The Company [Ongoing]

6 - Assurances

'And there's the command for the shop.' Bill pointed to the monitor. 'Everything will be sent to our location within minutes, usually. Sometimes it takes a little longer.'

James looked at the commands, trying to commit them to memory. They'd gone into the store on the computer and ordered a lot of things. Food rations, first aid kits, an extra suit, flashlights and walkie-talkies among other necessary things.

'So...' James hesitated. 'The salary is joint?'

'Yeah. It's a little suspicious, but it is what it is. At least it's pretty good and allows us to buy what we need.'

'But we can't take out the money and leave the shuttle? Go shopping in the city?'

'No. Afraid we're stuck here until our contracts run out.'

'Well, I suppose it could be worse.'

Dakarai called from outside the ship then. 'It's here!'

James spun towards the door. The roar of a rocket and reflected yellow light shone in the puddles outside. He hurried out to the others, waiting a few metres away from the ship, looking up.

The rocket landed with a heavy metallic clunk, followed by a few seconds of silence. Then, lights flashed around the rocket and a happy tune started playing. Quite loud.

'What in the world?' Rebecca laughed.

'Beautiful!' Dakarai danced about in the rain like a lunatic.

James chuckled, watching the spectacle. The music was loud, and a bit off tune.

'What do we do now?' he asked and turned to Bill who walked up beside him.

'Here.' Bill pressed a button on the rocket and compartments on the sides opened, spilling its contents onto the wet concrete.

'Neat!' Dakarai said and grabbed a first air kit and a walkie-talkie. 'We should test these.'

'Good idea, let's,' James agreed.

They brought all their new gear with them to the shuttle, and tested everything. A strange calm and feeling of camaraderie settled over the small crew as they chatted, ate dinner and tested the comms.

After about an hour, Bill stood and looked at the monitor, writing commands.

'What's happening,' James asked and stood. He wanted to learn to handle the computer. If something happened to Bill, they'd be stranded otherwise.

'Routing the ship to a new moon.'

'Not Experimentation?'

'Again? No. It's better to go further away. I think Assurance will do. Weather's stable at the moment.'

James watched the green text on the screen. "220 – Assurance. Conditions: Hilly desert moon with large rocks. Similar to its twin moon, 41-Experimentation, but featuring far more jagged and weathered terrain. Current weather: Fair."

'Sounds fantastic.'

Dakarai snorted behind him. 'Right. A walk in the park. I'm sure it's got friendly animals too.'

'Of course.' Bill nodded. 'It's more or less the same, but it's less scavenged so there's more scrap of value to be collected.'

'Well, that's something,' James muttered, the knot in his stomach making itself known again. He really didn't want to meet any of the wild creatures on the moons. Especially not those large eyeless dogs. He rubbed his arms, suddenly prickly with goose bumps.

'Let's get it over with. We should rest while we can, and go on a hunt for great scrap tomorrow,' Dakarai said. 'We'll surprise even The Company with our supreme scavenging skills!'