Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 26 - Rescue

"I think you're making a mistake, Megan. You need me!" said Aron.

It was just the two of them in the control room. Megan had been using the room as her personal office for a couple of days. It was one place that she was not likely to be interrupted as there was no reason for anyone else to be in there while the Arcadian was landed.

"Aron, I've made my decision. You're off this expedition," she snapped. "You will work with Santiago to test if the air in the hanger is breathable. If it is, I want you and Margaux to fix up the damaged buggy."

"And what if you run into one of those creatures?"

"Well, for starters, I'll try not to kill them."

"And when they attack you?"

"If, not when, Aron, but if that happens, I'll have Ekono and Bettino with me. Bettino reckons he can ride on the open back of the two-seater buggy. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure Ekono is a good choice, but I don't want to defrost another L.E.O. before we've solved our food problem."

"Will I at least be on the next expedition after this one?"

"Let's see how things go, first," she replied.

* * *

This time, Megan drove the buggy with Ekono sat in the passenger seat, gripping his taser rifle as though they were heading into a combat zone. Bettino had sat himself in the deep, plastic tray which made up the back half of the buggy and was holding onto the back of Ekono's seat. The dark grey, plastic tray was designed to function like the rear of a pickup truck and carry all manner of cargo.

"I'm not sure what this will achieve, Commander," said Ekono as they travelled quickly along the corridor.

"We're in an alien place. We don't know how to get out of here, how to survive or even why we're here. Maybe the lobsters, or any of the other creatures here, know more than we do. Any information could help."

"It's safe to say that the cat-people won't be sharing anything with us, Commander."

"Is that what we're calling them now?" she exclaimed.

"You saw the video," he replied. "They look a little like cats."

"Well, the 'cat-people' won't be able to share information if you kill them first."

"You need to see them in person, Commander. Then you'd understand."

She sighed before replying, "Look, I admit that cat-person did fire first but you three surprised it and it might have been scared."

"It still didn't have to open fire as a first response," he said.

"I guess that depends on how badly you scared it?"

Ekono slowly shook his head, looking more disappointed than upset. "How are we going to find the lobsters, Commander?"

"I'm hoping that part of the plan will be easy. They don't seem to use vehicles so, I'm guessing, they don't travel too far to get back to their vessel."

"Can we be sure they even have a ship?"

Before Ekono had finished asking his question, all three of them turned to watch the door to the plasma tube room pass on the left. Megan glanced down quickly at the tablet display embedded in the centre of the dashboard and then continued driving at the same speed.

"I'm not, not for sure, but Aron made some good observations when we first met them. The door controls here are clearly not suitable for the lobsters and they are not set up for retrieving fruit from the orchard. They'll have a hangar like ours. All we've got to do is find it."