The village was 50 meters away from my current destination. I could already see numerous xonians grouped in front of the gates that led to the inside of the village.
A seemingly warming welcome, if you will.
I approached the xonians and let them speak first.
"Trespasser, what are you doing here? You are not welcome at this establishment."
"You dare ask this when your kind attempted to assassinate me?"
"It seems there has been some misunderstanding. We have carefully structured our culture and civilization to reject any and all outsiders. The assassins you encountered simply maintained a belief stricter than ours."
"So you are a different civilization than them. It doesn't matter in either case. All I want to know is what kind of technology you have here and what you know about the Hex."
"Follow me."
I followed the xonian leader, who led me to a storage where they kept most of their arsenal. Their weaponry was primitive compared to etherian ones, thus I had no use for them. So, only one subject was left.
"Tell me what you know about the Hex."
"Not much. We haven't made contact with them directly yet. One of us had ventured into the outer cosmos and claims to have spotted one of their spaceships. We haven't heard from him ever since. However, this might be of your interest."
The xonian leader picks up a small white sphere from his pocket.
"This is a fragment of Hex technology."
That indeed was it.
"Could you hand it to me?"
"Of course."
"Much obliged."
I take the sphere with my right hand and raise it up above.
"With this, I shall be able to incorporate one of their systems into my spaceship and thereby be able to track and predict their moves. Rejoice fellow xonian. By proving yourself useful, you have saved yourself and your species from extinction."
And so I left the village and returned to my ship.
Then, I used SHARP to analyze the sphere with more caution.
The sphere is the size of a goofball but contains tremendous energy. Energy readings include radiation, antimatter, and high-speed neutrino circulations. Definitely a Hex construct.
"SHARP, tell me the compatibility of this tech with APOLLO."
[Fusionism with the unidentified object may result in catastrophic events for your well-being. Extremely low chances of success. Failure may result in immediate Hex corruption]
"Fortunately, probabilities are always on my side. As long as I, Venus Hekatonreis, am inside this ship, APOLLO will not lose."
While holding the sphere with my right hand, I pushed it into the control panel, specifically into one of its open slots reserved for the dumping of objects into the nucleus for recycling.
The sphere is absorbed by APOLLO's nucleus. This event immediately causes the ship to shake and its design to quickly change.
"SHARP, report."
[APOLLO is currently fighting against the Hex malware trying to control it inside virtual space]
[Data Progress: 30%]
[Data Progress: 60%]
[Data Progress: 99%]
[Malware successfully neutralized. Adapting APOLLO's interface to match new improved system]
[Congratulations, Master. We overcame a 99.98% chance of failure]
"Naturally. I wouldn't have it any other way."