Chapter 28
My heart races as I stare at the huge spaceship in front of us. I was expecting a normal-sized one when the call made it to them, but apparently...
The door of that spaceship opens. I pray to the stars that these beings are friendly. The universe is a dangerous place, with a lot of beings who... aren't who you'll ever want to meet.
The leading being has purple skin. He looks like a human, except the skin color makes it clear that he isn't. He is in a jacket and jeans with a tool belt.
He nods and he eyes us up and down. There are a few other beings following him, but they are of different species. These beings look around the central building without saying a word. I suppose I have to say something first since we asked them to come.
I say, "Thank you for coming here. We've been stuck here for a while now. And..."
A woman comes out of the spaceship, standing by the side of the purple male, which distracts me. It's always interesting to meet another human when there aren't a lot of us out there.
I continue, "Thank you for taking the detour."
The purple male nods. "I see. We caught your signal and wondered what was happening here and whether it would be safe to land. I have to take care of my crew, after all. We circled your area. Looks like you're doing fine."
I nod when the woman says something in the purple guy's ear. He tilts his head to the side and muses. Then he says, "Maybe we should talk in private."
"Sure." I gesture for them to join me in the central building. "Have you eaten? That's the least we can do, but our food court will be open for your crew. And even though we don't have a lot, we'll try our best to resupply your spaceship."
The male nods. "It's okay. We're fine. I think my crew may want a room to rest outside the spaceship."
"For sure." I wave to get another being here, telling him to lead our guests to one of the meeting rooms. There are a dozen of them, which we can handle well.
Melzul follows me when I bring the purple male, who is probably the leader of that spaceship, and the woman who follows him, into a guest meeting room, arranging them to sit on the couches.
The purple male nods. "My name is Vikul and this is Galene." He gestures to the woman by his side. She grins widely, probably also excited to see a human.
He continues, "We are a team from a mining company. I guess it is luck that we passed through this area. This is such a less-frequented area for me to expect any communicable beings living here."
I introduce Melzul and myself to them even though I'd rather we cut into the chase. "All of us here were sent by our home company on Catieks. Our job is to settle here and learn about the habitat so that we can help the main team when they arrive. They sent us here because their initial report said that there may be precious metal somewhere on the planet. But... We've lost contact with them for quite some time now. We can self-sustain, but we wanted to know what happened.
Vikul scowls. "So, they just abandoned you here?"
"I... Maybe that's the case. I wonder what happened. Since we were set up as a temporary thing, we didn't have the connecting network completed. All I can do is dial directly to the company, and no one has replied to us.
He frowns. "But you managed to contact us."
"That's because his spaceship crashed here on his travel recently. We managed to recover the communication system on his ship and made it to connect with you."
He lets out a breath. "So... I see. I hope everything is well back there. For quite some time, there have been projects like the one you described, but a lot of them eventually failed when the company failed to raise enough capital, or after they found out that the precious metal or whatever resources that were advertised at first weren't financially attractive enough. My crew is here for a similar purpose. As the logo suggests, we are a mining company, so we're always on the lookout for places we can expand to. Though we aren't going to leave anyone behind."
I blink at that. So... I guess we are lucky enough?
Galene says, "I think before we look for whatever that can be here, we should help contact their home planet, or at least try to find out what happened."
Vikul sighs. "I suppose. But I have an idea that's not very enticing." He nods to me. "Are you ready for the answer? You can join me on my spaceship now and we'll check that out."
Now that he puts it that way... I'm not sure whether I want to know the answer.
He says, "I can see that you're doing well on this planet. And I suppose the climate here is decent for beings to survive, which is good news."
Maybe he's saying that to make me feel better.
But...
I take a breath, trying to remind myself to focus on the positive. Melzul is definitely rubbing off on me.
My heart races as the four of us stand in front of Vikul's dashboard. The air conditioning is a bit too strong to my liking, but it's not my place to tell him to do anything.
Melzul rubs my side. I don't understand why he can still be half-naked. Isn't he even cold? He has a soft smile, seemingly there to comfort me.
I squeeze his hand. I need this to work. Even though I know I won't like the answer, I'd rather know what's happening.
Vikul taps the keyboard on the dashboard, projecting the search results out on the window for us to see. "Look, I think..." He shrugs. "You can take a look yourself.
He keyed in the planet I came from and where we are, and it looks like the answer is obvious...
I sigh and Melzul grunts. He hisses. "They can't do this to you. They are even trying to hide that. Look at all the searches we have to go through. It's hidden in their industry's database, not even out to the public. Just because they think that the project won't be successful enough doesn't mean they can just abandon the whole crew."
I hold his hand. I don't want to talk about that in depth. It is clear what happened and I... There is a bit too much. "I'll... Let the rest of us know about this. I don't want to hide anything from them."
Vikul sighs. "It is frustrating, and I don't understand how they can do that to other beings. I suppose it is going to cost them a bit too much to bring all of you home, but that's not that much money. They can also retrieve the machinery and everything they set you up with, yet..."
I say, "Above all things, I... I just wish they didn't put me in my situation. I was worried and tried to hide the fact that we'd lost connection from the rest of the village, but... I mean, I know I could have told everyone and it would probably be better, yet... I kept hoping that I could reconnect with them again. But..."
Vikul smiles. "Humans are always nice, huh? Sadly... I think you already know what I'm going to say."
Galene pats Vikul's shoulder. "We should ask the beings here whether they want to go home. A lot of them probably have a family back there and they are all worried."
I nod. "Yes, that'll be for the best. I... I'm not sure whether we can make it worthwhile to you, though. There are a lot of us, and it may take a few trips. More importantly, the animals..."
Melzul says, "Before you worry about the animals, you should think about yourself and other beings. It's not as hard for the animals. More importantly, it's not like they will decide for themselves, even though they are smart."
He's not wrong. The load in my chest remains. They said knowing the truth will make everything simpler, even though it may not be easy, yet... I don't think anything is simpler than before. Right after I admitted that I've been lying to everyone, now... I have to tell them that all of us have been fooled and abandoned.
Galene comes over and squeezes my hand. "It's going to be fine. You'll figure it out. It doesn't matter the cost."
Vikul clears his throat.
Galene chuckles. "He always tells me that this isn't how a business works. But he's the one serving the company most of the time, so I guess that's better for everyone."
Vikul says, "Look, I'm willing to help. But it's another thing to say that the cost doesn't matter. We may need help to move the animals, but it all depends on how many are leaving."
Melzul asks, "Irene, how about you? Are you leaving the planet?"
"I won't leave if they won't leave. Even though I know it doesn't work like that, I don't want to leave anyone behind. The village has some produce that we should be able to resell for money to pay off the cost of moving everyone back, so--"
Vikul lifts his hand. "It's just a running joke between Galene and me. Don't worry about that."
Galene elbows Vikul, rolling her eyes.
Maybe... Maybe they aren't just business partners and they are mates. Hm...
Melzul says, "Let's talk to everyone."
"I will. When everyone's back from work, during dinner." My heart races again merely at the thought of talking to everyone again. It hasn't been that long since we did it last time, and... Even though I'm the leader of the village, I'm not big on talking to this big of a crowd.
But... Sometimes, I have to do what it takes even though it sucks.