Once they all made it to the bridge Astral overlooked it all. "Red Merle, set course to Illipyo. I have it marked as a vacation planet." Red Merle nodded as the station set off. Astral was excited to relax on the planet. The beaches were remarkable and many of the staff and crew would have to be respectful of the planet and its life.
During the travel time Jaimie rested her head on Astral. "This is a much needed break, aren't you happy to relax?" She asked him as he slowly nodded.
"Hey, when do I get my break?" Alexa asked the two of them as they both turned around.
"I mean, the faster you, Kayla and Murphy are able to finish it, the quicker it will be to be on vacation." Astral spoke as he thought about making two more artificial intelligences to help them.
"Rude. Besides, these changes should only take two weeks at most, if we had Shiro helping us." Alexa's voice held the tone of annoyance and misery as Astral rubs the back of his head.
"Hey, I told him he could train, and she will be the best at it." Astral tried to explain as she put up her hand to have him quit talking, he rolled his eyes as he and Jaimie sat together on the couch, absorbing the beautiful view of speedspace.
"After the vacation we host a meeting and make sure the milky way is on the same page across the board before we leave for the next area?" Jaimie rested her body on Astral as he tapped her thigh signaling yes.
They arrived and saw nothing but empty space in front of them, what once was a promising solar system filled with a planet full of life now was barren, nothing existed outside of the sun. Astral looked around in horror, what devoured the planets?
"Something has to be wrong, Red Merle, are these the correct coordinates?" Jaimie turned over the back of the couch, looking at the AI who just shrugged his shoulders.
"According to Astral's star map, we should be here even if the planets realigned themselves." Red Merle spoke as Adam looked around, touching the glass.
"But there isn't a singular planet here?" Adam questioned as his head darted around. Astral laid back on the couch trying to process it all. Luckily the twins were quietly meditating as Astral waved the three to the table.
"So something had to harvest the planets, that's the most logical thing, if they were destroyed there would be debris floating around but our sensors have nothing." Airsoft tapped the table as the scans were being shown, the only things there were them and the sun.
Adam stalled for a moment. "What would harvest a planet? Would have to be someone taking resources for massive projects, not including the energy needed. Would have to be on similar powers of this station."
"I am going to investigate in space. Something has to be left behind, you know how hard it is to harvest a planet? Even with our resources and knowledge it would be difficult." Astral commented as his suit appeared. Its hue shining from the sunlight provided.
"Alexa, send out the drones and scout the solar system. See if there is anything in reach of the short range scanners." Astral commanded as he walked out the door. "You three behave and watch me from afar, got it?" He slipped away and headed to the exit hatch as Jaimie threw her arms up.
"Oh fuck you! Adam, hold the fort down, I am going to my room." Jaimie marches off as Adam looks at Airsoft in awe.
"Why am I stuck with this shit?" Adam yells at her as Kayla and Airsoft snicker. "Okay, deploying the short range sonar drones, Alexa keep focused on the projects we have planned."
"I don't even listen to Astral, why would I listen to you?" Alexa stuck up her middle figure as she controlled the drones as they patrolled the solar system. Adam and Airsoft were watching for anything out of empty space.
Astral was floating through space, each step he took felt like an infinite distance passed. He wanted to try and see if there was any spiritual residue left over, none of the planets had reached that point as he looked to the sun.
"What tragedies have you seen?" Astral pulled himself into the sun, covered by the bubble charm it was still boiling hot, however, the amulet below the armor kept Astral just below one hundred degrees. Astral would rest his hand on the sun as it spoke out to him.
"Us suns are celestial bodies, being able to communicate and tell each other anything, sadly, I know what you have done to some of our kind." it spoke as Astral wasn't in the mood to have a moral crisis about using stars for their power.
"Something else happened here, all the suns want to do is explore and find a system to call home. What happened?" Astral asked, trying to dodge the question of morality.
"Answer me this, why have you imprisoned stars?" It asked as Astral stood still, he would not use his abilities on the star as he stood still.
"The amount of power that stars can output is on another class of its own, you can keep whole solar systems alive, using just one sun in the core of my station would be enough." Astral pointed to the Red Merle. "I took dying stars and tried to repurpose them. The ones inside of me were a different issue."
"Those two were used as weapons, in order to pacify them I added their power into me, it was my only option to live." He gently spoke as the sun relaxed its guard.
"If you are here then you must also destroy that which took my solar system, I will show it all to you." The sun spoke as Astral placed his hand back down, being mentally flashbanged like before.