“Actually, the Aky, the little green men, are a peaceful race,” Lana said. “I read about them in the file Alzigo gave me. The Inthidlon, however, are tall and blue, like the dead one we found on the ship. According to their description, mining uninhabited planets is right up their alley.”

“Whatever,” Bulco scoffed. He got up on wobbling legs and bent his knees a few times. “Ha, good as new.”

“Let’s get back to the Hummer and bring back Unity to pick up everything,” Nori said. She looked at the young hacker. “Any idea how we can bring the containers aboard?”

“Yes, they each have anti-grav built in and can be controlled remotely.”

“Good.”

The four returned to their vehicle, and Nori drove them back. This time, instead of jumping over the wide rift, she followed a path that Lana helpfully brought up, only having to jump over a narrow strip.

Unity was waiting for them right where they’d left her with the cargo door still lowered.

Once Nori drove the Hummer into the ship, they took off their spacesuits and closed the main door. The ship’s life support kicked in, filling the space with breathable air.

Nori tugged at her spacesuit and it unfolded from her body, leaving her in her normal clothes. The other followed suit, then followed the Navigator into the bridge.

Nori called for her seat, and her hands reached to activate her many terminals. “I’m cutting off life support in the cargo hold. No sense in stressing the systems—we’re going to reopen it to pick up the containers anyway.”

Unity lifted gently as Nori steered her toward the mining site and they zoomed over the rift as if it was nothing more than a crack in the ground.

In no time at all, they reached their destination, and Nori gently guided the freighter down.

“We’re in position,” she said. “Lana?”

The young woman frowned at her light console. “The sensors on this ship are utter crap. They keep picking up ‘compatible signatures’, but don’t actually manage to lock on to the containers.”

“Damn,” Bulco said. “We’ve already strained life support pretty badly. If we’ll have to go out and bring them in by hand … I’m not sure the system can handle pressurizing the hold again. It could kill them.”

“We’ll have to risk it,” Nori said. “Those containers are the reason why we traveled all this way. We can’t leave them behind.”

“We don’t need to risk it. I’ll go into the cargo hold, put on a suit and bring them in. After that, I’ll go into the Hummer with the rest of the suits and use their air supply to re-pressurize the interior. Combined, it should be enough until we reach the space station.”