Arrival

“It’s a big old thing, isn’t it?”
“The red giant or the resort?”
They were alone together, up on the bridge.
Jay shrugged. “Both, I guess” he lapsed into silence while he made a couple of minute adjustments to the Starbug’s approach vector “How’re the scans?”
“They’re not showing anything to worry about” Cass replied “An exclusive seven star resort with award winning service and amenities” she shrugged “Or at least that’s what the brochure said”
Jay made a noncommittal sort of noise, making her glance up from the instrumentation to regard him out of the corner of her eye “Yeah, I know” she sighed and turned her attention back to the science desk with a shake of her head “This isn’t going to go well, is it?”
“What gives you that idea?”
“When does anything ever go smoothly?”
This made Jay smile “It’d be boring if it did”
“In any case, what choice do we have?” Cass glumly tapped a few keys on the console “There are no guarantees that we’ll find anything compatible with our physiology on the next habitable planet, so it’s either dealing with whatever’s evolved on this resort, or slow starvation and the raging shits with Bruno’s diarrhoea bars... You know, I can’t believe how many swimming pools this place has”
“Did you bring your swimwear?” an automatic, glib comment as Jay swung the ‘bug in for the final approach.
“I might have done. Did you?” her eyes widened in alarm “No, don’t answer that” she added quickly, and shook her head “Jamie...” she grumbled, by way of explanation.
They lapsed back into silence after that, Cass desperately trying to ignore Jamie’s attempts at pretending to be distracted by the in-flight safety manual back in the lounge. Jay shot her a quick sideways glance a moment later, and gave her a wolfish grin “Yeah, I did...”
“Stop. Just stop. Now”


After being guided in by the navi-comp and docking a half hour later, the crew clattered down the loading ramp, to emerge out of the back of the Starbug into a huge and deserted hangar. The space was brutally lit by the colossal red giant, which dominated the view through the darkly tinted, diamond glass dome, arcing high above them.
“I thought that service mechanoid was going to meet us” Jay grumbled, automatically checking his weapons as they looked around. Even by hangar standards, the facilities seemed utterly sumptuous “What was his name again?”
“Grovely” Cass slid a pair of sunglasses on against the glare of the sun and drew one of her pistols “There’s an exit over there” she flicked the safety off and pointed across the cavernous space towards the far wall “Shall we?”
With few other options, the Dwarfer’s nervously trooped across the hangar.
“Ready?” Jay asked as they all took up their positions around the door, their weapons drawn and at the ready.
“Do it” Tara nodded, grimly.
At the touch of a button on the control panel, the door hissed back, retracting into the wall in one smooth movement.
“Oh my God!” Eve screamed in shock, clinging tightly onto Jaxx as she pointed through the door.


<tag>
What’s there? – Animatronic teddy bears in SS uniforms? Something completely different?

Where’s Grovely got to?
Is there any food in this place? - Where is it?
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