Here to There part 6

Previous: part 5

The conversation with the Governor had gone as she had expected.  He had said a lot without saying anything.  "It was a total waste of time Martin," Anna complained to Corporal Straugh.  "I should of just thrown him in a cell with that worthless Security Chief."  With a fierce shout she kicked a nearby desk.  "Ow. Ow. Ow!" she cried as she hopped on one foot and grimaced with the sharp pain.

Corporal Martin Straugh chuckled at her distress. "We found out that he's got more Security forces we should be worried about.  He's probably got another 20 guys that were out searching for this Survey team that will back here before you know it.  And, then things are going to get ugly for us."  He suddenly looked up from the computer terminal he had been steadily working on and locked eyes with the Sergeant as she pulled off her boot to rub her toes.  "Sergeant, you need to see this."

"What?" she cursed as she worked her boot back on and hobbled over to look over Straugh's shouder.  Displayed on the screen were what appeared to be Transmission schedules and dates.  "What good is a damn list of Transmission dates?  You just said it yourself. If we don't figure this out, we'll be dead before we can arrange a transmission back home."

"No don't you see," The Corporal motioned to the dates again.  "A year ago was the last time they sent a delivery back to the Receiving station on Marron.  The same date of the attack by the Survey team, and there hasn't been another since."  He looked at her expectantly, "They're only generating enough power to  do annual transmissions.  The next one is in two days."

She grimaced and crossed her arms as she began slowly, "They're going to make another attempt to get off planet. Of course, that's why they hadn't shown their faces in so long.  They were waiting for their ticket out.  So, why the double dealing with the Chief and Governor?  Why not deal straight with us and round these men up and stop them."

Her pacing took her back and forth on the thin carpet as she reviewed all she knew about this situation.  "The Corporation set this colony up to make a profit, but the records show it's been in the red for a decade now.  The Survey team had spent a year out in the unexplored frontier looking for easily exploitable resources to help turn this place around, and on the day they were to return home and report their findings, they started a war, that trapped them back out in those same wilds.  Why? We're missing something obvious."

Martin glanced up from his computer screen briefly to reply, "Money.  Everything is about money. They're a survey team.  Either they found something great or they found nothing at all, and our "friends" here in the colony couldn't allow them to go back and report it.  Either from greed, or from fear that they'd be shut down, due to lack of profit."  He glanced back at his screen and returned to typing,  "Or something like that, I dont' know."

Next: Part 7