Chapter 3
The trip from Landen to Elysium lasted nearly a full day. After a few hours of council, it was decided that Sari and Laya would lead the team to the newly-discovered planet. They would be accompanied by Mieu and Wren, in addition to Jack and Piotr. Sean had expressed interest in going, to the point that Kara had to physically restrain him from leaving with the others.
“Hey! Hey!” she chided him. “The only action you’ll be getting is with me. Now let’s go.”
Even Wren chuckled at Kara’s comments. Sean and Kara had decided to spend their honeymoon in Aquatica and left shortly after the council ended.
Jack and Piotr were quite marveled at the sights they saw as they walked across Landen to the Landen-Elysium passageway. Sari pointed out some of the various landmarks and such to them. They saw the kingdom of Satera, which had been previously destroyed in the war against Lune. It was now being rebuilt and was supposedly going to be given to Sean and Kara to rule over. They visited Yaata and decided to take a boat south to the passageway. The passed by the Sunken Temple, which Jack and Piotr thought was quite fascinating to see in person.
They even met up with a few stray monsters, including a few lizards, a chirper here and there, and even a moos. The last one had the courage to actually attack the party. Sari let Jack and Piotr take it on; it was a short fight. Jack surprised it with a jumping spin-kick and knocked it to the ground. Piotr finished it off with two blows to the brain stem. Both commented that the experience was pretty exhilarating.
Shortly before arriving at the passageway, Wren received communications from the pilots at Aerone. They confirmed the Alisa III’s approach to a new planet’s orbit. The planet was in a rather odd orbit; it was in the middle of two different stars. Despite the greater distance of one of the stars, Wren confirmed that the planet would essentially pass through periods in which there was no night, only day and dusk. Nevertheless, the pilots confirmed that it was a green planet and confirmed that it could support life. Sari requested that the Alisa III and the Neo Palm, its sister ship, enter into its orbit but not actually land until the scouting mission was accomplished.
The trip through passageway was especially fascinating to Piotr, who was a computer programmer by trade. He spent most of the time asking Wren about the machines and their functions. Wren explained that most of computers and circuitry existed as links between the climate control center in Aridia dome and the Elysium dome. He also noted to Piotr that the structure was still a ship, so basically any part that wasn’t affected by the climate controls retained its mechanical appearance. Piotr found it all to be pretty logical, but fascinating nonetheless.
Jack, on the other hand, wasted no time in getting to know Laya. He spent the journey asking her about battles and adventures and whatnot. He talked only a little about himself; like Piotr, he made sure not to say anything about video games and Phantasy Star III. On Earth, Jack had simply managed a gas station. On Alisa III, Jack was an interstellar traveler looking for his friend and a bit of adventure at the same time. They had been asked before leaving Landen how they arrived on the Alisa III, which was a question that had feared being ask. They decided that, if anyone asked that, they’d give some complicated answer about inter-dimensional portals.
Laya found Jack to be a rather interesting fellow. His quiet and reserved way around her reminded her of Sean, although he obviously had more of a sense of humor than Sean ever did. He also enjoyed himself quite a bit in battle, laughing more than both she and Laya thought healthy for a person killing a monster.
“I don’t know, Sari,” Laya commented as they neared the passageway exit. “Both him and Piotr seem to treat these battles with a strange sense of whimsy. You’d never think that they were fighting for their lives here.”
“I agree,” Sari said. “They treat this almost as if it were a game. However, I confess to being very impressed at their fighting skills. I’ve never seen someone go after a monster unarmed like Jack does. Both of them claim to have no fighting experience prior to arriving here, but they both hold their own quite well in combat.”
“And you? What have you noticed about Piotr? Find out anything interesting?”
“He’s nice and courteous, without a doubt. He’s pretty quiet, at least around me. He talks and everything, but he stutters and seems reluctant to say a lot whenever I ask him about where he’s from. He’s pretty knowledgeable about technical things and seems to know the ship fairly well for someone who just arrived yesterday.”
“I find that particularly interesting,” Mieu said, catching up to them to join in the conversation. “I used one of my bio-sensors to measure their heart rate while I asked them a couple of questions. And it seems they’re telling the truth. They’re not from here. They’ve never been on the ship before. They’re familiar with a number of towns…practically all of them and even know a bit about our personal history. The strangest thing was when Piotr asked Wren and me how you reacted to Ayn choosing to marry Thea and not you, and I could’ve sworn that his reaction to our response was one of guilt.”
Laya sighed. “You know, there was time when I could’ve said that I saw and heard everything. Oh how wrong I was.”
The other two giggled.
When they finally exited the passageway, the four humans agreed that a short break was needed. It was already dusk in Elysium, but Laya and Sari didn’t like the idea of sleeping in the dark in the open, so they’d try to make it to Aerone before dawn. As usual, Wren would stand guard, as he never actually got tired and also had night vision programmed into his system. The three women, two humans and a female cyborg, sat down near the mouth of the cave, while the Jack and Piotr went exploring.
“Don’t go too far,” Sari yelled. “We wouldn’t want our guests to be eaten on the first day.”
“Oh that would never do,” Piotr said sarcastically. “But you could protect us, couldn’t you?”
Sari blushed. “From over here?”
“You could always just throw your knives from where you’re sitting.”
“But what if I hit you?”
“Then that would just suck.”
Sari frowned. "By the glow of the Great Light, I still don’t understand these expressions that they’re using."
Mieu, sensing her companions lack of comprehension, whispered, “He means that it’d be unpleasant if that happened.”
Sari blushed. “Go with them Mieu,” she said quickly.
Mieu got up and followed the two men. They didn’t walk very far, but enough to see what was around them. Elysium was a lot like Landen. It was a green and temperate place. It was practically one large plain. There were no visible bodies of water and the mountain ridges were pretty low; they more like hills than mountains.
“So, what do think of this place?” Piotr asked Jack.
“It’s pretty cool. I liked the passageway a lot, although I did feel a bit weak when I saw that most of the ground was transparent.”
“Yeah, that was pretty freaky. What’s worse was that there were holes in the panels, just like the—“ He paused and looked at Mieu, who was tilting her head and looking curiously at him. “Right.”
“But this place is pretty nice. Hey Mieu, this place green all year?”
Mieu nodded. “Yes. The climate control is set up so there’s never really any seasons. It stays the same for practically the whole year.”
“So what do people do when they bored of the same thing?” Piotr inquired.
“To tell the truth, it wasn’t until Rhys set off after the Princess Maia that contact was made once again between the various domes of the ship. Until then, most people had forgotten they existed. Therefore, most people weren’t really aware that there was a cold world like Frigidia or a desert world like Aridia. From what I know about human nature, a person can’t desire or long for something that they don’t know exists.”
“Yeah, that makes sense. You can’t miss a person you never met,” Piotr said, nodding his head. “You and Wren are pretty cool. You’re logicians of the highest caliber,” Piotr grinned, giving the thumbs up.
Seeing this, Jack struck his forehead with his hand and started chuckling. “Hey Mieu, can I ask you a question?”
“You can ask me another one,” she responded brightly.
Piotr started laughing.
“Yeah, well,” said Jack sheepishly. “Anyways, you’re not allowed to lie or anything, are you?”
“Affirmative,” came the response.
“Okay, so tell me. Is Sari hecka diggin’ the Piotr already?”
All three of them stopped in their tracks. Mieu looked a bit confused and started shifting her eyes back and forth. Piotr lifted up his hand as if to backhand his friend. After a few moments, Mieu giggled a little.
“I can’t lie, but I don’t have to respond when I don’t wish to,” she said.
“Aww…you know you wanna,” Jack insisted.
“No, you hecka don’t,” Piotr rejoined.
“I think you should ask her yourself,” Mieu said. “Come on, I think it’s better if we stick close to the others.”
They headed back to the camp, where Laya and Sari were almost asleep.
They arrived at Aerone at nearly midnight. Most of the city was still asleep, although the inn/tavern seemed to have a few lively customers still awake. As the four humans of the party were all exhausted, they headed straight to the inn to sleep. Sari figured it’d be better to leave in the morning. In the dungeon beneath the castle of Aerone there was a small spaceship which traditionally had taken people to and from the satellite of Dahlia, Kara’s home.
As they entered the inn, Wren paused. “Receiving a transmission from the pilots,” he affirmed. A small microphone appeared in his head set.
“Preliminary surveys of unidentified planet confirm signs of plant life, sources of running water, and movement, possibly of local fauna. Secondary surveys conclude the presence of diverse vegetation, including jungle, temperate forest, and extensive swampland. Furthermore, surveys of the geomorphology of the planet revealed signs of intelligent life in the middle of a large basin, including what appeared to be stone buildings, maybe a castle.”
Everyone in the party looked rather excited. Maybe it was this that they that were looking for. Jack and Piotr wondered and hoped that Corg had been found by the inhabitants of the castle, whereas Sari and Laya were excited at the idea of a planet for the ships to finally land on.
“Wren,” Sari barked. “Confirm the coordinates and exact location of the basin and this supposed castle.”
“Roger,” the cyborg responded. “Please confirm the coordinates of the castle and the basin.”
“We’re passing them to you right now,” came the voice through the microphone.
“Received. Roger. Over and out,” Wren responded.
“Maybe this won’t be the needle in the haystack we all thought it would be,” Laya said cheerfully.
Quietly, Jack muttered, “That’s okay. It’d be worth the extra time to spend with you.”
Laya looked at him as if she had understood what he said, blushed, and went upstairs with Sari to her room.
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