20 Chapter 20: The Travellers

In this scenario, all Ol did was to ask for the purpose of the multiple robberies and why those specific items were taken. The answer was that they intend to use those technology and scan, mimic and reproduce the artefacts.

It is uncertain what artefact that they are trying to make as that involves snatching information from the same level as the scroll itself, but Torelamri has it covered.

'If you are stupid, you think they want high energy. They look like physicists. But with some digging, they work with gravity. Micro, simulated, artificial gravity.' Torelamri brought up a block diagram of all the different components stolen during the robberies and connected them in an intricate network.

'So we have to assume that they might have an artifact that allows for at least some level of gravity manipulation.' Ol concluded, 'and that's as much information as we can gather.'

'They need the HES.' Torelamri concluded, 'it's the most crucial, but they cannot act like that, or some other smart people will figure it out also. Highly classified research.'

'Maybe that's why they send Zel instead of a raid team towards IST. That makes sense.' Rydel nodded at the explanation.

'But what can they do now when the device is broken?' Cellica followed up after Rydel, 'Rydel may or may not have had a hand on that.....ah!'

She screamed and dodged as Rydel threw a mandarin at her.

'No HES, no deal.' Torelamri said affirmatively, 'they would want it, for real.'

'So that's how we would deal with it.' Ol said, 'Rydel, is there a standard procedure for broken equipment to be fixed?'

'There must be.' Rydel brought up his email account and looked into the very first emails that were sent to him by his supervisor almost four years ago, 'depending on the manufacturer and policy, the broken or faulty instrument will be sent back to either a nearest workshop for fixing and readjustment or back to the factory for replacement.'

'As the high energy stabiliser is the best of the best, it will have to go back, possibly on the next flight out. The device is from a factory on Hyperion 4, the planet of factories and servers.'

'Cellica, can you see it?' Ol asked.

'Give me a few minutes.' Cellica got up, 'I am a little hungover, but tracking is still something I am good at.'

'What did you guys do yesterday?' Ol chuckles as Cellica got up and wobbled towards the balcony, 'Cellica is not usually the confident or outspoken.'

'Aquarian shocker, I think.' Rydel answered.

'Ah.'

'Anyway, the plan now is to follow the shipment of that equipment for as long as you can. Dolon is only a few gates away from you two so she can pick you up at the... Knightsky junction? A standard route would be to go through that junction and turn towards the Hyperion system.' Ol confirms the next step of action, 'did Cellica find anything?'

'Got.....GOT IT!' Cellica screamed from the balcony and points towards a point in space far away, 'it's in a triple secure container at the base of the space elevator.'

'It's just sitting there?' Rydel got up, 'so we weren't that behind, after all.'

'I see.' Ol gently massages his skull, 'Cellica, can you go track it down? Use markers if you can.'

'I will.' Cellica came back into the room and sat next to Rydel by the table, then she turned, looked up at Rydel and asked, 'Will you come?'

'Argh.' Rydel scratched his head, how can he not if Cellica is asking her like that? She looks way too cute here, 'Fine, I will use my last leave of holiday here, plus there isn't too much work left.'

'YAY!' Cellica jumped up and hopped towards the food printer and took out the cereal and toasts while Rydel is sitting there with his head in between his palms.

'Thank you very much for doing this.' Ol performed a slight bow, 'Things are ramping up now so we need all the help we need...'

'No matter how much I wanted to stay normal, I agree with you.' Rydel threw up both of his arms, 'this thing will get serious and everything will go to shit if we are not ready. Plus, this is fun.'

'Breakfast's ready~' Cellica slid the bowl on the table towards Rydel and it stops just on the edge of it. She seemed genuinely excited for a new adventure.

'Ok, I will leave the rest to you. Contact me if you need any help in anything, and I will keep looking into any intel that would be helpful for you guys.' Ol swiped off the holo-call and left the two to their own devices.

'Right.' Rydel brought the bowl of cereal back in front of him, 'the first scheduled space elevator will be up at ten, so let's eat.'

Soon after, Cellica and Rydel both packed very lightly for quick few days travels using the spare military-grade compact backpacks and headed off. They made it to the base of the elevator in ample time and took the first lift up. Before that, Cellica managed to head towards the loading area and dropped off a marker on the container that loads the pieces of the high energy stabilizer.

'How exactly are you able to track that thing in the next few days?' Rydel asked curiously as Cellica sneaked back in an exaggerated supposedly sneaky walk.

'Well, I am not tracking it.' Cellica shrugged and pulled out her personal interface, which is a combination of a phone, hologram projector and computer on a personal scale the size of a watch, and pointed at it. A map hologram appeared and showed where the cargo is relative to them.

'Ah, and here I go thinking you use the artifacts for everything.' Rydel frowned and nodded at that notion. That's also what he does, the artifacts do come in handy, but sometimes he might forget about using the technologies to his aid.

'Just because something can be done doesn't mean something should be done.' Cellica said, 'overreliance on artifacts are also an issue.'

After leaving the cargo bay, they then went through the security and boarded.

In the passengers seat next to him, Cellica has finally calmed down from the extreme excitement in the morning and dozed off with her head on Rydel shoulder while Rydel was looking up ship transits towards Knightsky Junction.

The next ship was almost completely empty, so it was actually quite easy to book a pair of tickets and get away of using dodgy bookies. At this point, Cellica are just simply bobbing along for the right and shared the track in algorithm so that Rydel don't have to bother her sleep. After boarding the flight with the cargo, she went straight for the bed in the twin room without even fastening the safety belt while Rydel sat down at the desk and decides to get some work done.

The journey to the knightsky junction would be roughly about a day through six acceleration gates and multiple systems. So Rydel could actually get some pretty decent work done. After switching on the audio isolation chamber for himself, he just plays the music and got to work (Audio isolation chamber is an isolated space that mimics the function of headphones without the need to stuff the ear canal).

A few hours after departure from Vulcan 5, the Vulcan system has already been left behind and the spacecraft is speeding through intergalactic space through the stable wormhole created in between acceleration gates.

Rydel has finished the very first section of his write up and filled up the plan for the rest. The introduction was always the toughest bit as all the information had to be laid out clearly, with references obviously, and none of the information can go to waste.

Despite how technology has advanced, academia seemed to be at the slower receiving end of it quite ironically.

Suddenly, he felt two hands on his shoulder and jumped up. The AIC (audio isolation chamber) was turned off automatically and the sound of spacecrafts was all he heard, apart from Cellica's voice.

'Hello, Rydel Daera.' Cellica steppes back and covers her mouth as she laughs.

'Hi, Cellica Uleric?' Rydel turned and looked at her, 'had a nice sleep?'

'Yes. Uh, can we talk for a little bit?' She stepped back towards her bed and gestured for Rydel to sit opposite her. Rydel sat down as instructed.Oh boy, here's the talk.

'I don't dislike you, Rydel. Let's get to know you better.' Cellica leaned back and drops the bomb casually.

'Wait what?' Rydel's mouth opens.

'Yeah, what?' Cellica's eye brows crunches up, 'what's that face?'

'No no no! Please don't misunderstand.' Rydel quickly clarified himself, 'it's just I thought you were going for THAT talk, Not this one.'

'Why would I though?' Cellica rolled her eyes, 'I am not like whoever you were with before.'

'Yeah... I can see that.' Rydel shivers slightly as he flashed back to the not so glorious days in his past, 'Well, that's one of the reason why you are amazing. You see things clearly, evidently.'

'You think me having the most power set of observation instrument in the world and I can't even see my own feelings?' Cellica kicked Rydel in the leg gently and lied back on the bed, 'come on now.'

'Right right.' Rydel rubs her knees gently and apologizes.

'First question, are you a cuddly person?'

Time flies when you are cuddling, and not even the scroll of truth can explain why.

'Dolon calling Cellica.' After quite a few jumps and traveling through two systems, the peace in the room has finally been broken by Dolon's call. Cellica was the only one in the room as Rydel's fetching some food in the dining hall.

'Cellica here.' She picked up.

'Alright,' Dolon took a sip of the iced tea at a music bar near the centre of the Knightskyjunction's arrival waiting area, 'are you lovebirds near yet?'

'That ain't it, D!' Cellica blushes slightly and denies it, 'we are about 8 hours away, same as the cargo.'

'Hot damn.' Dolon hit the table and caused the screen underneath her table to scramble as an AI waitress's hologram popped up and said, 'are you ready to order?'

'Yeah sorry about it. But I am sure Knightsky has plenty of entertainment for you, right?' Cellica said apologetically.

'Yeah, they got entertainment down alright.'

Dolon turned to look at a female Rockies preparing a set on the stage of the bar, she's definitely taller and slimmer for a Rockie, about half the height as an average human. She's wearing a light blue spandex clothing and fixed her hairs so fit the post-modern asthetics. She turned and scanned her audiences which is mostly humans and other Rockie travellers whilst adjusting her box of music.

'Alright, the HES is still safe on the ship. We will see you later.' Cellica said as Rydel knocks on the door, 'I will send you the flight number.'

'Noted.' Dolon disconnected the connection and turned around. She ordered some Aquarian fast foods and waited for the music to get ready. A hologram message revolves around the top of the stage, showing the name of the musician and the act: Vindy's Bangers, brought to you by Vindy.

Duh.

Dolon tilted her head slightly at the caption, but she is not going to judge a musician by the hologram above her head obviously. Vindy looks around as she finished her set up, made all the connections and pressed the button for the audio check.

'Audio check, one! two! three! One! Two! Three!'

She spoke gently into the mic and the volume adjusted itself automatically, this is the post-modern age after all.

Her voice is silky smooth with a slight cracking somewhere in between, possibly due to her many acts done before. That gives her voice a magnetic feel though and Dolon can't help but get drawn towards her. By the time she finished the second count to three, the audio has already acclimatized and it leads straight into her very first song.

With her stubby Rockie fingers, she quickly run it through the baseline beats to get the crowded into it with a slick combination of heavy and lighter percussions going back and forth towards each other. This is bog standard human music. Then she introduced a few strings and a basic melody that started winding up and up.

'Holy...' Some of the human customers sat at the table whispers slightly at the tune and bobbed their heads to it while making a stinky face, a classic human expression of sick music.

'Absolute banger, ain't it?' One talked his friend, who has stopped whatever she's doing on her personal interface and looked up at the musician confused.

'This is mad good.' Another raise their glass and stood up as he started shift around with the beat and started dancing. The whole crowd is getting into it and more and more joined the dance.

Dolon was not impressed. Typically she can just about tolerate human music, but she felt like she is just going to freak out by how...human this is. Sadly she's currently pinned down on her seat by her order of fast food and couldn't actually leave. She looked back and forth between Vindy and her passionate crowd confused and decided to look away as not to ruin the mood.

There is a War Games gaming room not so far away, maybe that's where she could kill th next few hours. Get a few good games in, go back to her ship for a cycle of sleep and then pick up the pair. Dolon thought to herself when suddenly she was interrupted by the conveyer belt delivering her food in a bowl right in front of her.

'Alright, thank you so much you lovely free spirits!' Vindy exclaimed at the end of her first song, 'now, let's show some love for our Aquarian friend!'

Dolon raises her head and scanned around. She is fairly certain there is no other Aquarian in the bar at that point, and no one else has entered.

'Yes, this song is dedicated to you, my friend.' Vindy said so with a smile as her finger tips lights up a little and makes contact with the keyboard. Rather than the beats as bases coming out, instead it's a smooth and long note from an Aquarian violin. It changed rhythmically at the perfect timing, twists and turns like a free stream of water down a mountain, and actually sounds...good?

Dolon pauses with the bowl of food in her hand and listens quietly. She hasn't heard anything like this since leaving Aquaria, yet this is drastically different from Aquarian music. This is not what a human would call a banging tune, but it completely drew Dolon into it.

She is no longer sitting in a bar at the middle of Knightsky Junction in between acceleration gates in intergalactic space, but rather transported back towards where everything began on Aquarian, and she was young and and carefree, playing Rushing (Aquarian Rugby) with no considerations for social norms or anything else in the universe. She remembers her first match ever after months and training, first team selection to represent the region and her heart condition that forced her back from the sport, her artifact.

It's humming slightly and resonating with the music, shooting off mini jolts of energy. All of her past that leads to she being where she is today, and where she is right now.

The music drops, and she landed back in Knightsky junction. Her artifacts has calmed down.

'Thank you.' Dolon turned and looked at Vindy, who smiled back. She slightly gathered herself over the next few songs until the end of her act, of which she exited with thunderous applause and cheering from the crowd, including Dolon.

Vindy disconnected her music box from all the connection and put it back on her back. She took a free drink from the crowd and went to sit next to Dolon.

'Thank you for that song.' Dolon pushes a drink towards Vindy, 'I don't know how, but that music really shook me to the core.'

'I am flattered.' Vindy down her current drink and got her hands on the other one. 'Aquarian music is a style of its own, I always loved it.'

'It's just that, I haven't heard anything like that since leaving Aquaria, and yet...'

'It's not something you have heard on Aquaria.' Vindy finished the sentences off for Dolon.

'No.' Dolon agreed, 'it's something else, it's something deeper. This is very strange, and I have never felt this before.'

'Well, the aims of my work is always to set people free.' Vindy taps her glass gently and creates yet another quirky melody, 'but there is no way to do it without setting me free first. Can you feel it?'

'I can, certainly your freedom.' Dolon looked at Vindy in the eye, 'name's Dolon by the way.'

'Vindy, but you know it already. What brought you here?' Vindy looks at Dolon and asked, 'you seemed very mysterious, and it's like you are hiding something inside.'

'I am waiting to pick my friends.' Dolon answers, 'what about you? Why are you here?'

'Well,' Vindy tilted her head back and downed yet another drink, 'isn't the essence of freedom being able to go wherever you want whenever you want? I am here, cause I want to.'

'That's a nice way to live. Especially with your level of talent.' 'Well, some might say I am just good at using what I have.' Vindy winked at Dolon as she gets up, 'now, my freedom calls for me, or rather my spacecraft ticket. It was nice meeting you, Dolon. Til' we meet again.'

'Take care.' Dolon ended up staying in that bar for many more hours until Rydel and Cellica arrives. They met at the arrivals and Dolon brought them into the ship, where everything began for them.

'Alright, I got my eyes on them. Let's go.' Cellica transfered the tracking algorithm towards the ship's navigation systems.

'Let's set this bird free.' Dolon pushes the lever and piloted the ship into intergalactic space, following the cargo ship into an acceleration gate towards the Hyperion system.