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?

Giving your farewell to the Craadians, you withdraw your craft from their hangar and return to the void. Out in the black, a billion miles from anything, you travel along and then find a place to park the craft.

When you're ready, you activate the portal and find your way back to Cooper's strange technological habitat. He awaits for you there.

"Welcome back once again."

Emmett gags as he walks out of the portal. He found it somehow left a taste of old mushrooms in his mouth. He hated mushrooms.

"Hey boss. Lookin' like we're a bit more than halfway done with the shipment. Figured it might be a good idea to check the last portal before we finish her up. Them Craadians ain't half bad, nothin' to worry about. The buggers fightin' 'em were a bit of a pest, though. Damn near singed my hair off with those energy rays or whatever they were. Pirates, apparently. Anything you feel like we oughtta know before we mash the button and check out our last stop?"

"It also seems we have taken care of the quintapod threat, but may need to finish exploring the other portal ... doorways?" then he pauses
"Though... I think we told you all that last time we were here..."

Cooper processes the comments for a moment, taking longer than usual to formulate a reply. "Very good. If the Craadians have access to the portal, then we need their assurances that they will not use it to infiltrate the mine below Cooperstown, and from it, the town. If they plan on coming through even for peaceful reasons, then we will need to explain to the townsfolk what has changed. Remember, they do not know that the mining they are doing is actually beyond a portal to a metal rich asteroid far away from their planet."

After going through the portal on the ship Turana waited until the others finished talking :"Speaking of assurances or agreements i think we can convince the craadians its better to be in good standing with us, that way we can keep doing "Jobs" for them"

"I agree, I think we should tell them. What they do with the information is up to them, but they need to know the truth. but.... there's still the issue of what appears to be an accidentally shared mine.
If the Craadians respect right of first possession then we may have a claim to the asteroid. But we don't know enough to know that's how they think. "

Cooper says, "The reason that the mine was kept a secret was to prevent word from getting out to the broader world. It is not unthinkable that an armed force would attempt to seize the town and its apparent wealth. As to the asteroid, please note that there are two separate asteroids. The first is the mine that we've been digging in for some time, and the second is the one in which the Craadians have found another portal. The metallic wealth of our mine will be attractive to them."

Emmett sits for a long moment, stroking his beard with his good hand, his natural hand.

"We only got the two doors left. One goes to whatever asteroid the ore comes out of. The other goes to a Craadian-held mine. Which one do we wanna check out first?"

He waits to hear from the rest of the group.

"I think..." Jaz pauses and sighs. "I think we take care of what we have first. Need to check back in with town, then maybe deal with the Craadians in the other asteroid with the portal. Or disable the portal?"

"The townspeople should be put at their ease- wouldn't want them sending a search party after us. If we check in with them we can at least give them a report then continue to investigate this puzzle.." Lyle says, scratching his head.

Yeah i guess letting the people in town know that we are taking care could prevent someone curious finding out what Cooper wanted to keep secret for the good reasons he explained before, then we might want to check the asteroid where our comunnity mines the ore, who knows , there might be a breach somewhere allowing things to get outside or inside it. if the second asteroid has only been used by the Craadians, we might let them have it and close the portal to prevent unforseen problems or keep it open after talking with them and proposing an agreement what will benefit both parties.

You tune the portal to Cooperstown Mine, and file through. As before, lightning chases around the edges and you're suddenly under the powerful gravity of the planet. You stomp you boots, maybe, fighting the increased weight on your feet. When you have your wits about you, you return to the surface.

At the top of the adit, you find the foreman sleeping with a spear in his hand, while two miners sit on the ground. The sunshines in through a roof hatch, and they're dicing in the small square of light.

"I'll take some of that action, boys!" Lyle laughs. "How about that- gone for a little while and the town sinks to debauchery." He winks at the men.

Lyle is welcomed into the game. "You don't look like you've been digging ore? Where you been down there?"

Turana was about to exclaim "It's nice to be back home for while!" as she was coming after Lyle, when she realized someone was there already making questions.. Since on the town she was known for someone into Numenera scrapping and investigation she decided to jump in the conversation "We were exploring to see if there was some Ancient device there and if it could be doing something weird"

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.

Scrounging for stuff is certainly doable.

Jaz watches his ... well his friends ..
He may not have known them all very long, but what they have been through they are now thinking as s team, a unit. It's kind of surprises him how easy it feels.
Hey. I think I can offer some help. Maybe not everything we need but....
Well I'll show you.
Anyone that wants to follow him will be led to the edge of town up to a patch of forest, one of the ones that shows up in a clump before the full forest. Then along what looks like a walking path that is larg enough for a cart or most similarly sized transport to pass along.
Then, just far enough in to br hidden completly from view is a small house. "So, this is where I keep. My family doesn't lile having me around, but also wanted me comfortable... comfortable and quiet...
So I got the guest house...."
The house itself is a very small manor.
It's not small for a manor, in fact it's probably only for rooms, it's literally if someone shrunk down someone's manor.


I don't know why they made it a copy of The House... but we can probably find some things to use here...

Turana entered as he heard Jax's invitation while paying atention to the details, it had been quite a while since the last time she had been in a house like this "This is very nice of you Jax, to allow us to use your stuff in the ship, which i guess it would allow us to take longer travels to explore the worlds that the Craadians mentioned.. i mean ..of course... after we go back to the portal and accomplish the mission of securing the "mine's" security, at least to a reasonable degree"

"This is a nice place you have here, my friend. Thank you for letting us shelter here and for the gift of your furniture. We owe you a debt of gratitude."

Emmett lets out a low whistle as the mini-manor appears through the trees. "I remember you sayin' they never treated you right, but I gotta admit, I've been treated bad by folks before, and it weren't like this. No offense meant, you understand." He glances over to Jaz to make sure he isn't overstepping.

It's true that they've grown to know each other a bit here and there, but Emmett still hadn't quite let them through his armor. He'd watched plenty of folk die in the past, and it had been a long time since he felt close to anyone. He'd had acquaintances, sure, close ones, but it had been a long time since he'd had friends. Or family, for that matter. Still, it felt like something close.

"What kept you busy back here anyhow, Jaz? It must get awful lonely, even if it is a big damn house."

Ok so if you dont need me to help moving stuff here i will head to the restroom to have a shower or something alike if ..if I may off course

Jaz gestures vaguely to the house. "Yeah, It's below. It..." he sighed, "It's the thing that looks like a waterfall. The red stone opens up and you'll find the levers there."

You slowly gather chairs and hammocks from Jaz's mini-manor and from the local town, hump them through the town and into the mine, then through the portal to your ship drifting somewhere alone in the long black. In payment for your deeds, the foreman gives you what else you need, including a prized possession, an iceless ice box for keeping food fresh.

The ship becomes a strange combination of numenera tech and homey country living.

Let's have each of you decide one piece of furniture that is 'your' thing, a favourite spot your PC has adopted.

Meanwhile, the towns folk slowly learn the news, that the mine is really very very far away, and adopt this new datum with all of the excitement and fear of people who live in a world where there is no such thing as impossible. The redoubt becomes a gathering place, and meetings are held on how best to fortify the mine against a possible invader. The most popular opinion seems to be to start erecting barriers on the surface, in the mine top, and then later prepare an advance defensive bulwark near the gate itself.

Before you know it, you're ready to leave one last time for the ship, off to explore the wonders the Craadians told you about, after you negotiate a diplomatic exchange with the Cooperstown elders and them.

---

As a reminder, the Craadians have three settlements that you have encountered:
1) The Gravitonius Complex, the repair base where they retrofitted your found ship
2) The second settlement, where you delivered supplies and helped them fight off the insectoid invaders
3) A third settlement, where there is a gateway connected to the network that includes: the mine below Coopers town, the mine in the asteroid belt, Cooper's spacestation, the back of your ship, and the #3 Craadian asteroid.

Emmett seems to have embraced his position as de facto pilot of the ship. After some work with an armful of blankets and some thick twine, the pilot's seat has become somewhat comfortable. He spends an hour or so figuring out what a few of the levers do and finds it can rotate in place and lean back. If he turns it a bit to the left and leans it back far enough, there's a place he can put his feet that doesn't hit anything important. Emmett has to admit, leaning back in the chair and staring through the stars through the front windows gives him a relaxing feeling he hadn't felt since before he was conscripted. It was like everything was new again...

Jaz shifted a hideaway double-bunk. It fit well enough in the space between a storage rack and what was probably the environmental engine... of some sort. Between that and his hideaway bed they could all sleep comfortably. Plus the way the folded up made it so effectivly no space was taken up on the ship.

You don't really know where the third settlement is, but you know that you can simply pass through your own ship-mounted portal.

Lyle will bring with him a large brown leather armchair with a matching ottoman. It is well worn and comfortable, good for sitting in or stretching out for a nap. If possible he will accompany that with a round side table made of polished wood. He is going to try and place his stuff where he can sit and get a good view of the cosmos (or a display of it if there is no 'windshield' to the vessel).

Installing metal doors on the ship would be simple enough, to block off the portal there. Installing them in the mine outside of the portal would also be doable.

As to breaking the portal, you could do that. They are very sturdy but not indestructible, so concerted effort would overcome that. You would never be able to repair it though.

Turana grabbed the hammock and with the help of the Aduitor was able to hang it pretty high near the roof of the ship, she enjoyed being able to rest in something softer than just a roll out mattress on the floor, also the height would give her some privacy

Emmett agrees. "Yeah, they ain't worth trustin', 'specially if we think they're the ones causing all the trouble. That last gate'll be the one, most likely. I think you're right, smashin' the damn thing might be our best bet. But how do we do that and then escape? Might be hard to get back to the ship with the door all busted up."

Emmett shrugs. "I can't replicate a man, not like my mother could, but that ain't stopped me from stickin' a few." He bumps his robot-leg-polearm to accentuate his point. "I don't know any other way to make sure Cooperstown don't get hit again. If smashin' up a portal is what it takes, that's what I'll do."

"Good to know about your mum… but.. not a clue what you’re on about. You really want to smash this thing when we’ve no clue whether there’s a credible threat to the town you seem eager to move on from? Pffft."

"If we find out that behind this last gate there's some monster or other doin' somethin' that might threaten the town? Yeah, I'll smash the heck out of that portal. What's the worst that happens? It explodes and kills me? If it saves the life of someone in Cooperstown, I'd call it worth it. And yeah, we're leavin' that place, but it don't mean I don't care what happens to it. The people there deserve their shot at a peaceful life, after all."

"And a peaceful life they’ve had- for the most part. Some dire threat coming in from beyond the portals is just as likely as a beast wandering in here from the wasteland… there are no guarantees. Cooperstown has been fine with the portals as is for years… before we go smashing things up let’s at least establish whether or not there’s a threat."

"Oh, o'course, no doubt. No need to wreck things blindly like some drunkard. We've got work to do before we take any kinda action. Speakin' o' which, y'all ready to take care of it? We need to deliver this last load and then get to work."

"Ahh… we’ll. Speaking of the drink… Would it perhaps be possible to spend a night cutting loose before we carry on? It seems selfish but I’td be nice to tie one on and spend a night of revelry, hopefully ending up in the arms of another. But… I’ll rally if youse want to keep working."

Emmett sits up and takes notice. "Now you're talkin', my language! But hold up, you been holdin' out in us, Lyle? Got some of that hooch you were slingin', back before this all got weird?"

"Of course. Only gets better with age." Lyle passes the jug around.
"What say we check out that last portal? Or should we report back to Cooper?"

Emmett takes a large swig off the jug and coughs, but tries to hide it like he's clearing his throat. "Damn, forgot how strong that was. I wouldn't call it smooth, but it'll get the job done." He passes it over to Jaz or Turana, whoever puts their hand out first. "Adiutor, can we pour some of this somewhere for you? Maybe some fuel port or other?" He laughs at his own joke before becoming thoughtful. "Wait, what do you even need to run? You've ain't never talked about needin' glowing stones or mice with wheels or rotten apples or anythin'."
Emmett waves away the idea of returning to Cooper. "I wouldn't worry much 'bout ole Coop. He'll keep. I'd say we just drop this load of junk back at the first stumpy rock and poke around that last portal. O'course, I ain't in charge or nothin', I wanna know what you folk want."

Turana had remained silent as she heard the conversation between Lyle and Emmet thinking that it could also be said that destroying the portal also protected the Craadians.. after all .. none of them would have fallen victim to the quintpods if they would have stayed away from the place, she was resting her face on her fist as she thought of that when suddenly her eyes iluminated as she was offered a Drink, which she accepted and enjoyed "AHHH TASTY! THANK YOU! now im ready to go check that place!"

Feeling no pain and in good spirits, Lyle blurts out"Yes! Let’s go check the place! That place!" He’s not really sure which place but he’s all for it.

Is the plan to get drunk then jump through the portal into the asteroid mine that only one of you explored?

You have a few toots from the Lyle's Cooperstown grog and, your courages firmly attached to your belts, enter through the portal back to the ship. The decorating has gone well, a sort of frontier chic aesthetic that if planned was executed marvelously.

From there, floating in the dead black of space, you are considering returning to the Craadian hanger to deliver the goods, but after ten minutes of searching your ship, you remember you've already delivered the goods. No doubt there is a fair bit of drunken laughter and/or head scratching at that.

You decide to enter the portal for the other Craadian asteroid (the third one that had a portal buried deep in the rock). You crawl out, finding the gravity essentially zero. At the end of the first tunnel is an intersection and a tech light standard (not actually producing light at the moment). To the right, you know it leads to a hole overlooking a large cavern with mining equipment. To the left has not been explored.

"Whoa! was it exactly like that when we were here before?" said turana as she started to float in the place , using her arms and hands to get closer to a wall and use it to impulse herself through zero G, , she also considered the drinks she took having some residual effect on her perceptions as well

Would you like to explore the tunnel leading away from the light standard, or drop down into the main mining cave?

Emmett breathes out heavily. The drinks positive effects have completely faded, but he's left with the longer-lasting negative ones. "Blugh. Yeah, I remember the down and up were a bit screwy last time, but....ugh....Last time I didn't feel quite like this."

He moves to the tech light and grabs it, trying to figure out how to switch the damnable thing on. Sure, the area is lit up well for now, but that could change. He doesn't want to be left holding nothing but his weapon in the dark when it does. Fortunately with the low gravity his polearm is easy enough to handle.

"Might be best to head that way." He point down the tunnel, away from the main mining cave. "I've been over there and didn't see much. Sure, there's more I ain't seen yet, but I ain't ready just yet to make nice with the folk who live here. I wanna poke around a bit first, if we can."

Jaz is going to stage-whisper I still don't think it's a good idea to go poking around. Let's just disable it now.

Emmett determines that it is a simple on/off device, with an obvious switch. Turning it on, however, would also enable an electric eye that is trained to watch the portal.

Emmett sets the light down, not wanting whoever runs this mine to know they're hear just yet.

He turns to Jaz, speaking quietly. "You aren't even wonderin' what this is all about? All this runnin' around from rock to rock, metal buggers tryin' to claw at us and some creature or other firin' lasers and all, and you'd be ok with just...headin' out? I don't know...I'm not sure I could leave it alone. I gotta know whatever is sendin' creatures to town aren't just goin' to find another way to go about it. Maybe they've got it out for Cooperstown or somethin'. Maybe they think the mine that Cooperstown has been diggin' into is sacred or somesuch. If we're talkin' about leavin' the town behind us, we need to know this job is good and done, right?"

"It can’t hurt to find out…" Lyle whispers. "We should try and get as much of a handle on the operation here as we can. We don’t have to walk in and shake everyone’s hand necessarily- maybe we just scout out the situation?"

Emmett chuckles. "Heck, I dunno, Lyle, you might be the shakin' hands and kissin' babies type. Maybe they got an executive hootchologist position open for you." He shrugs. "Shoot, I'd vote for you."

It can very much hurt to find out. And the whole point of removing the portal use is that we don't have to worry about what their intensions are because we've protected the town.

The one claim for using the portal is to increase trade, which might benefit both sides. Do the Craadians have anything to trade with Cooperstown that might benefit the townsfolk, and vice versa?

The portal is thus risk and opportunity.

"Like I said- let’s just see what’s what. We don’t have to announce ourselves and I’m not looking for a fight. The only portal we’ve removed from use so far was the ones the quints we’re coming through… are we now trying to shut them all down?"

Turana floated in the air as she heard the conversation and looked for a way to combine both approachs So what do you guys think if some of us go scout a little and some stay here right next to the portal? i mean that way if things go really wrong and we do not come back after a reasonable time , whoever stayed by the portal can render it useless before getting out and that way at least can make sure the town is protected, you know: a extreme situation might demand extreme measures

Emmett rubs his beard and face with his metallic hand. The lower gravity was playing havoc with his stomach, and whatever Lyle gave them earlier didn't help. The cold metal focuses his thoughts.

"Ain't a bad idea Turana. If we're just pokin' around, no reason why we can't leave one or two behind. They could suss out a way to bust up the portal before we c'mon back, just in case we're in a hurry. Jaz, you think you'd wanna hang back?"

" I’m not a fan of splitting up- strength in numbers and all that… but If you’d like I can scout ahead? I’m pretty good at moving quiet- and the shadows love me. It should be easy." Lyle hoped he sounded as confident- but he wasn’t so sure.

Emmett seems torn. On the one hand, he's never been one for subtlety. Go in loud, smash some heads, try to keep yours on your shoulders, that's generally his approach.

On the other hand, he doesn't feel right letting anyone else take a risk. Bunch of kids, they barely know their ass from a hole in the ground. Could never forgive myself if...

He sucks his teeth for a moment. "I dunno...What if..." His face cycles through a few expressions before he sighs. "Yeah, guess you're right. I always managed to just miss you back in Cooperstown, guess you're good at stayin' low. But I'll try to keep behind you a bit 'til you tell me to hold back. If you run into some kinda trouble, you better leg it back to us doubletime. I don't need your blood on my conscience."

Sensing Emmett’s apprehension Lyle winks at his friend. A loner by nature, he could get used to being looked after. "I can’t say I’m not a bit relieved your coming, Emmett. I’m good at skulking but… should things go south it’s good to know you have my back. Anyone else coming?"

Wait! Im coming too!

Lyle gets farther up, and his trained sneaking is for not as the side passage seems to be only exploratory mining tunnels, looking for some specific ores perhaps. There are small holes bored into the tunnel walls every ten paces or so. Around one toward the end is a red painted circle with an obscure symbol painted beside it.

Other than that, the side tunnels, about two hundred paces worth, are dead ends.

That leaves you just the tunnel that leads to the main Craadian mining cavern.

I dont think we have a plan to disable the portal, can I make a roll to examine and plan it out?

Emmett keeps his distance from Lyle, trying to trust in his friend's ability. He follows slowly, however, refusing to trust in their luck.

Lyle gets to the entrance in the roof of the mining cavern. Gravity is very weak so you could float "down" to the cavern floor easily even though it's fifteen meters or more. Looking around, he sees a pair of Craadians messing with a drilling platform. Repairs, perhaps.

With his roll and the effort, he can float down behind cover should he wish.

Cursing how clumsy he has been Lyle will float his way as quickly and quietly as he can behind cover to observe the activity in the mine.

Go ahead and make a roll, and consider yourself Trained for the roll.

Silently floating behind the others Turana takes a look at the tunnels, she wonders if those that end abruptly were made to remove ore until that are a got depleted or if they had another thing in mind, so far they look like peaceful workers .. she tries to see if that's the case or if something gives away a potential danger on them..

Lyle settles behind cover. He can see that the two Craadians are immersed in their repairs and didn't notice his infiltration

To the left, the cavern opens toward more machinery and stockpiled ore. From there, he guesses he would find a way toward the Craadian settlement. To Lyle's right, he can see what looks like tunnels leading to the working mine.

Turana doesn't see any illusions. She does pick up that small trickles of metallic ore have faded, and the tunnels stopped where the veins of ore ceased. The small boreholes in the rock look like instruments were mounted there (by the telltale scrapes on the surface around the holes). For whatever reasons their instruments revealed, they abandoned these mining tunnels for better hunting elsewhere.

Lyle can't believe his luck so far. He glances behind him to make sure his companions can spot him as he scouts ahead and then signals that he will continue scouting towards the working mine. He hopes his luck holds out as he creeps slowly and quietly forward, trying his best to remain behind cover and stick to the shadows.

Lyle gets moving, using cover and gets nearly to the mine entrance when he hears a shout. One of the two Craadian workers is staring at him and pointing. The other fumbles with a device on his wrist, panicking. They don't seem to be armed with those rod weapons.

What does Lyle and the rest of you do?

"Well- We're screwed now. Lyle you messed up again. Now's for damage control I guess..." Lyle mutters to himself, cursing his bad luck. He turns around towards the pair of Craadians, walking towards them slowly and raising both arms high up in the air. He speaks in a calm voice, knowing they can't understand him but hoping they understand his intent "Hello there, fellas. Didn't mean to surprise you- You're Craadians, right? CRAA-DEE-AHHNNS. I've done some work for your buddies on the asteroid and was just coming to see if I can be helping and friendly with you all as well... No harm intended." Lyle is tempted to smile but worries about how baring his teeth would look to these blobs.

The Craadians sense Lyle isn't immediately hostile, and they stop. They don't speak your Earther tongue, however, and babble at him in their odd way.

Emmett leaps up as Lyle gets caught, forcing himself to stop from rushing out with a weapon at the ready position.

As Lyle talks the pair down from....whatever they were going to do, he slowly approaches. He still carries his polearm, but low, and in one hand, hopefully a non-threatening gesture.

He does his best to draw a picture in some available dust of the tripod monsters they've been fighting so far. With luck the Cra'adians will recognize it and see what they're after. "I know y'all can't understand a word, but it would be dandy if you could help us...." Emmett speaks mostly to himself.

Lyle tries to help/assist Emmett as best he can- being careful not to alarm the gummy humanoids.

Since Turana was behind Lyle and Emmet , she did not get to see all the interactions but she was alarmed to see that Lyle got discovered , inside her mind she talked to herself "Oh hell! maybe Jaz was right, i wonder if he found a way to close the portal if things go really bad, we should had made a plan to make contact or talk to them .. anyway too late now...ooor maaybeee not.." She took a cypher out of her bag, it was a crystal orb, she did not want to activate it yet, it was called a "Harmony Lamp" and it could help the interactions ahead, but she was not sure

After remembering its utility she decided to get closer to the group and by using hand gestures, let the craadians know that she was about to activate a cypher but there was nothing to fear

The soothing lamp light washes over everyone and the tension drains from the aliens and from you as well. A zest for understanding, for meeting in the middle takes center focus. If only you had a way of communicating words rather than just intentions.

You struggle to make your ways known to them, but you only accomplish a feeling of peaceable intentions, if not anything concrete.

Eventually the Craadians lead you around and show you their setup. They're digging for rare metals in the asteroid, and you get the size that the rock is quite large, maybe tens of kilometers in diameter. You see a map on a mine wall, and that there are hundreds of Craadians possibly living in the sprawling town built into the rock. A large hangar serves as the only obvious entrance to the complex, somehow shuttered from the vacuum of space.

Your new Craadian friends want to take you to the town, show you around.

"Nice setup you have here!" Lyle says. Unless he sees any obvious objections from his companions he'll follow the Craadians. "These guys aren't so bad after all!"

As you explore, you eventually find a translator. The Craadian sets you down to eat and provides the liquid digestible nutritional mix you've had before. It isn't anything that you would crave, more bland than anything else, but it is filling.

"I am known as Police Designate Four Squared. You have been the talk of the colony, as we don't know how you got here. Does it have anything to do with the artifact that we found buried in the rock? Do you know how it came to be there?"

" Thank you for this feast- we are grateful for your hospitality. We do not know much about that type of artifact- although we were sent by our people to investigate something similar. Can you show us this thing you've found?" Lyle asks, speaking through the translator.

Looking glumly at his delicious meal of....slop, Emmett remarks, "I'd bet my now nonexistent paycheck that he means to say the artifact is the big door we just came through."

He sets his bag of gloop on the table, careful to keep the mouth-nozzle off the surface. No telling what passes for clean 'round here, after all. "We're on the trail of some tripod types. They like to rip the skin off folks and....well, I don't rightly know why they do it. The skin thing was enough to get us to stop 'em. Y'all seen anything like that?"

The translator Police Designate Four Squared confirms through description that the portal in the tunnels is the artifact.

As to the quintpods, they are unfamiliar with those, but after some talk among themselves in their alien language, Four Squared adds more.

"There have been sightings of them, mainly in one place in the asteroid belt, Sector 27. They have been expanding, and every where they go, there are deaths to follow." He thinks about it and adds, "Sector 27 would be about one quarter of the way around the sun clockwise, against the orbit."

At first Turana had remained silent for fear of saying something that could be misinterpreted so she just limited herself to nodding and hearing everything they had to show her, it took a while until she felt confident that the harmony lamp had a real effect, after all , in her traumatized past there were several moments in which she felt safe under the guidance of the Convergence magisters only to discover that it only lead to greater abuse, she also wondered about the dilema of closing the portal when this Craadian community seemed benign and promising,specially on the long term if they could completely eliminate the Quintpod treat, she hoped the lamp would improve their chances of getting a productive interaction with them, so she decided to start talking before any effect faded off "We want to totally eliminate that danger, do you have means to reach that sector? if we join our efforts we can all be safer and free to explore options for our communities"

Police Designate Four Squared passes that on, and replies, "We do not. Our numbers are small and we do not have sufficient means to launch forays into space. Indeed, with each generation, we become closer to being entirely isolated from each colony. Several have gone dark over the past twenty Earth years. The time of the Craadians is nearly at an end, although my friends here would be aghast that I told this to you. We see it as a primary weakness, leaving us open to attack."

He tries to look calm, but you really see only his bland, slug-like passivity. "We do not have the weapons or ships to attack the creatures, other than to defend our rocks if they get too close."

I'm going to shut this down. We lost critical momentum, and there are many other games we could be playing.

Thanks for joining me in exploring this uncommon aspect of The Ninth World.