This was by far the hardest mission Tats had ever taken him along with. He had no idea how he should handle the task given. Not only were they going into highly dangerous territory that was mostly uncharted but also was he now riding along persons he knew nothing of. Shishi Mato was someone who he could not approach and the only communication between them was as Keke had saluted him as he had met him for the first time this morning. He had informed himself about anything he could find about Shishi but most of the information was not accessible for public. Another thing that made him more distressed on this mission was that even if Tats held the command Shishi was not inferior to him and he had no idea how he would react if he found out his health certificate had been faked by Tats. It seemed all he could hope for was that Shishi would only show interest in the persons he brought along and wouldn't show much interest in him as he had done so far. He noticed that Tats and Shishi were only speaking with each other when it was absolutely necessary. There was a tension between them that everyone did not dare to disrupt. Keke had known Tats for some years already but he had not the slightest idea where this dissent came from but he knew better than to ask Tats. The situation hadn’t got much better when Tats had got to know that Shishi had actually dared to bring a robot with him. Everyone knew that every try to work with them had failed until now and on this mission that was already unpredictable he wanted to try his newest invention. At first he had wanted to disapprove but since they had a tight schedule and it was too late for any change of plans he had agreed. Keke had the feeling Shishi had shown him the robot last minute for exactly this reason. He had decided it was for the best if he didn't calculate this robot into his predictions at all because there was no way to say how something that was programmed by Shishi who he knew almost nothing about would react in a case of emergency. He could absolutely not understand how Tats could agree to let Shishi decide of half of the members of the group to begin with because the one he brought along besides the robot was a soldier without any experience. Keke had the feeling this mission was doomed to fail even before it really begun. Tats choice wasn’t much better either since he brought someone along who had absolutely no experience as a soldier at all. He could not see why they needed someone who was specialized in programming but he knew Tats was an amazing strategist so he did not dare to doubt him. Tats had been the one who had helped him fulfill his dream so he had decided to stay by his side and follow his orders without complain long ago. He remembered it clearly as if it was only yesterday when he had tried for the fourth time to pass the physical exam. He had been on the verge of passing out, every breath burning in his lungs like fire almost on his knees unable to keep him eyes open for much longer as he had appeared in front of him and asked him to stand up if he wanted to pass. With the last energy he possessed and only focusing on those shining pink eyes he had got to his feet again trembling. The next time he had met commander Tats was as he was lying in hospital because he had passed out during the exam. He had thought it had been just a dream seeing him but he had come to his hospital bed and told him that if he liked from now on he could work for him. As Keke had asked how it would be possible the commander had not answered but gave him a grey mask and left again. Keke found out much later that this grey mask was a unicity developed by Tats that filtered the air better than any convenient mask and that he must have spent a lot of money on the material only. So if Tats had some reason to take him even if he was not healthy enough to be part of any missions at all maybe he had some reasons to take the analyst with them, too. But there was something about this man called Joko irritated him though. It was as if he knew those yellow eyes somewhere but he could not place it. It had to be a short meeting or a long time ago because Keke was someone who did not forget people’s faces easily.

At least the weather was calm even if a few cirrostratus clouds in the east indicated a change. Hopefully it would not come before the next day and they would cover a good distance. For some reasons Tats had insisted that they were going on foot and had explained to them that the whole mission would only last two weeks the most what meant that if they had not reached the goal in five days they would be behind Tats schedule, so they had to walk with a fast pace. The only one Keke was concerned about was Joko, since he wasn’t trained for such marches but until now he could not see that he had trouble coping even if they were marching for hours with just enough breaks to eat something and only sleeping the four hours it was dark at night. Maybe that was because he did not have to carry any military equipment or weapons of any kind so the baggage the carried was lighter than that of the others or maybe Keke had just underestimated his strength in general.

“Keke,” he heard Tats calling for him and made his way towards the back of their group. Tats had always the tendency to go in the back and make sure nobody would fall behind.

“I want you to work with Joko,” he explained to him as he had reached his side.

“Yes, sir!” he signed.

“Give him any information about the surrounding you can give him; the soil composition, the height, the decent of the rocks and what you think of the composition and cohesiveness. Whatever information you can gather you give it to Joko to use,” Tats told him. He thought for a moment that maybe Tats might have forgotten that he needed to have his mask on all the time not to suffocate so he couldn’t actually tell Joko anything but then again Tats only wanted him to give Joko information, if he told him or wrote it down wouldn’t actually matter save for the fact that he never carried any paper around. He went to the front again, now walking in front of everyone else and scanned the surrounding. The ground they were walking on was solid rock that ascended a bit because the layers were building up towards the north-west. The ground would get more uneven with every hour they marched and they even had to go up some rocky hills if they would want to take the fastest way. At least the ground wasn’t as sandy as in other regions but was made out of compact rock that made it easier to walk. He went to Joko who was walking and in the same time typing something into a computer the colorful lights appearing and disappearing on the translucent screen he held in his hand. He looked up as he noticed Keke walking next to him.

“Yes?” he said, the yellow eyes looked irritated and what seemed to Keke even a bit distressed. Keke pointed at the monitor and Joko made a swipe motion that led everything written disappear leaving just the clear scared glass behind and handed it to Keke.

Commander Tats wanted me to give you information, he typed and gave it Joko to read wondering how the other managed to type and walk at the same time because he found it quite hard to do.

“Ah, yes thank you,” Joko said looking a bit more relaxed now. Keke wondered if he had a hard time to talk to persons the first time or if it had something to do with him. There was something about Joko that he couldn’t gasp.

What kind of information do you need exactly?, Keke wrote.

“Every information about the rock on our way you can give me and I need the degree of descent or ascent and if you thing the compounds of the rock would make it porous or insoluble,” Joko explained to him.

Keke wrote down everything information he had gathered so far and hoped it would be enough. It took him more time then he thought because he had to stop typing once in a while to look where he was going and he judging side glances of Joko as he did so. As he was finished he wrote the question why he needed all this information below his text.

“I don’t need it. It’s for the commander,” Joko told him and Keke was perplexed because he had either read this text amazingly fast or he knew there was a question at the end and read it first. Keke had already guessed that Tats wanted the information, he wanted to know what Joko did with it but he knew Joko was avoiding giving him the information.

“Your observation is very helpful and detailed,” Joko told him and looked at him with what could only be read as pride and somewhere in his mind he remembered this kind of look combined with those eyes of his and he knew it was a memory from long time ago as he was still a child and he wanted nothing more than to dig in his head where he had met Joko before, because he was now sure he had at some point of his life, but some movement in the north-east caught his attention. He ran as fast as he could to a point where he had a good view of the surrounding and saw that there was indeed something coming from there and that with a fast pace. He could have seen them way before hadn’t he used so much time with Joko and let them all crash into danger. This was one of those times he wanted to scream for the others to stop at the top of his lungs but he could do nothing more than to sign and hoped Tats would be attentive enough to react to it immediately.