On the flight to Dodge City (Outpost Three), Cassiadora and Shione are subdued and silent.
The two Runabouts take parabolic trajectory through the interior vacuum. A magnificent solar flare occurs as they pass the star, erupting like a God-sized finger of plasma, several thousand kilometres long.
Dodge City sits at the top of a butte in the midst of a prairie. It is similar to the Freeman's Island installation, only slightly smaller.
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Dodge City Ops contacts the Runnabouts.
"Outpost Three to Flight Three Alpha. Welcome to Dodge City, Kitchissippi and Cuyahoga. You are cleared to land. Kitchissippi, you will land first, while Cuyahoga maintains a holding pattern. PO2c S'Forlann out."
The hangar door rolls back, revealing the elevator with its bright red-and-yellow landing target. Kitchissippi settles onto the pad, which descends silently past the ground-level entrance. The hangar is far smaller than the one at Freeman's Island, with only four Runabout spaces, two Type-07 shuttles and a pair of tiny Type-15 shuttlepods.
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The crews are met by two Humans, both in Operations gold shirts. One is a Lieutenant (junior grade), while the other is a severe-looking CPO a couple od decades older, holding a PADD. The CPO steps forward, looks down at his PADD and addresses Mac while the hangar tractor beams clear the elevator for its ascent.
"Mis-ter An-derson," he says in a Teutonic accent harsher than Talja's Bavarian one.
"I am Chief Petty Officer Johann Schmidt, head of Dodge City's security detail. Thumb the PADD to log in." The photograph on the PADD next to Mac's dossier is Mac's Academy portrait—an unflattering one at that.
"This gentleman is your Technological Assessment Officer, Lieutenant Junior Tonio Gazzo," he says with obvious distaste.
The cocky young man sticks forth a hand with grease-stains embedded in the calluses.
"Call me 'Fast Tony'—only my old lady calls me Tonio."