Published: 24 Jan 2022

Matter of perspective

⚫Cpl. Robin – Hazardous Earth Creatures, Hazardous Native creatures, Winter Survival, Primitive Survival
⚫Jr.Cpl. Gavin – Hazardous Native creatures, Grassland, Forest, Jungle
⚫Sr.Pvt. Fairfax – Advanced Geothermal Dangers, Winter Survival, Hazardous Earth Creatures, Primitive Survival
⚫Sr. Pvt. Ajax – Winter Survival, Near Ocean, Jungle, Primitive Survival
⚫Spec. Oliver – Advanced Geothermal Dangers, Near Ocean, Mountain, Primitive Survival

Fairfax rolled over. His hand smacked Diane. He pulled back fast and glanced over with concern. His fear was short-lived; Diane mumbled, wiggled, and quickly resumed a normal breathing pattern.

A yawn, few blinks, and a rub of the eyes helped him to wake up. The problem was it was dark. The only light came from the solar recharging E-dome heater. The five LED lights on the side was down to two blinking yellow bars. It was a warning the power had dropped below thirty percent and had lowered its output to conserve power.

Other than the rhythmic breathing of the other three in the dome, the only other sounds came from outside. Wind whistled through nearby trees and the sound of blowing snow caused the outside of the E-dome to make cracking sounds. He frowned for a moment, but remembered the manual told those taking Advanced Winter Survival to expect this. The dome was warm enough on the inside to melt snow on the outside, but eventually enough would build up to cause a frozen encasement to form. It also said this would actually help to create a natural insulation which would allow the inside of the dome to stay warmer.

This made no sense to Fairfax. Snow was cold. How could it help keep something warm? However, thus far, the classes had been both amazing and informative. At this point, he realized, if he was told something as strongly as the manual and instructors said, it was not only a fact, but for the benefit of all taking the classes. However, there was a warning included. The air exchange tubes had to be checked to make sure there was some air flow.

Fairfax slowly edged out of the linked sleeping bags. He shivered as the air outside the sleeping bag seemed to drape a blanket of cold moist air over him. In some ways it had a bite to it. In others, it was refreshing. He took some deep breaths through his nose as he grabbed for his clothing. The smell of Zong air was one of the best things about being on Adventure Quest. There were smells, lots of them, but they were… he couldn’t put his finger on the right word. Maybe ‘purer’? In this case, the most prevalent smell was from the native evergreen bristle berry trees.

They had a fragrance unlike anything Fairfax had encountered. Kind of combination of syth-honey and apple, but not quite. The seed pods were amazing. The pods themselves were sticky, crunchy, and sweet while the seeds were tasty and tart, but not overpowering. The other thing was the pods burned easily and caused a bright yellowish-green flame. This was by nature’s design, since when a fire burned the pod, it dispersed the seeds which were remarkably highly fire resistant. So if a bristle berry forest burned, the fire also created new, fast growing, trees.

Once he had a thermal underclothing layer on, he dug into his pack and pulled out his note-puter. He tapped it and used the light from the screen to look around the dome. He couldn’t help but smile as he saw Ajax’s head resting on the shoulder of Sean. Both looked blissful.

A glanced at Diane also caused a smile. In the short amount of time since he had crawled out of the combined bags, she had grabbed his pillow and clutched it tightly. It reminded him of how he clutched the stuffed toy animal he had selected out of a bin of new stuffed animals during intake to the orphanage. It was something every child got, and clung to, during their first weeks. For Fairfax, until he met and started bunking with Ajax, he had carried his everywhere. Even after, it was his silent yet reliable companion. It was also the one thing no one else messed with. Doing anything to anyone else’s stuffed toy was an unwritten crime somewhere between assaulting a staff member and murder, maybe higher than both. Even the biggest, meanest, and toughest kids in the orphanage wouldn’t cross that one line. For to do so would guarantee the offender of a beatdown on a gargantuan dimension.

The hardest thing about getting his number chosen by the Chi-Troit lottery, was knowing his little stuffed toy dog, ‘Grumpy’ would have to stay behind. A sad sigh escaped his lips as he wondered if he would ever see it again.

‘I’m almost twelve,’ he thought to himself. ‘I don’t need Grumpy.’ The self-talk did no good. For whatever reason he loved that frown-faced grey and white toy.

Even though Ajax remained asleep, he somehow managed to respond. ‘I miss Fanger too.’

Fairfax cringed and made sure he shut the door in his mind so he wouldn’t leak thoughts and accidentally wake his friend. However, he also grinned. ‘Fanger’ was Ajax’s selected stuffed toy, a black and white tiger with a large red tongue and big teeth. It was nice to know his best friend had just as strong of an attachment to such a silly little thing. At the same time, he couldn’t help but remember the first time he and Ajax had met. Their interaction had been to pretend their toys were teaming up to eat one of the meaner boy’s stuffed colorful parrot-looking toy.

He pushed the thoughts of the orphanage away. He moved up to the two air exchange tubes and pushed on a small rod. There was some resistance, but after a few seconds he felt it break through. He did the same on the second tube. This time he had to tap a button on the back of the rod before he could push past a blockage. Since he had needed to activate the heated the tip, it told him the air exchange had been blocked with ice.

A check of his note-puter verified the oxygen level was still fine. He expected this, since it was supposed to give a visual as well as audible alert if there was an air problem. However, just like down on the streets of Chi-Troit, one couldn’t solely rely on technology. His family had bypassed enough security sensors in his life to never put his faith fully behind electronics.

Suddenly his eyes fell on the displayed time. He frowned and checked to make sure it was set to local. He whispered “Zero-One-eighteen? It can’t be…” He rebooted and did an update. The result verified since only one minute of time passed. With growing concern, he dressed quickly. He ducked down and used the lower small flap exit, since it was designed to let out as little heat as possible. The idea was he could zip himself in between the inside and the small exit before opening a small flap at the bottom of the outside of the dome.

The cold of the outside was enough to take his breath away. It reminded him of some of the colder and blusterier nights on the streets back on Earth. He pulled his hood up, made sure his gloves were tucked into his coat sleeves, verified his boots were snug and the legs of the snow pats were strapped around the tops to prevent snow from going down into his footwear. As he crawled out into over thirty centimeters of snow, over half of it fresh he pulled his rifle up and glanced around.

He lowered the rifle and safetied it before he fully stood. Blinking green lights on the top of meter long stakes told him the instructors had set up a perimeter alarm fence. Should something encroach, the small disks would start screaming. It served a dual purpose. First was to alert those sleeping of a problem, and second, the sound was supposed to cause great discomfort to whatever broke the perimeter.

A second look told him the instructors had set up a dome of their own. Not only was it larger and nicer than what he had just crawled out of, it had a mostly iced-over crest of the Explorer Corps on the side.

Fairfax activated the light on his note-puter and panned it over the area. The intensity of the snow reflected quite a bit of light back, but it was enough to see much of the open field. It was empty. A quick walk around the perimeter also told him there were only two domes set up. He wondered if the other pair had crashed with the guards or had not gotten to the pick-up location. He also wondered why they hadn’t been awakened to fly back to camp. It was only a few hours before both he and Ajax were supposed to take field module tests in other courses. He bet the same held for Diane, Sean, Denny and Allen.

He tried to pull up a link to Robin’s note-puter, but as normal when in classes and taking tests, the function had been disabled. He frowned and spoke softly to himself. “Guess I am still considered out on a test… Oh well.”

He looked around again and walked the whole security post perimeter. He grumbled as me made his way to the instructor’s dome. “Hey, anyone awake in there?”

The sergeant responded after a few seconds, “Am now… Who’s up and why?”

“It’s Fairfax. I need the code to deactivate so I can get to the trees, dig a hole, and go.”

“Give me a sec.” The man stated. “Just to be on the safe side, I’ll escort you.”

Fairfax panned his light around while he waited. Nothing moved but the blowing snow. Visibility was less than fifty meters before the heavy snow reflected enough light to make seeing other than some outlines impossible. As he pondered this, he hoped the missing kids were smart enough not to try to move around too much. Getting disoriented, separated, and lost would be extremely easy in a storm like this.

Because of the limited visibility he pulled out a pocket-sized retractable reel of high tensile string-like wire.

Behind him, the sergeant emerged from the dome, “What’re you planning on doing with that?”

“Anchoring it to whatever post you shut down so I can follow it back. The only footsteps I can see is what I’ve made, so just like back home, the wind and snow are burying footsteps. And out here I can’t see landmarks like I can back home.”

“It’s not bad enough to cover up your trail in ten to fifteen minutes it’ll take. Besides, even if it does, you can just use your note-puter to find your way back.”

Fairfax shook his head, “I got separated and lost once during a snowstorm kind of like this, but way dirtier. If it wasn’t for an old guy who found and helped me, I doubt I would have made it back to my family. Besides, I trust the string more than my note-puter.”

“Fair enough.” The man made his way to the perimeter, pulled his rifle and pushed a button on his belt. The two nearest stakes went dark. The man pointed. “There are heavier trees and cover ninety meters to the east. But it’ll be cold regardless.”

Fairfax tied the end of the metallic string to the post. Moments later the post lit back up as the sergeant re-secured the perimeter. He turned to the sergeant. “A little cold is easy to deal with. Try doing this by finding a sheltered spot in piles of trash at street level,” Fairfax countered with a smirk. “Out here I have to deal with a few sticks and possibly a mountain lion. Back in Chi-Troit, there are bits of sharp metal, wood, gangs, and even rat dens to worry about. And most of the time we go quick and don’t have time to bury it. At best we can cover it with some trash, but most people don’t bother. And if I get hit with a glob of snow or even a branch heavy with snow, it’s better than making sure I’m not close to a garbage chute or there is not trash haulers coming to scoop me up. Oh, and trash haulers drop stuff all the time. I’ve seen a few people get hit and killed by trash that fell from trash scoops or even haulers as they flew over… And even more important, I can’t get sick from snow getting in my mouth out here. I’ll take this any day.”

“Ah, geesh, Fairfax! Just stop!”

Fairfax grinned, “Only telling you the truth, oh, and I have yet to thank you.”

“Thank me? For what?”

“Using my name. I bet less than fifty non-family adults have ever called me by name, not number.”

“Nothing to thank me for, Fairfax. I’m also glad you like it, ‘cause you will need to get used to it.”

“Really? Um, why?”

“Because Explorers only use name and rank. Nothing, other than governmental paperwork is done with numbers.”

“Wow!” A huge smile spread across Fairfax’s face. “The academy sounds better every time I find out more! Um, is there any chance I can get my real name back?”

The sergeant glanced down at his note-puter and tapped it a couple of times. “Real name? Says right here Fairfax Chismyth, CT-OPHZR-19878967SLO.”

“They took my real name when I got placed in the orphanage. My first name is Bubba and my last name is Devenard.”

The sergeant cocked his head, “They changed your name? Why?”

“Don’t know, not really. The lady in charge of Orphanage ZR said I needed a real first name. And… well I think all SLOs are given a new last name. They all start with CHI. We think it stands for Chi-Troit, but it’s just a guess.”

“I had no idea… Um, but my best guess is you would have to do a legal name change to get your old name back, and… well, I don’t know how you would even start the process… Um, it’s not like the government uses names, but there’s got to be a way… I know you can’t change your ID number unless you get someone stupidly high in a CHZ government to authorize one…”

Fairfax stepped between a couple of fallen trees and broke out a small shovel. Even as he dug, he responded. “Mine was. I got my orphanage number the day I was captured by a security sweep and taken to processing. My old number was CT-FBQ47RT-WE9YX.”

The man tapped on his note-puter, “Huh, the number you just gave me has a label on it I’ve never seen before. It says it has been deactivated by authority of Chi-Troit Northeast Central Habitat Enforcement. Deceased, yes, deactivated, never.”

“Oh well, I guess I am stuck with being CT-OPHZR-19878967SLO, Fairfax Zephyr Chismyth for the rest of my life… I’d also bet Ajax’s old number says the same thing mine does.”

The man shot him a grin, “If my middle name was Zephyr, I’d go by that! It’s an awesome name.”

“Never thought about going by my middle name. The old lady would a blow a gasket if I had tried… I’ll talk it over with the others and see what they think.” A few minutes later, Fairfax emerged from the woods adjusting his coat and pack. “So is Denny and Allen in your dome?”

“No. But don’t worry. They decided to risk having a redo rather than chance making it here on time. Sounds like they were in the same situation as Ajax and Sean. Denny was really struggling, so they stopped and set up a camp about seven kilometers from here.”

Fairfax shook his head as he saw the smirk on the man’s face, “Let me guess, they are going to get a better grade than Ajax and Sean, right?”

The man snickered, “Something along those lines. But do us a favor and don’t let the word out. We have nine other pairs who need to test out in this module, including Robin.”

“I’ll keep my mouth shut, but I bet Robin aces this just like every test he takes.”

“We’ll see, but you won’t get a chance to talk to him beforehand. He’ll be heading out for his test about the same time we get you four back to camp so you can jump in on whatever your next testing module is.”

“Geothermal Dangers identification field test!” Fairfax stated with a great deal of excitement. “I can’t wait to see a real geothermal formation, even from a distance!”

The sergeant ruffled the boy’s hood and gave him a quick hug. “Son, you were born to be one of us. It’s great to see the next generation of the Explorer Corps standing beside me.” He deactivated then reactivated the security barrier and gave Fairfax a gentle push toward the E-dome. “Transport will be here before first light. We’ll feed you on board, so tell the others, when we wake them, not to worry about eating before we head back.”

A slap on the side of the E-dome followed by, “Lander’s on the way Cadets! Get moving and pack your gear!” out of the woman woke all four kids.

Diane grabbed her note-puter. “Zero-three-forty? Really?”

The woman’s voice seemed to harden, “Kids, you need to get packed up now! We planned on letting you sleep the whole night, but… There’s been a change of plans! We need you up and this camp broken down! Lander is about twenty minutes out! Make sure you fully dress, the snow is even heavier than it was when you crashed. You also need to get cleaned up. So get your butts moving!”

Fairfax wiped at his face and yawned. As he stretched, he spoke. “Wow, she seems grouchy…”

“Sure does,” Diane agreed. “Wonder what the change of plans are?”

“Probably something to throw us off, to make the tests harder or something,” Sean guessed.

“I just hope I don’t miss the Geothermal test!” Fairfax complained. “It’s the one set of classes I really wanted to take!” He shook his head. “Just my luck…” He snapped his fingers, “Oh, um, the sergeant said we’d get fed on the shuttle, so we don’t have to worry about cooking.”

“At least there is one good thing…” Ajax grumbled. “An hour or three of extra sleep would be a whole lot better!”

Sean patted Ajax on the shoulder as he slid out of the combined bags. “I’ll get our stuff packed. Take few more minutes. I really owe you. Thanks to you, I feel a whole lot better.”

Ajax simply nodded and shot over a quick grin as he grabbed for his clothing while staying in the bag. He glanced down at the portable heater. “There’s no way the heater still has three green bars…”

Fairfax pointed to another portable heater off to the side. “I switched out mine for yours when I made a pit stop last night. I wanted to make sure Sean stayed warm. We’ll have to recharge both our units on the transport.”

Sean slid next to Fairfax and gave him a quick hug, “Thanks.”

Fairfax accepted the hug with a return grasp. “Glad to do it. You look a whole lot better than you did when you got here.”

“I am, thanks to all three of you.” He dug out clean dry thermal undergarments before stuffing his wet stuff from the night before in a containment bag. “But how are we supposed to pack up the dome? There’s no way to get it dry.”

Diane gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “We’ll have to knock off as much snow and ice as possible and see what the Corps mentors want us to do with it. We’ll also have to figure out what to do with wet clothing from yesterday. It’s not like we can keep a dome set up with lines across the top to hand things on like we were taught.”

As the kids quickly cleaned and packed, a large transport with a back loading ramp came in hard and fast before the kids even got to breaking down the E-dome. Because of its size, and the limited space of the clearing, it needed to rotate thrusters to land vertically rather than transition to a hover mode. A small group of academy cadets raced out the back and into the snow. They quickly moved toward the E-domes.

An Explorer Corps captain came out as both domes were cleared of snow. His voice was firm and gruff. “Kids, keep clear of the wings, I have the heating plates on to keep the ice off! Put both E-domes in the back fully set up. I’ll turn on the blower to dry them! Anyone who needs anything recharged, keep it out. There are several recharge points on both sides of the cargo hold.”

Dakota made his way over to the four. “Heard one of you had a close call. Everyone alright?”

Sean nodded with clear embarrassment, “Thanks to the other three, yeah.”

Dakota patted Sean on the back, “I’m sure you’ll help out someone when they mess up. One of the first things my whole team learned out on our first ISTAZ was no one is better than the team. Without the others, no one in my team would’ve made it past the first couple of weeks.” He gave all four a gentle but firm push toward the transport. “My team can finish up. There are hot meal packs in the middle section. We also have dry coats, thermals, and some basic replacement equipment for you all. Replenish everything!”

Fairfax frowned, “What’s the rush?”

Dakota’s head turned sharply, “They didn’t tell you?” As all four kids turned to look at each other, Dakota shrugged, “Guess not… But we got to get moving. Space monitoring station one eight stopped transmitting about an hour ago. Then, like a few minutes later, one of the other Adventure Quest ISTAZ training camps went offline, like totally offline. Then, just a few minutes later two other small standard intake wilderness camps also went offline about the same time.”

Sean yanked his pack up onto his shoulder with wide eyes. “Solar flare?”

“Don’t think so. We’re under a class five solar flare alert, so weather sats and most comm sats are folded up and cocooned, but there were no early warnings of anything bigger. Nothing. They all just stopped transmitting!”

Ajax gulped, “What about Robin, Gavin, and Oliver?”

“The entire camp is being mobilized! We are going to meet the rest of your Team Five at the ISTAZ camp. The others are going to the standard wilderness camps with their teams!”

“What about Denny and Allen?” Sean asked.

“Already aboard. We grabbed them before we came here.”

“What about Team Nineteen?” Diane demanded to know. “Three of us are out here!”

The captain came over, “Kids, take a breath. The rest of Team Nineteen is joining Team Seventeen for now. You are all part of Team Five for the time being. Now get to the transport and let my medic give you all a quick once over.” He clapped his hands hard, “Move!”

The kids didn’t have a chance to do more than shake hands with Denny and Allen, stick items with low charges into recharge slots, and replenish a few items in their packs before the thrusters fired. As they ate, the transport took off and banked hard to the southeast. The captain’s voice came over speakers in the back. “Kids, I know you are eating so you can’t hit securing fields. Strap in and stay in your seats. Solar flare activity is messing with electronics at higher altitudes, so I am going to stay low. It’ll be a rough flight!”

Those in the back talked with each other. Most of it centered on what could have gone so wrong. However, Fairfax and Ajax reverted back to a life at street level. Being in a safe and secure spot was the exception not the rule. They took full advantage. Both boys finished their food and closed their eyes.

About forty minutes later a thought entered Fairfax’s mind, ‘No! Stop! No! Come ba…’ His head jerked up and he glanced over to Ajax. At almost the same time, Ajax’s head came off his own headrest and looked over to him.

Ajax sent over a thought, ‘You have a nightmare?’

‘No, you?’

‘Nope… But I heard…’

Fairfax’s eyes went wide, ‘It wasn’t us! It was…’

Ajax let out a gasp. ‘We must have just flew over one of the missing teams who has a mind guy like Robin!’

Fairfax pulled off his securing harness and raced to the Explorer sergeant. “You have to make the ship turn around!”

“What? Why?”

“Um, we, we… um…”

Ajax shouted as he stood, “We saw something back there! There’s someone down there!”

All talk stopped. At the same time the Explorer corporal who had shadowed Denny and Allen, glanced out the window, “I can’t see a damned thing in this snow! You sure?”

“YES!” both boys shouted as one.

The sergeant frowned, but tapped his headset, “Captain, two of the boys said we just flew over something. They are certain we flew right over someone below.”

The sergeant looked the boys as he got a response. “You’re both sure of this?”

As Ajax nodded, Fairfax shouted. “Positive! You have to turn around and go back!”

The sergeant spoke into his headset. “You hear that, sir?”

There was a momentary pause before the sergeant spoke again. “I know sir, but if we really did just go over someone, it has to be one of the missing teams, or at least someone from one of them!”

The man frowned, looked over at the two boys the spoke again, “Sir, I know, but I’ve seen both of these two notice some amazing things in the past twenty hours. They are street level orphans and look on the world with a different perspective. It’s like deeper than we can even fathom. If it was just one of them, I say it’s worth a look, but since it is both, yeah. My gut says we must check this out.”

The ship suddenly tilted hard as it did a tight loop. A moment later the captain’s voice came over the speaker. “Ok, we are going to go back on the same track! I need everyone back there to keep their eyes peeled… In this storm, whatever was spotted was a one a trillion thing, but we’ll give it a shot!”

Fairfax looked over to Dakota, ‘If you can hear me open the door and talk to me!’

‘I can hear you, but it’s weak. What did you see?’

‘Nothing. We both heard it.’

Despite not verbally talking, Dakota’s eyes went wide. ‘Oh crap! So… are you still taking to whoever it is?’

‘We didn’t get a chance. We must have gone right over whoever it was. It faded out fast. If we hear it again, we need your help to keep focus off us so we can find them!’

‘OK, but this will cause a whole lot of questions I don’t think Commander Montgomery wants asked.’

Fairfax forced his head not to nod as he responded, ‘Then make the distraction a good one!’

Two and a half minutes later Fairfax heard the voice again, ‘Did you see us? Oh, no… Pleas…’

“There!” Ajax shouted out loud. “I saw it again! We just went over the top of whoever it is!”

The sergeant spoke into his headset as every other person on the transport pushed their faces against the small portals.

Even as the craft once again banked sharply, the corporal spoke, “Kid, there’s no way! It’s solid white out there!”

The voice entered Fairfax’s head again, ’Here! Here! You’re right over us! You have to see us!’

A glance over to Ajax confirmed his friend was hearing the same thing.

Dakota looked back and forth between the two, ‘You’re hearing someone?’

‘Yeah, we’re right above them!’ Ajax answered.

Dakota suddenly pointed down and shouted “Fairfax is right! Down there!” He pointed repeatedly down at sheets of blowing snow.

Everyone looked. Diane shook her head. “I don’t see nothing! But I also know Fairfax knew Sean was in trouble before I even knew him and Ajax had gotten to the clearing, so we have to trust them! Keep your eyes open everyone!”

Fairfax took some deep breaths and closed his eyes, ‘Whoever you are, listen! I can hear you. Think to me! Think to me!’

‘I… oh my god, I must be losing it!’

‘No, no you’re not. You are talking to me. I’m in the ship above. Be we can’t see you!’

Dakota’s head jerked. He stared and focused on Fairfax, ‘If you are talking to someone, ask them if they have any seed pods and a fire!’ he then shouted, “There it is again! Right down there. We need to circle right here until I see it again!”

‘Seed pods and a fire?’ Ajax asked.

The other voice answered, ‘Yeah, we have both… it’s all we’ve been eating for the last four days… but um, why?’

‘Give me a sec,’ Fairfax responded.

Ajax snapped his fingers getting several odd looks, ‘The seed pods burn bright. If they light them and throw them, we should be able to see them!’

‘Oh! Yeah!’ the other voice stopped. A few seconds later it resumed, ‘Give us a few seconds! Just don’t leave us!’

“Kids,” The captain’s voice came over the speaker, “I see nothing, and we need to get to the ISTAZ camp!”

“Hold on! I know I saw something!” Fairfax screamed frantically. “They’re like right below us!”

“He’s right!” Dakota shouted. ‘Guys make them hurry!’

‘We are!’ Fairfax mentally shouted strongly enough to get a wince out of both Dakota and Ajax.

Fairfax looked back down into the snow, ‘Look, I need you to hurry! There are only two of us who can talk to you like this and the others don’t believe we see you… Because we don’t!’

‘Look toward the ridge! Look toward the ridge!’ The voice pleaded.

Suddenly Sean shouted, “There, right side! Green flashes right side!”

One of the cadets on Dakota’s team also pointed, “Yeah, starboard side! Green fiery flashes! I think they are throwing burning seed pods!”

“Holy crap!” the corporal shouted moments later. “They’re right! Captain, starboard side!”

“Got them!” the captain’s voice bellowed in pure astonishment.

The ship circled lower as several dozen more flaming seedpods were tossed from the outline of a rocky ridge.

Fairfax let out a long breath, ‘We can see you. Hold on. We’ll get to you… and what’s your name and team?’

‘Oh, thank whatever god may be out there… I’m Andre…. Andre Lewellyn… San-San Forest Mountain Team Two… Oh… thank you…’

‘How many are with you and are you all OK?’

‘Four… um, with me all five of us from Team Two… and no, we aren’t OK. Hoyt is real sick, and we’re all hungry and cold. We’ve been living off seed pods and just used most of them up! We can’t go very far or fast cause Zackary’s ankle has been messed up for weeks.’

The captain’s voice came over the comm again. “Sergeant, there’s no place to set down. I’m, open to suggestions!”

Fairfax cringed as he continued to think to Andre. ‘Just hold on. Sounds like there is no place to land. If we move, you won’t be able to talk to me, but we’ll get you.’

‘No! Please don’t leave!’

Fairfax took a breath, and rubbed at his temples, so Ajax took over. ‘I’m Ajax. You have been talking to Fairfax. He is getting tired. We’ll get you, but it doesn’t sound like there is a place to land.’

Dakota frowned deeply as he looked at Ajax, ‘You two aren’t afraid of heights, are you?’

Fairfax snorted as he glanced over to Ajax. He spoke out loud, “Ever accessed a tower through a trash chute?”

Ajax nodded, “Several times.”

Fairfax turned to Dakota, “The real question is, can this ship hover while we drop down on a rope to the trees and climb down?”

All heads turned as if connected to stare at Fairfax as if he was insane.

However, the corporal raised an eyebrow, “We’ve got repelling gear, a back hatch, and vertical thrusters… I’m game if a few are willing to join me.”

Ajax grinned and pumped his fist even as he sent a thought, ‘Hold on Andre, we’ll be down in a few minutes!’

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