The destroyer Gatriy had barely assumed its position in orbit when the shuttle bay was already opening. The landing vehicle, carrying Captain Jarkiy as well as a few others, separated from the craft and began moving toward the planet.

The admiral himself had given them permission and orders to forgo all normal procedure, giving them a special code that allowed the captain to act above his usual authority. As such, no messages were exchanged with the sector control outside of said code and a short comment, no spaceport - be it regular or military - was marked as the destination. Instead, the shuttle headed straight for the Star Palace.

On the one hand, the captain understood the idea behind this order: saving time. After all, it was for that very reason that the Gatriy - one of the faster ships in the fleet - had been sent ahead. So far, so good. On the other hand, however, all these breaches of protocol felt excessive to Jarkiy. They were, by now, multiple days ahead of the fleet, so was half a day sooner or later for the princess to get the report really worth all of this?

The vessel shook as it entered the atmosphere. The Gatriy had launched them from a position in high orbit from where they basically only needed to travel diagonally down in order to reach their destination. The shaking stopped after a while and he could feel the brake thrusters spring into action, steadily slowing down their descent. Some more time passed until finally, the pilot informed them that they had landed. A slight hiss was heard, then the door opened.

Jarkiy stepped out and took a deep breath. It felt good to finally breathe Hohmiy’s air again after spending quite a long time on board his ship in space. The rain was rather heavy today, but it didn’t really bother him at that moment.

“Welcome, Captain Jarkiy,” the voice of the servant standing in the open palace gate pulled him back into reality. “Her Highness is already awaiting you, please follow me.”

She is? I had announced my arrival not even a day ago. It seems like she sees this matter as just as urgent as Admiral Mirtan.

He entered the palace, following the servant. Another one stood beside the door and handed him a towel. The captain took it and quickly wiped his body without slowing his pace, then he gave the cloth back. For his entourage, it was the same.

It was Jarkiy's first time in the Star Palace.. He knew about it, obviously, but seeing the interior in person was a sight to behold. He would’ve loved to spend more time observing the various art pieces bought or gifted from other alliance members. Maybe after he had given his report.

The walk was short and soon, they reached a small conference room. Four people were waiting for him inside, one of them, of course, being the princess.

“My greetings, Your Highness. Jarkiy of clan Jarion, Captain of the Gatriy, at your service,” he introduced himself with a salute. She gestured for him to sit down, which he promptly did, all while quickly eyeing the other three people sitting across the table. Two of them, sitting left of the princess, were… children? Older ones from what he could see, but children nonetheless. Their presence was odd considering the fact that the topic of his report was rather classified. It was probably alright, after all, Her Highness herself was clearly permitting it and they also both wore a sash in the princess’s green. In the end, he opted to merely find it odd in quiet without voicing his thoughts.

The final person on the table was not a Vanaery. That had to be Lady Nadine. Jarkiy had only heard about her briefly, and all he knew about her kind was that they may have some relation to the latest happenings on Eroas. What exactly this relation entailed was something he didn’t want to spend any thoughts on.

Jarkiy got his datapad out and began his report.

“First point: the tunnels. After your departure, most of our manpower was spent on investigating those. The tunnel systems turned out much bigger than originally estimated, branching out in all directions and deep underground.”

“According to Lady Kykla, those used to be the four biggest mines on the entire planet,” the princess interjected. “And considering that they apparently mined their world dry, it would make sense for them to be vast.”

“That does line up with our findings, yes. Deeper inside, we found various ways of transportation that, while most of them were still functional, weren’t in good shape. Many tunnels were also blocked, though it was difficult to tell whether they had caved in or were deliberately sealed off. Mining equipment was scarce, and most areas we found seemed to have been repurposed into some form of quarters, albeit with a very low standard of living. Even by commoner standards. We’ve been, unfortunately, unable to fully explore the tunnels within the time frame, so it is difficult to estimate how much we’ve been able to map out. Which brings me to the second point: the Tystrie.”

Jarkiy paused and took a quick breath. He had been a soldier all his life, but this had been something else.

“The corpses we found were various when it came to their state. All of them seemed to have died rather recently, but not all died from the unknown illness. Some died from external wounds, both accidents, and fights are possible explanations. As our time was limited, we stopped counting after a few thousand. Seeing as all entrances to the former mining facilities had been locked, we’ve reached two plausible conclusions: either the dead had fallen ill and were quarantined inside the tunnels; or the population hid in the tunnels from, for example, and outside attack, and during that, the illness broke out. By the time we had to make our way back, we had not found any survivors.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Jarkiy did his best not to look at the two children while he talked. The rest of the report consisted of minor details regarding the findings as well as a map of the tunnels as far as they had been able to explore them. Not many questions were asked afterward and after transmitting the report, he was dismissed.

----------------------------------------

Silgvani quickly re-opened the report on her own datapad.

“They were thorough with the tunnels considering their limited time,” she stated before turning to Falpiyne and Reiykin. Judging by their demeanor, the report had been… a lot to take in, to put it mildly.

“But with this as a basis, the expedition force will have a solid-”

“That’s pointless,” Nadine interrupted without looking up. Her voice sounded a bit strange compared to yesterday. Agitated?

“What do you mean?”

“Look at this. Look at how deep they went. What are the odds that even deeper, someone is actually alive? In an enclosed space with a deadly disease running rampant?”

“Then, what would you do?” the princess inquired.

“They need to focus on the surface, obviously.”

“My uncle already did that, too.”

“He didn’t know what to look for,” Nadine immediately said before the last word was even fully out of Silgvani’s mouth. “I’ve completed my instructions for the expedition and with a more steady line of communication and fewer time constraints, they’ll be able to find clues he overlooked. Those might be also in the upper levels of the mines, but I doubt going deeper will be the right way to go about this,” she explained. She still hadn’t looked up once.

“And I just got another idea,” she continued, tapping the datapad and opening the estimated timeline of events.

“I mean, here’s what we know: all five warships the Tystrie had left got destroyed. The Skíðblaðnir - or a different ship with the same tech - arrived on the planet. A mutated version of a human disease, likely the common cold, rapidly spread. So far, no corpses were found outside the old mines. As it stands… I think it all comes back to the Skíðblaðnir. Who has her? Where did she go?”

Nadine put the datapad back onto the table, still not looking up.

“We need to speak with her again. We have to know the essential necessities of the Tystrie and what the best ways to obtain them are. That’s all I can think of right now.”

“Thank you for sharing your thoughts,” Silgvani nodded before turning to the other two. “I also want you to think about this matter. Write down anything you can come up with, even if it sounds minuscule at first. Send it to me by sundown.”

The two didn’t answer, merely giving a confirming gesture. Then, Falpiyne guided her brother out, leaving only her and Nadine in the conference room.

“Is everything alright?” Silgvani inquired once they were alone. “You seem a bit beside yourself today. I know this was difficult to hear-”

“That’s not it,” the small alien interrupted her once more, her voice monotonous. “I mean, I knew more or less what was coming. But there’s something else. By the way, did you hear? His ship’s called Gatriy. Funny coincidence, isn’t it?”

Coincidence? In what context? Clan Gatriy is simply… wait.

The princess stiffened as a thought crept into her mind.

“Say, does a “Gatmar of clan Gatriy” ring a bell?” Nadine continued.

“I… I’m not familiar with that phrase you just-”

“Bullshit! You know from context what I mean!”

It was the first time today that Nadine had looked at Silgvani. Her eyes were so narrow they had become barely more than slits.

“I…,” Silgvani began but ultimately sighed. “How much do you know?”

“Significantly less than I feel I should. How come Kiyrtin never told me anything about some noble “endangering his life”? Sounds like something he would mention.”

Nadine’s expression darkened further.

“Did you make this guy a scapegoat?”

“A what?”

“Did you put the blame on him? Did you make him the culprit of what happened back in the forest?”

Silgvani didn’t know what to say.

“Do… do you really think I sacrificed an innocent man for a cover-up?!”

“I DON’T KNOW what to think anymore!”

“And instead you would-”

This time Silgvani interrupted herself.

“I… didn’t want this to happen either.”

“Didn’t want what to happen?”

And so, Silgvani told the small alien all that had happened the day she had visited Kiyrtin in the hospital, as well as the days after, all the events that ultimately ended in the premature execution. Nadine was completely silent during the retelling and sometime after, only speaking multiple tiggs later.

“And… when were you planning on telling me all of this?”

“...I don’t know.”

“And your parents? Would you have ever told them?”

“I don’t know”

“So you lied to them.”

The princess wrung the hands of her two unbroken arms.

“Technically not. I just relayed the doctor’s words without commentary.”

“Sil, if you’re technically not lying… you’re lying.”

“I did it to protect you!”

“Did you forget my talks with them?! Shit, looking back at that now, all I said… why did you never tell me?!”

This time, Silgvani didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes found Nadine’s.

“You had a lot to deal with at the time. I thought if I told you, you’d blame yourself for it, even though my actions were what led to this.”

“And that’s why you lied to me.” That hadn’t been a question.

“Well, once you got better, it never really came up. And since things already were what they were… it wasn’t really a pressing matter.”

“And so you kept lying to me.”

It, once again, hadn’t been a question. The small alien hopped down from her chair and walked towards the door.

“Wait! Nadine!” she tried to stop her. “I… I get how you feel but… I just… I wanted to…”

“...protect me?” she finished the princess’s sentence, stopping for a moment. A couple tiggs of silence passed before Nadine looked over her shoulder.

“Protecting and patronizing are two different things.”

She then turned back to the door and opened it.

“I’ll complete my notes for the expedition. You’ll have them by sundown.”

Then, she left. Silgvani now sat alone in the conference room. She would spend quite some time like this.