"It's you …" I mumbled, trying to convince my brain that my eyes weren't lying.
"Of course it's me! It's you I wasn't expecting," Breccan said, standing outside the ship.
He wore thick outdoor wear with sturdy black boots and had grown a small beard. It brought out a more rugged, sturdier side of him. If anything, he was even more attractive than before, which made it obvious Kiko wasn't turning him down because of any lack of good looks.
Within a few moments the entire Jago crew gathered in front of the door.
"Of all the humanoids we could run into in this vast universe, why do we run into you?" Rei groaned.
"Why'd you open the door, Tammy?" Kiko complained.
"It seems he wanted to discuss some matters," she said simply.
"He can talk from outside," Rei pointed out.
"Let him speak," ordered Cashel.
Rei gave a defeated sigh and plopped herself on some cargo.
Breccan entered our cargo bay with a wide smile. "It seems we have found ourselves in a similar … predicament."
Cashel stroked his bearded chin. "Go on."
"We've both crashed in the same area, so I can only assume you and your crew have come searching for the same thing as us? And now we have similar problems."
Our captain crossed his arms. "As in …?"
Breccan took a deep breath. "Your main power source failed when entering the planet, but you were able to activate your backup generator in order to land … somewhat safely. Now your new problem is the fact that your tracking device can no longer be powered, plus, according to my sources, it isn't engineered to find a close-range signal of the stone." He cleared his throat. "Then there's the minor problem of leaving the planet before getting sucked into the black hole we're currently sitting on, because the backup generator simply isn't strong enough to get you very far in the air, at least on this planet."
We all turned to Tammy who made the calculations with a few blinks of her eyes and nodded to Cashel.
Guess he was right on target.
Cashel studied Breccan before saying, "So you want to join forces, I assume? What do you have that we don't?"
"Resources." He gave a smug smile. "I can build almost an entirely new ship with the materials we brought. Plus, I have an excellent mechanic crew that can build anything you want. Our problem is we don't have enough knowledge to work around a few issues we've been having, but I'm pretty sure your Mechanite can help us there." He gestured to Tammy.
Mechanite? That must have been what Tammy's species was called.
"How do we determine who gets the stone if we cooperate together?"
"Eh, we can figure that out later." Breccan simply brushed off the most important question.
Cashel thought for a moment, but it was pretty obvious what we had to do. There was no way any of us would be able to leave the planet without each other's help.
"All right, we're temporary comrades," he agreed.
Breccan smiled, showing his pearly white teeth.
"Excellent! Feel free to drop by our base when you're ready!"
And with that, he turned and strolled off, whistling.
We watched until he was far enough away to talk about him without him overhearing.
"I guess he can take things seriously when he needs to," I observed.
Rei scoffed at my comment before leaving the cargo bay and going deeper into the ship.
"Is this really necessary?" Kiko said in exasperation. "I seriously might just kill him."
"No, you won't," Cashel said calmly. "Sometimes we have to do things we aren't fond of doing. Working with Breccan is going to be one of those times, and I know that you and Rei both have a grudge. Don't try and deny it. But don't let your grudges get in the way of the real reason we're here. We need to get those stones, and whether that does or doesn't work, we still need a way off this planet before it, and we, are sucked into the black hole. We need Breccan, and he needs us. For now you have to put your grudges aside and do something unpleasant for the greater good of this crew—by which I mean get the heck off this planet, preferably with the Vo stone. So, please refrain from seriously injuring him. We can't afford to wait another three months for him to recover."
Kiko grumbled before storming back into the ship.
We gathered all the equipment we would need—which wasn't as much as I thought because we'd left a few items on Dezner—then made our way to Breccan's base.
Surprisingly, it wasn't far at all. In fact, it looked like they crash landed in almost the same exact spot as us. When we walked out of the Jago, the first thing we saw was Breccan's large ship.
"It's funny how we landed right next to them," I said as we walked to his base with our arms full.
"They must have an excellent pilot," Tammy said.
For a place with impending doom, it was gorgeous. There were many trees and bushes like Dezner, but they looked different and were much more colorful, diverse, and bigger.
I think this is what they would call … a jungle.
Breccan's base camp was guarded by a few large men of a strange rock species. They carried blasters that were strapped around their bodies, but when they saw us coming they lowered them and moved aside. Several tents were pitched in front of their crashed ship, and many crewmembers were walking about.
I couldn't believe how many people there were. It reminded me of a small village as I studied the different species we passed.
"Who're all these people?" I asked.
"Breccan's crew," Kiko answered.
"All of them?"
A familiar voice replied from behind us, "We have more inside the ship."
I turned to see Lux in a tight, sleek outfit with a few blasters on her hips and a long one on her back. She walked up and joined us on the opposite side of Kiko. I also noticed she had a whip attached to her hip. Kiko sneered at her and hastened her pace to walk ahead of us.
"I was surprised to see you here," Lux said to Cashel. "I thought you weren't going to participate in the race?"
"Things changed," he said in a gruff tone.
Her comment, no doubt, reminded him of what happened on Dezner.
"I see." She got the hint and pointed to a few large tents in the middle of the base. "We have those two tents set up for you. You can assemble your stuff in there. Breccan is in that tent." She pointed to another large tent set up in front of ours. "Dinner is in a few hours, but feel free to walk around if you'd like." Then she smiled at me and waved goodbye before leaving.
Rei threw her stuff on the ground. "Of course he puts us right next to him," she griped.
"It's only for a few days," Cashel assured her.
We spent the next few hours unloading and setting up Tammy's equipment. As it grew darker I realized how hungry I was, and as soon that thought crossed my mind, a guard came by and tapped against the tent flap.
"Dinner in five minutes. We've set up tables in front of the ship; you can't miss it," he told me when I answered it.
"I'm not going," Rei and Kiko said in unison, after I relayed the message.
Cashel laughed. "Fine, don't go. I won't force you." Then he headed out.
Tammy said in her usual monotone voice, "Just think; all-you-can-eat without affecting our own food supply."
Both Rei and Kiko lit up, then quickly made their way toward the exit.
"Challenge accepted. Don't hold back," I heard Kiko say to Rei before they both disappeared through the door.
Tammy and I followed. Several large tables were set up in front of Breccan's ship, and they were all filled to capacity with his crew.
I didn't know how, but Rei and Kiko were cleaning off plates left and right. Like they'd made it their personal goal to cut Breccan's food supply in half.
It was loud and rowdy, and giant serving plates from the ship kept coming out to replace the empty ones, mainly at our table.
I didn't want to admit it, but being in Breccan's crew looked fun; everyone was having a good time and laughing together like there wasn't a care in the world. I found myself enjoying their company, and I was sure Rei and Kiko were starting to enjoy themselves as well.
It wasn't until Breccan and Lux came out of the ship and walked over to our table that things started to get serious again. In an obedient hush, all eyes turned to the captains of the two ships.
"Crew of the Jago, and my beloved Akiko." He made an attempt to sit beside Kiko. She made her thoughts known by drawing her knife and skewering the table next to her while continuing to shovel down food with her other hand. Breccan played off his denied attempt and joined Lux, who'd sat in front of us, instead. I chuckled to myself until I imagined what it would be like to be denied like that. Ah, girls are brutal. How Breccan still had the willpower to keep pursuing her was beyond me.
He continued. "Since we are unfortunately on a time restraint on this beautiful planet, let us discuss how we should go about dealing with this minor problem."
He and Lux prepared plates for themselves.
"First things first," Cashel said, "Who gets the stone?"
Breccan's brows furrowed as if he were in serious thought. He stared at the food, piling it on his plate.
"We can figure that out once we're near the stone," he concluded, brushing the question off again.
Here I thought he was in serious captain mode. Apparently not.
Cashel pursed his lips, and our eyes bounced between each captain.
"I guess I can agree to that right now. So, what did you have planned?"
Breccan had just put a giant spoonful of food in his mouth, so Lux answered instead.
"We've been stuck on this planet for almost a month now. Since our original power source doesn't function here, we've been working on a way to utilize this environment's resources to provide power."
"And what power source would that be?"
Breccan finally swallowed and answered, "Sage."
This time Cashel looked to Tammy for an answer, and she explained. "Sage is an abundant, resilient liquid mineral that is found only on this planet. It cannot be burned, destroyed, or damaged in any way other than its own evaporation. The two layers surrounding Fargon are formed from Sage particles that leave the planet's surface."
"Can it be used as a power source?"
Tammy stared into nothing for a moment before answering. "It's feasible."
Breccan continued eating again, so Lux spoke. "We have a few prototype generators made, but they don't output as much power as we'd hoped. There's also the problem of creating an accurate locator to find the stone in a close proximity. We seem to be missing some knowledge to complete the proximate stone locator, and so we're willing to provide you with our resources, as well as access to our ship's mechanic shop, in exchange for the knowledge you have."
Tammy glowed slightly when Lux mentioned their mechanic shop. This was basically an exchange of knowledge and resources. It seemed like a good plan to me.
"Are you okay with this, Tammy?" Cashel whispered to her.
She nodded, back to her quiet self again, and Cashel nodded to Breccan.
"Great!" he said. "I'm glad we got all that talking out of the way!"
I was pretty sure Lux did all the explaining.
Breccan finished his plate and called over a girl. "This is Pippa. She's the ship's lead mechanic and knows everything about every tool we have."
The girl wore a mechanic's full body suit with goggles around her neck, and she had grease marks on her cheeks and forehead. She was about Tammy's height and age but with short, messy, red hair and an actual expression on her face.
She smiled as she introduced herself to Tammy. "Hiya. You need anythin', lemme know! I know everythin' 'bout our tools and ship!"
Tammy acknowledged her with a small nod.
"We can have the proximate stone locator ready in two days," Cashel told Breccan.
Breccan clapped his hands. "Excellent! That leaves …" He fiddled with an object that was around his wrist. I noticed that everyone in his crew had one.
A hologram of a countdown appeared in the air. "Eleven days to travel, find the stone, return to our ships, and get off the planet before it gets absorbed into nothing."
Eleven days to do all that? Was that even possible? All we could do was try.
We returned to our tent after dinner, and Tammy went to her work tent to begin designing the blueprint drafts for the proximate stone locator. This left the rest of the Jago crew to prepare for the journey to search for the stone. Kiko checked weapons, Rei packed food and clothes, and Cashel checked our location on a Fargon map he received from Breccan.
"Cashel," Kiko called. "I don't like it; he won't talk about the stone."
"I know, but that's no reason not to trust him. At this point, I think he's doing the right thing of treating our crews as one, and prioritizing finding and reaching the stone before procuring it. Having said that, I don't think he has anything up his sleeve. Breccan has never struck me as the kind of guy to offer a treaty and then renege on it. Now," he said and clapped his hands together. "The important bit. From the looks of it and based on Tammy's estimation, it looks like the journey to reach the stone will take about five days. That leaves us just enough time to get the stone and get back to the ships and take off before this planet's time ends."
Luckily that seemed simple enough; all we were fighting against was time.
I didn't realize just how wrong I was until early in the morning when a loud CRACK, followed by strong winds and the sound of hustling outside, woke me up.