Simera was a beast of a world. Filled with large towers of concrete, billowing smoke in every direction, not a trace of visible life seemed to exist anywhere on the planet's surface. The atmosphere was made up of carbon monoxide and heavy nitrogen, forcing the inhabitants to wear specially built headgear to pump oxygen into their systems. Much of the mining planets had this problem in some sort of way.
Only three types of residents lived on mining planets as she had learned. First, there were the government guards and supervisors who ran the actual mining processes and kept the slave force in line while they completed their tasks. They resided in large machine-like structures where the gases were converted into breathable oxygen particles. The satellites that rested on top of them were to communicate to a nearby space station or monitor incoming ships as their portion of the planet was only for government work.
The slave force, which was humans cast aside because of their unfortunate luck to be born here, were kept in small houses, often many families residing in a singular home. They too had oxygen being artificially created for them, but with the overpopulated status of the world, the smell and dirty living conditions were more apparent when they entered. No other outside force could penetrate their living units as the government officials had been strategically placed outside them and the mines, they worked in.
Located on the opposite of the planet was where the third party lived and worked. These were merchants, trading and dealing the leftover supply of the mines to outsiders who could then make their deliveries to the outer rim. Kept together in a small village of plain concrete housing units, these merchants wielded and dealt with each other and their clients who could dock just alongside the village. The government officials would occasionally patrol and pretend to keep them in line, although that didn't seem to stop the merchants from trading in front of them. But the outsiders had more to fear from these patrols than the locals.
Cassie sat in the passenger's seat listening to all this information that SA was telling her. She had asked to be further prepared for what was to happen once they landed on Simera. In the back of her mind, a small voice was yelling at her to give up this foolish plan because of the threat, but once she had awoken from a long sleep, she knew this had to be her next step and she couldn't hesitate.
Simera's atmosphere was a mix of dark reds and purples streaking across it with dark green clouds orbiting beneath it, shielding the actual ground plane from vision as they entered it. Once they had successfully penetrated this layer there was nothing but a brown ground service covering the entirety of the surface. There was a large crate off in the distance that Cassie deduced must be where the mining was taking place, but their arrival would first have to be the merchant area so that she could learn more about how to break into the Government section.
While they were in landing mode, Cassie quickly went through the small closet on board and put together a mix-match of SA's master's clothes. This consisted of a plain white dress shirt and cape-like blanket to cover her chest and a tuxedo scarf in tan, to cover her head and wrap her mouth and nose so that only her eyes were visible. She had briefly begun to attach the oxygen mask thing when they landed, SA coming to assist her to make sure she got it right.
The door to the ship had then opened and the ramp began to lower. Cassie glanced at SA and nodded to him as they made their way onto the planet's surface.
The atmosphere felt harsher than anything she had experienced, but considering nothing around even remotely felt welcoming, it wasn't that surprising. She looked around and saw many people out and about doing their daily trading. All she knew about Channing was that this is where his home planet was said to be. She didn't quite know if that meant that he was a slave, but she hoped she could maybe find out what she needed without having to resort to sneaking into the Sovereign compound. In fact, the further away they were the better.
"Where would you like to go first, Kay?" SA asked looking over at her. They had agreed to use this nickname for her since it was still somewhat related to her name without being directly associated with a female name.
"Let's see if there's not just some information post or store type place where we can gather some intel. I don't want to just immediately come on to someone and start asking all these weird and slightly random questions."
"Agreed. Let's head southeast then."
The two then followed, entering the main street of the village quickly. This street was very monotonous what with its one-story concrete buildings and small wooden booths set up just outside every five feet or so, but also because all the people seemed to be dressed similarly. That was of course except for the travellers. Luckily, she was in a somewhat better match of clothes than most.
Many were haggling or discussing prices, and to her delight, she wasn't really noticed as she passed through town. SA travelled along silently beside her, making out the signs on the buildings for a good destination point. He paused after about fifteen minutes into their walk and turned to face a building with some dots above the door.
"Here?" she asked in as low and inconspicuous as a voice she could muster.
"Yes. Please follow me."
SA held the door open for her and she entered a large bookstore of sorts. It had the traditional type of books as well as hologram catalogues in many forms of languages. She wondered what languages the books she had were for a moment out of curiosity before settling in on an older man who was stacking books into stands along the back wall.
Cassie held her breath for a moment before taking a deep one and walking towards him. SA followed behind her and approached the man quietly. He was in what looked like maybe his early seventies with patchy white hair and dark skin spots along his reddened skin. He also had a greyish moustache and goatee with a monocle in his right eye. A curious fashion statement but it went along with his simple dress shirt and trouser.
SA began speaking to him in a clicking sort of dialogue. The man quickly returned it in a deeper and frailer sounding voice. Cassie just sat there patiently watching the two exchange conversations. The older man first sounded confused and then eager at the fact that he had a potential buyer. That was until he paused and stared back at the android and her for a painfully long moment.
He then began to ramble with some vigour and loudness in his voice and Cassie did her best to remain calm wondering what was now troubling him.
SA turned to her once the old man had begun to again stack some books and said, "He seems very agitated by the name of Mr. Channing. He began to say many awful things about him and cursed him from here to the end of the galaxy for bringing trouble down upon the colony."
"He actually caused trouble here?" Cassie asked quietly.
"When he was abducted that is, yes."
"Abducted? When was he abducted?"
SA opened his mouth for a moment and then closed it before turning back to the shopkeeper. He began again to address the man who at first began to wave him away until he stopped to listen to what he had to say. Then to her dismay, he seemed to be shooing them out of his store.
Cassie tried to hold her hands up and even though she knew he couldn't understand her, she said calmly, "Please sir, just the date is all I need."
The old man had paused in confusion when she began speaking and stared at her wide-eyed. He then looked at her top to bottom and began to stroke his goatee. He asked a question to SA even though his gaze lingered on her. SA replied calmly and then they all stood in silence.
Moments passed until the old man sighed, folding his arms across his chest. He then very slowly and very articulately began to speak calmly again. He spoke for several minutes and then bowed away from them and turned towards his backroom. Cassie watched him leave before looking up at her companion, but he shook his head and took her arm.
"I will tell you everything he said, but we must leave immediately. He warned us of a patrol about to stroll by and believed it would be better if we left in case perchance the officers can understand our dialect. They would not be happy if they heard us talking about a fugitive and he does not want to endanger his business by having them arrest us."
"But I thought you said I speak a dead language?" she asked as he pulled her outside. "How would they be able to understand us?"
"They shouldn't, but we need to prove to him that we also aren't trying to be suspicious any more than we are leading on. If we head out and into the street and talk then we can appear more like we are arguing over a trade item."
Cassie followed him as he dragged her out of the shop and then down the street until they reached an alley partially covered by a stand. Here they leaned against walls and then SA stared at her before beginning his tale.
"Once the shopkeeper seemed alright with the fact that we were not Sovereigns and that we weren't there to arrest him he mentioned that this scientist of yours was once a major customer for him. He was older when the man first met him and very pale. But he wanted all the books he could gather on dimensions within the universe. Every time the guy would get a new shipment, he would come in.
"He did mention that it didn't appear like the guy was living on Simera and that whenever he came, he appeared to be always looking over his shoulder. The shopkeeper always dreaded seeing him, but then one day he stopped coming.
"He had heard that there was a recent arrest and bust on one of the moons just before and wondered if maybe that was this guy. But he didn't have concrete facts since the Sovereigns were very hush-hush about it."
Just then two guards passed by and even though they didn't even pay that much attention to the two, Cassie held her breath. When they passed by, she turned back to SA and said, "So we know to check out one of the moons, but not exactly which one?"
He nodded. "But we should also stock up on rations before we go exploring. I would like to find some plutonium charging cells so that I can remain awake during this undertaking."
Cassie nodded and the two began to venture out. The marketplace was now at a stifled hum because of their previous visitors. Many of the traders had bolted it appeared, and Cassie wondered just what kind of deals they had been making before that would cause them so many problems to be discovered. It probably had something to do with the spice trade or the drug trade was her guess. But she and her robot companion just kept business to themselves until they approached one of the vendors selling plutonium.
SA began his haggling and although all seemed to go on smoothly, he admitted to being run-up for the price. Cassie then questioned where he had got the money to pay for it, but he also admitted that he had taken some from the ship that belonged to his former master. If they held out well enough, he calculated they could last well over a year since this was one of his master's emergency funds.
Hopefully, they wouldn't take a year but the comfort of knowing they had the money and the means to dive into this adventure relieved her.
Next, they made their way to the general marketplace and SA helped Cassie pick out the food she would need to stock up on while they were gone. Many of the food available was recognizable to her now. All but a few of the delicacies which she chose to take small amounts of so she wouldn't be considered strange for not taking any.
Once they were supplied and refuelled, they returned to the ship. SA began to put the food into storage while Cassie got out of her ridiculous ensemble.
"Which moon would you like to check out first?" he asked once he had finished.
"Is it wrong to suggest the smaller one since it appears more time-efficient?" She asked.
"No, I believe that is very wi-"
"Very what?" Cassie waited but heard nothing and then began to step out of her room. She was stopped at the doorway by SA who was standing there looking towards the entrance. "What's wrong?" she asked wondering if in some way she had said something wrong to him.
"Those guards have come into the hangar. You will need to hide inside that smaller storage container while they come aboard. I will divert their attention from you by putting some food supplies on top of you. I apologize for the pain it will take to hide. I hope they will be brief. Now please hurry Miss."
Feeling her heartbeat pick up, Cassie quickly and silently began to do as she was told. The cabinet was indeed small, and she found it hard to tuck herself inside. When she had both knees to chest, her feet touching her butt, and her arms wrapped around her head, she felt SA push some of the food provisions down on top of her.
Her muscles were already screaming at her to get out of this position as it burned to even be in it. But as she heard movement along the floorboards, she just bit her tongue and tried her best to stay perfectly still and silent.
More of that clicking language was heard from the outside and Cassie hoped all was going well. She found the language itself hard to understand as far as tone with until the shopkeeper had said things slowly. But before she could concentrate too hard on the intonation of their voices, more movement was heard coming towards her, and then a second later the door opened above her.
The longest fifteen seconds of her life passed where she was sure she had given herself away by the sound of her heart beating out of her chest. However, gratefully, the door closed again, and she began hearing the ones next to her open and close. Why were they searching the ship and what would have happened if they found her? She trembled at the thought but then more pain cascaded through her body.
Ten minutes later and the door to the ship closed. Then moments later the door to her cabinet opened and SA called down, "All clear Miss. They didn't suspect a thing." Cassie cried out as she stretched her muscles in an attempt to unfold. "Are you alright?"
"I'll be okay, SA," she said stepping out with his assistance. "Why did they inspect the ship?"
"Routine checks with the spacecraft. They want to make sure no one is doing any of the illegal trades. But we cleared and they assumed you were still out in the marketplace."
Cassie just nodded and rubbed her arms. "So, we are good to go then, correct?"
"We shall wait just a half hour to make it look like I was waiting for your arrival and then we shall depart so none of their suspicions arise," he said going over to the control deck.
"Good." Cassie then sighed and sat down on the bed still rubbing her arms. She needed a massage after that to loosen up her muscles from all the pain and anxiety in the past couple of days.
Images of Ash's hands caressing her began to creep into her mind. God, she missed him. She still was mad at herself for leaving, but she had now convinced herself that even if she went back now, he wouldn't want anything to do with her. It looked bad and she knew it. It looked like she had completely betrayed his trust and looked him up. But she didn't feel confident she could convince him otherwise and unlike the other times where she had somewhat let him down, this was almost unforgivable.
Sighing, she rolled over and closed her eyes to try and focus on the task at hand. They had a lead, and who knew? Maybe on one of these moons, Channing's temporary living quarters would reveal all the knowledge he had discovered about dimensional travel. Hopefully, that was. Hopefully, the Sovereigns hadn't taken it when they raided the place and arrested him.
The journey to the moons would take a couple of hours and providing they found what they needed on the first one, this would be a short trip. SA informed her that the circumferences of the other two moons required at least a few days of travel to see if anything was there. They were the size of a small planet after all and all they had for transportation other than their ship was their feet.
They took off just as precisely as SA had calculated and it appeared like they had not garnered any unwanted attention by their activities. Cassie joined SA in the cabin to watch the travel, wondering what was in store for her as this journey progressed. The atmosphere once again enveloped them as they passed through it and then broke out into space just beyond the planet. Just outside, the two moons orbiting Simera were now in sight. There was one that seemed closer to them, but their destination was the moon that was about one-eighth the size of its twin and slightly farther away. It would take only about an hour and a half, but it was one of increased anxiety.
Many ships were coming in and out of the mining colony and many of them were small Sovereign ships. SA detailed that the nature of this was to monitor traffic in and out of the planet as well as deliver supplies and or news to the actual officials in charge of the mines. They constantly scanned and checked other vessels, but thanks to SA's smooth flying their vessel went undetected as they flew right behind the first moon.
Being close enough to see some of the moon's atmosphere, Cassie glanced out with as much focus as she could muster to see if she could see any sort of settlement. But this moon only had forests that she could tell, and it was hard to see some of the surface, this proved to be futile and she soon sat back and ignored it. A forest would make for a pretty good cover, but should they switch destinations?
It was soon too late to make that call as they had passed by the first moon and began circling the backside of the second. Unlike the first, all she could tell of this moon was that its surface was desolate, minus a few mountains. It didn't appear to be desert as it gave off this bluish/greenish hue, but the lack of any other geographical features both concerned her and intrigued her.
"Will there be any safe place for us to land without being discovered?" she asked quietly looking over at SA.
He was reading scripts from the computer system, but after a moment turned to look at her briefly and said, "Based upon the initial scan of the moon's surface, I believe the ideal place for us to find cover will be inside one of the numerous craters that befall the planet. It will be a bit of a rough landing though since the valleys into these craters appear to be very thin. Please make sure you are strapped down securely."
Cassie quickly did as she was told and tightened the belts that held her into the co-pilot's chair. They made sure they were on the far side of the moon not facing Simera before the decent began.
Immediately upon entering the descent, the ship began to shake violently, and Cassie tried to hold on to her armrests as tightly as she possibly could. SA also appeared to be bouncing around in his chair as well but was doing his best to hold onto the steering unit. They moved about in a very jagged pattern for five minutes longer before evening out into a smooth flight pattern. However, this instance remained briefed as SA made a sharp turn and the ship turned on its side.
They just barely manoeuvred through a thin hole between two peak cliffsides before entering a very near valley. Cassie was settling back into her seat after hanging onto it, moments before when SA dove straight into a dark crevice in the ground. Letting out a small gasp, Cassie felt like the lungs in her chest collided with the walls of her rib cage and forced most of the air out of her as she was jerked forward. A terrible scraping sound pervaded through the cabin and though SA did not appear to be alarmed, Cassie knew they must be in for a crash landing.
The ship came to a halt and the lights on the outside of the ship came on. They appeared to be in a very dark and large cavern of blue walls. Nothing else appeared to be in there, but SA decided on doing a scan of the outside just to be on the safe side.
He turned once the scan commenced and then immediately his eyes began scrolling faster than Cassie had ever seen them. "Oh my. You are hurt! Here let me give you a health scan."
Cassie tried to say anything, but it was still hard for her to breathe. SA waved his hand up and down her body and then held a hologram with more notes out in front of her.
A minute passed before he said anything, and Cassie just continued to feel pain as she took quick sharp breaths into her body. SA then frowned. "Dear goodness, you have suffered a lot from that fall. It would be better for you to lie on your back for a while."
He began to unstrap her and then pick her up. He gently led her back to the bed and laid her down. Immediately the weight lifted off her chest and more air began filling into her lungs. Cassie closed her eyes trying to regulate her breathing to a slower and more normal level.
SA continued to scan her while she did this before saying, "I apologize as this was my fault from our terrible landing. I recommend staying here for at least twenty-four hours so that you can regain strength and we can make sure your organs are still functioning at a normalized level."
"Bu... Bu... But... th... th-"
"Miss Cassie, it would be better for you to rest and gather your strength again. No one will discover us here and as far as I can tell due to the scanning of other ships, no one appears to have seen us or inquired about us. We have plenty of time to explore and plenty of supplies to do so as we know no one else appears to have inhabited here. I will continue to monitor to make sure that this remains accurate, but please, you do need to rest."
Cassie didn't say anything, or more accurately try and say anything more, and soon SA left the small room. In his own strange way, these facts brought comfort to her. They would be safe here and she could recover and that was good news. But this pain was immense. If only they had a medical facility like Doctor Beckett's. He would know what to give her and make her feel normal again. That was if this was indeed an illness.
She had never really had whiplash before and so maybe this was just a very prolonged effect of it. God how she just wanted to pass out though, but the pain would not ease her into sleep. She needed Johnson's calming tea to relax her into it.
All these memories caused tears to form in her eyes. She couldn't start crying now though, but it was no use fighting it. God how she missed the Keimei. She missed the comfort of it and the friends she had left behind. As pain radiated through her still, she counted this as a reason for her own punishment. Though she did wonder how bad the punishment would be should she ever get back there. She probably wouldn't even be let onto the ship the more she thought about it.
Tears continued to fall down her face until her breathing began to feel a little more normalized. This was when finally, she could feel the beginning effects of sleep fill her and soon it overtook her.