Jan and Alan journey to Mars to begin assembling a team for the job…
The journey to Mars had been fairly uneventful. Alan had returned, just after the disappearance of the ever-dramatic Mr. Graves, clutching a strange package which he stowed away out of Jan’s sight once aboard the ship and, after some trial and error, they left the station.
The flight took place mostly in relative silence. Jan finding his way around the more complicated systems they would need for a safe landing on the Martian surface and Alan, clearly having learned not to offer his assistance, dozed in the copilots chair, breaking the quiet with the occasional trilling snore, only waking once they dropped out of hyperspace and began their approach to the little desert planet.
“Who are we meeting?” Asked alan, still staring out at the approaching sphere as he had been for the past twenty minutes.
“I’m meeting an old friend and colleague of mine.” Replied Jan, not breaking his own fixed gaze on the control panel’s readouts before him. “You are gonna stay behind and watch the ship.”
Alan turned towards his new captain. “Jan, I feel it is important for you to trust me-“
“Well it ain’t gonna happen. Not yet anyway.” Jan kept his eyes on the monitor, his hands flipping switches and turning the ship’s out-dated dials to compensate for the various readings as the Martian disc loomed closer. “The woman I’m going to meet is Rai Glennar. If you know that name, you’ll know why she might not be so pleased with me bringing along someone I barely know.”
“I am afraid I am not aware of the importance of this female.”
“Then you’re just gonna have to trust me.” Jan smiled, he grabbed the seat’s harness and began to strap himself in. “Now, grab that stick and strap yourself in, this could get a little bumpy.”
Jan checked the address Rai had given him with the building he stood in front of. The message she sent him had been in code when she went off grid three years before, but he couldn’t have been that wrong in his translation, could he? The ‘Outpost 12 General Store’ was little more than a metal shed. The fairy lights around the sign were all Rai though.
Jan as he entered the store. Looking around the tiny store, he could see several of Rai’s trademark cobbled together inventions and scrounged ship parts. any doubt he was in the wrong place quickly fled. “Not the best of hiding places really, is it, Rai?” He called.
“Well, it’s no castle.. but it’s mine.” Came a voice from the even tinier office and Rai’s redheaded head appeared around the doorway, followed by the rest of her. “Well, well, Cap’n Jan, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“A job. A really big job.”
“I told you last time, I don’t do your kind of work any more. I keep my little store and the town keeps quiet about me. I’m glad to be out of it, why would you think that had changed?”
“Because I don’t have anyone else. No, that sounds bad, you’re the best person I know at this kind of work, and while I understand your reasons for giving it up, I don’t think you’re gonna want to let this one slip.”
“Well come on then, out with it!”
Jan told her the story so far, the fallout with his last captain, the drunken gren in the bar and Mr. Graves’ proposition he didn’t leave out anything, including his worries about the trustworthiness of Alan and his secretive errand.
“I don’t know… things are good here. I’ve got a nice, simple life. I don’t want to go throwing all that away to chase after some mythical alien treasure! The sphinx is a children’s story, Jan, a fairy tale.”
“But there’s been evidence of the Aramax in other places so why does this have to be fake? There must be some truth behind it or Graves wouldn’t have sent me and his little errand boy after it.”
“Unless he just wants to kill you like last time.”
“This doesn’t feel like last time, Rai. I knew that guy’s history, I should have known better than to let him on my ship. Look, I promise you this will take a week, two tops. I’m sure you can find someone to mind the store for that time, and if we don’t find anything, you can just slip back into your new life as if you’d been away on a really boring holiday.”
“Jan, I know that I owe you for the countless times you’ve saved my skin in the past so, despite my better judgement, I’m going to say yes. But if you’re wrong, and this does just turn into some wild goose chase, this is the last favour I ever do for you, deal?”
“Deal.”
Outside, Alan backed away from the window. He took one final photo of the store’s exterior and made a quick dash back to the ship. He would have to make this fast if he was going to get the reward.
