“If the shuttle gets clipped, you’ll want someone aboard who can slap a quick fix on it before we’re stranded planetside. And if they blow us out of the sky…” he shrugged, flat and jaded, “then at least I can say I died helping instead of sitting up here watching the food stores drop.”

"You ain't touching my bird." The pilot was rather vehement in his statement. His tone broking no argument.

“Do we have a drone… or something? Not filled with us?” Ren asked, hoping for the yes and expecting a no. Due to everything automated and other systems got looked at pretty carefully if they became too smart or quiet, she thought. Useful.

"I didn't see any drones in the aviation section... and I tore that place apart." John's foray into fixing his bird had involved him shifting over the aviation section in detail before he had eventually deduced his parts weren't among them. But he didn't recall seeing any drones.

Which meant that his ship was the sole way up and down from the mysteriously comm silent world in front of him.

Which meant he was responsible for their safety to and from the ship.

Joy...

He couldn't see a way out of this short of straight up desertion. He would have to figure out something on the fly then.

"Guess I'll go pre-flight the bird then." He locked the console to his biometrics and made to stand. Stretching as he extracted himself from the crash webbing.

"So we have Mark, Ren, the Doctor, you, and me," Velia said to Mark, counting the names off on her fingers. She looked at him. It didn't take much to recognise he was uneasy about the mission, "I wouldn't have put my name forward if I thought this was going to be super-dangerous," she told him by way of reassurance, though given that she was a Communications Officer on her first actual mission that statement probably wasn't as inspiring as she had hoped it might be, "If anything hinky happens at all, just fly us out of there."

"There are some motorised trolley-carts in cargo," she called to the others, "Get a few of them on the shuttle... best to come prepared."

Reenneesuash (Ren to humans) daughter of veanamdarr

Ren nodded and made a mental list of what she would require for the trip, things that were available in her area or general stores etc. She had a plan at least. Forward motion, forward motion was a good thing. “Il get ready, see you at the shuttle.” Ren said, getting up from her chair and heading out the bridge to find some clothes that would be better for her trip to an unknown planet. “You know, try to not eat the killer plants, or get happy with an alien princess.” She said jokingly and headed out.

…

Ren took a while to pack, throwing rations, sample kits, water, and a whole list of things into a back pack. Boots, a weather jacket, Ren packed and prepared for a longer trip than she hoped. Ren at least had been part of a little field research and learned a few mistakes the hard way, like not packing spare water, snacks and replacement battery's…

Multiple sample kit sets, one could fail or had a bad chemical etc plus she could let someone like the Dr do part of the work.

Oh and a mask… because even it was just really really bad hay fever? Why risk it?



The Keiller was hardly packed up like a soldier and armed like one, but snuck her small pistol into her back and a knife which was good for many things. From poking, to taking samples. Just enough to be able to look after herself and not be a burden on them.

All in all Ren was prepared when she arrived, sorting her silver hair into place with a short round rod, it was a little more complex but also more comfortable than other methods for a prolonged time.

“Ready adventurenoughts for another fun trip!” She said imitating a kids Holo show line as she headed over to the shuttle looking for people. “I packed spare xeno test kits if anyone wants their science Explorer badges with Dr Ren.” She was serious but also a little silly as she thought more bodies meant faster work and more data to use. The test kit was easy to teach, long as they understood how to mix a chemical with a test strip and a sample. The colour on the handy chart would give them a rough idea what they were dealing with.

She also had the fancy machine, but that took training and that was days to learn how to use it properly. The test kit took a high school education and a pictogram instruction card / colour reference sheet.

The ship was sleek looking though, really fancy like those high end corporate models. Looked fast if they got in trouble at least.