Caveship

23 || The Station

"Maybe it responds to need, like the ship does," Darius suggests, moving to join Tah-Kuell, with the others not far behind. "Let's just go on ahead. We need to find out why we're here. And perhaps some food. Food would be nice."

"Maybe this place has like a command center or something," Sophia interjects, holding up her arm so she can speak into it. "Hey, omnitool, we need to go to the main command center." After a few long moments of nothing happening, she gives up. "Great. It doesn't work." 

"Try saying something to it that stems from need," Tah-Kuell says. "You know, like when you need it to defend yourself."

Sophia raises an eyebrow and tries to think. She looks at her omnitool. "I..." She stops, looking at the others, considering her words. "We...want to go home. If there's anything in this place that can help us get back there, please, show us the way."

From the edges of the dock, underneath the marble-like floor, crystal blue energy surges through until it gets beneath their feet. Without any sound or warning, their surroundings shift as if it had all been part of an illusion. Now they gaze and look at the new chamber around them, a library of sorts, but where a library might have bookshelves full of books, enormous white pillars rise from the floor up several stories high before disappearing into the ceiling. In between them, crystalline shapes beckon toward the group as if they were organic and alive. They are constantly changing shapes, rotating in a uniform circular motion before resting beside the pillars and giving off a gentle glow.

A sudden shriek from Sarah gets everyone immediately on edge, turning to face a potential threat, but the girl backs away from what seems like skeletons in spacesuits huddled on the ground against one of the nearby pillars.

"Oh my God," Ava begins, moving in closer with a notably morbid curiosity. "What happened to them?"

Tah-Kuell joins Ava in investigating, kneeling down close. "These look like Praeryndori skeletons. You can tell because their bone structure is thin, light, and notably hollow." He reaches out and plucks a single, small bone from the pile, and easily snaps it in half. "I wonder if these Praeryndori were like us. Traveled here along with their ship, probably ran out of food..."

"Scared me half to death," Sarah frowns, rubbing her arms with her hands, as if suddenly beset with the chill of her own fragile mortality. "I really hope we don't wind up like them."

"Nor do I. What good is knowledge of the Makers if you die acquiring it?" Tah-Kuell frowns, turning away from the skeletons of another unwilling crew, and walking over toward one of the crystalline structures. "Now, I'm not an expert in Maker technology, but if it's anything like how they designed the ship..." One of the crystalline objects slowly descends to meet his eye level. Once it does, Tah-Kuell motions toward Nicholas. "Come here. I don't think I'll be able to access this sort of technology, but I have a suspicion that anyone with an omnitool should be able to."

Upon approach, the crystals react to Nicholas, and they light up a pure white. From the energy pulsing through the structure, a tiny glowing orb forms almost like a bubble and shoots out into the air. For a moment it hovers over the group, before flitting back over the structure. It changes shape and size and flitters with small bursts of energy radiating from it, almost like a spark. "Hello." says the spark, shimmering as it does. "What do you seek here?" Though it doesn't make actual noise, the group can hear the echo of it within their minds, not feminine, though not masculine either. Only Tah-Kuell seems completely fine with what's happening.

"It's like when the Mowaii were speaking with us," Sophia groans, rubbing her temples. "So weird."

Ignoring Sophia's plight, Nicholas gets closer to the spark and lifts a hand up to get its attention. "Hello there. I'm Nicholas. We're just looking for—"