Dark Places

After dialling back to the Craadian base, which the Aduitor called the Grantovius Complex, you all enter the portal once more. The lightness of your steps is instantly bewildering, but you manage to adjust quickly.

The five of you get to the tunnel looking down onto the more complete mining operation. No one is below you on what you can see, but the sound of stationary machinery some distance to the left can be heard.

How might you proceed?

You return to the hangar where your ship is being worked on.

After arriving back at the asteroid Turana heads to the table were she takes a piece of pink cake while taking a look at the ship and cradians, she remembers that those convergence priests forced so to speak to see through illusions by using concentration techniques, she tries to do some of it while eating the cake..

Turana sees no deception or illusion.

After you return and wait, as they retrofit this complete hull into your ship in place of the shabby broken one you flew here in, you sit to the side and watch. Snacking and eating the unfamiliar food.

The Craadians live with a level of technology that you're unused to seeing. There are many machines on Earth, but they are rare and mistrusted whereas here they are relied upon.

When they are done they spend some time reviewing their own work, measuring the end product with more devices.

A large crate is brought into the hangar next to the now-sleek looking ship.

"It is done. We have programmed your assistant with the navigation charts needed to find our sister station. Here is the delivery we want you to make. "

They open it for you to see, and it is filled with parts of machines, wrapped carefully for transport. "These are vitally needed and in exchange, they will return to us a number of ores and metals than we require for our own use, along with a number of broken technology components that we might be able to repair."

He looks at you with trusting eyes. "Please be careful. Trade between us and them is difficult, as we don't have many working ships, nor the ability to build new engines. If you can return once in awhile, we can be good friends and do each other many favors."

Jaz is going to check out the cargo, using perception and also Scan. He likes the idea of allies, in theory, but history had shown he should be besitant, so he'll let someone else handle the interaction.

Emmett glances inside the crate and closes the lid, satisfied. Admittedly, he would appear to be satisfied with almost anything inside that crate, provided it wasn't an actual monster or filled with steaming acid or something. The man had very little experience with identifying numenera, though he was becoming better at poking around at it and figuring it out as he went along.

"We'll get it to 'em safely. Y'all want us weighin' your ore or countin' parts? If we come back and you tell us there's some problem or other...Well, we'll head back for you, but it'll cost you. Friends or no, we gotta earn our keep somehow, right?"

Emmett finishes accepting the crate and stows inside the craft. "Hey there, Adiutor! I bet you feel like a whole new man, uh, sort of."

"Thanks for repairing our ship." Lyle says, impressed with the work the Craadians did.

Jaz scans the cargo and it seems mundane.

Adiutor responds to Emmett, "It's like wearing a new hat, I believe."

There's a long pause as Emmett tries to wrap himself around this concept. "When have you worn a hat?"

He shakes off the strange feeling. "Hey there, bud, I meant to ask you, this ship got a name? We gotta keep callin' it 'the ship', but that's missin' some romance, you know?"

The artificial assistant simply waggles its fake eyebrows at your with the hat comment. In regards the name question, it says, "The crew before the last crew named the ship Calliope's Revenge. I don't know what the last crew called it, as they disabled me immediately upon taking possession."

The assistant offers to explain.

Emmett walks towards the aft end of the compartment. Anyone could see it's a badly veiled cover for wiping a tear or two away with a sleeve.

"That's um.....that's good to know. I *cough* didn't realize you had such history. I'll keep it in mind."

He clears his throat. "Man, allergies are somethin' fierce up here, huh? Anyway."

"I gotta wonder why the last crew disabled you, or for that matter why they glued a portal onto your butt and stuck you in a cave surrounded by killer people-bacon makers. Questions upon Questions."

Turana thanked the Craadians and wanted to hint she would love more about their origins, after all they came from earth as well it seems, worlds ago maybe " I hope we accomplish the mission and get to know more about each other some other time, but i better get into the ship now" she comes inside and sees Emmet and Lyle paying attention to the intelligence in the ship, once they stop talking she will ask the aduitor how much about the craadians and other world can he tell then

"I have not been programmed with that information, Lyle. My apologies."

To Turana's questions, he says only that, "The Craadians are a species that has adapted to living in low gravity environments. Their anatomy has been altered so that they can withstand the bone loss that many terrestrial beings would. I do not know the specifics, but I suspect that they have been off Earth for several thousand years."