An alien crew hires a discount group of human bodyguards to protect them on an expedition to a heavily forested/jungled planet to research the planet life. Murphy's law happens and the alien crew find out they hired the human group that is , as a group, a hybrid of MacGyver, John Wick, and the the A-Team. -- Anon Guest
One of the launch seats, heavily charred, fell out of the tree with a solid thud. The Human who dislodged it had got up there by using a series of ropes, spiked objects, and an apparent disregard for gravity. Another Human, who had neatly sidestepped the falling chair, looked at the burned remains and said, "Whelp. There's your problem." Three other Humans laughed.
The one up the tree shouted, "Three more debris! All metal!" and the Humans working underneath cleared out from the hazard zone. One was carrying the chair. The Humans had been doing this since their explorer vessel exploded in a freak combination of electrical storm and meteor shower, and Grox had yet to understand why.
She was doing what they called 'oxcart duty', which consisted of applying her muscular strength to pull around a cart the Humans had made from convenient pieces. It was, they said, better than hauling "all that crap" by hand. That, and 'oxcart duty' was keeping all the surviving scientists out of harm's way. The Humans, after all, did not want to waste any more time rebuilding their carts.
The Human who had been up the tree - Yaz - came down and unhitched themself from their improvised apparatus. "Someone else's turn in that barrel," they said, "I need a break." By which Yaz meant a period of inactivity in relative comfort, and not anything harmful to body or possessions.
Human idioms confused Gorx and all her teammates. Yet, when Yaz decided to settle by her, Gorx couldn't resist the scientist's compulsion to engage in research. Every molecule of information was useful, even if it may not be shared whilst she was still alive. "Why are you gathering ship parts?" she asked. "There are many that have been completely destroyed. The remaining pieces are not inherently useful to escaping this world."
Yaz snorted. "Sez you," they said, before elaborating. "You're talking to a people from a species that made it into space by strapping themselves on top of the world's biggest firework. There's ways and there's ways. Trust us."
In context, that sounded like a rather dangerous thing to do. Then again - what alternatives were there?
It took them months, even with the base camp as their hub of operations. The camp itself was designed to biodegrade and decay in concert with the environment, leaving no lasting trace. Most of the equipment for scientific analysis had been there when the ship exploded. It had once been neat and orderly and civilised.
It was now bedlam. The Humans had set up other things not meant for scientific analysis. The mess was still the mess, but now there was a forge, a chemistry lab, and a few other things the Humans seemed to be cobbling together out of whatever they had to hand. For example, the rocket launch platform on the tabletop mountain that was constructed almost entirely out of this planet's answer to bamboo.
There was little more frightening than Humans working in concert on something hazardous, which this project was 'in spades'. Another Human idiom that, though confounding, implied that there was lots of it. There was always hazardous 'in spades' whenever Humans were around.
Their experiments to date had been with smaller versions of the behemoth on the tabletop mountain, each sent up into the sky with an altimeter attached to a parachute as the payload. Accelerometers and tracking devices were involved, and the Humans' last celebration had involved the news that they were ready for 'the big one'. A sphere, roughly the size of a beach ball, with antennae spreading out from its centre line.
The Humans played ancient music of a theme Gorx took some time to comprehend. They sang along to Ra Ra Rasputin, Starman, Rocket Man, and Back in the USSR. They raised their beverage containers and toasted to 're-inventing Sputnik'.
Gorx pulled aside Human Joss and said, "I do not understand. None of us can escape inside that vessel."
"Escape?" said Joss, then laughed. "We're not escaping..."
"We're calling for a lift," said Human Vin.
"Trust us," said Human Yaz.
The launch was terrifying. So, too, was the fact that the automated comms equipment in the satellite successfully sent out a distress call and summoned a rescue mission from similarly gung-ho Humans.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / barashenkov]
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