Harrick arrived at the HTI Resort very refreshed. He and Hettie had a great time together. They had been too long apart and a week, although short, was an excellent refresher of their partnership. He smiled as he walked down the ramp from the shuttle into the landing area and smiled when he saw Hendon waiting for him.

  He was puzzled to also see Clinton standing behind Hendon but then he saw Hendon’s expression.

  “Hendon,” Harrick said, “What is wrong?”

  “Sir, a lot of trouble. Captured hunters, wrecked MTS, delayed repairs and more,” said Hendon as he led Harrick away down the corridors towards their quarters.

  “I’ve only been gone a week!” said Harrick. He looked at Clinton, “And what are you doing here?”

  Clinton smiled and said, “I was assigned to your team.”

  Hendon turned his head and glared at Clinton who shrugged and looked only slightly chagrinned as he said, “Well, when I enquired about what you were doing, I discovered the paperwork of my departure went missing so I was still rostered. I then applied for the transfer and here I am.”

  “Why?” asked Harrick, “Wasn’t being close to death a clear enough warning?”

  “Well, it should have been, and initially it was,” said Clinton, “but when I got home I couldn’t stop thinking about what we had discovered. What else can we learn on a new planet? When I saw you had formed a ‘Hunter Safety Team’ I decided to help you.”

  Clinton grinned as Harrick frowned. “Help us, eh? Hendon,” said Harrick, “Has he seen any action yet?”

  Hendon nodded and said, “Actually, yes. He arrived and on his first day he was in the thick of things with me and the boys. He took initiative and probably saved some hunter’s lives.”

  “So he can stay?” asked Harrick.

  “He can stay,” said Hendon with a grunt.

  Clinton grinned and walked silently beside Harrick.

  ****

  After Harrick had been briefed on the situation he asked, “So, let me get this straight. The two hunters, Beron and Hyron, were left behind. Dirtlings, probably military, captured them and send wild animals back to cause chaos. That probably worked better than they expected. Instead of a day or so, it has taken a week for repairs. Why weren’t the parts in stock as per the standard inventory says they should be?”

  Hendon nodded to Clinton, who continued, “Well, Sir. I looked into that and discussed the repair situation with Mr Toff and Nelson. The inventory had been checked and the parts were present before the public hunts began a few weeks ago. I went back with Nelson and they certainly aren’t there now. Their designated locations in the parts storage area are empty. Also, Scree, the HTI representative tells us that she has expedited the parts to arrive, but somehow they are still not here.” Clinton has emphasised the word ‘somehow’ indicating he did not believe the tales he was being told.

  Harrick noticed and said, “‘Somehow’ they are delayed. Clinton, what are your data tracking skills like?”

  “I do research and track down interesting things as a hobby, Sir,” Clinton said.

  “And?” Harrick asked, guessing that Clinton’s curiosity may have led him somewhere interesting.

  Clinton looked at Hendon who shook his head slightly, so Clinton said quickly, “I may have been bit curious so placed a small security bot into the station’s network. It’s only a software bot, but it has been very diligent in tracing some interesting communications. Just after the return, Scree sent a red emergency drop pod. We guess it was communication back to HTI HQ. A short time later, an emergency pod returned. The pod went directly to Scree and the standard communication and other logs did not record the coming or going of these data pods.”

  “Interesting,” said Harrick, indicating for Clinton to continue, “Well, I have been looking at the location of where the hunters were captured and tracking orbits of dirtling space debris and I discovered the Dirtling space station. Did you know the Dirtlings had a space station? I know it is rudimentary, but aren’t they NC, sir?”

  “Indeed,” said Harrick, “Continue.”

  Clinton realised he wasn’t going to get an answer, yet, so he said, “Well, the Dirtling station’s orbit is right in the area of space we would need to occupy to mount a rescue mission. The spare parts should arrive later today,” Clinton paused as his tablet beeped and he looked at the message.

  “The parts have just arrived and repairs should be complete in a few hours. The shuttle will leave and we will be in position within 24 hours, just when the Dirtling Space Station will be there. I suppose we will have to wait a few more days until it is clear.”

  Harrick looked over at Hendon who silently agreed with Harrick’s obvious assessment.

  “No, Clinton,” Harrick said, “I don’t think HTI wants to wait. I think they will send a clean up crew.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Clinton looked between his two superiors, “What’s a clean up crew?”

  Harrick asked Hendon, “Who do you think it will be?”

  Hendon answered, “I asked the boys what they thought. They reckon it will be Hortense. He is nearby and does whatever is required. And he’ll keep quiet about any particulars, of course.”

  “Of course,” said Harrick and sat deep in thought. Clinton and Hendon waited patiently. At least Hendon was patient. Clinton fidgeted wanting to know more.

  “Stop fidgeting Clinton,” said Harrick, “We have work to do. The crew of Dirtlings on that Space Station met the IES scout ship and were seen by the discoverers. It would not be nice to just brush them aside. They are unarmed and unarmored. Clinton, can you monitor transmissions and let me know if Scree contacts any nearby ships?”

  Clinton shook his head in agreement and blurted out, “There wasn’t any mention of a Dirtling space station in the official report, Sir. Where did you see that?”

  Harrick lifted up his communicator and pressed a few buttons on his screen. Clinton’s tablet dinged and he saw a message.

  “That is the original report. Not the Official one. Read that.”

  Hendon stood up and said, “I’ll contact Nelson and me and the boys will help him finish the repairs.”

  Harrick agreed and Hendon left the room.

  “Clinton, you really did choose an interesting time to be with us,” Harrick said as he clapped Clinton on his shoulder. Clinton did not notice as he was reading the official report and frowning at what he read.

  ****

  “Are you ready?” announced Johnny Cartwright to the crowd of employees in the factory floor. They had worked hard for the last 48 hours and although tired, the atmosphere in the room was excited.

  “Yes!” they cried out.

  Johnny looked up at the huge screen behind him. On it was the list of tasks that had to be complete to make the J Rocket ready to fly to the International Space Station and pick up the three astronauts and return in a hurry.

  One by one the items on the list went from red to green. Green. Green. Green. Orange.

  Johnny looked at the Orange light and looked around. One employee rushed in and pressed a button on his console. The Orange light went green and the room sighed in appreciation. The rest of lines all turned green and then the board flashed green.

  “Nice graphic presentation! Who did that?” said Johnny.

  Kent stood and put up his hand. “Good job Kent. You get a bonus.”

  “Doug!” Johnny called, looking to the right of the dais on which he stood, “Are you ready?”

  A man dressed in a simple atmosphere suit stood tall and proud. His helmet was under his arm and he grinned as he gave a thumbs up.

  “Doug will be the man flying the J Rocket. This is not a theoretical or a test run. We have had many tests and this was to be another one. But today the J Rocket will be on a mission with life changing results. To fit in three extra chairs, we have had to trim all of the fat. Doug will be wearing his suit the whole time. It will be uncomfortable, but once those three astronauts join him it will be squishy and more uncomfortable.”

  “This flight will have an additional danger. Aliens are up there and the ISS is in their way. We don’t know what they will do, but it is time to bring our people home. Back to Earth!”

  The crowd of engineers and workers all cheered. Doug then walked confidently to the lift beside the rocket and started his ascent to his tiny cabin at the top.

  Johnny said, ‘Let’s go! To your stations. Those that don’t have any direct duties, pray for success! Go!”

  With that the factory floor cleared as everyone went to their stations. Once Doug was buckled in his seat and some ground crew checked all the connections, the exterior door was closed and fastened. The rocket shuddered as it was moved out of the massive factory onto the tarmac to the centre of a large white circle painted on the thick concrete.

  The J Rocket stopped smoothly at the centre.

  In the control room, Johnny held up a microphone and gestured to the console operator next to him who pressed a button.

  “Doug,” Johnny called, “Are you ready?”

  “Yes Sir, I am.” Doug answered firmly.

  “Then let’s do this!” Johny said, indicating for his team to do their thing.

  Buttons were pressed and they could see and feel the huge shudder in the ground as the J rocket’s propulsion was triggered and it slowly rose into the sky.

  The team cheered once the J Rocket cleared atmosphere and the initial dangerous stage was over.

  Johnny Cartwright spoke under his breath, “Good luck Doug. We can only do so much from here. Now it’s up to you.”

  ****

  “Gentlemen,” said Captain Connor, “Are you ready? Everything packed?”

  Hans and Jim smiled at Connor’s joke. They couldn’t pack anything. There wasn’t room on the J Rocket after it was stripped back to the bare bones so they could fit. All they could take was their space suits. The J Rocket had appropriate adaptors to connect their suits to the rocket’s standard fittings and they would stay in these suits until they returned to Earth. If this was all a false alarm, they could return and reoccupy the ISS. But they didn’t think they would return. It was getting too dangerous up here.

  ****

  Hortense’s ship approached the orbit of the HTI resort. He pressed his secure communicator button and waited for it to connect.

  Scree’s voice said “Hortense, you have made it.”

  “Yes,” answered Hortense.

  “Phew. I was getting nervous. The Hunter Safety Team have been asking too many questions.”

  Hortense waited for a question.

  Scree realised she would have to hold this conversation, “Are you ready?”

  “Yes,” said Hortense, “When?”

  A message appeared on his console and opening it an orbital map appeared on his screen.

  Hortense grunted, “Tomorrow.”

  Scree looked at the communicator as it was cut off. Now she could finally relax.

  ****

  “Sir!” called Clinton as he approached Harrick sitting at his desk in his quarters, “The shuttle is available and we have been told to be ready for later tomorrow.”

  “That is good,” said Harrick, “It is about time we rescued those hunters.”

  “It’s weird, Sir,” said Clinton, “The timing is wrong. The Dirtling Space station will be directly over the location at that time. When I asked, Scree told me it would be fine and that the planet has no space station. ‘They are NC. Of course they have no space flight. Stupid boy!’ she told me.”

  It still annoyed him to be called a stupid boy.

  “Let’s take some initiative, Clinton. We are not taking along any hunting party on this shuttle trip. Hunts have been on hold all week while we repaired the MTS. Everyone is enjoying an all expenses paid additional week at the resort as an apology for the inconvenience so no one is complaining, although the number of hunters at the resort are increasing as new ones keep arriving. It will just be us,” said Harrick.

  Harrick pressed a button on his communicator, and spoke once it connected to Hendon, “Hendon, get the team ready. We’re going to leave in six hours. Prepare for an extended visit.”

  “Isn’t the scheduled departure in 24 hours?” asked Hendon.

  “That’s their schedule, not ours,” said Harrick with determination.