Shine On, Space Cadet (Pt. 10)

“No doubt, we have run missions like this many times before. These drones are excellent, and we can fine tune them to be perfect. Those fully automated scrap heaps the navy sends nowadays are worthless. This has a much more ‘human’ touch if you ask me.”

“I agree. Thank you, I’ll let you put the final preparations in order. When we arrive in the Blair system, I’ll join you in the command module, so we can oversee the operation.”

“Aye, sir. Oh, but I should warn you, we have had an issue in the past couple missions. Occasionally we’ve needed to go down to the planet ourselves and swap out the drop pod transmitters, but I assure you it’s perfectly safe. It’s just the nature of these older systems, sometimes you need to go give it a little elbow grease to get things going. Maybe I’ll bring you along if it comes up?” said Omar with a chuckle.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” asked Cal.

“Of course, the drones clean up pretty quick and by the time we need to do any fiddling around, the job is just about done. Think of it as stretching your legs.” replied Omar.

“Well I got to say, I’ve never actually set foot on another planet, so I’ll take you up on that. Thank you.”

“Aye, sir!”

Cal left Omar to continue his work and felt a little bit of excitement about maybe seeing the surface of another world. On every training mission he ran at the academy they had always remained in orbit, as is standard for most of the Navy. Thinking about it, he might actually get to see some action and couldn’t wait to send a message back home about it. That night, Cal went to bed thinking of himself and his crew mates landing on the planet like warriors storming the walls of ancient cities. He drifted off to sleep with these thoughts dancing through his mind.

Cal was awoken abruptly with a call from the Captain to meet her on the bridge immediately. He changed into uniform and made his way down the corridor. Captain Wallace was awaiting him, the night shift on the bridge toiling away over charts and readouts.

“I have something you’ll want to see. It’s a message we just received from an Exxon employee who managed to escape the clutches of the rebel miners,” she said before pulling up the message on a nearby monitor, “Listen.”

A disheveled man in a tattered company uniform appeared on-screen and started to speak in a frantic tone.