soon they arrived and the 6 M.A.R.U v3 and Tickles started to dig, and build reinforcements, using the sand that was made of practically everything, in this sand other than the usual components there were dozens of metals, and crystals, it was like everything on the planet was turned into sand, well almost everything since there was a building below
the excavation went on for 4 days before the top of the building was revealed, and it was a very strange shape, maybe too strange for a building, while the maru's and most of Tickles kept digging, an itchy size piece of tickles was sent inside, and what he found out surprised Daniel, this wasn't a building, it was a very old spaceship, that must have fallen here hundreds of years ago, and time buried it under the sand
Tickles looked around, but most of the systems of the ship had degraded, this wasn't just any ship, it was some kind of biomechanoid ship, and almost all the biological parts were already decayed
somehow, this ship was still holding to its last breath, the weak energy signature coming from its depths, was proof of it, and Daniel threw aside what he was working on, he was suddenly very excited and interested in what they will find and used his connection to Tickles to share his senses
it couldn't see as a person would, but it could sense every detail of the environment around itself, the corridors, the rooms, it was like the ship grew, but it had nothing to do with an astral whale, this ship was artificially created, and maybe whoever did it, just took inspiration from them
Daniel controlled Tickles to explore every corner, he was having fun, sadly the technology on this ship was all partially biological, he could recover some useful metals resources, but not study their previous uses, to know how they were made, all the biological components had disappeared, there wasn't one still intact,
he kept diving deeper, and found the source of the energy, in a big room, a biomechanical heart was beating, connected to it was a cylinder, that contained a woman, her skin was various shades of gray and she was so perfect she seemed to have been sculpted carefully, she was floating in some kind of gel, and with a quick scan Daniel understood that the woman was alive but in suspended animation
he connected to the still active systems and a powerful consciousness transferred a bunch of data before saying "please save Almony, bring her out of here, and pay attention to your surroundings there's . . ." then dissipated, with the last bit of energy in the heart
Daniel immediately sent the maru's down, who ripped through with sheer strength, the energy in the cylinder was limited, if he didn't connect it to a power source it would deactivate improperly causing devastating damage to the woman's brain, and for what he knew, this woman could have a terminal illness, the consciousness transfer was cut short, from the lack of energy, so it didn't elaborate on her conditions
Daniel wasn't saving her out of the goodness of his heart, she was a member of the crew, so she could pay for her life with information about biomechanical technology
the maru's were ripping through the various doors, unlike the itchy they couldn't make small holes to pass through it, and finally realized what they had to pay attention to, three spiders-like creatures with glossy black keratinous shells, red eyes, and terrifying mandibles, attacked them, they had third stage auras, but luckily they were starved and weakened, so the 4 maru's ripped through them easily, and started using the weapons to go through faster
Daniel was curious about what those spider-like things were, in hundreds of years, this ship stayed here, how was it possible for them to not starve to death, everyone knew that till the fifth stage eating and drinking were still necessary
he separated the Cloudtrain sections and put them in formation, ready to fire in case a more powerful one of those things came out of the hole, he could still dig the ship out later
still, he was pissed off, Daniel had just finished making better scanners and he couldn't find either the creatures or the woman, he had to work harder
the maru's were attacked another time but the spider creatures were really weakened, so it wasn't difficult for them to reach the heart, and since everything was dead, they grabbed the cylinder and started evacuating
as one maru hauled the 2mt long cylinder, the other 3 protected him, while Tickles was in the cylinder systems
they were being attacked by solitary starving spiders when suddenly a bigger spider started chasing behind them
this spider creature wasn't just bigger it also had a creepy female humanoid face, and the aura she gave off was a fourth stage one, two of the maru's were sacrificed to hold it while the others managed to run out with the cylinder, and the 11 cloudtrain fighters opened fire on the strange creature ripping it to shreds, luckily it was starved too so killing it was much easier than expected, but this heavy fire collapsed the supports and buried the ship under the sand again
Daniel hadn't finished exploring it, and those spider things could be a source of protein for the fishes, so as soon as the maru brought the cylinder into the Cloudtrain lab, he sent them back to dig and retrieve the bodies
Tickles joined back, and they connected the cylinder to the train energy source, the consciousness seemed to have thought of various possibilities, and sent a ready-made solution, like a little energy converter blueprint, it took 5 minutes for Tickles to make it, and the cylinder was now safely connected
Daniel then sent half of the Tickles to work on the dig site and locked at the woman, she had very unique characteristics, sadly he couldn't remember of any race in his xenobiology lessons, that looked like this one
she was also very naked, but for Daniel who was too young to have any sexual desires whatsoever and didn't even go through puberty yet, it was the same as looking at a drawer containing precious information he wanted, he already saw everything in detail in the biology lessons, so there was nothing new or surprising here
he started scanning her and looking at the data, but not knowing how her race biology worked, he couldn't reach a conclusion, he also couldn't extract a blood sample without taking her out of suspended animation, so he had an idea, he called sister chaos, the genetics expert might know what she is, he could also try Sophia, but he already had most of the knowledge base of the sun federation
sister chaos was floating, looking at the two humans, that we're finally getting to know each other, when the itchy said "you are receiving a call from Daniel Specter, if you accept please infuse energy in me"
she smiled, infused the energy, and as soon as the call connected said "friend, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon"
Daniel said "yeah, you were right, I'm on a sand ball infested with spiders, but that's not why I called, I found a person in suspended animation, but I have no idea what race she belongs to, do you have time to take a look?"
sister chaos responded "sure for you I always have time"
from the itchy, a holographic screen opened she saw on the left an image of the woman with a little webcam rectangle of daniel, and on the right the various data of the scan
she whistled and said "what a beauty, be careful friend, most of my memories tell me that the more a woman is beautiful, the more dangerous she is"
Daniel looked at the woman in the cylinder, he didn't understand what sister chaos meant, but still nodded and seriously said "I'll keep it in mind"
sister chaos was still reading the scans and said "I think she is a hybrid, I would need a blood analysis or a closer look to confirm it, but her skin color it's garian even without scales, in your scan I can see that she also has a low core temperature that's also garian, but I can't be sure, the universe is too vast"
Daniel said "Garian?"
and sister chaos answered "they are very prideful people, a little too xenophobic for my taste, which is why I have a hard time believing she is a garian x something hybrid, but who knows"
Daniel said "if it can help she was on an artificial biomechanical ship, maybe it's garian technology?"
sister chaos eyes lit up and said "biomechanical? does it have an oval shape?"
daniel said "it's mostly buried, Tickles and the maru's are digging it out, but yes from what I have seen the top it's quite round, so it might turn out to be an oval"
sister chaos said "if it's an oval then she is sure to be a hybrid, but of how many species it's impossible to know, that ship should be Skurian technology, the Skurians have a very interesting history, well the short version is that only the females of the race survived, and they are like pirates now, they fight and rob everyone they can find, and while they do that, they abduct strong and smart males, for . . ." and after a little pause she added "mating purposes"
Daniel nodded and said "since they are all females, they probably see capturing the best mates as a necessity, after all the instinct of all races it's to reproduce while bettering the species, but I see what you are implying, she might be a mix of many races, so there aren't guidelines to follow"
sister chaos said "sorry to disappoint you"
Daniel said "it's ok, I hoped she could pay for her life with the Biomech technology, well I'll take her with me for now, in the meantime, she can sleep in her cylinder"
sister chaos laughed and said "I expected nothing less from you, have fun, my friend"
Daniel said "you too"
the call ended, sister chaos didn't know everything after all, but at least thanks to her, now had an idea about what the sleeping woman could be, and for now, he was busy with something else anyway to bother with her
the two maru's that were previously destroyed had already been rebuilt, and after putting in some effort they finally opened back the well that brought to the buried spaceship finding the mutilated corpse of the female spider creature
one of the maru brought back a sample of the fourth stage spider creature, and Daniel started analyzing it, to see if it was safe to use it as food for the fish, but what he discovered blew his mind