"That was a brief moment of weakness," Kassidy says as she pulls away from me. "It won't happen again." I merely shrug in response as the doors to the transport open. I figure that staying silent is the best way to handle this situation. Those with personalities as volatile as hers could easily be set off by the wrong response here.
"Offworlders." A Stenian scoffs at the two of us as we pass by, thereby giving Kassidy a chance to prove my point. I can almost feel the heat as her anger flares.
"What was that?" She growls at the passer-by, and I place a firm hand on Kassidy's shoulder.
"Let it go," I say as the Stenian in question quickly scurries away. Kassidy scoffs, but complies, crossing her arms atop her chest and walking forward. I do fear I have made things worse.
A notable difference between the city of Vilehelm and Barrenford is that the Stenians here have a certain glow to them. As in, a literal glow. The Stenians I see before me here in Barrenford are actually producing light. Each person's glow seems to have a differing affixture to them, though similar in nature. I've never heard of nor seen this before, but I assume it must be a new fashion trend for the highest of the high society. I suppose that, while Eagle I is an upper system, there is still an upper echelon of society, even here. This is precisely why I do not fraternize with the upper systems. Well, that and my lack of the egregious amount of money required to live here. I mean, the stardust is worth a lot but it certainly cannot cover the amount required to even rent a place for a month in Barrenford.
We approach the meeting point in the lower east corner of Barrenford, in a much less populated area of the city. The building before us was rather old, but well-kept. Its iron gates are an odd sight on this planet, implying that the building was erected before the discovery of the universally famous bartlemium here on Eagle I. I, therefore, must deduce that my client is a scientist of some kind, based on the fact that the colonizers of Stenia were originally here on a research expedition because bartlemium was discovered shortly after the Stenian core was planted. Bartlem alloys were so easy to procure and so sturdy that not many saw a reason to do construction without using the metal. Therefore, we have our verdict: The building must be a research outpost because its lack of bartlem alloys informs that it was created by the very researchers who discovered it.
I used the big red buzzer on the iron gate in front of us, and after a moment, the speaker crackled to life. "Uh... Who is this?" came a voice from the metal box.
"You wanted to buy a cosmic veil, is that correct?" I reply into the microphone, to no response. I wait a moment, only to be met with more silence. I turn to Kassidy, who is giving me a wide-eyed look, of which has been earned, no doubt, by learning the contents of my briefcase. Just as I figured that the advertisement was fake and that I should cut my losses and leave, the door to the old outpost swung open.
"Ah, yes come in!" A stout man shouts at us from the doorway, who is wearing a very cliché lab coat, albeit one that is remarkably clean. He reaches to his right and presses something out of view, and the iron gates swing open. As we approach the man, who is easily shorter than me, perhaps around Kassidy's height, he pulls down the goggles that are resting on his shiny head, the blue light from the hallway gleaming off his tall forehead. He hustles us inside and shuts the door behind us. His apparent need for brevity is slightly worrisome, and I can see sweat beads form atop his head. "Ah, you have, um... the item?" Kassidy leans forward, invested as well.
"Of course. I'm a man of my word."
"Good, good..." He opens a door in the back of the house, revealing a set of descending stairs. "Please, after you." We follow him down into what I quite honestly expected to be a dingy old basement, however, I was sorely mistaken. The room appeared to be a massive reactor of some kind, if you could call it that. A mass of what can only be described as metal roots snaked their way through the lab, culminating all into a large orb at the center of the room.
"Is that what I think it is?" I say breathlessly as Kassidy stares in bewilderment. The old man nods.
"Excuse me, but what exactly am I looking at?" Kassidy asks, confused.
"Wh-why, that's the core," Kassidy shrugs as the man speaks, and it's clear that she doesn't follow.
"All right, I'll bite. What's important about this thing anyway?" She says as she approaches it.
"Well, it powers the entire country." I step forward, standing next to Kassidy as I speak.
"Well, y-yes, I suppose that's true, but it's far more important than that." The old man's hands fly across a terminal beside us as the low hum of the core begins to become louder. The cradle of the orb opens, revealing its contents.
"By the Star-Written..." Kassidy's hands come up to cover her mouth as we stare at the stardust that's been powering the country. "Is that... a cosmic veil?"
"Indeed," the man says solemnly, "But it's running out of juice, somehow. I can't explain it... b-by everything we know about stardust, it makes no sense."
"What do you know about stardust?" I raise an eyebrow.
"W-well, see, it's, uh-" He fixes his glasses, pausing for a moment before continuing. "We know it comes from Chaos, that much is obvious, due to the fact that they're nearly exclusively adorned by the Chaos Created." I cross my arms, recalling my last encounter with the Created. They're not exactly the civilized type.
"Yes, that is where I got this," I say, referencing the case.
"You killed Created?" Kassidy gasps.
"Of course not, violence is so uncivilized." I calmly retort, setting the case down on the desk in front of me.
"T-that's not all." The old man interrupts our conversation. "Everything we have on stardust after that is purely theoretical, however I believe its properties are similar to that of the state of plasma. It-its atoms seem to... pull themselves apart, and forcibly reattach themselves to differing parts of the veil. However, this effect only occurs to the grouping of atoms considered to be part of the veil. I-it's all rather peculiar." I stick my hand out, and curl my index and middle finger.
"Great. Now, about my payment."
"O-of course. I need but a moment to retrieve the Tera." The man scurries up the stairs, leaving Kassidy and I alone with the core. She leans over the exposed contents, carefully eyeing the ethereal stardust.
"What do you think he meant," She says after a moment, "when he said it's more important than simply powering the country?" I shrug. A low rumble shakes the room for a moment. "what was that?" I shrug again, left with no viable explanation. Thankfully, one came to me in the form of a massive vine shooting up from the ground and perforating the ceiling. Cracks begin to snake along the ceiling and find their way into the walls, sprouting flowers and other flora as they move.
"That's... odd..." I say as the building groans. "That's concerning." However, it would appear that I spoke too soon, as an earthquake shook the basement. With a electric crackle, the orb in the center of the room closes up and begins to vibrate violently. The metal tendrils connecting to it recede back to the floor and ceiling respectively, and we stand there in awe as it defies gravity, hovering in the middle of the room. Suddenly, with a loud bang, the orb shoots itself into a wall, and ricochets around the room. I grab Kassidy and dive to the ground as the orb strikes the ever-growing vine at my side. The vine splits at the moment of impact, and shrivels upon prolonged proximity to the core. It is also at this moment, that the door to the stairs swings open, and the stout man comes rushing down.
"What. The. FUCK?!" He shouts as he grabs the core and turns to look at us.