By now, Alma was panting. She'd had to disconnect the med bay, belt up Haiser and herself together, all the while maintaining navigation of the escape pod as it plunged into the planet.
By some miracle, they had managed to get close enough to the planet to be pulled in by its gravitational pull. They had almost been trapped by the gravitational orbit of the planet, but the escape pod just had enough juice to break into the planet's atmosphere.
At that time, Alma had only had a few details about the planet.
Where it had once been a vibrant planet with multiple mineral reserves, planet Tres was a shadow of what it once had been.
Once, Planet Tres thrived and had been fought for by many major corporations. Why, because this little unassuming planet had once been one of the main producers of Type A bunton liquid. This was one of the main mineral resource required to facilitate movement of the ship. It wasn't fuel, but it helped to maintain the interstellar ship engines.
As such, this item was in top demand. Much like engine fuel, it was sort after by the major corporations. Sadly, the quantity available in the planet was minuscule at best. That did not stop the various major corporations from fighting over the planet.
However, after the bunton wars had passed, and the bunton mines had been depleted, the corporations began to abandon the planet. The planet fell under the care of a fledgling family corporation named the Tres Family Corp, run by the Tres family.
They oversaw mining of the ores left in the planet. Much to the joy of the Tres family, while still resource rich, the value of the resources of the planet were not high enough to attract the attention of the bigger corporations. Hence, the family could develop the planet as their fief.
Unfortunately, with the depletion of the major mineral and the departure of the major corporations, planet Tres was left as a mess. There were multiple defunct industries. Thriving towns were now shadows of their former self, and the population declined steadily.
The agricultural production and development had stalled, barely enough to sustain the population that was already on the decline.
It didn't help that the planet was on the fringes of the known universe, bordered by desolate universe belts. Moreover, the star system was considered weak and old, doomed to fail soon.
With such deplorable conditions, only those with no choice and those born here would choose to stay.
Despite the conditions of the planet, the Tres family did not seem to mind. They were fully aware that they did not possess the qualifications to fight for those high-value, resource rich planets. The fact that they could own an entire planet was already enough for them.
With this, the family had a stable foundation to see them through many financial difficulties. After all, a planet was a resource that kept on giving, until it ran out.
While they may be seen as weak, but this was in comparison to the major corporations, the movers and shakers of the world. To the commoner, especially a resident of planet Tres, family Tres was the unshakable overlord.
Unfortunately, governance was hindered by the vast territories and the limited manpower of the family. In fact, the family did not invest heavily on the planet's governance, choosing instead to profit off the taxation of residents.
Therefore, they had strict control over anything that went in and out of the planet. They allowed the smaller corporations under them to develop their territories and rule as they saw fit, as long as they met the necessary payments.
Alma did not know all this, but it was not difficult to guess. Her choice to land in planet Tres, if it can be called a choice, was sorely due to that being the only option.
Alma finally felt the steep acceleration, accompanied by the heavy rocking of the escape pod. She knew they had started their decent into the planet's atmosphere.
Since the pod's AI was navigating, all she could do was brace herself for the final impact, and whatever else that lay ahead. Casting a look at Haiser, Alma said a silent prayer and hoped for the best.
***
"Did you see that?" Alex, one of the Planetary Border Control officers, had been busy stirring his tea as he looked at the screen. It was his work to detect any anomalies in the planet's atmosphere, him and several others on that shift.
Section H Quadrant E, a small blip in the radar had suddenly flashed and disappeared just as suddenly. As he observed, he waited to see if it would flash again.
Having no luck, Alex proceeded to check the logs. In truth, he did not need to actively check the monitor. There were AIs that had that task, and they should have flagged the blip.
However, the logs showed that this was just an ON/OFF event. Ordinarily, Alex would have just dismissed this. However, he now had a beautiful baby boy, and the family was pressuring him to make an honest lady out of the baby mama.
He was now under heavy pressure to get a promotion, possibly even a raise. As such, he would not let even the slightest chance of discovering a smuggler, which was what he thought had caused the blip, to go.
After a few minutes of pouring over the data and finding nothing out of the ordinary, he decided to let that go, but just before he did, he decided to try one last thing.
"Anybody else see some funny blip on the radar?" He asked the floor. Everyone was in one way or another managing flights, off-world travels and the like. They were bound to see something that was off.
"If you saw something, why not send the field unit to check it out. Those guys have been lounging around doing nothing, might as well give them something to do," Helena, the beautiful colleague, said.
Why not? Alex thought as he reached for his phone.