Right, I’m making up for missing several months by giving you a bit more of the story early. I’ve got to the end of the handwritten draft now, so I’ll be back to the notebook, scribbling away to finish off the story. I do want to get the first draft completed by late October, when I go away to Brighton for World FantasyCon.
Chapter 16 – Lah-Shah
“Come in Agent Sahrai, Agent Sahrai are you there?” The radio crackled. Once again there was no answer from the agents on Aurox, “Damn it Sahrai, if you or Maria are there, answer the radio!”
Nothing.
Lah-Shah sighed. The ship was off-limits until another team from headquarters could get to the asteroid and make the repairs to the computer system before waking up the crew. He needed to go back to Aurox, but he couldn’t go alone. He sighed, blowing sparks through his flared nostrils.
It was time to call in the troops.
*
It took a couple of IGASS standard days before the boss sent two ships through the jump gate into the system. Lah-Shah flew to meet them near Rocky Horror’s smallest moon.
“Come in Senior Investigating Office Lah-Shah, this is Captain Ton-Aul of the IGASS SS Endless Night.”
“Welcome to the system, Captain Ton-Aul. It’s good to be back in touch with Command.”
“We’ve received your reports about the exploration team’s ship. The Endless Stars crew will head back to the asteroid to see what they can do. We’ll support you on Aurox. Have you heard from Agent Sahrai, or from your Trainee Investigator, the human?”
“Not recently. They transmitted a message about going looking for clues in the jungle, but that was about two standard weeks ago. I’ve picked up faint transmissions from a device with Agent Sahrai’s ident code, but nothing useful. It was somewhere in the jungle about fifty miles southwest of Agent Sahrai’s base.”
“I see; we should start at Agent Sahrai’s base then. If her device is still transmitting, it’ll be recording at the base. We can work out from there.”
“We should start at the space port on Aurox. The original survey team left their shuttle there, and that’s where they were officially last seen. If we are seen at Sahrai’s, it’ll give the human authority time to destroy any evidence at the space port.”
“We need to secure the port so the humans can’t escape. I think we should go there, make a show and distract them, while you go to Agent Sahrai’s base and collect any data she’s collected.”
“That could be a workable plan. As far as I can tell, Sahrai’s base is far enough from the human settlement that they might not notice my ship.”
“See you down there, Senior Investigator.” Captain Ton-Aul signed off.
Lah-Shah closed the connection and took himself to his pilot’s seat. Time to collect his human.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 