Noah double checked the seals on his suit, he wasn’t sure if Vazhchavyr was being overly cautious or if he trusted the spaceship more than she did. Everything was where it should be and untimely he wasn’t a pilot.

  “Noah, strap in.” Vazhchavyr’s voice came through his helmet, he realized it was being translated. He cocked his head at her, and then obeyed.

  “You guys got English working on your translators?” He fiddled with the roller-coaster style harness. “Or did you get that downloaded just for me?”

  “It was added to the Roschani base set. It is Earth’s primary language after all. Kazhvoyova can you help him. You’d think he’d never been to space before.”

  Noah shrugged and let Kazhvoyova fix him into the harness. “I presume you dug into my file. You know I was tossed up here, mostly haphazardly.”

  “I got both, the Imperium’s and the Community’s. Frankly the former seems to not have enough blood and the later has too many holes in it.” Vazhchavyr’s comments seemed to draw Nekamormi’s attention.

  “I didn’t decide who put what where. I assume Nekamormi also got the English patch?” Noah turned to the Folpron, “I’m sure I sound much smarter now that the computer is doing the translating.”

  Nekamormi made a gesture with her arms Noah couldn’t quite make heads or tails of, then her reconstructed voice came though, “It’s clearly being passed though two layers. I will say your real voice is easier on the ears.”

  “Cabin ready for takeoff?”

  “Cabin ready,” Vazhchavyr responded without hesitation. Noah felt the ship take off. It was smooth, and uneventful. “Disappointed?”

  “Little bit. Will the landing be more eventful?”

  The three girls laughed at Noah.

  “Only if something goes wrong,” Kazhvoyova said shaking her head, “This is a crash with presumed boarders not an emergency rescue mission. Plus, we are the backstop the bigger boys are the ones looking for survivors.”

  “I hope you three realize I didn’t catch much of that briefing. Other than we’re hiking a long route though the mountains and we were selected because of the fact we are all from ‘high-gravity’ worlds.”

  “Just because Earth.”

  Noah cut off Kazhvoyova, “I don’t care if Earth is seen as a freak among freaks. It’s not high gravity for us. Thus we shouldn’t have to specify it. It’s not fair to any of our species that we have to get the special label. What if we were among the founders? They’d be light-gravity worlds or something.” His comment seemed profound, yet none of the girls said anything.

  The ship shook as it hit atmosphere, noise hit less as noise and more as feeling. “Re-entry is stable.” came from the cockpit.

  Noah looked around, all three of the girls were tense. “Worried about something?”

  “You’re the new species and yet you’re calm during re-entry?” Nekamormi said, “I had heard humans were crazy.”

  “You’ve only heard half of it, and as these two can confirm. It’s all true.” Noah said grinning under his helmet.

  “There’s no way.” Nekamormi started as the two Roschani shook their heads, “I sit corrected. I understand why the Galaxy can’t stop talking about humanity.”

  “They don’t do half measures.” Kazhvoyova said looking at Noah. “Although the past few days probably showed that off well.”

  “To be fair if his official file isn’t much to go off of. Can be surprised as: He fraught in the defense of Earth, volunteered for off world duty, went though some training and here he is. The Imperial one proves he’s crazy. Although he’s one of dozens of named figures from the war in the Rockies.” Vazhchavyr commented.

  “Landing three minutes.”

  The shuttle had stopped shaking instead feeling like an airliner. It then shifted, Noah reminded of the one time he went up in a helicopter. He pulled the release and stood up.

  “See,” Nekamormi said shaking her head, “Crazy.”

  “Can I drop the ramp or is that the pilot’s job.” Noah said looking for a way to open the ramp.

  “Pilot will open it when we get close.” Vazhchavyr, “Why do you want to open it?”

  “I want to watch the landing. Chalk it up to a human thing.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The ramp dropped and the shuttle hit the ground. Noah didn’t wait and jogged out of the ship, he savored the feeling of his feet on the ground and looked at the alien sky. It was too purple, yet still blue. Reflexively he checked his wrist computer. Air read as not only breathable the temperature was lovely. Noah reached for his helmet pausing as he felt the engines from the shuttle launch it back into the air. He turned and watched it fly away.

  “Is watching a shuttle that interesting?” Neakmormi’s curiosity breaking though the translator.

  “I didn’t grow up in an interstellar, and humans still watch planes take off. Something magical about watching a machine fly away.”

  “Men are such whimsical creatures human ones especially. We should be able to pull seals, Vazhchavyr what’s the plan when it comes to air?”

  “If we can breathe this air we should I’d rather not risk running out when we have a limitless supply. Although keep communications set up. If nothing else so that we can understand Noah.”

  Noah’s protests were swallowed up by the girls’ laughter. Yet they all adjusted their armor to let fresh air in. Noah was pleased to smell something other than the artificial clean that permutated though the ship. The smell of plants was welcoming, Noah scanned the horizon, down from their place on the mountain there was a dense forest. From what he remembered on the map they would be walking along the edge of it as they walked their patrol.

  Noah watched the girls who were also taking in their surroundings. He knew this was a search and rescue yet they didn't act with the urgency Noah was expecting, he checked his gear and started walking in the direction they were set to go.

  "I don't know why the captain had us come up here. I thought we were going to be one of the teams that would make contact with the downed craft." Noah was surprised by the words that came out of Nekamormi's translated voice.

  "I don't like it either, either she didn't tell us something or we are out here to find something the other teams flush out."

  "Kazh why would they go up hill? I'd expect them to fade though the forest, and get around and behind the other two teams. Besides wouldn't we need more people to do a proper search line?"

  "We don't have that many people who can handle this level of gravity. Frankly we as a team shouldn't be deployed this shortly after getting paperwork in. Plus I don't think it's medically wise for you to be doing any of this shortly after gaining those injuries."

  Kazhvoyova shrugged at Vazhchavyr’s comment, “Humans are known to be tough and Noah is obviously stubborn. Besides he has the most combat experience of anyone on the ship should it come to that."

  "I thought there was a good number of people who were fairly veteran on the crew. Didn't this ship get created to give the surplus veterans from some expedition or another? If this is something that we need to be worried about having enough combatants shouldn't we bring down who we can?" Noah pulled up his map, and turned to look down into the forest. "How fresh is this crash?"

  "Ten hours." Vazhchavyr turned and looked at Noah, "You have a theory."

  "I'd say a hunch, rather than a theory." Noah waved the girls into a huddle. "We are here and the idea is to walk along this ridge. As the crash is here. Yet there's a few clearings over on this side of this ridge. Has anyone asked if there could be some kind of hidden base or landing zone?" The question stopped the girls in their tracks. All turning to look at Noah. "I know hiding from your sensors isn't impossible. We hand more than a few different settlements put up by the time the treaties were signed that you guys couldn't find. New Denver was a proper city, if we can manage that. Then any sort of raider could get something."

  Vazhchavyr rubbed her temples, Noah chuckled at the human reaction. It was clear she was calling the ship. "This is why you should be down here." Nekamormi's voice was translated into a coo. "I should teach you Folpruun. I think you may have an easier time of it than Galactic Common."

  "Let him get a better handle on Rokran first. We don't need him stumbling though more than two languages at a time." Noah shot Kazhvoyova a glare, she laughed in response.

  "Noah do you have any advice on how to see these invisible bases?" Vazhchavyr overran the conversation. "Stealth tech isn't cheap enough for them to have proper stealth although they are now running though that as well."

  "We used really basic camouflages and squishing emissions. I'd assume if you go back to eyeballs on telescopes, might need to do passes with drones or something to get better resolution. Might scare something up as well." Noah pondered for a moment. "Unless we have a way to get more drones down here. Combing though the forest to flush them out." Vazhchayvr went back to her conversation up the chain. Noah could see her struggling with explaining human concepts up to the ship itself.

  "Where would you be hiding if you were trying to hide?" Nekamormi said coming over to look at the map, "You were the one hiding."

  "I didn't choose the hiding spots." Noah said scanning the map, "This looks like where we'd set up." He pointed to a forested valley with steep sides and a stream running though it. "Has everything we'd need. Do we know if a ship could get in there? It's not that large of a clearing."

  Nekamormi looked over the area in question, "It would be do able. Not easy but possible." She took the map over to Vazhchayvr and started conveying the information over.

  "What happens when you're right?" Kazhvoyvoa whispered.

  "Hopefully we rescue who needs rescuing and deal with those who need dealt with." Noah returned her tone. "I still don't know what it is we are looking to do here. If a ship was shot down that's different than if people were kidnapped and then shot down. Was there more that I missed in either direction that was glossed over?"

  Kazhvoyova leaned in, "The ship in question is one that is marked as the yacht of Princess Su’lenai Teyrenqal. She's a Qalmeri princess." Noah had heard of the other Roschani vassal state. "Yes, humanity hasn't been introduced to them yet. They are much more integrated."

  "Sounds like someone who would lead to a ransom letter. I think we should push for rescue rather than negotiation. The crashed ship tells me they might have other plans. What are these Qalmeri like?" Noah was pondering in directions he didn't want to ponder.

  "I would say they are our complement. You call our colors cool with warm, they would be warm with cool I suppose. They have to share women, which I suppose is less enviable to humans. Since we went to war with you they've evened out a lot. They were focused on internal security, until you all did enough damage to make their deployment to foreign stars worth it." Kazhvyova pondered for a moment. "If their princess is captured that would be ruinous."

  "Gather up everyone," Vazhchayvr called, "We are being rerouted to check out Noah's hunch."

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