Time flew by for Dustin as he kept working on his father's ship for another year and a half, saving up his money and pawning things he made via his dad or to the terras. At that time, he made good friends with Suzy and Starling when he saw them and even got information from them when he saw them or talked to them over the radio. Now Dustin was looking to become a part of the explorers guild. He even had enough money to buy a small airship if he wanted.
He has already sold off his globe, finding he could do no more with it. And now Dustin is working on a more ambitious type. Just as Starling said, try to make it with a flat piece and go from there, which he has been. Starling was able to get him some glass blocks, but it wasn't big enough at times, or he got it in pieces. So he worked with what he got and craved the terras as detailed as possible. Since it is flat now, he can make them more detailed than before.
His father joked that he could make one for them to use. And it will involve a giant table in the middle of the deck for all to see. Which would then help out with mapping a course, but his father has been for someone to help make it possible. No such luck at the moment. So he said that a floating map would do in the meantime.
As of right now, though, Dustin had to handle his bout of fun. His father looked high and low for an excellent cheap ship that won't drop out of the air at the first turn, which he has. His excellent connections were able to capture him a decent-sized airship that was at sale at the market. Dustin took a quick once over with him and found it did fit to his liking. Not only for a small and manageable crew but can haul stuff around if need be. And it is reported to be faster than a skimmer when the time to run is needed.
"Ship's ready and fueled up," his father spoke through his door.
"I guess we won't be seeing each other for a bit?" Dustin asks.
"If you aren't coming back for that map, then no. Is it finished?" his father asks.
Dustin smiles and leans closer to the glass. "One last touch up, and I can grab my stuff and be ready to fly," he calls out, poking a small area crevice.
'He is a lot like his mom. Never able to go anyway, but the way he chooses. I worry that he will end up like she did,' Dustin's father thinks to himself, seeing his son head out, now fifteen years old.
"Map's done by the way. You can install that piece and enjoy it," Dustin informs, looking up to him as they walk.
"Try to keep in touch. You know our radio frequency," Dustin's father reminds him, making his son stop.
"One day soon, you should tell me what mom was like," Dustin says.
His father hums and fiddles with the glass piece. "Well…she would have liked how you became. And would have loved whatever you make."
"What did she do?" Dustin asks, stopping him cold.
He sighs and holds up a paper. "Was my brilliant helper. Handled the finances. And yet she still had time for both of us," he says wistfully.
'Best not to push it any further it seems for now,' Dustin thinks, watching him for a bit.
His father then smiles. "Oh yeah. Bring back a girl, will you?"
"We will see how things go," Dustin informs.
Dustin's father nods and waves at him as Dustin enters the ship. "Have fun. Open the doors!" he calls, and a rush of wind blows into the hold. Dustin almost buffeted back from the wind but held firm as the small ramp gets pulled up with him.
Dustin sighs and enters the cockpit before smiling and looking at the table next to him. His second creation or rather first of the second design. Already lit up and showing each terra. "Let's see where the wind takes us," he says to himself while starting up the engine. A loud roaring and whining are heard from behind him in the large room before he pushes the throttle and flies off.
"We placed enough food for a week, right?" Dustin's father asks.
"Yeah…counted as a five crew team," one of the lieutenants says.
"According to rumor, this area should have a few ships I can scavenge from," Dustin says at the helm, checking the map and navigation equipment.
He looks around outside the window and tries to see any of the terras on the map. Smoke trails would have been a dead giveaway, but he wasn't so lucky on that part. As he slowly flies over the terra, he comes to a landing and already sees a flash of metal behind the tree-covered land. "Okay. Shouldn't be too bad," he mutters while shutting off the engine and grabs his things and the keys. "Maybe I can get lucky and drag it here to scrap it," he says to himself while adjusting his bag and heading outside.
Dustin heads through the woods, looking for the metal he saw earlier. He hums to himself while stepping over the bushes and roots. Dustin even though he saw a giant bug, but it was just a little leaf. When he moves past a tree, he comes across the metal piece he saw sticking out and smiles. Just a wing piece with half an engine attached. It seems this could have been part of a skimmer. He sighs and takes out his tools to see what he can take.
After a while, he was able to scoop up some engine parts which would do in a pinch. As he finished working, he saw another flash of metal past the trunks and smiles. Another wing stuck out past some leaves just ahead of his current location. Dustin grabs what he can before starting to walk again. He hums a little tune while slapping away a bug and steps past some burned trees. He raises an eyebrow when his hand touches it and sees he has fresh soot on his gloves and fingers. Dustin looks to the crashed piece of wreckage and sees it looks like a cyclonian ship, and the engine did look like a sky knight if he tried. So maybe there was a fight.
As he steps up to the ship, he knocks on it and hears a hollow ringing on the metal. This ship wasn't average by any means: not their skimmers or a battlecruiser. When he does measure it in his head, he could imagine one person flying with at least one living quarters in the back so it could be personal. Dustin looks around the ship and waves away a cloud of smoke before seeing a crack in a doorway. He grabs the crowbar out of his bag and sticks it into the door. The door creaks as he strains against the metal before it snaps open and ends up making him fall.
"Ow," Dustin says simply and picks himself up. He then looks inside and gasps quietly when he sees the slumped over body covered in dark soot and still tied by a belt to a seat. "What the…" he tries to question while peering past the dead man. His eyes do see another, this one melted to the place with how much the belt is tightened against him. Dustin gulps and slowly grans the edges of the metal to peer in. "Excuse me. Sorry," he apologizes to the dead man and pushes him back into his seat as gently as possible. He then looks around inside and sees another lying on the ground. All of them are wearing armor with a staff lying on the ground. 'Guards?' he thinks before looking to another area and gasps when he spots another person. This one is younger than the men and very much out of it like they have been dead for a while. Dustin looks sadly at them all and moves over to the younger girl slumped against the seat. "Sorry," he apologizes and grabs and pushes her into her place, stopping in his tracks when he realizes she didn't feel cold like the rest.
"Wait…" Dustin reaches up and touches her neck and then sees the soft smoke around them move from her direction. "Shit!" he curses and takes out a knife. Dustin proceeds to cut the girl free to which she falls against him with the belt no longer holding her up. He grunts and picks her up in his arms to then head out of the crashed ship and makes a beeline for his own. "Dad…this is not what I had in mind. Believe me."
After getting to his ship, he starts to get out of the emergency healing crystals and starts using them on the girl. 'Most likely a concussion and probably some broken bones,' Dustin thinks, applying them to her head.
The girl groans, slowly moving her head around before keeping still again. Her outfit is dark like the dead men, a hint of red in the patches. And some spiky pieces around her collar that were flat around her form-fitting outfit. Her shoulder-length dark purple hair is lying flat against the couch he put her on.
Dustin looks worried at her and starts to get more medicine. The girl is softly breathing now while he pats away any soot on her clothes and body. As he does so, he applies a cooling crystal to her chest and lets it sit there for a while. The girl gives a small grunt as the cooling crystal goes to work, and he applies some more healing crystals on her wrists when he feels around to see if anything else is broken.
"Now, all I can do is wait," Dustin notes to himself. He sighs and sits on the other couch, watching the crystals work and the girl resting up. After a bit, he decided to head back out to retrieve the corpses of those who didn't make it to give them a proper burial. While doing this, he noticed that the Cyclonian emblem was emblazoned on the ship and the outfits of the guards. It didn't matter to Dustin, though. They were dead, and the girl needed help was all he thought about that. He also took note that the damage looked like it came from within the airship, not from outside. When he made it back, he found the girl was still unconscious and went back to waiting.
He waited to get some sleep when he could no longer stay awake. He was later awoken violently by the little girl. "Wha…what's going on?!" Dustin gasps and sits up quickly to then relax when he sees it was only her. Still dirty and looking a little afraid at his efforts of waking up. "Oh," he sighs, relaxing. "I see you're better," he notes, sitting back down.
"Who are you?" the girl asks threateningly to Dustin, hearing a sinister second voice echoing her words.
Dustin raises an eyebrow when he hears her and smiles. "Dustin. You can thank me for saving you from your crashed ship. Sorry about your people, though. No one else made it," he apologizes.
"Crash…" the girl says before holding her head.
"Easy," he says softly and holds her hands as gently as possible. "You are suffering from a concussion to the head," Dustin informs.
The girl groans and rubs her head. "Crash…I…do remember…something…"
"Was it an explosion?" Dustin asks, walking over to get something to drink for himself and her, figuring she hadn't had any for a while now.
The girl moans and sits down where he was. "I…think so…it's so fuzzy."
"Give it time and don't push yourself," Dustin says, offering her a water bottle. The girl takes the bottle and starts to drink from it greedily. Dustin smiles and sits across from her, giving her some room to relax and think. "Let it come to you. For now, I can make something for you. What's your stomach hungry for?" he asks, smiling.
"Anything," the girl says, having just drunk the entire bottle without taking a breath.
Dustin chuckles and goes to the door. "Anything coming up," he jokes while the door opens up to a small kitchen. The girl blinks and watches as the door closes behind the guy. The girl tries to think straight, but when her head started hurting again, she pressed the crystal that was on her head when she awoke back onto it and started feeling relief.
"Oh, if you feel not well yet, there is another healing crystal in the case on the table," Dustin calls from the kitchen where the girl hears sizzling from behind it, maybe the food.
The girl looks to the case and picks it up before seeing a cooling crystal as well. She hums before grabbing it and going to a workbench that was against the wall.
"Okay. I hope you like eggs and…" he stops as he comes out with a plate of food. His sight catching the girl at his workbench. "Is something wrong?" he asks, walking over.
"What is this?" she asks, looking at what he was working on.
"Oh, that?" Dustin asks, looking at the rough plans for a sewing machine he had been working on.
The girl slowly nods, grabbing some of his glass tools and bowls sitting nearby. "It's…not something I have seen before."
"Well, no one has ever considered a machine that was made to make clothing. It is all done by hand," Dustin informs.
The girl looks to her clothing and sees the stitches all over her outfit. "That…doesn't sound like a bad idea."
"So, are you still hungry?" Dustin asks.
"Yes. It would be…" she stops when her plate clatters onto the workbench table. She looks to it and immediately grabs the sandwich to eat away. She sighs out a long breath and keeps eating like it was her last.
"If you need me, I will be outside," Dustin informs, heading out.
The girl kept eating away, devouring every piece. Then one of her hands move to the two crystals in the bowl and starts to break them down by using the small chisel tool.