“And you are?” First turned around to us as I was approaching with the newly joined engineer. His voice made it clear that he was displeased with the fact that he had been called out about his critique on the shield explanation.

“Let me do the introduction round.” I offered.

“Irene, Nirazera, Raglau and Ygglog.” I pointed to each of them. “They are part of Pathfinder Inc. and will be on the crew once we get this thing flying again. The other two are Gastarin Orivel the First and the Second. But one of them wants to be called Opisthos. Anthropologist as well as Archaeologist and Technical Archaeologist respectively.”

“And general researchers.” First added.

“And general researchers.” I amended as I rolled my eyes. I could already see that this wasn’t going to be easy in the long run. “People, this is Dr. Asami Soto and he agreed to help us study the relic. In turn we will protect him while he is working and then get him out of the system as soon as we have proper access to the ship and know which end is which.”

“Clearly, this…” First started but was quickly silenced by the look on his brother's face.

You know, on humans you have a certain range for mouth to face ratio. That range is roughly similar whatever race you are. Now in Black space with different species not so much. Sorren for example had rather wide mouths for their head size. The same was true for Draks, although that was a whole other thing with their mandibles. Now let me say that the ratio is really skewed for Greys. They have these huge heads and rather narrow mouths with not much in the way of protruding lips. So in comparison, a really big head and a really small mouth. That whole ratio was put to shame though as Opisthos was gaping at the engineer I had just introduced. You know the expression of someone’s jaw hitting the floor? Well, it didn’t really reach the floor but he made a real good effort at it.

“Asami Soto?” he asked.

The engineer nodded.

“As in Dr. Asami Soto? experimental engineer?”

Again a nod.

What happened next would have been worth recording but I just didn’t have the tech. And I truly wasn’t expecting it. A positively girlish squeal of delight ripped through the com channel. Then Opisthos was again attached to someone’s hand, shaking it like he wanted to pump water from deep underground.

“Mister Soto. It is my absolute pleasure to meet you. Especially here. I mean I would never have expected to see a figure as preeminent in your field as you and in a system as this. Oh, the delight. I can’t wait to work with you on this problem. Engaging our joint knowledge towards the solution of the task at hand. And studying a relic side by side. No oracle could have predicted this day and if they had, I would not have believed them. And if I would have believed them, I would have been sleepless until today. I can’t wait to discuss some of your theories with you. Did I mention that I read all your papers? I don’t think I did. Well, I read all your papers. I mean I guess I did. Not sure if I caught all of them. You never know what is hidden by corporations that want to keep secrets. Did you ever do major research and engineering work for corporations that want to keep your work hidden? It is such a shame, I truly believe that knowledge should be shared so all can benefit from it. But secrecy around knowledge and science just lead to misunderstanding and skewed perspectives. I really must ask…”

I really tried to wait out whatever he was babbling at his newest hand shaking victim but I had the feeling that we would be in the same sport for about another hour without anybody getting any word in sideways. So instead I looked at Irene who had a proven track record of controlling the Grey. She smoothly stepped forward and repeated what she had done on debarking the shuttle. She smacked him on the back of his vacsuited head.

“Opisthos, shut up!” she commanded.

“Oh, sorry miss Adler. I babble when I am excited, don’t I?”

She held her hand up, her thumb and index finger pressed together. Then she opened them slowly.

“Just a little…” her fingers kept still spreading. Once they were about as far apart as they could possibly be she stopped, looked at Opisthos and gave him a wink and a cheeky smile. Oh how I equally loved and hated this woman. You know, on one hand I knew how effective this technique was because I had been on the receiving end of it often enough. You never knew if she was joking or not or to which degree. Which meant, since you didn’t want to piss her off, you erred on the side of caution. On the other hand… I had been on the receiving end of it often enough!

“Yes, of course. I will be more composed and act befitting of my position.”

Now his brother actually lost his composure. I mean if you could call making a snorting sound losing composure. But considering how he had acted so far he must have had a real ball.

I decided to ignore both of them.

“Doctor Soto, you said something about the shield before. What was that?”

“Ah yes, the shield is acting more like a water bubble than it seems. I was already doing scans that showed that the bubble is kept in place by radiation. I am not yet sure why or what for. Just that it is as if the inside is full of water. Or in our case radiation.”

“Okay, fair enough, thank you for the explanation. I guess you will get along with your fanboy and his brother?” When he nodded I let him know that I will be going to plan the next steps with my corp mates in the shuttle but that one of the ladies would always have their eyes on him. For his protection, of course, because he was so concerned about that before.

I looked at Nirazera and Irene who were talking, then Irene started walking towards the shuttle while Nirazera stepped closer to the three scientists and started a brief conversation with them that wasn’t being broadcast on the local coms. I didn’t think they were discussing secrets though. More like a small motivational speech from my corporate fixer.

* * * * *

“So, what are our next steps?” I asked the three others that were sitting with me in the small galley of the shuttle.

They all looked at me.

“What?”

“Aren’t you the brains of the operation? Or at least supposedly?” Irene asked with a smirk.

“I am the supposed decision maker of the operation.” I replied, sticking out my tongue. Yeah, silly, I know. But it was fun and made me feel better and with Nic I could be silly and childish and everything was good.

“I do not understand the gesture.” Ygglog spoke up while Nic chuckled.

“Nevermind. Inside joke.”

Ralgau grumbled in response.

“Guys, seriously though. We need to figure out what our next steps are. Our scientists are now busy with the ship and until they have a better idea and can give me an ETA for when we finally have access, there isn’t much we can do to help them. So we can just as well get started on the other things that need doing. And I am looking to you guys to tell me what needs doing because I will miss things.

“I know we need to get some form of exit for the ship mined because it will not fit through the cave entrance. I also want to have a chat with you, Ygglog. You have not spoken much and I would like to hear more about you and your motives for joining the corp. We need to decide what we are going to do with the claim as I will not sit here and mine the asteroid long term and I know that Irene has no interest in that. We also need to think about what kind of things we will do to make money as a corporation. These are some things that have been occupying my mind. Now what is it you think?”

Irene spoke next: “Yaah, the whole corporation money making aspect is important. Especially as we will see more corporations being founded over the next half year. I don’t think we need to aim for something extraordinary but if we can create a stream of income that doesn’t need our, or rather your, direct involvement, all the better. And it leaves us free to do other things.”

“Ralgau?” I looked at my big friend.

“Honestly, I am happy to be off the station and out amongst the stars again. The thing I care most about is that. And I would like to travel with you, make some money and see the universe. That is why I said I don’t want a leadership position. I don’t want to think about all of these things or worry about where the money comes from. I did my time and now I just want to travel along.”

Honestly, I was a little disappointed in his attitude. The Ralgau I had come to know before was more focused and pushed himself forwards. Sure, he was dejected and not in a good place when he was bartending and saw no way forward. I mean nobody would be in a good place then. However, when I had offered a way he had jumped on it and seemed very motivated. And yet that motivation seemed to have left him again.

“You sure man?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I am sure. I mean if you are looking for specialized crew on the new ship, then I am more than happy to pull my weight. I am just over the whole business stuff.”

“Fair enough, I can work with that. Let’s talk when we have a better idea about the ship. Would you mind taking over for Nirazera and send her over here? She is invested in the corp and in a position to make decisions. Might be better if she would be here.”

A nod and a grunt was my reply. Although when he left he put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a quick reassuring squeeze. I guess he really was okay. If not, the future would tell.

“Now, while we wait on Nirazera, Ygglog, what is it you want?”

“I want to grow stronger.”

“Yes, strength. I heard that before. Let me ask you differently: Why do you want to grow stronger? What is it you want to achieve?”

“ It is our purpose. To fulfill our purpose Drak needs to be strong. So my purpose is to be strong so Drak are strong.”

Okay, no answers from him then. Circular logic and all. I really had no idea what his motivations were but so far he had proved a nearly tireless worker, had been willing to fight and die and was on board the moment the corp was registered. I still had his episode in this cavern in the back of my mind. You know, when he kicked me across said cavern stating that I was not strong enough. But since then I had had time to think about it a little and I believed it had something to do with the ship.

“What do you know about the ship?” I asked him.

“I know nothing of this ship.”

“I am pretty sure that when you saw it first you recognized it. You had a very emotional reaction.”

“I did not recognize the ship. I recognized who made the ship.”

It was like pulling teeth with this guy.

“And?”

“The builders are the Seekers. They are who gave purpose to Drak.”

Woah! Revelations. I am sure that this moment should have been underlined with some dramatic music. What the hell? So everybody in the galaxy only knew these things as relics. But apparently the Drak new the builders of these relics as Seekers and it seemed like the Drak remembered them while it seemed like all the other races had forgotten about them.

“What can you tell us about the Seekers?” Irene jumped in having come to the same conclusion as I.

“Seekers gave Drak purpose. Seekers disappeared after that in a great war. Drak remember. I will say no more. I will see if you are strong enough to get into ship. Maybe talk more after. Maybe you learn more yourself.”

He clicked his mandibles and walked into the airlock that Nirazera had just left. I guess he no longer felt like participating in the conversation. The thing was that this guy knew a whole lot more than he was letting on and I had no clue what to do with that bit of information or how to get him to share more. I guess we would have to see what the geek squad came up with and go from there.

After I had updated Nirazera on the conversations so far, she basically confirmed my points. She suggested that we hold off on further conversations on money making until we had the ability to get the ship. She also liked the idea of a passive corporate income stream and suggested creating something like a subdivision of the company that would deal with asteroid mining since I already had the claim. She spun this idea further by suggesting that we hire Mrk and Krn to run this division and pay them instead of letting them mine for themselves. Or at least offer it to them. Then they could bring on further miners and the company would get the proceeds of the operation and pay a salary. In her mind it would be easy enough to extend the operation to two or three claims which would produce quite a bit of income.

To my concern that they would have to deal with the RD again and again she simply replied that they normally only go after independent operations, not really the ones that have corporate backing. And especially after we got the relic out of the asteroid, the Red Dawn also should have a lot less interest in the mining op. And if need be, we would just have the Mercs kick them in the teeth and then use the threat of the KKV strike data to keep them at bay. All that being said, I gave her the go-ahead to get in touch with the couple and see if they were down for it.

New Skill unlocked: Leadership

The level of this skill determines various interaction outcomes.

Current Skill Level: 1 / 100

With nothing more to discuss immediately, I checked if Irene had heard from Damian. She said that he had been radio silent since we came back. Which meant we would either hear from him ingame or during the next logout. Whichever came first. In the meantime, since there was nothing else to do, I started planning on how to mine a big enough exit for the ship into the rock.