2. Dark Spaces

Jaz turns and looks at the sun. Streaming down strong, stronger than it's been the past few days, covering and warming him. He takes a moment appreciating the planet, so full and bright.

Emmett squints as his eyes slowly readjust to the glaring light of the sun. As he puts his hand over his eyes, a strange feeling of disappointment bubbles in his mind. He didn't expect to feel any sort of sadness coming back, but there it is.

After seeing so many strange and amazing things, his little backwater mining town feels...pointless. Small. What could this place possibly hold for him? There are no strange horizons to cross here. For that matter, the idea of horizons is already outmoded to him.

It doesn't take long for the front of his mind to catch up with the back. He's done here. He'll never be able to stay.
"It's a long story, foreman, and I don't think you'd like to hear it. You'll just have to trust that we're doin' what oughtta be done. We ain't quite through yet, but we're almost there. Excuse me." Emmett walks past Lyle and the other players, striding into town. He calls back over his shoulder, "I gotta take care of somethin', I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Emmett winds his way past a few small buildings, nodding at folks and smiling where a smile is needed before he finds a small shack with no indication of what might be inside. As he pushes open the door, he sees a young man sitting at a desk beside a single empty cell. Must've been a quiet night.

"Ho there, Rupert. You know I ain't one for small talk, so I'll skip to it. I'm goin' away for a while. You've been helpin' me out here and there for a while and seem to care about the Cooperstown about as much as I did. Do. So consider yourself in charge. The foreman and some of the other self-important folk'll give you the stipend they were givin' me, though you might wanna find some way to earn some extra coin. You'll be alright. Oughtta learn yourself how to fight a bit better, but that glass jaw'll toughen up after you get busted in it a few times."

The foreman watches Emmett leave and says, "Jimel, go somewhere else. Get some wine, three bottles from the Widow, on my tab, and take a while doing it."

After the worker leaves he says, "I best hear it all. If anything happens to you before you're finished, well, then we really needs to know."

---

The deputy takes the news with some modest grace. "No! Say it isn't so! I'm not ready! I had hoped one day to take over, or find my own town, but--"

He flings his hat into the ground. "All right, I get it. I gotta learn fast, don't I? Remember what you taught me. Shit. We'll, where are you going all a sudden?"

Emmett watches the younger man's mild tantrum with naught but a raised eyebrow. After he finishes, he lets the room sit in silence for a long moment. "You're gonna want to avoid doin' that in front of folks. It'll make your job a lot easier if you're a bit of a mystery. Let 'em wonder, ya know?"

Emmett stands from where he was leaning against a wall and flops into a chair, leaning his polearm into a corner. "Trust me when I tell ya you wouldn't believe me if I told ya. I'll still be helpin' out Cooperstown, but it'll be out there somewhere." He waves his hand towards everything. It's clear Emmett doesn't know exactly where he'll be.

"Honestly...I don't know if I'll come back. I found somethin' I had lost, a bit of curiosity, and I'm wonderin' where she'll lead."

Turana scratched her head as she heard Emmet's conversation and then looked at Jazz while showing her palms pointing to the Sky as she was not sure what to say to prevent the others go investigating out of fear , she decided to do what the Convergence megisters would do and to target ambition: "We have already taken care of what could have been dangerous for the town,we just want to double check before and avoid giving you mistaken information.. and we might be up to something that can provide benefits for the people of the town.. but if more people try to get in , it might end up ruining it. On the other hand ....If you keep quiet about it, you might be the first to enjoy new oportunities"

Foreman Loryth scratches his forehead near his goggles as he listens to Turana's claim. "That all sounds great, Turana Alea, but what about those mutants we found in the mine? They sure didn't look like they was interested in setting up a Sunday social?"

(recall: he is a shorter man than many, but strong and wiry. He wears a pair of googles pushed back onto his forehead and is filthy, which is odd because he doesn't do manual labour in the mine, hasn't for years.)

There were two Craadian corpses in the mine, plus a couple quintpods that you killed. He likely means the Craadians when he says mutants.

Jazz turns facing Tunaraso that the 'main' conversation is in his periphery. "I don't.... I think you have a point. Though the town had enough as it is. Both troubles and treasures. It would disrupted as little as possible I think.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't tell the truth.. just... just enough of it. What the people need to know."
Then he sighs.
"I expect the workers may expect new pay with the knowledge of where they're going. The owners can afford it. "

Hearing both Jaz and Loryth Turana decides they have a point as well, so she decides to disclose information, she hopes not too much. "Yeah well, those mutants were victims to some horrible creatures,we think we eliminated that threat , but we want to make sure...we encountered more of this mutants and they do not seem harmfull for the moment, we might even make a deal with them and they could become allies, but i would not advice to resume mining operations yet, the risk is still too high, when we come back we can have more information, and I agree with Jaz here that workers should be paid more if they face increased risks after we know for sure what are we up to"

Lyle does his best to keep his mouth shut- realizing he would only botch whatever diplomatic plans his companions had for their mission. He'll try his best to distract the miners with small talk.

The foreman says, "Well, I have to trust your judgement. It may be worth us posting guards and building a gate to defend the town from the mine in any event. Even if your friends remain friendly, they too can be invaded. If we can form a lucrative partnership, then I welcome meeting them. We'll have to get one of the Elders to give their approval, but trade is trade."

Emmett sits in the makeshift deputy's office, staring at nothing and feeling his fingernails trace a long scratch on the wrist of his metallic arm. Without consciously deciding to reminisce, the memory comes rushing back. A fight with a warbeast with metallic claws, one of a thousand monstrosities that the Empire brought to bear on his small country.

Former country. It's all the Empire now.

Emmett shakes off the memory and stands to leave. "I need ya to do me a favor, Rupert. Listen up, this's important. There's no ore down in that hole. Once you get to the bottom, you'd find a door to...somewhere else. I know it doesn't make much sense, but we've been callin' it a portal. It takes you up past the moon and out near the stars, far enough out so you can see our whole world. I know what it sounds like, but it's true. The ore comes from some rock or other floatin' 'round out there. There's plenty ore to go 'round up there, and as long as the portal don't go haywire like it did before, it's more or less safe, though even that ain't all true."

Emmett can tell he's confusing the boy. "Look, the point is the miners and the people 'round here oughtta know. I think the foreman'll come clean, but you're my insurance. Give him a day or so to come clean. If he don't talk, spread the word. If nothin' else, maybe you can get a bit more money for the miners. Danger pay or somethin'."

Emmett picks up his long polearm from the corner and heads for the door. "Tell Ma Cordelia up at the bakery that the apartment above her apartment is empty. Or you move in, I don't care. I'll be seein' you, Rupert. Good luck."

Emmett swings by the apartment to grab a few small things that he thinks he might need and walks back to the mine.

Turana opens her eyes wide, which along with her mouth movements makes a gesture that even through the mask conveys what she is about to say "That's actually a good idea! create some protective measures. good idea indeed!.. So i guess we will wait for Emmet to come back.. i wonder of much time it will be. i could use that time to clean myself.. maybe there's somewhere near i can bathe on"

You all can take your time to visit your homes, or the inn, and bathe as you want, or eat and drink familiar food.

If you want to spend a half day here, and doing little, you could use your 10 hour Recovery roll (assuming any of you are down in your pools).

Lastly, you could probably get the makings of furniture for the inside of the craft, and hump it down into the mine and into the craft.

After a while, Emmett slowly approaches the group. His face is somber, but firm. "Right. I'm sorry to see it go, but Cooperstown will survive without us. Better, actually, than it was before we left. Anything else we oughta take care of before we head out for the last time?"

Behind the cockpit, the ship is entirely one room, perhaps six meters long by 2.5 meters wide, and 2 meters high.