Chereads / Starmaw / Chapter 3 - Two- First Job

Chapter 3 - Two- First Job

Del walked out of the airlock into the Feim's small bridge and into the cockpit. He sat in the pilots chair and looked at the complicated patterns of buttons and levers. Suddenly worried he was going to be unable to fly, Del looked around the rest of the cockpit. To his relief, there was seperate control panel, no doubt installed for him that was more similar to a human built vessel to the left of the large steering stick.

"Okay." He said to himself switching the various switches to power the engines on.

Soon enough he undocked the Feim from the Deimos Alpha station and took flight. Del looked above his control panel to see a nav screen monitor. He tapped the screen which turned it on, much to his relief. He typed in the planet name Poulja had given him, Arelia , on the on screen keyboard and hit enter. The nav screen made a few digital beeping sounds and then displayed the word course plotted. Del pushed forward on the stick and now the Feim was on course to Aerila.

Del was still taking in the sights of the newly found star system he was in when he heard an annoying beeping noise from inside the cockpit, he looked around and followed the beeping until he looked at the seat next to him to see a small gray device like the one Poulja had pulled from her pocket earlier.

A phone, of course.

Del picked up the device and flipped it open. He pressed the green button on the screen hoping it worked the same way as he was used to. The screen went into overlay that read Poulja Maraks at the top with various adjustable audio levels under that.

"I see you've found your way out." Poulja said greeting Del.

"Yeah, I see you left me a phone." Del replied.

"It's a holo. Forget your archaic human terms and listen." Poulja spat in her usual cold tone.

"The route should take approximately three hours, I suggest you spend that time familiarizing yourself with the planets information that you'll find stored in this holo."

"Three hours?" Del asked, somewhat shocked at the timeframe. "That seems so quick."

"Again, forget what you think you know about technology, most human technilogical workings may as well be considered primal." Poulja snorted. She clearly had a distaste for humanity for some reason.

"Additionally, I trust you should have this job done within the week." Poulja added.

Del was initially shocked but then quickly remembered the speeded up time of the trip compared to what he was used to. Based on that knowledge it would stand to reason that the other Drenzien technologies would make other tasks quicker and more convienent as well.

"Alright." Was all he said in response. Then a thought struck him.

"Wait…why a week if it only takes three hours?"

"Oh this is just your first stop dear." Poulja said with a bit of a tone change. She was clearly expecting that to be a surprise.

"Alright." Del sighed, unsure of how to feel. Part of him felt the longer he stayed away from this woman the better.

"Should you fail to return to me within the week…" Poulja continued.

"It would not be an issue to have you hunted down and subsequently eliminated." She finished, her tone unchanged.

"Got it." Del meagerly replied, unsure of what else to say.

"Good then. I'll see you within the week." Poulja concluded snd the holo screen went back to a blank green screen and turned itself off shortly after that.

Del sighed, unsure of what to think of his new found situation. The only comfort he found in it was the fact he had no choice in the matter so he was going to have to go about doing this anyway.

Del tapped on his holo and searched through the devices files. Luckily the holo operated much like a human made tablet that he would be used to.

So much for primative

The holo contained several applications but one was high listed for Del lacked files. He opened the the folder and near the top was a file with the name Aerilia. He tapped the name and three windows popped up. There was a lot of information there that Del only skimmed over, he didn't care much for pointless busy reading. He did find three points of interest however.

First, the natives of the planet looked and seemed much like the primitive natives he had learned about from earth. Wielding a cacophony of diffirent tools and primal weapons like spears and bows, the still lived in the simple, single level long huts or small personal huts. They were aboreal, they lived on the ground and in the trees. They were just barely shorter than humans averaging at a height of 5'2. Their skin was a beautiful shade of green and then mixed with either red, yellow, blue, or purple. They seemed to be a very intelligent people as well, apparently they had a deep connection with the nature around them. These were the people fighting the Drenzien conquerors here. Del suddenly felt a pit in his stomach, a deep guilt had come to burden him, but he gulped away his sorrow and steeled his mind, reminding himself that no matter what he felt, he didn't have a choice here.

The second interesting point in the file was the wildlife. Contrary to the planets smaller native people there were many creatures here that were gigantic, or at least bigger than the people. Most of the bigger ones though oddly enough we're described as docile. Though there were many sections of the file that read unknown as there was little study done on the listed creature. This made Del question if the file was complete at all or just rushed.

The third interesting point was the Drenziens here themselves. They were having trouble keeping and reclaiming the territory they had taken here, and had suffered many financial losses due to sabotage or downright attacks and casualties from the local natives resistance. Del reminded himself that he was only delivering supplies and told himself not to get emotionally attatched to anything here. He was far from home now.

For the rest of the trip Del played a game with himself. Mostly out of the need to avoid the thoughts of existential dread intruding into his mind as he flew through outer space. The game was simple. For every third small coke the passed drifting around in space he would pull back on the flight stick to just slight make the ship buckle with turbulence. He had learned to play this game during his longest flights from his earlier smuggling days when he couldn't manage to fall asleep. Del often played mental games like this to avoid unwanted thoughts, he wasn't sure why in all honesty, he had just always done it.

The rest of the three hours went by and a few beautiful sights of stars and larger asteroids later Del finally saw the planet Aerilia come into view. The planet was beautiful. It was almost entirely green and lucious with forests and fields with a few patches of water here and there, and one larger one that must have served as some kind of ocean. The planet had two moons, one smaller one just to the right of Dels approach and the other larger one ninety degrees to the planets left of Del. Breaking away from his awe of the planets beauty, Del pulled the stick downwards and as soon as he entered the atmosphere the ship locked on to the Drenzien camps coordinates and auto pilot took over. Del began to fill a bit of anxiety but quickly brushed it away.

Remember, just supplies, then somewhere else.

With that thought in mind Del intended. He leaned back and relaxed, taking in the beautiful sights and the Feim descended through the atmosphere and over the Aerilia beautiful forests, just minutes away from the Drenzien camp Del finally calmed himself and prepared for the drop off.