Meriam was quietly pleased to see the yellow-skinned Lanillans and furry Jascalians dangling from the Domums’ hands while they were carted over to have their identities checked and be administered physical restraints.
The Domums were lining up the criminals along one wall of the docking area while a command post of some sort was set up by the officer in charge. His name was Braran Vax, and he was currently the main focus of attention as he listed the various laws and such that had to be upheld.
“Thank you, Braran Vax,” Meriam said politely when he finished.
She kept her face neutral even though she wanted nothing more than to just yell at him, and she was the most controlled of the five of them right now.
“We do appreciate your efforts and that you are following the rules of the Puzzle Box.”
“I am glad to hear it, Meriam. Your companion with the red foliage was less than polite and not in the least understanding. He should count himself fortunate that we did not simply stun him as well,” Braran Vax said while maintaining a stern expression.
Not that Meriam had much clue as to how to read Domums, although the implanted memories did tell her not to bother with those from Manor Vax, who were fastidious in their self-control.
“Yes, and I thank you once again for your understanding in that matter,” she replied.
“I believe that only Ponor Vax feels disrespected, and in that, he also has to take the disrespect along with embarrassment at being surprised by your companion. His stature as a member of Manor Vax means that he plays this off against his lack of ability to remain upright from your companion’s blow.”
“Oh, I see.” She didn’t, but Meriam could see that Braran Vax was serious about it.
The Domum’s scowl deepened as he observed her.
“He will do nothing to seek recompense since it was his own failure to defend himself that resulted in his injury. He should have been more vigilant. Nevertheless, I would not make a habit of striking Domum Security.”
“Yes, sir. It won’t happen again, I assure you,” Meriam said with emphasis on contrition.
They had all poorly reacted when the Domum had come charging in and had blown away the Devourer specimen.
The assault on the Lanillan was bad enough for them, the way the Domum acted like the criminals had only the most basic of rights, but to lose the Devourer when they had been that close to getting it…
Meriam could understand why Connor had reacted the way he had. The Domum who had destroyed the Devourer and the Lanillan’s hand before stunning him had calmly told Connor that no Devourer was to be left alive.
The Domum protocol didn’t give them any leeway on the subject, so he had acted and destroyed the specimen at the first opportunity. That was when Connor had hit him, a solid right hook that had sent the slightly larger Domum officer to his knees and then some.
If it weren’t for the situation they were in, Meriam would have found it funny.
Whatever technology these singlesuits provided for them made them easily capable of handling the Domums just as they had the criminal Lanillans.
If only it had given them more answers or had allowed them to save the specimen.
Granted, though, if they had managed to keep it, then, by now, there would be a whole different kind of discussion going on with the Domums.
They were efficiently collecting the gang members and had explained to the humans that their “rescue” was only an exercise in response to their call for help and the monitoring of the activities of these aliens from the command center.
They had also very politely explained and accepted payment for the fine of hijacking a magnetic carriage. Rules were rules, apparently, even though the humans had been attacked in the refinery by what were known gang members of a criminal organization.
They had still broken the law before they had known they were going to get attacked.
Authorities in this galaxy, so far, seemed to be about the same as on Earth. Follow their instructions and handle things politely and as they requested, and you tended to get along. Domum protocol dealt very well with the resolution of criminal activity if you walked their line correctly.
Once it was all over, they had been questioned and given their answers, and they were allowed to leave.
It took several hours to go through the legal mess just because of half an hour in the refinery.
* *
As far as a Domum from Manor Vax would express it, the Security officers who had run the operation against the refinery were jubilant.
Obragon Vax was pleased to see them diligently recording the facts of digression from the laws of the Puzzle Box occupancy code while others were seeing to the proper incarceration of the criminal gang members.
Wonovar Lopokin was provided necessary medical attention, his stump of an arm treated and his pain numbed appropriately. Then he had been supplied a private cell so that he could not unduly influence the regular members of the gang.
The Domum protocol for treating a pyramid-based criminal organization was properly followed.
Where criminal leaders led by power and fear, it was always better to separate them from their underlings. That way, the possibility of more useful facts from interrogation was higher. Today, the Domums deserved their upturned lips and half-smiles, and the occasional handshake and congratulation were appropriate as they had earned honor for themselves and their families.
Obragon Vax himself would have a little more honor to add to his deficit. It was a tiny drop in a very large lake, he knew, but something that could still give him hope that in his lifetime, he would be able to return to his family once again.
The fact that the criminals had fired on the Domums had worked against them.
With the suspicion of criminal activity, the testimony of the humans, and that last charge, he now had every legal requirement satisfied to mine their processing and data storage systems for further evidence.
The refinery was locked down while other Domums from Manor Uld started their work.
As he watched the checklists for proper procedure get signed off, Obragon Vax gave a passing thought to what the humans would be doing next. If they were as interested in a Devourer specimen as they seemed to be, then they would most likely seek to procure another.
If only the officer had kept a better watch on the sample case that the humans had been carrying. He had hoped to get Manor Uld to examine it.
He wasn’t going to put a mark on the officer’s file.
He suspected that the humans could collapse the case as easily as their weapons. The fact that there was a second Devourer loose was troubling. His command would need to follow up more seriously.
The humans still had a mission, whatever it was, more Devourer or not. He hoped that it led them to more criminal organizations in the Puzzle Box.
He could certainly do with another day like today, after all.
* *
Once again, the five humans were watching the Puzzle Box go by through the transparent outer walls of the elevator shaft.
The sight of various ships going past, set against the backdrop of red clouds among the stars of the galaxy, was not a comfortable one.
Neither was their silence, but no one wanted to speak up just yet, so they had traveled in silence on the magnetic carriage that had transported them back to the Enone Hub. From there they had trudged over to the central lift shaft and taken it up.
There was a quiet consensus that they needed to return to their airlock.
Marc was probably hoping they would have to get into the ship now for a better lead. Not that he believed that would happen. Slowing down a little so that he was behind Marc and Connor when they got to the airlock door, Ormond half expected what happened next.
The door opened after authenticating the humans as the owners of the ship docked at this port, and inside, in the middle of the floor, just in front of the bunk bed, was a new sample case complete with the biological scan of a Devourer parasite on top and
a map of the Enone park.
Shit, and a new case to replace the one we carried around and might have contaminated.
Damn.
Damn!
Ormond went into the room and sat down on the first bunk bed to the right while Marc gave off several expletives that shouldn’t be used in polite company. The rest of them stayed quiet; to voice their own frustration would just add to Marc’s already noisy outpouring and wouldn’t really make a difference.
Ormond watched the short man stomp over to the sample case and give it a quick kick. He noted that it didn’t do any damage, but then it was meant to hold a sample in excellent protection from inside and out. Marc just stood there and stared at it for a while, clenching and unclenching his fists in general anxiety.
He must be so much more upset than the rest of us.
After a few minutes of silence, he looked around and saw that the other four were sitting and waiting for him.
“Uh, sorry, guys. It’s just…” He trailed off, gesturing helplessly at the door on the other side of the room.
“That’s alright, bud. We get it,” Connor said in understanding.
Lekiso spoke softly to keep Marc calm.
“We are all frustrated, all scared, and we were all there getting shot at and fighting, and in the end, we got nothing.”
“Uh, yeah, but at least you guys can fight. All I have is the computers and software and shit! But the rest of you kicked some ass. That must have helped you feel more in control.” Marc tailed the sentence off, not quite a question, but Ormond could hear that he was more hoping than analyzing.
“No worries, mate. You’ll get to exert some of that frustration before long, I’m sure.” He tried to give the little guy some hope.
“Uh, really? Do you really think so? Do you have any idea how much help I am in a physical fight? None! That’s how much, absolutely nothing!”
Marc rounded on Ormond as his voice got steadily louder.
“If this was a movie, then at least they could use the same set a lot! Here we are yet again, back where we started, in front of the same damn door that still won’t open!” Ormond hadn’t really known what to expect when Marc got furious, but the splotchy face and gestures had figured in there somewhere.
“Are you done?” Meriam asked.
“Uh, what?” Marc deflated like the little man had been buoyed up by shouting at them and now all the air had just been let out.
Meriam’s tone had cut straight through him.
“Are you done?” She repeated. A gentle look on her face.
Then, more softly, she said, “Take a good long look at your reaction and think about how it helps us, Marc. Think about how we must all feel, all of us in this situation, all of us aware that the door is still closed. We tried and failed to make some progress, and yet we come back here only to find we are being sent out on the same objective by our unknown abductors.”
Marc was staring at her by this point.
Her soft tone and compassionate expression were meant to reach him, and they were.
“I can see you’re scared. We all are, and yes, you might be more scared than the rest of us because you feel like you can’t handle what’s out there. I don’t know your background, so that might be extra difficult for you, but if you start to shout at us and we start to shout back, we’ll lose the only thing that we do have going for us.”
Marc blinked at her and asked very quietly, “Uh, what’s that?”
“We have each other, Marc.” She lifted her hands to indicate all of them.
The way she said it and how she spoke to Marc resonated with Ormond as well. And he could see the other two listening in carefully, looking thoughtful in their own ways.
“It’s still just about the only thing we have going for us. Each of us has our own skills, even you. You understand all this science and technology stuff way better than any of us. And you contribute to us as part of the team. That is what we need to be Marc, a team.”
Ormond watched Marc’s frustration struggle with his desire to be accepted. It was written in his body language and all over his face. After a while, his shoulders slumped as his thoughts reached their conclusion.
“Uh, okay, yeah. You’re right, all of you. I don’t want to keep saying I’m sorry, but I am. And yeah, I’ll work with you guys. We only have each other in this whole mess.”
“Thanks, mate,” Ormond said for all of them. “So, what’s next, boss man?”
Connor looked over at Ormond and then around at the other four.
Marc moved away from the sample case to lean against the doorway of the outer airlock.
“Well, if we still need to find a Devourer, we could try scrounging one up from the local equivalent of a black market again. This time without calling the Domums for help so we can keep whatever we find. We know a lot more about what we can do with this tech, after all?”
“That is one idea, but how will we pay for it if it’s legitimate and not an ambush?” Lekiso asked.
Meriam looked a little devious. “We could always go back later and steal it.”
Connor raised an eyebrow at that.
“From armed conflict to outright larceny? Not really my area of expertise, but if you know how…?” He let the question trail off.
Meriam smiled demurely at him, giving them all the answer to that insinuation. But Ormond decided to break in rather than let that conversation get started.
The more we learn about each other…
“How about we go look for one in the park? That’s what this map is.”
“Uh, hey, yeah! That Lanillan was bragging about how his guys found one in the park, and he went on about how we met one of his search teams, and that’s how he was watching us in the first place, right?”
“It’s a good idea. Meriam, can you scan the park for us and see if you pick up anything?” Connor asked.
“I think so, yes. But not from here. The park is a few miles away.”
Ormond noticed that the translation system automatically converted whatever they said to the metric system, except, in Meriam’s case, she used it naturally.
So did he.
The other three had their words converted from meters and kilometers to feet and miles. Interestingly, that was a good hint about the source of whoever had written the translation programs.
Not that it helped right now.
Connor was looking thoughtful, planning something out in his head.
“Okay, I think the park is a good idea. We can map it out and give it a thorough scan where we can see that it is safe, and hopefully, we can also avoid needing Domum assistance if we do find any Devourer running around. Plus, if it doesn’t pan out, we can look for other options.”
He looked around to see if anyone was going to disagree.
Ormond did have one idea: “Well, how about we go over to that big ship that is supposed to have a Devourer on board? One of those hive minds the Domum medic told us about, hey?”
Lekiso answered before Connor could.
“I think it’s an option, but I also think the Domums will be watching that ship for anything coming in or out. Considering their paranoia about the Devourer in general, it must be a high priority for them to have that ship under constant surveillance.”
“True.” Ormond smiled at her.
“But then, that’s where I like these nefarious theft and stealth ideas of Meriam’s.”
Meriam smiled back at the grin that Ormond showed her.
“We’ll give that one some more serious thought if the park doesn’t pan out, okay, guys?” Connor wasn’t quite disapproving of the looks, but it seeped through.
“I’m okay with that,” Lekiso said sternly.
“Uh, sure.” That was Marc.
Meriam raised a sculpted eyebrow at Ormond. “I’m in.”
That only left Ormond as the focus of the other humans’ stares.
“Hey, I’m all for going with the democratic decision. Fought for our rights to have a democracy
enough times to give it value, haven’t I?”
Connor didn’t seem able to come back with a quick answer to that sarcasm, so instead, he just said, “Right, the park it is, then, but tomorrow or next cycle or whatever it is they use to tell time around here. After we get some sleep, at any rate.”
“See, mate, now there is an idea that has my full support.”
“Shut up and lie down, Ormond.”
The others laughed along with Ormond’s chuckle at Connor’s playful tone.
They all then settled down and were fast asleep in minutes.
Automated log update.
Complete resolution of the situation in the Puzzle Box refinery is resolved, with details recorded and stored. Subjects have returned to vessel airlock and have correctly surmised the next course of action.
Technology information has been altered in the Domum data as per mission parameters to avoid technological impact on the objective timeline.
Complete data stored in file 367-B for analysis of adequate actions.
Considering the need for more interaction under stress the mission parameters allow for adjustments to equipment of the subjects. Scanning profile, range, and resolution is being adjusted to allow for degraded capability.
This should require that the Subjects investigate with higher anxiety into the region classified as the park of the Enone Hub. The cave system they will be required to explore will tax their stress levels sufficiently.
Physical health of the subjects has been scanned and still shows Alpha One levels. Complete diagnosis also indicates that total adaption is complete and Subjects will now resume unsupported biological functions.
Expectations are in line with provided variable adjustment charts.
Monitoring continues.
**
Among the alien species of the Milky Way, humans were not the only competitive ones, but they were close to the top.
Add in the aggressiveness and pacifistic nature across the spectrum of mankind, and you did get a unique blend of driven progress.
War, peace, global problems, all of these factors created by the unique culture of humans did push them to more significant leaps forward than most other species. Not to say that the only improvements or additions to shared knowledge all came from humans during the early days of exploration and communication in the galaxy.
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