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at
least, but there was nothing moving to and from the planet’s surface.
    “Find me someone to talk to,” Donn told the Captain
who was seated nearby. “Start with those warships.”
    “Any one in particular?”
    “Start with the big ones.”
    The Captain motioned to one of the Kiritak who got on
the comm and started chatting in the trade language…and didn’t stop for some 10
minutes before he finally turned and gestured back to the Captain who activated
his holographic communication display with the image of a fleshy winged
Lacvamat seated on a perch with its folded wings angling up like points
bracketing its double-skulled head.
    Donn walked up beside the Captain so he would be in
transmission view, but put a hand on his shoulder when the man tried to get up
to give him his seat.
    “ You are the
investigators? ”
    “ We are ,”
Donn answered evenly. “ We require passage
down to the planet, both to the origination point and anywhere there is
currently the illness. We do not need access to uncontaminated areas. ”
    “ Your movements
will be allowed, but only if preapproved. Do not wander about. ”
    “ Our ship will
file all movements on planet prior to flight ,” Donn promised, but not
saying anything about personnel on the surface.
    “ An escort will
be waiting at these coordinates ,” the Lacvamat said before cutting the
comm, obviously annoyed at having to let the Star Force ship through.
    “Coordinates received,” the Kiritak helmsman noted.
    “Take us in,” Donn said, seeing that the coordinates
were relatively high up in orbit when they popped up on the holographic map.
    The rover made a lazy jump down to a midway point,
braking to a stop before adding some lateral momentum to bring them around to a
second mini-jump down lower to match up with the given coordinates where some
16 Lacvamat warships were waiting with starfighter escorts numbering over 300.
Once there the ship was wrapped up in escorts and given additional navigational
prompts that led them through a non-linear course down through orbit that took
them more than 2 hours to hit the atmosphere.
    There the warships backed off and the starfighters
remained, bringing down the rover to the point on the planet where the cargo
ship had exploded and began the whole mess. Donn picked a spot nearby the
debris field where the bits and pieces had rained down and had the ship land
there…after getting permission from the Lacvamat.
    Huge landing legs extended from the underside of the
rover that sank down more than a meter into the semi-soft dirt nearby a
settlement that was now evacuated. Unlike Star Force cities the Lacvamat lived
in spires on the flat and cliff dwellings where they had available terrain. The
nearby structures were situated on the cut-out side of a small mountain with
the rover being nearly half their size. A temporary camp of structures that
looked to house many more individuals was spread out in little chunks across
the nearby area, and Donn guessed those were the recovery teams for the ship
debris.
    “Armor up,” he told Galia after they landed.
    “Babysitting?” she guessed.
    “You’ve got the medtechs. I’m going to roam.”
    Without complaint the tall redhead walked off the
bridge leaving Donn with the four man crew of the tiny jumpship.
    “Not sure how long this will take, so just sit, keep
your eyes open, and the door locked.”
    The Captain hesitated, then he simply nodded. “Will do.”
    Donn followed Galia out and headed to the small
training facility on the ship. It wasn’t a full sanctum, not even close given
the ship wasn’t large enough to hold one, but it had been enough to keep them
occupied during jumps as well as serving as an impromptu armory. When he got
there Galia was already part way into her armor with the others looking on
waiting for orders.
    “Archons suit up, Brad with eagle, Kiritas stay put,
medics grab your puffs,” he said as he started to step
into his own armor, sliding his casual