"Nice landing spot you found" Wilma said as she brought the small ship to a gentle stop on the ground of the Konis moon."
"Nice landing but can you parallel park?" replied Buck.
The terrains exited the ship and looked around. The area was well treed, the ground was flat. "I think the colony is over in that direction," said Buck as he pointed to the right.
"Okay, shall we have a look around?" Wilma replied.
They made their way through the trees until they could see the buildings of the colony in the distance. Several low white buildings, mostly only 1 or 2 stories. They couldn't see much of the grounds or inhabitants from this distance, so they started to make their way closer. Suddenly Wilma stopped and put a hand on Buck's arm to stop him as well. She pointed to an area of underbrush that was cleared away. Buck nodded and picked up some small twigs that had fallen. These he tossed towards the clearing, and they were instantly incinerated. "That's what I thought" he said. "Appears they have some additional protection. I wonder what they have that's so valuable."
They quietly made their way along the outside of the "fence" until they could see an entrance portal a little bit further on. As the watched from the cover of the trees and bushes, one guard came up to the hut like structure and replaced the guard already there. The could just make out the guard leaving tell the new one, "see you tomorrow morning."
Buck and Wilma continued around the perimeter of the settlement, noting where buildings were closer to the fencing. All of the buildings appear to face inward towards the center of the compound. In the distance they could make out what appeared to be crops.
"It looks like they have put up the fence almost all around up to where those hills are. They built the compound into the side of the hill. We can't go much further in this direction." Said Buck.
"It will be getting dark" said Wilma looking up at the sky. "We better head back to the ship"
Once back at the ship Buck and Wilma sat on rocks near the ship. "I don't think it would be difficult to overpower that one guard and there didn't appear to be many other people right around there, so getting into the colony isn't going to be difficult." Buck said, "As long as it does not raise any alarms."
"Oh, I think I can knock him out without him knowing what exactly hit him," said Wilma.
"I still don't like the idea of you going in there alone," said Buck.
"Now Buck we talked about this, since I know Jon Hart, I have to go in alone. The two of us is bound to attract notice. I can get the outline of the situation if I do not find him quickly, then we can devise our next steps" she replied.
"Yea I know." With that Buck stood up and started to put down the tarp and blankets for bedding while Wilma went into the ship to get ready. When she came back out Buck was already lying on the ground, so she got down and snuggled against him. "I also don't like this camp out thing. I would rather stay at the Ritz" he added.
"The Ritz?
"Yea you deserve soft beds, soft music and soft lights."
"Well since this is what we have, I think it will do, as long as we are both here." Wilma said. "Did I ever tell you about the time I spent the night in a tree?"
"Noooooooooooo, you haven't"
"Well, some time ago New Chicago and the Photos empire were posturing. We were not at war, but it was a distinct possibility. So, when the Defense Directorate was able to acquire details of their defenses we were elated. But the agent was only able to get 3 of the 4 info chips out of Q, their capital city, so they sent me in to retrieve the last chip. Unfortunately, I had a young cadet assigned to accompany me. Luckily, his only responsibility was look-out while I retrieved the chip. Everything went fine, I was able to secure the chip and we were on our way back. We had gotten to the transportation hub in Q and were getting ready to board the shuttle that would get us out of their territory when he trips. And as he was falling, he reached out and pulled off the travel cloak I was wearing. But the worst part is he shouts my name as he is falling. "
"Rut ruh" put in Buck.
"Needless to say, he got people's attention and there are 3 or 4 security heading in our direction one with a weapon already drawn. At which point I bolted out the door and into the surrounding city area. I should have felt bad about leaving him, but I had the chip, and I did not want to be searched. I managed to get through the populated area and out to the countryside. I figured I could walk to the next settlement where they had a transportation hub. Unfortunately, that's when I realized they had unleashed the scent bots on me."
"Scent bots?"
"Small droids that can follow a person's scent on the ground, they had my cloak remember, and the bots are fast really fast. Needless to say, they were gaining on me. I could have tried to run in a zig zag pattern but that would not have been enough. Luckily, I was able to make it to a stand of trees and could jump up into the branches. When the bots got there, I disappeared to them. Not that I was in the clear, the bot's controller just had to adjust the area scanned and they would be able to find me even in the tree, so I moved from tree to tree for a while. That is when I looked down and at the base of the tree, I was sheltering was a large pile of" here Wilma paused and took a deep breath. "Of animal dung."
"You didn't!"
"Oh yes, I did. Jumped out the tree right into the middle of the pile, splat. I took off running, got through another clearing and to a new stand of trees. Once I was up in the branches, I could just see the bots running around in circles they could not get my scent because it was masked by the dung. By now it is getting dark, and I decided I would spend the night in the tree just in case."
"Bet you didn't get a lot of sleep" Buck said with a chuckle.
"No not much sleep at all, those shoes were pungent! Next morning, I climbed down and was able to get to the outskirts of the smaller settlement. There was a housing unit with some bedding sitting outside, probably to dry. It was a fair trade, a blanket for some smelly shoes. And no one noticed that the little lady boarding the shuttle wrapped up in the blanket with the really bad cough had no shoes on!"
Early the next morning Wilma made her way quietly along the fence towards the entrance portal. Once she was almost at the at the opening, she stopped and gathered several good-sized rocks. Once the guard's attention was diverted from where she was hiding, Wilma tossed a couple of the rocks on the other side of the opening. This caught the attention of the guard, and he advanced a few steps out of the compound towards where the rocks landed. Once his back was turned to Wilma, she tossed a couple more rocks landing them a little further out of the compound. The guard then moved further away from the entrance and Wilma quickly slipped into the portal while his back was turned and made her way to a small building not far from the entrance and moved around to the side, out of view of the guard who had come back to his post.
Wilma made her way further along the backs of some of the buildings and then peeked out into the center of the settlement. Everything was very neat and tidy, very clean. There didn't appear to be any offensive or defensive weapons in view, but she knew they could be hidden anywhere. She watched as people moved about the settlement. Nobody was hurrying and when the would cross paths with someone they generally exchanged a brief greeting. The women especially were walking with their heads bowed. And Wilma noticed a level of conformity as well. Almost all of the men were dressed similarly, with short jackets of a dark color, brown, black, or navy blue. The majority of the women had their hair neatly contained in a bun and were in long coats the fell to at least below their knees some as long as to the women's ankles. All of the coats were pastel colors. But there were a few other people, mostly women who were more rustically dressed, their clothes somewhat ill-fitting and while not ragged but nowhere as neat as the majority. There was obviously a class system at work here.
Suddenly she heard behind her "You do know you 're pretty conspicuous dressed like that don't you."