Galactic Affairs- Humans are space orcs from space Australia

Episode 3 - A rough landing

Entry 2

It's been five days and the only one to talk to me is the captain. He seems competent and runs a tight ship, I doubt many other captains could keep this rust bucket flying, let alone in full operation. Despite not being an engineer, they have me performing maintenance. So far, nothing too critical to the operations of the ship. The captain has had the assistant engineer review all my work. However, no matter how many things I and the other two engineers fix, there is always more. It was on the second day the assistant engineer made the first olive branch. He never said a thing but he game me this datapod. From what I can gleam, he must be interested in non alliance technology as he took one of our datapods and ingratiated it with Alliance technology. It now has near unlimited power and the storage and processing ability has been greatly expanded. It can still connect to my HUD and, from what I can tell, it should still be able to integrate with my ships systems whenever I can connect to them. Suppose it's more of an if at this point. As I was studying this thing, I found he had uploaded the entire human database to it. I knew Earth diplomats gave the Alliance a significant amount of data from our solnet but I didn't know they had made that database public throughout the Alliance. One of the first lessons on interplanetary travel was to find something that grounds me. So I intend to keep this diary of sorts. God knows when someone will actually talk to me again.

The science ship Krator shook. Cat woke up with a start, as her new datapod fell from the shelf above her bed onto her chest. Swearing, she sat up and rubbed her chest to ease the pain. Checking the datapod for damage as it had rolled off her bed and onto the hard floor, she pulled the tab that extend the screen to show a physical display, she then tapped her ocular implant and it still connected. Good she thought and put it into a special pocket she created in the jacket she usually wears. Catherine had just put on her jacket when the assistant engineer appeared at her door opening it without knocking, looked at her ready to go and he said the first thing anyone other than the captain had said to her, "come".

Entry 3

Well it took 8 days but the assistant engineer finale spoke to me, he only said one word but its a start. Apparently one of the external maneuvering thrusters was hit by a meteor and I was one of the crew who was tasked with fixing it. Out their in the dark of space it definitely feels like living in the void. I can tell one thing though, that thruster blew up because it was old as the housing was bent out, not in. This ship is a deathtrap, it should have been mothballed long ago. I'm starting to be more sure than ever, this ship might actually be the death of me. Anyway, it game me more time with my new friend, while he didn't say anything else to me, he did have me sit with him at lunch and from what I can tell he had the synthesizers make me food from home. It tasted horrid but its the thought that counted, why oh why did he choose Haggis of all foods for me.

A subtle alarm rang out across the ship, indicating the ship has arrived at the first survey post. According to the ships systems its called j3jw-562, a fairly small planet about half the size of Earth however it was in the middle of the habitat zone so it supported life, it had a series of rings similar to saturn. From the initial scans the planet has a number of different temperate zones, it had a jungle, desert, green fields and endless forests, however what made it unique, at least to Catherine, was the geosynced rings and how it appears from time to time some of the asteroids from the rings wound be pulled down and hammer the land, over time this has created a pox covered ring around the planet. Inspire of the destruction life grew in the wake of each asteroids landing.

The captain ordered the ship to be prepared for entry. Catherine was surprised and approached the captain. "Don't you need to perform scans of the planet first?" He looked at her and chuckled, tapping the hologram he said, "scans have been done for many, many of your years, we are here to survey the surface." With that he tapped a button bellow the hologram and the image of the planet changed from solid to transparent and it then started to show a course, leading to what appeared to be a predestined landing position.

"Position's everyone" the captain called over the ships intercom. Catherine having no position just stood there watching the hologram display the ships progress. As the ship entered the gravity of the planet a huge crunching was heard throughout the ship, for a fraction of a second everyone not strapped in, was dragged towards the port airlock. Picking herself up of the floor Cat looked around in dismay, an assortment of the ships equipment that wasn't secured in place was now strewn all over the ship. The momentary opening of the ships interior to space caused quite a mess. The captain looked alarmed, pressing his communicator he demanded a report from the Chief Engineer. The response came on the captains personal channel so Cat couldn't hear a response but by the look on the captain it wasn't good.

"You, Terran", the captain said pointing at Catherine, "Your needed at the emergency bulkhead doors, assistant engineer will meet you their, we can't land with just forcefields and the airlock outer door has fallen off, and now the emergency bulkhead doors won't close. Chief Engineer has his hands full in engineering. Do what ever you need to close those doors." Before he had finished talking he had already turned back to his display and was inputting commands into the systems.

Cat knowing how urgent the situation was, turned and ran. Reaching the emergency doors she was able to tell from a simple glance that these doors haven't been closed in quite a long time. A flickering light appeared from the other side of the door, entry into the atmosphere had already started. A further examination of the door showed giant cogs that seem to turn, pushing the door closed. These cogs had most definitely seized, it was coated in what looked like some kind of dried lubricant that was now doing the opposite and actually acted as a glue. Moments after Catherine reached the door the assistant engineer arrived. Looking absolutely terrified he looked at her and actually spoke, "Earth girl I need you to take this" handing her a small gun like device, "and start cutting off the big chunks I'll get new lubricant and work on getting these doors closed, we'll do one door at a time" with that he bounded off.

Cat stood there stunned for a moment, he not only spoke more to her then than ever before he didn't call her Terran, just earth girl, grinning like the Cheshire Cat she looked at the device she was holding, realizing it was some kind of lazer cutter, she got to work. Shortly before she had removed most of the big chunks the assistant engineer arrived with a small hose that lead to a square container. He said "good now work on the next one I'll get this moving". With that he waited till Catherine was out of the way and he hosed down the cog with a black tar like substance that started to gloop across all the surfaces. When it was thoroughly covered and gloppy he dropped the hose and went to a control panel, pressing some buttons he then reached for a manual lever that he started to pump. Nothing happened for a brief moment then with a sudden thud the cog moved a tiny amount, freeing itself from its long slumber. After the hand pump had done its business the machinery took over and he went to help Catherine.

Cat was having a harder time with this cog as it appears that the solidified lubricant was extra thick. However with the help of her new friend they managed to remove all the final bits. He said "get on that leaver and start pumping when I say" and with that he was back hosing down the cog. A soon as he dropped the hose he looked at Catherine and said "now" and so she started to pump. He was also working the controls of the panel. By this time it was getting hot in the ship, the forcefield was letting some of the heat into the ship, in order to maintain pressure for the inhabitants. However the flickering was now very much in the red part of the spectrum. The assistant engineer was franticly pressing buttons and looked at Catherine, "its not working it needs more pressure from your pumping", with that Cat redoubled her efforts and was pumping like never before, she could feel her muscles aching from the pain but all of a sudden the cog started to move.

Just as the second door panel started to move, the forcefield turned off with a loud pop. The room became excessively hot and the noise was deafening. Cat thought her ear drums had burst but what was worse, the pressure was now trying to suck her out of the ship. She held onto the pump handle but it was the assistant engineer who saved her. He managed to grab her flailing hand and using a clump of the solidified lubricant, he embedded her hand in it. The glue like nature ensured she wasn't going anywhere but the pain was pronounced. The substance was mildly acidic and was slowly melting her hand. A few moments later the door was closed and pressure was restored, as well as blissful silence. The assistant engineer was then working to remove Cat's hand. After another moment she was free again, her skin was a little pink from the affects of the acid but she was okay. They both slumped to the floor and he said "Xalnor, my name is Xalnor, what do I call you?"

Entry 4

Xalnor, his name is Xalnor.