UGT (Unified Galactic Time): 15th Revol (July) 280 a.G.A. (after Galactic Armistace) / 9:51 a.m.

  Location: IMS Second Chance, in an hangar of the ASF Corvette Nyx, somewhere in the Wehrmal system (red dwarf), (Outer-)Noran Principality, Kingdom of Ferron, Milky Way

  When the Vale siblings had agreed to meet with their mysterious savior for what Naori had called a 'job offer' Arin had expected many things. some secret branch of the Ferron military, infiltrators from another starnation, some incredibly powerful criminal lord, maybe even an all-out invasion fleet. Either way he'd been sure that once they entered that Battlecruiser something would happen. He certainly hadn't expected to be bored out of his mind!

  It had been two days since they had set foot on that spherical Battlecruiser, which had simply fitted the IMS Second Chance into a hangar like it was nothing. A hangar that had proven to be so vast that it had stolen air from his lungs the first time he'd seen it. One filled with multiple other vessels already, some of them even bigger than the IMS Second Chance! They had of course instantly noticed the writing on the black steel casings, which was not written in any language known to them, neither the English of the Second Human Federation nor the Deutsch used in the Kingdom of Ferron.

  These ships had made it obvious they were actively working with a power that was at the very least not human. Maybe the Association, maybe some other alien race, they couldn't tell. When asked, Naori had simply told them that this was the language of the divine empire and that these vessels before them were the typical support cast of smaller spaceships like the 'ASF Nyx' which was apparently the name of the Battlecruiser they were on. So, what type of power could refer to a Battlecruiser as a 'smaller spaceship' was beyond both him and his sister.

  Unfortunately, that had been all they managed to find out during their comparatively boring stay. Because not once had they actually met a biological being. The only things interacting with them had been robots and at least the small part of the Battlecruiser the two siblings could freely move around in was seemingly entirely automated. Even automation was supposed to have limits. No computer could ever hope to replace the abilities of a biological being, so seeing robots do literally everything on the ship was... worrying. For it mean either the ship would at some point break down around them or whoever had picked them up was so vastly advanced that they truly evolved computers capable of working without human support. Both options opened a deep pit in Arin's stomach.

  Lysa had waited twelve hours before becoming impatient and asking when they would meet Naori in person. The... whatever she actually was reacted near-instantly, casually explaining that she apparently wasn't even on the Battlecruiser personally. Instead, the ASF Nyx was to reconvene with what was apparently another spaceship called the ASO Glorybound before they could meet in person. And that still hadn't happened.

  Every further inquiry, no matter if polite or strained, had received the same near-instant response from Naori. Patience was to be advised and they would meet soon. It felt like Naori was deliberately slowing them down! That 'ASO Glorybound' couldn't be all that far away if Naori was able to near-instantly communicate with them!

  "I don’t like this," he muttered loudly to himself. "I don't like this at all."

  Lysa sat on a storage crate nearby, boots resting against the floor, still tinkering with that weird tablet that Naori had given them for some reason. She had not, however, explained it at all and Lysa was too stubborn to ask. Arin knew that she would continue until she found out how it worked and why they got it. As of now, she had barely managed to get it online and opened something that looked like a starting screen via activating 'non-cognitive control' first. Whatever that meant.

  "That's because you really cannot stand to waste time or to be kept in the dark about something," Lysa replied without looking up from the tablet.

  "I hate that we were essentially put on a waiting list!" Arin shot back. "We agreed to a meeting regarding a job offer! Not to whatever Naori's playing here!"

  Lysa exhaled, long and slow. "We got offered an opportunity and we took it. Of course, not everything's perfect, nothing ever is. Of course, Naori would have a few more tests for us before offering anything to us. If waiting around for a few days is the worst of it, I have no complaints."

  That shut him up soundly. Arin of course knew that she was right. They hadn't been coerced or threatened into being here. They had willingly decided to take a gamble with Naori. And Naori had no reason to rush what was probably a vetting process on her part. And even if it wasn't, something who seemingly wielded so much power like Naori had probably many other things to get done as well. It was kind of presumptuous of him to get angry for having to wait a little.

  Arin walked back into the Bridge of the IMS Second Chance, with Lysa standing up and following him. She still didn't take her eyes off the tablet though. "I think I'm about done with deciphering this thing," she suddenly said to him while holding up the tablet slightly. "The main challenge was activating manual commands. It doesn't take any prompting in Deutsch, but some antiquated version of English seems to work."

  Instantly Arin perked up. "Did you learn anything helpful?" he asked hopefully, but Lysa just shook her head.

  "By now I'm pretty sure there's nothing actually useful on here. Currently I believe all this deciphering the tablet is little more than-"

  "A test, that you've just successfully completed, Lysa Vale," the mechanical voice of Naori suddenly said. Both Vale siblings jumped at the sudden and unexpected presence of Naori.

  "While I was already able to assess your technological agility and strength of character, I needed to test your stubbornness, innovativeness, and your understanding of basic technological principles, even if they are unknown to you, as well. With that you have passed most of my criteria," Naori continued. "Thanks to that, the time has come for you to finally meet me. In five minutes, a group of robots will come to guide you off the ASF Nyx and onto the ASO Glorybound. As you have certainly already suspected we've long since reached the outpost. And now the time for you to learn more has come."

  "So you're finally going to tell us more?" Arin asked into the air, but no answer came and he sighed. "I guess we'll have to wait for a few more minutes..."

  And indeed, five minutes after Naori’s last instruction, a soft chime echoed through the IMS Second Chance, followed by another message from Naori. "Arin and Lysa Vale. Your escort will be here in a few moments."

  And just as announced a group of robots arrived moments later, entering the Bridge of the IMS Second Chance. Their forms were sleek, humanoid only where function demanded it, dark alloy plates marked with faint, luminous sigils that pulsed in slow, synchronized rhythms. They were... different from the robots they had seen until now on the ASF Nyx, as was proven once more a few seconds later when one of them actually spoke!

  "Suit up," the robot in the front ordered, its voice flat but precise. Two containers unfolded from their forearms, revealing spacesuits unlike anything Arin or Lysa had ever seen. They were not bulky or patched together like Ferron industrial EVA gear. The material looked fluid until it touched air, where it settled into layered translucence shot through with threads of light. They held no external tanks or visible seals.

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  Lysa hesitated. "Those are… space suits? Right?"

  "Yes," the construct replied. "They will maintain life support, radiation shielding, inertial dampening, and neural interface stabilization."

  Arin swallowed, instantly on edge. "Neural interface?"

  The construct remained suspiciously silent, waiting for them to take the... spacesuits. And while that did nothing to reassure him, refusal didn't feel like an option that was meaningfully available. So, he sighed and together the Vale siblings donned the suits. The material flowed over them, sealing with a sensation more like cool water than pressure. Displays bloomed across their vision, immediately syncing to their vitals, translating foreign readouts into something they could understand, a clear and easy Deutsch. If Naori being able to speak the Ferron language hadn't been clear enough, this proved beyond a doubt that Naori could've made their task with the tablet much easier if she'd wanted to.

  The robot brought them out of the IMS Second Chance and towards the edge of the gigantic hangar. The moment they came close, the hangar opened smoothly and showed them the outside. Arin’s breath caught despite the suit’s regulation. Naori had called it an outpost. She had not, however, mentioned that it was pretty much an entire spaceport!

  Arin was only able to look into one direction from within the hangar, but it was still obvious that the surface of what must be the ASO Glorybound spanned kilometers. Beside the ASF Nyx, the Battlecruiser suddenly looking incredibly small, and beyond that another spaceship of comparable size, stood an even larger spaceship, this one approaching carrier scale, if not that of a warship. And yet, even with all of them present, there was still space upon the outpost left for other ships.

  "This… this isn’t just some outpost,” Lysa whispered next to him. "This is a staging ground!"

  The robots guided them onto a platform that extended seamlessly from the ASF Nyx to the outpost’s surface. Just a few dozen meters away, another door opened in the ground, this one leading deeper into the outpost. Or at least that's what he'd thought. Instead, they entered something that could only be described as a transport system. There were no doors, nor any visible controls. The platform they stood on detached and quickly blurred forward, a small translucent energy shield forming around it to keep them safe. And just minutes later, after who knows how much distance, the platform stopped before a door which promptly opened in front of them.

  The Vale siblings shared a look with each other before slowly stepping inside the room, their robot escorts following directly after them. The room they entered was incredibly vast and circular, its walls alive with layered projections of stellar maps, energy flows, constructs that represented systems far beyond Ferron space. At its center stood a single figure.

  A giant. There was no other word for it. Five meters tall, humanoid in silhouette but unmistakably artificial, clad in armor that looked less forged than crystallized. Plates overlapped with impossible precision, each etched with sigils that hummed with restrained power. This was an entire extremely futuristic battle armor! And suddenly, said armor turned towards them.

  "Welcome," the figure said. The voice resonated through the chamber, distinctly female but without any other indicators. "You may remove your helmets. The air here is breathable for humans."

  They knew better than to argue with a five-meter behemoth designed for combat. When the seals parted, the air felt… clean. Not sterile like on Ferron space stations or filled with smog as planetside. No, this felt like the one time the Vale siblings had been in a nature reserve in the mountains. The air was... fresh.

  "As you may have already suspected, I am Naori," the giant continued. "I am also an Ascendant Intelligence of the Divine Aetherian Empire."

  The words struck like a physical blow. Lysa staggered back a half-step, her hand brushing Arin’s arm. "No," she said immediately. "No. That’s not possible."

  Arin’s thoughts raced. Like everyone they'd had a basic education of galactic history as well. They knew what the Aetherian Empire was. The galactic overlord for millennia. A nation so powerful it had long since stopped caring for normal resources or the limit of their galaxy. And then, 1.000 years ago, it had suddenly vanished. Entire fleets, entire administrative strata, gone without battle records or refugee trails. The galaxy’s hegemon had simply… ceased to exist. And that had been around the same time the Ruidan's had first entered the galaxy, far more formidable back then than they were nowadays. Just like the entire galaxy, really.

  "You’re little more than a myth," Lysa said hoarsely. "A tale of the past! You’re not supposed to still exist!"

  Naori inclined her head. "I unfortunately lack the enlightenment you seek, Lysa Vale. I cannot explain how some remnants of the Aetherian Empire came to act again. These are questions much better suited for Elder May, I believe. Or, if that term tells you more, the divine Inheritor. But I'm only here because I want your support in my divine mission."

  Arin felt dread coil in his gut. "...Explain it," he demanded. "Explain why something that ruled galaxies with technology far superior to everything we even know of would need us of all things!"

  Silence followed, but only for a second. "As I don't doubt you have noticed, even if what I have is formidable, it is not enough to truly pose a threat to even just your little kingdom, never mind the galaxy. And even worse, I am an AI. I am not a biological Aetherian, so I cannot by myself take up that mantle again."

  She gestured, and the room responded, projections shifting to show vast schematics to the Vale siblings. They understood little of it, but the critical lack of resources was more than apparent even to them.

  "I possess knowledge beyond your era, that much is true," she continued. "But knowledge without infrastructure is inert. I cannot openly acquire resources without provoking forces that would annihilate what remains of divine Aetherian legacy. And even to awake other biological Aetherians, I need resources I currently lack, and I cannot afford to wait."

  Lysa laughed once, sharp and brittle. "So you hide. And you try to recruit miners to make up for your shortcomings. Us."

  "Yes," Naori replied simply. "I know everything about you. Your parents were conscripted for the war effort against the Federation. Then they died in Ferron service. Their debt was transferred to you under predatory statutes. Your education was sacrificed so that you could pay back the debt, that was why you started as miners. You were denied mobility not for lack of merit, but because Ferron’s fringe systems are designed to remain static.”

  Each sentence tightened like a vice. And with dread, both realized that Naori truly had done her research. "This is, of course, not unique in the current time and situation," Naori went on. "It is systemic. Ferron does not cultivate ascent. It harvests stagnation."

  Arin felt anger flare but beneath it, fear. "Why tell us this?" Lysa asked. "Why us specifically?"

  "Because you are my best bet," Naori said. "And you passed all of my tests, so that makes you qualified enough."

  The armor stepped closer. Despite its size, the movement was controlled, almost reverent. "I will offer you resources, protection, and opportunity beyond Ferron’s limits," Naori said. "In return, you will act as my representatives. You will acquire what I cannot. You will undermine systems that would otherwise choke my rebirth."

  Lysa shook her head slowly. "You’re asking us to become traitors. Traitors to Ferron, to our nation."

  "Yes."

  "Do you know what happens if this is discovered?" Arin asked.

  "Yes. It will most likely mean destruction of you and force me into a retreat, failing my divine mission in the progress."

  "And yet you’re still asking us?"

  "Yes."

  Another silence. This one was different. Heavier. Because now the choice was real. And what Naori was offering them was a choice in the end, even if it was a hard one.

  Lysa closed her eyes. When she opened them, there was resolve there but also grief. "What happens if we refuse?"

  "I will not coerce you," Naori said. "You will be returned. Ferron will continue as it has. Others will rise in your place and help me instead. But I believe it unlikely that you will refuse."

  That was both the promise and the threat. Arin felt the weight of it then, not the promise of power, but the responsibility of proximity. He looked at Lysa. She looked back. They had grown up believing the galaxy was immutable, that empires rose and fell without regard for the small. Now one of the greatest powers to ever exist stood before them, asking for their help. Not because they were special. But because they were there and the best option at the moment. And they were offered the opportunity to actually change and affect things for the better! There was no need to argue further.

  "We’ll do it," Lysa said quietly. "Not for Ferron. Not for you either. But for the people who never get a chance."

  Arin nodded along. "If this power is coming back… then someone has to decide how it’s used. And that is what you're offering us, right? Influence to do things better."

  The armor inclined its head, slow and precise. "Exactly. And with our bargain sealed, I promise I will help you achieve your goals, just as you will help me achieve mine."