Kern had been unsuccessful on Uunara. He had not found any Reeks and in the two weeks that he had been there he had not been able to find anyone who could even confirm that the Reeks visited there. It was time for him to leave and try something else. There was one person that might help him not that he really remembered seeing them the last time he saw her. If his memory served him right, he needed to get to Gattis. It was a small planet here in the Rellon system. Not many travelled there as it was almost at the heart of the Rellon System. The planet was very hot and mostly to deserts. It had a similar surface and weather to Mars, but was far, far hotter being the second closest planet to the systems sun.

There was said to be some farmers there that grew and harvested very rare food supplies and planets that could only thrive in hot climate. There was nowhere hotter than Gattis. He was unable to get there by normal means of a transport ship. Instead he had to leave Uunara and go back to Tralor. From there he had to find a cargo freighter that was going to Gattis. It took many days before he was able to find a freighter. They landed on Gattis and he thanked the pilot. It had been a reasonable journey it was not a fast vessel. There was some cargo going to Gattis and the pilot would take freight back on his return journey. It had been hard to make conversation with him. He asked when she would be back on Gattis as he would need to get back to Tralor, at least he would know how long he had to find Shepa'lai. This had been somewhere that she would come. It was quiet away from any civilisation, apart from the local farmers who came here and made a home. Usually for escape or a better life working the land and selling the produce. This was his first time on Gattis and was unsure where to go. There was no town, no city. They arrived what looked like a back-wood's spaceport. It had one building and several beacons for ships to know where to land. Other than that, he had no idea what he should be doing. He walked over to the only person there and hoped that his translator would be functioning correctly.

"Hello," he said.

The creature just looked at him.

"I'm looking for someone."

Was this thing working? He looked at him, unsure of how it worked. Just looking at it would not help.

"Who?" they asked.

He was unsure if Shepa'lai would be herself or the Threxis she had been disguised as before. Kern hadn't remembered, but he had been told.

"A Threxis," he said.

"No Threxis."

"A Mirrial."

There was no response. Was he waiting for more or had she asked him not to say she was here?

"Shepa'lai," he said.

Still no response.

"She is a friend I knew her sister U'nar'renai."

"Ah, Shepa'lai."

"Do you know where I can find her?"

They pointed in the direction that she was. He had no idea where exactly as he saw nothing. There were no means of transport or beasts. All he could do was walk.

"Thank, you," he said and set off.

He was glad that he was only travelling light, but he had to remove his leather coat or as Hammer had referred to it, a leather duster. Apparently, it was a type of coat. It sounded better. The sun was very, very hot and Kern was not used to it. He still had the wrap that he had used to disguise his head so he had no choice but to use it to protect his head. Although the fabric only made him sweat a lot. He was hoping that he would not have to walk too far. His water supply was only one bottle. The land was mostly flat as he walked, he wasn't sure if it had always been like this or if many years of farming had made the land flat. Very far off to his left he thought he could see something. Probably a building, but from the direction that he had been shown it would not be where he was heading.

Two hours later and after he past his third sand dune. He was able to see a solitary building. It looked like there were some plants growing too. Was Shepa'lai farming when not doing her thing? He headed over to the building.

"Shepa'lai," he called, hoping it was the right farm.

He could see a pond there were plants growing around it. Looking it seemed like the plants had been cultivated in such a way that they grew over the pond protecting it as much as possible from the harsh sunlight.

From around the corner of the building a figure appeared. Kern was caught off guard for a moment. It had been a while since he had been to Mirrial. Shepa'lai looked similar to her sister. All Mirrial females were incredibly pretty. Their skin was smooth and not flesh, more like that which you would find on a cephalopod. She had large eyes and wide pupils. A newborn Mirrial would have an off-white colour to their skin, similar to a pearl. That colour would eventually darken to a more off-white colour. Although if a Mirrial was to use its ability for transformation to look like another creature, beast or race then the colour of their body in time would change to blend with the colours that they had changed to. So, as she used a Threxis her colour along her arms had turned brown, not entirely, but patches along the arm and he could see the same effect on her legs and the top of her head. Mirrials didn't have any hair on their bodies. So, the top of her head was not hair it was short tentacles or large grown nodules. As a juvenile they start as small bumps on the head. They were soft and sensitive. If you were to touch them, they would gently move. Like if you stroked someone's hair. You could move that between your fingers, you could do that too with a Mirrial, but the nerves allowed them to actually move. Not major movement, but like a light breeze blowing a leaf or flower.

She looked back at him surprised to see him and alone.

"Why are you here?"

"Well firstly I should thank you for saving my life."

"No Mirrial has seen you in a long time. I haven't seen you in along time and neither has my sister, so I understand. Yet you suddenly appear on Dyh and now you are here."

Not good. She seemed angry with him, even upset. He had known Shepa'lai almost two decades ago and she had sent him to Mirrial so that her sister could aid him. She was already in exile then and he had been badly injured. A freighter had taken him to her, back then she did not know where his people were. She had been aware that a long time before that the Sentians had been attacked and those who survived had fled. It had been unclear to her how else to help him and she knew no one else who could at the time. She had also enclosed a note to her sister hidden on his person. The recent rescue had not been the first time that Shepa'lai had helped him.

"I'm sorry. I was in another solar system. We only recently came back because some of our people wanted to try and help our situation by mining materials that we needed, but that went bad and the Ictarans found them. Some are still missing and we almost found them on Dyh, but they had already been sold to the Ictarans and we have found no leads so far."

She heard what he had said.

"Did you get my message?"

"Yes."

"And yet you still haven't been to Mirrial."

"What makes you think I haven't been to Mirrial?" he asked.

"For one I would know as soon as I saw you and then you just also said that you had been trying to find your friends.

"Go to Mirrial," she had already turned and was walking away.

"I need your help."

"Go to Mirrial," she said, then she turned her head. "Once you have been a will help, not before. Now leave."

Shepa'lai walked away and did not acknowledge him, even though he stood there for at least five minutes. He had no choice, but to head back to the spaceport.

Kern had to wait a while before he could get back to Tralor. Then he had waited there until the Mooks had turned up. He had no way of communicating with the base on Cendarla, but knew the Mooks came to Tralor at least once a week for supplies and to trade gadgets. Eventually after several weeks he was back on Cendarla. Now he had transport again, but first there was something he needed to do. After he had spoken to everyone and let them know that he had no further news he went to find Jenny.

"Hey, Jenny," he called.

She was working on one of the ships at the area that had effectively become their spaceport.

"Hello, Kern. So, no luck I heard."

"Not yet," he replied.

"Well Reen kept everyone informed. Seems to like flying your ship though."

It didn't surprise him, considering how many times he had borrowed it. Cammy was still expecting apparently anytime soon now. Reen and Sara had made regular visits to Bellan taking Cammy for regular check ups.

"I brought you something."

Now she was interested and stopped working. He revealed the weapon at his waist and handed it over to her.

"Very interesting.

She walked away from the ships to the edge of the base perimeter and discharged the weapon.

"Wow, that has some kick. Destructive too at close range. So, what do you want me to do with it?"

"Understand it and see if you can build more or even improve on its design. Would be good to have something other than what we have. You may even be able to develop it so that it has more fire power against the Ictarans."

"You expecting more trouble?" she asked.

"Yes, but don't know when or if even here. Just have this feeling from everything that I have learnt. Did you ever make any more of those sensor dampers."

"Yeah, smaller too. I have some back in storage."

A lot had happened in rebuilding the base camp. Barracks, a hanger, medical, command centre and the docking port had all been constructed. Jericho was back at Mars. It had returned a considerable number back to Earth first and made a report to Sentinel. Omega was still on Cendarla. The Jericho was rotating troops and elites between Mars and Cendarla. They were aiming to strengthen their presence in the Rellon system.

Back at the hanger where she had a spares store and other things that had been created by her team or engineers. Several more had come from Mars. They were needed and also eager to gain new experiences and challenges, which Cendarla was currently offering.

"How many would you like?"

"At least six. If you can spare them."

"Sure," she had plenty in stock.

Every unit had one so that they could camp and be protected from sensors. They were now small enough to stand on the palm of your hand.

"I will look at this weapon and let you know how it goes," said Jenny about to go back and finish her work.

"I actually have one more thing to ask and not sure if you would want to or not."

She looked at him. He never asked unless he considered it important, but how he spoke was odd.

"Its a personal request."

"What would you like?" she asked politely.

He paused for a moment.

"I'd like you to build me a ship. It has to be of non-sentian design. Fast. Good weapons and able to hold at least a dozen on board."

He was kind of holding his breath after he had finished waiting for a response.

"It would take me sometime to do that and I don't have the resources available to build anything like that here. We struggle for something's, but to build a ship like you want could take me years."

"Well here's the other thing, that might interest you."

She was waiting expectantly as to what was coming next.

"Ever heard of Dy'lun."

"Kinda. Said to be where space garbage goes. Why?"

Kern was smiling and Jenny couldn't understand.

"I've been there before and can understand why people think that. It is more than that and considering you have a scrap yard back on Earth I think you would be so interested in Dy'lun."

"Why?"

"It's not space garbage it's a giant scrap yard. Derelict ships and other mechanical items are taken there and dumped. Some Hillans moved there and saw an opportunity and sell parts from the scrap. Probably similar to what you do at your scrap yard."

"Why are you telling me this."

"I thought that if you spent sometime there you might be able to find what you need to build a ship. The Hillans also have machinery to help move things around. It might help to speed things up in building a ship."

"But it's a scrap yard. What are the chances of finding what I need?"

"Its more than just a scrap yard. It's a scrap planet. The whole plant is one huge scrap yard. Wherever there is land there is scrap. Some goes centuries back its monstrous compared to anything you have ever seen before."

Now Jenny was interested. "I don't mind taking a look. You think that anyone would mind me taking the trip there."

"Well I did sort of say to others that I might want to borrow you for a while. Just didn't say how long a while was."

She laughed. "So, when do you want to go?"

"Tomorrow sound good. Allow you the time you need to finish on anything you are working on."

"OK." she replied.