"Survey Says" (Part 4)
In the two weeks to return to the spaceport, the team had discussed matters quite thoroughly. And loudly. Then they had (in order) retired to each of their cabins after heated words, and come back out to discuss it again "more rationally", become disgusted with each other all over again and remained in the cabins until landing. Miles had turned off the intercom after the second discussion had descended into a physical altercation, preferring to be left entirely out of the mess. As far as he was concerned, he had this ship and it would be enough to keep him employed and well-paid for the foreseeable future.
He touched the comm and spoke into it slowly and clearly. "Ground Control, this is K1-Survey 112. We are fully landed at bay twenty-six. Now powering down for routine maintenance and refueling. "
"Copy, Survey 112. Expect refueling in sixty to seventy-five minutes. Maintenance crews will arrive in approximately forty-five minutes to begin inspection."
"Thank you, Ground Control." He unfastened his harness and touched the controls to power down, hearing movement down in the common area. He lowered himself down there slowly, and saw Jonathan and Leonard not looking at each other pointedly as they shrugged on jackets. "Hey, one of you two grab the waste container for disposal?"
"I got it." Leonard muttered, opening one of the cabinets and pulling out a closed box. "I'll be back in a couple hours. Then we can probably get somewhere thinking of what to do with our report."
"I have my doubts." Jonathan sighed. "I've been thinking about that since we last stopped. And the answers are not too good." He either missed or ignored Leonard glaring at him, and Miles said nothing.
After they left, another shuffling as Ivan came up and looked around. "Are they gone?"
Miles didn't even look up from the noteputer he was working on. "Yes, Ivan, it is safe to come out and dance in your dress." He smirked some at the rude gesture, and looked up. "Leonard and Jonathan already left."
"Okay, well, I think Anthony and Belle are going to stay behind. Do you have the contract copy available?" He pulled out his noteputer. "I'll look it over and see how we could maneuver into getting paid for this."
"You sound defeated." Miles pulled up the file and motioned so they could exchange the file. "Is it really that bad?"
"I won't know until I get into this, but it could be that we shouldn't report the ship and may want to gloss over the base. I dunno, they're all kind of mixed up on the details. I can't wait for this to be over."
Another arrival, as Anthony approached and looked around. "Discussing this again?"
"Hey, I was piloting, and didn't get to sit in."
"And I was just wanting to look over the contract."
Anthony paused. "We'll discuss it later. I'm going to step out, myself. The maintenance crew should be working here soon?"
"They said about an hour." Miles shook his head, and returned to reading from his noteputer. "So I'm going to kick back and wait. Maybe keep reading this story now, it's set during the early parts of the Third Succession Wars about some sort of romantic entanglement between a minor noble of House Kurita and a FedSun general. Supposed to be based on a true story."
Ivan began to laugh, then stopped, covering his mouth. "I shouldn't laugh, but that sounds positively outlandishly impossible."
"I know, right, it's like finding a derelict JumpShip you may be able to repair." Miles said, smirking as he settled into the seat. Ivan opened his mouth, closed it, then just grunted and started reading his own file. Anthony looked between the two, and tapped Miles on the shoulder. "What's up?"
"Belle said she wasn't feeling good after the descent. I felt a little dizzy too, we're bunked at the one side. Stabilizer or something? See if you can have the maintenance team look at it, but just leave her alone until they get here and you have to vacate the ship?"
"Yeah yeah, maybe it was something you ate."
"In which case, everyone else would be feeling sick too. Just see if they can look at it? It could be serious." Anthony shrugged into his jacket. "I'll be back in an hour."
"Take it easy." Miles waved his fingers vaguely. "Hey, wait, where are you going?"
Anthony paused, and folded his hands in front of him before speaking up in a sarcastic tone of voice. "No offense, Miles, but I don't have to answer to you about how I want to spend my personal time. Maybe I want to go get a drink somewhere which involves alcohol. Maybe I need to go find a cute Capellan girl to chat with for a while."
"Maybe some cute Capellan guy he can afford to rent for an hour or so." Ivan added, in the same sarcastic tone.
Anthony's head whipped around to stare at him, then he snorted and turned to leave. Miles waited until he heard the airlock close, and then smirked over his noteputer. "Did you have to?"
Ivan shrugged a shoulder, chuckling. "He needs it sometimes. Or he gets too serious." He sighed and frowned. "Hey, can you check out this clause and see if I'm-"
"Nope. I'm not a lawyer and I'm not giving you advice on this. My time to read until the maintenance crew gets here." Miles said lightly, and resumed reading. Minutes passed, Ivan glowering at his device more and more. There was a soft thunk from outside and below. "Hey, that'll be them, guess they made it early." He set down the noteputer and stood up, reaching for the comm. "Hey guys-"
There was an earsplitting squeal of electronic interference before Miles shut the comm off. "What the hell?!" Ivan's feet slammed on the deck as he stood up quickly. "Miles, what did you do?!"
"I don't know, hold on, the comms are freaking out. I can't get a signal except for this interference!"
There was another clunk from below, and Ivan grunted something before going down towards the exit. "Well if the maintenance team screwed up something then they should fix it soon. Let me ask them."
Miles scowled a bit, and stopped after catching something off in the now-silent room. There was a slight hissing noise he knew only once from emergency training, and that meant... a leak, somewhere. Oxygen or fuel. He dove for the alarm, before there was a loud crackle and he felt heat on his back which seemed to slice right through his top. He swore he caught the smell of smoking electronics, before blacking out.
Jonathan frowned and looked over his shoulder as Leonard approached. "What is it?" He asked softly. "Are you here to try to convince me to back down?"
Leonard rubbed the side of his face with a hand. "Oh god, Jonathan, I'm only heading in the same way since we both have the same guidebook and I want some good Rasalhague-style beef!" He poked the other man in the side. "I'm trying to forget about that stuff for an hour."
"Look, I am not, will not, consider altering things to fit-" He clamped his jaw shut and shook his head. "Fine. Where is this place you are going? Maybe I do need a break."
"Maybe we can invite the others? Have some good New Oslo mead or something."
"Ivan will make a comment."
"Screw him. If he doesn't want to come he can stay on the ship and pout."
Jonathan shrugged a shoulder. "Fine, fine." He slid his comm out of his pocket to try to reach the ship, and paused. "I am not getting any response." He frowned, looking at it on his palm.
"Did you try turning it off and on again? Maybe the maintenance crew turned it off to work on, or Miles decided he didn't want to be bothered."
"No, I should at least get something if the radio was turned off." Jonathan said slowly, and lifted his head as there was a muffled sound, turning his head that way. Leonard's head whipped quickly and he traced his fingers in the air. "That came from the starport."
"That sounded like-" A loud chime came from the comm, repeating itself twice more.
A computerized voice began speaking. "Warning. This is Planetary Emergency Services. Warning. There has been an explosion at the starport. All citizens are to avoid the starport until emergency personnel have completed risk assessment. Warning. This is Planetary Emergency Services-"
"An explosion." Leonard turned to start running, and yelped as Jonathan grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. "What if they're in trouble?!"
"Do not act before you think." Jonathan tugged him to the side, stripping off his jacket and folding it over his arm so the team patch was covered. "There are a number of reasons there would be an explosion there, ranging from an accident to something more targeted. And what targets of value would there be?" He looked at Leonard steadily. "Some survey team who were supposedly out searching for Star League caches, and a rumor which says they may actually have found one."
"Oh now you're being paranoid."
"No, I am not." Jonathan hissed through his teeth. At some point his vocal patterns had shifted, into the more detached state he had when running the survey equipment. This was problem-solving for him, a time when panic was less than useless. "If the comm system from the ship was shut down, Miles would have set it up to shunt us to the local system. If it was being jammed, we would hear interference. If something happened to the ship, and we had not been switched over to the local channels we would hear nothing but a low static." He turned on his comm and held it to Leonard's ear. "Like so."
"Oh god."
"Now shut up, take off your jacket and hide your insignia. If someone is after us, this will slow them down. I doubt they know who we are by sight. Act normally, and let us keep heading to the restaurant. If something happened and everyone is fine, Miles will contact us somehow to let us know. If something happened and we are in trouble, we will be in public where it may be less likely someone will make a move."
Leonard shrugged off the jacket, shaking his head, breathing in slow rapid breaths. "This can't be happening."
Jonathan grabbed his chin and turned Leonard's face to look at him, staring steadily into the other's eyes. "Get ahold of yourself. Count backwards from ten. Then walk with me. We will get through this if you trust me and if we avoid drawing attention to ourselves." After Leonard nodded, taking several deep breaths, Jonathan nudged him with an elbow and they began walking.
And as calm as Jonathan sounded, he was internally trying to figure out just what had happened and where the next steps would need to go. Anthony would know, and he'd get in touch with them shortly. Or if not, then having the time to eat a meal and plan would be more important than any rash decisions.
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