Story 5: A most expensive dildo
The sight of a habitable planet, a sphere of greens, blues, and tans suspended in the endless black of the void. A sight that has become rarer ever since the old order burned itself out all those centuries ago.
Not that Captain Michael Sullivan would know. After all, he's only pushing his mid 50s, a lifetime only considered to be such back on his homeworld and country, the latter of which already on their first steps out of legal existence. A fact which he currently felt little sadness over.
The him a mere decade ago would have been aghast at even the notion of ditching his loyalty to his country, but it was all before those wackos from the deep void showed up. Those sex crazed nudists gynoids, whom the politicians were quickly seduced by, the corporations being won over by cheap energy and commodities, and the general population enticed by healthcare that was, literally, out of the world. Then again, the him of a decade ago also looked a lot older, pre-collapse gene therapy was one hell of a drug.
He wasn't that much better, but at least he himself could claim that he was seduced by adventure and opportunities. And what opportunities they are! The vessel he's currently commanding, a supposedly humble expiration vessel that goes by the name of GSV Tsiolkovsky, clocks in at half a million tonnes, which outmass the entirety of mass his planet had ever sent up since the Days of Ash. A vessel that crosses the lightyears between systems like an afterthought, can generate 1G of acceleration and deceleration for as long as it feels like, and reassemble itself into a space station with its own rotating section when not moving in either STL or FTL.
And of course, the amenities, which are on par with any of the finest living arrangements back on Akanei. Certainly better than most military installations, never mind vessels. Imagine! Fresh vegetables, fruits and live fish light years away from the nearest civilized planet, just because it's good for the mental health of humans.
All that, the ship, the handpicked crew recruited from a dozen (soon to be ex-) countries on two different planets, just to ferry a handful of those same nudist gynoids around the galaxy. One of them is standing right next to him. And yes, she's naked as usual, though the sight under circumstances raises concerns rather than titillation. It's one thing to know in theory that there's a dozen safety measures in place, quite another to put one's trust in them, especially when they're designed to be out of sight and out of mind.
"That's odd." Eira Dawn said idly, her eyes glazed in the telltale signs of reading readouts projected inside her minds, the same readouts that's currently plastered on the main holographic projector.
"What's odd?" Sullivan inquired, trying and failing to look like he's up to date on the situation of the planet below. The great thing about exploration is that there's so much to learn, the downside is that there's so much he has no clue of. It's one thing to be piloting some glorified crewed missile around orbit, another to diving head first into the unknown planet lightyears away from anything familiar.
Not that he's doing the diving down to the planet part. Despite her slender appearance, Dawn, and the rest of her kind, could take quite a pounding and still be swinging, in all the sense of the terms. Unlike in popular fiction, the crew of the ship and the landing party are completely separate personnel.
"The part where there's some tribes of pre-electronics, presumably baselines, roaming in the wilderness preserves- or rather, the regrown wilds outside the singular urban area." Dawn explained, in the neutral tone of the idly curious.
"Oh, I would have thought that the actual presence of a pre-collapse urban area in mint condition would have been the biggest oddity." Sullivan remarked, trying his darndest to keep a similar nonchalant voice. Biggest motherload or not, he was not about to look like a country bumpkin or a slack jawed fool.
"Mint condition? With the conveniently circular overgrown craters and the lack of any and all communications signals?" Dawn asked, whether rhetorically or not Sullivan could not tell.
"Okay. Maybe I missed those." He shrugged, not really wanting to make this a big deal. Sometimes he kinda forgot that these gynoids operate on very different standards on various things. "So what's so special about the cavemen?"
"If you mean the baselines. The question is why are they out there, but not in the urban area." Dawn explained as she tapped on a console. "According to all known records and archives there are no primitivist reservation areas on this planet."
"Didn't even know that was a thing." Sullivan shook his head in mild bewilderment. It's wild to think that people back in those days had the luxury to reject technology. The same technology that everyone with a rock in the galaxy is fighting tooth and nail for.
"Well, guess we'll find out soon enough." Dawn shrugged as she closed her console.
"Best of luck." Sullivan said with a nod of acknowledgment. The first couple of times before he had tried to argue that the ship's security company should accompany the away team. After all, why lugging a couple hundred trained men from the some of the best militaries of Akanei if they aren't going to be used? But it was fruitless, and so they, and of course him and the rest of the ship crew, remained on board, making use of their time with various side pursuits, and if rumors are to be believed, Lt. Cascade, the head of the security company, is running a still somewhere onboard. The usual hoodrat shit, just with more toys.
Well, let the experts do their work. Or at least, the one eyed in the land of the blind. He shrugged again as Dawn strolled through the hatch into the corridor. There's still plenty of work up here in orbit, even if not that glamorous.
And perhaps those sexy degenerates might actually need their help at some point. Otherwise the ships could have probably driven themselves...
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On the planet known as Beius a long forgotten sight greeted its inhabitants, at least those who cared to notice the slightly unusual sight of a light streaking across the sky. There were more than civilized people would assume, as life in the brutality of the wild sharpens the senses, to a degree that those relying on technology could scarcely fathom.
As the shuttle not so gracefully thumped itself onto a tolerably flattish steppes, the reinforced landing gear slamming and screeching as the thousand tonne trans-atmospheric craft does what it's supposed to do. Not pretty, but functional enough.
"Well, that was a bit bumpy." Dawn quipped as she unbuckled the straps of her crash couch. "If only we could establish contact with that urban area."
"Captain Sullivan and the crew are still trying-" Lumi Nell reminded before Dawn interrupted her in mid sentence.
"I know, I know. We're all trying our utmost. There's no harm wishing for more though." She sighed as she tapped on the console next to the exit hatch. "Hopefully the primitives will not notice us before we figure out what's going on with- what's that place's name?"
"Blockville." Nell replied.
"Yeah, that." Dawn acknowledged as she opened the hatch. "Fuck!" She muttered as she saw the sight before her.
For a sizable crowd of baseline humans had gathered around the shuttle. Spears, slings, and other muscle powered weapons pointed from all directions, wielded by those whose faces showed mostly fear, sprinkled with a dash of bitterness here and there.
