When Robin entered the office some time later, he found himself standing in front of those that arrived in the dropship.

  It was a strange sight that confronted him. An angry Franny Bolster stood together with two nervous soldiers on one side of the room and on the other side were three alien figures with grey skin and glowing eyes. Robin needed a moment to realize what species they were and his first reaction was excitement and joy– he was meeting the Keeper in person, one of the oldest and most knowledgeable races known.

  Then his adventurous self was rudely pushed aside by skepticism and one burning question: Why the heck were they here?

  He got goosebumps as his mind raced. Did they come for the ship they found on Terulos? ‘No, they shouldn’t know about that… Well, they are the Keeper. One did well assuming they know everything. But still…’

  “Mr. Tulward, thank you for joining us.” Franny Bolster said with a clipped voice.

  ‘Yup, she is pissed!’ Robin confirmed but wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

  “Yeah, sure. It’s not like I had anything else to do… or a choice at that.” He shrugged and turned his attention to the alien guests, “Robin Tulward greets the Keeper.”

  “You are the anomaly.” The one in the middle said without returning the greeting. He wore the same kind of robe as the other two, but the stitchings on it were more numerous and complex. He probably was in charge of the delegation. However, that wasn’t what caught Robin’s attention.

  “The anomaly?” He tilted his head in confusion before he understood the meaning, “Oh, you’re talking about my Energy Sense?”

  “Unique among humans. Unique among the sentient races.” The Keeper nodded and confirmed Robin’s worst fears. They knew about his ability to interact with ?ther, at least to a degree, and it was as special as ROMAS had asserted. They even went as far as to send someone here.

  ‘Unique… shit!’

  “Is that why you are here? It’s not like I have chosen this G-Anomaly. It’s a mutation, you can hardly hold me accountable–”

  “You stole from us.”

  “...for that. Ah, Burn in Plasma.” Robin immediately swallowed the rest of his arguments to explain his mutation and awkwardly scratched his head.

  ‘Uhh, that may be a problem.’

  From the corner of his eye he saw Bolster’s face turning red.

  “You stole things from the Keeper? Are you insane? They are friends of the UAS, how could you?” She loudly complained and Robin had to hold back a sneer. She was only angry because she thought that he found more at the monolith than he had shared with them. Now they would throw him to the wolves and pin the blame on him, directing the attention away from the fact that it was the UAS that had sent him to Terulos.

  “Stealing is a strong word, don’t you think?” He asked and turned his head back to the Keeper, “The way I’m seeing it, you lost something a long time ago and when I stumbled over it by accident, I simply tried to recover it.”

  “So you’ll return it to us?”

  “I would, really!” Robin nodded enthusiastically, “However, unfortunately I don’t know where it is now.”

  “It is here.” The Keeper said, his face still without any emotion that would reveal his feelings.

  “Here?” Robin asked wide-eyed, “In the Mereus Cluster?”

  “Trov L.”

  “That…” Robin stopped. That wasn’t possible. How could the ship be here? Maybe they were talking about different things after all. He had deliberately not mentioned the ship as he didn’t want the UAS to know. But maybe the Keeper was talking about something else? Though, what else could they talk about? The fractured data he took from the monolith? That was unlikely.

  “I can hardly believe that. I’m here as a… honored guest and definitely didn’t bring it with me.”

  “Tulward, what did–” Bolster started but was interrupted by the Keeper taking out a small stone.

  “Touch it. Use your G-Anomaly.”

  Robin inspected the green stone. It was the size of his fist and smoothly rounded without any edges. He didn’t reach for the stone but looked up to the figure holding it.

  “What does it do?”

  “Touch it. Use your G-Anomaly.” The Keeper repeated.

  “Uhm… I’d really like to refrain from using my mutation like this.” Robin said and raised his cuffed hands.

  The Keeper turned his head to Franny Bolster but didn’t speak. She looked like she wanted to say something many times but swallowed it back again and again until she shook her head.

  “I don’t have the keys.” She lied.

  The Keeper kept his glowing eyes on her for a second longer and then turned back to Robin.

  “Touch it. Use your G-Anomaly.”

  “Ah fuck you…” Robin muttered, well aware that the Keeper knew she was lying but obviously didn’t care. Slowly he reached out for the stone. It was warm to the touch and its texture was rougher than it looked. Definitely a natural material and not metal. He hesitated a bit before he gritted his teeth and used his active sensing skill on it.

  Instantly the stone began to glow with a bright white light. The effect was cut off as fast as it came when the Suppression Shackles sent an electroshock through Robin’s body in response to his skill usage. Even prepared the pain hit him like a ship in full flight. It went deep and through his whole body, his concentration immediately broke and the skill stopped working.

  Still panting, he looked up angrily.

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  The Keeper looked back impassively then nodded.

  “We leave. Come.”

  “You want to take him?” Bolster asked, her voice pitched, “He is one of us. We already have him in custody and if it is as you say and he committed a crime against your people, we’ll make sure to punish him accordingly.”

  Finally the officer sounded like she did in their discussions before. Only now did Robin notice how reserved and controlled her behavior had been up to this point. Submissive even. But now that they wanted to take him away, their only chance to have a shot at ?ther and the Keeper’s technology, some of her normal, rowdy self came through.

  “Human, that decision is not up to you.” The Keeper said and turned to the door.

  “Oh? This is my facility. You are in our territory. Do you really think you can just come and go as you please?”

  The Keeper stopped and looked her in the eye. His stare made her flinch.

  “Yes.” He simply stated.

  “There is a Destroyer protecting this place, they will not back down easily. Let’s not stain our relationship over one man, a criminal even. At least wait for the UAS envoy to arrive. I’m sure we’ll be able to come to an agreement.” Bolster argued, she was less aggressive now but still threatened them.

  “UAS IGD Eschaton.” The Keeper nodded and continued to the door, “A message has already been sent and was accepted.”

  “What message?” Bolster asked the same question Robin had in mind. The Eschaton was here? Why did they allow the Keeper to pass? He could believe that the Keeper with their ?ther-tech were able to avoid being detected in the first place, but that obviously wasn’t what had happened.

  “This is not a negotiation, step back or face annihilation.” The Keeper said when he reached the door. Robin gaped in surprise. He wasn’t completely sure if this was a threat to Bolster or the message that was sent to the Eschaton, but he had a good guess.

  ‘Probably both…’

  The UAS officer’s red face quickly turned pale when she came to the same conclusion. Before she could recover, the other two aliens grabbed Robin by the arm and pulled him along out of the room.

  ***

  “That went better than expected!” Happy whispered.

  “Hmpf.” Alena grunted.

  “What?”

  “It went too well. This is too easy.”

  With careful steps the two women sneaked through the base towards another building. When they reached a door at the back that was secured by a keypad, they stopped.

  “You are unhappy because something finally works in our favor? Would you like this to escalate as it did at Fulan Point?”

  “No, but at least we would know what game they are playing.” Alena argued.

  “They aren’t playing games. They just don’t know that we’re here. Proto is doing a great job at keeping us hidden.”

  As if to prove her point the lock of the door next to them beeped once and the pad’s light turned from red to green.

  “See? It has completely taken over this facility.” Niu said and pulled the door open. A quick peek inside confirmed that there was no one nearby. Again they were completely alone in the facility’s corridors.

  “That doesn’t explain why there are no guards or soldiers. Ever since we passed the entry check-point, we have been alone. Just where is everyone? This is supposed to be a facility for holding high-value targets.” Alena complained but followed her friend into the hallway. There wasn’t an airlock as they knew from other outposts but an atmospheric shield like the ones that were used to protect hangars.

  “I still think it was Proto who rang the alarm earlier. Maybe that was to lure everyone away?”

  “Let’s hope you’re right. We can ask him later when we are back on the ship. Where next?”

  They had come to a halt at a crossroad with a corridor leading in each direction, looking exactly the same. After a few moments the lights to their right went off and on again.

  “There!” Niu said and followed that path.

  The two intruders kept walking through empty hallways and climbed up and down different stairs for the next twenty minutes. They still didn’t meet a single guard and by now even Niu was getting nervous.

  After following flickering lights and unlocked doors in a seemingly random manner, they finally entered a small office. There were a few chairs around a round table on which were laying cards. The guards who had been playing here before must have left in a hurry. There were still some bets placed that no one had fetched.

  Aside from that there was a desk with a workstation and a few lockers where the guards could store their gear. They were plundered in a hurry and many pieces were lying scattered on the ground.

  “What are we doing here? Shouldn’t Proto be able to guide us to Robin’s cell?” Alena asked.

  “I assumed the same. But if it has control over this place, we should be able to use the station to get in touch with the AI.” Niu nodded and sat down behind the screen.

  “Oh, it’s locked and it doesn’t look like it’s connected to the network.” She said a moment later.

  “Then Proto won’t be able to access it. I’ll search for a keycard.” Alena said and went over to the messy lockers.

  It took her only a few minutes to find a card with the image of a young man on it.

  “Golan Fenno.” She read and passed the key card to Happy.

  “Is there enough stuff to disguise one of us as a guard?”

  “No, only random stuff like gloves and hats.”

  “Uhhh… This is where they organize the prisoners.” Niu said, “Tulward… Tulward… there he is! Cell C12.”

  Alena quickly hurried to the door and then turned around.

  “Are you coming?” She asked Niu who still sat at the workstation.

  “They have a whole file about the Captain. Wow!”

  “Happy, we don’t know how much time we have. Take a photo and go, we have to hurry!”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  ***

  “I swear by all that is sacred to me that it said ‘Cell C12’!” Niu grumbled.

  “Well either it’s just Robin’s file that’s faulty or they have moved him somewhere else already.” Alena said with her arms crossed as she stared past Happy into the empty room.

  “Ah, damn it!” The short woman cursed loudly, “What now?”

  “We need to find him and get out of here quickly. We’re running out of time.”

  “He left half an hour ago.” They heard someone growling with a rough voice from the neighboring cell.

  “Huh? Who are you?” Happy asked.

  When she didn’t get an answer, she looked at her friend’s contemplating face.

  “What?”

  “That voice sounds familiar…” Alena said slowly, her enhanced ears twitching.

  “You think? I definitely never met someone with a voice like that. Hey dude, do you know where they took our friend?”

  Again she got no answer. Quickly Niu followed Alena back down the hallway to the control station they had used to open Robin’s cell moments ago.

  “Oh no, no, no! You won’t free some stranger in a VIP prison. These guys here are the real deal.”

  “It’s the best chance we have.”

  “It’s the best chance to get killed!”

  “Yeah, he definitely could kill us– but I don’t think he will try it.” Alena said.

  That made Niu pause.

  “Who is locked away there?” She asked warily but the other woman just shrugged.

  “Let’s find out!”

  5 minutes later, Niu and Alena were back and stood in the door of the cell of Robin’s former neighbor.

  “You’re kidding me…” Niu muttered while Alena just raised an eyebrow at the figure that sat on the bed.

  “So, you aren’t dead after all.”