Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Back on the Yavari system, having again experienced the unique thrill of stepping through a jump gate, Negasi prepped the shuttle. Besides Nova, they were taking four passengers—the lead archaeologist Mikael; the head of security, whose name turned out to be Feng; and a pair of assistant archaeologists named Clarkson and Maria.

Negasi felt relieved that Helen remained at the dig site. That woman weirded him out, and his psyche had enough weird to contend with already.

The archaeologists brought a ton of gear. Feng brought a ton of weapons, including a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.

"That thing good against dinosaurs?" Negasi asked.

"It's good against anything I aim at," Feng replied coldly, taking the seat right behind him.

Negasi only shrugged. He'd been through way too much in his career to be impressed by a bit of macho man strutting. Mikael took the co-pilot's seat instead of Nova, who sat in the back with the archaeologists.

Negasi took off, rising above the ruins of the research center. Mikael punched some coordinates into the ship's computer.

"From records we found in the lab, we know of another research station in a small town on the other side of the continent. It was a mining town, not very large. The Imperium liked to spread out their research facilities, placing them on lesser-known planets. Even on these planets, they'd spread them out in different geographic locations as a matter of security."

"I know," Negasi said, trying to hide his annoyance. You didn't need a Ph.D. to know about Imperium planning. You just needed years of experience in the field. This academic thought book learning was all that mattered. Typical.

Of course this academic had discovered a functioning jump gate, so right after slapping him upside the head, Negasi wanted to kiss his feet.

Negasi took the shuttlecraft at a moderate speed well above the jungle canopy. He didn't know what kind of local fauna might be able to stick their necks out ten meters above the trees or leap from high branches to grab onto them. He'd seen it on primitive planets before.

On the other hand, he didn't want to fly too fast or too high. This world fascinated him now. One magical moment had transformed it from a savage backwater into an real-life El Dorado. He kept a sharp eye for breaks in the foliage that might hint at ruins underneath.

Beside him, Mikael chuckled. "Fascinating, isn't it? We've found so much and there might be so much more to find."

Negasi nodded, his estimation of the man going up a notch. Mikael's tone had carried the same excitement, the same awe, that he himself felt.

He spotted a gap in the canopy ahead and a bit to the right. He swung the shuttlecraft that direction to take a better look.

"We've checked that out already," Feng grumbled.

"Let him take a look," Mikael said. "A few moments won't make any difference."

Feng muttered something Negasi didn't catch, not that he was trying. He was too interested in what lay ahead.

He got to the clearing and hovered over it at an altitude of 200 meters. A heap of stone and twisted metal lay like a scar on the jungle, a dark hole fifty meters in diameter at its center. Scrub obscured much of the ruins, but on magnification Negasi could make out mining equipment and the foundations of a couple of buildings.

"It's just an old mine," Feng said. "There are dozens of them on this continent."

"Yeah," Negasi agreed. "But once this mine supplied a galactic empire. This was part of a network that spread out tens of thousands of light years. This was part of something big. Really big."

Mikael put a hand on his shoulder. "Quite right, my friend. You have a sense of history. Now you're part of making it. Let's go."

"All right."

Just as he was about to swing the shuttlecraft back on course, a lumbering reptile as big as a truck crashed through the foliage at the edge of the clearing. It had a huge, humped body, six legs as thick as tree trunks, a thick neck ending in a head small relative to the rest of its size, and a long tail with a bony mass at the end that made it look like a club. Its flesh was torn in half a dozen places, oozing green blood.

A moment later, a swarm of reptiles about the size of a large dog but far quicker, scuttled out from the tree line after it. The larger beast looked back, and with a swing of its tail knocked three of them flying. The others nimbly dodged out of the way and leapt onto the creature, tearing with claws and fang.

The beast shuddered and shook itself. A couple of its attackers fell off, one getting squashed under a heavy foot, while the others retained their hold. The thing grasped one of the ones on its shoulder with its maw, exposing blunt herbivorous teeth that crunched down on it, pulping the smaller dinosaur into mush.

The rest, a good dozen of them, continued to rend at their prey. The larger reptile staggered, then tried to bite at another within reach on its flank, but the predator scuttled along its back to a safer location, sinking its teeth into the thick hide to take hold while its claws raked away at it.

The beast fell on its side, the predators leaping off at the last instant. For a moment, Negasi thought it was all over for the thing, but then it staggered to its feet, clumsy on its six legs.

The pack closed in again. The herbivore swept its tail, catching one of its hunters and knocking it a good thirty meters, where it disappeared down the black hole of the old mine.

That was the last kill it made, for the next instant the rest swarmed over it again, biting and clawing. The herbivore stumbled, tried to rise, then fell again. It smacked its clublike tail against the ground. While all this played out in silence to the watchers in the shuttlecraft, Negasi could imagine the thunderous thumping that huge tail must have made.

It didn't bother the pack at all. They had their dinner at their mercy.

The herbivore didn't struggle for much longer. That enormous tail thumped more slowly, finally stopping altogether. A couple of heaving breaths, and it was all over. Negasi gained some altitude and got back on course.

"Are there a lot of those things?" he asked.

"Both species are fairly common," Mikael said.

"Why didn't you bring more security guys?"

"Don't be scared," Feng said in a mocking tone. "I'll keep you safe."

Mikael ignored him and replied, "This is an almost unknown world. Besides the foul atmosphere, we had no real idea what we would face here. Plus most of our security are on other operations."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Other operations? Just how big is this outfit?"

"Not as big as we'd like," Nova said from the back.

"How big is 'not as big as we'd like?'"

"Barely enough to gather all the tech we need in time. We hope."

Another vague answer. Why can't she just lay her cards on the table? We've been in this together long enough, haven't we?

"Are you backed by a government?"

"No. We're independent of all planetary governments."

"So where do you get all this funding?"

"Various sources. We have some generous donors."

He knew there was no point in asking for more detail. He picked up speed and the dashboard told him he had a good twenty minutes before they'd make it to their destination. To pass the time, he called up to the Antikythera. He couldn't wait to rub Jeridan's nose in the fact that he had just walked through a jump gate.

"Jeridan, this is Negasi down in the shuttlecraft. You copy?"

MIRI's voice answered. "Jeridan isn't available at this moment."

Ah, maybe he got Mason to talk! We'll both have things to tell each other when I get back to the ship.

"That's all right, MIRI. I'll talk to him later. Just tell him we're doing fine down here."

"I will."

"See you soon, girl."

"I miss you, Negasi."

Negasi grinned. "That's what I like to hear. I miss you too, baby."

He switched off the comm.

"Your girlfriend?" Mikael asked.

"His AI," Nova said.

"You just rolled your eyes like Aurora does all the time, didn't you?" Negasi asked.

"Yes, I did."

"You should never underestimate the love of a good AI."

"Whatever."

"No, you have to say it in two words, like Aurora does. What. Ever. Emphasis on the 'ever.'"

"I'll keep that in mind as we save the galaxy. Definitely a priority."

Negasi turned to Mikael.

"Known her long?"

"Several years," the archaeologist replied.

"Did she ever have a sense of humor?"

Mikael put on a poker face, but his silence confirmed what Negasi suspected.

They passed over jungle unscarred by any more ruins. Only once did the canopy break, to reveal a wide, sluggish brown river winding its way through the green.

Large flying reptiles, their wings like leather sails, swept down on the water, plucking out some sort of chubby fish with their long, thin beaks. One of the avians flapped up to meet the shuttlecraft.

"Shoot it out of the sky," Feng said.

"It's only a quarter of the size of the shuttle. That thing can't do anything to us unless it hunts in flocks." Negasi remembered the scene at the old mine and turned to Mikael. "They don't hunt in flocks, do they?"

"No."

"Shoot it anyway," Feng said.

"I only shoot things when I need to shoot them," Negasi replied, "and then I always hit."

Feng snorted.

The flying reptile swooped in at the shuttlecraft, stopped about thirty meters away, and flew alongside, staring at them with a black eye as round and as big as a saucer. Negasi stared back. He felt tempted to compare the thing's attractiveness to Feng's mother and decided against it.

Negasi put on some speed and left the creature far behind.

The readout said they were close. He spied a break in the canopy ahead. Negasi slowed, then came to a hovering stop once he got to the spot.

"It's just another mine," Negasi said. He saw the same layout, the same black hole in the center, as he did at the last stop. At least this time there wasn't a pack of flesh-ripping dinosaurs on the prowl. He hoped.

Mikael scanned the area with visual and infrared on magnification. "The records said there was a storage depot situated next to the mine. Settlements were expensive here, since they had to put up protective walls against the indigenous fauna, so there weren't that many of them. We've found evidence of several government and commercial sites sharing space."

"They didn't give an exact location?"

"No."

Negasi chuckled. "Typical. They always assume the reader knows what they're talking about, except all their readers have been dead for hundreds of years."

Mikael looked up from his scanner and grinned. "It is annoying, isn't it?"

Negasi took the shuttlecraft down lower. "I don't see any standing buildings. If they didn't put their stuff in a basement, we're out of luck."

"Maybe … oh, there!"

Negasi looked at the screen. The infrared filter revealed that a tangle of vines and creepers just inside the tree line was actually a building completely overgrown by flora. It measured seventy meters by thirty and had only a single floor with a gabled roof. A deeper scan showed traces of a wall between it and the rest of the mining compound.

"That looks like a good bet," Negasi said. "It's not too big, though."

"It's supposed to be a storage unit for spare parts, so it might not have to be big. You saw how compact that second-generation jump gate was."

One of the younger archaeologists chimed in, all eager. "The fact that it's still standing means it was built better than the structures put up by the mining company. Obviously, it held something more important."

"That's right, Clarkson," Mikael said with the tone of an approving teacher. Negasi smiled. None of his teachers ever took that tone with him, not that he showed up to school much.

"Touch down right at the edge of the trees and we'll take a look," Mikael said.

"Hold on." Negasi did a deep scan on infrared all along the tree line. He didn't want to get eaten before he had a chance to see what was inside that old building.

The sensors couldn't penetrate far. The foliage was too thick, and the heat on this planet too uniform. He also worried that since the creatures were probably cold-blooded, they wouldn't make as much of a heat signature as a human.

He could see some signs of life, however. Small burrowing things the size of cats, and some of those winged reptiles high up in the treetops. No lumbering behemoths with clubs for tails or packs of superfast carnivores. Good enough.

Feng leaned over his shoulder to take a look.

"About as clean as you'll get in this damn jungle," the security man said. "OK, everybody, standard procedure. We get out, set up a perimeter around the shuttlecraft, and then proceed on foot."

"You brought a portable electrofence?" Negasi asked.

"Yep. Smaller version of the one you saw back at the main site. We have enough pylons to encircle the shuttlecraft and set up a perimeter around the building."

"They can stop anything this planet can throw at them," Maria said. "I've seen them scare away the largest species of dinosaur."

"Good. Let's do it." Negasi said, then paused. "What about those flying reptiles?"

"They look scary but they only go after small prey like fish and the smaller herbivores," Maria said.

And Feng wanted me to kill one anyway? That says a lot about him.

Negasi landed. Once he did, Feng handed him and Nova shoulder patches that adhered to their jumpsuits.

"These have a transmitter and proximity sensor that tells the fence to let you through. The barrier opens the instant before you touch the fence and goes up right after you pass through. That keeps anything chasing you from getting past the perimeter."

Clarkson laughed. "Scared me to death the first time I had to walk right at the electrofence and hope it opened."

"Yeah, make sure you don't lose that patch or you'll get fried," Feng said.

While Negasi performed another scan of the surrounding tree line, Feng and the archaeologists opened a couple of crates and unpacked the pylons for the electrofence in quick, practiced maneuvers.

"We all clear?" Feng asked.

"Yep," Negasi replied.

Everyone put on their gas masks.

"Open the shuttle door," Feng said.

He opened it.

"Go!" Feng shouted.

He, Mikael, and the two assistant archaeologists ran out, taking positions at each of the four corners of the shuttlecraft, then stepped several paces away and set down the pylons. Feng hit a keypad on one of them and the electric fence sparked to life, enclosing the shuttlecraft and an area big enough to walk around it comfortably.

Negasi powered down the shuttlecraft and he and Nova joined them.

"Let's go," Mikael said, pulling out a handheld infrared scanner. "I'll take the lead with you, Negasi. Feng will watch our backs."

"What about the pylons to surround the old building?" Negasi asked.

"Let's check if there's anything worthwhile there first," Feng said. "Those pylons are bulky and I want all hands on weapons."

Negasi noticed the security guard had an infrared sensor attached to his heavy slug thrower.

"That's a hefty gun you got there. Can it take down one of those dinos we saw?"

Feng slapped the side of the magazine and made the first smile Negasi had seen him make. "Armor-piercing explosive rounds. They're designed to puncture hard surfaces and then immediately explode. Takes out a chunk of dino flesh as big as your head."

"I take it you know this from experience?"

Feng just grinned. Mikael walked through the electrowall, the sparking curtain winking off a moment before he stepped into it and coming back up as soon as he passed. After a moment's hesitation, Negasi followed. He agreed with Clarkson. While he had passed through electrowalls wearing a security patch countless times, it still always made him a bit nervous.

But the electric barrier went off as he passed through it. The rest followed.

"Damn it, forgot something," Feng said, turning back. "Clarkson, help me with that other crate."

He rushed through the barrier again, one hand in his pocket. Negasi's narrowed his eyes, suspicion rising like a wraith in his mind.

That suspicion didn't formulate into words before Clarkson stepped into the barrier.

It didn't switch off. The electrowall lit up with a blinding flash. Clarkson flew back a good five meters to land smoking on the jungle floor, dead.