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Pierre limped towards the main terminal and sat at its chair, resting for a while before he unpacked his portable computer from his bakcpack hanging at his front and plugged it in main terminal. His moves were slow and careful.
"It does not make any sense, bu on the other hand - he was not looking sane.", he said as he was typing commands on his computer and terminal was responding accordingly, "He said that I was breathing 'too loudly'. Maybe he was tracking his victims via intercoms and they destroyed them in order to deafen him.". Pierre tapped series of commands and it appeared that downloading sequence has begun.
Pierre slowly rotated on his chair towards Evelyn and leaned himself against the backrest somewhat despite still wearing bulky space suit, "Base will remain in red alert, but our transponder has been put on whitelist. Our vessel will not be shot down.", he said slowly and pointed at nearby terminal with some set of additional controls, "Communication systems are gone, so the only way how to get our ship in here is to use less responsible backup datalink and override its autopilot directly. There will be no direct feedback, so get used to the controls before you attempt to land. It has no direct camera either, so you will have to fly it with instruments only and follow three directional radio beacons on the vector towards base, approach and then land in center of them... unless, you want to walk four hours back to our ship. I can't make that journey in my state now.".
Evelyn had taken up the controls at the nearby terminal and had spent the last twenty minutes getting used to handling the Spatial with just instruments and its radar signal to guide her.
While she had been far too busy ever since they had started the trek across the desert to think of the Spatial she had been assigned. Evelyn's hatred of the fat brick had returned all too quickly once she finally moved it in for the landing, now dealing with the lack of feedback and input delay from using a remote link had made the experience even worse for her.
It had taken another ten minutes of gentle inputs with the remote controls before she was able to guide the ship down on her provided mark. With the Spatial now landed, she had gotten up from the terminal and had let out a sigh of relief. Only now turning her attention back to Pierre for the first time in half an hour. "Well, the ship's here. You got everything the Bureau wanted?" The pilot's tone was calmer now that the prospect of being done with this entire mess was on the horizon.
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"There will be proper investigation and examination needed.", Pierre replied to her and made a dramatic pause before he continued, "But we are done here.". Pierre slowly stood from his chair and packed his portable computer terminal back into his torn backpack.
"One last major task in front of you on this mission - take us back to Gallia safely. I will have to take a deep sleep because of my injuries and lack of ... working medical facilities in here.", Pierre said before leaving the bridge, "Let's go, station will enter lockdown in thirteen minutes.".
Pierre made his way out of the outpost as he was still running on medical drugs, not bothering to change his space suit as the air was non-toxic and their ship was close enough before thinner atmosphere and sharp sand could endanger his life even more.
Once they have been aboard their Spatial, weary Pierre looked at Evelyn and asked her, "Before I go into the hibernation chamber - are there any questions you need answered?". He was looking pale with dark circles under his eyes - well, only one of his eyes were visible - left half of his face was still covered by partially melted helmet and these will have to treated at fully working medical facility. His voice was weak and he was shaking - probably because of adrenaline and high doses of painkillers.
Evelyn had wasted no time getting back into the pilot's seat, having not bothered with returning the gear where it belonged. Yet again she was surprised by her Gaul companion. She wondered to herself if the obnoxious passenger, the one that was upset by the most minute thing, had been replaced while she wasn't looking before taking the opportunity to see just how much he'd answer.
"You mean besides the obvious questions like, why would anyone in their right mind would bother taking the time to set anything up on that damned hellhole, and what in the hell caused the guy who left you looking like that to snap and how he could somehow take out five people but went down to just us two? Aside from them, which I doubt I'll get an answer to, I have no questions."
She'd maintained direct eye contact with Pierre during the entire tangent. Her tone had reverted to the harsh frostiness she'd employed earlier during their initial landing, still maintaining eye contact after she'd finished, now waiting for the refusal or inability to explain that she fully expected to receive.
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"Listening posts are always on desolate locations for various good reasons, but for your other questions - all we know is that said maniac was cybernetically enhanced scientist and that him or his colleagues destroyed almost all comm devices. That is all we will ever know.", Pierre smirked at her with his remaining strength and made his way to hibernation capsule aboard Spatial, "Now, if you will excuse me, my drugs are wearing out, so I will get myself to cold sleep before I pass out on the floor. Farewell and good luck.".
With these words, Pierre Blanc, or what is left of him, laid down in the hibernation capsule. It took some time for him to set it up accordingly, but once the capsule closed itself - he became silent and motionless.
All that could Evelyn hear from now on were only Spatial's engines and electronics. There was only a one last task remaining in front of her - get off this low gravity desolate world and travel all the way back to Gallia safely and in one piece.
Launching from the planet was certainly easier than landing on it, and it didn't take long for the ship to make it out of G22-3A's atmosphere. The slight hum of the engine arrays followed by silence was something that Evelyn was more than familiar with by now. With a gentle hand on the ship's controls, she adjusted the Spatial on the correct vector so it could begin its long journey back home to where her pay would be waiting.
With nothing to do but wait and make the odd adjustment to their vector, Evelyn had now managed to relax and get comfortable in the pilot's seat where her mind turned to the conversation with Lusignan that would be due when she returned. After all, a four-hour trek through a lethal desert hadn't exactly been what she signed up for, nor was a cybernetically enhanced madman and playing doctor. There would be a lot Evelyn would have to say indeed. There was at least the fact she might have the chance to squeeze some bonus pay from the esteemed Seigneur thanks to it all, however. And it was that thought that got her through the journey back.
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Her journey back to the Gallia from barely charted frontiers was mostly un-eventful and offered a much deserve rest for Evelyn - both for her body and mind. Normal atmospheric pressure, no razor sharp sand, no darkened listening outpost filled with dead bodies, no maniacs - well, the only one she could think of was sleeping cold. There were no tradelanes nor traffic for most of her journey from G22-3A and so most of her flight could be done only on autopilot with just regular checks to see if ship has right bearing.
The only tricky part about her flight back to Gallia was to sneak past blockade enforced by Bretonian Armed Forces. However, with her piloting skills, Spatial's endurance and fighter-like speed, she was able to slip past and outrun BAF patrols and get into Languedoc safely.
"Surveyor 11-7DH, this is Nimes flight control, you are cleared to dock at docking bay 7A. Your approach vector is 120 Left.".
As she received this last radio transmission, Evelyn guided her ship as requested and secured it in docking bay. There were GSB operatives already waiting for her and they retrieved both still sleeping Pierre Blanc and data from the listening post. As Evelyn packed her personal gear and belongings and left the ship, this mission was finally over.