Obcasum

Obby typed two more commands into his console. The microphone returned back into the dashboard and Skyrebrand’s braking thrusters kicked on again to slow the ship down to a more reasonable speed for a rendezvous.

“You don’t normally talk face to face with strangers willingly,” Nyx’s voice rang out again as her holographic form appeared next to her captain, “Is everything all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine and I- I know what I’m doing,” Obby nodded as he spoke, “I wouldn’t trust him if he weren’t in the same boat as me.”

“Do you mean that literally or as a figure of speech?”

“A figure of speech. And, Nyx?”

“Yes?”

“I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but- I would appreciate it if you were visible if I meet Magolor face to face.

The hologram nodded, but didn’t respond verbally.

“Thank you, Nyx.”

Seeing as the other ship was slowing down, Lor began pulling up to the Skyrebrand’s portside, her starboard side next to the other ship so that they were both facing the same direction. She was surprisingly accurate at maneuvering for her size, courtesy to her advanced technology allowing her to have almost perfect control of herself.

”>The rendezvous is finished.“

"I noticed.”

The most onvious difference between the two vessels was shape. In stark contrast to Lor's elegant boatlike design, Skyrebrand appeared more boxy and pointed, like a larger version of a typical fighter from an old sci-fi movie. It had no visible wings, but it almost looked as if part of the hull could fold out into a pair.

Piloting a spacecraft could be very interesting at times, but right, now, for Obby, things were normal, routine, and boring. Nyx was doing all the work during the middle of the transit between Popstar and Mechanos. He wasn’t even delivering anything this trip, just stopping by for the best maintenance he could get for cheap and maybe a few parts since he had a little extra cash on hand.

Things were not quite as boring when he heard the loud ding that announced that PH03-NYX had detected an object nearby.

“Nyx, what’s out there?” Obby asked aloud, knowing full well the ship’s artificial intellce could hear him.

“An unidentified vessel is within scanner range.” Nyx’s somewhat convincing computer-generated voice rang out from the console in front of the pilot.

“Anything you can tell me about it?” Obby opened up a tab on the console displaying a map of Skyrebrand’s surroundings. Sure enough, a white dot labelled with the halcandran question mark was within the scanner’s area.

“I can’t tell much from this distance,” Nyx replied, “But it appears to run on the same type of engines as Skyrebrand.”

“Weird. This thing runs on ancient halcandran tech…” He thought about all his potential courses of action for a moment. “Bring us in closer, I’d like to get a better look at it.”

“Lor? Why are you stopping? Did we already reach them?”

The Halcandran sounded a bit groggy, having been dozing off. He hadn’t slept much the night before over the excitement of meeting a clockwork star in person.

“>No. There’s another ship coming this way, though it doesn’t look like any ship I’ve seen before.”

“Perhaps it’s a modern Starcutter? Those can be all sorts of shapes and sizes.”

“>Unlikely; I can’t detect any signals that Starcutters give off, and if it were a friendly one they would be sending transmissions.”

Magolor had already gone to Lor’s dashboard and was accessing her visuals. On the screen eventually appeared direct video feed of what the ship was seeing.

“Hmm… They aren’t giving any threat signals at least, but not peace ones either… Wait Lor where are you going?”

The Starcutter was making her way towards the other ship at a medium pace.

“>We may as well investigate what they want.”

“Any sign that it’s the authorities?” Obby asked. While he doubted that a ship like this so far from Halcandra would belong to the Halcandran government, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Nothing that I can recognize,” Nyx stated. She was rarely wrong when it came to this.

“Alright. I’d like to see if I can make a transmission to them.”

Obby keyed in a command to the ship’s console and a microphone extended out from the dashboard. He leaned into it and spoke.

“Alright, let’s hear it.”

There was a short moment of static from Lor’s speakers, until Obby’s transmission played through them.

“Good… at least they aren’t hostile. Do you have any information on what kind of ship Skyrebrand is?”

“>I’ve already been searching for information, but nothing relevant has come up. So, the answer is no.”

The pilot thought for a moment, thinking of the best course of action.

“>Do you want to reply to them?”

Magolor stopped; he had forgotten that he was actually supposed to do that. Getting ahead of himself once again.

“Yeah, I guess that would probably be a good idea. I’ll send a transmission.”

Quickly typing on the Lor’s dashboard, he brought up a microphone in front of himself.

“>You could have just asked for the mic.”

“Yeah, but it’s boring when you do everything. Let me type every once in a while so I don’t feel like I’m just along for the ride! Anyways…”

The mage cleared his throat, somewhat just stalling as he tried to think of a way to sound as official as the other captain. He wasn’t used to actually sending messages between ships, so this would be an interesting challenge.

“Uh… Unfamiliar ship, I am the pilot of-”

The mic was retracted back into the dashboard.

“Hey!”

“>You sounded ridiculous and unprofessional. Let me do the talking.”

“Ok that was just rude. And it’s not like I was trying to sound professional!”

“>I’m detecting a lie in that statement. Now hush.”

Lor began sending her own transmission, no longer paying any mind to the pouty egg looking at her dashboard.

"Lor Starcutter, we were investigating an unfamiliar vessel, just- just as you were. My ship's artifical intelligence recognized technology similar to our own. I used your salvaged blueprints as reference when building this ship."

Piloting a spacecraft could be very interesting at times, but right, now, for Obby, things were normal, routine, and boring. Nyx was doing all the work during the middle of the transit between Popstar and Mechanos. He wasn’t even delivering anything this trip, just stopping by for the best maintenance he could get for cheap and maybe a few parts since he had a little extra cash on hand.

Things were not quite as boring when he heard the loud ding that announced that PH03-NYX had detected an object nearby.

“Nyx, what’s out there?” Obby asked aloud, knowing full well the ship’s artificial intellce could hear him.

“An unidentified vessel is within scanner range.” Nyx’s somewhat convincing computer-generated voice rang out from the console in front of the pilot.

“Anything you can tell me about it?” Obby opened up a tab on the console displaying a map of Skyrebrand’s surroundings. Sure enough, a white dot labelled with the halcandran question mark was within the scanner’s area.

“I can’t tell much from this distance,” Nyx replied, “But it appears to run on the same type of engines as Skyrebrand.”

“Weird. This thing runs on ancient halcandran tech…” He thought about all his potential courses of action for a moment. “Bring us in closer, I’d like to get a better look at it.”

“Lor? Why are you stopping? Did we already reach them?”

The Halcandran sounded a bit groggy, having been dozing off. He hadn’t slept much the night before over the excitement of meeting a clockwork star in person.

“>No. There’s another ship coming this way, though it doesn’t look like any ship I’ve seen before.”

“Perhaps it’s a modern Starcutter? Those can be all sorts of shapes and sizes.”

“>Unlikely; I can’t detect any signals that Starcutters give off, and if it were a friendly one they would be sending transmissions.”

Magolor had already gone to Lor’s dashboard and was accessing her visuals. On the screen eventually appeared direct video feed of what the ship was seeing.

“Hmm… They aren’t giving any threat signals at least, but not peace ones either… Wait Lor where are you going?”

The Starcutter was making her way towards the other ship at a medium pace.

“>We may as well investigate what they want.”

"Any sign that it's the authorities?" Obby asked. While he doubted that a ship like this so far from Halcandra would belong to the Halcandran government, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Nothing that I can recognize," Nyx stated. She was rarely wrong when it came to this.

"Alright. I'd like to see if I can make a transmission to them."

Obby keyed in a command to the ship's console and a microphone extended out from the dashboard. He leaned into it and spoke.

((I finally got around to reviving this blog, woo! Would it be too much of an ask for a little promo?))

“Thank you, sir,” Lutea sighed, “I was a little scared there.”

Obby remained silent and hidden, even though the coast was clear by now. He was still rather tense, and, to his knowledge, the unwelcome visitor was unaware of him. And he prefered to keep it that way.

~~~~

 “No worries, miss Lutea.” He waved his cane and Sahara was put into a deep sleep much like Winter.   Raven handed over the ruby to Baren. He gazed at the small precious jewel for a moment, deeply thinking. If one had an eye careful enough, they would see that it was the exact shape and size as his citrine and could fit on top of his right hand. He sighed and returned it back to Raven. 

 “Her father is going to overwhelm her with too much power.” He muttered to himself, his mind still elsewhere. After a bit, he looked over where Obby hid and called out to him. 

Obby finally came out into the open from where he was hiding. He knew who Baren was talking about. Unlike Lutea, however, he didn't feel the presence.

“Yes, I’m Lutea. I won’t say anything more.”

Obby was sligjtly relieved by the miracle that he had not been noticed, and the embers turned to ash and fell to the ground. He continued to listen silently, not daring to look and see what was going on.

And, as this was happening, another presence could be felt nearby to those who could pick it up. Malicious but dormant, the presence was so far too faint to betray what power it held.

~~~~

 While the confrontation was happening in the kitchen, Raven helped Baren out the front door. 

 “Wait,” he whispered, holding up a hand. He sensed an ominous darkness approaching. “Back in, get back into the house!” The jeweled halcandran rushed back in and Raven closed the door behind him. Baren retrieved his citrine from her and placed it back onto his left hand, regaining his composure. 

 “Alright, that is enough!” Baren raised his voice while hovering into the kitchen with everyone. Cookie and Whistle looked at him wide eyed. Sahara only smirked. 

 “She knew I had entered the house, if I hadn’t, the magic behind our deal would of kept her from entering as well. That’s besides the point…” He tapped his cane against the floor and Cookie caught the signal. He swung the pan, but Sahara quickly deflected it with a small blast of magic. While she was distracted, Whistle flew down and pulled away the circular ruby that hung from where her neck would be before tossing it to Raven, who caught it. 

 Without her jewel, Sahara fell to the floor, covering her eyes and spat out a stream of swears.

"Thank you, sir," Lutea sighed, "I was a little scared there."

The change in gravity was easily apparent with the first step he took, a subtle sensation he hadn’t felt before. While artificial gravity zones existed within certain areas of Space Land, there was a noticeable enough difference to make the current scenario a completely new experience.

Just then, a light thud could be heard from somewhere lower in the ship. Obby's ears perked up in alert as it did and moved back over to the console. He said a voice command and a diagram of the ship popped up. After a quick glance at it, he sighed.