EXCAVATOR: Tales from the Twelve Vessels

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Best Laid Plans

They fashioned a makeshift meeting room in the cargo hold. There were spaces in the transport vessel for more formal gatherings, but the nature of their talks was best kept below decks.

Meera pulled a handful of containers in a circle. Sauk was the first to sit. Rufe, Donough, and Aya followed after.

Meera's eyebrows knit as she took her spot. "Did you guys want in?"

The three members of the 803rd nodded.

"Main control's telling us to hold off on EV work until they like their atmo scans better," Rufe explained. "'Til then, we've got nothing better to do."

Donough nodded. "And we'll take any opportunity to mess with some Maudes."

"No offense," Aya offered half-heartedly to Sauk.

Xe shook it off. "No need to be politically correct. Most Aquattans need to be knocked down a peg or two."

"You get it," Donough replied. "I respect that."

"I don't need it, but thank you."

"Let's focus," Meera interrupted. "Our window of opportunity is closing. Sauk, what is the likelihood your crew noticed you left?"

The nkrey pondered the question. "Like 60/40, maybe? Only saving grace is nobody cares that maintenance techs exist, so."

"I don't think that's necessarily true," Meera tried to reassure.

Rufe twisted his spine to get a better view of the bay. "I actually don't think I've seen ours in at least three hours."

Meera frowned. "We have maintenance techs?"

Sauk sighed, closing xer eyes "God, I can only hope my crew is as obtuse as you all are."

She nearly rolled her eyes. "Regardless, we still don't know how long we have until excavation crews are sent out or main control pulls the plug on Feint completely. We need to think of something quick and easy."

"How'd you even get planetside in the first place?" Aya asked.

Uneasiness crept onto Sauk's face. "Almost too easily. There's enough activity on and off ship that you can fake standard operating Aprocedure if needed. Problem is you can't get back in unless you're on an EV or in contact with the bridge."

"It's not easy to fake an exit procedure," Aya retorted.

"It is if you're me."

Rufe frowned. "I bet I could tell if someone was faking protocols."

"You used to people faking things for you, huh?"

Meera tried to keep both hands on the steering wheel of the conversation. "So we can't get you back on unless we have some level of contact with the ship." She directed her attention back to the 803rd. "What kind of things do we usually call other ships for?"

"Depends," Rufe answered. "We only really contact other ships when we need to borrow something or we're running low on supplies. And that's for the ships we don't actively try to avoid. Usually when we contact the Maudes it's because we're bored and want to annoy them."

Sauk wasn't impressed. "Well maybe you can annoy them into a catatonic state and I'll just slip on."

"Is that on the table?" Donough asked.

"Not on the table, mouth breather number two."

"How convincingly can we ask the theta for a favor?" Meera asked. "Without bugging them to death."