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As his gaze stays settled on the screens aboard the cockpit, Nicholas seems distracted, almost anxious. The stars outside sail by as blurs, barely more than specks of light; how many of them harbored systems with life? He wondered. They seemed almost infinite, or at least far more than he'd ever imagined he'd see.

"Nicholas?" Tah-Kuell nudges him with his elbow to gain his attention.

Startled, Nicholas jumps at the physical contact, looking back over at the others. "Oh," he clears his throat. "Sorry. Keep going."

It had been several weeks since their encounter with the Ophio. Although the initial shock had managed to fade, Nicholas could tell the memory of the attack was still something they were all struggling to forget.

"As I was saying, knowing how to handle the ship's systems will be useful, just in case I'm gone. The more people that are trained to have their hands on the controls the better. Now that you've gotten a better grasp for the omnitools, translating the alien language onboard should be much simpler than before," Tah-Kuell speaks, seated at one of the terminals, all five teenagers surrounding him. Sarah, Sophia, and Darius look on intently, while Ava seems largely disinterested, only listening and taking vague glances from the wall beside them. Tah-Kuell stands and motions for someone to sit. "How about a volunteer?"

Sophia quickly slips by the others and settles into the cockpit seat. "Okay. So, if we want information on the solar system we're heading to, we just have to input these..." She taps a few of the buttons, the terminal lighting up with a hologram that shows several planets positioned around a bright white sun. It is fully three-dimensional, every detail able to be seen from any angle. Ava rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

"And if we want information about the planet we're going to land on..." Another few quick taps brings up information of a barren planet, much too close to the sun to support any kind of life.

"That says the planet we're headed to has no atmosphere, no water, no life." Sarah points out.

Ava walks closer to the hologram and stares at the floating shapes. "But most of the other planets in the system look capable of supporting life. So why aren't we going to those places?"

Tah-Kuell rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Good question. The ship has never before ignored habitable planets." He crosses his arms. "That's troublesome. Hopefully we don't get dropped off anywhere too deserted, or else we'll be struggling to survive until the ship returns." He settles back into his chair once Sophia stands up. "Sadly, I'm afraid we've run out of time. We're almost there as it is. Wherever the ship is taking us, that's where we'll be landing."

The ship's engines hum audibly as it falls out of warp space, slowing down once it reaches the outer edges of the new star system. One of the planets orbiting the star is blue, with specks of green and brown signifying land. "Why don't we try to head there? That seems promising," Ava speaks, pointing toward it. However, the ship continues on its course toward the rocky and barren world near the sun.

"Wait a minute." Darius leans forward, his eyes darting from the holograms to the actual screens showing the planet on approach. "Am I seeing this right? I think something is happening with the planet."

All eyes turn to the screen Darius is staring at as the barren moon begins to split into four separate pieces, right down the equator, and through the north and south poles. The massive chunks separate as if to reveal the planet's core. The only thing that keeps them from drifting too far is a massive ring-like structure that holds them together at the center with several mechanical tendrils. It appears as though this is no mere planet, but a machine of colossal proportions.

"Wait, this is another artificial planet..." Nicholas says as he stares at the viewscreen, then to Tah-Kuell. "Mowaii construction?"

As the planet continues to open up, it begins to re-arrange itself thanks to the motion of the structure in the center. However, one of the pieces experiences a failure: as the other three gradually drift to a stop, a fourth and massive piece strikes a section of the structure and blocks it from moving any further.

"Incredible. This is far more sophisticated than any artificial construction I've ever seen. Though it seems to have experienced some sort of catastrophic failure," Tah-Kuell notes aloud. He taps a few buttons on the terminal in front of him and changes the hologram to focus more on the fourth outer layer. "Here. This piece."

Nicholas crosses his arms. "Looks like it's jammed."

Originally aimed for the enormous structure in the middle, the ship changes course and heads for the piece currently blocking the mechanism. Several openings on the rocky terrain lead into what appear to be docks, and the ship chooses one seemingly at random. Crossing the threshold, the ship drifts inside and then sets down gently on a metal platform. A ramp descends from below the caveship down to the ground. The surroundings have a metallic tinge, even though most of it is rocky terrain.

Everyone looks to Nicholas for instructions, and it takes him a moment to realize that they're waiting for him to make a decision. He peers back to them and then toward the viewscreen. "Well, we're here, we may as well figure out why the ship chose this place."

Everyone nods in consensus, following him as he heads to the nearest exit and promptly down the ramp out into the place at large. Unlike the Mowaii planet, which was a pitch-black obsidian color, the barely lit docking bay of this rocky world is similar in color to the ship. Thin blue strands of energy pulse harmlessly along the floors, walls, and ceiling, all leading toward a large entrance at the end of the bay.

Besides their ship, the landing platform is completely empty. As all six step off the ship, the bay slowly lights up with spotlights, allowing them to better see their surroundings. Though there isn't much to see, beyond the enormous open space across the bay.

"Never in my life did I think I'd get the chance to see something so ancient. This is, I'm certain now, of Maker creation. It is absolutely fascinating. If only they'd left something behind that we could take and examine..." Tah-Kuell rubs his chin, looking about the empty docking bay with a hint of disappointment.

As the six cross the platform and go past an arched opening at the end of the bay, the hallway they enter lights up a blue color, and the pulsating lights split off in front of them, showing two narrower corridors to push forward on, left and right.

"Great, where do we go to now?"

Suddenly the omnitools covering their hands start to pulsate with a strange glow as they advance. With each pulse, the glove-like metal becomes almost transparent, revealing their skin underneath. The translucent transformation only occurs in spurts, but it is enough to cause the teenagers to panic.

"What's going on with our omnitools?" Sophia says. She grabs hers and tries to squeeze it, as if that may return it back to normal.

Ava slaps the translucent cast on her arm and flinches instinctively, though she doesn't hit it hard. "Are these things short-circuiting or something? What's wrong with them?"

"It would seem that this place and your omnitools are somehow connected," answers Tah-Kuell, noticing the pulsating glow on each of the teenagers' hands. "There seems to be something wrong with this place. Perhaps the ship brought us here to find what needs to be corrected. And maybe only you five might be able to fix it since you have omnitools."

"So what do we do?" Sarah says, looking around at the others. The longer no one answers, the more of them turn to face their captain.

Nicholas crosses his arms and frowns. "Right, well, so we find what the ship wants us to fix and we get to work. We don't know where it is, and there's two directions we can go, so I think the best thing is to split up," he says, looking between everyone. "Sound like a plan?"

"Alright," Darius says, nodding his head. "Who's going where?"

"I think T.K and Sarah should come with me. Darius, Ava, and Sophia, you guys head the other way." Nicholas points to the other corridor. "If anything happens that puts us in danger, we'll meet back here so we can take off with the ship. In any case, regroup in twenty. Sound good?"

"Be careful," Ava advises, before she turns to follow Darius and Sophia. Watching them walk for a moment, Nicholas turns to head the other way with his group.

There's an eerie quiet throughout, only the echo of their footsteps filling their ears. The pulsating lights traveling along the floors lead back to where they came from, reassuring them that they can find their way back if they must make a hasty retreat. Though they pass open door after open door, none of them dare to enter; each room and door is massive, much larger than any they've seen, clearly meant for entities taller and wider than themselves.

"We should follow the lights," Sarah advises, her eyes scanning the corridors as they sail past them. "Maybe they lead somewhere."

Tah-Kuell hums thoughtfully. "It could simply be the leftovers from some kind of evacuation protocol, meant to lead people to the docking bays. Because no-one was around to turn it off, it's remained online this entire time."

"Still," Nicholas interjects. "What do we got to lose?"

As the hallway begins to widen, the pulsating lights on the floor abruptly end in front of a blast door. Nicholas notices the large opening is covered in some kind of lettering similar to braille with a strange spiral symbol on the top. When they go through it, helmets, factory equipment, and machinery meet their eyes, all hanging off racks placed near the walls. A dormant power plant, visibly inoperative, stands quiet and abandoned in the dark inside the chamber; massive pipes and coils connect to a containment area amid it all, likely meant to fuel whatever the Makers had used to generate power inside.

"This must be why this place isn't functioning properly. It's no longer powered."

A slight tremor makes the hallway sway from side to side, making them have to grab on to the nearest wall for support.

"Great," Sarah says, shaking her head. "This place is falling apart."

Nicholas nods. "Yeah, I'm getting a strange sense of déjà vu."

He turns his attention to the nearby terminals inside the room, similar in make and size to the ones back on the ship. "Maybe we should try and turn this thing back on? I mean, maybe it just needs us to push the power button. T.K, what do you think?"

Tah-Kuell sits in the chair at the primary terminal and presses a few buttons. Holograms showing status reports on the massive engine materialize out of thin air, though neither Sarah nor Nicholas can properly read them, being that the text is in the Maker's language. "Seems like the reactor runs on some kind of contained dark matter. If the reactor is properly fueled then we should be able to simply get it started." He presses a glowing green button, and the air hums gently with built-up energy. "Judging by what I'm seeing here, the reactor has plenty of fuel left in it, but it needs a jump start. It's been dormant for who knows how long."

Sarah goes around a few pipes and chairs in between. She walks over to Tah-Kuell. "What do we need to do, then?"

Tah-Kuell taps a few more buttons. "We'll have to manually re-start the reactor. Think of it as the opposite of what you had to do to shut down the tractor beam back on Torith. The only problem is that just one of your omnitools won't be enough. According to the data I'm reading here, it requires two omnitools for the entire thing to be rebooted."

Nicholas glances at Sarah, then back to Tah-Kuell, before nodding. "Well, can't say I like it, but we were brought here for a reason so it has to get done, right?"

"Right." Tah-Kuell presses a button that opens one of the hatches that leads into the innards of the reactor itself. "This should be fairly simple. Approach the cooling compartment inside, it should lead you to the core, and once you get there, there should be some way of jump-starting the mechanism. This is all still new to me, but if this technology works like anything I'm familiar with, that's how it's done."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Got it." Sarah nods, heading along with Nicholas through the open hatch and into the power plant at large. The pathways inside are wide, with plenty of room for them to walk, but beyond the safety of the railings, there seems to be an infinite void beneath them. The pipes that fuel the reactor plunge directly into the darkness below, and they can't see where it ends, meaning a drop would certainly be fatal. The railings were clearly not meant for creatures of their size: too large to properly grip, and with gaps that one could easily fall through if not careful.

The trip takes longer than anticipated, the power plant much larger than it had seemed from the outside, but finally they arrive at a pyramid-shaped chamber with a glowing sphere in the middle: the core. The structure housing the core towers over the rest of the machinery much higher than either of them could have guessed, the bottom half disappearing into the darkness below, the upper half into the darkness above. Only the most necessary areas, like the walkways, are properly lit and illuminate the chamber. On approach, the reactor ripples jolts of electricity in reaction to their presence, causing the teenagers to pause. The two halves of the reactor begin to part, giving them access to the ball of silver energy floating freely in the midst of it all.

Although this is all new to them, the color of the machines and the structure are all the same: asphalt grey, just like the ship.

"I think all of this tech might be made out of the same stuff as the ship," Nicholas says. As they look around, there's no terminal to be found, nothing to show what they could use to start the reactor with or tamper with it somehow.

"So how do we do this?" Sarah asks. "I don't see any buttons or computers anywhere. Do you?"

The reactor shoots out an arc of electricity that hits the railing. Two small openings appear on the structure, just wide and deep enough for their hands as if inviting them to place them inside. Pulsating lights begin circling the openings. The energy sphere in the center ripples with bursts of light.

"You first," Sarah nudges him gently, trying to make light of a tense situation.

"Here goes nothing." Nicholas says nervously, though he accepts that he'll have to take the risk if they want to continue onward. He approaches the right-most opening but hesitates a moment.

Sarah, noticing the hesitation, steps to his side and smirks. "Let's do it together." She steps closer to him and moves her hand toward the left opening. "On the count of three?"

"Okay." Nicholas nods, clearing his throat a bit. "One."

"Two." Sarah continues.

"Three." They both speak the last number in unison, pressing their omnitool-covered hands into the tiny holes. Immediately the reactor clasps down onto their hands, some mechanism behind the structure now holding them in place.

Both attempt to free themselves, only to be met with failure. "I'm stuck," Nicholas grunts, trying as hard as he can to pull away without dislocating his arm.

"Me too." Sarah frowns, struggling to escape as well. "This can't be normal."

Nicholas looks around for anything to help them, but nothing sticks out to him in the immediate vicinity that could assist them in their situation. "Well, this didn't go according to plan."

"Yeah, go figure," Sarah answers with a frown, and though her gaze lingers on him for a moment, her eyes soon turn away toward the walkway. "Oh crap."

"What's the matter?" Nicholas blinks, turning as best he can to try to see what's happening. His eyes widen at the sight of a familiar face approaching.

"Well, look at you two. Trapped like a bunch of rats," Gene chuckles, flanked by a small contingent of mercenaries. They all wear armor similar to the Marauders, but the Wortani logo is clearly visible on their shoulders. Most of them seem equipped for combat, holding rifles and plasma pistols. "Where are the rest of your friends? I figured you'd all be here, struggling your way through this hostile galaxy with nothing else but the power of friendship."

Nicholas narrows his eyes, shifting his body as best he can in such a restricted position to try to guard Sarah. "How the hell did you find us?"

Gene chuckles lightly as he walks closer to the two with a pistol in hand. He no longer wears the robes he once had back on Torith. Now, he sports new attire: a black and yellow one-piece jumpsuit. "Did you really think you could escape from me that easily? The moment I realized things weren't going according to plan, I planted a tracker on that ship of yours. Then, it was just a matter of waiting for the right time to strike. Thank you, by the way. I now know where to find so much wondrous technology to advance my company. Oh, and you have my condolences. Those Lokken seemed like fine hospitable people. Had to watch them get consumed by those... things. Oh yes, we were there. But we had to stay concealed, you see."

Sarah sighs, gritting her teeth in frustration and anger. "Can't you just leave us alone? We're no threat to you. We're just trying to get home."

Gene aims his pistol at the two teenagers and smiles. "Going to ask you one more time. Where are your friends?"

"Maybe they're right behind you, flanking you right now," Nicholas says. At this revelation, each of the mercenaries wheel around to face a threat approaching from behind, only to find there's nothing there. A few of them grumble, but the only one who doesn't fall for it is Gene.

"Childish threats. No worries. I'm sure my men have found your friends by now and are handling them as we speak," Gene smirks, moving in close enough to ruffle Nicholas' head. "Don't worry your pretty little heads. We'll be keeping you two alive long enough to figure out where your ship is going. This time, we'll be using you as bait. These ancient starships are all heading somewhere, and I bet it needs you to fix this reactor first to get there. Why else would it be here? This... place. It's some sort of conduit, you see. It channels energy from the star. It must be very important. Wherever it is your ship is heading to, it needs it to get there. And well, you see, I'm a patient man. I'm getting on board that ship, one way or another."

Gene steps away, pausing for a moment as he stares at his men. "Actually." He glances back at the teenagers over his shoulder, before turning around to face them again. "You look familiar." He points toward the teenage girl. "Sarah, right?" Though she refuses to respond, glaring at him instead, he smirks. "You're the girl who sabotaged my tractor beam. Keeping you alive is clearly way too risky." He looks at his mercenaries and motions toward the girl. "Kill her. Leave the boy alive. Bring him to the ship whenever he winds up free of whatever this thing is." He steps forward, the mercenaries making way for him as they converge upon the two helpless teenagers.

Almost as if in response to their desperation, the reactor suddenly releases the two, lifting their restraints. With their arms free, still in possession of their omnitools, the two teenagers give each other a look and react almost instantly. Nicholas pushes himself off the reactor and creates a shield, quickly ramming himself into one of the mercenaries nearest to him, sending him stumbling off the walkway and screaming into the abyss. The other mercenaries he makes contact with are luckier, scattering as they fall to the floor but managing to remain safe on the platform. They get up and quickly start firing their rifles, but to no avail: the shield deflects or absorbs most of the incoming fire.

Sarah goes on the offensive, creating her sonic cannon to fire at the mercenaries still fumbling to raise their weapons. She fires, the concussive force of the projectile sending them sliding right over the edge of the walkway. Realizing the danger, Gene backs away quickly from the area and holds his plasma pistol up. He then levels it toward Sarah and fires, but Nicholas has already moved to block the shot. With a growl, Gene continues to fire from where he's safest, but another loud concussive blast from the opposing walkway strikes the nearby piping near him, denting it, the impact forcing him to grab hold of the railing to avoid falling over.

"Next time I won't miss." Darius appears from the shadows behind them, preparing to fire again, but stopping as an alarm begins to echo inside the reactor. The walkways buckle as the enormous silver ball begins to ripple with electricity and gradually expands like a miniature sun. Pulsating energy waves escape from the shimmering sphere and begin melting anything in a ten-meter radius. Heat begins to notably rise, as the teenager's suits quickly materialize helmets and protective armor around their bodies.

"This can't be good!" Sarah yells over the noise, grabbing Nicholas's arm and pulling him along to run. "Come on!"

Darius turns his attention back to where Gene was last, but finds the man missing. He waits for his friends to catch up before he too begins to run back the way they'd entered. "Was that who I thought it was?"

"Yeah. Gene. I guess he's been following us this entire time," Nicholas shouts as he looks over at his friend. "I thought we'd left that whole mess behind, too."

As they approach the only door leading out, it begins to slowly slide shut, forcing the teenagers to sprint faster to make it. Tah-Kuell, already waiting for them, props the door open with a pipe. "Hurry! This won't hold much longer!" The alien even grips the door and tries to lift it, though he clearly lacks the power to make any real impact. Still, it buys them just enough time for the three to dive and roll through the steadily decreasing gap, the pipe bending under the force of the door's attempts to close itself. Just as they make it to the other side, the pipe at the door lets out a groan and fails, slipping on the metal beneath it and sliding off into the abyss below. The door slams shut almost immediately after.

Nicholas turns his attention toward the arched entrance leading out of the reactor room, just in time to catch a glimpse of Gene turning the corner. "Damn it. What's it going to take to get that guy off our backs?"

"T.K, how did you avoid them?" Sarah inquires, trying to catch her breath, their helmets dematerializing now that they are out of danger.

"The sensors informed me that we had more people arrive, so... I hid," Tah-Kuell admits sheepishly. "Luckily, Gene ignored me when he came racing out. Or maybe he didn't see me. I'm not sure. I feel like if he had, he'd probably would've shot me simply in passing."

"You got lucky, then." Nicholas says. "How about Ava and Sophia? Are they alright?"

"Yeah, they're back with the ship," Darius says. "We took care of a bunch of guys on our end, and then I came out here to find you. Those guys Gene hired were nothing like those Marauders, that's for sure. I don't think they were expecting us to be able to fight back," he explains, dusting himself off a bit as he stands tall. "Either way, I think we should get back to the ship."

The four quickly head back to the docking bay, finding both Ava and Sophia standing by the caveship. No other crafts are present so there is still a lot of open space where their ship has landed. Surprisingly, the girls are casually talking to each other before noticing them. Tah-Kuell nods, waving to them as they approach. With the all-clear, the two women jog up the ramp and board the ship with the other four right behind them. The ramp closes as the last of them enter, sealing the doors, and making the caveship rev up its engines and lift off the ground.

"So, what was that all about? All of a sudden we got attacked by a bunch of dudes in armor," Ava says. "Again."

"It was Gene," Nicholas explains, moving to stand near Tah-Kuell as he sits at his preferred terminal. The ship begins to move even without his guidance, turning them around and blasting off into space again. "It seems like we haven't heard the last of him. Though I hope this whole situation dissuades him from bothering us again."

As the ship begins to move into position, swinging around to face the planet, it suddenly begins to shake and buck from an impact. Holograms, normally a calm green or white, begin to flash red warning signs all across the screen. "We're taking fire!" Tah-Kuell informs the group. "I don't know how long it's going to take for that reactor to power up, but we need to take evasive maneuvers. I don't think this ship was designed for combat."

Each of the teenagers take a seat, trying to use their limited knowledge to keep tabs on systems, though more to keep from falling over as the ship sways from side to side to avoid plasma fire. "It's just a single ship. Can't we ram it or something?" Sophia chimes in. "Buy us some time?"

"That would be ill advised. Our ship is not entirely mechanical, I've found out. Some parts of it are bio-mechanical. An impact like that would tear us to shreds, and we'd risk ejection into space," Tah-Kuell responds, keeping most of his attention on the panel in front of him.

"My screen says it's some sort of small craft. It's probably Gene. We lost him inside the bay once the power started up," Sarah speaks. "We've got some projectiles coming in on the right side. I think missiles or something!"

Almost as if reacting to Sarah's words, the ship rolls over to its side, the missiles screaming past the side window. "Whoa!"

With a brilliant blue flash of energy, the missiles explode at a distance. The windows light up like a firework display as the ship zigs and zags avoiding more projectiles. The metal construct connecting all of the landmasses together down on the planet begins to move. The mechanism, with power now restored, begins aligning the continents outward, just like a flower opening its petals. Each landmass pulsates great amounts of energy, which flow toward the center of the planet. The core appears to be itself one gigantic ring composed of thousands of moving parts.

The Caveship hurtles forward, barely avoiding a barrage of plasma fire from Gene's ship, making its way in record time to the center of the planet.

"Where the hell is the ship going?" yells Ava, staring at the group for an answer. Though, most of them are busy with ship diagnostics and using targeting reticles to keep tabs on projectiles.

"Wait a minute. The center!" Nicholas shouts. "It's trying to get to the ring."

"But why?" Sarah yells out. "What is it going to do there?"

The planetary pieces start to spin in a clockwise fashion. As the ship gets near the center, it is enveloped gently in a bright cyan glow. A beam shoots out from the ring and impacts the ship. For a moment, it seems to enhance the Caveship's capabilities for a split second, making it fly faster than before. The cockpit shakes violently as the ship gets hit by it.

Sophia grabs on to her seat as they have no seatbelts. The room and chairs judder as the beam hits the fuselage. Without warning, another beam shoots out from the center of the ring.

"Hang on!" Nicholas yells as all of them grab on to the nearest chair or console for support. The monitors inside the flight deck are overcome with bright lights as the second beam impacts the ship.

For a split second, a blinding glow comes through the windows. Then, the view outside is replaced by rapid streaks of light moving past them, what must be stars whipping by at unbelievable speeds. Darius looks around, noticing the screens flickering as if struggling to stay on, then turns to the rest of them. "I have a bad feeling about this!"

Tah-Kuell pulls up a map of the galaxy on his terminal, but the ship no longer registers. The same holds true as he zooms out to show the entirety of the known universe. "Impossible," he mutters.

"Where exactly are we going?" Sarah says, before noticing Sophia's gaze skyward. She looks up at the ceiling. A tiny marker blinks on a floating holographic map above them. It's the ship's new coordinates, far beyond any star or planet.

As the ship suddenly lurches, slowing, the engines whine down and the room stops shaking. The ceiling lights return to their normal brightness. Nicholas hefts himself from his chair and walks around looking at the monitors. Sophia does the same. There's nothing but a sea of darkness outside the front window. An inky black devoid of any stars.

Sophia stares out through the cockpit canopy. "Where are we?"