Part IV: The Rescue Mission... Complete With Stowaway

"My crew and I do not take kindly to being threatened. We are on a mission to rebuild the New Commonwealth, not to bring harm to you. I will ask once again to please identify yourself." Dylan demanded.

"No...zzz... threat... we... zzz... are... zzz... forgotten...zzz... we... zzz... are... zzz... damned...leave... zzz... us... zzz... in... zzz... Hell."

The transmittion goes dead for a second time. Dylan tries desperately to get the signal back again, feeling whoever sent it is in some sort of direst.

"This is Capt. Dylan Hunt, please tell me the nature of your situation. Can you hear me? Dammit!!"

"I am no longer receiving a signal. Transmittion has been terminated." Rommie reports.

"Now what?" questioned Tyr, but knowing Dylan's diligence of being the "righter of all wrongs", he knew the answer to this question and wasn't particularly looking forward to hearing it.

"I think you know the answer to that already, Tyr. We are going down there to see what the situation is." Tyr hates being right about such things.

"What in the hell is wrong with you!!" shouted a venom-spouting Tyr. "Number one... we don't know where these planets came from nor do we have ANY IDEA who or WHAT is living on them and number two... we don't even know IF these people want to be rescued, that is... if they are 'people' at all! How do we know that this whole thing isn't just part of some elaborate trap?!"

"You know what, Tyr... I don't know the answers to any of that either." said a calm Dylan. "But, what I DO know is that I can't walk away without find out for sure. If I want this dream of the New Commonwealth to come to life, it has to include everyone... and I mean 'everyone'."

"Even if it means foolishly risking our lives for no good reason?" Tyr said sternly, wanting to make his disapproval very clear to Dylan.

"What can I say... life IS risk. I'm not saying that I'm going down there waving a white flag..." Tyr opens his mouth, getting ready to agree with his statement but Dylan cuts him off and continues. "...BUT, I want to make it absolutely clear that we will NOT be going in there with guns blazing either. We will take the necessary safety precautions, WITHOUT looking like we want to start a war. Is that quite understandable?"

"I can never and WILL NEVER, understand the inner workings of a suicide mission." grumbled Tyr, as he stared out the window at the abomination that housed what he fears will claim all of their lives.
Heading down to the deck that holds the beaten up, rusted hull that is the Eureka Maru, Dylan fills Beka and Rev Bem on their current set of circumstances and what their duties are to be.

"Beka, you stay here and command the ship during mine and Tyr's absences. Rev, tell Harper to get the rescue pods ready just in case this distress call is legit. If not, then it's yours and Beka's job to be ready to get us the hell out of there if things go wrong." said Dylan, wanting to make himself perfectly clear.

"Don't worry... you can count on me." grinned Beka. Dylan grins back and joins his slightly peeved traveling companion, Tyr, who was already on the Maru.

"Come on, let's go!" spat Tyr, as hanger door opens up and the Maru lifts off heading into the night sky. "The sooner we get this ridiculous "rescue mission" over with, the sooner we can return safely."

"Tyr, try to be a little more optimistic."

"You be the 'optimist', I'll be the realist!"

The Maru manages to finds a window through the enormous planet's atmosphere and cautiously ventures through it. The planet's gravity is causing them to experience great amount of turbulence. They realize almost immediately that this isn't going to be one of their smoother landings. Tyr tries with all of his Nietzschean might to steer the ship onto a suitable landing strip. He finds it in a broad, sandy clearing by a rather large body of water. He lands the ship, bumping it along the ground a few feet until it finally came to an abrupt stop. Dylan and Tyr both looked like hell run over, astounded that they survived the trip.

"Well, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Dylan says jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. Tyr gave him a icy glare. He was still not amused. "Gee, tough room. Let's just... go see what's waiting for us, shall we?"

"Let me get some reinforcements before we do that, shall we?" Tyr remarks sarcastically. Just as he is about to open the storage bin where the extra weapons are kept, Tyr hears a faint noise coming from inside of it. He quietly informs Dylan of his discovery, which causes him to grab his forcelance. With their weapons drawn, Tyr reaches for the handle and, like a flash, he swings open the door.

"Stop! Don't shoot me!!"

"Trance!?" they both say, in unison.