Has it been a long while? Yeah... maybe? No... Who cares?! I wrote more!
May I just say (Since I think I neglected to last release) that it was heartwarming to see the comments from new readers, as well as old readers coming back to this story and wishing me well in my absence. I'm sure the idea is odd to some, slow to gain traction with others, but I love that there are those who truly feel this is worth coming back to.
Anywho! I think this time around is Estranged Eats. Mwahahaha. Shall I disgust you with atrocious flavor combos?... *Waits for input*
Your pleading screams for me not to do this have been noted and ignored.
Dipping pickles in melted chocolate. If you love it, I won't judge... but kudos to your taste buds... or condolences.
Now then, read, fav, follow, review, enjoy, and grab that atrocious snack! XD
Skimming the water, Judy was grinning from ear to long ear.
She was decked out in the suit that the nanofluid constructed, specialized for deep sea exploration and combat. Combat would hopefully be unnecessary, but it was exciting to the rabbit anyways.
Nick was similarly clad in armor, both their designs taking from the same core look and structure. As demonstrated when he first showed her, it was sleek, well formed to fit their bodies, and now brightly colored. The bunny doe's armor was a bright yellow, with the fox tod's reflecting more of an orange.
Leo was also with them… or a copy he sent was… the grey rabbit had a hard time figuring out how that worked with an entity like it. It was strange to see the robotic being out like this, dually so when his armor was a bright pink.
Beginning a fit of giggles that she thought she had stopped earlier when they first left, Flux's faceplate oriented towards her, then back to the brightly colored mechanical companion.
He too started to chuckle.
"Are you sure you want to be that color, Leo?" the tod asked, barely able to contain himself.
"I don't see why not," the being replied simply. "Going this deep means light gets diffused to the point that it's hard to see much of anything at all. Being brightly colored and within range of sight of one another can mitigate certain issues."
"Well I'm sure the lack of light won't be that bad," Judy mentioned, stifling her own laughter to focus on what was said.
"I've never really dived deep before… but according to what I've read… it can be pretty unsettling and disorienting," the red fox rebuked with slight concern, giving weight to his words as the doe began to have her own doubts.
Shaking her head, she tried to will them away.
"We're approaching the dive point," Leo detailed, with all three slowing their flight speed and coming to a halt, thrusters keeping them a few feet above the surface of the water. "I have to warn you two though, seeing as Judy won't need traditional dive training, but some pointers would do her good."
"I'm all ears, but getting antsy to get down there," the excited bunny remarked. "I wanna see a spaceship!"
"Your suit will take care of all oxygen procurement and storage," the robot began, "along with the nanofluid acting as an incompressible layer between you and the pressure of the ocean. Suffice it to say, most of the things you might be trained for are automated by the suit to compensate for deep diving. With integrity fields and such, you won't be prone to excessive pressure changes to your body unless you somehow compromise your suit."
"Got it…" Judy replied hurriedly, almost ready to cut her thrusters and drop into the water then and there.
"However… as mentioned, light permeates only so far," Leo continued, an almost serious tone pulling the grey doe's attention back. "Up to 200 meters, we see light within reasonable levels for sight. Below that, it gets progressively darker until even night vision technology becomes useless. Beyond 1000 meters depth, there's is no light left. We do have lamps to light the way, but there will be nothing to contact with that light until we are near the ship at the bottom. Use your sonar display and keep near us. I will use autopilot if you stray too far or are too worried about your sense of direction to keep us in close quarters."
"You're killing my mood here, Leo," Judy sassed, drawing a short laugh from her fox.
"Very well. Let us begin our dive."
Upon saying that, the mechanical entity cut thrusters and dropped, followed by the tod and doe, the two having a similar reaction time.
Though she was no stranger to being in water, being so far from shore with just the bright blue around her and many rays of sun beaming through made it feel like she was enveloped. It was nice.
Her depth showed single digits, the air capacity at maximum, and hull integrity at optimal.
Seeing a directional arrow on her display, Judy noticed it had a distance marked to it.
1949 meters.
Leo did cover this bit earlier. Apparently, diving straight down in a pressure suit was ill advised to their sense of orientation, so they would be taking a path down at an angle about sixty degrees down.
Angling her body in a dive, almost like flying the suit normally, the bunny had her head lower and thrusters powering her forward.
"How do these work underwater?" she asked, distracting herself a bit, as some of the info told to her settled in.
"The thrusters?" the red tod inquired in clarification.
"Yeah."
"They use energy pulses to propel us," he told her with a minor pause, finding the words to explain properly. "They don't need an intake, like jet engines, or a flammable source for propulsion. Rockets work underwater too, provided they are built for it… but once they are out of fuel, they're done. Our suit thrusters use our Shard power and direct it like a sort of anti-gravity propulsion."
"Makes sense," she curtly replied, turning her head to see the surface get further away.
Depth: 167 meters.
The trip down was slow, but they were warned of it. While the suits had the capability to speed on down easily, the versatility of their suits also made for potential weak spots to the pressure. Leo had them on a decent at about 7 to 10 meters a second, with their suits adjusting and reconfiguring for the increasing pressure from the water around them.
Getting past the 200 meter mark, Judy could see what the robot was talking about. It sent shivers down her spine to know the area around her was open water… but her line of sight was quickly shrinking. It was almost like her known space down there was turning from an ocean into a small sphere.
"Oh wow…" the bunny doe muttered, voice having a light quiver. "This is… terrifying."
"Are you alright, Fluff?" her fox questioned in sincere concern, slowing to stay next to her. Leo stayed in the lead, lights turned on and facing down, with low level lights and thrusters facing back. It was comforting to see the other two, realizing that maybe she should have taken some of this more seriously than a sightseeing trip.
"Huh? Uh.. Oh. Yes! I'm fine," Judy stuttered out before replying properly.
"Vitals show a spike in heart rate," the mechanical entity mentioned.
"Thank you, Leo… No need to call her out," Nick chastised with an annoyed tone, not seeming surprised.
She gave a nod to the fox, a little lost for words with the unnerving atmosphere… or lack thereof.
Distance to target: 1200 meters.
Judy gulped, finding the pervasive darkness around them quite the sensory trip. She seemed to think she had a sense of direction, with gravity still having a pull on her orientation. Otherwise, the lack of ground, objects, or even light made the grey doe feel like she was in more of a void than water.
Trying to distract herself, with the silence not helping their descent into madness, the bunny voiced a question.
"Now that I think about it… since you said the ship is covered in some sort of coral? Can it even grow that deep down?"
"It can," Leo affirmed, "though the ship used its last power reserves cause a growth factor beyond the normal to cover it. Normally, something of that scale could take thousands of years to happen."
"So… if we have to raise the ship," the purple eyed bunny started slowly in concern, "will that affect the environment a lot to destroy that getting out? I know there's a lot of bad news around losing coral reefs…"
"Unclear," the android honestly replied. "Seeing as I have not been able to take any data concerning the reef and there has been no real information from sources of the modern world, I do not know the dependency of the environment on that reef."
"I don't suppose that really matters though, huh?" Judy mentioned as an afterthought.
"Correct, Judy," the mechanical being relayed evenly. "The importance of a well balanced and self sustaining biome is not to be underestimated, to be sure, though that ship is of a paramount necessity that could make sure more biomes of this planet don't become harmed through prolonged invasion tactics."
"Such as that forest we directed that first Blue Shard to," Nick offered in hindsight. "Our battle did some pretty awful damage to everything there."
"Okay… new less depressing thoughts," the grey rabbit slowly drawled, rolling her eyes. "How do we get in the ship?"
"There are numerous external airlocks that work in vacuum and under immense pressure," Leo told her simply. "As the ship is without power to work them, one of you will need to power the door and chamber from your suits until we can make our way to the reactor core."
"Being a space faring ship… I'm surprised it can supposedly work under pressure from the wrong direction," the doe voiced, both in mild curiosity, as well as a questioning statement.
"The ship was constructed to survive many extremes, though water pressure wasn't a primary concern, even if it was a boon in this situation," the robot remarked. "The primary intention of the design was to survive such circumstances as the wormhole, gas giants, or high mass nebulas."
Running out of the mental capacity to distract herself with extra questions or initiating the others to talk with her, Judy began to simply focus on her distance to target marker on her display, avoiding all eye contact with the depth gauge. Her lips trembled a bit, limbs becoming jelly as she felt the encompassing void around her felt confined.
"That reminds me, Carrots," the armored fox's tone cut in. "Ever wonder what the name of the ship is? I'm surprised you never really asked."
Judy felt thankful for the distraction, pausing only a moment in her reply to realize this was exactly her tod's intention, saying, "I uh… I guess you're right. I was getting so caught up in tons of other sci-fi geek moments that asking a name was forgotten. Haha. I'm asking now though."
"The name isn't something that translates directly to your language," Leo's voice provided in her suit, "but a best translation effort comes out to the name being something akin to 'Last Light'."
"Oohhh," the armor clad bunny cooed. "Beautiful… even if a little ominous…"
"I surmise my creators were banking on it being some final hope to undermine the other civilizations that struggled for control," the robotic entity offered in return. "As the war over the system raged on, even with all their plans and backup procedures, it was hard to figure out whether what was left would survive."
"What was left of the system?" Judy aspired to ask.
"The people," Leo corrected her calmly. "They sent away their own in a similar manner to which they arrived, on massive colony ships that could sustain themselves and travel vast distances. They left with far better odds than the first colonists to arrive and better ships, but the chances still remained that they could be hunted down for sending an exceptionally powerful Shard away."
Distance to target: 173 meters
"Oh thank goodness!" the now nerve wracked doe gasped out, feeling better now that the slow pace was nearing its end.
"Slow your speed," came the soft order of Leo. "We're approaching the coral reef covering the ship."
Coming up on 100 meters to the target, the doe's visor was suddenly filled with contours and shapes projected by her 3D imaging. She let out a yelp and veered off course for but a moment, with the other two turning to gauge her status.
"Woah! Hey! This… uh… thing?" she stammered. "Was it on the whole time?"
"The sonar imaging?" the red fox inquired for clarity.
"YES! That!" Judy squeaked, giving him a thumbs up and staring with chattering teeth at what she assumed was a projection of the ocean floor that she couldn't technically see out in the darkness.
"It was passive and can only give detailed imagining from a distance of 100 meters," the mechanical being explained to her. "An active ping would have given us a similar look from a much greater distance, but seeing how far away everything was in such detail might not have helped your mental state."
"Well thank you for sparing me that…" sassed the rabbit as she caught her breath and continued with the others. Though initially sarcastic, a moment's thought did give her the emotional clarity to figure Leo was actually right. She very much would NOT have liked to see the ocean floor projected some hundreds of meters beneath them.
Coming in close to what her display projected was a very broad and web like wall of coral, the imaging gave way to the real thing, her lamps able to catch the expansive network in front of her.
All three slowed to a stop in front of it, with Judy reaching out to lay an armored paw upon it.
"How do we get through?" the tod asked, seemingly becoming a little nervous about the situation himself.
Before Leo could give a response, the armored bunny's paw pushed through the coral, the layer thick enough to cover, but very brittle.
"Like that," the android answered rhetorically. "Expansive as it might be, the coral reef down here is hard but brittle. There is little life or excessive currents down here to test the structure. Even so, it's very likely parts of it have broken and sealed up through more natural growth."
"Oh… then how much further through is the…?" Nick began, interrupted yet again by Judy stretching out further, both mammals surprised when there was a metallic clang of her armor on hull plating.
"Not much further," Leo supplied obviously, almost sounding cheeky in the delivery. "Our target indicator was taking us to an accessible airlock." Moving closer with small pulses from directional thrusters, the robotic being made a few sweeping movements, clearing a wide area of coral.
Now that light could make it through, all their lamps illuminated the hull.
It was dark grey with a rough looking texture to it, almost like concrete. Nubs and notches could be seen, with edges lining a recessed port.
"If one of you two could," Leo entreated the pair, gesturing towards a panel of sorts, with a plugin for a power source.
Flux floated forward, the arm of his suit reforming to having something like a long metal probe extend to interact with the port. Power flowed from him into the panel, the lights coming on and a rushing noise filling the water, making the mammals look around in anxious concern.
"The airlock is equalizing pressure by filtering water and putting it into the chamber before the port opens," the android clarified for them.
Nearly a minute later, the access port finally creaked and groaned, hissing as it opened smoother than the armored rabbit thought it would. All three quickly swam in, light bars in soft blue illuminating the chamber that appeared able to house another dozen or so mammals their size.
Upon Leo interacting with an active panel inside the chamber, the port closed and another rushing sound followed, vents opening and water being forced back out to the ocean.
It took a little longer than a minute for the water to be pumped out, as opposed to letting it flood in. Either way, the small doe found it relieving to be surrounded by something else besides darkness, almost forgetting to freak out over the fact she was inside a spaceship.
Wait…
"I'm inside a SPACESHIP!" she screeched in revelation.
"Fluff…" Nick groaned, voice strained from something taxing him. At furst, she thought it was powering the room… "Please don't scream with the comms open…"
...then forgot he likely got a full blast of her over excited voice.
"...sorry," she meekly replied, a few clanks sounding as Phantom gave the armored tod a hug.
The red fox chuckled, patting her head and saying, "Only you could make hugging in full body armor a sweet moment."
"Thank you!" Judy chirped.
Cutting their moment short, the airlock red light for an 'in progress' function turned green for 'secure'. There was no signage they could understand, technically speaking, but the displays were overlaid with translations that the Leo programmed in for their convenience.
A second door opened more smoothly than the one leading outside the ship, opening into a barely lit corridor.
"Where's the next power input I need to charge?" Nick questioned the taller mechanical entity.
"Just this way," the android calmly replied, leading the way. "Also, do not open your suits. Until we bring diagnostic systems online, I am unsure about toxic elements in the air."
"Huh… guess I never thought about how this ship is filled with air from not Earth," the fox tod remarked, looking around in interest, clearly finding his own things to internally admire. "And… it's also been sealed inside said ship under the sea for three centuries… "
Finding another power input panel, Flux jacked in and funneled more power into it, taking longer than the airlock, but providing energy to a far larger source and section.
"Why can't we just power the ship from one of these stations and head to the bridge?" Judy asked innocently, getting a silent look from both Leo and Nick. They then exchanged glances, with the robot turning back to her.
"The amount of power to do that would overload this section before it could even flow to other parts properly," the android began to explain. "Not to mention, most sections are partitioned off with deadlock failsafes that drop and lock doors upon power loss, along with said connection being severed and requiring a manual input… or a cascading power flux from the core to reconnect all sections."
"I feel stupid for asking… but why?" the doe continued, curiosity winning out.
Leo was thankfully a judgement free entity when detailing what others might be annoyed to, telling her, "There are many reasons for doing so, such as insurgents, compromised seals, fires. One could compare part of the logic to an airline pilot being to lockdown the cockpit and lower the cabin pressure to levels that would render mammals unconscious, neutralizing threats like terrorists or irate passengers opening emergency hatches without cause."
"Ah…" was the only reply she could give, still riding a high on her sci-fi love of this ship.
The lights in the section turned on slowly, but surely, previously locked doors getting power and opening.
She might have wondered how these doors closed, as the bunny was told, when there was a loss of power, but some of the mechanisms were clear. It appeared to be some sort of spring loaded, or torsion system. It meant that it was actually power that kept the doors open.
This… This was the kind of stuff that bristled her fur in a good way when it came to this spacey stuff. A highly advanced civilization having traveled space for goodness knows how long and coming to realize the most efficient means of constructing a ship for all contingencies. She got a pleasant chill up her spine as she could only fathom how much more there was.
Leo gave them occasional information as the two kept walking through the ship, unlocking previously unpowered doors and letting the relays siphon power to all the right places for them to continue.
They eventually reached a new section, with Judy doing the power supplying this time. Making funny electronic noises, the grey doe was somehow finding odd enjoyment plugging in to power centuries old alien tech.
After traversing what felt like a few hundred meters through the ship in a similar fashion, one door with many puzzle looking locks twisted and opened like a pupil from the center out.
Low light filled the space slowly, power still cascading from the relay station to the emergency lighting.
The blue glow flowed over everything inside, illuminating an enormous chamber with a massive structure at the center, suspended by large pylons and shaped like a heavily armored geodesic sphere. It was formed and overlaid with interconnecting triangular plates, very clearly telling any onlookers that, by design alone, it was critically important to the ship.
"Is that…?" a smiling Judy tried to ask, eyes wide with wonder.
Even Nick stopped to gape, inwardly loving the engineering marvel before he could grasp what it should have been.
"It's the power core that will run this entire vessel," Leo answered to the unfinished question. "Inside the reactor is an artificial recreation of a dwarf star, acting as a powerful fusion energy source."
"Alright then," the fox tod chirped, rolling his shoulders. "Let's give this thing a jumpstart. It won't need our power constantly, right?"
"Correct," the android replied simply. "It takes a lot to start the reactor, but nothing too much for a Shard with your resources. Once started though, the core is self sustaining and uses hydrogen and oxygen in its processes."
The armored doe began to laugh at some untold joke, clueing them in after a few seconds, "Too bad there's none of that down this deep in the ocean."
Silence.
Getting a grip, Judy looked to the other two, both exchanging a look, with Nick waving him down and saying, "Don't Leo. I got it."
"Got what?" the bunny asked, completely void of understanding what was going on.
"I almost thought you were joking," the fox tod chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Anyways… do you know chemistry much?"
"Uh… yes… I went to school," she remarked, voice dripping sarcasm.
"Uh huh…" Nick murmured incredulously. "What's the other name for water in chemistry standards?"
"H2O," the rabbit fired back, without missing a beat.
It took a minute, with Leo turning to the tod and saying, "Should I explain?"
"Don't you dare," the armored fox chastised, pointing at the android and lightly chuckling.
Though she couldn't see it, all of his mannerisms made Judy surmise that her boyfriend was smiling as smugly as pawsible under that face plating.
Then it hit her…
"Ugh… Hydrogen Dioxide…" she groaned, to which her fox suddenly roared with laughter, doubling over and clutching his gut. Ignoring him, the doe turned to the mechanical being and inquired, "So… I'm guessing the ship can separate it into the two?"
"Through water electrolysis, yes," Leo detailed in short. "The ship has the means to do that, providing the equipment isn't damaged. I can figure it out once we get the ship powered."
"Right... let's do that, once he stops gasping for air," Judy mentioned, turning to follow the android, already walking briskly forward to show them where to restart the core.
Nick followed more slowly still laughing at his bunny's comedic oversight.
They made their way to a vast array of what appeared to be control consoles and monitoring equipment.
There was a very large and obvious input for either of them to funnel Shard energy, with both mammals looking to one another.
"Would you like the honors?" the red fox tod entreated his partner with a flourishing wave of an armored paw.
"Such a gentlemammal," the grey bunny doe faux swooned, clutching a paw to her chest. "But how about we do this together?"
"Oh thank goodness," he sighed in relief. "Been kinda waiting for this for a long while. Ya know?"
"I would ask why you haven't done this sooner… but I'm guessing because of me being the Limiter thing?" Judy shot Leo in question.
The robotic being in question was doing something with the consoles, typing, pressing buttons, and throwing switches.
"You are correct, Judy," Leo confirmed, not pausing in its tasks. "Nick alone would have likely been too unstable in power to start the ship back up. The best case I could predict would be a degradation of the core. Worst case was a reactor meltdown that could have had massive ecological impacts."
"Enough talk. I wanna charge the ship!" the fox complained, tugging at the bunny. She could only giggle at his strange, kit-like behavior.
At that mention, grab bar partially ejected from the receptacle, with both mammals grabbing at it.
As opposed to the other power relays they charged from their suits, this required some actual effort to exude enough Shard energy to jumpstart a massive power core.
"Remember what we practiced," Nick softly spoke to Judy, armored paws grazing one another with slight metallic scrape.
Much like him powering those cores at home for other suits, including the suits for the other Volunteers, the doe took to doing it somewhat as well, though this a far larger scale.
It was almost like flexing a muscle one had little experience using, resulting in this twitching and stuttering feeling, power spiking and ebbing in spurts.
"Power flow is increasing," Leo told them, adjusting more functions. Lights above them grew brighter and equipment on the giant reactor seemed to start up in some way. "Beginning initialization process."
Purple hued energy crackled like electricity between their paws and arcing through the energy receptacle. It slowly, but surely, increased in intensity and power, the two looking at one another and feeling that strange connection getting stronger under some sort of solidarity.
Despite the need to have this ship operational for other purposes, both were experiencing a sense of excitement and positivity towards making the ship come online. That feeling reflected in their resonance, creating a greater outpouring of power that flooded where it needed to go.
"Charge reaching ignition level," the robotic entity remarked. "Keep it up, but I'm starting."
A thrumm sounded, the giant geodesic sphere emitting a low vibration, more lights and indicators activating. Something disengaged, looking like two rings that encircled the sphere separately.
With a gap for the support for the core at the bottom and top, the incomplete rings began to swing around, energy flowing from them and creating a shimmering barrier around the core.
"Containment initiated. Activating induction panels and cycling the core for start up."
While the two heard Leo, they were both pretty preoccupied with one another and venting out energy until they were told it was enough.
A thunderous noise echoed within the chamber, sounding like a sonic boom, though muffled like it was in a thick walled room.
"Core jumpstart attempt failed. Charging for a second attempt."
More electric noises reached them sounding like the high buzz of a crackling taser.
There was another, much more powerful sounding thunderous blast going off.
"Jumpstart success," the android confirmed to the other two. "I'm going to siphon all the current power to sustain the reaction and keep the core nominal until all readings clear. Keep up the flow."
"You got it!" both called out, Shard energy continuously arcing out of their suits into the receptacle.
The purple energy began to seep from the core, with it now overflowing into the reactor to keep it from 'stalling' into inactivity once more.
"Stability at 36%," Leo observed.
"Feeling tired yet, Fluff?" the fox teased.
"Ha!" she laughed. "This is too exhilarating to be tired doing."
Though he couldn't see it, he knew she had a dopey, giddy smile, much the same as he expected he was sporting too.
"Stability at 82%," came the update.
Finally, there was a cessation to the excessive noise, settling into this lower pulsing sound from the rings and the core expelling its own energy.
"Stability achieved," the mechanical being detailed in short. "Containment field nominal. Core reaching nominal output. Charging power relays and auxiliary power cores. You may now stop."
They let go, the crackling violet energy around them dying down.
"It doesn't feel like much has changed yet," Judy mumbled.
"That is correct," Leo confirmed evenly. "We have to get to the bridge to initiate the ship's full activation."
"Ahhh….. Great!" the doe yelled out. "Does that mean a ton more doors to charge and open."
"No. Better to show than tell," the robot simply mentioned, tapping a few buttons on the console.
Stunning the pair, the floor with all the consoles rose suddenly, guard rails jutting up in barely a second a large door opening with a long track down a wide corridor with abundant lighting.
Before either could mention anything, their suits each automatically initiated a magnetic lock to the floor, with the entire platform taking off down the corridor with great speed.
The red tod was somewhat used to things like this, only grunting at the sudden increase in G-force.
Judy however… went from screaming in surprise and terror to giggling and throwing her paws up like she was on a roller coaster all in a span of about ten seconds.
When the platform began to slow, coming to a decisive stop, the grey bunny let out a vastly disappointed, "Awww… Can we go again?"
Her question was somewhat ignored as the other two opened a large door and entered a room full of far more advanced looking consoles and computer terminals, massive interlocking triangular windows only displaying black.
"Welcome to the bridge of the Last Light," Leo told them, turning and pressing buttons on a panel to initiate something.
Distant lights powered up beyond the windows, with Judy leaping on a console to look out.
She expected to see the exterior of the ship and the vast emptiness of the ocean or the coral reef surrounding the ship.
Instead…
...the bridge was inside some sort of massive cargo hold, lights casting brighter and upon more sections.
They were a few stories up, the floor of the cargo hold being well below them. It was brimming with shapes and technology she could only begin to imagine guessing what they were.
Massive orbs arranged on racks. Many things that looked like ships, as big as barges and sleek. There was so much and she couldn't take it all in as well as she wanted to. Judy's mind raced to comprehend it all, feeling her scifi fangirl brain going crazy imagining what else was here and what she could see was capable of doing.
"What is all of this?" Nick had the wherewithal to ask that his girlfriend was lacking.
"This ship has nearly a thousand defensive batteries, 19 powerful neutralizer cannons, a mass driver in the forked bow of the ship, fighter craft numbering in the hundreds, system support and repair drones throughout, as well as that hangar bay full of drone troopers," Leo explained, walking to stand next to the other two on the panels.
The android continued, as the larger ships weren't mentioned, "Those vessels however, are a form of mobile printing modules. They can use various renewable and non-renewable forms of energy to power themselves, as well as take in raw materials to recreate the cumulation of my creators technology. This was supposed to be your support structure to help you defend your planet and rise in technological prowess by way of transforming advancement of an entire civilization."
"Yes!" Judy screamed, arms up and hopping. She then turned to the others, murmuring a tepid apology.
"There is one more thing, however," Leo softly spoke, almost taking on a tone that seemed trepidatious to the two mammals. The robot looked back towards a structure in the center of the bridge.
Nick had assumed it was a console array, while Judy didn't even notice it before now.
The top appeared to be some sort of thick, translucent material. Stepping in closer, the two armored mammals suddenly saw something they weren't expecting, violet and green eyes respectively widening in mild recognition.
"Leo…" the doe whispered in a slightly panicked tone. "What… who… is that?"
"She was supposed to be your mentor and this planet's leading factor towards its own defense," the robotic entity remarked. "She was a Blue Shard and the reason I made it here, at the cost of her own life."
Looking back down, they saw the unclear outline and details of a face that didn't really resemble Earth's mammals or anything Nick and Judy knew.
It was clear now… that the console was no equipment… but instead a coffin.
Not my fault!... gremlins did it...
Also... FINALLY! Been trying to get to the ship for ages.
... *crickets chirping*
... Okay fine... I'm the writer, so therefore I could have done this sooner because it's my story...
What can I say? I like to write many wrongs.
REVIEWS!:
I know I'm usually really good (at least I want to believe i am) about responding to most reviews, though I'm pressed for time today, So I'll do my best to make this MASSIVE list of responses for all of you next time. Be assured, I have read every review, positive or negative, and appreciate any and all feedback. Spoiler though, all of it that I have seen thus far has been very positive and I thank you all for being so supportive and a fan of this story.
Until next time, It's been a hustle, Sweethearts!
