Fragments 1: Devolution Landing

Moofier and Perracheck

"I would have said it was hot myself," said another voice from behind them.

It came from a rather formidable woman who was emerging from the shuttle. She was looking around them with a rather curious expression. It made her look as if a rather unpleasant smell had just entered her nostrils. She pressed a canvas hat firmly on her head and stepped down onto the ground. A pair of rectangular sunglasses hung from a chain around her neck and she popped them onto the end of her nose to cut out the last few rays of the setting sun.

She had blond curly hair, was stocky in build and average in height, which meant she was taller than both the professor and his assistant. She wore a camouflage pattern outfit and looked as she was dressed for a jungle expedition.

Professor Androbos looked at her over the top of his own glasses with a faint smile on his face.

"That's very observant of you, Doctor Moorfier", he replied. "But it does get rather cold at night, so we will need to be prepared."

Androbos had not chosen to have Mel Moorfier on his team. She wasn't a member of his faculty, or someone who he had worked with before. In fact, she wasn't even a citizen of Sirius at all, but the Secretary had insisted that she would join the dig in spite of his objections. She was on loan from the University of Tau Mirius and it was a privilege for them to have her with them, or so he had been told.

Doctor Moorfier was an expert on the Colonial Terraformation Period and had studied the various techniques that had been used by planet forming starships in the early days of galactic expansion. Androbos considered her to be a botanist rather than a proper archaeologist and had left the Secretary with no doubt at all about his opinion on the matter.

Suffice it to say, it had not been a battle that he had been able to win, so he had grudgingly accepted the first of three unwanted additions to his group.

The second of these followed Moorfier through the hatch carrying a number of heavy bags with him.

"I think the good Doctor has packed enough for the trip," he said with a broad grin on his face as he dumped the bags onto the ground.

Ran Perracheck looked around him with keen and observant eyes. He was tall, well-built and young with a neat beard and dark hair. He seemed extremely fit and looked more like an athlete than an archaeologist. Androbos had been even less happy about this addition to his group. He had checked the young man's background and couldn't see any particular reason for the appointment. Perracheck was from Epsilon Three and was simply listed as an archaeology student - although he was a little old for an undergraduate. His name didn't come up in any academic data searches and he had not published any papers. As far as the Professor could see, he was little more than an interloper who would need to be supervised and entertained.

The young man smiled pleasantly as he looked around and inspected the landing field.

"Well, here we are," he said with a grin. "This should be fun."

"Indeed..." the Professor replied, wondering how much help he would be.