« Le Petit Bistro », a cozy little bar, stands out in this sector. Sector 25 was an ill-famed district from Delta 43 space station, where the homeless and mobsters lived. It was a first-class establishment next to dilapidated buildings. The master was a Kalon, a humanoid with four arms and blue skin, and was named Blob. The station hadn’t passed in the day cycle yet, but the bar was already open. I walked right in, it was empty except for Blob who was washing his glasses.

“You are starting early today,” I greeted.

“No, I’m finishing late. I’ve worked all night” he answered back.

I took a seat at the counter. I was wearing a grade 4 white bionic armor with a helmet able to retract itself in a hairband, very practical because it could be split from my armor. It goes without saying, of course, that grade 4 armors were capable of destroying the space station.

I retracted my helmet, revealing my face, my mid-cut silver hair, and my deep purple eyes. Blob looked up at me before continuing to rinse his glasses.

“What do I owe the honor of welcoming the Azure Witch to my bar?” he said to me with a thin smile.

“I was passing by and I had the feeling I find you in your bar,” I answered with a big smile.

The Azure Witch is the nickname that people gave me, and funnily the spelling was wrong. The name ‘Azure’ came from my native stellar system ‘Azur 3’. But the 3, by abuse of language, turned into an ‘e’ and as my nickname spread out in the universe it became impossible to correct. And for your information, my name is Celeste, Celeste Zephyr. But unlike my nickname not many know my name and Blob was one of them.

“Oh! You came here just to visit me, that’s unusual. What do you want to drink?” Blob asked, putting his glasses in the cupboard.

“I want a hot chocolate.”

“Tsk, coming to a bar to drink hot chocolate… and to begin with, it doesn't fit your image at all,” he complained but the cup was in his hand before I asked.

“So what? It’s not because people think I’m some kind of demon that I should begin to drink strong liquor or sip fresh child blood. I like hot chocolate and that's it! I don’t care what others think!” I retorted. Yeah, I have a sweet tooth, do you have a problem with it?

He chuckled, I swear he did. My hearing, like all my senses, is greatly enhanced I couldn’t mishear.

“It’s been two tritiums ¹1 tritium= 12.32 years since I’ve seen you. You could have called to give me some news. You didn’t even come to celebrate your hundredth tritium,” he changed the subject after seeing my glare.

“Yeah… I celebrated it in prison” I let it slip and answered him.

“In prison? Has anyone managed to capture you?” He looked at me incredulously, as if I’d told him stars were cold.

“What? Of course not, I infiltrated it to spend it with Castelli. The fellow has still two tritiums of jail time before he can go out,” I explained.

“You didn’t help him out?” he asked, a little surprised.

“Nah, he was pretty well off actually. I didn’t know how he did it, but his cell is as good as a five-star suite. Hell, he even has a maid! He didn't really want to escape,” I answered back.

Blob served me my chocolate along with some cookies. He was well aware of my sweet tooth, in fact, he kept a box of cookies with him, especially for me.

“So what brings you to this corner of the galaxy?” he asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

“A Ruin!” I said, taking a cookie.

“A new Ruin has been found?” he inquired, I’ve sparked his interest.

“Yep, in the system Carmin4. It's huge and in good condition so there is a good chance it contains some relics. And since the system is under Scalex sway, the looters are too scared to approach, which means no one has explored it yet. So I will take this opportunity to explore it first,” I responded while miming a spaceship landing with a cookie.

“Wait!” he interrupted me. “Why hasn't it been explored yet? It's suspicious, even if the Scalex has little interest in the construction of biological entities, they still should have explored it to make sure there wasn't any exotic technology inside,” he explained visibly not convinced by what I said.

“In fact, the origin of this ruin is unclear, I don't know who made it. Without speaking of its origin, it’s even impossible to date it. Of course, the Order of Scalex would love to explore it, but there were two unforeseen events. First, the structure seems to be made of hadronic material, it's impossible to pierce it without suitable tools. The second, the planet is now experiencing a violent stellar storm, it is almost impossible to land, let alone try to explore the ruin,” I clarified his doubt.

“Hum… I was thinking it was some kind of trap,” he said satisfied.

“No you're absolutely right, it's indeed a trap,” I confirmed. “They’ve seen things in big, all my enemies have mobilized their troops and everything suggests that they are about to launch a joint attack on me. So yeah, this ruin is definitely a bait.”

“If you know this is a trap, why are you going?” He asked me, frowning.

“I have two reasons,” I answered, grabbing the last two cookies to illustrate. “The first, the bait is too enticing, the ruin is genuine and really hasn’t been explored. Something incredible is sure to be inside,” I explained as I ate one of them.

“And what’s the second reason?” he urged me.

Under his disapproving gaze, I continued to sip my chocolate, no doubt he didn't like the idea of me jumping into the lion’s den in such a casual way. But unlike what I let appear on the surface it wasn't a decision that I had taken lightly. Normally just for this ruin, I would have gone. But this time there was something more...

“My instinct!” with these words I ate the last cookie.

Hearing these words Blob froze. If he'd heard that from anyone else he probably would have laughed at them. But coming from me these words took another meaning.

“T-tell me you'll come back unharmed,” he hesitated. He didn't want to stop me anymore, but he was more worried than before.

I didn't answer him and continued to sip my cup. From the outside, it looked like I didn't want to answer, and to some extent, I didn’t. But I was actually enjoying his hot chocolate. It was the last time I could drink something prepared by Blob and I wanted to engrave its taste in my memory. Blob disliked my silence and slammed his fist on the counter.

“You plan to die for a mere ruin?” he yelled.

“Of course not, dying is not on the agenda. It's just... It's gonna be a one-way trip. I don't know what I would find there, but I wouldn't be able to come back, or at least not before a very long time,” I explained, trying to calm him.

“Don’t go,” he said. It wasn't a request, if he could, he would have tied me to this seat to stop me. It's not like that would have worked… unstoppable was one of the descriptions added to my nickname.

“I have to go, it's not just a hunch, my gut is practically ordering it. The first time this has happened to me was the day my home was destroyed,” I insisted and Blob finally calmed down.

As a former member of my crew, my past wasn’t unfamiliar to him, so Blob did not insist. He thought about it before taking a deep breath and looking me straight in the eye with deep resolve.

“I'm coming with you!” he pledged in a calm and determined voice.

“Nope! No! Don’t you dare even think about it!” I quickly declined him. “No way, there's no way I'm taking you with me on a one-way trip while your wife is pregnant. Hey! Don't give me that battered dog look. You're clearly too old to do that, seeing you doing that makes me want to throw up,” I joked, trying to divert his attention.

“Hoy! I only have seven tritiums unlike you!” he reacted. My diversion has worked.

“Really~? You look a lot older than me though,” I replied with a smirk.

“Not everyone gets the chance to keep the appearance of their 2nd tritium forever like you,” he sighed. “The Carmin4 system is only five jumps away, meaning I'm your last stop before your destination, right?” he asked. Seem like my diversion wasn’t enough.

“Exactly! I stopped by to say goodbye to everyone before I left and you are the last. Are you disappointed? But you know what they say 'keep the best for the end' so the fact that you were the last one I visited just shows how much I care about you. Are you moved? Come on, give me a hug,” I exclaimed. I won’t let him say he wants to come with me again.

I reached out to hug him, but he intercepted me with a flick.

“Even for you visiting everyone would take a while, you just went by order of proximity, I'm not a fool,” he responded while staying out of range.

“That's not a reason to refuse my hug,” I whined and caressed my forehead.

“Hugging someone in bionic armor? I think I’ll pass. I don't want you to crush my bones,” He smirked.

“This is a very bad idea indeed…” I replied, avoiding his gaze.

“If you're still alone, it means you refused to let anyone come with you. I can't believe you're so irresponsible, going alone in such a dangerous place while leaving everyone behind.” he sighed while massaging his temples.

“Ah!? I don't want to hear that from someone who just offered to come with me. Whereas his wife is going to give birth in the next few days!” I harshly countered him. Look like my words hurt him deeply since he didn’t reply.

I turned on my wrist computer and continued. “The crew have been dissolved since two tritiums now, you and me included, We are no more than eleven alive and everyone has rebuilt their lives since. Don't get me wrong, I'm not depressed. This is not my first goodbyes, I had a long life. I'm just thinking that it's time now to turn the page.” I said, with a sad voice, a look in the void, and a tear in the corner of my eye. Perfect acting if you asked me.

“Can you stop pretending to talk like you're gonna die tomorrow? Or at least cut off that sad music, so I can take what you say seriously. It's all the more disheartening knowing that you could actually die tomorrow,” he despaired.

“Eh? But I find that the music brings out the tragic side of the time passing and eternal separations. And my performance was flawless so why do I only read irritation in your eyes?” I asked him after turning off my wrist computer.

“Can you take the situation seriously? You tell me we'll never see each other again and now you're just joking around. I almost believe you don’t mind it.” he responded clearly irritated.

“Sorry, of course, it saddens me to leave you, but life is also about meeting new people. You know I hate tearful goodbyes. I came here for two reasons, the first was to say goodbye to you and the second is to give you something.” I apologized and explained the reason why I visited.

“You want to give me something?” Blob inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“I remember promising you to become your daughter's godmother. Unfortunately, I won't even be able to witness her birth, let alone watch her grow. So I made a little something for her.” I explained with a mischievous smile.

I left my seat and went to the door, as I opened the bar door I whistled loudly. A mechanical dog came in and sat next to us at the counter.

“I present to you the ‘Friendly and Intelligent Mechanical Companion Dog’, AMY for short,” I introduced the robot proudly.

It was a big dog he didn’t have fur, but smooth armor with a colorful mix between blue and silver. Even though he gave a powerful look he still looked really friendly and cute. I gave my all to build it, there aren’t any kids that wouldn’t love it.

“You’re still really bad at making acronyms,” he smirked, observing the gift for his child. “What is his function?”

“Not my fault translator can’t translate acronym. he’s made of a strong alloy that can stand a grade 3 weapon. His radar can find a target even if it is on the other side of the station, which means he won’t lose your kid. I gave him an advanced AI so he would make decisions quickly if needed and he even could enter most of the common informatics systems. Ah! But don’t worry, I made it loyal so he won’t become like Scalex’s AI. He has an autonomy of one tritium in the normal mode and thirty days in the war mod. For security measures I gave him two grade 3 weapons and a grade 4 shield so…” I began to explain but Blob cut my words.

“Stop! Why are you trying to give a war machine to my daughter? This thing could wipe out this station!” he exclaimed, looking at me as if I was crazy.

“Don’t worry, he’s well programmed. First, he won’t obey anybody besides you, your wife, and your daughter. And second, he won’t hurt innocent people so there is no harm,” I clarified, caressing AMY’s head.

“I know people who would kill to obtain it!” Blob replied, apparently not convinced.

“You should see it the other way around, AMY will protect your family from danger,” I explained, trying to convince him.

“Because of what kind of danger should we need this much protection?” He inquired.

“… Pandora…” I only mumbled it, but he heard me clearly.

“What did you say!?” he asked, his face becoming ghastly pale.

“Well, I really would like to keep chatting with you, but I need to go.” I excused myself, finishing my cup and leaving my seat.

“I heard you! You said you were going to ‘open Pandora’, don’t try to leave after dropping a bomb like that,” he tried to stop me, but I effortlessly evaded him.

“No, I really need to go. Being late could kill me, you know? You wouldn’t want to be a factor in my death right? Then bye-bye,” I waved, before leaving.

“Celeste? Celeste! Tsk... Try to not destroy Carmin 4 system,” he yelled, giving up trying to stop me.

I was going to retort, but the words did not come out. I waved goodbye to him and walked away to the dock. I felt that whatever was going to happen in the Carmin 4 system would be far beyond mere destruction.