Razi has been digging into the past of the Alliance for years, but now she has found the Oefric origin world she has a problem. The world is disintegrating at an alarming rate so if they are going to find the origin of this species, they have to work quickly. Ailan and Eckhar are her assigned assistants and despite their being unfamiliar with dig sites, they have one other trait that irritates her, they claim that she is their own. A fall and interference from a determined AI change her attitudes toward her new mates in a way she cannot deny.
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Razi smiled and bustled about, her recorders scanning and catching every inch of the remains of the great hall. Dawn would come soon enough and with it, her new companions would rise, stretch and she would start drooling. She had heard from other Terrans that the right Oefric at close range was irresistible and she was beginning to suspect that they knew what they were talking about.
With her machines scanning away, she returned to her shuttle for the matter of a late breakfast. She assembled her meal, put it on a tray and took a seat on her makeshift porch. The steps to her shuttle made a comfortable chair and she watched the morning caress the mountains of the dead world. Haskar would have been a lovely world if it had still been living and thriving, but now, shifts in gravity were pulling it apart and creating a new surface by destroying the old.
This world had been reshaping itself for a thousand years and its transformation was the reason that the Oefric had left. The origin of their species was a past fogged in time. This was the last opportunity to see the dim remains of a fantastic evolution.
She looked over at the other shuttle, so sleek and elegant compared to the serviceable lines of her own, and smiled. The origin of their civilization was all around them and they were sleeping through it.
Razi was done and watching her scanning bots work their way through the site by the time their shuttle opened and they wandered out with breakfast in their hands. They had trousers on this morning that was a nice yet depressing change.
“Morning, Ailan, Eckhar. The scanners are doing their work and the bots are taking measurements.” She brushed crumbs off her suit as they admired the sunrise.
Ailan finally took in the bots that were quietly chortling and moving around the site. “How long have you been up, Razi?”
“A few hours. I just couldn’t sleep, so I got to work.” Razi smiled at him.
“You should have woken us.” Eckhar held his beverage in one hand while scrubbing his face with the other.
She chuckled. “Why should you lose sleep just because I am an insomniac?”
“The ruins won’t last long. We need to examine every inch of it before the planet takes it back.” Ailan leaned against her ship and sipped at his tea.
“That is why I started the exam bots and the recorders.” She lifted her data pad and tried to ignore the naked torso within arm’s reach.
