N oelle Xander glanced up from the briefing documents projected on her comm to meet the hard gaze of the project commander. His brow lowered at her scrutiny, the grooves in his face deepening with disapproval.
“Do you have a problem with your orders, Mission Specialist Xander?” he growled.
Noelle exchanged a worried look with William Kim to her left and swallowed. Although they had carried out many survey missions for Darvel Corporation and had nearly won their citizenship due to those efforts, no mission had seemed as frighteningly ominous as their current assignment.
“Not exactly a problem, sir. More of a concern. Wasn’t planet Xal2614 pulled by United Earth? This ‘Mist World’ was flagged as uninhabitable. There are rumors that a team was sent in and just… disappeared, completely abandoning their camp.”
Project Commander Brock Garris narrowed his eyes on her for a moment before grunting in acknowledgment. “We’ve taken new surveys, and Darvel believes that it can still be useful if we focus on very specific terrain so as to avoid predatory lifeforms in the deep swamps and adaptability issues. Originally, we did not wish to set down exploratory vessels along the mountain regions to avoid landing incidents, but new surveys reveal several plateaus that can serve our purposes while taking advantage of the resources in the neighboring valleys around them. Which brings us back to your job.”
“We are to catalog resources,” Kim replied to the silent prompt as he moved his finger over his comm, sliding through the pages of the document. “Scan plant life, mineral composites, basically everything. Report anything unusual.”
“And air scans,” Garris added. “Although we received basic scans from the drone fired down into the atmosphere that confirm you will be able to survive without issue after receiving several inoculations to protect you from the alien environment more efficiently than a thermos regulatory suit, we want more thorough recordings kept over the course of the yearlong mission logged with the daily temperatures on the surface. Isolated from the predators in the swamps, this mission should be a walk.”
“I see,” Noelle murmured, not the least bit reassured. Anytime someone told her how easy something was going to be, it made her itch.
“One last thing. It won’t just be the two of you this time.” Garris fought for a benevolent look and failed miserably in her opinion. “I will be adding two more people to your team. Amanda Kastle will be joining you for her fifth survey, and you will also have a new recruit, Samara Daniels.”
“The more, the merrier,” Kim replied with a polite smile.
He was totally kissing ass. They both knew it. It was his ass-kissing voice. He met her gaze with a faint roll of his eyes when Garris wasn’t watching, and she bit back a smile. Despite his antics, she could tell that he was worried and there was more to his words than he would ever admit to. Beneath it all there was a vein of truth in his statement that she could see that he felt from the disquiet in his eyes. And she couldn’t help agreeing. In a place like Mist World, the more people she had at her back, the happier she was.
So she held her silence throughout the meeting, even though the apprehension grew and twisted more and more within her gut. She didn’t want to go but didn’t have a choice, not so long as Darvel Corporation held her contract. Non-gratas did not have the luxury of declining like citizen volunteers to the program did. Sweat gathered at the small of her back and lining her upper lip. Worse than that, she felt like she was going to throw up at any moment. The idea of another team was not reassuring enough to combat her growing misgivings that were becoming harder to ignore as Garris continued to outline the mission and the conditions that they were likely to encounter on the planet’s surface. It sounded like a place spun of nightmares. Who had ever heard of a planet where fog covered the majority of its surface at all times?
“Naturally, although we will be monitoring you from the nearest corporation station, you will be on your own,” Garris continued gruffly. “This will be nothing new for any of you, but I expect you will show Ms. Daniels the ropes. Once on the surface, you will have no one to depend on but each other. Good luck!”