2. Dark Spaces

You spend some time with the Craadians, helping them reinstall their point-defense gun turret in their hangar. They give you some water, and another choice of coloured protein nutrition drinks that they think your terrestrial stomachs will handle.

Through the assistance of your translator ship-being, the Craadians can tell you of some of life in the deep black:

- The Craadians mainly live on the asteroid belt with encircles the sun like orbital path on which your planet travels, just farther away from the sun.

- The Craadians home is on the largest asteriod, the binary pair of Ceres I and Ceres II (which legend states was once a single body). There are many thousands of them living there.

- The pirates are alien beings, the insectoids that you helped them fight off. They call them the Host. The Host has occupied several medium-sized asteroids, hollowing them out and making habitats for their species.

- Earth's moon has some ancient ruins and possible inhabitants

- Branu's Kiss - a drop of blue-green water nearly 50 kilometers across, floating between the Earth and the Sun. It is home to wonders and dangers alike, but the Craadians avoid it, sticking to the Belt

- Calram - circling the Earth is an object 8 kilometers in diameter covered in jagged spikes and tendrils like the corpse of some monstrous creature. It is said that beings sleep within, watching, waiting.

- Naharrai, the third planet from the Sun (Earth being the second, they say) was once also a lush green place, not unlike Earth, although rumour has it that it is dying and the Craadians avoid it

- The closest planet to the Sun is known as Urvanas. While the planet's surface itself is harsh and unforgiving, floating cities dot the clouds.

- Farther in the void, there are strange beings: gigantic crafts, creatures that live there, and even those that traverse the chasm between stars. Madness reigns there, and only the foolish or the most hardy dare make such crossings - you never know what you might encounter!

Lyle wants to see it all- he listens to Audiutor translate and it’s all he could do to pick his jaw up from the floor. "Floating cloud cities- that sounds cool. Water floating in the void? I’d like to see that… but honestly it all sounds fantastic to me…"

One thing to remember, you still have a report to make to Cooper. When last you spoke, he was not entirely convinced that the Craadians were harmless.

Just when Emmett was starting to get his mind wrapped around the mystery and fantasy that is the Void, all of this information is thrown at him. Fortunately, it isn't stunning and mind-melting the initial discovery of other planets were. Instead, he finds it inspires wanderlust in him.

Emmett had traveled and fought his way around a significant part of the Steadfast (and, on a few occasions, venturing into the Beyond). There was always more world to see, but he thought he had his mind wrapped around what the land had to offer. After seeing a tiny fraction of what was possible out here, he only desired to see more. There had to be more, even more than the Craadians knew of. Maybe Emmett could discover it. He was an older gent, that's true, but he wasn't THAT old, and if you took his arm into account it brought his average age even lower, right? That had to count for something.

But there were things to take care of, first.

"Blast me, that's almost too much!" Emmett chuckles at the translation. "I'd head any one of those directions, and I'd like to visit them all. Might be best to get our feet wet with some of what they offered before we get serious. I'd like to see what's out there beyond the black one day. Other stars...and something else between them. Sounds like if I'm gonna go, that would be a good place to do it. No telling whether or not I was truly gone at all..." He looks wistful for a moment.

After a few seconds of silence, his thoughts pop back to the here-and-now. "But we got things to take care of first. I got a responsibility to Cooperstown. I got deputies that'll take care of the more benign happenin's goin' on down there, but we still got one more portal to find and shut down. Our little town won't be safe 'til it's done, and I won't abandon them to go a-wanderin'. Not 'til it's done."

He's quiet for another moment, looking around at the others. "But I ain't the only voice here. I need your thoughts."

Lyle agreed. "Let’s finish the one thing that brought us together- and when it is done we’ll revisit our options. Your judgement is sound, Emmett."

Jaz was already thinking the same thing. One thing before another. "We need to check in with both Cooper and the town. Promises to keep.

Emmett grins at the (former?) smuggler and small time crook. "Funny, I think you were singin' a different tune the last time I locked you up for...what was it, stealin' medicine from a travelin' merchant? Or was it trespassin' into the mines to brew up some kinda nasty hooch in a quiet corner? We got pretty drunk sittin' in the cells that night off the stuff. Can't remember much other than the headache the next day."

Lyle's face splits into a grin, setting the tattoos on his face dancing. "Har! Both memories are correctly attributed to me! The fermenting of my Gran's Hard Cider however, was the better of the two. You left off lecturing and sat down for a cup that turned into a dozen. I won't tell you her secret ingredient- but I could see it giving a nasty hangover. I'll mix up a batch for you next time I fall into some of the more hard to get ingredients..." He wished the Craadians had some proper cider here- but feared all they had was some gelatinous goo.

The words of Emmet snapped Turana of her daydreaming of so different worlds available

"I have to admit the voice of experience is correct. so much to see, but better not to detour from our mission, so i guess we will be back just with our friend Aduitor for a while again, speaking of which i hope it can navigate underwater once cooperstown is safe , you know, wonders in floating water sounds interesting but i doubt my body can handle that much water, anyway, we can go whenever you want,"

The Craadians have little to contribute to this. They're not really explorers, however, they are interested in any kind of unusual tech that you find. Th first ones that you ran into indicated that they can upgrade your ship in some manner in exchange for such trade.

The Adiutor and Cooper will confirm a few things.

- you can park your craft anywhere and use the portal mounted to it to return to Cooperstown
- you can park your craft at Cooper's station and use the portal there to get to the town, and Cooper can protect the ship
- you could deliver furniture if you want to equip the craft with more comfortable seating the same way through the portal
- once you take your craft to, say, Urvanas, you could go back and forth through the portal on the back
-

"Once we go check in with everyone, maybe we should think about a way of making a trade to get the ship upgraded some. "

Emmett stares into space for a moment while the others discuss. It's been a while, so he has to sit and take stock for a moment. The triangle button on the portal at Tombstone Redoubt went to the mine at Cooperstown. The snowflake passes them through the portal mounted on the back of the ship. The three wavy lines goes to some kind of slug mine that Emmett explored earlier, . The last button, the grouping of dots...they hadn't been there yet.

Might be best not to let the Craadians know they've got a portal that could pass their goods through to Psyche risk-free. We don't know 'em quite that well yet. Could be bad if they knew. Oughtta build up some kinda rapport first.

Quietly, he leans in to whisper to the others. "Alright, look. The Craadians say there's probably a portal like ours up on Psyche. They didn't say it was a Craadian colony, but we can assume. There's one last place that the portal could lead to, Coop said it was to some kind of asteroid mine. Lot of that goin' around, seems like. The other Craadians asked us to bring some stuff back with us. I say we do it. We'll park our wagon out in the dark somewhere and pile through the portal to Coop's. From there we can figure out where that last portal leads, and I'd bet it's whoever is causin' trouble down in the Cooperstown mines."

Sounds like you have a disagreement about how to proceed. Should we roll initiative and let the bodies hit the floor?