Arden is getting so close to his reward.
- 📖 The ride was by no way smooth. The energy storm gnawed at the Cerelis Nine like a hungry dog. The ionized exterior did its part to keep the storm outside. Bigger flares bumped the ship but Arden managed to get it back on track. He had to navigate by feel, the sensors gave up as soon as they entered so Arden kept them shutoff to conserve energy.
- 📖 A sphere of total quiet surrounded a container-like building in the middle of the storm. It had seen better times. Broken off beams and wholes in the walls suggested a bigger structure. Remainders of the outpost floated weightlessly around it. Where the storm raged on the outside, not a single flare dared touching the debris.
The eye of the storm. - 📖 Arden and Cole donned their spacesuits. He gave Cole his battered light suit, that still bore the sign of his last encounter, but it should hold up for the relatively short trip.
They slowly floated to the building, illuminated by the energy storm all around them. The building had a single door, slightly ajar, but with joint effort they could pry it open to reveal the room behind it. - 📖 The room looked like an old communications room. Arden has gotten familiar with those. Stacks of computer racks, broken up with tables and chairs. All was almost untouched, except the furnishing that wasn't bolted securely to the building's structure laid criss-cross in the room. Together with Cole, they lifted one of such a computer rack out of their way. Cole proceeded to a wall section and unscrewed a panel. Behind it Arden could see the goal of his strenuous journey.
- 📖 The data on the NavDex was as good as new, which was a surprise to Arden as he would have expected some detoriation so close to the electrical discharges of the storm. But it loaded perfectly into his navigational computer.
"There should be a planet closeby with a settlement. You can get me off there and resupply if you want.", Cole said as Arden was busy loading the data. - 📖 The warmth of the planet was a welcome change from the coldness of space and Deadrock. Although it was a sultry heat. Cole lead them to a lush jungle planet and to Greenridge its sole settlement on the surface. It was a busy city that had at its center an immense starship, probably the colonization ship that brought them here. It must have been old, as the local vegetation got root and covered most of its surface with moss, vines and other flora.
- 📖 The streets were filled with people and were much broader and open than on Deadrock. And they looked more friendly too. They were still wary of the newcomers but Arden hadn't the feeling of getting stabbed at every corner.
"This is were we part ways. It is best for us to stay low and not together. We're still fugitives and split we might have better chances. Farewell Arden Quinn."