Deep under the surface of Gaunus’ oceans mankind had built a complex system of laboratories for science and research, workshops, offices, living quarters and establishments for entertainment.

The UAS commander in charge of this station, Mr. Ramones, was sitting in his office and observed the many screens on his desk. Different reports about daily activities of the UAS personnel were shown, together with a video-feed of a medical examination room and the personal file of his latest guest, the technocrafter Robin Tulward.

Ramones was quite interested in that man. He had no noteworthy background and a pretty basic mutation. His deceased parents as well as his friends also were unremarkable - with the exception of the rogue Alaris-child, which was also on Gaunus right now.

However, even before Tulward met the girl at the Apex Highspeed Cup, anomalies began to stack up on his personal records.

The officer scrolled through a long list of lucky and unlucky encounters the technocrafter had experienced over the last months and once again stopped at one of the last entries.

“What did you find in that Drel outpost? What are you hiding?”

Ramones massaged his temples while discarding one theory after another.

“All just unfounded assumptions... Hopefully the scan will shed some light onto this mess.”

While he couldn’t act on whatever the checkup would reveal - the UAS was way too lenient with the contract - he at least would know which stone he had to turn.

A bit of excitement built up in him. Maybe he would be able to get a lead on some new AI tech or some body-enhancements the UAS was still unaware of. Not only showed Tulward’s profile too many strange coincidences for him to be just ‘some random dude’, he had already seen the anomalies personally!

If the UAS didn’t want to dig deeper in consideration of building a lasting, friendly relationship with the man, he would have to be the one to ask the right questions, the one to demand answers and the one to reveal the truth - one way or another. For the sake of mankind, no collateral damage would be too high.

Luckily he didn’t have to wait any longer. On the video-feed screen, he saw the technocrafter enter the medical lab and be welcomed by his assistant, Akemi Watanabe. They exchanged some greetings and even though Ramones could see the unwillingness on Tulward’s face, the man actually played by the rules and laid down on the stretcher. Watanabe put on all the diodes and started the scanner.

With anticipation, Ramones watched the machine running through the tests. Blood- and saliva analytics, radiation measures and x-ray scans were conducted in rapid succession. Obviously they were running some more tests in the background - gene analytics and even a basic scan of the Neuro-Chip. Ramones knew, Watanabe knew and even Tulward knew. But the latter couldn’t file a complaint without any proof and proof was hard to find.

After only a few minutes everything was done and his assistant removed all the cables and diodes from Tulward, who tried hard to keep his raging fury in check.

“A good sign!” Ramones concluded, “This will not have been for naught.”

While the two in the medical center were discussing the official results, which were pretty normal, Ramones finally got a message with the full report attached. Quickly he found the two most important parts.

[*** Info ***]

* G-Anomaly detected

* Match found

* Identification: 100%

* Class E - Minor Energy Senses

[*** Info ***]

[*** Info ***]

* Neuro-Chip analyzed

* 2 Matches found

* Basic CBT665, Probability: 71%

* Basic CBT664, Probability: 26%

[*** Info ***]

“What? That… that cannot be!” Ramones yelled and ripped the screen from his desk in a fit of anger. With a crash the display shattered on a nearby wall. With a face red of fury, the officer stormed out of his office and hurried towards the medical facility.

The results were bullshit. He was sure of that. Class E - Minor Energy Senses was pretty much what Tulward was analyzed with after he got his mutation. The official explanation was that his G-Anomaly didn’t change, but ‘his brain got better at processing the feedback from his senses’. The ability to sense Æther was just a happy anomaly in his mutation.

And the Neuro-Chip? Ramones had read Robin’s profile more than once and knew he officially got the standard model that most of the UAS citizens had implanted, a CBT665 - just as the scan suggested.

When he arrived at the examination room, his guest was just about to leave. The officer tried to calm himself down and put on his best friendly face. He introduced himself and welcomed Tulward as if he really was just some random dude from Rucasur.

However, Ramones knew that Robin Tulward was more… so much more.

‘Neither does an Energy Sense-mutation bestow such extraordinary senses, nor is any known Neuro-Chip so power-hungry…’ He thought as he watched the head of the leaving technocrafter that was glowing bright blue in his vision.

***

Robin tried to suppress the shaking of his feet until he arrived at his room. After entering, he immediately slumped down on the couch and concentrated on his breathing to calm his racing heart.

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

“Too close… damn!” He cursed. Guard had warned him before, but somehow it never really sunk in - if they found out what his real gains from the Drel outpost were, no agreement or contract would prevent the UAS from dissecting him from head to toe.

Only now that he was directly confronted with this kind of situation, did he realize how carefree he had been the last few weeks. This time he got lucky. He was able to craft a small version of the drone’s Interface-connector and smuggle it in the medcenter so ROMAS could access the system and change the reading from the scans in real time. But that was probably a one-time solution, who knew what they would try next time?

“Ramones… There will be a ‘next time’, right?” Robin muttered while he watched the little messages in his Interface.

* Ramones knows you’re hiding crucial information (91%)

* Ramones knows the scan was manipulated (78%)

* Ramones knows about your mutation (7%)

* Ramones knows about your Neuro-Chip (4%)

He had no idea why the commander of this station was so sure that something was off with his story, but even without ROMAS Robin had realized that the man was fuming like a volcano right before it exploded.

Also, he agreed with ROMAS on the second part. If the man had any clear indication of his mutation or his Neuro-Chip, Robin wouldn't be lying here on his couch, but sitting chained up in some lab waiting for further testing.

“Time to get off this planet. Gaining some distance from this bloodhound. Hutton had warned me already and I don’t wanna find out how much he is willing to bend the rules to achieve his goals.”

After resting a bit, Robin got up and went to his workstation. It was time to check out the team that the UAS had arranged so far.

The list was actually pretty short, with only six members assigned to the mission.

Robin himself would be the ‘captain in training’ as the file described it, as well as the engineer. Keran would obviously also be aboard and get the role of team leader, which is mostly related to his team of scientists that they will meet later on. But Keran also had the job of mentoring Robin.

He did agree with this, as Keran seemed to be a reasonable, affable man and he could see himself really learn something from the experienced explorer.

The third member was a guy called Enzo Abivatto. He will be the pilot and his file listed a really impressive career with many intersystem-flights and even two galaxy-jumps. That man knows what he is doing.

Members four to six were for security. A pair of brother and sister, Sevastian and Alena Vlasov, led by Harold L. Pierce. While the siblings had already worked together, the assignment to Pierce was new. This mission probably was a good way to get a bit of training for this trio.

“Okay, I really wanna have my own research- and science-guy… time to give Timothy a call!” That was the only thing he was really sure of. He wanted to have his friend aboard - the geek had stuck his nose long enough into the Drel outpost.

“For security, hm…” Robin mused. He really wanted to have Patience on his team, however he neither saw the siblings splitting up nor Patience taking over the leading position for security.

“Yeah, definitely not! So, I’ll open another slot for her - assigning her under Pierce… if she even wants to come that is.”

Looking at the list some more and studying the profiles again, Robin had an idea. It was only a faint chance, but maybe…

Just as he was about to make a few calls to Rucasur, a new message popped up. It was also from Keran and when Robin saw the updated list with the UAS-crew, a bright smile formed on his face.

Quickly he deleted the file of Enzo Abivatto and exchanged it with the one of Niu Alaris - an ‘inexperienced but highly motivated’ pilot.

“Now this will become a proper adventure!” He cheered and sent a short message to Happy, congratulating her on that decision.

***

“Robin? How are you doing?” Timothy asked after ROMAS opened a comm channel.

“Hey mate! I’m doing fine. I’m on Gaunus right now and maaaan - you need to see that! There is water all over the planet. It’s crazy!” Robin exclaimed, happy to hear the voice of his friend.

“I’ve seen it on the News before, it really seems to be an impressive sight. But believe me, you have to see this! I’m at the Drel outpost and the stuff here is awesome, dozens of new machines, weapons and tools which purpose we still don't know.”

“Well, yeah I have seen it… you remember, I kind of discovered the place?” Robin chuckled.

“Huh? Oh, yes, right. Whatever, why are you calling? Gaming is off the table for now, too much to do…” Timothy said.

“Didn’t you already loot enough of that place? Time to go on the next adventure!”

“What? No! I could spend my whole life here and still wouldn’t be able to learn everything there is to learn. I can’t leave now.”

“Huh… dude, there is so much else to explore, don’t linger too long on only one small part of this endless universe.” Robin tried to pursue him.

“No way man, really. This is a great opportunity for me that might not come again.” Timothy actually denied him once more.

“We have our own ship, one fitted for research…”

“Sounds great, but still no!”

“There are pretty girls in the crew…”

“That… you are playing dirty!” Timothy wailed, “But no, not going!”

“Huh.. how unexpected” Robin muttered, “Well, that’s kind of embarrassing now - I was sure you would join in…”

“What do you mean ‘embarrassing’? How sure?” Timothy questioned with a hesitant voice.

*Cough* Robin cleared his throat, “Sure enough to hand in your profile for review just an hour ago.”

“What? Are you crazy?” Timothy exclaimed in panic.

“There is good news though…!” Robin tried to salvage the situation.

“You can withdraw my file?”

“Uhm, no. But the UAS HQ evaluated you as ‘highly compatible’ with this mission.”

“How is that good news? Now they will definitely assign me to that expedition!”

“Yeah, but you have to see it from another perspective… the UAS obviously assesses you as a competent scientist!”

“I already knew th..” Timothy whimpered, all hope lost, but Robin interrupted him.

“Whatever, great to have you aboard, mate! I’ll have to make some more calls, see ya in a few weeks at most!”

Quickly he closed the comm and sat back on his couch, laughing hard at the antics of his friend. They knew each other long enough that Robin was well aware that Timothy would really try to remain at the Drel outpost until he took his last breath.

Every now and then the researcher had to be forced to his luck. But of course Robin didn’t shut him out of the Drel-project once and for all - he had requested Timothy as a temporary member and asked the UAS to let him return to Ruca II, if he didn’t want to keep exploring after the mission was done.

Putting that aside, he steadied his breath and ordered ROMAS to open the next comm. It took some time before the new channel was opened.

“Tulward? To what do I owe the honor of this call?”

“You saved my life, literally. Of course I’d give you a call to thank you!” Robin chuckled but meant every word he said.

“Huh.. thanks I guess? So, what do you want?” Landom Walzor asked.

“I wanna offer you a position as team leader of a small security unit for an upcoming expedition, interested?”