Location: Solar System; Above Venus; Valterion Shipyard

After the crazy revelation of the Almora's purpose, we quickly finish up inside the command room and make our way back out into the actual bay. With a final tour around the Almora's hull, we notice that they have already started with the retrofit.

What we initially identified as simply not finished is actually where they started to cut the starship in half. Whole beams of tristanium are cut right through the middle, and the engines aren't missing. No, they have already been removed. I do wonder what they planned to do with the back half of the Almora. I mean, you can't weld two of them together like they apparently wanted to do with the corresponding front parts. That would be even more stupid. Maybe they reused the parts for a smaller ship or something. I guess, I'll never know…

Anyway, now that we're done with our tour around the ship, we move on and follow the path to another shipyard bay that Lucy, Nick, and Tim discovered earlier. Turns out this leads to another bay of about the same size, and inside floats another starship that waits to be finished, which probably will never happen.

Funnily enough, it's a twin to the Almora, just further along the retrofitting process. That means we now get to see for real how ridiculous a starship with two bows welded together looks. Seeing this, we collectively decide to move on and let the starship be. We aren't interested in examining this abomination of a starship. I do give Dave a call though, and inform him of this discovery. Such a rare and ancient starship configuration is probably a dream come true for an up-and-coming archaeologist.

Now we just have to find a way that lets us continue on through the gigantic shipyard. According to Clara's estimation, we've barely seen anything of it yet. Maybe 4% or something. Just crazy! Half an hour later, we arrive at the next bay and head straight toward the next one as it's empty.

This time we've got to choose between three different options and stop for lunch to think things over.

"I think we should take the hallway that leads straight ahead," Lucy says for the third time. Nick nods along with her in agreement.

Alina, on the other hand, strongly disagrees. "No, we want to find a power plant or a server room. It would make more sense if we take the way that Clara said leads closer toward the center of the whole shipyard…"

I let them discuss things for a while as they all bring good arguments. But to me, the choice has already been made when I first laid eyes on the sign that's next to the stairway leading downward.

It says "Bay V" and most would probably think of the Roman number five, but to me, the specific form of the V just screams Valterion. And if there's one thing that my family likes, then it's putting their name on things. So the Valterion Bay on the Valterion Shipyard must mean something and is definitely worth checking out before we do anything else.

"Both your ideas are valid, but you are forgetting something," I say and point at the Bay V sign. "We're inside the Valterion Shipyard, and it's an unwritten law that everything with my family's logo on it takes priority. So I'd say we go down first and check out this mysterious Bay V."

Lucy laughs out loud. "Ahh, playing the entitled snob now, huh? Alright, fine, but if it's a bust, you're not allowed to choose for the next week!"

"Deal!" I reply while struggling to keep a straight face. At least everyone else gets a good laugh out of it, and we descend the stairs joking and trash-talking. The way down is much further than I expected, and Clara keeps a helpful elevation marker to the right of my vision. If she's not mistaken, we're closing in on the bottommost part of the shipyard.

"We should be close now," I say, "there's not much of the shipyard left…"

"So you're saying we'll drop out of the bottom soon?" Alina snorts and shakes her head. "Good thing we have our Shield spells then, huh?"

If I were closer to her, I would have whacked the back of her head. Instead, I have to help myself with a little telekinetic shove. When she complains, I grin at her. "Serves you right."

Anyway, we soon arrive at the end of the stairway, and Lucy opens the door before us and gasps after stepping through. "Holy shit, that's huge!"

I quickly follow her, and my mouth drops open. Huge doesn't begin to describe it! And I thought the hangar of the Mage Academy Station back in the Estriduros Republic was big… But this thing here easily dwarfs it. Before us is one gigantic shipbuilding bay, and if I'm not mistaken, it covers the entirety of the Valterion Shipyard's floor area.

And that's not all! Because the space isn't empty. There's a starship inside, almost filling up the whole bay. And the craziest part? It looks finished to me, or at least almost so!

We're currently looking at its stern a little from the side, so we can at least imagine its actual length. Let's just say that long doesn't cover it. But what's even more insane is its exhausts… As we're rather close to them, we can see them clearly. Surprisingly, there are only five in total. Three at the base with two above the others. No, the crazy part is their size!

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"Uhh, correct me if I'm wrong, but could we put the Stargazer into one of those exhausts?" Lydia asks with wide eyes.

It takes a second to find my voice again, so I just nod at first. "… I think so, yeah."

And that's what I'm talking about. The Stargazer would look shuttle-sized compared to this behemoth of a starship. Hell, I think even Adrian's Maxima would look normal-sized compared to it!

We continue to stare for a few minutes before Nick takes a hesitant step forward. "Am I seeing things, or does this giant seem finished? And can we keep it if so?"

My head snaps over, and I stare at him. He's right! We can absolutely keep it! Finders Keepers and stuff. And if anyone complains, I just secure it under my name. "We can… Right, Clara?"

My AI stays silent. That doesn't happen normally… Is something wrong with her?

"Clara?"

Again, no answer.

Meanwhile, Lucy walks over to Nick and puts her arm around him while glancing over her shoulder. "Come on, let's check it out!"

The others start walking too, while I stay glued to where I'm standing. I try to reach Clara again, and when I still don't get an answer, I inform my friends. "Guys, please wait. I can't reach Clara anymore… I think something's wrong."

They stop and come back. "What do you mean you can't reach her anymore? Isn't she inside your head?" Alina asks. "Uhh, sorry if that sounded rude."

"No, it's okay… I do have her chip in my head. Let me try one more time; otherwise, I think I have to ask Maja for help."

This time, I use the AI-Call spell to contact her directly. I send my thoughts along the spell, but don't get a reply either.

I think that I might have felt a minuscule feeling of utter terror, but that's probably my imagination… What would she be terrified of so suddenly? Nah, it can't be. But still, she doesn't answer, and that is a problem. I'm lost without her!

I let the spell dissipate and look at Tim. "She doesn't answer… Can you please teleport me to the Andala?"

He immediately nods. "Yeah, of course. Can you call ahead so that they lower their shields?"

I give him a thumbs-up while thinking about who to call. Thomas or Simon… Let's try Thomas first. I spin up the Communication spell, and barely a second goes by before he accepts. "Sara! How are you doing? I've heard about your grand reveal… Are you okay? I know you didn't want to throw your identity out there that quickly."

I can't help but chuckle a little. I didn't expect that level of concern. "Yeah, I'm fine, Tom…"

He interrupts me. "Ah, good, then I can complain now. Why didn't you think of me when you revealed yourself? I would have loved to see all the reactions."

Oh boy. Not where I expected that conversation to go at all. "I'm sorry, Tom, but I don't have time to joke around right now. I can send you the recording later, though."

Concern suddenly enters his voice. "Shoot, sorry! What's wrong? How can I help?"

"Clara isn't responding anymore… Something happened to her, and I don't know what. I need Maja's help. Can you ask her to lower the shields so that Tim can teleport me over to you?"

"Shit, I can do that. Give me one second." He stays silent for a moment. "Shields are down, and Maja is sending some coordinates to Tim's AI right now."

"Thanks, Tom!" I cancel the spell and turn back to Tim. "We can go now, the shields are down, and Maja should have sent you some coordinates."

He nods and steps closer. "Hold on." His magic envelopes me, and I let it do so. Then we vanish.

Maja must have followed protocol as we appear inside an empty room aboard the Andala. Immediately after we arrive, Tim sends the return coordinates to my interface and jumps back to the shipyard. A few seconds later, the door opens, and a young Peacekeeper recruit gasps upon seeing me. "It's real!" She says, and immediately blushes deeply.

I wink at her. "It is. Can you lead me to the Captain, please?"

She nods eagerly. "Yes, of course! Follow me, Lady Valterion."

"Just Sara is enough," I reply and grimace a little. The woman apologizes and then leads me to the bridge.

We walk past a few other young Peacekeepers who all look at me in awe. It starts to get uncomfortable, but luckily, we arrive at the bridge soon after. The door is flanked by two grim-looking Peacekeepers, but even their expressions crack when I approach and they step aside. The door opens, and I enter the bridge.

From my right comes a loud voice. "Lady Valterion on deck!"

Everyone gets up and salutes me. Maja is the only one wearing a mischievous smirk on her face. Everyone else looks completely serious. My eyes narrow a little, and I scowl at Maja. That has to be her doing!

"That's not necessary," I say with a slight groan. "I'm still just Sara… Nothing has changed."

Maja's grin broadens at my discomfort, and she calls out an order. "You heard her, back to work, everyone!" Then she walks over to me and points at a door at the side of the bridge. "Follow me, please, Sara."

As soon as the door closes behind us, her façade cracks, and she hugs me fiercely. "Oh, Sara, I'm so glad the secret is finally out of the bag, thank you! Oh, and I've missed you! We see each other way too seldom, even now that we're working together."

"Missed you too," I mumble in the mass of hair that my face is hidden in.

We sit down at the desk in the center of the room, and Maja crosses her hands before her. "Now tell me what's wrong, please. Thomas said you can't reach Clara anymore?"

I nod at her. "Yes, we discovered something that'll probably be absolutely amazing. But when I asked Clara a question, she didn't answer, and she's been silent ever since. I don't know what to do."

Maja frowns and extends her right hand. "May I?"

I nod again, and she places her hand on my ear, her finger touching Clara's chip. We stay that way for a few minutes, and Maja's frown deepens with each passing second.

In the end, it takes almost ten minutes before she lets out a long breath and leans back again. "She responded… But just with a bare minimum acknowledgment of my presence. Give me a bit more time, please. I think I'll be able to get through to her."

"Do you need my ear again? And any clues what could have happened yet?"

She shakes her head. "No, to your first question, I can operate wirelessly now. As for your second one… I'm not sure yet, but it feels like she's in a deep state of shock if that makes any sense to you. Did something happen?"

I get up and start pacing back and forth. What could have happened? There was absolutely nothing! We just walked into Bay V, nothing more.

"No, I can't think of anything…"

We idly talk for a bit while Maja also works on getting through to Clara. I lose track of time, but it's definitely been more than a few hours. At least I have a nice reunion with Maja, even if it's overshadowed by Clara's mysterious absence.

Then, finally, there is a slight crackle in my ear, followed by a very weak-sounding voice of Clara.

"I'm sorry, Sara… Just… The ship… It… It reminded me of something horrible, and I just lost it."

Two things click in my head, and my eyes widen. Oh shit! There's a reason why she just acted as a household AI for more than a hundred years.

Before my thoughts can connect further, Clara continues.

"It looks like a Worldender Ship, Sara!"

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