EXCAVATOR: Tales from the Twelve Vessels

Chapter Twenty-Six: Reunited

The wait for the crew of the 803rd to arrive was agonizing. Meera waited alone, huddled in a corner of the bridge of the Aquattan ship. The sounds of the vessel were drowned out by her thoughts. The other crew members paid no mind. She ran the scenario in her mind over and over again, trying to prepare herself for everything and anything that could happen when she was reunited with her team.

They weren't all bad scenarios. There were ones where the team was happy to see her, ones where they welcomed her home without any backlash—but those were outnumbered by the others a thousand to one.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts she lost track of how long the nkrey had been gone for. She probably should have been paying more attention, but she didn't have the energy to worry what xe was getting up to. Xe was an adult.

At least she was pretty sure.

"Will the members of the Jinsuon 803rd please proceed to the lower levels?" The voice of the ship's intercom interrupted her musings. "Your transportation will arrive momentarily."

From her spot in the back corner, she couldn't get a good view out of the ship's narrowed window. She wanted to catch a glimpse of the incoming vessel, but her legs acted first, pulling her way from the bridge and down the steep steps of the gamma's lower levels. She practically ran as she turned the corner back toward the exterior doors they had entered from.

Sauk was already there, standing just on the other side of the orange wall, waiting for it to descend. Meera wanted to ask where xe had been, but she knew better. The nkrey Joll Sun was there as well, hands on the exterior door controls.

"All Jinsuons accounted for?" the Aquattan leader spoke, slender fingers drumming on a lever.

"All Jinsuons are here," Sauk confirmed, not making eye contact with Meera. "Now open up."

Joll smirked. "Well, thanks for visiting the gamma. Safe travels, and for your sake, I hope we never see eachother again."

Without waiting for a response, Joll pulled the lever and the orange wall came down. Neither Meera nor Sauk wasted time getting to the other side. Their helmets went up as the wall did. There was no further instruction from the Aquattan, only a silent salute before the pneumatics gasped and the exterior door fell open.

Meera wouldn't be lying to say that she was expecting to see the 803rd's transport vessel, gleaming silver with the familiar scent of home in front of her, but that wasn't the case. Instead, a bulky, oversized excavator vessel, colored like the mud she had spent too much time picking from her fingernails, was waiting patiently just a handful of yards from the exit of the Maude Aquattan vessel. It took her a moment to place where she'd last seen it. After all, the last time she'd seen it was a different perspective, through the windshield of a struggling detailer unit in heavy rain.

The bulk storage and refinement EV.

It was an interesting choice for a pick up vehicle, but she wasn't complaining. She was rejoicing.

Meera nearly bolted down the exit ramp and onto Feint's surface, stumbling across its bumpy ground but not falling. Sauk followed sans the running.

On the side of the EV was a built in ladder, leading up toward a hatch door at the top of the vessel. It didn't cover the whole side, just enough to make it over the rounded edges. Hoisting yourself up to the first rung and making it from the top to the hatch could prove to be challenges to first time boarders.

Meera reached up to grab onto the ladder. Her glove just barely scraped the metal. There was a crucial detail Meera was forgetting here.

She was short.