Location: Solar System; Above Venus; Valterion Shipyard

The screen before me lets me choose between multiple options, and I tap on the one at the very top: "Bay 47 Overview." On the right, nothing changes. The screen still shows the time and date, general information, like that the supplied power is insufficient to run Bay 47, and that most systems are unresponsive.

The main screen in the middle, though, flickers and then changes into a digital twin of the shipyard bay I can see through the window before me. The big difference is that the digital copy displays a finished starship and not the halfway-built one I can see in reality. There's also a name printed at the side of the digital ship's bow: VS Almora.

I grin and point through the window. "May I present you the Almora!"

My friends make some appreciative sounds and slowly gather around me to get their own look at the screens. Lucy asks the obvious question. "Why's it finished here?"

I shrug. "Dunno, maybe so that the workers could see what they were working toward? Or maybe it's adjustable."

She taps the screen and moves a digital slider to the left. The starship slowly becomes unmade before my eyes until it resembles the real one out in the bay. "Like this?" Lucy asks with a big smirk on her face.

"Yeah… Anyway, Clara, can you take a closer look at everything, please? You're way faster than us."

"Sure, just plug in a transceiver in one of the data ports. You might need an adapter, but then you can move around while I take a look. This might take a while… I have to be careful, the computer system looks like it's on the brink of falling apart."

I do as she asks and plug in the small device. Surprisingly, it's a UC-port, so I don't even need an adapter. Clara thanks me and gets to work. I step away from the console and walk over to the window to get a better look at the Almora.

From up here, the ship looks bigger than when we were standing right before it. I think it's about twice the Stargazer's size. Other than that, I can already recognize the typical Valterion shape that – minor changes excluded – is still used today. My family builds beautiful ships, not gonna lie…

Anyway, I turn back around and check out a few of the other stations. My friends do the same, and Nick is the one to discover something within a drawer. He pulls out a small device and holds it up. "Look what I found, guys! Dave is going to be amazed by it."

We all walk over to him, and Lydia leans closer. "What is it? A bracelet? That loop goes around the arm, right?" She points at a small band of fabric that has a buckle at the bottom to open it up.

Nick nods, then shows us a rectangular screen with a dial at the side. "Yeah, I believe it's a smartwatch, if I'm not mistaken. You know, like a regular watch that some fancy people still wear, but with functions that we now have on our interfaces. Just a lot more limited because of the screen size and everything."

Lydia looks shocked, as if she can't imagine using such a tiny device to check the news and read messages or something. I, on the other hand, vaguely remember reading about such things when I was little. Those watches often go together with a smartphone. I think I even recognize the shape of the one Nick holds in his hand. If I'm not mistaken, it's from the brand that was one of the major players in the industry before the Big Five came around. They've got a bitten fruit as their logo, I think.

I explain that to Lydia, which helps a lot with her confusion. Still, she shudders. "Bah, I can't imagine using something like this now. This feels so backward, but it probably was cutting-edge technology back then."

That causes us all to laugh, and Lucy teases her that she sounds like a pampered Noble, which leads to even more laughs. As Clara is still working on the console and I'm therefore bound to the room for the time being, I ask Tim and Alina to do a quick teleport and bring the watch to our archaeologists, as they know better what to do with ancient devices. Maybe it helps them get a better report.

The two return about five minutes later and have some pastries with them. Alina grins broadly when she hands me one. "Dave and Kylie wanted to thank us for bringing them the device. They said it's an amazing find, and they'll try to even turn it on sometime later. They promised to keep us updated, and well, now we have pastries."

"Cool, thanks, you two!" I reply. "Uh, as I'm still bound here, do you guys want to check out if there are other rooms back there?"

I point at the door at the back of the command room, right next to the elevator. It probably leads to the blocked stairway, but who knows? Maybe there are a few offices or something back there.

The others shrug, and in the end, it's Lucy, Nick, and Tim who get to check things out. Lydia and Alina stay with me and continue to go through drawers and stuff in here. I'm about to join them, but make a quick detour past the commander's console. "How's it going, Clara?" I ask my AI when I stop before the screens.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She sounds a bit annoyed when she replies. "Well… I can now tell you why the third screen isn't working. But that's it for now. Everything on here is just so corrupted and fragmented… But I'm getting there. I just need more time. You should probably prepare yourself to spend the night in here. Oh, and the cable for the third screen is missing, so if you get a spare, there's a good chance that I can get it to turn on."

"Thanks, Clara! Take all the time you'll need. I think it's well worth it, and we don't have to worry about the Prince for a while."

I walk away from the console and back toward Lydia and Alina. "You know what, girls? We're doing a sleepover!"

"Really?" Alina asks with a big smile. "That's cool!"

The other three return about an hour later with bad news. While there are a few offices and even a mess hall in the back, they are all useless for us because nothing interesting is left. Everything's long gone. But they did discover a way that leads to another shipyard bay.

I tell them that we will check it out as soon as we're done here, and also inform them about our sleepover. This time, there are mixed reactions, as Tim probably sees sleeping on mats below his standards. But he doesn't complain too much and stops completely when I enthusiastically take my own sleeping mat and place it on the ground. Yeah, our resident Silvani can sleep on the floor too when even the Valterion scion does so.

The next morning starts with amazing news because Clara has found something while we were asleep. We barely manage to restrain our curiosity to eat breakfast, but then the six of us assemble around the command console and anticipate Clara's report.

She stays silent for a minute, clearly reveling in our anticipation, but then she starts. "So as you know, the starship before us would have been named VS Almora if it had ever finished. A little fun fact on the side, the name VS Almora was used for Duke Hector Valterion's flagship about 7,500 years ago. The ship was scrapped after it served its term, and the name was never used again.

"Anyway, let's talk about the Almora before us. As you can see, this is nowhere near flagship size, but it's also bigger than a scout-class ship like our Stargazer. The Almora originally was supposed to be a bog standard starship to be used for the UNE's space fleet."

Alina raises her hand to ask a question, and Clara pauses. "What's the UNE?"

Oh, that's a question I can answer! "United Nations of Earth," I reply. "Believe it or not, but back then, the planet Earth alone had more than 150 independent nations that worked together on their space program to colonize the Solar System."

She looks at me with wide eyes. "For real? How is that even possible?"

I can only shrug. "Dunno, I've asked myself the same thing when I learned about it the first time I was here. I mean, I don't even know that many nations today, and we're talking about the whole galaxy."

"Incredible… But Clara, sorry for interrupting you. Please continue."

"No worries. Better ask before you only understand half of it," Clara chuckles. "So as I was saying, the Almora was originally supposed to be a boring starship without anything special besides being Valterion-built. That changed when Utopia declared war on Earth and prepared its invasion."

The middle screen before us changes and now shows a digital copy of the finished Almora. Everything is as expected, and the ship still follows the general Valterion design. "That's the ship before the changes, now behold."

The picture moves to the right screen, and the center one now shows a transformed Almora.

"Holy shit!" I can't keep the words to myself as it's a crazy sight. While the general shape of the starship stayed the same, everything else has changed. The most noticeable fact is that there are now three times as many weapons all around the hull, but that was kinda expected…

No, what surprised me is the lack of exhausts at the back of the ship! And now that I'm taking a closer look, I do notice some changes to the general shape. It's like they cut the back half of the ship away and replaced it with another front piece!

There are now two bridges to the Almora… One at the front and one at the back. How is this a viable configuration for a starship?.

"As you can see with the hull before us and its clear differences with those plans here, it's clear that the retrofitting has barely started before they shut down production. But I did find some records that five such starships left this shipyard right before the Utopian attacks started."

"I don't understand," Nick says. "What's the purpose of a ship with two bridges and no engines? It doesn't make sense, and how does it even fly around?"

Clara chuckles dryly, and if she had a body, she'd probably give him a dull look. At least the tone of her voice sounds that way. "Think again. Sure, the shape is weird, but there is one thing that should make moving around without engines a non-issue."

That's when it clicks for me too, and I'm glad I wasn't the one to ask the question. Of course, magic is the answer… Space Magic, to be specific. But weren't Senior-ranked Space Mages rare back then? Huh, I guess five out of multiple billion people isn't that big of a number…

Nick clearly comes to the same realization as his face flushes in embarrassment. Lucy pats his shoulder with a smile. "Don't worry, Nick. I don't think anyone here had that in mind."

Anyway, that still doesn't explain the weird shape! Movement has my eyes snapping back to the screen. The view is zooming in and now shows additional big glass panels at both sides and at the top and bottom of the Almora. "What are those for, Clara? I don't understand."

She chuckles. "That's not surprising… Even I had to read it twice to believe what the purpose of the Almora and her sisters was. All those glass fronts around the ship are technically miniature bridges. You can control the ship from each of them. But that's just a technicality. No, the real reason for those additional bridges is to give the Mages aboard a perfect view around the ship.

"Apparently, the Almora was supposed to be packed with A&D Mages who would release their spells as soon as the ship jumped right in the middle of an enemy formation, possibly obliterating it completely. If you ask me, I'd call it a suicide mission, but apparently, the leaders of the UNE had different opinions."

"What the…?" Tim exclaims in disbelief. "How was that allowed, and who even thinks of such a stupid idea?"

He's right, of course. This sounds just so incredibly stupid! But if they continued to build the ships, it must have worked, I guess? "I'm with Tim on this one… This is so stupid. Do you know if they even used the ships? Obviously not the Almora, but the others?"

"Nope, sorry, that's all I have. Maybe if we find the central server room of the shipyard, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. We've been incredibly lucky so far."

She's right… Pretty much every computer, tablet, or station I got my hands on just worked. My luck has to run out sometime…

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.