Dawn of Procyon by Mark R. Healy

proceed?”
    “Yes. Continue.”
    Don’t get carried away. Not yet.
    “Cold boot has completed. Diagnostics passed with one warning and no critical errors. System serial number is seven-seven-two-two-one.” There was a pause. “Power interruption detected. Would you like me to attempt to resume operation?”
    “That won’t be necessary, HAIRI.”
    “Warning.” HAIRI’s tone became more urgent. “Vehicle comms-link appears to be down. No heartbeat detected in twelve point two seconds. Please—”
    “That’s okay. You’ve been disconnected from the ship. Please enter offline maintenance mode.”
    “Thank you. Maintenance mode initiated.”
    Landry exhaled heavily, drumming his fingers on the hull of the scout, wondering how to proceed.
    “My name is Landry Stanton. I’m a supervisor for the maintenance crew that’s based at the outpost on planet Proc-One. Please stand by for situation report.”
    “Proceed, Landry.”
    “We’ve crash-landed in the wilderness and have no way of contacting the outpost. I estimate the distance back is probably around three hundred clicks. I’m running the ship’s OXEE from the backup battery, which in turn is being fed by the emergency solar system.”
    “Warning. This configuration is not optimal for the Oxygen Environment Enhancer.”
    “No kidding. Right now, I don’t have an alternative.”
    “Understood. My last reported connection was to a Himura Seagull scout class vessel. Can you verify this is still current?”
    “Correct.”
    “How can I be of assistance?”
    “Currently I’m hooked into the scout by the OXEE. I need to remove it from the nacelle so that I can get out of here. You with me so far?”
    “I’m with you all the way, Landry.”
    Landry wondered briefly at the unusual phrasing, but decided to plough on anyway. “I brought you online to assist with the removal of the OXEE. If I make one mistake, I’m dead, so there can’t be any foul-ups. You have detailed schematics of the Seagull, right?”
    “I certainly do.”
    “Then let’s begin.”

 
    Chapter 14
    PSD 29-213: 0803 hours
    Cait made it to the workshop early the next morning. She was expecting to find Landry there, armed with excuses about why he’d been absent the day before, but there was no sign of him. Over by Cait’s new desk, Landry’s bag of crap sat untouched.
    It looks like he hasn’t come back to the workshop at all , she thought.
    She put it behind her and got back to work. She wondered if perhaps Landry had been intercepted by officials immediately upon his return and had been escorted into custody, or if he might now be under interrogation to find out the nature of his excursion. Annoyingly, these musings frequently interrupted Cait’s train of thought, and she eventually got up and headed to Dodge’s office.
    She tapped on the frosted glass and let herself in. “Boss?”
    Dodge was sitting behind his desk, an egg roll clutched in one fist and a steaming mug of coffee in the other.
    “What is it, Underwood? I’m trying to finish breakfast here.”
    “I just wanted to check to see if you got the notification I sent through last night about Landry?”
    “Yeah, yeah. Got it. No sweat.”
    “Did you know he had a family?”
    “Didn’t know, don’t care.”
    Cait nodded, unsurprised by Dodge’s flippant attitude. She knew there was little that interested the guy beyond the contents of the lunch menu and planning his afternoon nap. He was a complete waste of space. She glanced around the cluttered office, thinking of the improvements she could make if it was her name on the desk.
    “Okay,” she said. “What’s the latest on the whole situation? Landry’s gear is still sitting beside my desk—”
    Dodge waved a hand to interrupt her, then spoke around another bite of egg roll. “I was going to come see you about that. There’s some work for you to do.”
    “Oh? What like?”
    “Landry’s dead,” Dodge said flatly. “So that means you–”
    “Wait a