Erickson

The choice of actions displeased me somewhat but the only other option would be to put everyone in the dehydration pods and go there the slow way. They would be arriving in the system in a few minutes. I looked over the troops that were preparing to go.

"Alright so as you may have guessed," I announced. "We suffered heavy damage from the black hole when we emerged from the far side. Most of the crew that survived had to be put into dehydration pods to give the ship enough energy to build and repair damaged systems so we could get to a system with supplies in relatively quick order."

I was pacing through the middle of the group and they all stood at attention, "We are going to land at the south pole to collect the supplies we need since the ship mostly only needs water and sunlight to grow, the sun gives plenty of light we just need to collect some large quantities of water and bring them back up here."

One of the soldiers raised a hand and I motioned for him to speak, "Why don't we just land the ship on the planet?"

"Good question. The reason we aren't landing on the planet is that our lifeform detection sensors are offline, not having been deemed a needed system to make it here. The ship did modify several escape pods to land in close proximity to one another and be able to make it be up to orbit. Though the escape pods might be close there is a possibility that you won't see anyone else until you are back up here and so it's imperative that you complete your mission as quickly as possible and get back up here. This process will take several days at best to fully restore the ship and crew," I paused one more. "Any questions?"

"No sir," They answered in unison.

"Good," I moved over to my pod. "I'll see you men in a few days. Helms down..."

"Huds up," They answered again. Hud was a reference to the heads-up display that the helmet has when it is covering your head and face, it provides you with tactical data of your surrounding, including oxygen levels outside and temperature. It also identifies potential threats and lights them up so you can see them more easily.

They all climbed into their pods except one the pods hadn't sealed yet. He approached slowly, "Permission to speak frankly with you sir."

I let my helmet down and he did also, "Granted."

"Is it true that you really have fathered an alien child?" He asked.

I looked around and saw the other faces imploring as much as his and I shrugged, "It's possible. I never checked up on her. Or any of the others for that matter."

I heard the soldiers snicker and I slapped the soldier on the arm, "Anything else soldier?"

"No sir," He answered.

I nodded, "Good, go get in your pod. It's time to depart. If you want the coms should still work if you really have more questions for me."

The soldiers grinned and I could see their minds working over some of the other rumors I was a part of. I climbed inside my pod and sealed the hatch. I few minutes later I was on my way to a very tedious assignment. Two weeks later we all arrived safely back on the ship and waited while the ship began finishing repairs. We still had no idea what, if anything, lived on the main continents.