Sector twenty one, planet Gorgola, Laboratory ruins, Lilia.

"ooookkaaaay…NOW YOU PISSED ME OFF YO GODDAMNED CAT!!!!"

It's the second time I see Seven this angry. He is usually so calm, except when fighting night crawlers. He really does hate those things.

But unlike when fighting those eight legged creatures the state he is in now isn't fear or disgust, but a form of pure anger that completely flips his personality around. It made me doubt the well being of his mind. Is that really the human I know?

~◇~

We spent three days fighting night crawlers underground, killing about three hundred of them in the process. Some of them escaped of course but the speed in which their eggs hatched helped replenishing their numbers through the night. That's why on top of destroying the creatures we had to burn down all the eggs, room after room filled to the brim with them.

We have yet to find anything useful in repairing the ship. All the equipment in the rooms got crushed to make space for building nests, most of it was left unrecognizable. The first underground floor -beneath the front gate- had ten rooms facing each other all of them full of eggs, following it were another three floors, the last of which was the only one that survived. Most of the rooms old lab equipment was stored, we found a few pods like the one Seven was in. Those seemed like spares that are yet to be put for use. Some of the rooms were full of devices of deferent shapes and forms that I find it painful to try and guess their functions. Their origin also varied, few of which are made by the same specie.

By the third day there was no trace left of the night crawlers and all the eggs got ridden of, that's when we arrived at the final room on what we later would discover was the final floor.

"This is the largest so far huh… it seems those insects left it intact." Seven said.

From what I understood back on his home planet there exist a species that resembles the night crawlers in form but is too small in size, and he really hated them. What I don't understand is why. If they are too small then dealing with them should be easy, and a bigger version shouldn't be that scary. Anyways Seven really can't handle those things. He brought a flame thrower from the armory to help kill them but using it in a closed space came at the cost of breathable air and we almost suffocated.

The room furthest from the stairs was different from the others. It had a door made of multiple layers of metal, sealed by thick iron bars. It took me quite a while to rip it apart. Inside we found a few more devices which I don’t recognize.

"Even more strange technology…” Seven said “Lilia, you recognize any of these?”

"Even if you ask me…" he asked me that question quite a few times already, looking disappointed whenever I’m unable to answer. I’m not that knowledgeable about space technology, and the books I have don’t contain all the answers.

“Hmm… the seem like capsules…” he said, checking one of them.

There are ten in total, it seems like a person could fit in each… ten of them?

"There is something written down here." But sadly it's in a language neither of us can read, I wish we had one of those translators with us….hm? "I think I know this writing from somewhere…" I'm sure I have seen it before. Think… think… think!

A lightning bolt struck my head, I took my book out and surfed through the library list.

"Ah, here it is!"

The only time I saw this kind of writing was on a book about the great liberation war. It belonged to an infamous race from long ago. The Aljus.

"The Aljus empire is an ancient civilization formed by a race of the same name. This race is known for having a major god complex, seeking reign over all the known universe. They conquered thousands of plant and enslaved whoever they came into contact with using their greatly advanced technology. At some point in time they lost the ability to reproduce and slowly went extinct after the great liberation war."

How nostalgic. I remember studying about such things a few years ago. The great liberation was a war where all sentient species in the known universe put their conflicts aside to fight the evil that threatened their peace. It happened three thousand years ago and there are little traces of it left to this day.

"The Aljus huh… just to be sure, do they look like giant lizards that walk on two legs?" asked seven, but.

"What do you mean by lizards?…." Is it another earthen life form?

"Mostly green, have scales, long tails, sharp teeth."

"Do you know how little that narrows it down? But it seems you were close, they are mostly known for their Doth like heads." I flipped the pages until I found a photo showing how they looked.

“As I thought" he said, grimacing the moment he saw it. “The giant lizards…”

“This is what a giant lizard looks like?” giant? Strange, why is everything on earth so tiny?

"If those Aljus guys are the same lizard-men bastards that attacked us back then, then I think I know what those things are."

Hmmmmm….it's strange how he can come up with conclusions so fast, where does he get all that knowledge?

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Those are freezing chambers, it makes more sense now."

"What does?" Seriously, what does?

"According to what you told me before I'm more than a hundred years old, but I don't think I grew that much from the time the attack happened. The pods had a component that helped preserving my body but it didn't completely stop its growth, hence the long hair and the beard."

"So that's what you meant. You also said that you are seventeen." He looks much younger though. I think that's because he is so skinny.

"Humans usually don't live to their hundreds and even if they do they don't stay like this. We probably got kidnapped by those Aljus grunts before men went extinct and were preserved using these things before falling in human hands again.”

“Is that so…” that makes sense… I think? I feel like I’m missing something. “Zesionens don't live that long too, by the way.”

Seven is more than a hundred years old huh. It must be harder than he lets out; he doesn't even remember his name, then he hears that he may not see anyone he would remember ever again, not to mention the chance that he may spend the rest of his life on this planet. I guess he has a good reason for not wanting to remember.

How can he be so strong?

“This might be our greatest find right now.” He said “if we could learn how they’re used…”

“That would be difficult…” it’s ancient alien technology, not to mention we don’t even know how to read the language. Since we might not find a way out any time soon it might be better if we sleep inside those capsules. That way we could preserve our youth until help arrives. But we didn’t know how long that will take, not to mention…

“I would rather we spend our days like we did so far…” I murmured to myself, only realizing what I was thinking a moment later. Thankfully it seems Seven didn’t hear me.

"Lilia… there is another door here, it seems to lead downward." he said, pointing at the opposite side of the room “hm? Is something wrong? Your face is red…”

“N-no, nothing wrong.” I said as I quickly passed him by “I will go open it!”

What is this? Why am I starting to think about such things!? Is it because we might not escape from here? Did I just think it would be fine if we spent our lives together?

I hope Seven didn’t notice. I don’t know what he thinks of me, however I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want to be trapped with an alien for the rest of his life. He’s already seventeen, I’m sure he wants to find a partner as soon as possible so he could build a family of his own.

“Eh?” I suddenly came to a stop.

Another strange thought ran through my mind. Years from now, Seven and I still trapped. However we weren’t alone. Several kids were running and playing around us. I wanted to hold my head and scream. It might turn out that way since we only have each other, however this is the first time I ever began to imagine myself getting a partner and bearing children. I wonder if Seven ever thought of this. I don’t even know what he thinks of me, if he sees me in that way. Zesioniens do resemble humans in appearance, a lot, but would he really find an alien like me attractive?

It’s hard to know from his actions or the way he acts, and I'm not too good at reading people. Even Iris who was my friend for so long, it was still difficult for me to guess what's going on in her mind. Come to think of it, Seven and Iris are very similar in how they are always so calm. I think that’s a big part of their charm.

A family with Seven, huh…

That time he held me in his arms, slowly caressing my hair while hugging me. It made me feel safe, it would be nice if he did it again.

No no no, I mustn't think that way. I already slept with him once, then I let him touch me like that. if this continues then we would eventually…. But he is from a deferent species... but it's possible... right?

~◇~

The door lead to a set of stairs that goes downward, at the end of the hallway that followed them was an elevator that also lead deeper. Unfortunately this one didn't seem to work so we had to make use of the emergency ladder to get down. There weren't any other floors on the way down and after nearly fifteen minutes we arrived to the bottom. There was only one room from this point on. It was larger than the one with the colossus, several times larger.

"Beautiful…" That was the only word I could use to describe what we found there.

The room wasn't paved like the rest of the construction; it's more accurate to call it an underground cave, but that also wasn't enough.

It was entirely made out of Glassume. There is no mistaking it. The entire cave was covered in crystal like glowing rocks. They were everywhere no matter what direction you look. Seven’s gauntlets were indeed a surprise, but this was on an entirely different level. This is an entire mine filled to the brim with natural Glassume, and if something like this exists then more should be laying around waiting to be found.

"It seems we found the power generator." Seven said waking me up from my daze.

Like always, he was quick to notice the cords connected to the crystals, most of them were underneath the transparent floor.

"Lilia, could you check what material are those made of?”

“Eh? You still didn’t realize.” I looked at him completely baffled “it’s Glassume! The entire cave is covered in it!”

"… What?" He asked. It took him a few seconds before his eyes went wide. “You mean this entire place is covered in the universe’s most valuable material!?”

We were lost for words. Nothing we say could explain the magnitude of this discovery. The sad part is that we’re stuck, otherwise we would’ve become two of the wealthiest individuals in the entire universe.

“Does it usually glow like that?” Seven pointed at one of the crystals. “Also, the floor seems to be made of a different material.”

As he said, upon further inspection it seems the floor is made of normal glass. Though a king strong enough to be used in space crafts. The reason why the crystals glowed was that they appear to contain a tremendous electric charge, the one we scanned had about 200 billion units continuously flowing through it.

"That's enough energy to power a big city for an entire year, one touch and it could evaporate you!"

Seven looked at me with a blank expression, then at the crystal before slowly moving away from it. I don't understand. It's true that Glassume could handle that kind of charge, that's why it's used in space gates. But would that be possible in its raw form? Without any kind of refining? In the first place where does all that energy come from?

"Em… Lilia, if that rock contains that much energy, then what about that one?"

At the center of the room, a crystal so large in size connected the floor and the ceiling. A number of smaller crystals surrounded it. If the one we scanned is anything to go by, the one at the center might contain enough energy to light up an entire continent.

We carefully made our way inside. Seven noticed some kind of pattern engraved beneath the glass floor. It spread in every direction and seems to be concentrated around the crystals which I thought were placed around randomly but now they look like they’re a part of some kind of formation.

“Is this a giant magic circle?” Seven commented. He already revealed to me that he didn’t actually know how to use magic, but before I could ask him how he’d know he placed a hand on my mouth, he then put a finger on his telling me to stay silent.

There is something here. Behind the largest crystal at the center. Squinting my eyes I noticed there is some kind of fur on it. Did some animal make a nest down here? We circled around, making sure to make no noise while leaving as much distance between us and the center as possible. I prepared my spear on Seven's orders, heating the blade as we walked. This isn't something like the night crawlers, if a living creature is comfortable enough to make a nest in this place then there is no questioning its ability to kill us.

Little by little, the beast came to view, and I felt my soul leave my body.

"... A Verta?"