"Well, it's a bit smaller, and there are certain atmospheric differences, but they shouldn't bother you." Moriah responded.
"So it's safe to go exploring?" Mark asked.
"Yes, just be cautious, don't explore anywhere alone, etc... you never know what surprises might pop up," Moriah replied.
Mark nodded. "Maybe we can find something edible to bring back. What kinds of food can we store here?" He asked, looking over at Moriah's compartment.
"Anything that can be dried. You could can things, if you wanted to, i suppose. I'd stick with easy stuff, though. We can probably pick up some non-perishable items at a commerce center on a more developed planet."
Zan indicated agreement, moving toward the lift.
The exited the lift and headed toward the forward hatch. A gust of wind rushed in through the open hatch, and Mark closed it again, quickly.
He opened it again, more cautiously this time.
They climbed down onto a lush field, looked around, and found that they were snuggly set down inside a ring of mountains. A strange, tangy smell filled the air, drifting from the colorful plants in the immediate area.
Directly in front of them lay a sparkling green lake. The strong, warm wind kept up, blowing Zan's long hair out behind her. Mark moved around to stand slightly in front of her, out of range of her hair. The tops of the mountains were covered in snow.
They walked closer to the lake, and Zan slipped a hand into the warm liquid. She grinned up at Mark.
"Maybe there're fish in it," He said.
"Is food all you think about?" Zan sighed.
"That's easy for you to say. You just don't like that stuff we've been eating. It gives me stomach cramps you wouldn't believe," he replied indignantly.
Zan shrugged. "I know how to clean fish," she said. "Never could catch any, though."
"Ok. I'll fish, you clean, I'll cook. You can't cook worth beans," he added, grinning at her.
Zan stuck her tounge out at him by way of a response.
Mark fashioned a rough fishing pole out of a flexible tree branch and some string, attatching a hooked piece of metal from the ship to the end.
Zan gathered as much of the surrounding edible plant life as she thought they would be able to eat before it began decomposing and took it back to the ship for storage. She also potted several interesting ones for study. She drew a fair quantity of the water, as well, just in case what they had wouldn't keep the plants alive.
By this time Mark had caught quite a few fish, and they returned to the ship.
They had decided to spend some time on the planet improving the decor on the ship. They had three days while Moriah fixed the systems she couldn't repair while the ship was running.
They set each of their cabins to a desired heat and light level, and canabilized furniture from several areas of the ship. They spent the remaining time studying the ship's systems.
It took only a few minutes for each of them to
learn the controls on each of the bridge consoles.
They were relatively easy to understand. Especially
after they had pasted the English equivalent of the
labels over the appropriate switches. Getting the
hang of aiming the weapons, and of navigation and
piloting was a matter of practice. They were moving
more slowly in engineering. There was so much to
learn! They explored the planet more thoroughly as
well, although they didn't venture out of the ring
of mountains they had originally landed in. Moriah
had informed them that there were natives here, and
they didn't want to disturb them.
"Source unknown, sir," his subordinate replied. "The power output upped about two days ago. We didn't look too closely, sir, we thought it was just another meteorite putting out radiation."
The man frowned. "Always be sure," he said reprovingly.
"Yes, sir," the other replied unhappily.
The commander considered this for a momnet. "Send
out a patrol to investigate. Be sure there are more
ships standing by to aid them if it turns out that
this is not just a meteor," he ordered after a
moment. He contemplated the wind as the subordinate
began sending orders through the console in front of
him.
"Powering up my lasers. I think i have them fixed, but i want to give them a test run. At least, as much as i can without actually blowing anything up." She replied.
"What time is it?" Zan asked from where she stood behind Mark.
"'Bout noon," Mark answered. "Why?"
"I wanted to go outside again before we leave," Zan replied. "The next planet we land on might not be this hospitable."
Mark agreed. "I'll meet you at the hatch, i want to
bring a medical scanner with me. We can feed it into the
computer later and Moriah can tell us what it discovered."
They had found some fruit trees on the other
side of the valley, and were making a second trip back to
the ship with a variety of unripe fruits when a rumbling
from the sky made them pause.
"Thunder..." Mark said, and looked up. Not a cloud in
the sky. A small, dark ship appeared over the tops of the
mountains, heading in their direction. Four more soon
followed.
"If they appear to be hostile, the logical thing to do would be to open fire, oh one five," Came the voice of his commander, made tinny through the small speakers. "We're sending a backup squad now."
"Yes, sir! the scout replied. He opened fire on the
aliens, just missing them. With a curse, he recalibrated
the beam, aiming it at a spot just in front of the fleeing
creatures.
They ran for the saftey of the ship. They hauled themselves in quickly, Mark lifting Zan in with very little help on her part. Startled, she scrambled out of the way. Another beam of energy just missed his leg as he pulled it in. The ship rocked slightly as it was grazed. He limped toward the bridge after Zan, who outdistanced him quickly. The angry red mark on his leg caused by the radiation from the near miss slowed him down considerably.
Zan burst into the control room, taking the seat in front of the weapons console, trusting Moriah to pilot the ship.
"We're under attack!" Moriah said sharply. "Strap in, i may have to blast out of here." Mark entered the bridge and strapped himself into the Navigations console. Zan did the same at weapons control.
Mark winced as the enemy scored a hit on the electronic viewscreen itself. The ship lurched, and a sudden bright light gave way to static, then cleared slowly to show the lake dwindling rapidly. The ship rocked with more hits.
"Moriah, how much damage are they actually causing?" Zan asked sharply.
"They're knocking us around a bit, but the enrgy beams aren't strong enough to actually score the hull. We'll be fine so long as they don't knock us into a mountain," she added, sending the sip into a sharp spiral to avoid just that.
A blue flash at the edge of the screen became a beam of light that rocked the foremost ship. It slowed, wary now.
"Remind me never to test out my lasers in someone else's territory," Moriah said dryly, "That's probably what set them off."
They're trying to surround us," Mark said, watching his screen. Zan sent another tounge of flame towards one ship that was getting a little too comfortable. The smaller ship veered off, and the shot went wide.
"Shoot." she muttered. "This is going to take some fancy manuevering, Moriah," She said, glancing at the viewscreen. The smaller ships were closing in on them.
"I know. Just try not to destroy them. Technically, we started this, and i don't want to kill anybody over a stupid mistake."
"Have you tried communication?" Mark asked.
"Yes, but if they-" Another shot rocked the ship, and Moriah cut off as she tried to evade more concentrated fire. "-heard me, they're ignoring it," she finished.
"Oops! They're hailing me! patching the translation through now.
"Identify yourselves." Demanded a rough, hostile voice.
"This is Zan Proke. We mean you no harm," Zan replied, wildly quoting from scifi movies she had seen. "We landed to restock food supplies, we're a non-hostile vessel." There was a moment of silence, and then the transmission cut out. She reached across her console to communications and closed the channel.
"I don't think they believed you," Mark said as the ships opened fire on them again.
"Guess not!" Zan shouted over the dull roar of engines being pushed to their limit. They were shoved back into their seats as the ship accelerated.
Moriah shot out of the atmosphere, followed at a distance by the smaller ships. She manuevered the larger ship between, over, under, and around the others, while Mark called out targets and Zan fired on them. They were trying to send the ships home without damaging them too badly. They didn't want them following, but they didn't want to hurt them too badly, either.
"There," Moriah informed them, "They ought to have just enough power to get back safely. She powered smoothly away from the little planet, setting a course that took them in the same general direction they had been going in before they had landed there.
"Onward and outward," Mark said, smiling as he unstrapped himself.
Zan agreed silently, looking up at the stars with a smile on her face.