Chapter 122: Discovery

Location: Magicon Empire; Song Duchy; Vexton System; BCS (VS) Stargazer

I sit down on my bed and cross my legs under me, then I take a deep breath and let it back out. “Clara,” I say into the empty room and wait.

I do not pressure her, but I think she can guess what I want to talk about. The tone in my voice should have been clear enough. Still, I don’t pressure her and wait patiently. Finally, after almost five minutes of silence, she responds. Her voice is barely a whisper, and it sounds weak, almost brittle.

“Yes…?”

I sigh silently. “I’m sorry that you went through all this again… I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been for you. You didn’t have to do that. We would have been fine without it. I don’t want to see you hurt again!”

She is silent for another minute. “I know… It’s just… I didn’t want to let you down. I had the information you needed… What kind of AI would I be if I didn’t give you that information?”

“You’re my friend, Clara. I don’t care what your nature is. I just don’t want to see you hurt. So, please talk to me next time, okay? Don’t just push through it.”

“Okay… I will. But I’m fine now.”

“No, you’re not! But that’s okay. We’ll get through this, together. We have all the time we need, so why don’t you tell me a bit about Grandpa Valterion?”

Clara starts chuckling. It sounds still a bit weak, but I think she’s made some progress. “Alright, alright, you win. Talking about him might actually help… Let’s see, I should probably start with his name. I can’t have you call him Grandpa Valterion after all. His name was Liam Valterion, I met him the first time on his tenth birthday…”

Clara continues her and Grandpa Liam’s story for the next few hours. I can hear in her voice how much it helps her. When she arrives close to the end, she almost sounds like her old self again. That’s when I decide to interrupt her.

“That’s enough, Clara. I know the rest… There’s no need for you to go through it a second time today. Thank you for telling me about him!”

She sniffs one final time. “No, thank you, Sara! I needed this.”

“You’re most welcome. That’s what friends are for. Now, I believe we’ve arrived at Vexton 1. Are you ready to head back up?”

“Yes, let’s go. The others are already waiting for you.”

“True enough,” I reply and exit my room. I take the elevator to my left and arrive at the bridge a few seconds later.

“Welcome back,” Tim greets me with a smile. He points at the viewscreen. “As you can see, Vexton 1 is right before us. Behold the spectacular planet.” He does a twirl at the end.

I have to laugh at his ridiculous antics. The planet is just a dull rock before us. Wait! Rock? Wasn’t it supposed to be a gas giant?

I finish laughing with a slight snort. “Why is it a piece of rock though?”

Alina is the one to answer this time. “Look closer, it just looks that way.” She zooms in, and I notice that the grey-brown surface I identified as rock is actually a gaseous substance.

“Huh, you see something new every day,” I reply. “Is there anything noteworthy or is the planet just like the others?”

Nick taps the air a few times, and another projection appears. It’s a small moon circling the planet. “There might be something… We’ve got some conflicting readings from one of the moons. There is a strong magical signature, but it also feels kinda spotty… I can’t really describe it, and our sensors also don’t show a clear picture. It might be worth to take a look, though.”

I look at him and shrug, then I step closer to the projection and spin it around its axis. “We don’t have anything else to do, and we still have five days until we have to head back. So I guess we’re exploring a moon. Who wants to join me?”

Tim clears his throat. “How about you, Lucy, and Lydia? It’s only fair, I’d say.”

I look at them, and they both grin. “I’d like that, as long as it’s not a repetition of the asteroid,” Lucy replies.

“I sure hope not. But we better get going then. I think once the moon circles the planet and enters the sunny side it will be hot as hell. Better go now before we get sunburnt. Can we teleport there, Clara?”

The others all laugh at my dumb joke while Clara replies through the speakers. “As Nick said, there is some magical interference. I think it’s better if you take the yacht… Just to be safe.”

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“Alright, the yacht it is. Let’s go!”

It’s a 30-minute flight until we arrive at the moon. We use that time to put on our spacewalker suits and thoroughly check every single seam. Then, finally, the yacht lands and we exit through the airlock. I’m the first one out and jump. I sail through the air for a few meters before I land on the moon’s surface.

Gravity is much weaker here, and it takes me a bit to get used to it again. Lucy and Lydia are the same though and windmill their arms while floating closer to me. I stifle a laugh and help them get their feet on the ground. Then we set out to explore.

We landed close to where Nick discovered the anomaly, and after about one kilometer, we arrive at our destination. I frown.

“Does this look like ruins to you?” I ask my friends through Tim’s Group Call spell.

“I was about to ask you the same…” Lydia answers, while Lucy just nods.

Before us lie pieces of stone and metal, if you use a lot of imagination, this could have been some kind of structure before it fell to time.

I step forward and take a closer look. Then I feel it. There’s something below that rubble. But as Nick said, it’s kinda spotty. Like the magic is there and also not? If that makes any sense.

I cast a Telekinesis spell and focus on the rubble. Then with little effort, I lift it all up and then to the side. What I see makes my breath catch for a moment. Then I hiss in anger and disappointment.

Because what I see below the rubble is what I most desperately need! A freaking Artifact core! Or at least I think that’s what I’m seeing. Unfortunately, it is quite broken and therefore quite useless for me.

“Is this…?” Lucy asks, only to be interrupted by me forcefully cutting off the Communication spell. Then I scream my frustration into my helmet. Afterward, I have Clara connect our suits with a wireless connection so that we can talk again.

Lucy repeats her question. “That’s an Artifact core, right?”

“I think so, yeah… But it’s useless. The dumb thing is broken.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda obvious…”

Lydia hugs me. “I’m sorry, Sara.”

I sigh audibly. “It’s okay… There’s still more than enough time for me to find one.”

Lydia releases me from the hug and walks closer to the broken core. Suddenly, she stops. “Hey guys, there’s something below it. It looks like… What the hell?”

A hologram of a grinning middle-aged man appears above the core. A ping on my interface alerts me that the hologram wants to connect with it. I ask Clara, and she tells me the signal is safe. So, I tell the others and press yes.

The hologram starts speaking. “Welcome students of the Exploration course or whatever else the course is called at your college. My name is Professor Daniel Cheng, and I’m currently teaching about Artifacts at RMA. Well, at least I was doing so when I recorded this video. Who knows when you get to see it? Anyway, if you’re seeing this, this means you’ve found the hidden objective in the star system you are exploring. Congratulations! In case you don’t recognize what’s before you, let me explain. What you are seeing is an Artifact. Depending on which system you are exploring, they are quite different. We’ve put out whatever we had at hand back then. So you might find a shield Artifact, core enhancements, anti-magic zones, or in rare cases even an Artifact Mage core.”

Professor Chen pauses for a dramatic effect. “They all have one thing in common, though. They are all broken and therefore useless, as we still don’t know how to repair Artifacts. Therefore, I ask you to leave the Artifact behind and restore the place where you found it to its original condition. To get credit for your discovery, simply put it in your report and add in the number you find at the back of the Artifact for reference. With that, I wish you all good luck in your future explorations. Professor Cheng out.”

The hologram vanishes, and we continue to stare at where it has just been. Lydia is the first one to move, and she steps even closer to the Artifact. Then she reaches out and grabs the largest piece of the shattered core. She turns it around and shouts in triumph. “I found the number! I’m sending it up to Alina for the report. Uhh, Sara, do you know what happened to our Group Call spell? It was just gone earlier…”

“Good job, Lydia and yeah, I cut us off from the spell.”

Lucy joins into our conversation and I notice the frown on her face. “Why would you do that? The others are probably worried to hell and back.”

I look at her and point at the broken Artifact, then at me. Lucy’s eyes widen and she slaps the visor of her helmet as if she’s face palming. “Oh… Right. They don’t know that this is exactly what you need. So how do we explain the broken spell? Hell, how did you even do that?”

I grin at her. “One hundred points for you! Hey, Lydia, can you call someone on the Stargazer and tell them what we found? And tell them that the magic of the broken Artifact caused some weird interference which caused the spell to disconnect or something.”

Lydia gives me a thumbs-up. “Sure, no problem. I’ll handle it.”

I nod at her in thanks and look back at Lucy. “To answer your second question: It’s a new spell. I recently learned it in my Space lessons. The advanced ones, so don’t worry about Tim knowing what I did. The spell is called Spatial Disruption or just Disruption if you want to be fast. It’s used to disrupt spells that are cast on people by moving them a fraction of a millimeter to the side. The movement is too little to notice, but it’s enough to disrupt any spells that are not specifically reinforced against that technique. You remember when I told you about the connection issues I had with Maja after teleporting?”

Lucy nods. “Yeah, that’s why you’ve been using S-57 for your return teleports.”

“Exactly, the Disruption spell uses the same principle. Due to the minuscule teleport, consistent effects are broken.”

“That’s cool, but also scary. What would happen to my shields if you’d use that spell against me?” She shudders a bit.

I shrug. “The short answer is that it would be dispelled. The longer answer is that you could probably resist the teleport now that you know about it. If you want, we can train your resistance when we’re back at FBC.”

She nods eagerly. “Yeah, I’d like that very much. Thank you!”

I feel a new Communication spell trying to connect, as this can only be Tim, I accept. “Can you hear me now?” I hear Tim’s voice.

“Loud and clear! We’re about to head back now. I take it Lydia has explained what we discovered?”

“Yeah, a freaking Artifact core! That’s huge, even if it’s broken. But putting this there as a bonus objective? That’s kinda cool. I’m just glad that we found it. That should save our grade. After all, we didn’t have many opportunities to really explore so far.”

“That’s true, but we do have one more planet left. Maybe that one’s better. Anyway, we’ll see you soon!”

I ignore the talks between the others on the Group Call and look back at the rubble I put away earlier. Professor Cheng said to put it back the way we found it. With a shrug, I cast the Telekinesis spell and slowly float everything back. When I’m finished, the Artifact is hidden again, and everything looks like before. Well, mostly… The stones are placed a little differently as I pretty much just dropped everything in place. If they want it to look exactly as it was before, they can do it themselves! I dust off my hands and look back at Lydia and Lucy. “Ready to go?”

“Yes, let’s explore the last planet!”