"Excuse me. Would you be willing to take me somewhere in a shuttle?" Breeken asked politely.
"Sure," Beth said, "where do you want to go?"
"I would like to retrieve a piece of the wreckage of my captain's ship."
"Okay. which part?"
"It doesn't matter. Preferably a large piece."
"Okay, hang on," switching on intercom she said, "Megan, have you managed to hack into those satellites yet?"
"I think I got it. It's a good thing that they are the same technology as the wreckage back on Titan. I'm routing the feed to your station now."
The primary screen of the Pilot's station lit up with a dizzying flash of imagery. After a minute it coalesced into a map of the area around the base, about ten kilometers out. Hills and dunes dominated the landscape, but none of the wreckage from the spaceships that had collided.
"Is that the only one?"
"Oh. I thought you would want the base. What do you need?"
"Something with the wreckage on it."
"How about this?" The screen changed to a mountainous region with several burning impact craters from falling pieces of the ships.
"Perfect, thank you," then to Breeken, "can you tell from here which are from your ship?"
"Unfortunately, no. Can we go down and take a look?"
"Why not. Let's go."
The shuttle ride took a couple of hours, but they still had plenty of time to pick up a bit of wreckage and get back to the ship. Bethamin had chosen to take a cargo shuttle since it had plenty of room and some machinery for moving heavy loads, just in case it was necessary.
"That one," Breeken's arm extended out and turned into a single pointy finger.
"What the hell," Beth exclaimed, and almost lost control of the shuttle.
"I apologize. I thought you knew about our physiology."
"No," she breathed, "but now I do. Which one was it?"
They landed within a kilometer of a large piece of wreckage, much of it still aflame, burning in the crater like a fire pit. Surrounding it were many smaller bits and pieces, and more than a few reddish spots in the sand that she really didn't want to know what they were.
"How much do you need?"
"As much as we can."
"Okay," she sighed. She had brought a hand truck, but it would take several trips if they were going to fill the cargo bay, not to mention several hours. "Let's get started."
"It's time."
"On our way, Captain," Beth reported, the sound of rushing air in the background.
"Almost there, Cap," Billy-Bob reported, "we'll be done in two shakes of a lamb's tail."
"Can you translate that into sidereal time, Mister Boorman?"
"Uh..." he hesitated so that Griff could give him the answer, "an hour or so?"
"Chief Schmitt?"
"Yes sir. We've just about got it ticking again."
"Chief King?"
"We've got the hull breach in the cargo bay patched for now. We're working on the agrodome, but the spare panels are buried in the hold. We're digging for them now."
"What do you mean, 'for now'?"
"I mean that we patched it as best as we can in space. We aren't a construction yard, so we can only do so much."
"Did you give it your best work?"
"Aye sir, that I did."
"Then it's good enough for me."
"Thank you, Captain."
"You were correct," Broognan said, "none of them are finished with their tasks. How do you manage the inefficiency?"
"Well," he said, leaning against the entrance to the Kree base, "I wanted it done in 30 hours, so I told them 24."
"I would not tolerate such failure on my ship."
"Speaking of which, how do we get you home?"
"I can provide you with the coordinates."
"Great. Can you give us our coordinates here?"
"You don't know?"
"No. We came here after a drive malfunction. We have no idea where Earth is from here."
"Oh my. You are in serious trouble then. Perhaps out Royal Astronomical Academy can help you find your way home."
"That would be amazingly helpful. Thank you for your offer of assistance."
"Thank you, Bethamin," Breeken said, "your assistance means a great deal to me."
"You're welcome. It's nice to be appreciated. Do you need any help with this?"
"Thank you, but no. This is something that I must do alone."
"Okay. Well if you need anything, use the panel on the wall by the door," she pointed to the com panel across the cargo bay, stacked with wrecked and twisted metal from the Amooks' ship
"That was a blast!" Billy-Bob said excitedly.
"A blast? We did not explode. Why would you say that?"
"He means it was fun," Griff explained.
"Well yeah it was! Did you see how well that thing handles?"
"Again, yes we did. We were there too."
"Hot dang, I hope I get to do that again."
"Good job, Nuri," Chief Schmitt praised his Nuclear Engineer.
"Thank you, sir. It should be as good as new."
"Good. Something tells me we're about to test that claim."
"I stake my reputation on it."
"You might be staking all of our lives on it."
"I stand by my claim. I'll bet you $20 on it."
"Done."
"Okay Captain," Jacks said, "we have the coordinates of your planet. Shall we see if we can make it there?"
"Is there any doubt?"
"Well, after the last few days, there's not much that could surprise me now."
"Captain," the navigator said, "we have more incoming. It looks like ten ships."
"Then it's definitely time to go. Chief, are we hot?"
"Hot and ready, Captain."
"Miss Strahovski, hit it. Full speed."
"Yes sir."
There wasn't a streak of stars like Star Trek, but the stars did turn red ahead of them, and blue behind. Old Dusty disappeared behind them in moments, as did the unstable star and the ten Imperial cruisers.
They were off and running, and no explosions happened this time.
