Scouting mission Day 48
07 Aug 2020Excess Fire
so we camped on the planet for the night, atmosphere was ok, warm night here, quiet as, no wind, nothing. Sleeping under the stars reminded me of days on the mining colony when I was young, memories I did not realize I had, not good memories, wondered how I survived at all... how anyone else could possibly have survivedMorning arrives, amazing sunrise, instantly warmer, days gonna get real hot again, there are no clouds today, not like yesterday. Going for a cruise in the srv, just me and the cat, about 10kms from Destiny and missy explorer, not a lot to see but there are a lot of materials to collect. I see Destiny take off in the distance behind me, not unusual, she does that when left alone, its safer that way if she's orbiting, can warn me of other vessels, strange today though, usually she warns me first. She wouldn't take of if missy was the so I assume that missy's taken the other srv for a drive as well, nothing to worry about.
After a while, we head back to our camp, no missy yet, strange, no second srv tracks either, no worries, they just gone to look around the system, there's quite a lot here in this system, Lilo and I will just relax till they return.
The evenings arriving, still no word, time I think to hit the recall for Destiny. An hour passes, then another, nothing, what the frak is going on, I check my beacon, they are not even in this system anymore, no one is here, this is not feeling so right now. no choice but to settle down for the night. Morning arrives and i check the beacon, nobody still, no point in the recall, only works in the system you are in, hmm, need to alter that since Destiny can jump on her own aye. I find myself now wondering if they are ok, not crashed somewhere or destroyed, that would make for a bad day, I would be annoyed a tad about that, specially since there's no cat food here... cept me. we'll be right for a few days, then its gonna get interesting. starting to get worried now, will send distress call to daughter tomorrow night and then look for a safer camp spot and supplies, daughter could take an earth month or so to get here. food and water are no concern, the biologicals here have that covered, its food for the damned cat I gotta sort. Calling it a night, gotta conserve power, no fuel for the srv while they out of range, may need it. Winds picking up too.
New morning, winds howling, need to get as much as i can into the srv and find shelter, I saw a series of caves the other day but no chance now, the tracks are gone, long gone, the winds now a dust storm, visibility's now about 10 meters if you are lucky. "what about you Lilo, do ya think you could track them?" I say to the cat, he looks at me as if to say "what do ya thinkin... do ya think I'm a frakin dog or what?" frak! After an hour of driving through gully's we finally find a cave, by we, I mean that damned cat, good eyes on im, Its big enough to drive in to, bonus there, so in we go, I open the hatch and the cats gone in a flash, down into the cave, at least he wont be in my way setting up camp aye. Well frak me... there other life here, well was, its in the cats mouth now, decent size, will do him a few days easy, looks like a rat from earth with no tail but the size of a large sheep but with no fur or hair or whatever... At least he's sorted now.
Its dead quiet again this morning, storms passed and the cats sitting in the entrance to the cave listening to something, tail twitching, looks at me and then he's off. I know when he does that, I gotta follow so I do, out in to the open where he's sitting there looking up, I didn't need to look, grab the beacon and hit recall and head back in to pack up. Lilo grabs his kill and is gone in a flash, not to worry there either, he'll be at Destiny before she even touches down.
Back on board Destiny now, I see some rather major dismantling has been going on here in the cockpit, most automation and AI systems have been ripped out or dismantled, looking at missy, I could see a little fear, a lot of relief, and she was very fracked off, told me Destiny abandoned me, wouldn't let her take control, wouldn't plot a return coarse, she had to dismantle to return. I said not to worry, must still be damaged from a few shifts back, we will get her sorted on the carrier, we should probably head back there now huh? "uhuh" she replies. "Its gonna be manual plotting and jumping from here, you make a start and I will stow the gear in the cargo bay" I say as I head back, gotta get out of there before she senses my humor at all this.
Down in the cargo bay, grinning to myself, good girl Destiny, clever, very well played, we will get ya fixed and you can tell me if you trust her now.
I already know the answer.