Chapter Four

As a planet, Heilsberg was not very attractive. It looked so bad even from space that everyone one heard Jan comment "This place is a total hole." May, who had been openly excited about getting out of the ship and under a real Sun again, was dismayed. "Can't we go someplace else?" she said. "If you don't mind not eating for another week," April said back. The grumbling of empty stomachs quashed the rebellion against not wanting to land. As the crew of the stellar Sol Bianca, they did want to be seen to have some standards and not landing willy-nilly at any backwater.

"Have you found a good place to land?" April asked June. They were all in the forward control section of the ship. Jan, who had been attentive at the firing control was now dozing back in her chair. They hadn't spotted any other ships in the system and the planet only had a few communications and weather satellites orbiting it.

A holographic topographic map appeared for all of them to see.

"The northern continent has a lot of mountain ranges where we can easily hide the ship," June said. "We can take the shuttle closer to the main city and use local transport from there."

"Sounds good," Feb yawned. Without a glass in her hand she wasn't very attentive, paradoxically.

"Okay, bring her in. Jan, prep the shuttle." April ordered.

"How heavy?" Jan asked eagerly, wanting to know how much weaponry she could bring along, just in case.

"Apart from the local constab, and maybe some smugglers we should have any trouble." April replied.

Jan hung her head.

"Don't worry, Janni," June teased, "There ought to be a lot of burly miners you can wrestle with."

Sol

They landed the shuttle at Grosen's port. Grosen was a large mining town a few kilometers square of low, flat roofed buildings. Presently a storm was pelting the town with hail and strong winds. The port staff accepted their story that they had just flown over from the south continent, the reply being "What the hell for?" Clearly, no one came to Grosen by choice, and certainly not four un-chaperoned women and one girl, confusion about Jan excepted.

They asked for directions to what ever passed for markets, saying that they were hungry and were told to go to the mess hall. It seemed like Grosen was a company town with little free enterprise.

"I don't like it here, its dark and unfriendly," May complained, holding onto June's hand.

The mess hall was a lot busier than the port. It must have been a shift break or meal time. The hall was big and lit by harsh white lights that ran along the entire length, as did heavy steel tables and seats directly underneath. Large, thick armed miners filled the seats talking loudly and swearing in profusion.

"I think I'll take May someplace else," June said.

"What, can't stand the smell of real men?" Jan laughed. The width of her shoulder fit in.

"June may be right, Jan, we should come back when it's less crowded…" April had doubts too. She didn't want her small group to be in the spotlight of a couple of hundred men. She couldn't see any other women around.

Unfortunately the hesitation caused them to be noticed, and the first sharp intake of air, shock and exclaim, was swiftly taken up until the entire hall hissed and it felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked up into the men's lungs.

"Women!" a gruff voice shouted.

"Three… four? The one with the white hair looks kinda…"

"Hey!" Jun shouted. She put her hands on he hips, opening up her jacket.

A rather big (for a miner) miner stood up midway down the hall. An intake of air almost as sharp as that when the five were noticed happened. Then there were low mumbles as the man, bare chested and swarthy strutted towards the women.

"What a pig," Feb said quietly.

April was glad she said it quietly. The miner looked mean. His nose was squashed and bent; cuts and abrasions lined his face, his arms, his pecs (Jun wondered if even she could reach around them and clasp her hands), and probably his legs as well if they weren't covered by tough workman's pants (which none of the women dared to imagine).

"What do we have here?" the miner said in a poor attempt at intelligence.

Jun, clearly sensing that this was her arena and the others weren't capable of dealing with the likes of her miner, and his horde, stepped in front of the others. She looked around the hall, plaintively ignoring the big miner.

"What kind of dump is this!" she echoed her space-bound words loudly.

The hall erupted as scores of miners shot up, spilling their metal plates and cups onto the laminated floor, shouting and cursing in the manner and incoherence that Welsh miners do, with the odd Scot thrown in.

The big miner paused, his attention gone. Thinking hard he tried to get it back. "What are you calling a dump little girl?" he shouted back and smiled, self-satisfied.

Jan tossed her head back dismissively and tsk'd. "You for starters, you big oaf. And you better call me ma'am, cause I ain't no little girl."

Behind, the other crewmembers of the Sol Bianca stood in silence. C'mon Jan, they all thought.

"So you are a Sheila after all…"

"Oh no…" April groaned. That always set Jan off.

Scowling, Jan stomped in front of the miner, her head tilted back a good angle so she could yell up at him. Tall herself, the top of her spiky head barely reached his shoulder.

"I'm a women dammit, but it's damn hard for me to tell if you've got any brains to be human at all."

A few miners laughed, guffawed actually. The hall went silent and the laughter died out.

Jan's foe twisted his thick neck. "Who was that?" he boomed, "If I find out you'll be in trouble!"

Jan laughed loudly. "It was all of them you hippopotamic land mass! They're all laughing at you like I am."

The miner's faces all suddenly went very serious, and Jan wondered if she had gone too far. She could hear April saying "Not again…" and put a hand to her forehead.

Slowly, titanically, the miner's head turned back and stared down at Jun. "I don't like being insulted. Lady or no, I'm going to teach you a lesson…"

Sol

Director's Notes: The hardest thing to do with a multi-character story is to give each one enough 'eye time'. Certainly readers, and me the writer, will have favourites and invariably spend more time with them. Generally, in TV shows, this was fixed a little by having character episodes where the focus was on one or two of the main cast, everyone else taking a back seat. The spot-lighted character's past or present or future was revealed so they could become a little more detailed and fleshed out, and maybe even to satisfy the fans. The characters who were spot-lighted first were probably going to be the main-main characters.

I will probably have to resort to this mechanism as well, and this chapter can clearly be seen as a Jun chapter, even though it just happened to be that way. I was thinking about hamming the situation up more (usually I write much more serious stuff [although Sol Bianca – The Legacy is very serious and I hope but to emulate its dynamics]) and might do so next chapter!

But I will endevour to be fair-handed and give each character their fifteen minutes or more. Coming out with it, June and April are my favourites, I don't want May to be the cute ditz adolescent that is too prevalent in anime, and I think Feb offers interesting opportunities.