All was quiet in the cabin as the Ketty Jay snuck into Samarlan airspace to reach the Azryx city Ugrik had shown the Ketty Jay's crew on the map. Since Jez was out of commission for the time being until she recovered from her injuries and her Mane flip, Cogs was navigating through the Samaritan desert. Torrent flew around the Ketty Jay in his dragon form, as the Starclimber would have attracted too much attention and generated too much light and sound. The Ketty Jay itself made almost no noise or light as the engines and all the lighting in the cabins were off, save for Cogs, who breathed a candle-sized light for him to see clearly. Other than that, the moon was bright, making easy short-term navigation for Frey. One of the cabin's double doors slid open, and Crake walked in.

"Any word on the destination, Cap'n?"

It was not Frey, but Cogs who responded. "Ugrik only said that we'd know when we're close."

Frey motioned to Cogs, indicating that it was as good as his guess. He continued to try to uncover the secrets of the nothing that lay on the bridge of his nose. Crake could guess what it was that was causing the Cap'n's depressed behaviour, and it probably wouldn't be far off.

"I've got some good news and some bad news." Crake said to Frey.

"What's the good news?" he said sullenly.

"I've been working on a few gadgets based off of your first field test of the concealment sphere back in the Free Trade Zone - a rather brave one, if I say so - and I've come up with a few techniques that could prove effective in the field, should the worst-case scenario happen."

"Thank you, by the way, for that device. Saved my life. You've been working flat out for me all this time. I appreciate it," Frey said, with about as much lacklustre as was possible in a human voice.

"You're welcome," was Crake's response.

"Bad news now," Frey said.

"Ah, yes, the bad news..." Crake paused. "Have you heard of a harmonic resonance bounce?"

Frey gave Crake acid, while Cogs looked on with interest.

"Moot question, maybe... You remember that ring I gave you a while back that was linked to a compass?"

Frey held up his hand, showing Crake the ring.

"Oh... Cap'n... I'm so sorr-"

"Crake, buy me a drink if I survive this, okay? And you were saying?"

"Anyway." Crake went into a very complex explanation of how the ring and compass worked, which Cogs was enthralled by, but Frey cut it short.

"Layman's terms, Crake," he said, getting slightly annoyed.

"Someone's tracking the relic."

"There, now, that wasn't so hard."

Crake paused again. "It's like the ring and compass, but, I hate to admit, more advanced. But the point is, someone's tracking where the relic is."

Crake, Frey, and Cogs all knew that only daemonists could do that kind of thing, but not who. No daemonists that the crew had met had been anywhere near the relic.

Cogs turned back to his map, and looked out of the cockpit windshield. He looked at the local landmarks, then compared it to his map. He put down the map, and stopped the flame. Frey was asking Crake about blocking the signal when the ship shuddered, violent enough to make Crake stumble and the other two grab onto something for balance.

"What was that...?" Cogs asked, a fearful whine coming into his voice.

"Turbulence, probably," Frey said.

The Ketty Jay rumbled again. Then it was shaken, hard, sending anything not screwed down flying to the starboard side of the room as the Ketty Jay listed hard. Cogs, holding onto the navigation table for balance, felt an irregular pulse to the normally stable rumble of the Ketty Jay's engines. He raced to the cockpit window, then took a deep breath. Focusing hard, he breathed a medium-sized flame, careful not to burn the Ketty Jay. He pulsed it orange and blue, then pulsed blue and orange. Outside, three bio-green flashes from Torrent's bioluminescent stripes responded, and the Ketty Jay gradually righted, straining as the engines stuttered. However hard Torrent tried, though, a high-pitched whine cut the air, slowly ascending.

"He can't keep it up!" Frey shouted.

"I'll go warn the others!" Cogs said, running out the door.

Crake didn't know what to do, so he just grabbed onto the back of the captain's chair.

Cogs ran through the corridors, screaming "BRACE FOR IMPACT!". When he was sure that the whole ship had heard his warning at least twice, he opened the back cargo hatch, changing into a dragon as the hydraulics hissed open. He clambered out on the right, once more tilting the ship, but not as sharp as when it was unaided. He closed the cargo hatch using the outside keypad, and let go when it was closed. He flew up to where Torrent was straining on the forward-starboard part of the ship. Cogs grabbed the aft-port side and started lifting. It was heavy work, but it had to be done to keep the Kitty Jay from crashing while its internal systems went haywire. Except, it wasn't good enough. The crash whine continued ascending, and the ship's belly started to glance off of the ground. Cogs flapped his wings harder, trying to generate more lift that would keep the Ketty Jay up in the air. The ship was just too heavy, though. It plowed into the ground, cutting a huge ditch as it did so. Cogs and Torrent were thrown forwards, and they landed on the ground in front of the Ketty Jay. Cogs and Torrent switched back to their human forms.

"What do we do now?" Torrent thought aloud.

"We hold the fort. We were trying to make this journey on stealth, so we try to make sure the wreck isn't seen. Wait for someone to try to assert what's going on... That kinda thing."

And so they sat, one watching the environment, one checking the ship for problems or casualties.