Harmony did another scan and brightly commented, “That’s it! I don’t feel any other influences around. We did it!” She clapped her hands and jumped up and down. Gus saw that his eyes weren’t the only ones affected by Harmony’s outfit, which made him smile and shake his head a bit. She gave him a furtive and knowing wink as he looked back at her.
Dammit.
“Alright, everyone,” The Keeper announced. “Keep your eyes open, but let’s finish this up and see if there’s anything to salvage. Let’s get this done, people!”
Chapter Three
Everything Old is New Again
After the disposal of the doll, the mood lightened significantly. The crew scavenged some parts but the transport was so old that very few were useful. Food stores on the ship had spoiled, which was the bulk of what was in the main hold.
Yuki, who happened to be the computer expert and owner of the elven voice, had restored lighting and limited power to the ship, which made exploration quicker. The only other discovery was a nest of lizards living within the ducts of the ship. One area warmed up considerably near a crack in the ship from receiving sunlight for most of the day. A drone sent into an opening showed them to be the ones thrashing around randomly inside the ducts of the ship.
Gus made his way to the captain’s quarters, led by some morbid curiosity about who Methiochos had been before he turned into a monster. The room finally opened to Yuki’s decryption and the inside of the spartan room looked mostly unaffected by the effects of water, the encroaching jungle and almost half a century of time.
Besides a bed, dresser, and desk, the only adornment was a portrait of an old man. The man’s features looked almost alien, emphasized even more by his silver jumpsuit and larger than normal eyes. His forehead was also more prominent through his gray hair, styled to make it appear like he had more body and fullness, but in reality only revealing his bare scalp amid the nimbus of wispy hair.
As Gus stared at the picture, a blue glow pulsed from behind the picture. He rubbed his eyes but the glow persisted. Checking his logs, he saw that his passive True Sight had activated. Stepping on the bed, he lifted the painting away, revealing an alcove with a crystal cube with each side about 4 inches long.
“Good luck with that,” Yuki scoffed.
“What is it?” Gus asked, turning the object around different directions, looking at the different facets under the surface, faintly glimpsing some writing as the tiny panels inside the cube flickered from one display to the next.
“It’s a Quorian cube. They’re basically unhackable journals. They generate a code based on the user’s DNA and require multiple manipulations of the surface to unlock and reveal the contents. I’ve never heard of one being opened by anyone but the user. After one person uses them, they’re useless, as they can’t be transferred to a new user. It’s a pretty souvenir, but don’t expect to get anything besides that.” Yuki shrugged. “This room looks empty, and it’s the last on this floor. I’m about ready to head back. Let me know when you want to go.”
“I don’t think there’s anything else here; maybe in the ship’s logs?” Gus asked.
“I’ll run a cleanup program on it, see what data I can recover. It’ll be a while though.”
Gus nodded and turned his attention to the cube as he followed her back to the central access port. He pressed on one of the surfaces and saw it light up with a pinkish-purple highlight on one side, and another formed a yellowish-green halo around his finger as he touched the opposite side.
He played around with the cube until they piled in the small transport and returned to the manor. He stowed the curiosity away and focused on the other things listed on his itinerary for the day. No rest for the weary. At least they’d be leaving soon; he was anxious to get underway.
Later that afternoon, Gus sat in the command chair of the manor, squirming a little bit as his father put his hand on his shoulder, directing him on possible defenses for the manor. His emotional hackles were raised, and a visceral part of him resisted the direction Tempest was trying to give.
Sure, Tempest had a ton of experience managing Purple Faction’s affairs, but Gus was on edge, ready for a play to try to wrest the manor from him. So far, that hadn’t happened, but Gus was primed with what he would say and do when it did.
The odd thing was that, mentally, part of him knew the situation had changed. Rationally, he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his gut had other ideas. Emotionally, he couldn’t control the strong feelings that boiled out, unbidden. He hoped it wasn’t apparent, but severely doubted he was able to mask everything. He thought he had forgiven his father during his time in the bottomless pit trap, but it wasn’t as easy in practice.
“I think that takes care of things for now.” Tempest beamed. “You’ve really done something here, Gus.” He squeezed Gus’ shoulder in encouragement, but inwardly Gus cringed.
“Thanks,” he said flatly. “I’m heading to train for a bit, see if I can level up before we have to head out. See ya.” He slid out of the chair and escaped to the elevator.
“We could—” The rest of the sentence was cut off as the elevator doors closed, Gus seeing his father’s hand outstretched and a hopeful look on his face. Oh no. I’m not making it that easy
