When the Professor's shuttle arrived, it landed at the same palace as Mirian's two days ago. Only Mirian was welcoming him, with her butler, Ushu accompanying her. As the blue, brick-like shuttle landed and its ramps lowered, Keshnar rolled down on it, wearing his signature white lab coat. He was barely seen without it, as there were no photos or videos of him not donning his favorite accessory.
"Girl, it was years since I last saw you!" Keshnar' laughed'. His big, one-and-a-half-meter-wide blob-like form was pulsating with a bright light. He was communicating by transmitting his thoughts via telepathy.
"Both of us are busy, Professor!" She chuckled, grabbing onto his hands as a slimy tentacle stretched forward, shaking hers with great vigor. "You came alone?" She asked, expecting others to come down, but the ramp remained empty.
"Yeah! I like flying, and I said I will take a weekend off! My little eggheads could finally relax, hahaha! I heard they are throwing a party so that they finally have some free time!" He laughed as the violet-colored jelly, his body, started to shake.
"They are going to need this little pause. Because you are going to work them to death next!" Mirian smiled, nodding towards Ushu, and they began to lead the Professor away.
"You were pretty vague in your message, girl! What did you find? If any other figure had sent me that encrypted mystery note, I would have simply marked it as spam!" Keshnar asked as he rolled forward next to her.
"You will see." She smiled, keeping up the mystery as they stepped into an elevator, rising up from the ground. The smooth surface of the artificial island simply slid to the sides as a capsule rose up, taking them down.
As soon as they disappeared into the blue, Keshnar watched the bubbles around their see-through elevator, descending and heading towards a giant underwater complex. It was lit up by searchlights and could easily house a cruise ship if needed.
"It truly must be something important," Keshnar said, noticing the dozens of submarines patrolling the premises and the active underwater turrets, constantly scanning the surroundings.
"It is." Mirian nodded, telling him the brief history of it while they were descending from the surface.
When they left the elevator, they stepped into the long, glass corridor leading toward the underwater hangar. Keshnar was already too excited, glowing in a bright violet hue. He was rolling forward hurriedly as he grew dozens of thin, slimy tentacles, reaching the door with them from a dozen meters away.
“Ahaha, Professor, relax! It won't go away!" Mirian laughed as her mentor tapped away, opening the sealed doors.
"I want to see it!" He replied, squeezing his slimy body through the opening door, not even waiting a second later. With a loud *plop*, he was in, shaking and bouncing up and down. "I can't believe it! How marvelous!" He said, transmitting his thoughts to everyone present.
The hangar itself was emptied out, only retaining the Xanthe. It was standing proudly in the middle. Its armor plating was folded up, revealing its insides for everyone to see. A handful of technicians were working around and on it, mostly taking out parts they knew they could replace. They were led by none other than Sylen, hanging from the Xanthe's chest, wearing a harness, working on its waist. Omega was also seated in its helmet, coordinating with Sylen and Xanthe, guiding her from the top.
"Marvelous! The low hum of its generator… it works with… hm… I don't know what… does it work with… Hmmm…” The Professor murmured, vibrating simultaneously as the Xanthe's core hummed. "And its size! Those hydraulics and the servos in its joints… hahaha, I want to take it apart and see how it was built!" He laughed, spurting around twenty tentacles from his body, all different forming tools, ready to jump in and start working.
"Stop, stop!" Mirian rushed up, holding him back by two of his appendages. "Calm down, Prof! We don't know much yet! We downloaded its data banks, but we have run into many security locks that we have still not cracked!" She explained.
"No problem, I'll help! I will call my little eggheads over, and we will unlock its secrets in a jiffy!"
"Good luck with that!" Sylen's shout traveled from far high up, hearing the Professor's thoughts in her head. "The Xanthe itself does not have the encryption keys to it! Most of our computers also have trouble untangling the jumbled mess of its programming!"
“Hm, hm, I see, I see… But don't worry, I have never failed in my life!" Keshnar replied proudly, unbothered by the casual tone that Sylen was using.
"We need to be careful!" Omega joined in, lowering himself from the helmet. "If by cracking her codes we damage her programming, we could turn the whole Suit of Ares into a fancy paperweight. I don't think I could rewrite her. Nor here nor at Mors Caminus."
"You must be that Omega fellow." Karshen nodded, rolling towards him, shaking his hands with enthusiasm. "Great job! You ought to be awarded medals! Your own island! Or virgins, whatever you fancy!"
"Ugh…" Sylen groaned, also coming down, oily from top to bottom. "What a pervert!"
"Don't worry, my only love is science! And machines! And history! Also, gene modifications! And pudding!" He repeatedly added, shaking her oily hands, preventing her from interjecting.
"Sorry, he is way too excited!" Mirian smiled, patting the Professor's head, making it ripple as he blinked his black, beady eyes.
"This is huge!" Keshnar answered, blinking like a broken light fixture. "This could make us jump forward right into the future! For who knows how many years! This is tremendous, my girl! You can't even imagine it! Just discovering the stations in this part of the Galaxy has turned us from a space-faring refugee camp into a small empire capable of repelling our enemies!"
"Okay, slow down, Prof! You will get a heart attack!" Mirian said, trying to reign in the slime.
"I don't have a heart!" He replied, finally making Sylen laugh loudly.
"He truly does not." Omega nodded, looking at him. His insides were… simple, without any real organs.
"Hah! Keshnar laughed. "Let me check it out!" He rolled forward, shedding down his lab coat and slithering up on the Xanthe's legs. Soon his body was stretched out like crazy, reaching into every little hole, slit, and connection. It didn't take long for him to be gone from their eyes, seeping into the Xanthe's legs, reappearing from its chest. Then gone again, coming out from its back. It was like a magic trick until he appeared from its neck. From there, he was dripping down like some purple snot.
"I hope he doesn't break anything…." Sylen murmured, looking at his performance with a weird expression.
"He probably won't. He is curious, but he is cautious. He loves inventing and rediscovering ancient tech. I don't think he would break it… not intentionally anyway." Mirian added, whispering the last part.
"He is an interesting guy." Omega smiled, crossing his arms. "But he should be a great asset! He can squeeze into places we are unable to!"
"Heh, that is for sure!" Sylen laughed a little.
When The Professor returned, his purple body was filled with broken-off machine parts, oil smudges, and other contaminated knick-knacks floating inside of him. He took up his lab coat, fixing it on himself, before rolling back to them.
"This machine is perfect!" He exclaimed happily. "Extremely dirty and unkempt, but a good scrubbing should do it! I recognized 64 092 parts that we can reproduce with a little change in manufacturing. Those can be replaced." He explained as some bolts were still spinning inside of him. "But I have 39 174 parts that I have no knowledge of. Those need further examination. You said you have the schematics?"
"The same that we let the Army keep." Omega nodded.
"There are some good heads there. I bet they can start replicating the machine and do it very soon."
"They could build a Suit of Ares?" Sylen asked, gawking at his words.
"One like this?" Keshnar laughed, multiple 'hands' pointing towards his back. "Nooooo, not a chance! But one that looks like this? Surely! The main issues they will run into are the engine, the performance, the mobility, and the- khm. So, there are going to be a lot of problems. It is our job to come up with solutions to those problems! I want full access to the data!"
"Sure." Mirian smiled. "I already prepared a lab for you to work in, with complete access to what we have here."
"Great! Call up my eggheads and tell them weekends are canceled! Get their lazy ass here, asap!" Keshnar said, not even waiting for their reply, just following the silent Ushu already leading him to his prepared laboratory.
"How… weird," Sylen murmured, being left there.
"You will get used to it." Mirian laughed, patting Sylen's back.
"I assume he is hooked?" Omega asked, watching the Professor disappear behind a sliding door.
"Completely." Mirian nodded.
"Then we can leave my introduction for later. When we run into a new problem."
"I was thinking the same." Mirian smiled, looking at him with one eye. "I am going to be busy for a while. I need to get our funding in place, especially now that the Professor is bringing his people here."
"The top scientists of the Neo-Hegemony…." Sylen murmured, a bit excited and a bit afraid. "I hope they won't put me out of the team… I like working on Xanthe!"
"I am going to make sure you stay~" Mirian chuckled.
"Mmm. It is the best time for you, Sylen." Omega said, nodding.
"For what?" She asked back.
"To learn under, as the Professor said, some eggheads~."
…
….
…..
Only 12 hours later, Professor Keshnar was jiggling on the same platform he rolled down onto from his shuttle. He was impatiently waiting for his colleagues to arrive, accompanied by Mirian. It was the dead of the night, and the clear sky was occupied by a white, bright strip going above them. It was filled with thousands upon thousands of white spots. They had a perfect view of one of the Galaxy's spiral arms as their home was situated at the far edge of another.
"I now get why they called it the Milky Way," Mirian said, looking up at it.
"Hm?" Keshnar blinked in a purple light, his beady eyes following hers. "Oh. I see. Who knows, maybe one of those stars is theirs. With their original 'blue' planet orbiting it. That would be a discovery and a half!" He chuckled. "But I doubt it will happen."
"Why?" Mirian asked, turning her eyes towards him.
"I have no proof yet…." Professor Keshnar explained, his voice falling a bit lower. "So don't spread it. If you do, I will deny it has anything to do with me!"
"Okay~" She giggled, knowing him very well. She grew up under his tutelage; she was used to his antics already.
"There are traces of Astropaths that were closed. Permanently."
"What?!" She exclaimed, flinching.
They were natural formations. Nobody could make them, and nobody could alter or destroy them. It went against the laws of physics on every level. Not even supernovas and the births of black holes affected an Astropath. It may shift it a little, bend around its path, making the traveling time longer than previously, but damage it? Close it? That never happened before.
"I have no physical proof of it yet. Neither is a theoretical one. But…” He said, going silent for a short minute, "I found some old charts in old caches we fished from Mors Caminus's data banks. They are fragments of supply routes. I traced them back as much as possible, hoping I would find the fabled planet. Nothing. But the most terrifying thing was…." He fell silent again.
"Professor?" Mirian asked after he refused to talk for a long time.
"Every route I followed back was gone at the same point. As if all Astropaths leading to the same system were simply non-existent. Closed forever or destroyed. I don't know which. And I do not dare to guess which is more terrifying."
"Missing Astropaths…" Mirian whispered, thinking about a myriad of things. She only recovered when she heard the nearing shuttle hovering above them, slowly descending down.
"Finally!" Keshnar laughed, growing multiple hands, clapping excitedly. "You lazybones! It is time to work!" He jiggled again, bouncing in a place like a rubber ball, welcoming the landing shuttle with an eager voice echoing in the heads of his colleagues.
"Poor souls…" Mirian thought with a smile, especially as she saw the crestfallen and grimacing faces walking out from the blue shuttle.
