Broken Night

Rowan and Connor spent much more time in the library as they browsed through many different topics. From sentient alien races, to the non sentient space beasts. There were a lot of them that possessed interesting, and sometimes, outright outlandish abilities that could entirely demolish an entire planet!

Hours passed by, and before they knew it, night time came by. Not that they would have noticed, if not for their roommates suddenly appearing in the seats opposite them.

"Do you two know how long we've been looking for you for?" Robin groaned tiredly as he slumped against the tabletop. He let out a deep sigh before sitting back up and looking at what they were browsing. Not that he could read backwards.

The yellow haired boy quickly got up from his seat and came to sit beside Rowan with wide eyes. Elijah sat down beside Connor.

"Wow... Is that...?"

"A starship? Yes, it is." Connor nodded, and zoomed in on the image that they were seeing. A low tier starship, an aircraft that was built and optimized to traverse the stars, was displayed through the holographic image.

"This is the Agro T1-90. It is a low tier starship that is used for planetary exploration." Rowan explained when he saw his friends' interest in the starship. He tapped the screen a few times and a more detailed schematic of the starship came into view.

Because it was a low tier, and common starship, the schematics of the ship was open to public view. A lot of numbers and images flashed across the screen as the four boys browsed through more information concerning the ship. The checked out its relative speed, the strength of its power reactors and thrusters, and its cabin capacity.

"The Argo T1-90 has a cabin capacity of 10 people on a basic scale, and thirty at most. It is not advisable to push the limit of the starship up to 30 people while engaging on an extended journey." Connor told the others as he translated most of the technical jargons that his friends could not understand.

"Looking at this makes me want to explore the stars!" Robin whisper-yelled as he motioned flying about with his hand in the air. He still remembered that he was in the library and being noisy was frowned upon.

"Maybe one day. There is a chance that we might get a chance to head off the planet sometime in our career." Rowan shrugged. He was also interested in exploring the stars, but that would have to come after his more immediate goals. And the top on that list involved working for Black Gold first and advancing to Earl at the very least. That might take a long time.

He had to find out the specifics behind his father's disappearance. And that meant having a high enough rank in the organization to do so.

While he could simply ask the director, he felt that it would have little meaning. His father was an Earl before his disappearance. There was little point in trying to find traces of him before also reaching that level of power so that he could stand a chance against whatever was behind the whole incident.

A couple more hours passed before yawns began to escape from their mouths.

"What time is it?" Robin randomly asked.

"Um... 1am..." Elijah replied with a stunned look on his face.

"What? It's late! How did we spend so much time here?!" Robin forgot about lowering his voice and yelled. Luckily for him, the library was already empty, so there was no one to scold him.

"How the time passed does not matter. We should get going." Rowan tapped the center of the table top and the holographic image they were looking at vanished. He stood up and stretched, and so did the others.

They left the library and returned to their rooms. Except for the guards that were on the night shift, there were barely any other people still moving around by this time.

Suddenly, the sound of hurrying footsteps and yelling came ringing through the halls. Several armored and armed people came running down one of the hallways that led to the medical wing of the underground base. They were rushing someone on a stretcher to the medical bay where they could receive treatment.

"Whoa... It looks like someone got injured on a mission." Robin whistled. From the gears of the people that had come running past them, they were able to tell that they were Nobles. They were not sure of the ranks of the Nobles, though.

"Let's head back to our room. We might hear something about it when we wake up." Elijah suggested, and they continued walking. It was only after a couple of steps that Robin noticed that Rowan had stopped, though.

"Rowan? What's wrong?" The yellow haired boy asked in confusion. He turned back, but also froze in place when he saw the expression that was pasted on Rowan's face. It was one of absolute horror.

"I-I'm sorry, I'll see you guys later." Rowan stuttered and turned around, taking off after the Nobles that had been wheeling someone down tot he medical wing. His heart beat erratically, and his blood pumped through his veins like mad, drowning out all the other sounds except for his own heart beat as he ran down the hallway.

"Rowan!" Robin's concerned voice could barely be heard as he ran after the men and women. The guards in the way were unable to stop him in time as he easily outmaneuvered them. They were all commoners like him, so he was able to use the skills his father had taught him before going missing to dodge them. The stronger guards were all guarding more important areas, so no one strong enough was able to hinder his advance.

After a couple minutes of frantic running, Rowan burst through the hatch of the medical wing in a panicked rush.

"Eric. Eric! Where is he?!" He asked, looking around with wide eyes.