve seen with ship this size,” Jyn commented, clearly impressed.

“Wait till you see what she can really do,” June said, unable to contain her enthusiasm.

“I’m sure she’s spectacular,” Jyn said appreciatively, “but my instructions were to bring the team leaders to the Chief for mission planning as soon as we arrived,” he said in a flat no-nonsense tone.

“Of course,” Will chimed in. “Inta, can you ask the team leaders to send everyone they’ll need in the strategy meeting down to the cargo bay?”

“Can do!” she chirped.

Jyn stood from his seat, ready to go. “Once we’re all assembled, I’ll take you all to the main conference room to meet the Chief and discuss our options.”

“Sounds like a plan,” June said. “Let’s go.”

As everyone began filing into the corridor, heading towards the door, Inta spoke up loud enough so everyone could hear her. “Why don’t we use one of the forward lifts; the aft lifts are busy bringing the other teams down to the hangar level.” Everyone nodded and followed Inta as she led the way, stopping at a doorway that looked like every other they had just passed.

It opened on what looked to be an empty shaft with no car to step into, though odd handrails started at the open doorway and bent inward and down until it made contact with the side of the shaft wall just below the doorway.

“Inta?” Will said her name questioningly. “Is there something wrong with the lift?”

“Nope, just testing out a new idea I had while talking with one of our quests.” Then she stepped out into the open space of the lift shaft, her body pivoting at the point of contact with her feet until she was standing on the side of the shaft. She looked back at them as if they were in a hole in the floor from her perspective. “I’ve modified this whole shaft so that wherever you stand, the gravimetric plating will hold you there, just as if you were walking on the floor.”

She looked down at them and smirked. “I just realized that standing here, you can all look up my dress,” she said with a giggle. And once having said it out loud, almost instinctively, all eyes were drawn to the fact.

Ben blushed. “Inta you’re not wearing any...”

“Panties, yeah, I know. That’s what was so funny.” Seeing the crew grinning and shaking their heads at her antics, she said, “It’s not like I planned on flashing everybody; it just sort of happened.

June looked over to Jyn, who was red in the face, mortified, and intensely scrutinizing his shoes in apparent discomfort. She put a hand on his massive forearm reassuringly. “Don’t mind Inta, she means well but doesn’t have a modest bone in her body. She forgets that some folks aren’t used to that sort of behavior.”

“Erm, ah, well,” Jyn stammered, “I don’t mind, but the rest of the roughnecks on the Rig might get the wrong idea and see it as an invitation. She should be mindful of that when she comes aboard.”

June smiled, thinking it sweet of Jyn to protect Inta’s honor. “Don’t worry, Jyn. Inta can handle herself, and it wouldn’t surprise me that she just might invite their ‘attention’ to get to know them a little better.”

Inta stepped away from the edge of the doorway, and then Ben stepped through, pivoting on the balls of his toes like Inta, but needed to hold onto the handrail while he did so until he stood next to Inta in the modified lift tube.

“Hmm, a trans-deck corridor. It’s just like on a station arm, like Penrose, where they mold the grav plating to transition the direction of the ‘floor’. The transition radius is just a little tighter.” As an exploration, he continued to walk around the circumference of the tube until he stood on the opposite side, looking upside down from Inta. “It turns the tube into just another hallway, just running from the top decks to the bottom.”

“No more waiting for the lift,” Inta offered, gauging Ben’s reaction. “It would certainly speed up the throughput of moving people from deck to deck. The only restriction would be how fast they are walking. But it may be tricky to move loads of material through them; I think it would be too easy to tip over a loaded grav cart on a curved surface like this,” Ben said, working through the possible drawbacks.

“We can always keep one or two of them as a regular lifts,” Itna offered.

“Yeah, that would work,” Ben said, then looked down through the open doorway to everyone waiting in the hallway, looking from his perspective like they were standing on the ceiling. “A promising modification, Inta. But for now, we need to concentrate on the task at hand,” he said with a sweeping gesture, inviting everyone else into Inta’s hallway experiment. “We’ll need signage to remind us which direction is the upper decks and which is the lower.”

Ben stepped aside, making room as the others entered the trans-deck corridor. Inta stood next to the doorway to assist in case the reorientation was too much for anyone. They filed in one by one, and most had no problem with it, having worked and lived in space for years, accustomed to the oddities of gravic-plated environments.

The only exceptions were Jyn and Diana. As Jyn entered, he stumbled slightly, but Inta immediately supported him until his equilibrium settled. “Ugh,” the Mamuthus grunted, then looked surprised as Inta steadied his huge frame with little effort.

“Don’t worry, I got you. Take your time,” she said soothingly.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in space and dealt with this sort of thing,” he said apologetically as he regained his composure. Inta took him by the hand and walked him around the circumference of the tube-like hallway until the door was directly overhead, making room for the others.

Once Jyn was steady on his feet, Inta rounded the hallway back toward the door. Now on opposite sides, and due to his height, they were face-to-face but inverted.

“I can finally look you in the eyes,” Inta giggled. “And I can do this,” she said as she gave him a peck on his heavily bearded cheek, catching him by surprise.

Jyn put a hand to his cheek and shuffled down the corridor a short way to make room with a look of confused contemplation in his eyes.

The last person in the corridor was Diana, walking with her silver walking cane. Inta was there to help her make the transition, but she barely needed it. Inta smiled wide with pride, watching Diana’s rapid progress. “You’re doing so good, Honey,” Inta beamed. “You’re getting around so well.”

Diana’s smile was incandescent at Inta’s praise. “All thanks to you,” she whispered, squeezing the silver girl’s hand softly.

June and Will led the group down the corridor, everyone roughly picking the same path on the circular wall, avoiding the odd perspectives of people walking on the floor or ceiling. They arrived at the last door, with Inta and Diana picking up the rear. No one had issues transitioning back to the deck hallway orientation this time. They continued to the hangar, where two or three members from each team were present and waiting for them.

“I am Jynthal Quoros, First Mate here on the Netherlands,” the massive, tusked man introduced himself to the group.

“Margaret Devens,” she said, stepping forward to shake the massive hand that dwarfed her own. “I am the onsite coordinator for this mission. Let me introduce the others. This is Nurse Emily Sloane, on my team from Penrose Station.” Emily stood behind Devens and gave a little wave.

Then, gesturing to the Silvestrian contingent, “Tarek Dargan. He and his team are the search and rescue specialists.” Tarek stood with another Silvestrian, arms crossed, and gave Jyn a curt nod.

“Peter Flinders, Medic first class and team lead for the Sorkon group.” Devens introduced cooly.

The briefest of frowns crossed his expression, then smiled warmly at Jyn. “A pleasure.”

“This is Dr. Rhenna Teanoda, our pharmaceutical specialist. She and her team will be responsible for dispensation of specialized drugs from Ansuil.” Emily and Rhenna shared a surreptitious glance and tried to suppress their grins.

“And finally, this is Zarvok Kreb. He and his fellow Camair engineers will be responsible for restoration efforts of basic infrastructure, power, water, and the like.” The short reptilian engineer, only coming up to Jyn’s knee, gave a crisp salute.

Jyn stepped forward. “Good to meet you all. Everyone here?” He received several nods of agreement. “Good. Let us proceed.”

Inta opened the hangar doors, and Jyn watched in fascination as the bright white metal rippled and flowed open. “An interesting ship indeed,” he rumbled to no one in particular.

A short ramp formed from the side of the ship to the deck of the landing platform, and Jyn led them out.

A light breeze greeted them, carrying the salty scent of the ocean. The sun warmed their faces, shining through a thin layer of patchy clouds above. Inta was delighted by the sounds of sea birds and gentle waves lapping at the stabilized platform. She closed her eyes and took it all in, committing the moment to memory.

“If you’ll follow me,” Jyn said as he headed off across the gangway connecting the platform to the main structure of the derrick, and the group followed close behind.

Up close, the facility built on the derrick seemed that much more impressive as they crossed into the shadow of its towering height. There was a large set of heavy double doors in front of the gangway, which the dock trucks must use when loading freighters with their shipments.

The doors were opened slightly, just wide enough for Jyn to enter, his broad shoulders almost grazing the doors. The aid workers and Nestia crew followed two by two, behind him.

Inside the doors was a cavernous space, filled with excavating and material handling equipment of various sizes and designs. Cables from overhead cranes dangled down with large hooks from the ceiling, and some had empty bins suspended and were inactive. There was a small array of bucket trucks parked in front of mounds of raw materials, staged in front of several large smelting furnaces, waiting to be processed. The furnaces themselves were not currently in use, cool now, with only a small flicker of pilot lights gleaming from their depths.

Next to them stood dozens of half-filled ore crates, with lift trucks poised to move them onto waiting freighters.

“This is our ore processing facility,” Jyn explained as he led them through the space. “This is where we refine the raw ore and prepare it for shipment.” The space was largely devoid of activity, save for a couple of millwrights whose heads were stuck in an open panel of one of the inactive furnaces, taking the opportunity presented by the downtime to do some maintenance.

They crossed the space and walked through a slightly smaller set of doors into another section of the facility. Unlike the dry, dusty air of the smelting room, the air was cool and damp from the series of moon pools open to the ocean waters the derrick floated on. Docked in the moon pools were dozens of submersible tugs, some of which had their cargo doors open, showing the bins inside were empty.

They walked across a steel-grated bridge spanning the water between two sets of moored tugs. The space was lit by high bay lights overhead; light reflected off the gently lapping water and danced on the walls.

“This is where we bring up the ore from the ocean floor for processing. There is another sub-dock on the other side of the derrick for maintenance of the underwater mining equipment, but the conference room is in this direction.”