Planetfall is any organization was, at best, only slightly organized chaos. You had people wanting to get OFF the damn ship after a long journey being delayed by folks who had to check their paperwork with the dedication and fervor only a religious zealot could understand or duplicate. You had loaders and delivery folk who saw passengers as a distraction to either off-loading their cargo or getting it to market or whoever was the final recipient. Ship and ground crews started haggled for access to refueling, repair, and replenishment vehicles, hoses, etc. You had droids who were just following orders and wondering why the meat sacks just couldn't get OUT OF THE WAY!!

For the drilling crew Jaden was a part of, the "routine inspection" was much, much more severe. Actually, any crew going underground was subject to the same ordeal, but no one had bothered to inform him of what was about to happen. Up to and including his co-workers, who were now having a laugh at his discomfort, despite having to do it themselves. The difference was, they already knew the drill.

A critical part of the Corusforming process on a new world was to keep the biological brew they were helping build within a certain range and margin of conformity. Sure, every world, even dead ones, had a mineral load of some kind that would cause some minor mutations or very slight alterations to the design. Usually this was more represented as different shades of grass or flower colors as opposed to any mutant carnivorours weeds like you saw on the late-night holos. Even so, ANY variance to the plan was eliminated by necessity.

That meant that every drop of water melted from a glacier was filtered and purified, as were any grains of sands or lumps of dirt assigned for surface distribution. Every vehicle was steam cleaned as it disembarked from a transport. And that meant every being assigned to the dig crews were to be "sanitized".

At least it was both deeply invasion and immensely impersonal. Kind of like military indoctrination, but moreso. All he had to do was get naked and pass through a series of torture chambers with a chit card that recognized him only as FVT-46KF-M470X-X6. Try saying that five times really fast.

The process, he was told, was called bacterio-viral analysis and debriding. In short, any critters he brought to Najarka with him were about to be aggressively vaporized.

First off, they stripped in a common area and had the medicos go over them with a fine toothed comb, checking for scars, wounds, illness, taking blood samples, swabbing for this and that. He was used to this kind of openness in the military but, for some reason, maybe meeting his crew supervisor in a medical exam was probably not the best way to go about it. Particurly since she was a drop dead gorgeous amazon. Not that she paid him any more mind than anyone else, particularly Hordle, who was showing off some new ink he'd picked up on his last leave. Either way, he was irrationally discomfitted and should have known better. He never found out why, but drill teams didn't have to comply with the no-gender-mixing rules. Presumably they would be too busy or tired to worry about any of that nonsence. He'd done the drill, obvious physical attraction aside, he was here to do a job. 'Nuff said.

Moving on....

In an academic sense, however, he had never been around a lot of aliens. Sure, Dralls and Selonians back home, but having a doctor try to figure out where the pulse was on a Cathar or how to get a portable EKG to scan Bil'lil the Thakwaa was both instructive and entertaining. Thankfully, Bil'lil was to be the team medic so he was more than helpful in achieving the goals of the medical staff.

He met the rest of the team in various stages of being probed while starkers. Bil'lil the team doctor he'd already met whilst the Thakwaa let his mind wander long enough for Jaden to win a few keys hands. Or at least, the personality at the time wasn't skilled enough at cards to beat him.

Hordle, from Talus, was teamed with the Cathar Hadak. They, and another new member named Morric Rison rounded out the roughnecks on the team. Strong, skilled, and ready to meet the harshest of conditions.

Melis, another fellow pazaak player, was his counterpart as a technician. He was planning to stick to him like glue once they hit the job site. He had been signed on because he could calibrate military gear, but environmental construction equipment was it's own unique category and he had to spin up, and fast, if everyone was going to safe in the field.

Moia Alezsh was their supervisor. New to this team, Hordle had found that she was more than capable of managing any set of egos placed before her. Plus, as previously noted, she was attractive, though in a more chiseled, scarred, athletic way as opposed to a Core supermodel comparison. She could handle her liquor and had been taken off her last crew for having demolished a Dashadii roughneck who made a more than subtle pass at her.

Last was Ehan Olo, their Sharu quartermaster and personal equipment technician. He was part engineer, part chef, and all business. The slender alien was apparently the veteran of many mining camps on his homeworld and thus knew his way around a job site, but he was constantly fretting, looking for a better way to do things. This was either going to be a really exasperating trait or one that might save their lives.

But for now, the team had been all checked out and were being herded into yet another featureless white room, this one divided by simple partitions made by hanging sheets of cloth. Modesty? After what they'd gone through? He followed Melis and took the next unoccupied booth. He saw a tiny camp stool and sat on it.

Momentarily a technician came in, looked at him sitting buck naked on a canvas-seated three-legged stool, then went out quickly, returning with a similar stool and then sat down, cracking open an analysis kit.

"Was I to remain standing? No one said anything," he began.

The other man waved him off. "Of course they didn't. They just assume everyone has done this before. It's fine. Are you relaxed?"

"Would you be?"

The man smiled. "Of course not." He set out some vials and then took out what seemed to be a series of swabs. "Okay, here's the drill. Welcome to Najarka. The process of converting this world to one we have designed includes limiting the amount of aberrant virii and bacteria that initially enter the system. Workers building new homes and schools do not need to go through this process. Those digging deep into the planet to stage the lichen and fungi that will eventually become the basic flora of this world do.

"So, I am now going to take a sample of your biological burden, as it is called. All the little spores and bacteria and virus pockets all over your body. We'll keep this on file for when your contract is up and then basically return it to you. Trust me, long term you'll be glad we do this. Everyone has their own distinct collection of little bugs. Particularly anyone who has been on more than a couple planets. Najarka may not need them to ward off illness, but you. This will only take a few months and, yes, we're going to get well acquainted. Don't squirm and it will go faster."

The man was a professional, but he was properly certified to be a miner in his own right. Ten minutes went by and Jaden was suddenly more aware of his body's nooks and crannies than he ever had before.

"Thank you," he announced, closing up a final vial. "Now off to the burners with you."

He looked at the man and all he did was point. Only Alezsh and Rison were ahead of him. The rest had been through the drill before and had only required some minimaal swabs to update their profile. Olo was already going through the process. There were two lines and Rison was getting ready to step into a booth. That left him and Alezsh alone. In awkward silence.

She broke the silence. "I have been waiting for you."

He nodded. This could go a few places depending on what she'd been told.

"I want no trouble on my crew. I do not know what you did to land yourself here but you're records scream ex-military. Your hand has a new shepherd chip scar. Your files are full of holes that only invite questions. So, whoever you are, whatever you did, do NOT screw things up on my crew. Are we clear?"

He nodded, then remembered what spit was useful for. Getting reamed out by your new boss while naked was a first for him. "Yes, ma'am. No trouble from me." Olo's cubicle cycled green.

"You first," Alezsh announced. "I'll be having none of that chivalrous 'ladies' first' crap either. Move your ass!"

And so he did.

Morning came early, and with a headache. The wine was fine, but it was all too much, too soon. Still, considering what they'd be eating in the near future, he'd miss it though.

He stepped out of the trailer to find Melis sitting in front of a small fire he was stoking with boards from a couple boarded up crates. He had a few blankets on the ground next to him.

He was smoking a cigarra and had a cup of caf. Seeing Jaden come near, he filled up another mug and handed it to him.

"Been out here all night?"

The other man nodded. "Yep. Been stuck on a ship, then stuck in that cage. We'll be stuck in our suits before too long. I plan on sheltering out here for the next few days if they'll let me. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?"

Jaden nodded. "Mind another?" Melis nodded.

He'd been stuck on ships a lot longer than Melis could imagine. It would do him good to smell the outdoors and breathe fresh air. Even the lightly oxygenated version that required you to have a breath mask handy at all times. Speaking of..."How do you manage smoking in this thin air?"

"You just have to be careful. All things in moderation and all that. Care for one?"  He shook out of smoke that stood out from the pack, escaping its brethren. He considered it. Years on ships had never given him an opportunity to smoke, safety hazards and the like. Some of the stormies swore by them as about the only way they could relax.

He reached for the cigarra while Melis reached in, grabbed a stick with a nice ember and held it out. Jaden leaned in for the light. "Thanks."

He inhaled. A small cough, but it was surprisingly smooth. He raised his eyebrow. Melis laughed. "Yeah, I may not look like much but I used to be someone in the Core. Lost most of my family, went Fuge out this way, but I still have a few trappings left of my old life. You go on and enjoy that. We'll not be seeing anything like that for a long time."  He stared out past the fire for a few moments, drinking his caf and pondering some deeply private thoughts.

Jaden did about the same, enjoying his first smoke since his teenage years. Really, actually enjoying it. He finished it and tossed the butt into the fire. The caf wasn't bad either. Better than not bad to be honest. Melis must have had a story to tell, not that he would. Jaden wasn't in a hurry to do so, that was for sure.

"Seriously?" Alezsh walked up. "Better part of a week recovering from having your insides cleaned out and your skin sandblasted, and the first thing you guys do is load up on caf and have a smoke?"

She laughed and sat down. "And you didn't even let me in on it?"

Melis laughed and passed over a mug and a smoke. "Thanks boss. Figured I'd give it a try and see how it went. No slights intended."

She nodded. "The others will be up soon. Might want to keep this stuff scarse. Good brew."

Melis shook his head. "Nah, got enough for one or two last hurrahs. Besides, you might be inclined to save my ass sometime."

"Duly noted. And appreciated." She lifted her mug as a toast. "Long day of setting up our gear and lines. I don't want us in our suits yet, but we'll check out everything, get the inventory done, make sure we've got what we need. I need the two of you to get that fusion borer in place and ready to go. We're gonna lose a week on prep time. I want us damn good and ready to drill once we get the all clear.

"Yes ma'am," Jaden said, a few seconds ahead of Melis.

"Yep, ex-military. Pegged you right on the first guess," she noted, walking back to the trailer.

---

The process of subterranean mining was pretty straightforward. You stacked a pile of resources over your chosen site, then fired up a fusion borer or two dozen and then chucked plasma into the rocks to carve out a hole. The plasma literally melted stone, liquifying it and pumping it up through superheated tubes to be deposited on the surface. The tunnel it built was smooth, like glass, and could either be lined permanently with concrete or left as is. Unaltered, it would last for years until something, usually water leakage, would crack the melted soil and bring the walls down.

In this instance, the walls were to be left as they bored them. Minus, of course, the support channels that would be dug to provide the team with air, water, and waste tubes. Two would bring resources down to them. The last would take their various filth back up the line. There was usually a line for rare minerals but they weren't searching for any specific ore on this dig. They were just to bore a hole and let someone deliver ice cores for them to emplace to seed the local biosphere. All part of the plan.

It was an efficient system, perfected centuries ago on a thousand worlds by hundreds of species. It was still, however, just as dangerous as it ever was. Only a lunatic would volunteer to do it. Or someone in need of hard cash. Or in search of living on the edge. Or, as in his case, with nothing to lose and everything to prove.

They spent two more days moving the equipment in place, testing pipelines, making sure the ceramic plates on the borer were in good shape. Nothing like losing armor and suddenly being doused in hot plasma to ruin your days. Then, one morning, Alezsh had a hot breakfast flown in for them. They tucked into some meat and eggs and stacks of toast and drank urns of coffee, finishing the meal with the last of Melis' fine cigarras. Everyone after that would be the emergency period specials that came with their ration packs. Brands like Moff and Grand Gungan and Victory which tasted like mattress filling and sawdust that were walked past tobacco leaf just in case some flavor might drift into the mix.

They didn't think about that right then. They just sat and smoked and finished their coffee around the campfire. But this time, everyone had moved out of the trailer. The comfort of being inside were no match for looking up at the stars every night. With the atmosphere so thin, the local moon and everything in the darkness seemed just an arm's reach away as they sat and talked to each other at the end of every day.

Now they were quiet. Soon they would be tunneling below the surface and their minds would have to be as strong as their bodies to survive the ordeal. They had told Jaden that eventually he'd learn to love it, being cocooned by the ground around him, safe from damn near everything the universe could throw at him. Yet they had all been out here staring at the firmament every night with him as well. He'd just have to see how right they were.

Eventually Alezsh stood up and went to the footlockers they had drug outside the night before. "Time's a wasting kids. Let's get it on!"

She peeled off all her clothes and began applying lubricating oil to her body. Anyone watching from a nearby hill would be having all kinds of perverted fantasies at the moment. They'd be wrong. She next took out her undersuit and slowly began slipping herself into the rubber-like material. Tougher and heavier than a stormtrooper body glove, it was made to keep the body sealed against the dangers of an active mine pit. Like military body gloves, it also had the unpleasant attachments at the lower extremities. As the others began to put on their suits, she and they began tucking in the hose at the rectal cavity. As she fit in her catheter, the men put on their own catheter and tube arrangements. It was an uncomfortable as it sounded and no one dwelled on the fact that they were doing this in front of each other. They had to. Someone had to spot your suit for any folds or misplaced alignment. Once suited, they began hooking up the hoses made for catching sweat and waste and for providing heating and cooler to various spots on their bodies. They then pulled the body gloves hoods up over their heads. This was immensely unpleasant; made more so by their recent loss of skin and particularly hair. They'd be constantly taking pills to avert any fungal infections and to reduce rashes as the gel sloughed off their bodies and the glove rubbed up against their skins.

The hair, however, was the big loss. Until it grew back, they'd be constantly moving their heads and the friction from their necks to the tops of their heads would keep pulling at their skin. Alezsh would have it worst. She, it was presumed, wouldn't have a beard growing in to reduce the chafing. How the Cathar did this was anyone's guess.

Suited up and hosed in the proper spots, they then helped each other put on the armor plates that composed the outer layer of their work uniform. As they began working with the plasma borer and the digging laser drills, it would be necessary to protect against flying plasma streams that would melt through your arm in mere seconds and from rock and ice chips depending on conditions. The steam from outgassing rocks as they exploded under pressure would melt bare flesh. It was more armor than Jaden had ever put on. It was more gear than infantrymen wore. And every piece had a useful purpose.

In addition, each piece of armor was given a heavy coating of Gleen! armor polish. Particularly the cod piece and the butt plate, and especially the "poop chute" segment that would pop out when that particular waste valve needed voiding. Every civvie thought that armor polish was used to keep the armor parade ground glossy. What it really did was to keep armor so glassy smooth that nothing would stick to it. Blood, vegetation, body parts, excrement. Keeping your waste gate clean was just one less way to get infected and die horribly on an alien world. It was surprising how few folks knew that. But there was a reason people put up that smell, a very good reason.

So they suited up, double-checked each piece, and then finally flipped down their hood visors. Jaden felt a moment of being buried alive until the optics kicked in and the sensors and audio inputs came to life. It didn't even take that long. Naval hoods were more of a vision screen with HUD readouts overlaying the porthole. This was all video. He could not see out of his hood without it.

Alezsh called out for everyone to check in. He fell into order as followed Melis to the primary drill. They would begin the drilling process, mostly to get him experience, but also because all hands were on deck for the first hour of drilling. Alezsh and Olo would follow in the command vehicle. It had all the necessary comm gear, bunks, and Bil'lil's medical suite. The roughnecks would come along as they could in their utility speeders, stopping to lay down the requisite pipes, hoses, and lighting, checking the work of the borer and doing any necessary patching and drilling. Bil'lil would ride with them for a spell, checking their vitals plus the atmosphere of the mine.

In this manner, they would begin to dig the shaft that would help make this world habitable for the settlers waiting for a new home.