(Descent)

"Run the simulation, again" Aiden said.

A single large holographic display was floating around in the ship's main deck, Aiden had begun a simulation of trying to land the ship on the planet's surface. He wanted to see what could happen when he begins his slow descent into the planet's gravitational pull, and how well could the ship's main structure handle the sudden force.

Pathfinder was originally constructed in a drydock located in space and it has yet to be tested entering a planet gravity pull. Though he could put a limited amount of trust in the ship's design and the build process.

Having a theory of what could work and seeing it in action with his own eyes are two separate things.

"Simulation number 12 complete... 82% survival rate"

Laura said right after the program finish.

"An increase of 3 percent, slight improvement over the 11th try huh?" He was scratching the side of his cheeks. "That still leaves me with a 4% failure from the planet gravity, with the other 4% is during the planetary entry."

His eyes move over the remaining 10% percent variable. "But the existence of beta particles is throwing a huge wrench into my plans..."

(" But the drones had safely made it down though. ")

(" Could be because of their compact size and how they were inside a drop pod container... Or was it just luck that they manage to get down here? ")

(" This is more complicated than I expected. ")

"No matter how many simulations we run, we can't be sure if the ship will destroy during re-entry, or will we safely land on the surface" Laura said.

"I know that laura, I just wanted some more confidence in doing so" He pushes a button on a control panel, and the simulation program disappears.

"We have an 82 percent of surviving the descent, and an 18 percent of it going wrong, those results aren't too bad, but I wish we manage to kept the failure rate around 10 percent." he let a sigh out of the tiresome mental process.

He glances at the planet blue atmosphere, feeling a sense of doubt and curiosity. (" Scientific endeavors are never without risks. ")

"let's review again on what we have on the landing zone we picked out" He then turns back to laura.

"From the two weeks we spent in high orbit, we have managed to gather a brief layout of the paths they take." On the screen that had the global map pops up again, two different colors of yellow and green were on the map, green for intelligent or potential intelligent lifeforms, yellow was for creatures and beasts.

The screen quickly zooms into a certain region of the world, which was the landing zone, the landscape shaped like a circular mountainous valley, with the center of that area contains forests and giant open grassland. This place was discovered by seeker 3 when it expanded its range to scout the land.

"No intelligent life has ever made it into the central area of this mountainous region, making it a perfect place to hide and develop our base camp, and prepare proper defenses if any hostility were to occur between us and the planet inhabitants."

Her eyes flicker the screen had side tabs pop showing multiple types of information, and data that was collected by the scout drone.

"Not to mention from the soil samples seeker 3 had collected and studied, agriculture is doable, not to mention we had detected many large deposits of ore below the ground, iron, nickel, copper, and much more to develop our base plans even further."

"Review session complete." Laura's eyes finally stopped flickering.

"Estimated time until a proper base is constructed down there?" Aiden asks.

"With the current equipment, we have on this ship, Estimated prediction, within 1 month."

"One month? aren't we able to build things much faster than that?" Aiden walks over to the captain's chair and sat himself down.

"While this ship does contain an Assembly bay to make building materials, weapons or weapon-related materials, and electronic, the ability to do so is not by much, and same goes for our refinery bay to turn the ore we dig up to be used in the assembly. "

"Including the fact most of the supervising force, as in other humans are not... here." She had a hard time trying to say that to Aiden.

"All the landscaping, base construction, ore refining, parts assembling, military defense, will be up to the drones or automation." That was the end of her statement, it sounded depressing but what could they exactly do about it?

"I see." Aiden's head was pointed down and he said with a vocal tone of a sadden man.

"Just one month huh?" He tilts his head back up. "We just have to survive for one month."

(" It could be doable ")

(" Who knows, they could find us the moment we step out the ship, we have no idea what they are capable of. ")

(" But the data we collected no one seems to ever travel into this region ")

"Laura." He stops. himself from internal monologuing.

"Yes?" She quickly replied back.

"How do you think I should handle them?"

"The inhabitants?"

"Yes... What do you think I should do?"

Laura was quiet for a couple of moments, she began to process the question ask by Aiden.

"That... that's for you to decide."

Aiden knew asking Laura that kind of question was going to.be impossible for her to answer. Laura being highly intelligent and able to perform some emotional mindsets, she is though incapable of truly understanding the full value of connections that people build over while talking to each other.

"Right..." Aiden said.

His eyes wander back to the planet, seeing it slowly rotate in the quietness of which is the deep dark coldness of space. One half being light up by the sun, and the other side covered in the darkness of night.

"I hope my interaction with them will be peaceful for both sides... I rather not kill anyone over pointless planetary squabbles." He let out a long fainted sigh

"They may try to gain your favor, or convince you to join their sides during the peaceful discussion, that means killing people" Laura remarked at Aiden's last statement.

"Once they have seen how our weapons work and our scientific knowledge, they mostly will" Aiden replied back. "That's why I said I won't participate in stupid planetary troubles, they can't and will never have their hands on this equipment."

"especially because we don't know when the surge will appear in this reality... I can only trust myself right now."

He would stop speaking and then let the quietness of space flood the room. Aiden had so much to think about and so many things to do, he doesn't know how he could handle it all.

(" 1 man out of supposing a 100 ")

He gritted his teeth and clutched his hands into a fist.

"Your emotion levels are rising again" Laura said.

Aiden closed his eyes and allow his mind a chance to relax and calm down. His feelings are all jumbled up and needed to be carefully pulled apart from each other. He took the past moments to take in some deep breaths, and slowly exhale out.

"I'm... good."