Aurelio entered the archives with bated breath. Sitting at the other end of the central table was Kalani, her inviting expression lulling him to sit close to her.

He noticed as he walked closer that the pile of slabs she’d been left with were shifted around and disorganized. Disorganized to his glancing eye, anyway.

He obliged the wordless invitation and sat to her left side.

The only witness to their conversation was the alien artifact that whirred above the table with its floating wisps waiting for a command.

“You wanted to have a meeting with me?” Aurelio questioned innocently enough.

Despite the lax demeanors they carried themselves with, the tension in the room was palpable. Each breath he drew threatened to tear apart their uneasy peace.

Kalani’s eyes bored into his soul, her voice commanding attention, “I don’t believe that I’ve acquainted you with the past of myself or the rest of my crew. There’s a storied history that dwells within our tight knit family…” She trailed off and inspected his features for something.

The scrutiny unnerved him as he fidgeted in his chair.

“Cantwell and Phineas told me a lot about themselves when we were out in the field,” Aurelio leapt to converse, “Helped out to have ‘em talk about themselves like that. Calmed down the situation between Elena and myself enough that I think she’s tolerant of my presence.”

Kalani chuckled after an uncomfortable silence, “Tolerance is one way of putting it, yes. Elena means well by the crew but that suspicious nature of hers is… detrimental to new additions that don’t pass her smell test.”

Aurelio nodded, “Well with the help of the other two, I think she’s starting to come around.”

“Speaking of my gutter boys, what did they tell you about our initial encounter?”

She shifted her position on the chair and made no effort to hide the [Scrap Blaster] holstered on her person. He caught it on the periphery, doing his best to avoid drawing attention to the firearm.

“They mentioned that the both of you came in to repair the U.S.S. Skipper and that your crew was in desperate need of a mechanic at the time. You were navigating the cosmos with Elena as your only companion.”

He’d even read some of those adventures when his brother was first getting him onto the game.

She laughed, “Yes, Cantwell was indispensable when we washed up on their junker station. Passed Elena’s smell test from one interaction and I agreed to the judgment of his character. Phineas was a tag along in the recruitment process. Quite a benefit to have, all things considered.”

“Elena’s mentioned that she was a soldier and you have a commander position so… is that how you know each other?” Aurelio asked.

Kalani gave him a knowing smirk. What had he walked into with his question?

“You know how we know each other.” Kalani stated naturally.

His stomach did somersaults as he struggled to gulp.

“I honestly don’t know.” He half-lied. He had an idea of what sort of past they had but the deviations from the game material to this world were so numerous that to assume their backstories were the same would be foolish.

She inspected his reaction and reached for the [Scrap Blaster] at her hip. Kalani placed her weapon on the table with her finger on the trigger guard.

“Our entire time on this planet is the result of a bad job from a mysterious patron searching for a frozen body in the far reaches of Null-Sec. Your frozen body. Why?”

“I don’t know.” He answered quickly. Whatever benefactor compelled them with the promise of credits was a faceless deviation.

“That mission left a bad taste in my mouth. It would be one thing if our decisions were the result of hubris. Us down on our luck scavengers get offered a simple mission with few strings attached that see us hurdling to the planet's surface with the payload in tow.”

Kalani pointed the [Scrap Blaster] at Aurelio, “And now I’m not sure what to think of it all.”

They stared at one another, Aurelio restraining every nerve in his body from leaping out to run away.

“You’re holding yourself up well for someone with a gun to your face. Don’t feel like you have anything to lose or are you shutting down on me, Lio?”

He forced a laugh, “Well I’m almost certain that you’re a good shot whether I sit here stone faced or piss myself here and now. Clearly you learned something about me while we were gone and I’m afraid to find out what it is that’s got you worked up against me.”

The lax attitude on her face fell apart, replaced with a cold and calculated stare, “I know where you’re from. I know what you are.”

Before she could say anything else, Aurelio held up a finger and pointed at his ear before motioning to remain silent.

Her face soured but she obliged to his request.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Do you trust me?” Aurelio asked.

“Enough to know you’re not like the others.” She replied without missing a beat.

Aurelio let out a sigh of relief.

“Then follow me. I’d prefer to have this kind of conversation away from prying minds.”

Kalani slowly holstered her [Scrap Blaster] back onto her hip and followed Aurelio out of the archives towards the shifting earth below.

---

He wasn’t sure if the change of scenery would do anything to keep the eldritch entities away but the thought alone made him relax around Kalani.

“You mentioned that you know where I’m from and what I am. I don’t think I can approach that topic without setting off alarms so… tell me what happened in the outpost.” Aurelio asked.

Kalani leaned back on the carved wall, “I received a parting gift from a trickster star streaking across the sky. It called to me from within the archives and compelled me out.”

“And this gift involved knowledge. About me and-”

“About everything, Lio! About you, about this planet, about the crew and me, about everything!” There was a mania in her eyes that threatened to turn their conversation into a bloody one if the knowledge she received wasn’t sorted straight. “One minute, I’m learning about the former crews that have taken their time in the outpost and the next minute, I’m pouring into the archives search system for any mention of ‘characters’, ‘NPCs’, and ‘Chosen’ just to reconcile what the fuck is going on.”

She quickdrew her firearm and pointed it at Aurelio again, “And where you fit into this puzzling mess.”

“Wait, just how many references to chosen are there in the archives?” Aurelio asked despite himself.

“Five recorded instances of a chosen existing within the outpost while the archives were around, with the fourth being that Mona woman and the fifth being you.”

The mystery woman.

He motioned for a follow-up but restrained his enthusiasm.

“Tell me what your conclusions are and I’ll be able to confirm one way or another.” Aurelio offered the commander.

It was her turn to wince, “I… don’t know how much I should be revealing when we’re both compromised parties here. You have that stone to contend with and I have our benefactor in the spatial rim of the planet holding influence over my thoughts and the thoughts of the crew. I can feel an unpleasant warmth worming its way from the base of my neck up to the back of my skull just thinking about forming words to…” Her sentence was cut off with a violent retching sound followed by a molten trail of bile hissing onto the floor.

Kalani admitted to being influenced by the Voice and he felt no safer with the admission.

“How have you been contacting your patron?” Aurelio asked.

“Two times in total. Our initial encounter was in the ship husk we were salvaging with you in it. My second encounter happened while I slept. I don’t think the others have become acquainted with the GoDDesS yet.” She struggled to hold in the blind zeal at the mention of the Voice.

His mind jolted with a realization.

“You’ve been on a mission twice.” Aurelio laughed.

Kalani’s face contorted in confusion, “Excuse me?”

He grabbed onto her shoulders despite the firearm and laughed again, “You’ve been on a mission twice! You’re gonna come out with us on a third mission which means you’re either getting fatigued like Elena and Cantwell or this fatigue system functions off a three strikes rule.”

She followed his train of thought but came up short with how it was important to their situation.

Aurelio realized he hadn’t revealed his solution.

“If you need to be asleep to contact your patron then we can avoid having her find out about your newfound knowledge by keeping you awake. You’ll fall into fatigue after this solar cycle or three solar cycles from now and I’ll use my SOOTHE ability to remove your fatigue.”

The SOOTHE ability could remove the fatigue and burn out conditions of a single scavenger for one solar cycle but was the only ability he had on a varied cooldown. He’d roll the single six-sided die and whatever number he landed on would be the amount of solar cycles he’d need to wait before the ability came back up again.

“If it’s supernatural enough to remove fatigue from a target body and our bodies are already maladjusted enough to the new changes we’ve manifested to harbor our sparks, then we can prolong your need to sleep indefinitely or long enough to find alternative solutions to that problem.”

“And what about you and the Monolith?” Kalani questioned.

He chewed on the best way to respond to the open-ended question, “The Monolith and I will part ways as soon as we handle your patron. Its goal and ours align insofar as getting rid of the third party.”

“Are they the final boss in that game of yours?” A pointed reference to his origins.

“Yeah…”

The [Scrap Blaster] in her hands trembled as fury coursed through her veins before ebbing out in favor of a tired understanding.

“You haven’t treated any of us like the other chosen have. I’ve read some of their private thoughts. The contempt they’ve had for their crews and how they struggled to bring those around them to heel. Why are you different?”

Aurelio chuckled, “Because I wasn’t chosen.”

He leaned on the opposite wall and slid himself to the floor.

“I’m aberrant. I wasn’t selected for the task but the Monolith is pushing me forward to continue with its plans anyway.”

“So you’re saying the rock is a poor judge of character?” Kalani raised an eyebrow before the both of them laughed at the absurdity of the statement.

“I know enough to want out of whatever situation we’re currently in. My bastard is lazy and constrained while your bastard is cunning and ruthless. One wants to disappear while the other… I don’t know what the other one wants.”

“At the moment?” Kalani winced and pointed at him.

It wanted him. To what ends?

“I still want to know about you and Elena though.” Aurelio reeled it back to the first topic of conversation.

She shook her head and smiled, “And why do you still care about that, huh?”

He shrugged, “I’m a part of the crew and I want to know the lives of my comrades. I’ve offered up bits of myself to the others so it stands to reason that I’d want to do the same with you.”

“Well,” Kalani spoke with an understated joy, “Our story begins on a station in a desert planet.”