It was a slightly rough landing - Farstolf was not as skilled a pilot as Amsterdam, and everybody knew it. But there was no complaining, especially when the captain was like this.

Upon landing in the spaceport on this unknown ash planet, the crew stood to attention, with Amsterdam getting to his feet finally and reluctantly joining his friends. Farstolf stood up from the pilot's seat and slowly walked over to his crew.

"We're here, men and woman," he said, looking fondly at Yoko. "And if we don't get this ship repaired, it's likely we're not getting anywhere else."

"I can likely repair it within a few hours, sir," Brutus said. "I believe we have all the necessary parts already, and there's no need for me to leave here to work on it."

"Excellent, Brutus," Farstolf continued. "You and Septimus can stay here and work on the ship."

"Me and ... Septimus?" Brutus questioned. "He'll only get in the way, no offense. I'll work faster alone. What if you need him out there?"

Rudely, Farstolf answered, "Why would we possibly need that glorified data reader? Anyway, he's so grotesque, we don't want to run into any diplomatic problems simply because we've introduced a new ugly species that this planet has never seen before. No, he'll stay here."

Septimus didn't even bat an eyelid - he was unfortunately used to this kind of abuse.

"Yes sir," Brutus and Septimus answered in unison.

"Yoko and I will stock up on supplies and explore this port trying to find information about out whereabouts, and I'll also try to find out about IPF monitoring in this area to decide whether or not we should leave promptly or not," the captain said, looking at Yoko again. "Is that okay?"

Yoko nodded, before allowing Farstolf to continue.

"And you two," he said, looking furiously at Amsterdam and Yuk-Burn. "Hmm... I suppose there's little else for you to do, so you will go around the colony and try to get any more information about our whereabouts, nearby planets, people and so on. And I want good information. Don't just head to a bar and converse with the punters - we need to know how we're getting back to out solar system."

Yuk nodded enthusiastically, knowing perfectly well that they'd end up at a bar, against the captain's orders. Farstolf knew this too, but he was beyond caring about the two most useless members of the crew. Amsterdam didn't even look him in the eye, just smirked slightly.

"Okay, maggots, let's get going. We'll meet back here in..." He looked at Brutus, trying to get an estimated time on the repairs, but when Brutus just stared blankly back at him, he finished his sentence. "Two hours. Back here in two hours, men. Let's go."

The four explorers stepped into the airlock and then out into the colony, ready to follow orders. Mostly.

Author guidance for This story

This is a story that myself [LairdTom] and Jake [Xelotath] came up with on a lonely night after discussing our writing habits.

We've planned quite a lot of it out, so would really appreciate it if we were left to the writing side, and you lovely people did the reading. Nothing personal, of course.

It's about a bunch of space pirates that run into some trouble and end up going through a black hole in search for treasure that is the talk of the universe. But it's never quite that simple...

Quick Glossary Type-Thing
IMT - Intergalactic Method of Transport
IPF - Intergalactic Police Force

Characters

Yoko, ??? Human

Brutus, Engineer, likes blowing things up ???

Yuk-Burn, ???, immune to many harmful substances Timler

Amsterdam, Pilot, witty and rude Human

Septimus, technical reader guy? Vobus

Farstolf, Captain, race not mentioned yet, but he looks badass

updated Jun 9 '11 by LairdTom