As Alistair and Riseth got closer to the craft, Simon finally contacted them over the Akashic Link, letting them know what they were going to be dealing with.
"Well, it's not a combat craft, the opposite, in fact. It's a pleasure craft. From what little they have written out, it carried mostly tourists from out of the system. Apparently, the order was to shoot down everything in orbit, and they destroyed it despite security concerns of outside interference. However, they left it at one shot into the center mass." James explained over the link.
"No retaliation?" Alistair inquired curiously.
"Not from what we know. If the people on board died, they were presumably from another weak planet and were unwilling to attack a planet that is already in a full-blown world war," James speculated as they approached the Deonida.
Alistair would have preferred a combat craft, though a pleasure craft could contain some tech they had not found yet and could be refurbished or salvaged for fancy crew quarters. Alistair slowed down to adjust his speed to the incoming Deonida. He had been occasionally hit by debris he failed to dodge but used the stored kinetic energy to replenish his lost [HP] and [Qi] with the use of his Arcane Energy Manipulation skill.
As they approached, Alistair gained a better look at the exterior of what appeared to be a remarkably opulent spacecraft, albeit marred by numerous punctures and breaches. Despite its current state of disrepair, the vessel still retained remnants of its former elegance, with graceful curves and sleek, polished surfaces reminiscent of a luxurious cruise liner in space. The transitions between sections exuded an aura of elegance and grandeur, indicative of its status as a vessel designed for affluent passengers. It was absolutely massive, and Alistair guessed it must have been at least 500 meters in length alone, sporting multiple decks. Most noticeable was a massive, mostly shattered, see-through sphere at the ship's stern, which would have let people see outside of the craft as the rest lacked windows.
"We gotta remove as much of the trashed material and stuff we don't need from the craft as possible to save space, especially any bodies still left in there. Disposing of them here will be much easier than once we are back on the surface," Alistair concluded as he noticed a body floating nearby.
Riseth followed his gaze and nodded. "This is going to suck. Let's do this as fast as possible. I'll start at the front, and you can head to the back. You should be able to access it through that shattered sphere."
"Alright, let me know when something comes up," Alistair responded as he flew toward the mostly shattered sphere.
As he approached the sphere, he inspected it more closely. It was clearly some kind of glass composite and not some kind of polycarbonate like he had expected. The occasional body floated within the sphere, though most were stuck on the non-broken parts of the sphere. Alistair went to do the grim work and toss the alien bodies through the cracks. Notably, some of the more humanoid bodies looked old, even with the slight mummification going on. Alistair suspected them to have been elderly at their point of death. He would not have thought there would be societies with elderly people taking star cruises with the introduction of magic. Then again, it was a multiverse and vast beyond imagination, and he could already see many people growing content with their roles and slightly extended life spans, choosing to follow others or dedicate themselves to crafting rather than risk their lives for advancement. He relayed his finds over the link; Riseth had found much of the same and was busy tossing out the bodies through the holes. Alistair doubted they would be able to dispose of all the bodies before they were forced to store the craft as they left the safe zone.
As he shifted another body, he noticed one gripping an intricate, spiraled glass emitting a subtle magical aura. Closer inspection revealed a dark liquid within, its container enchanted to prevent spills. Similar glasses were strewn about, with a sizable cluster at the chamber's center, where a damaged circular bar was anchored to the top and bottom of the ship. After securing the glass and using telekinetic magic to move the remaining bodies, he approached the bar. Fortunately, all the bottles were sealed, which made sense since open bottles would inevitably spill. Alistair suspected people were able to float inside this sphere without gravity and enjoy the view of space with the bar located in the center. He collected the bottles and glasses just in case before proceeding to toss out the rest of the bodies.
After finishing up in the sphere, he entered through one of the open airlocks connected to the rest of the ship. However, he had to pry his way into the ship with his poleaxe, which wasn't the best tool, but it got the job done. The interior was lined by carpets and strange chandelier-like outcroppings made of gold lining the wall. They held light crystals, which seemed to have lost their inherent magical charge and would require the ship to be powered to fuel them. He noticed a sign that pointed back to the sphere, and it read Grav-Pool, pretty much confirming his suspicion. The arrow pointing in the other direction translated to Holodeck, among some less interesting locations.
As Alistair made his way to the holodeck, he tossed bodies through gaps in the hull. Most of the crew he encountered belonged to a purple, roughly humanoid species with four legs and a single set of arms. They had five eyes arranged in an X shape on their foreheads, with their mouths located on the sides of their skulls. His Identify skill revealed that they were a species called Didasier. Riseth then called in, reporting that she had found the ship's bridge. It was mostly intact and could be salvaged for useful parts or refurbished for use in a new craft.
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As he reached the holodeck, which was located closer to the center of the craft, he noticed how the damage to the interior lessened. However, the number of locked doors and bodies increased, making disposal of them harder. Regardless of what they did, they would pay people to scour the remains of the craft and dispose of the leftover bodies once they stored the Deonida. The storage cube Alistair carried on himself had given the green light, so they did not need to decouple a built-in storage mechanism. He was half tempted to give up on clean-up duty and tell Nessy he would rather they paid for the service, especially as one body broke apart as he tried to toss it out of a hole in the hull.
The holodeck was a large open space with strange crystals and spheres embedded into the walls. One would need to clean up the dried-out blood smeared on the walls and floors. Alistair could not test the infrastructure without it being powered, but most of the magical circuitry seemed intact. He relayed this as well and got a request to check the lower decks for the reactors and see how many the ship had and if any could be salvaged.
Riseth had made pretty much the same conclusion as she talked to James over the link. "We can't check the functionality of these components without restoring power to the craft, but the circuitry looks mostly intact," Riseth noted. "Salvaging this ship and getting a room extension for your workshop should still be a worthwhile investment."
"I second that, but we will also need people who are willing to clean out the leftover bodies," Alistair added.
"Alright, I'll send Nessyra a request," James responded, considering the ship's condition. "By the time we're finished here, she should have everything prepared. According to the scanner data, it seems we'll need to repurpose the ship's interior compartments. Much of the ship's exterior and hull structure uses materials that are too fragile for our purposes, so we'll focus on salvaging what we can and discarding the damaged sections to save time."
Alistair still thought it was too bad that this wasn't a combat craft, but some of the rooms he had broken into had revealed quite luxurious quarters, and he would not mind James repurposing the passenger quarters. Alistair spotted a large hole leading down and decided to use the shortcut rather than following the intended paths, quickly reaching the crew-only corridors, which were significantly less fancy. There were three reactor chambers, one of which had been pierced and could, at best, be used for the rare materials floating around. The other two had also been damaged but to a much lesser extent, though Alistair understood too little about engines and had to share his vision with James.
"It's hard to tell without inspecting it with my skills," James admitted, "but worst-case scenario, I could potentially merge components from the two less damaged chambers into one. Their designs are slightly different from the ones the Artemis has, so I am curious to see which one is better suited to our needs."
Alistair and Riseth continued to scour the Deonida. Though most of the pleasure crafts were entertainment-based modules and restaurants and private quarters of the passengers, there were no strong magic items on any of the bodies either. However, they did find a fair share of storage items, which Alistair and Riseth integrated into their own storage whenever they found one. Unlike most of the other debris found in orbit, the Deonida, while riddled with many holes, was still in one piece, so Alistair and Riseth did not need to try and connect or collect the individual pieces of the craft and were able to store it in the modified high capacity cube.
Alistair could not help but admire the cube, which now contained an entire spaceship. "Man, I love magic," he commented as he put away the cube. The gruesome task from earlier was put in the back of his mind.
Riseth approached Alistair and watched him admire the cube in his hand. She enjoyed watching him mess with magic as his genuine smile stirred something within her. His smile when he saw her approach was just as genuine, and she again counted her lucky stars to have met him. He embodied many of the good legends about humans Neshan had to offer, which was in stark contrast to many other Humans she had met by now. Particularly, the arena or the gathering held by Sol had its fair share of humans who had viewed her more as a toy or pet than a person. She was glad Alistair had not been around for it, as it would have upset him greatly. For a moment there, she had wished the Nurturing Ward would allow violence as the snide remarks and lustful degrading comments. Riseth had talked to Nessy and convinced her to get Alistair and his family first, as nothing good would come from them being stuck on that planet and getting potentially involved in their matters. She could see Alistair wanting to help those abused by the more vile of his kind. Earth would most likely be a hotspot of Blackmarket activity unless Sol clamped down on it. As far as she knew, Alistair had not read the documentation of Earth as thoroughly as she had; the document included everything that was not widely known to the general populace, and much of what she had read had disgusted her to her core.
Riseth had quietly suggested to Nessyra not to bring it up during the last clan meeting, knowing the details would likely deeply disturb many members. After the Initiation, the shady dealings of the secret oligarchy stretching the entire globe were taking a backseat to the rise of former puppet nations as independent factions. Whether these factions would truly embody their intended roles remained uncertain. Many of them were still butting heads over pre-initiation discord sowed by the oligarchy, and Riseth wasn't holding her breath for them to pull through. Sol truly was their best chance as he represented the general beliefs of the people of Earth through the ages and not necessarily the truth beneath the surface, though she was worried Sol had taken on some aspects of this as well.
Riseth knew her homeworld would be considered a Plutocracy and had its own fair share of flaws. She had found countless accounts of some quite upsetting dealings, especially of the less scrupulous corporations, like horrid body experimentation on individuals against their will and discarded or used. However, she had found evidence of the same on Earth and worse things that made her stomach churn. She watched Alistair as they descended back to the surface in the Artemis, and he smiled back at her. She was sure he had an inkling of all this but stayed willfully ignorant and had not looked into his world's dark corners and envied him for it. She would likely need to discuss this with him at some point, but not now. For now, she would let him spoil her as she leaned into him.