Starborn: Origin of the Stars

“Time to have a talk, mate.” Robin said to his latest guest.

They were back on the ship and planning their approach on the islands. First of all though, Robin wanted to chat with the Eltaran, who hopefully could help to shed some light on this mystery. Keran was with him, as well as Timothy. Landom and the Vlasov siblings were somewhere in Dreamer’s Hope to begin their investigation of the bar fight.

The man lowered his hood and sighed.

“Thank you for bringing me here without exposing my presence.” He said.

“My friends here said that if we just showed you off like that, it would have serious consequences for your people.” Robin shrugged.

“They are right with the assessment of the situation. As you’ve explained before, the Eltaran have lived in hiding since centuries, so successfully that the other sentient races aren’t even sure anymore, if we still exist at all.”

“On that note, I don’t wanna be an asshole or anything, but you look like you’ve lived for some time - Timothy explained you’re getting much older than most others - so you should have some experience of life. Why the hell did you think confronting us like that would be a wise move? You risked more than your own wellbeing, but the secrecy of your whole race… what you did was pretty much a rookie-mistake.” Robin exclaimed, this was what he really couldn’t understand.

The man had taken so much risk without planning anything. When he confronted them, he didn’t even put up a strong front but kept his weapon safe. Even without Sevastian, they could have overwhelmed him easily.

“You are right, I’ve lived for 286 years - old, even for an Eltaran.” The alien sighed once more, his shoulders slumped, “I’m losing patience, I’m beginning to make mistakes, I’m… getting sloppy. Just like you, I’m here to look for a facility left behind by my ancestors. However, all I know is that it should be here and the only way of finding it, handed down by my people, is no longer feasible today. I’m… running out of time. When I heard you talking about the facility with such certainty, I jumped at the first opportunity I could find. I hoped… or wished, that you have more information which, together with my knowledge, would solve this riddle.”

Robin looked at the old man who sat on the other side of the conference table. He felt sympathy for him. He tried to rob them, yes, but he never had the intention of hurting anyone and this was about a laboratory left by his own race. If anyone had the right to set foot in there, it was him. He must have been searching for it for a long time if he takes drastic measures like that and makes such sloppy mistakes. However, the damage was done and all Robin could do was help him a bit with damage control. No way he would be able to hide the existence of the Eltaran from the UAS - not after Keran saw him and especially not after they brought him aboard the Hubble, a UAS research vessel.

He had Happy shut down all communications for now to at least buy some time to have a chat with Keran first.

“Okay, so why are you searching for this facility?” Robin asked and saw that the man was looking uncomfortable from one to another.

“Do you have a name you can share with us?”

“I’m Ang’Tue!”

“Hi Ang’Tue, I’m Robin Tulward and these are Timothy Reed and Keran Bex.” Robin introduced the people around him, “Give us at least a rough idea. There is too much, that’s not adding up. If you aren’t talking, there is nothing I can do to help you in any way.”

Ang’Tue sighed once more, he now really looked as if the accumulated tiredness of 286 years had hit him.

“We do have… some trouble after going through extensive mutations over the centuries.” He began to explain hesitantly.

“Like what Timothy said about your fertility?”

“Things like that, yes. The Eltaran are looking for leads that help us regain…” He paused and changed his words “...stabilize our genes again. I am one of the few who… travel around to find such clues. One of which is the data in this laboratory that has been lost for ages. I’m running out of time. I need these files, they could save… many of us.”

Robin and the others listened in and understood that he shared as much as he could. He was obviously desperate, but his people will have to pay a steep price for that. Robin didn’t know what exactly was at stake, but he hoped the man didn’t fuck over his whole race just because ‘he is in a hurry’.

“So, Ang’Tue, I’ll be honest. You are on a UAS research ship and while I’ll have a talk with Keran here, who is a leading researcher of the UAS, all I can promise you is that I try to delay the moment when they get word of your presence.” He said and got a sharp glance from Keran, “So to put the cards on the table: We are here because of some really old, outdated information I obtained. I told you the truth before: I have no further instructions or leads on how to proceed. However, with you being here and chasing after exactly the same thing, the UAS will definitely take the bait and come back to search for the facility, even if they have to dig up every island in the Mystic Sea.” Ang’Tue’s head drooped even further, but Robin continued, “I have a suggestion to make, if you agree and we get Keran aboard.”

The researcher raised an eyebrow and threw him a sharp glance.

“Even if we get along well, captain, I’m still fully committed to the UAS and will not work against its interests or those of mankind. This facility could push us years ahead in the field of gene manipulation.”

“No one wants you to work against the UAS, so will you listen to my suggestion?” Robin asked and Keran gave a hesitant nod.

“If - and I say if, because we still don’t know if that will even work - if we can work together to find the facility, we can all profit from this. If you, Ang’Tue, just want to get some data, a few tools or whatever, you can grab that stuff before the UAS gets the rest. Keran, we have the chance to find this location without the whole UAS swooping down on this planet and getting all the credit for it. So if we keep our new friend here under wraps until we find the outpost, you could make this a discovery that gets you a promotion and more support for your team. We are losing nothing and can gain big!” Robin tried to entice him.

“We are losing nothing? Didn’t you just promise him to take what he came for?” Keran angrily exclaimed.

“I did and you know that while I’m not directly under UAS command, I don’t work against it. However, can you really sit here with a clear conscience and claim that it isn’t right for him, an Eltaran, to have the first pick of a laboratory that belongs to his own people? We aren’t talking about him taking the servers with all the valuable data or the machines… we aren’t, right?” Robin hesitated and looked at Ang’Tue who quickly shook his head.

“I came for a copy of the research data, I have no problem if the original lands in the hands of the UAS in exchange for getting me there.”

“See, you wouldn’t lose anything.” Robin argued.

Keran slowly nodded.

“I don’t see why you would invest so much in him, since you don’t even know him. But I learned enough about you to understand that you will profit from this the most. I agree to your terms, but with the condition of you handing over the map or whatever it is that led you here…”

Robin’s eyebrow twitched a bit, that was a bold move from Keran and he had the feeling that the man had only waited for a chance like this.

“Fine, but I won’t hand it over to you. I’ll sell it to the UAS for a reasonable price… after we are done here on Seavis.”

Keran thought about it for a moment and nodded. They shook hands and looked expectantly at the old alien sitting on the other side of the table.

“Uhm…” Ang'Tue scratched his beard, “It would probably be best if this works out now and we really find the facility, right? Let’s go to the shore again and I’ll show you what the old method of tracking the laboratory was. It’s a bit hard to explain just in some words.”

“Actually, I would like to discuss one more thing before we move out again.” Timothy held up a hand to stop them from leaving, “When we met at the beach, you stepped out of the shadow - literally. How did you do that? What is your G-Anomaly?”

‘Huh, I totally forgot about that…’ Robin thought and chided himself for being careless once again.

“Ah, that…” Ang’Tue said and stood up. Slowly he walked backwards until he reached a corner of the room where the lighting threw some shadows. An instant later, the old man just vanished.

“As if the darkness devoured him…” Keran mumbled.

“Yeah, but I think it’s some kind of shadow-affinity, he isn’t really gone. I can still see him with my mutation…” Robin added.

“What a fearsome ability. I shouldn’t have any more electronic devices on me that you can track!” Ang’Tue’s voice came from darkness and moments later the man himself reappeared.

“The mutations from Eltaran are a bit different from yours. But if you want a rough classification, it would be named Class A - Shadow Attunement.”

“Wow, that’s amazing! I’ve never met someone with a Class A mutation before.” Robin exclaimed, “How does it work?”

“I don’t wanna spill all my personal secrets here, but the rough idea is, like with all other attunement-mutations, that I can feel and interact with my element. The higher the Class, the bigger my sphere of influence becomes.”

That correlated with what Robin knew. Jim had a low metal affinity and could manipulate the small metal orbs and little parts of a machine or tool. If Ang’Tue was Class A, he could probably control enough shadows to completely cover his figure. Elemental affinities were among the strongest and most versatile mutations one could get, however there was one big downside: it was always an act of manipulation, never creation. So no throwing fireballs out of nowhere - if you had a fire affinity and found yourself without any fire nearby… well, you would be pretty useless.

When they left the room to get the Melody and the Sentinel, Keran stepped close to Robin.

“I support your decision and promise my cooperation as long as he doesn’t step out of line.” He whispered and Robin felt his honesty, which lifted a little burden from his shoulders.

“However, remain vigilant…” Keran added, “Since when is shadow an element?”

That nearly made Robin stumble. Right, shadow was just the absence of light - definitely not categorized as an element…

***

Half an hour later, Robin and Timothy sat in the Melody II and followed the Sentinel along the beach. In the other ship were Keran, Ang’Tue and Patience - they had changed the model for one with three seats and while Keran piloted the vessel, Ang’Tue gave directions and Patience kept an eye on their latest group member.

A few kilometers south of Dreamer’s Hope, the ships came to a halt and everyone got off. The Eltaran led them to an unassuming stone formation on the beach and kneeled down.

“This is one of the Guide-Stars my people used back in the day.” He explained and everyone inspected the normal-looking stone.

“That’s a rock, mate…” Patience grumbled, which earned her a chuckle from Robin.

“It’s an intricate piece of tech, young lady!” He objected and rolled back his sleeves. After rummaging through his pockets a bit, Ang’Tue threw Robin an awkward glance.

“You don’t happen to have a knife or something like that?”

Robin frowned but played along and nodded to Keran, who had Ang’Tue’s things.

The Eltaran took the small knife and made a little cut along his arm without any hesitation. When the blood dropped onto the stone, it didn’t drip off the side but seeped into the rough surface.

For half a minute nothing happened, before the stone suddenly gave a low hum once.

“That’s it!” Ang’Tue said and stood up.

“Uhm.. that’s what?” Timothy asked what everyone else also wondered.

Ang’Tue picked out a small device from the things Keran kept and put it on the stone. It looked like a simple, transparent display but as soon as it touched the surface, a small arrow appeared on the screen and pointed somewhere into the Mystic Sea.

“Uh, neat trick!” Keran exclaimed, “You need the genetic code of an Eltaran to activate the stone and a special tool to read it out. Does it point directly to the facility?”

“No, there will be a row of 5 to 10 islands we will have to visit and repeat this step.”

“So, why didn’t you do that already?” Robin asked, “You said the method doesn’t work any longer?”

“You see, here it works as intended. However, over the centuries the storm above got stronger and now it even impacts the reader. So, while I can still activate the Guide-Stars on the islands, I cannot read out the direction.”

“Shouldn’t someone like Robin with Energy Senses be able to make up for the reader?” Patience asked.

“I tried that already, but the Guide-Stars have such a faint energy signature that you cannot sense it without a Class A or above.” Ang’Tue shook his head.

“Ha, let’s see. I have to try that!” Robin laughed, put the reader to the side and laid his hand on the stone. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated on his mutation. He had to focus really hard and needed a few attempts, but ultimately a small blue arrow formed in his mind that pointed exactly in the same direction as the one the reader had shown before.

“Pack your stuff, folks - we are about to start a treasure hunt!”