And so the group continued their interrupted walk. Milanor chatted with Wilfred on the way about his life in Qwattor but didn't discuss the professor again.
The two girls followed the guys just a short behind, silently looking around the rustic cityscape all the while.
After a few minutes of traversing the polluted block, they finally arrived at a big building designated as the depot, as Wilfred called it.
This was where most of the freights coming and going from the central port were stored.
It seemed that entry into the building itself was unrestricted. They casually entered through one of the small pedestrian doors into the vast ground floor. There were countless steel containers scattered about.
Even for a place as remote and low-population as Qwattor, this central hub of transportation still saw a dizzying amount of activities.
Milanor told Wilfred about the exact place where this 'package' was supposed to be kept.
"Area B? I think that's around in that… corner over there, yeah." He indicated toward the southwest corner of the floor.
"Is that where they store the smaller cargoes like passenger baggage and interstellar deliveries?"
"Uh-huh. I think they will discard any items that were unclaimed for ten years," he explained.
So the package should still be safe for around the next four years… Milanor shouldn't trust that statement too much though. The whole city got a horrible track record.
The group moved to that section while carefully avoiding the wandering workers so as to not disturb them too much.
"So then, he said it was B-572… I think?" Milanor tried to remember the numbers Boss Hein gave him.
Inside the isolated section were hundreds of shelves. All of them were metallic, with the registered keycards as the only lock mechanism.
Some of them were dubiously rusty, however, and there were none of the security guards or the like. He wasn't sure about the place, as it always had been with this planet.
"They're supposed to be sorted in order… Let's just try to find it, alright?" Wilfred suggested.
"It doesn't look like that to me… The first one closest to the door is numbered B-738…" Milanor sighed.
They split up into three groups: Wilfred toward the back rows, Miledi for the ones closer to the entrance, and the captain and Naya in the midst of the whole thing.
As Milanor said when they disembarked from Helios, he want her to be kept close to him at all times.
As the both of them carefully inspected the plates on each shelf, he used the dull moment as a chance to ask Naya what he had been thinking.
"So you made some sort of promise with the professor?" he started.
"I did. Back when we were still in Avalon," she replied briefly.
"Oh yeah? What sort of promise? Can you tell me?"
She moved her eyes toward him. "Maybe when you find a solid lead on her."
"Haha, I'll do my best then."
If she didn't deny it, that meant what she said wasn't just something she made up to persuade Wilfred. Milanor doubted she would do something like that, but this confirmed it.
"Does it have something to do with the Last Treasure? You know, the one you just told me."
She halted and stared at one of the shelves, although her expression made it clear it wasn't what she was looking at. "…I hope so," she lowly muttered.
"Hmm?" Milanor thought she would either deny it or ignore him, but he didn't expect that answer.
They continued to silently check the numbers of the shelves. A few minutes passed by, but they still hadn't found the one numbered B-572.
"Arrggh! This is annoying!"
How did the management run this place? It must be hell for the workers assigned to manage this cursed section.
'Or wait, maybe they were the ones who let it become this chaotic with their sheer incompetence. Hah, served them right.'
"They haven't found it either?" Even Naya looked irritated at this ordeal.
Beep Beep Beep
As Milanor scratched his head in frustration, the PAW on his left wrist rang out. It was a notification.
"Hmm?" he grumbled in confusion as he checked the hologram. "I thought it was from Miledi… Oh, she can just shout from over there, I guess… It's from Helios…? Fia?"
'I wonder what's up back there—'
"Hey, Milestone! I found it! It's here!" Wilfred's shout echoed in the vast room.
"Oh, really!? Finally! We'll be there!" The captain put the notification to the back of his mind for later and focused on where the mechanic's voice came from.
They ran toward his location. Milanor had to match his pace with Naya's so he wouldn't race well ahead of her.
The fact that they both ran without even communicating their intentions spoke volumes of how much they were done with this whole thing and how tedious it was.
Not long after, the two arrived at Wilfred's location. Miledi soon appeared as well, as if she was following them.
"Here! B-572. The one you're looking for, right?" He happily pointed toward a relatively pristine shelf.
"Indeed, that's the one," commented Miledi.
"Dang, finally," Milanor declared as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.
In addition to the running, the temperature was rather high too. Naya swiped her bang that clung to her wet skin as well.
Milanor fished out the keycard that Boss Hein gave him. He said it was a master card, capable of unlocking every shelf in the room.
It was rather crazily audacious that he would just casually toss out something like that to a stranger he just met.
He said he couldn't care less about his old workplace, and with a very blunt expression: "Ya can go 'bout some thievin' spree in there and I won't give a damn. That's their problem."
At least he was very true to his principle.
Of course, Milanor had no intention of stealing anything. He wouldn't go out of his way of looking for trouble at a place like this. He just wanted to get this over with.
The captain faced the shelf with the keycard in hand.
Finally, they would get a somewhat real clue to their objective. In truth, Milanor was quite dubious ever since they landed, but he didn't expect that it would all go this (relatively) smoothly.
He inserted the card. Now it was the moment where they would learn just what this wayward intellectual had been doing here, and where she was going. Grabbing the handle and—
Wee-woo Wee-Woo
A blaring sound stopped his hand. It was a sound Milanor was quite familiar with. A siren.
"W-What the hell!?" he panicked.
Considering it rang right after inserting the key card, it was possible that he was the reason.
"What gives, Boss Hein!? Did you give me a dupe!?"
'Wait, no. It would be a sick joke if this rustic landfill of a depot could have such an advanced alarm system. It's only a single shelf! That doesn't make sense.'
"Captain, that does not seem to originate in this building. It comes from outside," Miledi, ever the calm and stoic maid, gave him a clarification.
She also didn't say anything before he unlocked the locker either. If opening it was indeed a bad idea, she would definitely warn him.
"Oh yeah, you're right." Now that Milanor calmed down, he could make out that distinct 'sound from the next door' feel to it in the siren.
But for an alarm that came from outside, it was quite loud. Very loud, even. It was as if… It was as if the whole city was supposed to hear it.
BOOOM!!!
A tremendous tremor rocked the building along with an ear-piercing explosion. The quake was strong enough that it might have registered at around Magnitude 7.
The experienced freelancer immediately dismissed the possibility of a Qwattorquake, as no matter how shoddy the infrastructure was, there was no way it could cause such an immediately immense explosion.
"No way…" Wilfred murmured in disbelief. "Kuh!!"
"Huh? Hey, what!?"
The mechanic sprinted at full speed through the mess of shelves, running toward the exit.
'Gah!! I knew there would be trouble when we came here. I could feel it since yesterday!'
Milanor had a strong guess as to what caused all this commotion.
Almost as if he was about to pull the compartment's door off its hinges, he opened the locker.
Inside were all but empty except for a small metallic case. Its surface was plain grayish-white with a slight sheen, no label nor anything over it. There was something familiar with this case, but unfortunately, he had no time to dwell on it.
He grabbed it and immediately gave it to Naya. "Your bag. Should be secure, right?"
It took her a moment to process what he said. It was apparent that the situation bothered her. "'Course. I won't ever lose it."
She took the case and carefully put it inside her sling bag.
"Captain, I will go ahead and assess the situation," said Miledi, looking for permission.
"Sure. Try to catch up with that guy."
Milanor turned back to the B-572 shelf and made sure he didn't miss anything before slamming it shut again.
While keeping an eye on his surrounding, they made their way back outside, carefully navigating through the fallen debris.