While the two girls were hard at work turning their luck around, others were hard at work dealing with the repercussions of their past actions. Investigations behind certain still unexplainable events continued apace, keeping matters fairly busy for those still involved.

Nick was finding himself faced with the awkward instance of dealing with maintenance for his own shuttle. He wasn’t actually exactly certain what had gone wrong, but for some reason a lot of the contracted staff had suddenly disappeared. This was especially annoying because it included a vast majority of the technicians that would typically run maintenance on everything, so only the most critical jobs were being delegated to the remaining technicians. He did at least have enough knowledge of the subject to handle much of the basics, emergencies on the field would require such basic knowledge, but it did mean he had gotten quite rusty on the subject. This had him especially scared out of fear that he might have been forgetting to check something important, a thing which might itself be ready to fail on his next flight. It was for this reason that he’d been in the maintenance garage for much longer than expected, a problem which was also causing stress for other people.

“Pilot, what is taking you so long? You’re wasting time here, not just for yourself, but for several others waiting to make use of this space. Additionally, we need you back in the air, you’re already late for your first flight, we already had to have it reallocated. This is putting a delay on how many customers we can service at a time, which can affect our reputation. As a representative of our Aerospace transit system, the time you waste for yourself is in turn a problem for everyone.” “I’m sorry, it’s just I’m not all that certain about the checks I’ve run on my system. Everyone’s been talking about that big crash a while ago.. how no one survived. They say it was an act of sabotage, but no one has been caught yet. What if my equipment was tampered with too?” “My word, that incident is causing far too many problems. Fine, bring the thing over to the deep sense bay, we’ll run a full scan for you. Just be quick about it, we can’t sustain these delays.” The aerospace staff present made a few notes on a holo to have such a process approved, surprising Nick. Getting accepted for a deep sense scan would require someone of high authority from Aerospace command, but he didn’t even recognize the human woman before him. He knew a lot of humans like to cause trouble for conduits like him, so this was reasonably concerning.

“I’ll make sure to bring my shuttle over once official authorization arrives from one of the high commands of aerospace control.” “My word, you’re being difficult. Are you trying to cause trouble, or are you trying to just insult me? You do know I am a rank authority of aerospace control, right?” “I know all of the main authorities, I’ve managed to stay in this field because I pay attention to stuff like that. You.. I don’t even know at all.” Nick was surprised when his holo immediately flashed with a notification from aerospace control that he’s been approved for deep sense, even instantly after the woman before him set aside her holo. She had then pushed such down official avenues using the aerospace system, which could only be done by someone with a very high authority at aerospace command. This didn’t make sense at all, someone that high up who he hadn’t ever met before? No one climbs the ladder that quickly. Had he then just made a mistake, forgetting someone somehow for his first time ever due to being so flustered in the circumstances? It was incredibly unlikely.. and yet it was also the only possible answer.

“According to your records, Nick, you’ve been here for five years less than I’ve been at Aerospace control itself. Clearly, the stress of the moment has put you on edge, which is behaviour we can’t have you carry before your customers. While your shuttle is in deep sense, make sure to complete some quick maintenance on your own attitude, before things get any worse for you. As is, you will find this whole situation will have left a mark on your rather spotless record, an already unfortunate turn of events. Otherwise, since you seem to hold such pride in your also flawed record of remaining aware of your highest superiors, my name is Velvet, be certain to not forget it next time.” Velvet was gone quickly after that, obviously then resuming the fairly busy responsibilities of an officer of aerospace command. Nick however was completely stunned, this was a total disaster. He would have to work hard after this to make up for such a loss, the others were already going to mock him over this. Standing against such a person, it was one of the stupidest things he’d ever done. He rushed to bring his shuttle to deep sensing, being heavily critical of himself the entire way along.

In all accounts, Velvet had then even been especially nice to Nick, an extra oddity of a human to a conduit. Having his work made so much easier was a favour he had scoffed and mocked, all to make sure that he had peace of mind. Most humans would have probably just had him stuff his complaints and just proceed to his shift right away. Then again, most of any sort of superiors that had talked to him in person were just flight deck supervisors, not even someone from aerospace control. The only way he had ever spoken to anyone at aerospace control has been through holo. Clearly, the lack of staff had shifted a lot of people around then, with such bigwigs having to personally make rounds like this. It was still strange though, none of his peers had been let go, the only people missing were external staff, he wasn’t even certain why. Regardless, if none of the pilots had been dismissed yet, he was determined to not be the first to go in this chaos. He would have to push himself to the limits today, to set a high record for quality service today, and he was already losing time to accomplish such a goal.

Velvet returned her attention to other matters of importance, especially considering how much impact such an event had been having now. She still wasn’t certain that breaking contract with companies such as Hypertech might have been a good idea, but she had been alone in that consideration. The ongoing belief was, if it was a matter of sabotage, then the highest odds were that anyone who might have been responsible for such an act had to have been integral to structural development and highly skilled in technical and mechanical design. She knew they were all just being blinded by desperation, such a claim did nothing to explain the usage of an unknown weapon that caused a singularity burst, something none of their equipment could even figure out in simulation. Despite everything though, she knew that the accident itself was not the problem, it was only the beginning. She was fortunate she had attained such a high position in society for this whole problem successfully, but this is where things were going to get a lot more difficult.

Velvet pulled out her holo and opened a record of the orbital thermal relay station ATA-LS, a major structure out in space that was designed to keep this specific colony on the grid by providing a thermal interface for the colony using OSIDF generators. This provided not only the main source of power for the entire place, but also was how the place remained warm despite the Noctal season. During Diatal, the whole thing would even use refrigeration principles to cool things down too. She herself was an avid fan of thermal interface control management, it was her entire inspiration into the field. The fact that Aerospace Control regulated such things was enough to have inspired her to her position alone. In this troubling time, she knew of several other reasons to put value to such interests. Such was why she needed to figure out another way to increase security at ATA-LS. The hardest part remaining was proving a case for it, to convince people that such would be the next place attacked. She didn’t even have a constructive argument to work with, making things even more difficult. All she knew was that she needed to hold the gates, to ensure that those involved did not reach the station’s interior. Were she to fail, things would only get much more difficult in the future, she knew that with an absolute certainty, one which no one else could possibly understand.

According to Velvet’s estimates, the relay station would get guests within the next few nights. The most important thing to secure was ways people would arrive, to ensure that she could personally screen anyone visiting at that time. The most plausible approach would be by shuttle, something she also had extensive access to screen. Detaining suspects though could take more than just a border guard, she knew the guards would underestimate their suspect. Her success would require the use of a sleeper agent of any variety upon at least one of the suspects, and unfortunately she couldn’t depend on a conduit being a good candidate for such a sleeper agent. She would need to have prepared more than one way to bring sleep to such people, so that they could be transported back and appropriately detained for further investigations. The most important thing she had to do was buy time, to give her colleague enough time to work with.. enough resources to work with. That was the only way she could ensure that a dark future would not be unleashed upon them. She had, after all, made a promise that she would not fail in this.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Zxyd was absolutely exhausted at this point of the late dawn, having gone the entire time without much of a break. His shift would typically even be ending soon, but it seems they would be having him work overtime for a while, an entire lunar phase in fact. Tomorrow at least he would still have his typical day off, but at this point he was compelled to spend the entire time resting, both for dawn and dusk. The day after that, he would be back to long shifts for every dawn and dusk after that until his next day off. Even his breaks had gotten shorter, giving him hardly enough time to eat. The wardens as a whole were generally just as busy as he was, the investigation having put so much pressure upon him. The most annoying part was all the cover stories, having to work so hard to make sure that the general public didn’t figure out something was going on. Such was why even he remained generally in neglect as to what exactly had actually happened in the first place, making such an investigation even more complicated.

A relic was stolen from the underground sanctity of the Obsidian Halls. The two thieves had broken in wearing ashen gear, sustained the extreme void purity of the halls, taken the relic from the catacomb maze it had been hidden inside, and then simply vanished without a trace. That’s pretty much everything he knew, and the only thing he had learned since then was a comprehensive list of things that were not involved, effectively being basically everything else. So, at this point, he was on his way to sit in on a very small meeting where he was going to be asked to account for all of the nothing he’s found this time, before being sent off to work even harder at finding something new this time. He knew something would change next lunar phase, but he was actually worried that such was when they would simply be further increasing his work hours. He really hoped that there was no way they could do that, that they would simply find a different solution to this whole stupidity and just let him get back to more normal work. Clinging to what little hope he had left, Zxyd entered the small dark room of the meeting.

“So this would be Zxyd. Thank you for joining us. I know that this investigation has been especially difficult for all of you wardens, which is why this time I’ve decided to have some of the big chairs of our company sit in on your presentation of discoveries.” “Wait, by company, you mean…” “Of course, the financial backbone of the wardens, I’m speaking of the Foundry. It was us that had pressed the wardens into this investigation, however it appeared that leaving the wardens to their own devices was but a lesson in futility. So, with that covered, maybe you could personally account for everything you have discovered during this investigation? Hearing the accounts of someone as potentially observant as an elf may yield some details that could be important that none others had yet found value in.” “I’ve got written records of everything I’ve found here, but the biggest thing I’ve found is that nothing actually makes sense. We can’t figure out motivations because we don’t understand what was taken. We can’t figure out suspects because the only thing we have to go by is that it's two people doing stuff people can’t do.” The human woman sitting opposite Zxyd picked up the documents he had set upon the table as he had originally sat down. She quickly set such documents aside, visibly finding no value in a quick scan of such useless records. He knew the Kyuemu Foundry pretty much owned the wardens, but he wasn’t aware he would have to sit before such important people today, he was inwardly much more nervous than he sounded.

“Alright then, beyond anything confirmed, do you have any speculations that we could work with, anything that could be a smart idea?” “The only smart ideas are facts, which we again have none of. I mean, all we really know is that the two people had achieved the impossible, so they would have needed access to advanced instrumentation that defies everything everyone knows. Considering your own company already has complete control over all instrumentation, that itself is a dead end. The people who came up with such a novel impossibility would have had to be especially skilled researchers devoting themselves to finding things no one had ever discovered. Independent studies wouldn’t have been enough for such, it would have to be a huge organization, such as the academy.” The table was shocked at the sudden revelation of Zxyd’s account, with talk quickly shifting to consideration that the academy could rightfully be responsible for this. He was instantly stunned at how stupid such a speculation could be, it was a fine example in how much nothing made sense, but the table was taking it as an invitation to pass blame.

“Everyone, relax. Zxyd was very obviously just making a dramatic comparison, there still remains no evidence that the academy could possibly have done this.” “But is there anyone else even a fragment as likely? That academy is fairly large and sprawling, investing in little more publicly than constant research, even the odds of a massive uprising of a large collective of the academy is entirely possible. If such had occurred, it would be the academy’s responsibility to quell such an uprising or to otherwise carry the blame in kind. There has been nothing ever since, we’ve just left such a collective to their own devices for far too long. Besides, Mheridz, was it not you who had been warning us into a state of urgency that such a syndicate would certainly be soon to act again? As one of the largest investors in the company, a sizeable feat by itself, having pushed so much funding into security for the Starlight Citadel, you would expect that addressing the largest threat first would be viably important.” Mheridz sighed at her peer, knowing such speculation was as fruitless as the documents before her. However, her other peers looked to also be of like minds, making it difficult to hold the others back. This whole approach had been stupid, such was why she had personally organized this meeting, but in much the same light.. it was at least salvageable. In all accounts, even if it would still make for a mess, there would be a way to make the most out of the process of blaming the academy.

“Alright, if you want to pressure the academy for an internal investigation, be my guest. I would recommend accomplishing that with a trade wall, cutting off all academy access to Foundry assets. The foundry does not own anything in the academy, but we do own a substantial amount of what they would need for regular operations. Their own stocks would last them for quite a long time, but watching such stocks dwindle would put considerable pressure on their structure, they would be a bit more willing to comply with clear instructions in that case. Let them know that the delivery of said thieves would return them not only the full of our regular trade, but also some compensation for their cooperation.. it could be a very compelling offer indeed.” Mheridz knew this was the only way the foundry could compel the academy into any sort of dramatic action on their behalf. She however also knew that the odds the academy would turn up anything would be basically on par with the wardens here. Sure, the academy knew a lot more about such a relic, but they were still innocent here. The only benefit might be strangeling resources in trade that such thieves could have instead made ample use of. The academy wasn’t involved, but putting them on the stage could very easily change that.

Zxyd was dismissed as the others present went to consider the plan set before them in more privacy. As the wardens worked for the foundry, it was highly likely that the wardens would become part of the whole trade wall. This was not something which would remain away from the public eye either, people will notice the tension between the foundry and the academy.. but they would not understand why. After his day off, he was going to be returning to some pretty tense work, it was not going to be a good experience. For now at least, he would get to endure a quieter day of futility, to contemplate how rough this was going to get. To think he had just finished speculating that things were pretty bad now, his past thinking simply unable to grasp how things were about to get so much worse.

Mheridz made sure to store away the documents given to her, fully aware that such documents would give her nothing of use. None of this even mattered right now, none of her peers even seemed to realize that. The biggest concern was that the Starlight Citadel would be getting some uninvited guests soon, and she knew they needed to be stopped. Sure, there was a chance such thieves would be stopped before they could reach the citadel, but she couldn’t afford to leave anything to chance. The place might have once been known as a fortress, but it was not impregnable. There were no direct routes to the place either, not ones available to the public.. but such would not be needed either. The simple fact that such a place existed floating in space was enough to fill people with confidence that instead left her with dread. The thieves would simply appear from nowhere, and at that time she would be left to command the final line of defense. Time was still on her side, if she could delay such thieves.. there was a chance she could prevent disaster. If she failed, time would turn against her, and the lawless would shift the tides to a grim opportunity. She simply could not fail, between herself and her colleague, she had a promise she desperately had to keep.

While people rushed to commit to their decisions of their own fates, the world itself continued to wait and watch. The time was ripe with opportunity and uncertainty both, the edges of fortune’s blade ready to swing either way.