The Proper Orientation

No Space for Family [Chapter 27]

The Overseer let out a long sigh. “I’m assuming this doctor of yours was supposed to arrive alone,” she said, watching as the freshly landed craft powered down.

“I’d say a starship of that size can’t be manned by one person,” Mom concluded.

“If they do mean ill of you and your ship and AI core inside, I’ll applaud them for not simply making a crater out of our landing platform here.”

Mom shrugged. “All things considered, it seems they’re trying to fly under the radar.”

“Which means they may be willing to talk before wreaking any havoc. Where is your husband, again, Amelia?” asked the Overseer, settling down at her desk and reaching for her phone.

“Don’t touch that,” Mom hissed, almost swatting across the table with her hand.

Sakura furrowed her brow and sat back. “You’re going to tell me, in my office, not to touch my own things?”

Mom shook her head and fished around in her jumpsuit for the communicator from our ship. “No, I mean, here. We don’t know if these people could be listening in. The AI… my mom has gotten our private channel encrypted. And Jeff is probably with your flight control station.”

“Flight control…” muttered Sakura, glancing back out the window. “That’ll do.”

As Mom and Sakura tried to get in contact with Dad, I welded myself to the window to keep watch on the ship. It wasn’t long before the boarding ramp descended and made contact with the tarmac, casting bright landing lights. I squinted as the first passenger descended to the ground.

I felt Terren’s presence behind me. I glanced up and saw his head above mine, looking out at the same thing. “Those can’t be our friends from before, can they?”

I looked back. Sure enough, the second person stepping out of the ship was none other than the big brute who I think was called Bugan. “Dang,” I sighed. “They must have found our escape pod carrying them. I suppose if they were scanning for electromagnetic signals, it wouldn’t have been too hard.”

The communicator finally connected and allowed Dad’s voice through. “Amelia? Are you all safe?”

“We’re safe,” Mom replied. “Here with Sakura.”

“Hello there, Jefferson,” the Overseer replied, leaning across the desk from her chair.

“Overseer Ishii,” said Dad back with an air of importance. “Uh, so, they seem to be here a bit early.”

“Dad,” I called out, running up to the big office desk and the communicator. “The big dorks that we jettisoned out of the escape hatch made it too.”

“Did they now?”

I glanced up to see Sakura mouthing a few words to my mom. “Escape hatch?”

“Yeah…” Mouthed back Mom with a nod and a shrug.

“I was going to—“ Dad restarted.

“Jefferson,” interrupted the Overseer. “Let me talk to my people over there. We’ll buy some time for you to get your act together.”

“Sure, uh… here,” Dad paused, seeming to pass off his communicator.

“Miss Overseer? What can we do for you?”

Sakura swiped the closer to her. “Listen closely. It seems the party that just landed requires a thorough briefing. Make sure that they read and fill out every form, that they are fully aware of the situation here in the colony, what amenities are open to them… get them a few brochures on staying with us, even. Anything to keep them busy for a while. Perhaps tell them that they need to do a final check-in and inspection when it’s light out as well. Before any of that, they can’t leave their craft.”

“Uh, aye, Miss Overseer.”

Mom stood up and spoke into the communicator again. “Jeff, are you still there?”

“Course I am, my love.”

“What exactly is your plan?”

“Let’s just say it’s changing by the second. I appreciate the time you’ve bought us, Overseer. For the time being, I’m giving thought to having Aida hack their ship. They’ve let me borrow an employee uniform as a disguise. I could find some sort of exterior data port to wire into under the pretense of servicing their ship. But I’d need to make sure they’re distracted enough not to notice our ships hooked up together.”

Grandma cleared her voice, addressing both of us on either side of the communicator. “Don’t forget about the doctor. The one that’s going to fix me, you know.”

Dad hummed. “Assuming Dr. Pois is even here… I doubt they’d let her run off on her own.”

Terren tapped his finger on the glass of the corner window. “That’s her now, isn’t it?”

I jumped up to look outside with him. Across the tarmac, I could see the headlights of a small ground vehicle approaching our two ships from the far side. The brute and one of his friends were watching its approach. At the other side of their boarding ramp was the doctor and the Lanky fellow who was pointing a finger, probably ordering the big guy to do something.

“That’s her, Dr. Pois,” Mom directed the Overseer with a nod. “The blue-skinned one with the respirator. Is that the other one from before, too, Sola? I didn’t get a good look at them before.”

“That’s him,” I nodded. I bit my lip as I saw him and the doctor departing before the colony’s welcoming party reached them.

Sakura huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Looks like those two aren’t going to wait for their orientation.”

The communicator crackled on with Dad’s voice and the sound of rolling tires in the background. “Yeah, they didn’t seem like the patient type. But the fewer of them around their ship, the better for me. I’d like to say this won’t take long… but who knows?”

“You’re batty, Jefferson,” sighed Sakura. “Just do what you need to do, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Thank you, Overseer. I’m going silent now.”

Mom stepped up to the desk and the communicator. “Stay safe, Jeff,”

“Aye aye. Love you.”

Sakura slid the device back towards my mom, who picked it up. The Overseer sighed and relaxed her shoulders before stepping out from behind her desk. “If all you need is time, I can do plenty of talking. Come now, we’ll take the stairs so we won’t get caught off guard in the lobby.”

After four flights of increasingly arduous stairs, we found ourselves at the back hallway of the ground floor. There were doors on either side of the bare space, with one side reading ‘exit.’ Sakura led the way through the other manual door. We found ourselves in the midst of various racks of cardboard boxes and a sparse collection of cubicles with little computer setups. From the other side of a half wall, we could hear the stammering of the reception lady.

“Like I was saying… I don’t know any more than that.”

Sakura brought us forward and pointed to the back to the hallway with the stairwell. “I’ll take care of this,” she whispered. “If things are getting too heated, you should get out of there through the emergency exit.”

Mom nodded and glanced back at us. “Thank you, Sakura.”

A combative voice came from the front lobby. “It’s unsettling that this Overseer lady would be so hard to get a hold of.”

Sakura jolted up straight and began to stroll out past the half wall and its little door. “What seems to be going on here?” She asked as she left our sight.

“Oh, uh, Overseer,” said the receptionist. “I just called your office.”

Mom slinked forward a bit and settled down behind the half-wall. Terren and I joined her, hunched down nearly on our knees. She held a finger to her mouth even though we were already perfectly silent.

“I can’t catch a moment to myself today, can I?” asked the Overseer with a breezy laugh. “Here I was just going to take a walk outside before turning in for the night. And then as I was heading out the back door, I noticed another ship visiting us.”

“You are the Sakura Ishii, then?” said the voice. The muffled accent belonged to Dr. Pois.

“That’s correct. Here I am playing an entirely unreliable host. What brings you this way, my good…?”

“We contacted you before arriving,” the other visitor huffed. The whiny voice belonged to the lanky bad guy who had broken into the Ora previously.

“Is that right?” posted Sakura. “It must have slipped my mind, with all that’s going on here. My flight control station must have taken your message. They must have delayed reaching out to me because of the late hour.”

“Ms. Ishii,” Dr. Pois said. “Worry not, it’s not business with you, exactly. I’m a doctor, and I’m searching for the inhabitants of that other ship who have landed here.”

Lanky grumbled. “This… pleasant lady here at your front desk won’t tell us about them.”

“And you are?” Sakura asked suddenly.

“I’m the doctor’s… chaperone. Her business is our business, at least for the time being. And time is money.”

“I’m not the sort able to… travel alone,” admitted Dr. Pois with a hint of deceit in her voice.

Sakura sighed. “Well, all our visitors here are deserving of their privacy. As the sun has set here on this part of Yuzumaru, they may have already turned in for the night. My only advice for you is to wait for morning and hope they reach out of their own accord. We offer you a complimentary service and inspection of your craft, courtesy of our ground agents. They’ve likely headed out already.”

The visitors went silent for a few moments before Lanky cleared his throat. “No can do.”

“Excuse me?” Sakura began. “You’ve come here essentially out of the blue, I must say. We’re trying our best to accommodate, but—“

“Shut up, woman,” Lanky whined.

“Well, I never.”

“You listen now. I get this is just some backwater planet. Dealing with actual important people ain’t your strong suit. We aren’t the lowlifes you might allow to hide away here for the price of a smuggled good or two. But speaking of those sorts, the other folks sitting here beside us on your pavement are up to no good.”

Sakura hummed. “Is that so? Spinda, could you call security over here to help these folks?”

“Right away, Overseer,” said the receptionist.

“Whoa, don’t butt in,” complained Lanky. “They’re more the… sneaky type. We can handle them ourselves. All you need to know is that they have something of ours. A piece of the doctor’s work here. And we aren’t leaving this planet without them and our property. Now, we’ve got their descriptions, so—“

The sound of radio chatter interrupted Lanky’s rant. “Boss? Boss!”

“What. Is. It?”

“They want forms filled out.”

Lanky sighed. “What sort? Does it really matter?”

“Dunno. But they’re also already to work messin’ wit the ship.”

“What?” hissed the baddie. “Doing what? Tell them to stop, we don’t need it.”

“Sorry, probably just some… emissions monitoring,” Sakura explained, definitely making it up as she continued. “That, or looking for any creatures that may have stowed away from another planet. Standard practice for a place like this with a freshly terraformed biosphere.”

“You’re their boss, ain’t you? Tell them to stop! And tell them to save the forms and other skwak, that other ship out there must not be able to take off.”

I looked up at Mom and back at Terren. I mouthed ‘dad’ to them. Mom shook her head solemnly and crept forward to the corner, probably looking to check out the situation.

I heard the tapping of the Overseer’s shoes. “Seeing as how meticulous you are, I’ll help you out. I’ll head out there now with you and speak to them. We can even have them keep an eye on the other ship for you. Dr. Pois, feel free to take a rest here in the lobby.”

Lanky clicked his tongue. “No, the doctor will not be leaving my side. For her safety. Actually… I’m not sure we had a proper introduction. How do you know the doctor’s name?”

Mom bit her knuckles and slid down on her knees.

Lanky’s radio clicked on again. “Get this, boss.”

“Go ahead…” he responded generously.

“They were tryin’ to get both our ships connected together. We caught the guy who was doin’ it. A dark-skinned man, looks like a human. Just like the one we were looking for.”

“Excellent. Bring him in here so we can make sure it’s Umburter,” said Lanky, a smirk in his voice. “I see, Ms. Overseer. You’re in on this, too. All buddy-buddy with this lot.”

“Splinda,” huffed Sakura. “Is security on their way yet?”

“Not so fast,” Lanky hissed. “Do not interfere with our business.