What had just transpired so deep below the planet’s surface completely and outright blew my mind. First of all the revelation that my home world was clearly mapped by this precursor civilization and that there was yet another planet which was marked like that well within the borders of the Conglomerate… It deepened my suspicion towards our leaders even more. Surely they must know of this. Combined with the fact that our genes had been altered… It was disturbing to say the least.

That Ellie apparently knew about me was, in contrast, a lot less disturbing, although I’d rather have found out in a different way. But taken from Lauren’s reaction, Ellie would probably get a stern talking to later. At least Ellie was aware that this wasn’t something to just banter around the crew.

“Are you okay?” Lauren pulled me out of my thoughts, we’d sat back down on the rover, waiting for Ellie to save the entire map on her systems.

“I am.” I nodded.

“Ellie is almost done so we can get out of here.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “Nobody else is getting claustrophobic, right?” She turned herself to the rest of our squad and the other squad that came down with us.

“No, not really, I’m just getting a bit bored.” Gunny replied as he swung around his gunnery seat.

“Commander, can you tell the Gunnery Sergeant that if he wants things to go faster, he could always offer his mind as a storage device for this map?” Ellie snarked back.

“Even though I’m pretty good at finding my direction, I’d rather not.” Gunny replied.

“Gunny, let Ellie do her work, please. While I’m not getting claustrophobic, I’d rather be somewhere else than in this dark room.” Lauren looked at Gunny.

“Please listen to the Commander…” Grayson added. “As much as this is a very interesting place to be in. I don’t really feel too comfortable here.”

“They definitely didn’t hire a good interior designer, that’s for sure.” Lauren joked. “I think pink would have been a nice addition to the room.”

Both Blanchet and Gunny started chuckling.

“Without a doubt, Commander.” Gunny saluted Lauren.

“Commander, the file transfer has successfully been completed.” Ellie notified us all. “Two hundred and seventy-three programs awaiting update.”

“Update?” Lauren sat down next to me so Blanchet could start driving.

“The last piece of map files contained a small part of the AI that had been integrated in the star map system. The logic contained within can boost performance by almost two hundred percent so I took the liberty of adding updates for our systems to the update schedule.”

“Uhmm…. Do you think it’s a smart move to just integrate with a foreign AI like that?” Grayson lifted his hand.

“Yeah… Ellie, are you sure about this?” Lauren agreed with Grayson. “That does sound rather dangerous.”

“Quoting from archived log: If whatever race built this wanted us dead, we probably would be already.” Ellie cited the Commander. “I see no reason why we should not enact these updates, Commander.”

“Can you at least wait until we are back on the ship before you do so?” Lauren asked.

“Yes, Commander, I will await your return.” Ellie then went silent.

“Thank you.” She then looked back at us. “While I think it’s risky, I do trust Ellie’s judgement on this. Anyhow, Blanchet, can you get us back to the surface.”

“Yes, Commander.” Blanchet saluted and started the rover up for our trip back up. The other squad followed our lead.

While we ascended, Lauren already started preparing our departure from the surface, calling back the shuttles from their overwatch flight patterns. In the meantime, I was just looking at the gun on my lap. I was glad I didn’t have to use it at all today, both for my sake as for Lauren’s. We’d have enough on our heads in the near future so an active combat situation would not have been welcome. While discovering all this new alien tech would require a bit more subterfuge from Earth’s government, it is definitely the preferable situation. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have my doubts about the plan to keep the detailed information about this technology hidden. But being careful with these kinds of revelations was just the safe and logical way to play.

“The shuttles should be waiting on us when we surface.” Lauren apparently was done planning our return.

“Are we just going to leave the entire structure behind?” Grayson asked while Lauren leaned back a bit.

“For now, yes. Especially when Ellie is doing her upgrades, I’d rather have everyone with us on board the ship. If for some reason it’d disable the shuttle bay, at least we wouldn’t leave any of us stranded here.”

“Fair enough.” Grayson nodded.

Lauren didn’t speak a word about the plan we had for the Dokazuuk, probably best, as not everyone with us on this mission was brought up to speed about it and we really didn’t want to have questions asked right before we could enact it.

The rest of the ride went smoothly, even though the stone we drove on looked silky smooth, our tires had no issue at all finding grip on its surface. Which was quite intriguing if you thought about it. I’m pretty sure the tires these vehicles used, are your standard military tires I’d studied during human military mechanical class. They generally provided a bit more grip on smooth and slippery surfaces like ice and the likes. But from what I can remember, even those could have issues on inclines like this.

But out of the fear of sounding a bit stupid, I decided not to pursue that question and just looked on as we neared the entrance. The light falling through in the distance had turned an orangey-red colour.

“Have we been down there for so long?” Gunny asked behind me.

“This planet rotates a bit faster than Earth does. A day only lasts 18 hours here.” Grayson explained.

We crested the ridge and drove out into the open fields once more. There were only two shuttles left landed here, with one flying above us to keep the watch until we left. However, that was not what immediately caught my attention. Directly in front of us was by far the most beautiful sunset I’ve seen in my life. The red sunlight shining through the treetops in the distance, while coloring the sky and clouds this amazing orange. It honestly left me speechless.

“Wow.” Gunny remarked. “I’d not mind seeing that sight every day for the rest of my life…”

“It is incredibly beautiful, that’s for sure.” Lauren hopped off the rover and slapped the engine twice. “However, I do think the view back home is better.”

“That’s just because you like the Antarctic region too much, Commander.” Gunny chuckled and started to dismount his position as well.

“I just like my snow.”

Blanchet, Grayson and myself got off the rover next, after which Blanchet activated the rover’s packing up programme. And just like that, only a minute or so later, our rover had turned back into a box which could be packed into the shuttle pretty easily.

When our rovers had been loaded into the shuttles again, we all made our way inside as well, getting strapped in for our launch back to our ship. It was strange to think that the next time people would set foot on this planet, it would be to fool a government billions of kilometers away from here. But at least we could be pretty sure that the Dokazuuk and the couple of people we’d be dropping off here, would have a very nice place to live for the time being.

I got pressed in my seat as the shuttle boosted us up into the sky.

“I do feel a bit sorry about one thing.” Gunny said.

“Which is?” Lauren looked back at us from her seat next to the cockpit.

“That I didn’t take off my helmet to get a good taste of the air back on the ground.”

“I suppose that’s true, the air was perfectly clean, but when we are walking around on a military expedition, I just don’t like to take any chances.” Lauren replied.

“I understand that, Commander. But next time we land here, I’m definitely taking my helmet off.”

“Feel free to do so.” Lauren replied.

Our flight back into space was quiet, not even the slightest bit of turbulence at all, just the rumble of the shuttle’s engines. It felt like we were back in the Roald Amundsen in no-time. Back in the hangar where we were met with Yuki who welcomed us back with a smile.

“Welcome back!”

“Thank you.” Lauren took off her helmet and smiled.

“Is it true what Ellie has been saying? That she's going to perform an update?”

“Yes, it is. She found a way to make her systems more efficient. But I asked her to wait until we were back.”

“I’m pretty sure she said she was going to start the second your shuttle landed.”

“She did?”

At that moment, all the lights in the ship go black, leaving us in complete darkness for a couple of seconds until the emergency lights flick on.

“Oh for fuck's sake....”