Tyler: Human
The Scouter cruised above the dunes of the dusty planet. Tyler watched the barren landscape of brown and red dust as they zipped above its surface.
There was a beauty to its
simplicity.
There was nothing out there, nothing but dust. This side of the small planet of Gnumus had a thin atmosphere and 'very mild winds' from what the Circuit Queen had told them. The wind piled up small dunes of dust on its surface, but besides the dunes and occasional swirling column of dust blown by the wind, there was nothing to look at.
The Scouter was a small break off ship that could barely fit the entire team. They used the cramped thing when they needed to explore a planet but didn't want to expend the energy to land their entire ship.
Byralnus piloted the small craft at the front while the rest of the team sat in the back waiting patiently. Jirabi sat nearest to Byralnus, occasionally glancing at the small black box that the Queen had given them and leaning towards Byralnus to give him directions.
"Come in, CSC team seven," buzzed a voice on the small ship's intercom system, "Captain Byralnus, this is force officer Toin, we are inbound to Gnumus. Give us the coordinates for the mission and we will meet you there."
Realizing that the team's mission to capture Short was potentially dangerous, Byralnus had enlisted the help of six PPF force officers to assist them.
"Force officer Toin, this is Captain Byralnus." Bryalnus responded. "We will send you the coordinates as soon as we know what they are. Please standby until then."
"Affirmative, Captain." Replied the voice over the intercom. "We will wait for your signal."
The shuttle droned on as it flew over the surface of the planet. If Tyler wasn't so anxious about the mission, the comforting white noise and vibrations of the Scouter could have put her to sleep.
"We're going to need to head more east." Jirabi muttered to Byralnus, pointing off to the side of their course. Tyler could only barely hear him through the hum of their shuttle.
Byralnus nodded.
"Is that thing going to work?" Asked Tyler, fighting to get her voice above the noise. She gestured towards the black Circuit box in Jirabi's hands. "Didn't the Queen say something about Short being almost impossible to find?"
"It's been working so far." Said Jirabi. "From what it's telling me we should be arriving at the wreckage site any time now."
Jirabi glanced down at the box and frowned. He gave it a quick smack with his hand and then began to shake it.
"That's a good sign." Bai muttered sarcastically to Tyler.
"Looks like he spoke too soon." Frowned Tyler, replying to Bai. "What happened Jirabi?"
The large Kelpar smacked the black box again. "It just... quit working."
"What? What happened?" called Byralnus from the front.
"The device stopped working, Captain."
"Here, let me see it." Called Tyler, holding out her hand. Although Tyler had no experience with Circuit technology specifically, she was the team's engineer and had experience with many other alien technologies. Jirabi tossed the black box to her.
She examined the device. It was about the size of a bar of soap, with a solid build that seemed metallic. It's surface was rough like sandpaper, making it easy to grip.
Tyler flipped it to the displaying side, looking at it closely. She had seen it when it worked, it would show a series of pulsating dots that pointed in the direction of the destination, then just like a game of hot or cold the dots would slowly change colors as you got nearer to the destination, finally becoming white on arrival. Sometimes the box would flash characters that Tyler didn't recognize, probably in a Circuit language.
But there was no line of dots on the screen now. Instead, dots were randomly scattered across the device's face. Tyler saw Bai lean in closer to get a better look.
"What do you think?" Tyler asked Bai as she flipped the device around again.
"I think Jirabi smacked it one too many times, that's what I think." Muttered Bai in reply.
Tyler examined the box closely again. She would break into it and tinker around with its electronics, but she couldn't see a way to take it apart. And she didn't want to accidentally destroy it.
Suddenly their small ship lurched.
The crew yelped as they were tossed to the side. Tyler quickly dropped the Circuit box reflexively to steady herself against the ship's walls.
The Scouter violently lurched again.
Then the loud hum of the ship unexpectedly stopped. The engines were no longer running.
"Captain!" Yelled out Jirabi.
Tyler's heart dropped into her stomach as the dead ship tipped in mid flight and began to fall towards the dusty ground below.
"Hold on team!" Yelled Byralnus, his voice relatively calm.
Tyler shut her eyes tight as a scream escaped her lips. Her seat's safety mechanisms activated and embraced her sturdily for the impact, wrapping around her torso, shoulders, and head.
Then the ship hit the ground hard.
Tyler could feel the Scouter shutter as it dug into the dust, the ground fighting to stop the momentum of the ship.
I dug on for what seemed an eternity. Then it finally scraped to a stop.
Tyler opened her eyes. Everyone was still there, nobody looked hurt.
From the inside, the ship looked functional, albeit powerless. All the electronics were off and the ship was silent.
"Is everyone okay?" Asked Byralnus, his thin crystal body crawling out of his seat and looking back at the crew. "Malba? Heva? Jacobs? EquirBai?"
"I'm okay, Byralnus." Answered Tyler.
"What the Ruolt happened??" Cursed Bai.
"Heva and I are fine, Captain." Said Jirabi as he helped Heva release the safety mechanism on her chair.
"Good, I'm happy we made it out of that safely. And there is no need to use vile language EquirBai," scolded Byralnus, "the Scouter malfunctioned. Jacobs an I will examine it to see if we can get it working again. Everything will be fine."
Tyler released herself from the safety mechanism holding her to her seat. She was anxious and a little excited to see what had went wrong with the Scouter. "It malfunctioned Captain?" Question Tyler. "Did it just... die?"
Byralnus looked back at Tyler and nodded solemnly. "Suit up everyone, the Halos wont protect you from everything out there." Byralnus opened a small closet like compartment containing a row of protection suits that were tailored for each of the team members.
After each of them had pulled the suit over their existing uniform and set up their Halos, Jirabi made his way to the side of the craft and manually opened the emergency escape door.
Tyler could feel the heat radiate from the outside like the door to a huge oven had just been opened.
Jirabi jumped out, then stood to the side and assisted Heva and Bai out to the ground.
Tyler was next, she allowed Jirabi's steady arm to support her as she dropped to the dusty ground below. Byralnus followed suit.
The heat from the planet's large red sun blared down on them mercilessly, and Tyler could feel the itch of sweat already pushing its way to the surface of her skin.
The ground was hardly solid, it consisted of a thick layer of dust, and when each of them hit it, a puff of the film would rise up into the air and hang for a moment before slowly settling back down.
"Alright Jacobs, let's take a look at the ship." Said Byralnus, shuffling through the dust to the other side of the hull where the ships mechanics would be. Tyler followed him.
Every sinking step they took sent clouds of brown dust billowing behind them. Tyler had to avoid walking directly behind the Feronius as she followed him over to the side of the Scouter.
Once they reached the side, Byralnus opened up the mechanic doors and they both peered inside.
The interior was covered in a thin layer of the dusty film from when the shuttle hit the planet, but that shouldn't have been anything to worry about. Tyler had seen it working fine in much worse conditions in the past, so the dust couldn't have been the problem.
The shuttle was relatively new, so if it had died unexpectedly, it was possible that the reverter had come loose, or the Yulon relay had blown. She reached in and shook a few of the vital parts, checking for looseness. Everything was fine there. She then checked fluid level, temperatures, gas pressures, Jiptor fuses, power retention, stability...
Tyler frowned—it all seemed to be fine. From what she could tell, nothing was wrong with the shuttle. Why had it shut down?
The two of them stood in silence as she continued to check the machines systems. Tyler could hear Bai complain about the heat to Jirabi back on the other side of the ship, but other than that, the landscape was silent. Not even the slight breeze that Tyler had seen before blew across its scorched surface.
"Byralnus," asked Tyler, finally breaking the silence, "I want to see what happens when you try to start up the ship."
The short crystal being nodded and shuffled back around to the entrance of the Scouter.
Tyler paid close attention to the machine as Byralnus attempted to get the ship running again without success. Soon the captain found his way back to Tyler.
"What do you think, Jacobs?" Asked Byralnus hopefully, shuffling back to his original position next to her.
Tyler frustratingly wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "I can't figure it out. All the systems are telling me they are working fine and ready to run. But when you tried to start the thing up again, they work to a certain point and then shut themselves off automatically."
Byralnus thought for a moment. "Could this be related to the malfunctioning of the Circuit device?"
Tyler raised her head.
The Queen had said something about this. Tyler could only vaguely remember. The Short Circuit had some sort of power over technologies?
"Bryalnus," she asked pensively, "how close were we to the Short Circuit? Or how close did the device say we were before it stopped working?"
"We were pretty close. Although neither I nor Malbe were certain we were reading it properly." Bryalnus answered.
The gears in her head were churching. "Hang on, Captain." She pushed away from the side of the ship and raced though the thick dust to the front of the Scouter, leaving Byralnus with large clouds of suspended dust surrounding him.
She had an idea, though is seemed farfetched.
She raced back around to the front of the ship to where the rest of the team was. Jirabi, Bai, and Heva were sitting down in the sliver of shade cast by the ship. Bai was fanning herself furiously with her four arms, Jirabi lay still with his eyes closed, and Heva simply sat staring off into the distance.
Jirabi opened his eyes and looked at Tyler as she approached.
"It's a little hot to be running around dear." Said Bai warmly, continuing to fan herself vigorously.
"Did you find anything out about the Scouter?" Asked Jirabi hopefully.
"Ah... a little, but not much." Panted Tyler. Sweat was now pouring down her face. "Jirabi..." She paused to catch her breath, "How strong are you?"
Jirabi gave her a confused look as Byralnus came around the corner to join them.
Bai turned towards the muscled Kelpar and gave a sly smile. "Yeah Jirabi, exactly how strong ARE you?"
"Umm..." Jirabi hesitated, unsure of how to answer. "Strong enough?"
"Do you think you can push this ship back a ways?" asked Tyler, tilting her head slightly, still breathing heavy.
Jirabi blinked for a moment. "I would think so... hang on let me check. It's been a while since I did a wall push." The muscled Kelpar stood up out of the shade and placed his hands on the front of the Scouter. Bai and Heva quickly jumped out of the way.
Jirabi then proceeded to rock the shuttle back and forth.
"It's got a good amount of weight to it..." He let the ship rock to a stop then threw his weight at it with a grunt.
Jirabi's muscles strained and his feet sunk deep into the thick dust below him. Then the ship moved, slowly but smoothly sliding over the layer of dust.
"Holy hunk..." Whispered Bai with wide eyes.
"Yes that's it!" Yelled Tyler excitedly. "Okay so we need to push it back the way we came!" She braced herself against the ship along side Jirabi and began to push. The Scouter continued to slowly slide backwards. Bai and Byralnus quickly joined them, and even tiny Heva stood along side them to push the shuttle through the dust.
"Tyler," grunted Bai, "Why are we doing this exactly?"
"I think that the Short Circuit is... broadcasting something that is... shutting down our ship's systems." Tyler grunted as she heaved. "We need to get the ship out of his range."
"Sounds good... dear" Said Bai with strain.
"Fascinating theory!" Exclaimed Byralnus. "I'm intrigued to see if this works Jacobs!"
"Yeah," smiled Tyler "...You and me both."
The team continued to push it through the dust. They were making good progress with all five of them pushing, though most of the effort came from Jirabi.
After pushing the shuttle back about four times the length of the ship the group was exhausted. The whole team stopped, breathing heavily and sweating profusely.
"Tyler" Said Jirabi, his deep voice sounded raspy and dry. "I don't know how much further we can push this."
"We have pushed it a good distance." Byralnus pointed out. His voice was enthusiastic and didn't sound at all out of breath. Although Tyler didn't think his species even breathed at all. "Shall we try to start it again Jacobs? See if the experiment worked?"
Tyler nodded.
Byralnus climbed into the ship.
Tyler held her breath in anticipation.
Silence. The only sounds that Tyler could hear were the heavy breaths coming from the team as they sat in exhaustion.
Suddenly the small shuttle roared to life. The slightly startled team quickly jumped out of the way as the small ship repositioned itself on the dune floor and readied itself for takeoff.
Tyler sighed and smiled with relief.
Byralnus appeared around the bend of the ship. "Good work Jacobs! Alright, team." Said Byralnus with a grin. "Let's go find Short Circuit!"
"Woo hoo!" Bai shouted with excitement, raising her hands in the air. "No more sitting in the heat, baby!"
"...Of course," added Byralnus thoughtfully, "...We're going to have to walk there."
Bai dropped her arms.