"Holy shit, they did it!" someone shouted over the general comm channel.
Skira looked up from where he was sitting on the third tier of the pyramid's outside structure, his DC-17m by his side as he cleaned the PEP emitter. The ground rumbled as three large haulers came through the entrance of the cave. Zipping ahead on one of the Du'kat's speeder bikes, was familiar black and white armor and Skira felt his heart twist in his chest.
"Everyone, get suited up and ready to unload," Professor Kaarz voice broke in. "Professor Kiro, you might want to let your people call it an early day so they can help us unload. Seems all our gear is finally here."
"Righty-oh," came the watery response.
Skira packed up his cleaning kit and put the PEP emitter back into its pouch. Beside him, Ryn uncurled from where she'd been laying on the stones. He'd refused to let her wander around alone since the show. Not because the crew had suddenly lost their respect for her. Far from it, they practically worshiped the ground she walked on.
No, it was because of Meld'an. The professor had approached Skira the next day and flat out asked how much it would be to buy the Twi'lek. When that offer was refused, despite several wild increases, he'd asked how much to rent her for the duration of the mission. Then how much for genetic, blood, and ovum samples.
"She's utterly perfect!" The professor had insisted. "I need to study her, or at least her genetics!"
Skira wasn't going to have any of that.
"I guess this means no more going into town," Ryn said sadly, looking down at the haulers as they were brought around to make unloading them easier.
"I'm sure we'll get some leave," Skira said, helping her down the side of the pyramid to meet up with the growing throng. "Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if organized shore leaves started up soon. It's been almost two months, and while the grave robbers are happy clams, everyone else is getting bored. We'll probably have to pull guard duty as they get to go back to civilization."
The Twi'lek's pout became slightly thoughtful, and she nodded after a moment. Her trust in him was absolute. If he said they'd get to go to town, then at some point they would.
Raana broke away from the crowd and met him, her helmet smacking against his in a kiss. They rested their heads against each other, grateful to have each other back again. All the skill in the world didn't guarantee that the one you cared for would come back when they left you behind.
"Welcome back," Skira said, switching to a private channel.
"I'm glad to be back," Raana said. "I missed you."
"Same," Skira said, his hand resting on her hip. Hers landed on his shoulder, lekku twitching in happy relief at his words. "Shada wants to talk to us about something when we get the chance."
"Alright," Raana said. "I want a shower first though. I'm sure Ordo and Mrssk feel the same."
"Any trouble?" he asked as she pulled away.
"No," the Togruta said, her voice slightly troubled. "This would have been the perfect time to hit us, but no one did. It's been too quiet."
They switched back to the main channel for the Mando'ad.
"Tunnel's still clear," Mrssk hissed.
"Roger," Ordo said. Their leader was perched on top of one of the haulers, his carbine resting easy across his arms. "Raana, can you take overwatch?"
"On it," Raana said, giving his helmet one last kiss with her own before unslinging her DC-15 sniper rifle and trotting up the stone steps that rose along the side of the pyramid. Skira watched her go, and thought her hips were swaying a bit more with her walk than normal.
"Skira, left mid, if you would." Ordo said.
With a grunt, Skira shifted over to the left side of the transports, blaster out and ready as he knelt. With one hand, he gently pressed on Ryn's shoulder until she was laying flat on the rocky floor of the cavern. She wriggled a bit to get comfortable, but settled when he touched her shoulder again. Slowly, he lowered himself to a prone firing position.
Lacking atmosphere and surface water, the cave had never formed any stalagmites or stalactites. This meant easy maneuvering and open lanes of fire, but also a complete lack of natural cover. The cave systems themselves were apparently the result of geological shifts and ancient magma flows, rather than erosion. This one had been sealed off until a mining blast had unsealed it.
For the next several hours, he lay there against the rough ground, staring down the sights of his blaster, waiting for an attack that would never come. Over the general comm, he listened to the mindless chatter and complaints of the crew as they unloaded, sorted, and stored the remaining several tons of supplies. He recognized most of the voices and could put them to faces, even if he didn't remember their names.
A fair bit of what was brought back was water. Given their limited transport capabilities, they'd had to prioritize what they carry. Water recyclers had extended what they brought, as had rationing. Now, there would still be rations, but they'd be much less restricted. The rest was the more advanced laboratory equipment, which meant likely meant the medical team under Meld'an could being their work. The Professor's strident insistence that people both hurry, and be careful, with equipment furthered Skira's concerns.
Shada had been working for three days on what she'd ripped from the med-center and med-lab computers, but had refused to talk about it. Now, hopefully, with them all united, she'd share what she'd found. If they were lucky, it would be nothing.
Frankly, he figured they'd been too lucky so far and it was about to run out in a bad way.
Ten hours later, the transports were rumbling off and away, back to their duties. Most of the supplies were piled out on the ground rather than in the habitat. Ordo wasn't happy about that, but the crew had thrown up their hands and refused to carry anymore for the day.
"Alright." Ordo said over their private comm, "Everyone inside. Refresh your oxygen, then we're going to start taking external shifts to keep an eye on this."
Skira pulled himself up, then dragged Ryn to her feet. The Twi'lek murmured as she woke up, but followed him loyally as they went back inside. The central hexagon was filled with people sweating and breathing hard as they stood around, enviro-helmets in their hands, happy to be out of stuffy suits. Several lustful and admiring gazes followed Ryn as she pressed closed to Skira on their way to their barracks.
"Gods I could use a shower," Raana said, popping her helmet off and gently freeing her lekku from the armored sleeves. They wriggled invitingly in the slightly fresher air of the Mando'ad barracks.
"Going to have to wait," Ordo said. "Once our air tanks are refilled, I'm sending you and Skira out on first watch."
"Before we do that," Shada said, handing out some spiced leathermeat, "we need to talk."
She gave their three returned members a quick rundown of what had happened while they were gone. Raana looked both upset that she'd missed Skira's music, and at the nature of Ryn's dance, but said nothing.
"The data itself is something else," Shada said, frustrated. "I'm having trouble making heads or tales of it."
"I'm not surprised," Raana said, "I mean, I know you're our medic, but we're talking about genetics here."
"Shada's a trained geneticist," Ordo said proudly, defending his wife.
"Partially trained," Shada said with a gentle reprove. "You carried me off before I could finish everything."
Skira, Raana, and Ryn gave her surprised looks.
"I told you I went to medical school," Shada said, looking at Skira. "One of the reasons was genetics. My clan wanted me to be a ade gotal'ur."
"Oh," Raana said. Skira nodded.
An ade gotal'ur, child-crafter, would be a valuable member not just a clan, but the Mando'ad as a whole. In a galaxy with as many life forms as theirs, you could have sex with most anything, but that didn't mean you were compatible. Most humans and near humans, though, could 'breed' with each other mechanically, and their genetics were generally similar to each other, sometimes as much as 99%. It was that one percent, however, that could get you into trouble, at least if you let things occur naturally.
Skira and Raana exchanged a look. If things worked out, and they went so far as to marry, then they would one day have children. Mando'ad viewed a child born and a child adopted as literally the same, but giving birth was often more expedient in some situations than adopting, depending on location. However, they would need an ade gotal'ur to artificially help their genetics. To choose if the child had its mother's montrals and lekku, or his ears and hair. Same with him and Ryn, in another life. Would the child have lekku, hair, human skin tones or Twi'lek or Togrutan?
Most of the time, Mando'ad of different genetic races had to go to outside doctors for these treatments, placing the life of their future child in the hand of an outsider. Having the option of one of their kin do it, knowing they could fully trust that there would be no tampering or sabotage, would be a relief to prospective parents, and a boon to any clan, because it meant they could produce that many more children that much easier.
"My sister took my place and completed the training," Shada said, "but I still studied enough to be able to figure out most genetic manipulation, if only on a basic level. What Meld'an is doing, however, is on an entirely different level. I also think I don't have the full picture because some of the computers and equipment only arrived today."
"What I do have, though, is this," she continued and pressed a button on her datapad. A holographic image popped into the air. Skira looked helplessly at the strings of data and twisting helixes of DNA. "It seems that this is more than an archaeological expedition. There's several references to a creature, one capable of on the spot genetic adaptation and evolution. Meld'an believes the creatures remains can either be found here, or directions to their location can be."
"In a one hundred thousand year old temple?" Raana asked. "Wouldn't anything useful be gone by now?"
"This place has basically been vacuum sealed," Shada said. "Even now, everything that's been pulled out has been remarkably well preserved, it's only when we get it in here that we have to start worrying about decay. Also, the creature, if native to this world, would have likely adapted its reproductive or life cycle to deal with the environment."
"So you think they could still be alive," Ordo asked his wife.
"Meld'an does," Shada said. "Or he thinks something evolved from them might."
"So what's the point?" Ryn asked from where she'd flopped on one of the bunks. "It's just a stupid animal."
"It's an animal that can absorb the genetics of other creatures and use them in its own evolution," Shada said, giving them each a significant look.
"Vongese!" Skira snarled. He spat on the floor.
"At least in nature, yes," Shada replied. "For an Arkanian, with their obsession on genetic perfection, it must be like finding the key to divinity. For the Alliance, it could be the key to all kinds of medical or weapons research."
"No wonder they sent out an entire task force to secure the area and signed off on hiring as much private security as they could get their hands on," Ordo said grimly.
"And sent so many xenobiologists and geneticists for an archaeological expedition," Raana said. "They must be worried about the samples decaying before they can get anything from them."
"Or containment," Mrssk hissed. They looked at the Trandoshan. "If it is a predator, they would want it contained. If any of them survived, got loose, fed on us and evolved, they wouldn't want it on one of their precious worlds. Better to sacrifice a backwater for later study when they can come and capture the resulting prey on a preserve."
Silence filled the room.
"Meld'an asked me for some samples from Ryn," Skira said, softly. "Well, first he wanted to buy her outright. Now he's just pestering me for samples. I thought it had to do with him just enjoying the show too much. Now though..."
"If it is adaptable," Shada said, "the more fresh genetic samples he can get, the more he has to work with. That might have had something to do with the range of species here at the moment."
"I think perhaps we should have a look inside that temple ourselves," Ordo said. They all nodded in agreement. "Raana, I want you to do it. Even with your helmet, your montrals might be able to pick up more than the rest of us."
"Alright," Raana replied.
The air-recycler beeped, letting them know the tanks were refilled. Raana stood up and went over, as did Skira, and they reattached them to their armor.
"Be careful out there," Shada said. "Now that he's got all his equipment, Meld'an has everything he needs to start whatever experiments he wants."
Skira nodded.
"Ryn, I don't want you going anywhere alone if you can help it," he said.
"Yes, Master," the Twi'lek said, her lekku twitching nervously. "I won't."