Out of bounds

[Sombs]

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Day 46 - Location unknown II

Staring at the main screen, Ezrael sat in the Captain's seat, controlling the Handsome Rover with a PDA on his lap. The main screen showed the direct footage from the little drone, and Ezrael did not seem to like the view. From one moment to the next, the system's beauty was flawed by the presence of this... whatever this was. Surely not a space casino, he thought. It was something Maren would have said, out of nowhere. With space cats.

There was silence on the bridge. Ezrael was the only human around. The consoles were crewed with Kishiro Service Robots at this point, since nobody was required to be at the bridge right now. The majority of the crew was helping Leon with the reversion of the modifications for the blind jump, while Sherry was supposed to be sleeping. To Ezrael's surprise, she entered the bridge again, still awake. Obviously.

"Are those the things Core declared as power nodes?" she asked, moving to her seat while eyeing the main screen.

"You should be in bed," Ezrael merely replied, staring at his PDA, which was showing the cockpit view of the Rover.

"We can play this game over and over again, Captain, but you will end up the same way as I do when I am in your position, so just answer my question."

Opening his mouth, Ezrael looked up and over to her. "It looks like it. I was checking my database already, we know those things from Omicron Delta, Iota and Major. Maren would kill me if she knew I still have my archive," he mumbled. "Apahanta, frame freeze, please."

"Apahanta, zoom in on the artificial construct, please. Increase saturation and add an inverted black layer with 100% intensity."

"I'd say that is what we know already. Since we don't know whether these things are merely remnants of the Daam K'vosh or constructs by the Nomads based on those remains, this either means we are in a system the Daam K'vosh used to be in, or the Nomads are here. So far we didn't see anything roaming around here. We're all alone." He looked at his PDA again. "I wouldn't mind if it'd stay this way."

"Or the Daam K'vosh are still here," Sherry added, smirking at him for a moment. "For all we know, they are no longer in Sirius. Maybe they are here, though." She leaned back in her seat, releasing a sigh while watching the main screen. "There is a gate in the center. I guess those power nodes are powering it?"

"There is no activity coming from that construct. Nothing. Admittedly, I didn't get closer to that thing. I don't want it to jump online and tell the Nomads we are here, you know."

"Would it be bad, Ezrael?"

Hesitantly, he looked up. First there was a glance at her from the corner of his eyes, then he slowly faced her. "I doubt they will come here and help us finding our way back home."

She kept staring at him, with her typical neutral countenance. Something about it was extremely uncomfortable. "No." For another few seconds, she stared at him, remaining silent, until she finally faced the main screen again. Ezrael however looked at the floor infront of him. The mood was incredibly awkward.

"You do have friends among them, Ezrael. That much I do know."

"Their definition of friendship is different from ours. Let's assume there are K'Hara out there and they find us. Yes, they might not fire upon us, that is the kind of friendship I negotiated about. We do not attack the Nomads anymore or interfere with their plans in any way, and in return, they ignore us. That is the deal. However, each time you make a deal with them, you will have to pay a very high price, Sherry."

"What price might that be, Ezrael? And do you think it is worse than the death of all of us?" Sherry asked him, giving him a lopsided look from her seat.

"All we need is material to produce fuel, that will boost our survivability by months. If we don't find anything in this system, okay, then we try to use the gate. Before that I won't get close to that thing, neither with the Rover nor with the Apahanta. Do you understand?"

She exhaled audibly. "At some point it would be nice if you would explain this all to me, Ezrael."

Looking down at his PDA again, he made the Rover take a turn. "Crew and ship are better protected if they don't know about those things. Ignorance is their best shield, and so it should be for you as well, Sherry. So don't talk about such things ever again, Commander. That is an order."

Unsatisfied, she averted her eyes from him. She had been willing to blindly trust him all the time, but even in the face of death he was not willing to share this secret with her. It was irking her. She knew already so much, merely by sitting next to him on bridge. Yet he never explained certain events...

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Uncharted System Stories: 18 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 38 | 85

Templates: Character | Transmissions

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