Location: Magicon Empire; Song Duchy; Vexton System; BCS (VS) Stargazer

I immediately have Clara fly us back to the Stargazer. I just want to leave! Now we have the reason why that planet isn't considered for habitation. Dinosaurs and humans just don't mix.

This was just too close. If the anti-magic pulse had lasted just a moment longer, we would have been dead! No second chances, just gone. I shudder and sit back up.

Next, I start taking off my spacewalker suit and collapse on a sofa afterward. Lydia lands next to me a few seconds later. She looks quite distressed as well. It only takes one look, and then we're hugging each other and Lydia starts sobbing.

"I thought we'd be goners… I… Thank you, Sara, for saving me!"

"Always," I whisper back at her.

We're all completely exhausted now that the adrenaline ebbs off and so we immediately head toward our rooms once we're back on the Stargazer.

Lucy and Nick are closely huddled together when they enter their shared cabin, and Tim gives us a silent nod when he leaves as well. I look at Alina and Lydia, they are still quite pale… Not that I'm looking any better.

"Do you want to join me? I don't think I want to be alone tonight."

"Yay, a sleepover!" Alina false cheers. This brightens my mood a bit and I smile slightly. Lydia quietly chuckles as well. It's a good thing that I have such a big bed. Otherwise, it would have been very cuddly.

I sleep surprisingly well, and the next morning arrives quickly. I'm awoken by Alina getting up right next to me. A look to the other side reveals a still-sleeping Lydia. I get up slowly. "Morning, Alina."

"Good morning," she replies. "How are you? Did you sleep well?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm better… I think not being alone helped a lot, thank you!"

She smiles. "You're welcome. I don't think I'd be this good if I was alone last night… So thank you too."

We decide to let Lydia sleep, and I enter my bathroom to take a quick shower. Alina goes to her cabin and does so as well. We meet up in the kitchen right after. Tim is there as well and after asking him, he confirms that he's now fine too.

Once we're finished with breakfast and back in the hallway, Clara speaks up in my ear. "Now that you're better, I think it's a good moment to tell you… You've got a message waiting from system security."

I tilt my head. "I have? What do they want?"

Alina looks at me curiously. "What is it?"

"A message from system security."

"It's better if you watch it for yourself. I can show you now if you want?"

"Hmm, okay… But I'd rather watch it on the bridge."

"As you wish."

Tim stops at the elevator and presses the button. "We'll join you. I'm curious what they want from us…" There's a slight frown on his face. I guess the Silvani heir is not happy at all with how things played out on the planet.

We arrive on the bridge and take a seat. I have Clara activate the main projection at the front-facing window and she starts playing the message.

Captain Tullip's face appears before us. This time he's frowning and looks rather annoyed. "Didn't I tell you to have fun? Why didn't you stay with the peaceful dinosaurs? Your AI specifically picked a location close to them so that you weren't in any danger! There you should have concluded that the planet should be seen as a natural reserve for this ancient species and therefore shouldn't be populated by humans. Hell, you could have had so much fun with the dinosaurs… That's what this valley is there for. Two of you even rode one. Why didn't you leave it at that?"

I have Clara stop the recording and just stare at Captain Tulip's face. Did he keep a tab on us? And almost everything about our first stop on the planet was staged? The hell?

Tim clearly thinks the same and turns to look at me, or rather at the chip behind my ear. "I think you've got some explaining to do, Clara!"

She sighs through the overhead speakers. "I do, and I'm sorry for not telling and deceiving you… Unfortunately, this also fell under the no-cheating rule. I know this is a bad excuse, but it is how it is… To keep things simple, the Vexton System is dangerous, period.

"To be allowed to come here requires special permission that you all gained after the college staff did a lot of background checks and observations of your capabilities. If they had deemed you unfit, Sam would have told you to look for another system to explore because the Peacekeepers would need the Vexton System for a training maneuver during your exploration week.

"That said, you obviously qualified and were allowed to come here. I got special instructions to keep you away from most of the dangers here in the system. That's also why I led you to one of the asteroids specifically. It's the one reserved for student explorations as it's for whatever reason the most uncontaminated. Almost every other asteroid would have required extensive treatment at the system security station despite your enhanced spacewalker suits. What I didn't know before was the Worldender Ship connection… This came as a surprise for me too and I'll be protesting heavily about that fact once we're back"

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While Clara is talking, my eyes go wider and wider. It was basically all fake? But why did she lead us to the other continent with the dangerous dinosaurs then? I glance at Tim and Alina. They both mirror my expression of shock. Before I can reply anything, she continues.

"Most students in the past packed their things and left after all this contamination stuff, but I'm very proud of you that you stayed. Not only did you stay, but you also found the hidden objective on Vexton 1's moon!

"That led to my decision to give you the full experience on Vexton 2. Of course, I stayed on track at the beginning and gave you a soft introduction to everything dinosaur with the peaceful reserve. If you hadn't asked for it, I also would have let things be. But as Sara specifically asked me to scout, I decided to show you what my drones discovered on the second continent instead of ignoring it as my orders told me to do. I didn't plan for the T-Rex to appear. It was very far away when I was scouting the location, but I guess all your magic attracted it to your location. Again, I'm sorry… But now you should continue with Captain Tulip. He'll fill you in with the last pieces of the puzzle."

I nod slowly. In a twisted way, everything Clara did makes sense. Not that I like it, but I can understand why it was done this way.

Captain Tulip's angry face starts moving again and he sighs. "But no, you decided that wasn't enough… I don't even know why your AI led you to the other continent as it was instructed not to do so. I'll be putting that into my report as well… I wouldn't even have cared if you stayed at the campsite. That's what it's there for after all. A secure place on the wild continent for overeager students who discovered it by themselves or actual scientists."

He starts shaking his head and sighs again. "But no, even after seeing our little raptors ripping apart their prey you still didn't stop. I'm starting to wonder if you're related to the peaceful dinosaurs who lack the feeling of fear… Anyway, you decided to go out there and take a look, while thinking it's a good idea to throw out so much magic to support a small city's grid… Again, as you were actually very careful and made a solid plan to catch a specimen, I was willing to let it slide. But then you still hadn't enough and continued to blast out magic as if it was nothing.

"That was enough to attract Gina, and you know best how that played out in the end… I was almost forced to pull her kill switch! That would have put the research back for years! Do you even know how close I was to ruining my career?"

He sounds genuinely angry now.

"Gina?" Tim asks in confusion.

"Probably the T-Rex," I reply while Captain Tulip continues to ramble.

In the end, he finishes by telling us that all this will be in his report for FBC, and he wants us to leave as fast as possible. Not that I'm planning to do anything else. His final words are a bit softer though.

"… But please don't worry too much, I know you're young… I've been young myself all those years ago and know how it is. Still, you displayed some impressive capabilities magically and not and I'm actually impressed. While parts of my report probably will influence your grade a bit because of the unnecessary danger you put yourselves in, this shouldn't be too bad, as you've actually done a very good job here! Now off you go before you cause more trouble. Tulip out."

Clara deactivates the projection, and I lean back in my chair. "Holy shit!"

"Yeah," Alina agrees. "That's a lot to digest… So it was all fake, basically?"

Tim shrugs. "I'm not so sure, actually… I mean, yeah, we were guided a bit, but is it so bad? We still made our own decisions and it's not like Clara held us back… Hell, she's even going to be in trouble now because she ignored part of her orders."

Alina scratches her chin in thought. "I don't know. Maybe you're right… But I still would have liked everyone to be more up-front on things. What about you, Sara?"

"I'm not sure… I think you're both right… Imagine we knew all this in advance. We probably would have dawdled through everything, and I don't think we'd have found the extra points on Vexton 1's moon. On the other hand, everything feels fake now… Like how are we supposed to detect dangers for real in the future? Especially with the asteroid. There has to be a completely different method to approach this without endangering ourselves."

"What do you mean fake?" Lucy's voice asks from behind me and when I turn around, I notice the other three standing in the doorway with confused expressions on their faces.

I wave them over to join us and the three of us start explaining. It takes a while and we even show them Captain Tulip's recording.

In the end, their reactions are as varied as ours were. While Lydia is relieved that we had that hidden safety net all the time, Lucy is a bit more annoyed.

"It's like they don't trust us… Either with information or our capabilities. I don't know if I should be angry or just annoyed," she sulks.

Nick just shrugs. "Honestly, I don't care. Well, I do care as I want to come back here someday… I hope Captain Tulip won't reject us then."

That gets a laugh out of all of us, and we slowly return to a normal routine. It's still weird thinking back now… Actually, I don't think we were supposed to know about all those things happening in the background. So to view it from this point of view, it was actually good that we attracted Gina the T-Rex. Otherwise, we would never have learned about all this. Now we know where we have to get better at least.

In the end, we send a short message to acknowledge Captain Tulip's word, then I teleport us out.

Location: Magicon Empire; Song Duchy; Song System; BCS (VS) Stargazer

Our way back leads us through the capital of the Song Duchy, and I'm rather surprised when our ship is hailed directly from planet Jiā.

Huh, I wonder what that's about. Didn't Lisa tell me that it's rather sparsely populated? Who would call us from there? It can't be Lisa… She's busy all week at RMA.

"Lydia, can you answer them, please?"

"Sure, one second, it's video."

She straightens her shirt and puts some loose strands behind her ear. Then she activates her console and takes the call.

A female face with long black hair appears before her and smiles. "Her voice is light when she speaks. Looks like Lydia took the call on speaker.

"Greetings Stargazer, I'm calling you on behalf of the Duchess. She'd like to invite you to dinner down here. I can send you the details and a location to dock your ship as soon as you accept… You are going to accept, right?"

That's a rather direct invitation from the woman… But I guess we'd be fools to reject Duchess Song's invitation. Lydia looks rather shocked and turns to look at me. I give her a nod. She smiles in understanding and turns back.

"Err, yes, we… We accept, please thank the Duchess for her invitation and we're looking forward to meeting with her."

The dark-haired woman grins. "Sweet, see you later, I'll send you all the details, bye!"

The call cuts off, and everyone starts talking at the same time. It's utter mayhem but also understandable. Getting an invitation from a Duchess isn't something to casually happen. At least I do have an excuse now as a retainer to the Duchess's daughter. Other than that, I've no clue what she could possibly want from us. But I guess we'll find out soon.

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