The two Sholan's were in a small stealth vessel enroute to Billy's farm to get the scout ship. Till the first contact team had shown up nobody on Earth had known the ship existed. Most of the planet had bought the story that Billy had encountered Lt. Verzilon in space but the authorities didn't. Much of that was Billy's fault for modifying his engines and waving them around for all to see. By the time the first contact team had arrived they were pretty sure the authorities had decided to search his property.
Granted if they had currently they didn't have any way to move the ship or get into it. To move it they would have to use some heavy movers and the ship would not react nicely to that. In the report that Satasha had submitted she had made note that she had set the emergency protocols for crash landings on a foreign planet. That meant if anything happened to the ship that made the computer twitch it would explode. It wasn't nice to do but it would keep the tech from being captured.
"This should be fun you know." The one Sholan grumbled to the other. "I can already feel that something is not going to go smoothly. That damn itchy spot between my shoulder blades is acting up again." Some people had a weather leg or joint. He had an itchy spot that cropped up when shit was going to happen.
His partner groaned. "Thanks man, you just had to say it. You know that when you say it then shit is going to happen. If you had just said you had an itch and for me to scratch it then we would have been fine." They had worked that out years ago.
The first male snickered. "I asked you to scratch my itch but you said you didn't swing that way so there." Both of them laughed at that old and tired joke before they became serious. They were finally approaching the scout ship and hovered over it for several minutes. They were scanning the sky's to ensure they hadn't picked up any followers. They didn't expect to but no matter how good stealth was shit did happen.
"Okay, connecting to the computer system now." The first male started tapping commands into the computer and frowned. The ship allowed him to connect but that was it. He entered additional commands and waited. After a minute or so he was informed the over rides were not correct and access had been denied. "Damn you and your itch and your big mouth. This is going to take longer than expected. The onboard system isn't allowing us to access the systems remotely. It looks like we are going to have to do a direct access."
The other male was grumbling. "Told you that this itch wouldn't have been dealt with by your simply scratching it." He sighed in annoyance. "Well I am going to set it down on top of it over the top hatch and we can get started on it after we catch a nap." While he was setting the small ship down the other squeezed his way out of the cockpit that was in theory designed for two Sholan's. The crew compartment wasn't much bigger and it had a single wide bed that was lowered down over the table when it was time for sleep.
"I am going to toss in the chidoe in the red wine ration pack. You want the same?" He was already pulling them out since he knew his partner would say yes. Once he had sealed the ships together Lycos came back and started some of the crap they called cshar aboard these things. "You would think they could come up with better rations than this chewy crap. What the hell do they do to it beat the crap out of it in the name of tenderizing it?" Illyos said.
Lycos snorted. "I had a chance to go to the factory where this was made to give suggestions. The general staff didn't like my answer." He grinned at his partner. "I told them not to bother and just nuke it and start over, for some reason that bothered them."
Both snickered at that and wolfed down the food and cshar before tossing the items in the disposal. While Lycos was taking care of what little mess there was Illyos lowered the bed and rolled in. "At least the bed is decent and if you want that damn itch scratched grab the lucky brush and get over here."
~~~
Inside the house Jenna and Sandi were curled up in bed sleeping. When Billy left they had moved in here and out of the place they were renting. Billy hadn't had a problem with that as long as they kept up with certain chores. There wasn't a great deal to do since the rest of the farm was taken care of by Billy's family which was nice. Sandi was almost hopeless with anything dealing with farming or animals unless it was a pet. Jenna had grown up on a farm and though she had enjoyed the work was more than happy not to have to get up at the damn fool hours.
Eventually the alarm went off for Jenna since she had an early shift at her job. As usual Sandi grumbled at her and tried to convince her that being a bed buddy was more important. Jenna had to smile when she finally got Sandi off of her and curled around a pillow. How she loved the silly woman even if she wasn't a morning person. "Enjoy your sleep love and I will see you this evening." Before getting dressed she leaned over and gave Sandi a good kiss.
Once she made it down to the kitchen she started her breakfast and the mandatory tea. Coffee was okay but she simply couldn't understand Billy's obsession with it. It was hot, black, and tasted the same to her no matter where it came from. Now tea you could get in so many flavors it wasn't funny. As she was standing there waiting for her breakfast to finish heating she was looking out the window. She knew exactly where the scout was even though she couldn't see it.
While she was looking out something shimmered on top of the shuttle and she had to frown. As she was watching two figures climbed out of whatever was on top and down the side. Once they were out of whatever was on top it faded from view. "Now we can't have this can we? I think I will go and say hello." As she was heading towards the back door she pulled one of Billy's shotguns from the gun cabinet and made sure it was loaded.
When she opened the back door she lifted the shotgun to her shoulder and racked the slide. "Good morning boys and might I ask who you are and what you are doing?" Now she could tell that they appeared to be Sholan's but other than that she couldn't see much else.
Illyos was the first one down and after a quick glance around he opened a concealed access plate. Once it was open he was in the process of connecting the data cable so he could manually access the internal systems. Just about the moment Lycos dropped down both of them heard the obvious sound of a weapon being readied and a voice.
They both looked at each other and then slowly over their shoulders to see who it might be. Both were still somewhat crouched down and looking rather upset with being caught. "I thought you scanned for life forms Lycos."
