Even though night had long since fallen by now and darkness reigned supreme on this little island in the middle of nowhere, Robin checked the chassis and systems of the Melody II as diligently as possible once more. Was it the fourth time? The fifth? He didn’t know anymore. His head was throbbing like hell and the whole situation was a massive shitshow with Keran as the protagonist.

With a sigh he left the ship and returned to the fire that marked the middle of their newly established camp a bit further in on the island. Ang’Tue, Patience and Timothy were sitting around the campsite, Keran was lying on a makeshift bed a few meters away - still unconscious.

“How is it?” Timothy asked when Robin returned from his inspection.

“Tough? Fucked up? A mess? Just choose one of them…” He scowled, but then remembered to pull himself together - even if they were more like a group of friends journeying together, he was the captain and they needed a captain right now.

“Sorry.” He said in a low voice and sat down next to him, “Not everything is bad. The Melody seems to be fine, I couldn’t find any critical damage - she needs a paint job, but apart from that she should be ready to go. The Sentinel’s wreckage also stopped smoldering. No noteworthy energy levels could be detected anymore. How is the situation here?”

“We have food for two days and as long as it doesn’t start to rain, this camp will do. Ang’Tue already assured us that rain is quite the rarity in the Mystic Sea due to the storm. So we should be good for now.” Patience explained and Ang’Tue took over.

“The human is still unconscious, however his bleeding completely stopped and the wound began to close.” He said and a thoughtful expression crept on his face, “A marveling mutation that is. He should be able to fully heal himself if enough time is given… time and nutrition. His body needs massive amounts of energy to sustain the rapid healing process.”

“How long do we have?” Robin asked with a stern face.

“We can support his healing for 12 hours, 14 at most.” The alien said, “After that his body will stop the workings of the regeneration-mutation…”

“He will not be stable by then, will he?” Timothy asked.

“No, if that happens, he will quickly succumb to his wound.” Ang’Tue shook his head.

“We could go back to call for help…” Patience said.

“Yeah, but Keran isn’t in a condition to travel, so we would have to go back to get the help here but have no chance to return in time - and not with the Hubble. While the big ship could land on this island, we wouldn’t be able to find the way in the first place.”

“If you and Ang’Tue go back, you could notify the others and have Niu follow you in the Hubble while you two are leading the way in the Melody.” Timothy suggested.

* Estimated time to travel between here and the mainland: 5 hours

* Navigating the Mystic Sea by night is not recommended

Robin sighed and shook his head.

“You are right mate, but we won’t be able to find the mainland by night - your words. Everything is dark and navigation is offline. Let’s hope we are fast enough when the sun rises tomorrow. For now, try to get a bit of sleep. Our bodies are in dire need of rest.”

Patience and Timothy both nodded and retreated from the campfire to a place next to Keran. They each had one of the last two sleeping bags that were stored in the Melody. Most other things had been in the Sentinel and were lost in the explosion.

Despite all the worries on their minds, it didn’t take long before Robin heard the snoring of Patience from within the darkness. He wasn’t wrong, they needed to rest. With the exception of Timothy, everyone else had to use recovery stims. The armored suits prevented the worst, but Patience and Robin both still had gotten many bad bruises and 4 or 5 shallow wounds from bullets which managed to penetrate the armor.

Ang’Tue, who didn't have an armor, got pretty nasty burns from the hit he took. But at least his limb wasn’t torn off - could have gone worse for him.

The two men sat in silence for a long time, just following their own thoughts and staring into the flames.

“Was it worth it?” Robin finally spoke, “I mean, revealing yourself and the fact that the Eltaran are still out there, hiding from the rest of the universe? Why would you risk so much just for the copy of some data?”

Ang’Tue kept quiet and just raked the dying fire a bit.

“It is…” He said after a long time, “Your friends, Keran and Timothy, they probably aren’t high enough in the hierarchy of the UAS. But the leaders of most of the sentient races and institutions like the UAS should be well aware that the Eltaran are still around. Even if they were oblivious, haven’t you heard the rumors? The Keeper are returning. Do you really think the universe’s knowledge collectors don’t know about the state of the Eltaran?”

Now it was Robin’s turn to remain silent and ponder about the question.

“It still has severe consequences, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does. Every manhunter, slaver and many bored mercenaries will see this as a chance to make big profit. A living Eltaran is worth a fortune.”

“Then…” Robin said, “I’ll repeat my question: Was it worth it?”

“...”

“Yes. The data will hopefully help all my people to regain… to recuperate.” Ang’Tue said and now sounded like the old man he was for the first time.

“All my people? This isn’t only about the fate of your race, is it?”

“Each generation of the Eltaran has… more problems than the one before.” He said and hesitated for a moment before he ultimately decided to continue, “I have a little granddaughter. She’s only 9 years old, but she will probably not make it past 15…”

“Burn in plasma…” Robin muttered, refraining from any other comment. Ang’Tue shared much more than reasonable with this piece of information.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

‘The Eltaran are about to go extinct - they’ve reached their last generation…’

“Why are you here? I heard Keran say that you’ll profit the most from finding the laboratory. How is that?” The old man changed the topic.

“He knows me well!” Robin chuckled, “Obviously I’ll not gain more than the Eltaran, but from mankind’s perspective? Heh...”

“Your G-Anomaly? It isn’t normal…” Ang’Tue sharply concluded.

“Yeah, the UAS doesn’t know what exactly is going on, but I’m sure they can make good guesses on my situation already.” Robin explained, “I had a few encounters that changed part of my G-Anomaly…”

Slowly he told his story in a shortened version and without mentioning the most secret parts, but he still gave the Eltaran a pretty good summary. When he finished, the man looked at him and then began to laugh.

“For a moment I wondered if you told me all that as some kind of exchange for all the secrets you’ve learned through me. But that isn’t the case, right? Not only, at least… you want to use the facility to fix or upgrade your mutation but even if you find the laboratory and the needed machines are there - you still would have no idea what to do. You are looking for my help!”

“Guilty as charged!” Robin shrugged, there was no need to hide it. The Eltaran was his best chance to upgrade his mutation.

“I’ll see what I can do if the time comes.” Ang’Tue said and gave him a nod.

“Thanks! There is another question I wanted to ask, if I may?”

“Sure, what’s on your mind?”

“Let’s say…” Robin began and gave an awkward smile, “Just hypothetically of course, someone got a part of his brain removed. The part that is responsible for color vision. This person would see everything in grayscale from then on. If you would meet someone like that, who is searching for a way to regain his color vision, what would you suggest to him? Is that something the Eltaran could help with?”

“That is a… very specific question for a constructed, hypothetical scenario!” Ang’Tue laughed and Robin just shrugged, not giving any more away.

“The problem isn’t trivial however, you said the brain matter was completely removed? That would shut out most of the solutions Eltaran-science could provide, I think. I assume this totally made-up person is a human and has already checked mankind’s medical- and technical approaches?”

“Yeah, let’s say it is like that. Any other ideas? Any leads one could follow?” Robin nodded.

“I think you will need some kind of technological substitute or support, combined with a training- and relearning-process of the brain. You should go and look for a Mohait I think - or find yourself a Keeper, they would definitely know.” Ang’Tue said.

“Me? You mean the person in this hypothetical scenario!”

“Naturally!”

Robin mused about that a bit while he watched the gray flames of the fire dancing in the night.

“Thank you, thank you very much…” He finally muttered and stood up to leave.

“You’re welcome. Where are you heading?”

“I’ll take a look at the site where the robots appeared. Maybe I’ll find something… anything. I’m worried for Keran.”

“Be careful, we only checked the first 3rd of the island and are not up for another fight like that.”

“I know, no worries.” Robin said and walked into the darkness, lost in thoughts about what Ang’Tue had told him.

‘There is no simple solution, is there?... Damnit, I’ll kick this stupid AI’s ass when I get it back online!’

When he arrived near the three holes in the ground, he stopped the grumbling of curses and obscenities and activated his senses again.

“Nothing. There is nothing else in the ground…”

Just like before, he could sense not even a hunch of energy below the surface. He didn’t give up, though. He hadn’t sensed the robots with his casual sensing at first and if he had focused even harder, maybe he would have found them.

Only after many more attempts, Robin finally slumped down, his head hurt like hell and the frustration was making concentrating only harder.

“You really think there is more to this, than what we see with the naked eye?” Ang’Tue said and appeared next to another hole.

“Holy mother, fuck! You scared the shit out of me!” Robin yelped in surprise.

“Sorry, old habits…”

“Ugh… whatever. I don’t know what I’m looking for. There are a few things that are bugging me. For one, I didn’t sense the robots - so who knows what else I have missed? And the other thing… The more I think about it, the more one question is pestering me: If this isn’t the last island, what the hell do we have to expect on the next one? What else are your ancestors going to throw at us? Do they really wanna see us dead?”

“I see where you are coming from, yes. However, I don’t think that they really wanted everyone that comes close to the laboratory dead - the bots even attack Eltaran. I’m sure it’s more like a test than a deathtrap.”

“If it’s a test, how much do they want to raise the level? They can’t really expect huge, fully armed combat teams to come. They should have thought about a situation like this, where only a small group of explorers or scientists came looking. They probably assumed it to be all Eltaran, not humans or other races, but that aside…?”

“So you think the facility is under this island?” Ang’Tue asked, looking around expectantly as if a building would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

“As I said: I don’t know. It’s just that something feels off. Also, I didn’t find any other Guide-Star so far. Last time, they were close to the ambush sites.”

“But we did only search one third of the island, it’s possible that there are more robots buried here.”

“I know. I’ll give it just a few more tests and then call it a day.” Robin said and stood up. He walked over to one of the holes and jumped down. Like on the other islands, these holes were just some metallic boxes hidden in the ground with a cover that looked like the earth above.

An Echo Pulse gave nothing away.

Another one.. Nothing.

A scan with his main skill.. Nothing.

Another one.. Nothing.

“Ah, fuck this!” He cursed and climbed back out.

“Well, wouldn’t it be more reasonable to assume that Ang’Tue would be the key to find anything, if there was something hidden here?” Timothy said as he came closer.

“Hey buddy, why are you not sleeping?”

“Because you are cursing loudly in the middle of the night…” He scoffed.

“Yeah, point taken, sorry.”

“I think you are right.” Ang’Tue chimed in, “My blood also is the key to activate the Guide-Stars, so why should it be different with the entry to the facility?”

“You wanna splatter your blood all around here and see what happens? That sounds like a quick way to die of blood loss - it’s a big island!” Robin objected.

“Let’s try it at least here…” The Eltaran said and pulled up his sleeves. With trained ease he cut his arm again and dropped his blood in one of the holes. With expectant faces all three looked at the little puddle.

When nothing happened after half a minute, Timothy shrugged.

“Well, it was worth the try!”

Ang’Tue stepped to the other two holes and also let a bit of his blood drop into each of them.

“Leave it be, we will find it tomorrow after we stabilize Keran’s condition… somehow.” Robin said wearily and turned to leave with Timothy.

He took only a few steps before he suddenly heard a deep rumbling behind him…

> IMPORTANT NOTICE

>

> Please take a look at the following Author Note!