Calm Before the Eco-Storm

Posted on Thu May 14th, 2026 @ 6:57pm by Lieutenant Kally Kellerman & Captain Calypso Skyie
Edited on on Thu May 14th, 2026 @ 6:58pm

Mission: Die Hard: Chimera Edition
Location: Orgrann Surface

A space elevator seemed almost a quaint way to reach an orbital station in a galaxy where most species had transporters, but it did have some advantages. One of those was the smaller, private observation lounges that existed, giving passengers a quiet, unobstructed view of space and the planet as they descended..

Baker hadn’t been assigned one of those rooms, but it wasn’t hard to fake a maintenance order, and he had one closed off rather easily. He stood there, pretending to wash the windows, waiting.

The doors opened right on time and Able stepped in. He let the doors close before walking over to the windows, reaching into a tool belt and producing a small data padd.

“We have a ship,” Able said, quietly. They were alone, with relative privacy, but he wasn’t about to start taking chances now. “It’s Luna-class and will arrive tomorrow.”

Baker looked at the padd, turning his back to the window as they entered the atmosphere. Weeks of clandestine meetings, plans and dreams, and it all came down to tomorrow. He paused, frowning as what Able said reached him. “We can’t take on a Luna-class ship. They have a crew of a few hundred.”

“They’ve scheduled a baryon sweep,” Able said, his voice insistent. The ship will be abandoned. We put a few dozen men on board, cancel the sweep and the ship is ours.”

“And when the crew on the station realize what we’ve done?” Baker said.

“Charlie will be responsible for keeping communications from the surface offline,” Able said. “The crew can party in the museum and never be the wiser. As for the ones on the station, that’s my job. They’ll be heavily involved in ‘negotiations’ with strict orders not to be disturbed. So long as you do your job, this will work flawlessly.”

Baker looked over the padd again and nodded. “All right. I’ll put the word out to assemble a team.” He reached up with his right hand and put a fist to his right shoulder. “So our children breathe easy.”

“And so we too,” Able responded automatically, returning the gesture. He nodded and took the padd back, putting it back in his tool belt. He nodded and they left the lounge, Baker stopping to mark it open for service once again as they blended into the others standing in the main lobby of the space elevator, on their way down to the planet.

Able had stepped into a maintenance closet and a few moments later, came back out, but his toolbelt and jumpsuit were gone. Instead, he had on the burgundy jacket and black slacks of a museum docent. The employee hallway was rarely busy, and no one saw him exit. He stepped back into the general population, nodding politely to people who acknowledged him. People ignored a repair man, but he didn’t need to be ignored now.

Once the elevator had reached the surface station, he exited with the others, heading for the station’s museum. It was a large facility with a number of impressive displays, all of which he ignored. He answered a few questions from those he passed by, but eventually ducked into a closed area to avoid the crowds of tourists.

He found a similarly dressed man standing by a sculpture as if inspecting its display placard, and walked up to him quickly. “Baker is set, we’re ready to begin,” he said, quietly.

Charlie stood up straighter and nodded. “Good. I’ve made arrangements for supplies here. The crew shouldn’t put up much resistance once they’ve relaxed.”

Able nodded. “You’ll need to make sure they can’t contact their ship.”

“Easily done,” Charlie said. He’d already put more thought into it than the problem required. “With luck, we won’t even have to drug them.”

Able nodded. He brought his fist to his shoulder. “So our children breathe easy,” he said.

Charlie nodded. “And so we too.”