"Captain, it would be a good idea to have one of the crew stay behind in the ship while the rest of us go after the module cloaking device. Having someone to monitor communications and the sensors while we're out—"
—Maxon knew where Aaen was going with this and extended her palm as she was visibly thinking . . .
. . . "Okay, Mason, you'll stay here in the ship and monitor planetary communications. If you hear that the away team's in trouble, you signal us and we evacuate immediately, cloaking device or no cloaking device. The away team will maintain an open comm link with Mason. Away team," she looked around as she spoke, "our objective is to infiltrate the facility to extract the cloaking device, and then we're gonna return to the shuttle and get the heck outta here!—Cannons!"
Mason turned and started tuning her station's instruments to needed frequencies. Jonathan leaned over entered a short series of codes into the control port of a hatch Aaen didn't notice before. Jensen, Maxon and Aaen watched as the hatch slid open, revealing a padded compartment housing two, grey-silver-green, long barreled pistol-shaped sidearm. Jonathan took one, held it at shoulder height and pointed it at the ceiling and then abruptly gave Mason the other sidearm. She needed to have some way of defending herself in case the shuttle comes under attack and there should be some uninvited guests. Jonathan checked his station—"Yep. Okay. Those life signs still aren't moving." he snapped to look at Maxon. "Now might be our chance!" Mason gave the sidearm to Jensen.
Maxon sharply turned to Mason. "Upload the map to the cloaking device to a scanner and then give it to Aaen." Aaen was a little put-off about not being given a sidearm on an away mission this deep into hostile territory. The task was completed in seconds. Aaen opened the device and observed the device's blinking functioning control pad. The map was displayed with crisp clarity. He nodded at Maxon.
"Okay! Move out!" Maxon commanded. The away team stood up in near-unison and gathered around Maxon. Maxon faced the viewscreen and said, "Computer! Open loading door. Standby to close and seal the door after we leave." A brief series of chirps and beeps sounded acknowledgment and then a wave of subtle metallic clicks sounded. The door gradually lowered to the ground with a subtle pneumatic hiss. Jonathan snapped to take aim out the right side of the hatch, Mason aimed opposite—both panned around, high and low, and then nodded at Maxon. Maxon gestured to move out.
Jonathan walked out first, then Maxon, Jensen, and then Aaen. Jonathan and Jensen quickly fanned out, took a knee and formed a perimeter. Jonathan signaled all-clear.
The hatch closed.
They looked at Aaen. He gestured to go left, leading them through moderately-dense brush, around a few creepy critters . . . to a large distortion surrounded by what looked like a plantation of tall, thick trees. They had crouched and ran nearly a hundred yards from the shuttle, Aaen guessed—
There was a noise . . . somewhere from the right! He snapped, gestured to stop and then to get low. They took a knee as he pointed in the direction of the noise. Jonathan and Jensen quickly took aim and panned back and forth for a few feet.
Maxon retrieved her communicator from her waist holster and tapped it. "Maxon to Mason," she whispered, "we've got some kind of movement out here. Two are talking to each other from about twenty meters out, and they sound like they're getting closer. There's some kind of shielding over the entrance to where the cloaking device's being kept. Can you break in the control computer and override it so we can get in?"
"Roger that! I'm on it!. . .Standby. . .Standby. . ."
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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