"Those blasted guards! Who takes forty minutes to do a systems check? And they didn't even find anything. They're both lazy and incompetent. That museum is doing itself a disservice by paying them at all," Cewi ranted as she slid her rifle off her back.
"Well their incompetence is good news for us," Wsr reminded her, smiling broadly.
"Yeah, yeah." The Nemarian absently waved her hand. "We're completely in the clear. Everyone pack up. We're cutting it close to make our ride back to the landing pad."
Lus let out a sigh of relief as he moved to do as she asked. The mission had gone off more or less problem free compared to last time, and he was rather pleased with both himself and the team.
Half an hour later, the team was back down in the tunnel, watching as the crawler returned to them. Their contact was once again the pilot, but she said almost nothing once she arrived and helped them load their belongings. Lusac was grateful to unload his luggage. His shoulder was aching a lot more now from all the packing and carrying, and he was looking forward to a little time to rest it, even if he was stuck between the Kremel.
The ride back through the tunnel was less miserable than the original trip, mainly because Lus wasn't motion sick to start with and didn't ever develop the nausea. Still, he was never able to find a good place to relax his shoulder, so he was never exactly comfortable, and it was a relief when they came to a stop. After they got their luggage, their contact led the way back to the landing pad where their ship waited.
"A pleasure working with you," the contact said, dipping her head. "We'll take the other half of the payment now."
Lus had never been a part of the final exchange of goods, but he knew what constituted payment for situations like these. Using digital cryptin was far too traceable, so instead other commodities were traded.
Cewi-Bano produced a large hunk of black crystal from her bag, and Lus recognized the shimmering as that of a valer, a chunk of physical magic which could be used in the creation and programming of golems. It was larger than any valer Lus had seen before, and he recognized that it was likely worth more cryptin than the average person would make in a year of work.
The Kremel accepted the stone and then motioned for the Runners to enter their ship. The business was concluded.
Vqltrn was the first one in the shuttle, and he took charge of organizing the luggage, mainly to protect his tech from being smashed by anyone else's bag. Lus was more than happy to let the Kremel handle that part with the way his shoulder ached.
He took his seat in the back and enjoyed a chance to properly rest his body after the beating it'd taken from the floor earlier that night. It wasn't too long after that everyone else was settled and Cewi started the engines.
"Here's to a softer ride out than we had in." Wsr smirked as the Nemarian started the lift off process.
"Shut it, or else you'll pilot next time," Cewi threatened.
Lus smiled and leaned his head back with closed eyes for a few moments as the craft launched from the ground. He didn't think the return trip through the atmosphere was as bad as it'd been coming in, but Wsr still complained rather heavily. It helped that he dozed off for part of it, and he actually napped most of the way back to their redevenous with the Argo on the far side of the system by one of the gas giants.
He woke when they landed back in Alpha Bay on the Argo. Mildly embarrassed he'd so easily fallen asleep, Lus rubbed his hands over his face and glanced around to see if anyone was going to comment. To his luck, nobody seemed to care. In fact, Vlqtrn seemed a little bleary too so perhaps he'd taken a chance to get some rest as well.
"Alright. I'm going to run the debrief with Captain Tave," Cewi said once the shuttle was off. "Wsr, Vlqtrn, you two handle luggage and get it where it needs to go. Lusac, head up to medical and get that shoulder checked out."
Lus looked up at her in surprise and then realized he was actively rubbing his shoulder without thinking about it.
"You've been doting on that thing all night. I think Yqrw would appreciate having his maintenance boy back in working condition," Cewi explained with a half smile.
"I'll drop your stuff off at your quarters," Wsr promised.
Lus nodded in appreciation as he unbuckled. It would be nice to get some painkillers or something so he could return to his duties properly. As he felt right now, he doubted he'd be able to handle crawling around the fsylan tubes for any amount of time, much less all day.
He left the shuttle bay behind and started towards the medical center. It was up several decks, but since he didn't trust his shoulder to support something as intense as ladders, he was going to have to use the elevator. It was a tiny thing, just large enough for a single Kremel, but that made it a little less coffin-like for Humans and Nemarians. Only those who were physically incapable of using ladders were allowed to use it, and while Lus didn't technically have a pass, he knew that no one really cared anyone as long as he had a valid reason.
Lus exited on the general crew deck which held things like the cafeteria, recreation center, and medical bay. Inside the medical center, he found the crew doctor, Tremt-Fusi in her office doing some paperwork.
"Lusac," she said as she stood to greet him. "What can I do for you?"
"I messed my shoulder up on my last mission. Can you get me something for the pain?" he asked.
"Sure. Let me take a look at it first and make sure it's nothing serious," the Nemarian said. Her purple scales glistened from the humidity inside the small center. She pointed him to the exam bed waiting at the center of the room.
Lus held in a groan as he removed his shirt and sat down. This was his first time seeing the injury as well, and he didn't like the look of the purple bruising flowering out from the impact site.
Doctor Tremt-Fusi used a couple of scanners across the area, her face unreadable as she watched the screen in front of her. Lus would never admit it to anyone else, but he sometimes wondered if Fusi was actually qualified to treat Humans. After all, medical schools tended to specialize in only one species. But he'd never heard the other Humans on board or even the Kremel complain, so as far as he knew, Fusi did a fine enough job for any of them.
"Looks like you sprained it. I'll give you a shot of Theraix to speed up the healing process, but I'm going to take you off full duties for a couple of days so you can properly recover," the doctor explained after she finished her scans.
"I work maintenance in fsylan tubes. There's not really a light duty option," Lus pointed out. He wouldn't mind getting some time off to relax and hang with Avil.
The Nemarian smiled. "Since you're also a part time chef, I'll speak with the Cargo Chief about getting you to do food inventory instead. How does that sound?"
Lus shrugged, ignoring the twinge from his shoulder. "I guess that works."
"It'll only be for two or three days anyway," Fusi promised. She went to the supply cabinet to get the shot ready. Lus watched her, trying to decide how he felt about the duty shift. By the time she returned to administer the medicine, he'd made up his mind that this was going to be a good thing. Taking an inventory of all the food onboard would put him in a good place to be able to cook his one recipe properly and finish off the [Perfect Soup Quest], and anything that worked for his system had to be a good thing.