"Pegasus captain speaking here; all passengers, please get back to your seats and fasten your seatbelts - deceleration and orbital capture maneuver commencing in 10 minutes."
I heard the sounds of seatbelts clicking behind me, in the cockpit. My only two passengers were in place.
"You know you don't have to do this voice thing." Mei's cold voice was always a nice change from the computer and fan sounds I've been listening to... for weeks.
"The ship feels more alive when I do that." I replied. "As if there is nothing wrong with our civilization, and I'm just transporting hundreds of enthusiastic tourists to a sightseeing tour to the Trans-Neptunian space."
"In a fuel tanker, to a misery land." Mei said.
"Let us have some fun, Miss Admiral." Professor Yamamari supported me.
"Oh, and by the way, I don't expect the title of admiral to be much useful when we get there." I said. "I don't know how much law and order can be sustained among what is essentially a group of refugees evacuating their homes and trying to settle on a barren rock with nothing on it."
"Makemake is still a good place compared to most other bodies floating around." Mei said. "They can at least do some hydrocarbon mining to keep themselves going."
"And I will have to disagree with you, Mr. President." the professor said. "I bet the people out there see the Republic Navy as heroes who fought for the future of humanity. An admiral might get a lot of respect."
"I wouldn't be so sure." I said.
Just before I started the deceleration maneuver, Pegasus received a message, indicated by the notification beep from the computer.
"What is that?" Mei asked.
"Let me read."
'---ORDER OF SALVATION---
Space Traffic Control
Unidientified spacecraft, you are about to enter Order of Salvation territory. Decelerate to 1km/s of tagential velocity and shut down your drives as soon as possible. Wait for further instructions as we scan your vessel.
Failure to comply may result in violent response.
---END OF TRANSMISSION---'
"Order of Salvation, huh..." I said under my breath.
"These guys don't know manners." Mei said.
"I am surprised that they managed to work out an actual government system in this hell." the professor commented.
"In such a desparate situation, I think it is natural that they get so protective and defensive." I said. "If I were sent out to survive there, I would get suspicious of any moving thing as well."
"Do we need to send a response or should we just do what they tell us and wait?" Mei asked.
"I will indicate our friendly intentions." I said, pushing the push-to-talk button on the attitude control stick. "Order of Salvation Space Traffic Control, this is Tanker Pegasus, transporting three survivors from planet Mars. We wish to enter orbit around Makemake. We have no armament, and our cargo is 92 liters of methane."
I released the push-to-talk button and turned to Professor Yamamari.
"Who was that person we are looking for again?"
"Professor Kukulkan." he said. I stared at him for a minute.
"Is that his real name?"
"I don't know, I think so. We didn't use names to talk to each other."
I pushed the push-to-talk button again.
"We are looking for... uh... Professor Kukulkan who we presume to be residing on Makemake." I said.
Since we were still a bit far from Makemake, it took a while for our transmission to reach the traffic control. We eventually got a reply.
'---ORDER OF SALVATION---
Space Traffic Control
Fuel Tanker Pegasus, you have been identified. Continue as instructed and wait for further instructions.
---END OF TRANSMISSION---'
"That was the most neutral response they could give..." I sighed.
Just then, my radar picked up two passenger vessels approaching us. Their maximum rate of acceleration far surpassed ours, so they could travel here from Makemake in a short time. We all started looking out of the cockpit windows in wonder.
A passenger liner approached from port side, and the other one from starboard. They have been painted in unusual patterns for a passenger liner, with stripes and arrows - as if they were police vessels. On closer inspection, I noticed the multicannon turrets mounted on their hulls, so perhaps that paint was a fitting decoration to what seemed to be the Order of Salvation's improvised security vessels.
"Fuel Tanker Pegasus, you are GO for orbital insertion. Welcome to your home away from home, brothers." the traffic controller told us by voice.
In the duration of a few hours, I managed to get the tanker in orbit of Makemake. There was no real space traffic around Makemake - only flying things were the two security ships converted from passenger liners, and a small space station-like structure converted from god-knows-what. The space traffic control was also located in that structure.
"Space Traffic Control, this is Fuel Tanker Pegasus. We have completed our orbit insertion. However, our spacecraft is not suited for planetary landings. We wish to get a shuttlecraft to transport us to the surface." I said.
"Fuel Tanker Pegasus, on the orders of Core Council, we instruct you to remain in your current orbit. Only stationkeeping maneuvers are allowed. A shuttlecraft will be sent to rendezvous with your ship as soon as possible. Thank you for understanding."
"Copy."
"Core Council?" the professor said.
"What the hell is going on with these guys?" Mei got impatient. "Why do they behave like we are alien visitors?"
"Maybe we are indeed their first visitors from somewhere outside their 'territory'." I said. "Maybe they just don't know how to handle this situation."
"Maybe if we just told them that we are working on saving humanity and stuff, we would get better attention." the professor said.
"I doubt pulling that much attention would do any good." I said. "It might sound like a trick to paranoid people."
"And, obviously, there will be lots of paranoid people there..." Mei said.
A fleet of three shuttles finally arrived near Pegasus. One of them moved closer to dock with the tanker as the other two remained far away. As soon as they completed the docking procedure, we opened up the docking airlock without hesitation.
Two men in black uniforms walked in. One of them flinched when he saw me, but quickly restored his previous facial expression before anyone else noticed. After the two men, three more people got inside. Those three had orange uniforms.
"This ship and it's cargo are now a property of the Order of Salvation Core Council."
"Wha-" Mei almost tried to argue, but I held her back.
"Mei! Let's not challenge powers greater than us. Besides the ship has already done what it's supposed to do - bring us here."
One of the men in black uniform spoke.
"Get inside the shuttlecraft."
The instruction was clear, and we all followed it. The shuttle subsequently undocked from the tanker, and we starte descending towards Makemake's surface.
What kind of new civilization we were about to see - none of us had an idea.