We came out of the space bridge to the twilight zone. The place was dimly lit and filled with debris. Sharp objects all over. We had to be extra careful when we navigated through to get to the ship. It was a tentative class ship called Ops. The hull was silver and there were rust spots dotted here and there. Ferra was muttering about carelessness. She is a Shan. An orange haired with red poke marks on her olive skin. She was a girl in her twenties. She likes to wear knee length tight pants with a printed thigh length loose shirt. Her nails raked over her seat as she saw the hull. She loves a well maintained ship. Blurb was a Toyer so he was interested in all of the ship's goods. He was trying to figure out the prices of the various items. Some were accurate but others were off.
Mako was a different species. He is a Carnivorous. His skin is two toned and was rough to the touch as though his skin had small protrusion almost like teeth. The back half of his skin dark gray with a large protruding dorsal fin and the front half was white. His eyes was all black. He was watching the ship like it was food. He smiled at us and the rest of us flinched as we saw rows and rows of thin serrated teeth. Mako is seriously addicted to the cutting torch. He was watching as we took the safest position. We had forty minutes before the salvage company came to drag this to the one and only midnight zone. It is known as the legalized graveyard for any and all of the decommissioned ships. Once there they will use electrical pulses to make sure everything is only worth scrap metal. And nothing less than that.
I boarded Midnight Menace for security purposes. The guys were curious. I explained that if this is a trap I can bust them out. I was going to use the ship sensor to see if there were any survivors left inside. Bo was curious how the ship could do it. I explained once the ship was repaired I managed to salvage some memories of it's previous adventures. It was once used to detect life during the old wartime. According to records it has something called The Ampullae of Lorenzini. He whistled lowly, "That is the predator's secret detection system. This ship's got one? Does it have a nictitating windows" I nod my head. He gave it an approving nod. He mentioned that only a few ships had such abilities.
He is concerned that this might be a devourer ship. If so then the government will confiscate it for experimental purposes. The law specifically says so. I told him my ship is not going anywhere. He smiled, "Th curator finds out what you have he will personally deliver it to the government for the reward." I told him that just because my ship different he has no right to call it a devourer. This is a rescue ship. He apologized as he boarded the other ship. I told the others to watch him. He seems to be offended the ship came to our rescue. They agreed as they boarded the ship. I scanned the price for any traps and called it in. The others went in and quickly gathered everything useful and we made it back. I made sure any record of menace being a devourer was deleted.
Bo snuck in and came out angry. He was hoping for the reward and he missed it. The others were snickering as he licked his wounds. The curator told us to stop wasting precious time. He has a new target which he has confirmed won't be a trap for Nox. He was hopping on the balls of his feet which means the items will fetch him billions at the least. We went to the western quarter of the twilight zone. It wasn't the sanitized weapons we were after. We were after the metal the ship was made from. It was made from Amagi-Dari. A metal that can withstand heat, cold, pressure and other endurance tests. It was stripmined from Tetra Terrain. The place is now a protected area growing rare plants from all over the galaxy.
Transformium is the only other metal that is certified as the best at endurance but unfortunately it is very expensive. Very few places would sell them and they are very careful to whom they sell it. Usually they mix it with Iron ore or other metals. They would never sell it in its pure form. So to get this was a guarantee to get rich. A few crew members talked about moving elsewhere. I wanted to the Everglades. I heard they were selling land if we were farmers. I wanted to grow a variety of starches. Or I could grow some medicinal plants. I could raise farm animals. We got there and had to carefully maneuver as debris of destroyed ship floated towards us.
The ship floated between Arcan and Astra ship. They looked like sentinels. It was very surreal. A close inspection of the ship had my pulse racing. The Arcan ship was Barbosa. It was badly damaged. I recalled it was transporting orphan children to the Hae. For reasons unknown it went missing and my people had to pay a heavy price. It was a few months before I moved Antar. I can hear my heartbeat thudding in my ears as I recalled the concerned citizens who were protesting outside the parliament, the military bases and the palace and also the various embassies we had on different planets. We had to close a few embassies. There sessions on the galactic senate where senators were requesting to execute the ones who were escorting them to Hae.
I remember the fire brandishers would have to go out and blow fifty foot flames only to be countered by water wielders in the crowd. The earth crafters from either side showing off their talents. One side to defuse and the other to make a point. The worst was the combustion ability of the air gliders. At first it sent the angry protesters running home. Then they used it to destroy a monument. The arrests had filled the holding area to capacity. A lockdown was enforced and we weren't even allowed to come home and see family members. I remember my follow brethrens would double check to see if their relatives were home or in the holding area. Gramsy was happy that I chose to be a medic. She met quite a few who tried to scream at her only to find out she is the granddaughter of the only contentious objector. She made a few friends.
I snapped out of the memory and went straight to work. The ship was stripped of the precious metal. The trick was to tap it. The normal metal has a sound. The metal we are searching for barely make a sound. We got it and came back. I kept quiet and the others didn't say a word. The captain asked me if I was ok. I told him that I skipped breakfast. So tapping the metal reminded me of the bell the cook used to ring to remind us it was time to eat. His expression was switching between anger and despair. He asked me if Barbosa triggered anything. I was about to say something when my stomach growled. So he stepped aside to let me grab lunch. The others were laughing at my response since they have never heard the lunch bell before.