CHAPTER 68: ABYSSAL AND ASTRAL’S FIRST MEETING

“What’s this about, J?” Astral asked as she leaned on the hull of the blue shark.

“Just wait for it. I’ll explain further inside,” Doctor Julia responded.

Although irritated slightly, Astral only nodded and answered with an ‘um’. The two women then waited outside the ship, waiting for a response from the owner of the blue shark. 

During this wait, Julia took a good look at her old friend. 

“Hmm?” She let out a humming sound as she noticed something.

“...what?” Astral asked, noticing Julia’s sharp eyes on her.

“You suck at make-up. I can see those large bags under your eyes, ya know.” Julia said as she pointed at the part under her own eyes.

“What about it?”

“You should get some rest. Lack of sleep is the fastest way to make mistakes and get into accidents. Lack of alertness is a thing too. You shouldn’t get too caught up doing whatever it is you are doing here.”

Astral shrugged her shoulders and gave an uninterested look. “Alright, mom. I’ll go get some sleep after this,” she replied sarcastically. “You going to read me bedtime stories too?”

“Yeah, and I’ll tuck you in bed and kiss your forehead as I sing lullabies.”

Unable to give a response, Astral just kept quiet and closed her eyes, not wanting to talk to Julia. Julia followed up with a victorious smirk as she waited for the owner of the blue shark to invite them into the ship. Soon enough, the bulkhead entrance to the ship opened up revealing a brightly lit hallway. In the hallway was a drone just floating inconspicuously at the side. It was a round-shaped drone with two robotic arms attached to it.

“Come on,” Julia said as she walked through the bulkhead. Astral nodded and followed after her. Once both of them were in the ship, Julia closed the bulkhead behind them, but not locking it. Astral quickly caught on to her friend’s action.

‘She doesn’t want E to listen to this conversation, huh.’ Astral thought to herself. A foreign ship would most likely not have E’s spy drones and thus impossible for her to hear in on them. Astral turned her attention to the insides of the ship and looked around the walls and the wiring of the place.

“Looks pretty new for an old ship design,” Astral told her first impressions of the Blue Shark. She then looked over to the drone just floating at the sides. “This is a pretty old model, huh. The owner must be some sort of antique collector.”

The drone moved its body and camera as if inspecting the woman named Astral. 

“Heh, this thing is pretty cute. Wonder what model is this,” Astral commented as she observed the drone, walking around, trying to find a model number or something. She poked and prodded at the drone, which caused it to slightly back away from her.

“Hmm, interesting,” Astral said.

Julia just shook her head at Astral. “You don’t see anything wrong with this drone?”

“...no?”

Julia let out a sigh. “Kid, this is Astral. Astral, meet the owner of the ship, Abyssal.”

Julia pointed at Astral, “Human.”

Julia then pointed at the drone, named Abyssal. “Living Core.”

Following up on Julia’s introduction, the drone raised her robotic arms to wave warily at Astral. “...Um hi, I guess? Nice to meet you...” A young familiar high-pitch female voice came out of the drone.

Astral took a moment to process the information.

“Huh?” She gave a confused look with a gap in her mouth large enough to fit a large-sized burger.

“Yup. She ain’t human, Red. I’m not exactly sure what the hell were you thinking sending her here, ” Julia said.

“No, that’s not possible! Phoenix didn’t detect anything!” Astral got up, her voice raised slightly higher than her normally calm voice.

“I don’t know, man. Don’t ask me. This is your problem.”

“Dammit! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!”

“Hey, don’t look at me. I sent out that message as soon as I found out. Plus I’m being monitored, can’t exactly send you a message with all the nitty-gritty details, ya know.”

Astral slammed her forehead with the palm of her right hand, a loud clap could be heard along the hallway. “Does Kyle know about this?”

“Don’t think so. E does and probably some of the crew, I think? If he knows, then she wouldn’t be here anymore, but that’s just me. Can’t really tell what’s going on in this ship anymore.” Julia replied as she took out a traditional cigarette from her pocket and lit it up. 

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“Oi! No smoking in here!” Abyssal yelled out.

“Fuuhhh,” Julia responded by blowing a puff of smoke towards the drone.

“Tsk. Hey you, what the hell are you doing in the Lawless Maw Zone? Ya some sort of spy from some country or something?” Astral diverted her attention to the drone, asking questions rapidly.

“No that can’t be, when I first met you, you were just using some scrap as a ship. You some runaway core or something?”

“Actually, wait. You have a captain? Or are you controlling this ship by yourself? Are there any others in here?”

Astral’s barrage of questions seemed unending. It was only stopped when Abyssal spoke out. “I got a name, you know. It’s Abyssal!”

“Honestly, I don’t give a damn about your name right now. Just answer the questions, girl,” Astral said sternly.

“I…. uh… Which one? A lot of those questions can be answered with a no. Except for the last ones, those can be answered with a yes.”

“You… Dammit,” Astral scratched her head and let out a grunt. “What are you even still doing here, anyway? You need to leave this ship and this sector. Like right now, immediately.”

“Huh?”

Seeing Abyssal’s flabbergasted response, as if not knowing what the hell was going on, Astral turned her head towards Julia and narrowed her eyes towards her. “You didn’t explain anything to her?” 

“Not really my problem, Red,” Julia laid her back on the wall and continued smoking.

“Wait wait wait, what’s going on? Why do I have to leave the ship all of a sudden?” Abyssal asked, confused about the whole situation.

“What about you? You telling me you want to stay here?” 

“Well… not really.”

“Then good. I’m glad we are on the same page. Your ship is capable of space-flight, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Good. Make preparations to leave, resupply or whatever and then leave.”

“Ehh… this a bit too sudden…” Abyssal moaned.

“I don’t see what’s the big problem in leaving right now? Unless there is some big reason that you are hesitating?” Astral gave Abyssal an inquisitive look.

“Well, it’s rather dangerous outside and well, I don’t know where I am…”

“Then I’ll escort you, shouldn’t be a problem for you, right? You won’t have any more problems, right?”

“Eh? Now well... I just don’t see why you want me to leave the ship so much. It should be safer here than outside, right? Can’t we just ask E to drop me ou—”

“No, the longer you stay on this ship, the more in danger you are.”

“Huh? But why?”

“Look, I know I’m the one who asked you to come here,  but that's me assuming you were a ship with a human crew. It’s different now, now that I know you are actually one of them.”

“Wha? I don’t get it. What do you mean? What’s this all about?” Abyssal tilted her drone sideways.

Astral let out a sigh. “You are one of those clueless types, aren’t you?”

“She’s probably a fresh one. Rebooted perhaps? Or maybe just awoken,” Julia added.

“Can I get some explanation here? Rebooted? Awoken? You guys can’t just come into my ship and start talking jargon...” said Abyssal with an annoyed tone.

“I’ll explain later. I’m just going to explain briefly the mess that you are in right now. You are in a zone where basically every big shot nation is fighting each other to find some sort of relic. It’s some sort of core vault or some shit like that, don’t really know.”

“Hoh…”

“Civilian ships have evacuated this place the past year, which is why when I saw you the first time in some contested zone, I asked you to leave the damn place. Which of course, you didn’t listen to me. My mistake of course,” Astral explained further.

…

Abyssal tilted her drone further, not truly understanding the situation just yet.

“Ok, listen here. In this world there are these very powerful resources called Living Cores,” Astral pointed at Abyssal. “They sell for a lot and are very important to governments.”

Astral then pointed at Julia, “This woman and this ship, guess who they work for?”

“Ah!”

“E was kind enough to keep your identity a secret but if Kyle knows about this, you’ll be sent straight to the formatting facilities. So before the captain of this carrier finds out about it, I suggest you leave this place. Like right now.”

Abyssal was speechless at the sudden reveal of information. She moved her arms under her drone body, trying to mimic a human thinking motion.

“It’s not safe out there in the L.M.Z. either. Your best bet is another sector. I know of one, I’ll send the coordinates to you later.”

“O-okay. But I need to discuss this with the others first,“ Abyssal said.

“... do whatever you want, be quick about it. Julia, I need you to do me a—”

“I got it, I got it. I’ll see what kind of supplies I can provide these guys.” 

“Thanks… Just enough warp fuel to make it towards the cove. I’ll figure things out later,” Astral replied.

“Alright,” Julia nodded before tossing the butt of her cigarette on the floor. She then opened the bulkhead and left the place. 

Astral, who needed to prepare herself, also started to take her leave. “Well, I’ll be seeing you in a bit.”

“Eh? Wait,” Abyssal called out.

“What?” Astral stopped before looking behind her towards the drone.

Abyssal murmured a few words, though it was soft and barely audible to Astral. She then shook her own body and said to Astral before looking downwards. “No, nothing.”

‘?’

Not understanding what was Abyssal’s problem, Astral just shrugged her shoulders and exited the ship. As she exited, the bulkhead behind her closed automatically. Once a sufficient distance away, Astral let out a sigh.

‘Now this is going to be a hassle.’ Astral thought to herself. She then looked onwards to see Julia waiting at the elevator.

“Going up?” Julia asked.

“There is no up in space,” said Astral.

“Perspective, Red. Perspective.”

“I need to bring that idiot somewhere safe and maybe show her the ropes or two. I don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon this time, think you can watch E and the children for me?”

“You are asking the wrong person, Red.”

“I’m asking the only person I can,” said Astral as the elevator arrived. 

“I see… I’ll do my best I guess. What about the relic? You are just going to leave the search behind?”

Julia’s words prompted a recent conversation that Astral had in her mind. One between Astral herself and Sensenmann. It was a conversation about the existence of the so-called relic.

“Yeah, I think I’m giving up on this one. It’s like you said, mom. I think I’m going to get some rest for once,” Astral replied, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word mom.