Mevi fidgeted with the glove as she and Alestair walked away from the ship her meeting was on. As the pair of them fully exited, the Slipaway Connector closed with a hiss and clank. Alestair hastened their pace, so Mevi followed as close behind as she could. As they walked she caught glimpses of Alestair glancing at her more than a couple times, but he never mentioned anything that he may or may not have seen or heard.
As the two of them stopped in front of a short connector, Alestair quickly bid Mevi farewell. He seemed to be quite busy, so Mevi didn’t think twice about it as one of his attendants told her about her crew and ship. The vessel that would ferry her down to the surface was considered an “Escort Boat”, though the classification meant nothing to her. The ship had a stationed crew of ten loyal acolytes and initiates, with a single steward as its pilot. The ship apparently only had two decks, the main deck of the ship held small cabins for guests and a synthesizer for food. The lower deck held the crew’s quarters as well as the bridge with the attached captain’s cabin. The ship was apparently “barely 50 meters long, but it will serve well for quick transport.”
As Mevi and her new escort entered the short Slipaway Connector they quickly exited onto the main deck of the ‘small’ ship and she was greeted by a host of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Abuzz with activity and work were the crew of her transport, standing along the opposite wall of the entrance were Mevi’s chosen companions and two others. Standing in wait for her, Hellion, Zelkan, Saerin, Ouapi, along with two identical sentinels and a well-dressed, and extravagantly decorated, masked individual. For a brief moment Mevi rushed forward when she saw the first sentinel, eager to meet her protector again, but as she noticed the appearance of a second she hesitated. Mevi hadn’t realized how identical the sentinels were until now.
Walking forward, her eyes on the two stiff protectors standing at attention, Mevi cautiously said farewell to her attendant. The two sentinels were identical save for one thing: one kept a pair of huge swords on their back while the other wielded what seemed to be a more elegant and keen blade and massive shield. Both massive warriors held long rifles fit with technological wizardry and a pair of holstered smaller guns at their hips, yet the smaller guns were still large enough Mevi would probably need two hands to wield one. Mevi watched them as she approached her companions, who almost seemed to be waiting for her reaction or some kind of command. Mevi desperately hoped her sentinel was among the two here, and as she stared with worry she fidgeted with the soft glove and unconsciously caressed the smooth purple gemstone. As she did she could feel the gemstone become warm to touch, and her senses heightened. She could smell the expertly-disguised scent of rugged oil and sweat hidden under powerful scent eliminators. The sounds of clanking work echoed through the deck from down below and the clicking of heels as her patient attendants shifted in place. As she focused further she could hear something strange, it was almost like breathing… Air, or something that sounded like a breath, was coming from the two sentinels of all things; it hissed and had hints of intense heat, but the sound was almost unmistakably similar to quiet breathing. The quiet sounds she heard from the large warriors made them feel more alive and louder than she had ever noticed before.
As the strange heightened focus and extreme sensation grew further, Mevi felt she could feel something deeper than basic sounds. She felt a strange energy coming from the bodies around her. Saerin glowed with purple curiosity and pink optimism. Zelkan held a brown pride riddled with yellow worry. Ouapi was a gray content with a regal blue. While Hellion had a kaleidoscope of glowing emotions and powerful warmth. The two sentinels held almost identical radiations, a white and cold blank filled their souls, but one of them was infected; a soft hue of duty and weak sense of care was glowing orange and green. A slight swirl in the should-be automotus personality.
Mevi felt she knew which one was her protector. Approaching forward, snapping herself out of the strange trance of sensation after putting the glove into a pocket, Mevi’s companions straightened. Walking in front of the sentinel wielding a sword and shield, Mevi placed a hand on the ornate golden armored gauntlet, “I am glad you’re with me again.” she said gently. The Sentinel looked down but gave no response, but with the still-lingering mystical focus Mevi felt she noticed a swell in the Sentinel’s green spiral.
Hellion clapped, walking out of line over to Mevi. The other sentinel, drawing their two swords in a flash, stepped forward protectively between him and its mistress. Reminiscent of how protective and easily provoked the Sentinel also is, Mevi quickly waved it to the side. No longer under threat, Hellion laughed, “I was take’n a bet to see if you could tell em ‘part, little lady. Looks like my win!”
“I never agreed to a bet, I simply said there is no difference between them so our lady wouldn’t tell the difference.” Zelkan defended himself.
“But I won too, Zel! You can’t back out just because you lost!” Saerin added.
The three began their bickering, it made Mevi’s mood lift a little to see how friendly they had become in such a short time. Ouapi approached Mevi, and the new sentinel made no attempt to bar her steps. Urging the decorated fellow to follow next to her, Ouapi introduced the new face, “This is Steward Laer’kin, of the naval vocation. He will be your pilot, guide, and crew intermediary for this assignment.”
“And hopefully many more, my lady!” Laer’kin said with an elegant bow.
“He has studied the geography of our destination through personal scans and available information. I am told he is quite capable.”
“Well, i’d not want to brag, but before I was accepted by the Magi I was my colony’s foremost scout and pathfinder. I can get you just about anywhere and almost always in one piece!”
“Please endeavor to keep us in one piece, Captain Laer’kin.” Mevi replied with a smile.
With the bickering about bets and debts resolved, the captain introduced his crew quickly as they ran past still preparing the ship for travel. The crew were energetic and excited, apparently on their fifth re-check of the ship to ensure its safety and readiness. They all acted with impressive formality despite most of them still being Initiates with a few Acolytes as officers. As Mevi toured the ship, the captain eventually led her to an elevator of sorts leading to the lower deck. The small and cramped space seemed to barely fit the Sentinel if they leaned forward, the only other entryway were various entry hatches with ladders that the captain insisted “Our lady should not exert herself while on my ship! The crew have almost certainly made those passages filthy with oil and dust!” When the captain left, Mevi’s two protectors attempted to follow her below deck but quickly realized how difficult it would be to fit both of their large bodies in the elevator at the same time. Mevi witnessed, for the first time, what she could only assume was a sentinel-to-sentinel conversation. The two massive warriors stopped short of the entryway and began a sort of intense staring contest. Their full helms blocked any facial expression, their bodies didn’t move in any perceivable way, and no sound was made. Yet for a few short moments, no longer than a second or two, the two of them stared directly at each other with great intensity. Eventually the new sentinel turned its back and stationed itself in front of the elevator door. Mevi’s Sentinel led her into the elevator, standing just behind her while leaning forward to avoid touching the ceiling.
The lower decks were where all the tools, valves, engines, and strange devices were housed. The crew barely had privacy from each other, only a small room with curtains between their bunks. Yet the captain insisted that the living conditions were perfect for their needs, being up and about so often the beds were more or less just a place to fall over into between shifts than to properly sleep. The captain promised their quarters in Magi Odion’s facility, for they were oath-bound to him, were much more accommodating.
When the tour was finished, a sort of buzzing chime sounded. A soft beep started to sound at regular intervals throughout the ship. The captain hustled quickly to get Mevi back to the main deck. “Everyone get to your stations and our esteemed guests I request you retire to your cabins.” he insisted, “That chime means ships are about to break away and the beeping is a proximity alert to be aware of potential turbulence. The stabilizers will protect from most of the moving and shoving, but just to be safe strap in.”
“Thank you, captain. We are in your hands.” Zelkan said, hurrying to lead Mevi to one of the nearby cabins.
Mevi and her companions quickly retired to their individual cabins, with Mevi’s sentinels stationing themselves in front of the door both inside and out. Zelkan ended up getting himself trapped in Mevi’s cabin due to the Sentinel’s unbudging stance, having taken up the interior guard while the new sentinel took the exterior. Begrudgingly accepting the Sentinel’s silent insistence, Zelkan finished helping Mevi strap herself into a sort of reinforced chair that wrapped around into a half sphere with elegant protective soft, yet firm, padded metal-looking piping and wiring. Zelkan himself took a seat on a nearby chair that was attached to the ship’s wall, it had basic safety straps and he made sure his were properly tied down.
Mevi couldn’t remember the ship taking off when she was first taken by the Magi, was it as chaotic as this? There was a slight rumble beginning that seemed to come from outside, could that be the sound of the bigger ships moving? She swore that she could feel the ship swaying from side to side, grabbing the sides of the chair’s protective shell to keep herself from moving. Zelkan watched Mevi carefully and even the Sentinel’s head tilted slightly down towards her. She could feel a new nervousness forming, being unable to see what was happening outside made her almost scared. The flying transport through the city didn’t frighten her, she could see what was happening outside. Yet here, with no windows or way to know what was happening, the unknown source of the rumbling and shaking was working its way into her nerves and fears.
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Suddenly the captain’s voice started speaking clearly from nowhere but also everywhere throughout the ship, “All right crew! This is our lady’s first real solar sailer ride! Let's give her a smooth one!” a muffled cheer could be heard from somewhere else in the ship, “My lady, don’t worry about a thing. We’ve got some of the best recruits of the bunch working on this vessel and I've only ever crashed into another ship twice in my whole career! Hold on tight and get ready, we’re taking off!” Captain Laer’kin declared with gusto.
With a lurch, loud clanks, and a new set of beeping alarms, the ship was underway. Mevi did her best to hold on, curling up into the chair for safety as the ship began its travel. After detaching from the Barge the ship’s rocking and swaying stopped, the rumbling was only barely noticeable now too, but the joke the captain made made Mevi realize, the ship could very well crash and she could do nothing to stop it.
The ship seemed to fly stable for the duration of its departure. No new announcements sounded and even the two sets of beeping alarms eventually quieted and stopped. After a few more minutes of no strange sounds or alarms Captain Laer’kin sounded from above again, “We’ve cleared away from the rest of the fleet. We are starting our course with haste to the planet and plotted our entry orbit. The deck is safe to walk once more, so feel free to exit and take a look outside!”
Hesitantly, Mevi peaked out from the protective shell of her chair. Zelkan was already unbuckling himself like he was used to this kind of procedure. After another moment of hesitation Mevi began to unbuckle herself as well, Zelkan quickly helping speed up the process. When the both of them were safely exited from their chairs they entered onto the main deck.
Mevi’s companions were already gathered near the front of the ship, they seemed to be staring out of some kind of viewport. Enraptured by whatever they saw outside, not even Ouapi noticed Mevi right away. When she did, Ouapi moved away to let Mevi take a look outside via a real-time screen.
The scene was both beautiful and terrifying. A fleet of ships, golden, silver, shades of black, bronze, and countless others pressed forward with orange light streaming behind them from the engines. No two ships looked even remotely alike. Some were sleek and thin like flying daggers while others bulged and were round like metallic gelatinous masses. Several of the ships moved and shifted parts of themselves as they traveled, while a seldom few seemed to entirely transform from one shape to another mid-flight. It was a massive fleet, all heading in a single direction: Demnos IV.
The fleet was framed by an array of vast stars, sparkling and shining with such intensity that Mevi first thought the viewing screen was actually decorated with jewels. Yet brighter than even the most brilliant distant twinkle was Demnos’ home star. By some trick of the viewing monitor the stars still shone despite the system’s own star in full view and somehow, even staring directly at the surface of the star, Mevi’s eyes didn’t sting or hurt. Demnos was a purple giant of a star, Mevi had caught glimpses of Baes’ star before and it seemed tiny in comparison to Demnos. The purple giant seemed to swirl and writhe with life and activity. Clouds of cosmic stuff jetting out in spectacular displays of light and energy.
Within this frame of brilliant starlight was an impossibly large planet. Mevi could not tell how far they were from the planet, or how far it was from Demnos’ star. Yet the planet, to her view, seemed to almost eclipse the bright purple light erupting behind it. Mevi had no sense for astrology or cosmics, but the scale of these celestial bodies seemed incredible.
Orbiting Demnos IV, Mevi could easily make out at least four small planetoids. Yet they were so small in comparison to their mother planet that they might as well have been pebbles floating around a boulder. The moons shone like sparkling jewels in the radiance of their purple star, reflecting light into pinpoints of a blue-purple array of colors.
The planet itself, in all its titanic glory, was dark as it was framed by the blinding light behind it. Yet even with the bright rays of starlight, Mevi could see something she thought wasn’t real. Across the surface of Demnos IV was spottled specks of blue and large swathes of green. Almost the entire planet’s surface was covered in a thick dark green, with large areas almost checkerboarded by blue. Noticing her bewilderment, Zelkan eagerly explained, “My lady, this is your first time seeing a planet from space, correct?”
Still enraptured by the mysterious picture in front of her, Mevi didn’t even turn to face Zelkan, “Yes, it is… incredible.”
“Would you believe me if I told you those spots of blue were water?”
Mevi snapped her attention towards Zelkan, “That couldn’t be true!”
Yet even as she doubted herself, the largest body of blue on the planet seemed almost to shift and move. Mevi was sure she imagined it. A quantity of water that big? So unfathomably big that it was seen from space? Those sort of tall tales were restricted only to old texts and fairytales. Yet here it was, right in front of her.
The group of them watched the sight for a time longer. Soon Captain Laer’kin rejoined them, deciding to quietly watch the scene with them. After a time of spectacle, Laer’kin approached Mevi, “My lady, regrettably we must close the viewing screen for now.”
“But… Sorry, of course, Captain. May I ask why?” Mevi resigned, disappointed.
“While normally we would allow a full viewing of our landing, the conditions here are… strange, to say the least. The star emits a type of radiation that is dangerous to the internal sensors on our small vessel. We detect extremely small amounts of strange material echoing out of the viewing screens whenever we keep them on for too long. So we must shut them until the material is analyzed and understood.”
“Of course, I understand.” Mevi didn’t understand, but knew it was better to be on the safe side.
Mevi watched the planetoids in the purple star system for a few moments longer before the viewing screen blinked out and disappeared altogether. Leaving nothing but a golden wall in its stead. Mevi hadn’t properly seen such a marvel before, nor had she ever seen a real image of a star; none of the texts she snuck to her room had depictions of such things for her to steal glances at. Mevi began to dread that this would be the first and last time she saw the star’s light and brilliance.
As Mevi turned to face her companions again, she realized they had set up a sort of meeting table and chairs in the center of the main deck. Saerin was attempting to circumvent normal programs on the synthesizer to create some kind of food, Ouapi and Zelkan worked on a sort of small console attached to the table as they edited some program, all the while Hellion seemed to be jokingly standing at attention next to Mevi’s two sentinels. Hellion made such a stiff face she thought he might be sick, then he cracked into a smile. “If you are done fooling around, Hellion, let's take our places and discuss our mission.” Ouapi chastised.
“Alright, ma’am. Just livin’ the place up a bit!” Hellion retorted, finding a nearby seat.
The group of them sat down, Mevi ushered to the head of the table by Zelkan. Saerin finally finished her own preparations and managed to produce a sweet-smelling warm liquid, “tea” she called it. The drink was slightly bitter at first, but had a slight fruity taste that Mevi enjoyed. With all their number finally sitting, Ouapi began the briefing.
The meeting, at first, was very similar to the one Alestair gave within the meeting for the higher ranks of Maphet and Odion’s servants. Demnos IV was a jungle planet, massive trees and deep swamps. Thick vegetation lined every part of the ground, including the native’s own cities. Cities that carved out safety in the height of the trees, the surface of open swamp, or in the depths of subterranean caves. From what information that could be gathered by monitoring the planet’s primitive communication system, as well as surface-level viewing, there were four distinct factions on the planet.
The first faction were a free-natured people living amongst the trees. Apparently having an affinity for flight and the most high tech of the four factions. These creatures had been broadcasting a signal into space for several centuries now in an attempt to contact alien life as well as study the universe beyond their own planet.
The second faction were a practical people who lived on floating cities amongst the vast swamps and coastal regions. They were by far the most prosperous and vast of the four factions, having long since tamed the aquatic and other creatures that might normally threaten them. This animal-power gave them strong economic power within the other factions as food, labor, and war-beasts were all things the great beasts of the swamps provided.
The third faction were dwellers in the deep. Isolationists who only tolerated conversation because of necessity. Their caves overflowed with raw materials, and their craftsmen apparently had songs sung about their skill among the other peoples, but without technology to refine and improve their skills and food to feed their people, it wouldn’t matter how rich they were in the end.
These three factions formed a strong symbiotic relationship, each carefully treading around the others to be careful not to upset their balance. From what Zelkan says, when the first signals were sent out by the more technological of the three, it almost broke their delicate alliance. Yet after a while they simply assumed it was a pipedream and they were truly alone in the universe. Hellion wondered aloud if they were regretting that ancient idea to call out into the void right now.
Besides the main groups there was another, a fourth faction that almost escaped the information gatherers among Odion’s most skilled servants. Among each of the main factions there seemed to be great civil unrest in recent years. So much so that mass exiles into the dangerous forests and jungle depths were carried out every few months. Yet these people didn’t always perish in the depths of the jungle like was hoped, these exiles supposedly formed their own faction that survived by combining the skills of each faction into one in a bid for survival.
Mevi didn’t fully understand the depth of the conversation. Ouapi talked in such technical terms that Zelkan often had to ‘translate’ on her behalf. Just as the briefing was approaching the subject of the ruins Mevi would be investigating, Laer’kin’s voice sounded from above, “My lady, crew, we are beginning our entry path into orbit. There might be a few bumps here and there, but no worries! I’ll keep us stable, so no need to strap in just yet.”
With the announcement Mevi couldn’t help but worry. If the jostling exit from the Barge was anything similar to landing, Mevi wanted to be strapped in just in case. Zelkan noticed Mevi’s obvious tension and interjected before Ouapi could start the new section of her briefing, “Ouapi, I suggest we save what is remaining until we have landed. Our lady doesn’t seem comfortable, I think it would be best to wait until she has calmed down.”
Ouapi thought for a moment before agreeing, “Understood. All that remained was geography, basic information on our task, and native non-sapient life. But it can wait.”
“Thank you, Ouapi.” Mevi said, “I think I will retire to my cabin until we land.”
“Shall I assist you in buckling in, my lady?” Zelkan asked.
“Please do.”
Mevi dismissed herself with Zelkan and her Sentinel following close behind. Stationing themselves as before, new sentinel outside and Mevi’s Sentinel inside, her guards took up their spots and Zelkan moved to start strapping Mevi into the protective chair just as a heavy bump rocked the vessel. No alarms sounded, but Mevi and Zelkan stared into the air and looked between each other for a moment of hesitation regardless. Continuing the process the buckling was suddenly interrupted by loud static blasting throughout the ship. Gargled noises like someone attempting to talk though a powerful windstorm popped through the static but nothing was understandable. Suddenly, the Sentinel grabbed the edge of Mevi’s protective seat. In the same motion the Sentinel used its other arm to grab hold of Zelkan by the shoulder.
Almost in an instant everything went black. The last thing Mevi heard was the sound of tearing metal and intense wind. Before she could understand what had happened, she hit her head against something and her vision blurred into black. The sound of a shout was the last thing that ringed in her ears before every sense vanished.