Chapter 121: Contaminated

Chapter 121: Contaminated

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

We arrive close to the system security station shortly after. Captain Tillip is quick to hail us again. This time Lydia puts him on the main screen and the three of us on the bridge talk to him directly.

“I’ve heard you’re in a bit of a pickle…”

I glare at him accusingly. “You could have warned us. Now we have three possible contaminated crew members.”

He lifts his hands in appeasement. “It’s not so bad. The asteroids are contaminated, sure but if you have working spacewalker suits nothing has happened to your friends. And I know for sure that FBC won’t let you leave without checking your suits at least five times. Also, we have a healer at hand, so even if you somehow managed to come into contact with the contamination, we’ll patch you right up.”

I grumble under my breath. The captain is way too cheerful. This could have ended way worse! “Fine, be ready to receive our yacht. What even is the contamination? And is it widespread or only out there at the belt?”

The grin slips from captain Tulip’s face after my first question. “Tell them to dock at bay three, or better have them contact lieutenant Barnes to coordinate their docking. As for the contamination, that’s need to know, sorry. But I can tell you that only the region of the asteroid belt is affected. The inner planets are safe to explore.”

Need to know? What system have we landed in? Is that some military secret? I still don’t understand why we’re even allowed to explore here…

“Alright, thank you, captain. I’ll call you again when we’re ready to depart. Please take care of my friends.”

He bids us goodbye as well and cuts the call. Lucy looks at me in concern. My thoughts must have shown on my face. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. This whole system doesn’t make sense… Why would Sam let us go to this dangerous place? And now the information is need to know? How are we supposed to write a report? Oh, and Clara can you tell Tim that he’s supposed to contact the lieutenant to coordinate docking?”

“Already done, they’ve been in contact with lieutenant Barnes the whole time. The yacht is just waiting for the green light to approach the station.”

I magically send her a feeling of thanks and concentrate back on Lucy. Lydia has joined us as well.

Lucy shrugs. “Maybe that’s what we’re supposed to write in our report? You know what Nick told us about Sam’s grin. Maybe that’s why?”

Lydia chimes in. “Or we weren’t supposed to explore out there. Maybe only Vexton 2, the habitable planet is relevant, and system security forgot to tell us? You know how amused the captain was at the beginning.

They both bring good arguments… “Yeah, that could be it. It’s probably a combination of everything. I guess we’ll find out when we’re back. But we should put everything in our report. Even if it gets insanely long, just put everything in so that we’ve got every angle covered. I’d hate to fail the course because of things like that.”

“Agreed, between Alina and me, we’ve already got a lot of work done.”

“Thanks, Lydia. I guess now we’ll wait. I’m in my cabin… I need a shower.”

“Have fun! Lydia and I stay here on the bridge in case something happens.”

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I stand under the shower head and let the water run. The water is warm, just the way I like it. I let out a long sigh. Nick, Tim, and Alina are going to be fine. Clara keeps me updated on their decontamination process. The yacht is being thoroughly cleaned at the same time. Still, it bothers me. All the uncertainty… Sure, exploration is never without risks, I get that but that doesn’t mean I have to like what’s happening here.

Finally, I turn off the shower and step back outside. A few quick Telekinesis spells have fresh clothes floating over and another few spells I learned during my Utility lessons take care of my hair, eyebrows, lashes, and face. Then I leave my room and walk toward the kitchen. On the way, I take a few deep breaths and compose myself. We still have three planets to check out. No need to brood over past things.

Still, there’s one more angle I haven’t tried. While cooking some soup, I talk to Clara. “Hey Clara, can you do a bit of research on those asteroids? Maybe use our scanning results or something or work with Nick once he’s back. His spell must have given him some results.”

“I’m already working on it. It’s something that bothers me as well. It’s similar to something I’ve seen before… I think I have some results for you tomorrow. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Thanks, Clara, you’re the best!”

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Two hours later, I wait inside the hangar and watch the yacht floating inside. It crosses the energy barrier and sets down to land soon after. The door closes, and the engines of the yacht spin down. A minute later, the airlock opens, and a grinning Alina steps outside. She’s followed by Tim and Nick. Tim looks just annoyed while Nick has a worried expression on his face.

“Welcome back,” I call out and wave. “Let’s talk on the bridge. I’m guessing that everything is alright with you, right?”

Alina answers. “Yeah, we’re good. The spacewalker suits worked just fine. They also took care of the decontamination for us. You should see the inside of the yacht. They spent an hour just cleaning it. It looks better than ever now.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I let out a chuckle and follow them toward the elevator. At least one of them was enjoying all this…

When we exit the elevator, Nick slows down and lets Alina and Tim walk before us. He looks at me with a pointed look and I nod. “Tim, Alina, you can go ahead. We’ll meet you in a minute.”

They let out affirming grunts and continue walking. I open the door to my right and enter one of the workrooms. Then I turn around and look at Nick expectantly.

He takes a deep breath, he’s clearly distressed. “The asteroids,” he starts before pausing again. I wait patiently. “There’s more wrong with them that system security admits… I don’t know why they downplay it so much but when I used the Analysis spell, it blew the freaking scale! I’ve never seen something like this. The tristanium, hell, the whole asteroid was radioactive. And that on a scale that blows all the scales. I don’t know how our spacewalker suits managed to hold it off… It shouldn’t have been possible. We should have been dead as soon as we opened the airlock.”

I stare at him with my mouth open. It’s that bad? “Are you sure that your spell worked right?”

Anger enters his features. “You don’t believe me… Just like the Peacekeepers.”

I lift my hands to stop him before he continues on that train of thought. “No, I do believe you. And that’s the issue! If this is really as bad as you said, how are we allowed to be here?”

He gulps. “You’re right! That’s completely unreasonable. But I’d say I’m 95% sure that my spell worked as intended.” Even more worry enters his features. “What should we do now?”

I shrug slowly. “Not much we can do right now… They told us the other planets are safe… If we can trust them on this. I sure hope so at least. But we should also take a look at our spacewalker suits before we use them again. Maybe they added something to make them safer when they checked them at FBC? I don’t know, but something must have happened if they managed to hold back so much radioactivity that your scale was blown. And lastly, I think it’s best if you work with Clara. She said something about the contamination being familiar… Maybe you can get to the bottom of this together. Feel free to use one of the rooms here if you need to. But first, let’s get back to the others.”

Nick nods slowly and sighs. A bit of color has returned to his face as well. “Thanks, Sara! I look forward to working with Clara.”

With that, we return to the bridge, just to hear Alina finishing her retelling of the decontamination process. I smile at them. “Ready to check out the next planet?”

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A quick chat with captain Tulip later, we’re on our way again. Annoyed about the lost time, we push the Stargazer and even use Engine Enhancement. That way we arrive close to the second gas giant in under two hours. A few quick scans prove disappointing, as the planet is mostly made of hydrogen, a resource we have in abundance… There aren’t even any moons to consider and the small ring around the planet is only loose rock.

A quick report later, we’re flying again. This time we’re heading toward the closest planet to the sun. We decided to do the second planet last as it’s the only one that could be habitable. This means that we’ve got a twelve-hour flight ahead of us, as Vexton 1 is currently on the other side of the system’s sole sun.

Vexton prime is quite a bit bigger than the sun in the Magicon System. I think it has about two times the mass. Still, the scans we’ve made so far indicate that the star burns a lot less hot. Therefore, Vexton 1 hasn’t vaporized yet, despite its rather small distance from the star. That said, I’m glad that we don’t have to exit our ship to get a reading on Vexton 1 as it will be extremely hot despite all that.

Anyway, I’ve decided not to shorten our trip with a Starship Jump spell, as it’s getting late, and we could all use a bit of sleep after everything that happened today. Lucy volunteered to make us dinner again, and we all gladly accept. She’s getting better every day!

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The next day starts rather boring. There are still three hours remaining until we arrive at our destination. That changes about half an hour after breakfast when I hear Clara’s voice in my ear.

“Sara, can you join us in the lab? Nick and I have the first results.”

I immediately jump up from my seat on the bridge, as I’m bored as hell. Finally some variety. “I’ll be back soon. Clara and Nick have something to tell me.”

I’m about to turn around and leave when I notice all the others getting up as well. “Can we join you?” Lydia asks when I tilt my head at them in question. “It’s so boring. We’ve got nothing to do until we arrive at the planet.”

I shrug. “Sure, I don’t see why not… Follow me.” And so our short procession walks down the hallway until we arrive at the room Clara and Nick commandeered for their research.

I knock once and wait for the “come in” from either Nick or Clara. It’s Nick who answers, or rather who opens the door for us. His eyes widen slightly when he sees the whole squad standing there, but he just shrugs and waves everyone inside.

He stands at the central worktable and we join him. A hologram of the asteroid we investigated earlier floats above the table. It’s slowly turning and the spot where Nick did his Analysis spell is marked in red. Nick clears his throat.

“Alright, I’m not gonna talk around the bush here, so here we go. How familiar are you with the concept of a Worldender Ship?”

Tim blanches, and before I can stop myself, I shout out a loud “No!”

Lucy looks at me in concern, while Lydia gulps. Alina is the only one who doesn’t show much of a reaction.

Clara chimes in and manages to calm us down, at least a little. “Nick is not telling you that one of those ships exploded here, just that we’ve got some similar readings. We’ve got a few theories, so please listen.”

Clara finishes in my ear so that only I can hear her final words. “That’s what I meant with something that felt familiar. I finally managed to connect the dots.”

I take a deep breath. “Okay, thank you, Clara. Now, I guess you have more to tell us, Nick?”

He’s about to start speaking when Alina interrupts him. “Err, while I heard the name Wordender Ship before, I’m currently coming up with a blank… From your reactions, I’m guessing the name is to be taken literally?”

“Yeah, you could say that. Those ships are extremely rare. I think there haven’t been twenty yet in total, but the results are always devastating. Those things are system killers. The last one killed the previous Valterion Duke a few hundred years back. The first one destroyed Earth, so I’m quite curious what awaits us there.”

Alina looks at Tim with wide eyes, but her eyes lock onto me more than once. She gulps. “That doesn’t fill me with confidence for our Earth expedition…”

Nick clears his throat. “Anyway, we’re not talking about the Worldender Ship here. As Clara said, we’re certain that none of these exploded here. The contamination is too localized for that. For now, we decided to trust captain Tulip which means only the asteroids are contaminated. Therefore our working theory is that those asteroids are some site of experimentation…”

Clara takes over when he trails off. “I’ve run some research in the databases and found some samples from a hobby archeologist who managed to teleport a drone into and out of one of the fallout zones. Then I worked together with Nick and we compared the samples from his Analysis spell and the archeologist. The results are very familiar. As Nick said, we think the asteroids have been used for experiments. Maybe to recreate a Worldender Ship, which I hope wasn’t the case, or to examine the fallout on a smaller case and find some countermeasures or something. Anyway, currently we can’t find out more, as everything concerning the asteroids here is considered top secret…”

I’ve got the feeling that the archeologist part was a lie… Clara has access to firsthand information concerning Worldender Ships after all… But it’s also something we can’t advertise. I think all this affects her deeply… I have to talk with her later. But what she just told us is concerning… I have to talk with my parents as soon as possible.

“That doesn’t sound good… But I guess, we have to ignore it for now. It’s way over our heads anyway,” I reply through gritted teeth. “Let’s just put it into our report and move on.”

The others agree reluctantly, and we return to the bridge. I excuse myself before we arrive though, and go down to my cabin to talk with Clara.