A Distant Future

A distant Future Part 3

COLONY

Jake found Sarah and walked over to her as she was working on repairing a digging machine that one of the colonists had managed to wreck somehow. "Sarah, we have a problem." "Not too bad of a problem. I can fix it in a few hours time. The kids were not watching the load sensors and pushed it too hard. The stupid hydraulic filters need to be changed out so this does not happen again, so it's not too big a problem."

"You need to see this Sarah so turn and look." Sarah brushed the hair out of her face and then looked up at Jake who was holding a burned out old security drone. "That was one of our reconnaissance drones! What the hell happened to it?" "Somebody turned it into a modified hunting drone and it got destroyed. I threw the idiots into the security cells for two days for this and when they get out they can work on the sewage filtration units for two weeks as a punishment. The big problem is they ruined one of our stun pistols when they rigged it into this.

This probe did not short out though. These holes are blaster shots on low power. I know for a fact that no one here has a blaster and there are none in the ship anywhere so the question is simple. Where the hell did this get shot at and by whom?" "Where was it found? It was dropped from about 600 feet into the center of the camp. I would check the recording chips but they were ripped out of the unit by hand which takes more strength than any of us here have."

"Restrict all exploration to within five miles of the camp and have every patrol carry a stunner pistol. Check the sensor logs for the grid and see what they reveal." "Already restricted the exploration to five miles and assigned stunner pistols to the leaders that are in charge of these patrols. I told them if they encounter anyone to be cautious but do not shoot unless they have no other choice.

As for the sensor logs, I checked them already. The sensors only go up to about 550 feet accurately. After that it's not very efficient. All I got was a fuzzy picture of some type of winged creature dropping the probe then flying off out of range of the sensors. If we had the ships sensors running we would have gotten detailed scans up to about ten miles at least. Any chance we can get them fixed soon?"

"You did good Jake, with the whole thing, but those ship sensors are a low priority. I can't get someone to them for at least another couple of weeks. For now just have everyone be careful about going very far. This definitely complicates things for us. I have a couple of people working on the glider suits so we can have someone on patrol in the air."

"I was hoping we could avoid violence. Those two idiots ever do something this stupid ever again and I'll personally make sure they work the lousiest tasks I can find for them everyday for the rest of their worthless lives. This is just the sort of thing that can lead to bigger problems for us. Thanks for your time Sarah. I'll let you know if anything new happens. If you need me I'm going to be over at the solar collector trying to get it hooked up and working for us."

"Thanks Jake. Stop by my shelter tonight so I can thank you properly and try to seduce you into staying with me for good." Jake laughed along with Sarah for a moment. "I'll think about it. I might be too busy with all these other women that are so desperate for sex you know." Jake walked off chuckling as Sarah returned to working on the digging machine and chuckling as well.

Jake showed back up at Sarah's shelter just about an hour after sundown. Just as Jake was about to call out her name she grabbed him and yanked him inside. After an intense lovemaking session the two of them lay holding each other. Finally Jake broke the silence. "I was just thinking about the the incident today. You know how we been getting these odd sensor readings lately of a winged creature of some kind flying into and out of that canyon to the west of here?"