Chapter 19: Return To The Planet

Jem soon returned to the main bridge.

“We have news! Our guest reacted to a greeting in Baglogi!” Koluna exclaimed excitedly.

“Wow! But she does not appear to be Baglogi,” replied Jem.

“No. It is an interesting mystery,” I said.

“All the more reason to revive her so we can discover more,” said Jem.

“And there is now a possibility we can communicate with her once she is recovered,” said Koluna. Jem nodded.

“Captain, I am feeling restless waiting for her to recover. Could I go back down to the planet to continue the investigation of the pirate base?” I said.

“Of course. Take Laine with you. You have several hours before nightfall,” said Jem. Laine looked up and smiled at me.

“Thank you captain. Laine?” I said. Laine got up and took my hand and we left the main bridge.

Laine and I were soon suited up and aboard the shuttle. I did pre-flight checks, and we exited the shuttle bay and set a course for the southern continent. I was glad to get away from watching our guest.

“I’m sorry to pull you away,” I said. Actually, I wasn’t sorry. Jem had said to bring her. I could have come on my own, but some company was nice.

“No problem. She could take days. I am happy to be going with you to the planet. I could tell you needed to get away,” she replied. I looked at her smiling face. I wondered if she even knew how to hide her thoughts. She seemed so open compared to Tians.

“I’m thinking perhaps we can find more clues to where pirates are lurking. Unless it is important, I don’t care about the stolen cargo,” I said.

“Understood. We shall search for clues. It will be fun!” said Laine. I smiled back and nodded.

Our journey down to the surface was uneventful like last time. The automatics landed us perfectly on the landing pad.

Nothing had changed since our last visit. It was still warm outside. We had left the door to the warehouse open from when we hurriedly left with the cryogenic device. I should not have been so careless.

Laine and I went inside the warehouse. I turned on the lights. I wondered what kind of power source they had.

“Let’s search this warehouse,” I said. Laine smiled, and we looked around.

The warehouse was mostly full. There were lots of crates all piled up. I figured the pirates had accumulated this haul over a long time. Some crates had labels on, in various languages, mostly ones I could not understand.

The only noise was from Laine and I as we wandered around. My mind wandered back to the lights in here. Where did the power come from?

I looked at the lights and traced the cables. The good thing about this warehouse was they did not hide the cables away like in a residential structure. I followed the cable run along to the back of the warehouse where it went through a hole in the wall. But this structure backed up against a cliff?

I went back and found Laine. “Found anything important?” I asked.

“No, just crates,” replied Laine.

“Please come with me, I have a mystery to solve,” I said. We both returned to the back of the warehouse.

“You will notice we have power for the lights, but I have not found a power cell. I followed the cables from the lights and it goes through a hole in the wall up there,” I pointed with the light on my suit.

Laine looked up, then at the wall, and back at me. “But this wall backs onto the cliff outside.” she said.

“And there you have the mystery.”

“There is something behind this wall, something carefully hidden,” said Laine.

“I agree. Now we need to work out how to gain access,” I said. I stood there, thinking about the problem and looking along the wall. I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“This is fun!” said Laine. After thinking, I moved along the wall, tapping at intervals. It seemed solid enough, until I got close to the right side of the wall. There was a different sound. I turned and looked at Laine who was watching me.

“Step one, we determined there is something behind this wall. Step two, I have located the door. Step 3 is to discover a latch mechanism,” I said. Laine nodded. “Care to have a try?” I asked.

Laine’s eyes widened when she realized it was her turn. I gestured at the wall and stepped back. She stepped up and looked around at the wall, reaching around for anything out of place. It was a perfectly flat wall, with nothing that could be a lever. Then I thought to look to my right. There was a hook on the adjacent wall. I wondered why the only hook I had seen in this place was located so far back in the warehouse.

I waited for Laine to finish examining her section of wall. When she looked back at me, I looked at the hook. “What do you think this hook is for? It seems there is only one in the whole warehouse.”

Laine looked at me with what could have been a rebuke. She marched over to the hook and pulled on it, which was fun to watch as she was not tall and she had to reach up above her head. The hook moved and a panel on the back wall we had been examining slid away.

“You did it!” I exclaimed. Laine smiled at me. We looked into the opening in the wall. It was dark, so I turned on the light on my suit to better see inside. I noticed that beyond the opening in the wall, it was irregular, so it was some kind of cave. I spotted a power breaker similar to the one in the warehouse, so I turned it on.

This was where the expensive treasure was stored. I saw precious metals in crates and open boxes filled to the brim with cut gems. Although on Tian Prime I never used such things for currency, I knew they had significant worth. On a system where you did not have an established currency exchange, such items were used.

“Wow!” said Laine. She held a huge ruby up to the light.

“I bet that is worth a lot. See if you can find any identifying marks on the boxes,” I said. Laine pulled out her personal device and took some pictures.

I looked around further and found some weapons that looked familiar. I also found a strange looking hat. I picked it up to try it on and found it to be heavy. I soon realized there was a weapon hidden in the hat.

I traced the power cables that came through the wall. They went a little further into the cave where they connected into some kind of power core.

“This looks familiar,” I commented. “Laine, please could you take a picture of this and send it to Ship.”

“Sure Brian,” Laine said. She took a picture and pressed buttons on her device. I looked at the display on the power core, and the characters were in Baglogi.

“Laine, please get a picture of this display. Ship will want to see this,” I said. She took another picture.

“What is special about this power core?” asked Laine.

“The writing on the display is in Baglogi,” I said.

I understood now why the mundane cargo was out in the warehouse. All the valuable loot was hid in the cave. The cryogenic storage container was too large to get through the opening, or perhaps not that valuable to the pirates.

I checked the time, and we were running out of daylight soon. “Laine, time to leave,” I said.

“Can we take some of these gems back with us?” asked Laine.

“Are you thinking of taking them for yourself?” I asked. They were stolen, but then again we might never track down the original owners.

“These are just collecting dust here. We could do some good with them somewhere,” she replied.

“Just one box. And you must declare it to the captain. She may require we return it. I don’t know for sure,” I said. Laine smiled and picked out a generously filled box and struggled to pick it up.

On my way out I picked up the strange hat. It was not my size, but perhaps Jem would like it. I turned off the light, and we stepped out of the opening. Laine moved the hook, and the panel closed up behind us.

I watched Laine waddle under the weight of the box of gems she was carrying. I tried not to laugh at the sight. I let her go ahead to the shuttle, and I turned off the lights in the warehouse and closed the door. If we needed any more of the treasure hidden within, we knew where to find it.