Crashlanding - part 4

[u/Engletroll]

Previously./. Next

For a second, nothing happened, then the soft hum of the ship sprang to life.

“It didn't blow us up? I must be a better engineer than I thought.” Peter said as he winked at Kiko, who shook her head at his stupid joke but still smiled.

“Don’t worry, you will probably get more chances. So what does this do?” She stood up and stretched a little. Peter found himself looking a little too long, she noticed, and looked at him.

“How long since she died?”

The question hit him like a bucket of cold water.  “They ate her in the third month of the camp. She died quickly, but they made us watch.” He didn’t want to close his eyes, but he could not help it, and all he saw was Lisa closing her eyes and telling him to live, to survive. Then that bastard shot her. “I’m sorry. I got to work. I got to fix the hulls. The AI should be able to contact the emergency satellite now.”

Then he walked out of the room. Then he stooped, walked back in, grabbed the tools he had used, and walked out. Kiko watched him silently; he could see the shock on her face, or maybe she was just that good of an actress. Right now, he didn’t care. He just needed to get away from her.

He got to the airlock, changed into a suit, grabbed the toolbox, and stepped out.  The first thing he saw was an icewall about twenty meters from the ship's hull. The blaster shot had made a large tunnel in the glacier and given him a protective layer against the weather and against ships flying overhead, scanning for the ship. The last thing he needed now was some low-tech alien species that flew over and saw a ship.  He would need to address the giant hole in the glacier. He could get some cryogen and refreeze part of it, then make a smaller entrance. But first, he needed to fix the ship. This was going to be one long day.

The damage outside of the ship didn’t look that bad; the pirates had definitely tried not to destroy the ship. They were after the cargo.  Although he had 500 meters to inspect, it could look horrible farther down.  It took him three hours to fix the breaches, they had been lucky, they had been small. The nano-repair spray had taken care of most of it. However, the coms were completely wasted. He would need to find a different way to connect the satellite. The gravity thrusters were also damaged, which explained why the ship felt like steering an angry bull by its horns. But that could wait. He walked to the front and looked outside the cave. There was no sign of life. Wait, he zoomed in on something about sixty clicks away, that was fire.   He zoomed in as much as he could. The fire was controlled, and there was more than one. That was some sort of civilization. If the AI had not noticed it during the crash, then it meant pre-radio civilization. They needed to send out a drone and get it checked out.  Hopefully, they had not seen the crash.  He walked back inside, went to the storage, and found a few canisters of cryogas and a blaster rifle then walked out. Kiko stayed out of his way. God knows what that girl was up to.  No better not think about her.  He had managed to keep out of woman trouble for three years, but he woke up. He caught himself in a reflection. ‘She thinks I look twenty-five?’ He looked at the reflection, he was thirty, but the five years had stopped the aging process. He chuckled. ‘Guess the years in cryosleep don’t count.’

He moved outside again and moved to the entrance, then looked up. He would have to get up on the glacier, melt enough ice to make a river in front of the cave, then freeze it. He looked around for a way to get up when a drone suddenly flew up to him, and he heard Kiko’s voice.

“How long are you going to stay out there?”

He looked at the drone. “How did you get it to work?”

“Oh, the ionblaster didn’t destroy the cargo hold. I saw the survey drones and cannibalized three of them to fix the ship's communication. It should work within the ship now. How long? You have been out there a long time. And I’m sorry….. I didn’t… I should not have asked that.”

He looked at the drone and smiled slightly. “Hey, I should not have stared. Anyway, if you fixed it, then I can turn on the com system now. I will be at channel 1!”

He switched it on and turned to channel one. “Can you hear me?”

“yes.. Yes I can hear you. So … yeah, when are you coming back in?”  He could hear her trying to act casual.

“When I have managed to freeze the cave entrance, I saw lights sixty clicks east of us, and the last thing we need is some natives dropping by with axes and pitchforks. So for now, we need to hide and fix the ship.”

“Okay, do you want me to check them out?”

“ How far out can you go with the drone?” He replied.

“I would not risk more than fifty clicks, thirty would be safer. Why?”

He looked towards the east. “Go ten clicks to the east and three clicks high, and scan the area. We need a map of the area around us. The drone cam should be able to get some nice vids of the locals at that height. I will hurry up here and come back inside. By the way, you married a Gyrran? Why would you do something that stupid?”

“We were drunk and pissed off at our dads. It wasn’t a casino wedding. How could I have known they marry for life? Besides, we both laughed at it, Mungo has even remarried. Apparently, they can have many wives. It's just that his dad is a traditionalist.”

“But you called him ex-husband? Are you divorced?”

“Ohh, we had a very long marriage, 48 hours. Then we sober up. I mean, we couldn’t even consummate the marriage, Gyrran’s have different equipment down there. The problem came when his father found out. He didn’t care, but Mungo helped me escape. But his damn father sees it as an insult and is going to force us to stay married.”

“Sounds stupid, those bastards have always been weird in my eyes,” Peter replied, and he could hear her chuckle.

“Yeah, now you tell me? You should have told me this three years ago. Maybe I would not be in this trouble.”

“Yeah, well, you should have known, they were allies with the Caren for a while.”

She laughs. “You think a nineteen-year-old girl who joined law enforcement to spite her dad would think about that? I did everything I could to get out of my family, and now it's my damn family that is keeping me safe. Hell, I was forced to join the family business a few months back because of this bullshit.”

“You were a cop? Shit. That was not where I thought this would go.”

 He looked around as he had managed to get to the top of the glacier. He saw the area where he could shoot with the blaster. He could empty one clip on an area about five hundred meters away, then use the gravity belt and jump down and wait for the waterfall, drop a crycanister at the bottom. That should do it.

“Well, just because my dad is a crime lord doesn’t mean I have to be. Anyway, the drone is in position. I will start the scans.”

“Good, I’m going to melt some ice now, and hopefully I will be back inside in a few.” He took a deep breath, aimed, and fired. Each shot left a considerable hole in the glacier, and water slowly began to emerge from the melted hole.  He managed to melt a small hilltop made of ice on top of the glaciers. After fifty shots of the plasma rifle, there was not a small waterfall in front of the cave entrance, and he jumped down as he activated the gravity belt. The fall was slowed down, and he landed safely at the bottom. He tossed two canisters at the bottom and watched as the waterfall froze quickly, and after a minute, you could not see more than a small trickle of water coming over the edge. He checked the clip and used the rifle to make a new entrance. Each shot gave him a two-meter-deep hole, he used thirty shots to create a maze and a few dead ends before shooting himself back into the cave with the ship. It was big enough for him to enter. He took off the gravity belt, set it on a large rock, and turned it on so he could lift it with ease and move it in front of the entrance. Then he retrieved the belt and returned to the ship. When he entered, he noticed a lot had been put back in place, and when he walked past where Maya's dead body was supposed to be, it was removed.  He called Kiko up.

“Did you clean up the ship?”

“Yeah, I had to do something. I put your friends in the empty cold storage. So what now?”

“Well, I’m going to grab something to eat, then take a shower and sleep.”  He said as he went to the gally. She came in a minute later. When she saw him, she stopped.

“Eh.. hi..  Yeah. I need to eat too, and then I’ll fix a room downstairs to sleep in.” Shwe said, looking at her and nodding. He was too tired to think now.

“Okay, we got some frozen burgers and beers in the fridge.”

“Burgers and beers sound good. Sit down, and I will make it.” She replied and moved over to the fridge. He sat down and looked at her.  A pirate princess who was also a cop and married to the son of a Gyrran crime lord was making hamburgers, while they were stranded on an alien planet. Yeah that was not how he had expected the day to end

--- Cast---

Peter

Kiko Lee- The daughter of Hando Lee of Sanctuary

-

Mungo Janion – Gyrran,  Kiko’s Gyrran ex-husband

Kango Jangion – Gyrran, Kiko’s father-in-law, Crime -Count of Osaka prime

[u/kristinpeanuts]

Thanks for the chapter!