A-621: Shuttle Hio


Karmen, Kwint, Kort and Lia board the shuttle, bringing with them the artifacts, the additional informational items, the identifying samples from the crew and the data package taken from the suits Lia, Kort, Karmen and Prrri wore and the data from ship’s sensors.  The container from the hold is already aboard.

The artifacts are:
  • The capsules and threads (possibly less a couple of samples that have been used to experiment on) 
  • Flat oval disc
  • Most of the lustrous, metallic-looking material less some that Lia is keeping
  • A fascinating but somewhat less obscure than previously thingummy hoop but about which Lia is not revealing any additional information
  • A replica of a silvery metal half-egg shape, in a carry case

The additional informational items are:
  • The original self-destruct data storage widget with a thumbprint security cover
  • The original of the draft of a scientific paper on the Yarg (authors: Roy-Hinkley, Thurston-Thurston-Thurston and Wentworth) 
  • Lia’s doctored report on what she found from her experiments
  • Chief Engineer’s PDA 
  • Hardcopy engineering documents 
  • CV of Denver Will-Egan

The identifying samples of the crew are:
  • Right thumb of Thurston-Thurston-Thurston
  • Right thumb of Schafer Wentworth
  • Ziplock bag containing blood sample marked MMT
  • Ziplock bag containing blood sample marked JRH 
  • Ziplock bag containing blood sample marked SW 
  • Ziplock bag containing blood sample marked BTTT
  • Ziplock bag containing blood sample marked PTY 
  • Silver ID Tag of Maxwell Marconi-Teller 
  • Silver ID Tag of John Roy-Hinkley 
  • Gold ID Tag of Schafer Wentworth
  • Gold ID Tag of Backus Thurston-Thurston-Thurston 
  • Copper ID Tag of Prohaska Trog-Yanos
  • Photo of a grey-haired, ruddy-faced man holding a large fish
  • Baseball cap with a fish logo on it

With everyone strapped in (Lia can sit in co-pilot’s seat again if she wishes, and if she does Kwint will have her handle comms with traffic control) Kwint undocks the shuttle from Spanial and sets it on a gentle course to the planet.  Kwint orbits the shuttle part way around Mundo Zargo to set up the orbital insertion to bring the shuttle down to the Grasslands Estate.

As Kwint makes the approach the star is low in the sky and it’s heading for dark again, but it does give Lia an actual look in the farm from the air.  She can see the long strip of runway surrounded by a spread of green, mown grass, ahead to the left is the central farm complex, identifiable as a series of low, sprawling buildings surrounding a single stubby tower.  Swathes of gold and green crops cover a huge spread of the land, intermittently dotted with rows of tens and occasional barns.  In one area, a line of machinery is moving and ploughing up a tract  of field.  The farm is build on a grassy plain in a huge valley.  To the far left and past the runway approach the crops and grass give way to wilder, natural grasses that stretch to the valley’s edges.  To the right, the crops extend right up to an escarpment, leading to which is a road from the basic spaceport and which Lia considers must be the location of the Facility.

Kwint asks Lia to handle the comms with ground as he lines up the shuttle for the approach.

Anything from Lia on any of the above?

1 Response

  1. Lia Silver-Rose says:

    No, nothing from her. She will handle the comms, I assume she knows all the appropriate things to say.

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