A Troubling month

With the fuel ship destroyed, the colony had no fuel and prices skyrocketed. I wish we had fuel to sell, but our farm uses our tractor so we had no fuel to spare.

I decided that I would make some money by being a mediator. I posted my advertisements and a few interviews later I got a job. It turned out to be a lot less credits than I was hoping for.

Near the end of the month, mysterious disappearances started to occur. The council was very worried about it and the ECC said they would figure out what was happening. Ojib said if the ECC figured this out they would get more power on the council and if SoFA completed this task we would get power.

We set out to the closest disappearance. On the backs of our varactyls, we came to a homestead. We split up, looking around. I went to look in the house with Jern. I couldn't find anything, so I was about to lie down in one of their beds when I jumped in surprise. I yelled, “Jern, come quick! I found blood!” Jern came not as quickly as I would have liked, but he came. We turned over the bedding and discovered the blood was only on the pillow.

We met up with the others and discussed our findings. There were no signs of struggle in the house besides the blood, and no tracks at all; there was a river close by and I suggested that Vreck go swimming. At that moment, we realized Adi was missing!

I left to go looking for Adi with Arron, and we tracked her to the jungle.

10 minutes later we found some old ruins. We thought Adi might have gone inside. Completely disregarding the new law that said no one was allowed to explore the ancient ruins, we charged in. I found some glowing moss to light our way and I put some in one of my jars. Luckily, we spotted a trap before activating it and we found Adi inside the center hall. She was reaching for a small box which was on top of a pressure plate. Arron got her down and I found a rock about the same weight as the box. Arron slipped the rock on, and the box off, and gave it to Adi.

We joined up again and Vreck had just seen a flying aquatic creature. He also realized the river was contaminated with fuel. We set out along the river to find the source of the contamination.

At the top, we found a huge fuel pod as big as our ship, mostly full of fuel. I knew that this fuel pod would be over 10,000 credits if we sold it. I filled the rest of my jars with this precious fuel. Then we set up a claim and left for home.

A fog rolled in and I couldn't see Vreck; he must have gone one way and I another. Jern and I were lost!

I didn't want to panic but none of the wood was usable for a fire. So I put a stick into one of the jars of fuel, laid it on some kindling, and stepped back. I was about to shoot the stick when Jern decided to shoot for me because he can see in the dark. As I was finding cover he shot and it blew up causing shrapnel to hit me in the shoulder. I was stunned. The first thought that ran through my head was, “Jern shot me - he is a Gorensla kajidic agent!” But I realized that we had underestimated the explosive power. Jern found us a cave, so we have shelter and some leaves for bedding.

It's going to be a long night…

…I'm afraid of the dark…