Lee let out a deep sigh and slumped his weary body into a modestly padded chair across from Jim. He had been aboard the Hammer for two days now and they had found plenty of work for him to do. He had just spent four hours crawling through maintenance shafts inspecting and tuning various parts of the ship. It wasn't an unpleasant job. He grinned widely upon gaining full access to the hyperdrive system manual, and had already improved the performance of the planetary analysis sensor array. But it left him little time for asking questions, and his mind was still filled with them.

"You know, the more I ask about what I'm doing here the less I seem to understand." Lee said staring blankly into the drink pouch in his hand. "But I guess I'm lucky to be here." he looked up at Jim who gave an empathetic nod.

"They're all gone down there now. Everyone. As far as I know we're the only ones who got off the planet alive." Jim replied solemnly. "It's like they were rounding us up, transferring everyone from the six habs into three and five so they could... wipe us out in two swift strokes."

"You think the company did it?" Lee questioned.

"I have no proof. Only theories. I've had quite a while to think about it here. There isn't so much work for a planetary chemist on this ship."

Lee took a long drink from the pouch and leaned over the table. "Why?" he asked in a low voice. "What could they possibly gain from completely destroying their own operation?"

"But you see, they didn't completely destroy it." Jim also leaned over the table and matched Lee's tone. "The other four habs are still there. They're unmanned, but they're still functioning, so the company maintains exclusive rights to the whole planet."

They were interrupted by a loud beep from the food rehydrator signaling that Lee's meal was ready. Lee hesitantly got up to retrieve it.

"Like I said, the more I ask the less I understand." he said pulling a thin tray from the machine.

"There's a lot more to Alderamin IV than it seems. Chemically that place is full of mysteries." Jim said getting noticeably excited talking about his field of research. "The atmospheric oxygen levels seem completely stable. And the sand that covers the surface is way too chemically uniform. I mean on a global scale, completely homogeneous."

Lee scooped some of the formless but surprisingly tasty food into his mouth. "Artificial?" he asked with mouth full.

"On that scale? Impossible. Even if it were there's still the question of 'Why?'" replied Jim.

"That seems to be a recurring question here." Lee said scooping up another bite.