Chapter 9 – Giggle at the Ghostie
Midnight had long since passed when the last train for Ponyville had finally reached the station of the small town, delayed two hours due to a fault of the locomotive. The steam-powered machine slowed down until it finally stopped in front of the platform with a screech of brakes and several puffs of steam, then, once completely still, the doors of the train cars opened.
The few passengers who disembarked from the train grabbed their luggage and began to drowsily walk toward their respective homes, tired both from the long journey and the late hour.
Among the ponies who came down from the train there was a certain young pink earth pony mare with wild curly hair and tail.
Pinkie Pie yawned. The return trip from her hometown had been tiresome even for her, but it was worth it. It wasn't often that she had the opportunity to see her whole family, due to Maud being often involved in some expedition somewhere on the globe, so she had made sure to enjoy the two weeks with her family.
After having left some cupcakes for the machinists and the conductor of the train, the young mare adjusted her oversized travel backpack on her shoulders with a shrug and began to walk toward Sugarcube Corner, humming the song that her granny had taught her to win over her fears.
She still couldn't fathom why so many ponies were afraid of the night. The criminal rate was very low in Equestria and was practically nonexistent in Ponyville, while the dangerous creatures that roamed the Everfree Forest dwelled away from the populated areas.
'They don't know what they’re missing,' she thought as she enjoyed the stroll toward home. It was a nice night, like many in the small town. The air was pleasantly cool, pervaded by the pleasant smell of jasmine coming from the nearby garden of the flower sisters, the sky was full of stars, and from the bushes of the nearby park came the usual night concert of the crickets.
After a few minutes of walking, she had almost reached her destination. There it was, right at the end of the street. Her home away from home. Sugarcube Corner.
The mere sight of the colorful building made her smile grow wider. Not only did she have a lot of happy memories related to that place, but she considered the Cakes like a second family.
Her smile turned however in a confused frown when she noticed at the next road junction a faint distortion in the air, like the ones caused by heat in a hot summer day.
She blinked. The distortion was gone. 'What?' She shook her head and blinked again. Nothing. 'Maybe I'm just tired,' she thought, scratching her nape in confusion.
She was about to shrug off the episode as a trick of her eyes, when her body began acting weirdly, shaking uncontrollably for several seconds before it stopped abruptly.
'Oh, this is not good,' she thought worriedly.
The last time her body had acted this way was when Twilight tried to figure out her 'Pinkie Sense', only to end up accepting the fact that some things are destined to remain a mystery. But this time it was different. Along with the tremor, she felt a nasty pinch in her knee and a cold shiver ran from her nape down to her back. She gasped when she grasped the implications. Whatever strange thing was about to happen not only wasn't something good, but it was also dangerous and scary.
She and her friends had faced many bad individuals during their adventures. What if one of them had come here seeking revenge? The thought of her friends getting hurt was all she needed to shake off any form of hesitation or fear.
'Agent Pinkie will not allow any Meanie MacPants to sneak in and try to hurt her friends,' Equestria's number one Party Planner thought with determination as she let her instinct guide her to the unknown threat, leading right where Golden Oak Library was located.
Tarya felt her left eye begin to twitch. 'I surely didn't expect this.'
The young Zealot had seen many strange things in her life, but this was easily one of the weirdest. In front of them proudly stood a huge oak tree, easily four-stories tall. Actually, the tree literally had four stories. From her position, the Zealot could clearly see windows, balconies, and a front door, all seamlessly integrated with the trunk of the giant plant. Among the highest branches there was even a small terrace with what seemed to be a telescope.
But what was maybe most disconcerting was that the tree's location coincided exactly with the coordinates of the focal point of the energy beam.
'What if it’s a disguise?' She suddenly thought. The Zealot switched her vision to the infrared spectrum, but a quick analysis clearly showed that the leaves contained chlorophyll.
“It's a tree,” she finally said. “They made a building out of a living tree.”
“So it would seem,” was the simple reply of her teammate.
She turned toward Zhar. Thanks to the visual systems in her suit, she was able to see the silhouette of the other Sangheili, as well as her own body, outlined in blue, in a similar way to the VISR system used by the ODSTs.
“You don't seem particularly impressed,” she noted, trying to hide the annoyance in her voice. So far, Zhar had showed only two moods: quiet and pissed off. Not that she wasn't glad that he wasn't in berserker mode, but she was starting to find his lack of emotions rather unnerving.
“I've heard that there are similar things on Eayn (1), although with a design more simple,” the Commando replied.
The Zealot rolled her eyes, but said nothing, instead she observed the bizarre building more carefully, trying to find the best way to get inside.
'Alright, let's see. The frames of the windows of the ground floor are too small to fit our bodies, and we risk breaking some of the branches trying to reach the balconies. The only remaining option is the front door. It seems sturdy, but with the right tools I should be able to-'
“Ah-ha! Gotcha!” a high-pitched female voice much too close for their tastes exclaimed suddenly.
To her great shock, a new contact had appeared out of nowhere on her radar, just a few meters from their position. She turned slowly toward the source of the voice, only to be welcomed by a strange sight.
In front of them was a female pony dressed with a yellow tank top and green shorts, a huge backpack on her shoulders. The mare had a curvy body, tending to the plump side without being fat, with a pink coat and wild curly hair of a darker shade of pink. A strong scent of sugar and baked goods came from her, but Tarya couldn't tell if it was her natural odor or if it was due to working in a bakery.
'Where the hell did she come from?!' She thought, shocked. 'The motion tracker was clear a moment ago!'
The pony narrowed her childishly big blue eyes and scrunched her muzzle in what was supposed to be a serious face. Unfortunately, such an expression was completely out of place on her face.
'Eh. She would be intimidating if she were... well, intimidating,' Tarya thought amusedly despite everything.
The situation lost all traces of humor when the mare suddenly raised a hand, as if trying to probe the air, then she began to slowly advance toward the two cloaked Sangheili.
“I know you are there,” she said.
'Impossible,' she thought, shocked. 'She can't detect us with the active camo. Right?'
The distance between the pony and the two Sangheili was reducing dangerously and what was worse was that the mare was just a few steps from Zhar.
The hand of the Commando had instinctively moved to the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it, when an amber light in his HUD flashed twice, making him turn turn toward the Zealot. Tarya shook her head quickly. Even without words, the message was clear: no lethal force.
After a few tense moments, Zhar moved his hand away from the sword; instead, he brought back his arm and widened his hand, ready to knock out the mare with an open palm strike.
Painful, but at least she would live.
The hand of the pink mare was just a few inches from the chestplate of the Commando when a new feminine voice spoke.
“Pinkie? Is that you?”
Twilight and Flash were on their way back to the library from the park, when they noticed a familiar pink earth pony mare standing in front of the entrance of a dark alley with a hand raised, as if trying to touch something.
“Pinkie? Is that you?” Twilight Sparkle asked, pleasantly surprised, causing her friend to drop her arm and turn around on her hooves.
“Twilight, Flash! Thank Celestia you're here!” the pink mare exclaimed and before they could react, she trapped them in one of her distinctive bear hugs, reminding them of the exceptional strength hidden under her soft appearance.
“What's going on?” Twilight managed to ask once her friend released them from her bone-breaking hug.
“I was walking to Sugarcube Corner, when all of sudden my Pinkie Sense began tingling.”
“Twitchy tail?” Twilight asked with anxiety, looking up and scanning the sky frantically for eventual falling objects.
“Worse,” Pinkie Pie said dramatically, looking at her with a deadly serious expression. “First my body was all wobbly, then my knee was pinchy, and then I felt this chilly shiver run down my back.”
Twilight tried to remember the meaning of that specific combination, but had little success. “Uh, which would mean?” she asked with an equal amount of curiosity and nervousness.
“There's something scary and dangerous. And it's right there,” she said, pointing dramatically toward a dark alley just a few meters away.
Twilight and Flash glanced at the alley behind the pink mare. Besides from some dumpsters, it seemed empty.
“Are you sure that there's somepony there? I don't see anything,” Flash admitted.
“Duh, of course you don't! It's invisible!”
“Invisible?” the orange pegasus asked, raising a brow.
“Yeah! Something's hiding in that alley and it's invisible. I've even seen it.”
Flash blinked, clearly confused. “How could you have seen it if it's invisible?”
“Well, it's not exactly invisible,” Pinkie Pie admitted. “You see, while I was walking to Sugarcube Corner I saw the air shiver faintly for a brief moment.”
“Uh, how brief?”
“Hmm, a blink?” The earth pony mare offered.
Flash exchanged a glance with Twilight. She could clearly see his skepticism, although he had decided against voicing it, probably fearing to offend Pinkie.
To be honest, Twilight thought that the whole thing was strange too, however, she was more than willing to have an open mind. Not only because she had witnessed many strange things since she had arrived in Ponyville, but also because it wouldn't be right to ignore the concerns of Pinkie Pie. She had learned from her own expense what happens when you ignore the worries of a friend, even if they seem like minor nuisances.
“You- you believe me, right?” Pinkie asked with hesitation.
“Of course, Pinkie,” Twilight said with a reassuring smile. “If you say that something's hiding in the alley, then I'm going to believe you.”
“And although I'm still a bit skeptical, you two can count on me,” Flash said with a smirk. “Hmm, just out of curiosity, how are we supposed to find something that's invisible?”
“Fortunately, I know a spell for these kinds of situations.”
She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing, focusing for the task ahead of her. Her horn began to glow and soon it started to hum softly, emitting magenta waves of energy.
“Strange,” she muttered after a few moments, furrowing her brows.
“What?”
“I feel something, but I'm not sure what is it.”
A metallic clatter rang through the air suddenly, breaking her concentration and interrupting the spell. The three ponies turned toward the alley, where they saw an empty tin can rolling on the ground.
Twilight narrowed her gaze. “Who's there?” she demanded with authority, but no reply came. 'Maybe Pinkie was right after all.'
She took a step ahead, determined to clearly see what was happening, when she felt Flash's hand gently grab her arm.
“Ah ah ah. Don't rush. We go together,” Flash said, looking the alicorn in the eyes.
Twilight nodded. She knew that the guard was perfectly aware that she was able to take care of herself, but she also knew that there was no point in going alone headfirst into a potentially dangerous situation.
Flash carefully put down the holdall containing the disassembled telescope and checked for something quickly under his black jacket. Satisfied, he began to slowly advance toward the alley, followed closely by the two mares.
The atmosphere in the alley wasn't the most inviting, what little light coming from the moon was barely enough to see where they were going, and the only sound was the one of their hooves on the ground.
“I'm happy to see you guys again,” Pinkie said quietly, breaking the unnerving silence.
“I'm happy that you're back. I thought that you would have returned tomorrow,” the alicorn replied, giving a broad smile to her friend.
“Maud had to leave for an expedition to the Macintosh Hills, so I accompanied her to the airport of Las Pegasus before continuing to Ponyville,” the party planner explained.
“That's a pretty big deviation,” Twilight noted.
“When you're family, you make this and more,” Pinkie said with a shrug. “Soooo, what were you two doing?”
“We've just come back from the the park. I had a bad day, and Flash offered to accompany me to the hill to watch the stars with my telescope. The sight of the night sky always helps me to relax.”
“Oh, nice! But why didn’t you use the upper balcony of the library?”
“Well, the hill is more spacious and also offers a good view of the landscape... and the upper balcony is not available at the moment.”
“What's happened?”
Twilight looked away, embarrassed. “Well, you see-”
One of the metal trash cans behind them suddenly overturned with a loud noise, spilling garbage on the ground, while its top rolled away until it clashed against the opposite wall of the alley.
The ponies turned abruptly toward the source of the noise, just to see a pair of menacing yellow eyes with slit pupils staring at them from the dark. Twilight readied herself to use her magic, while Flash drew his pistol from the holster hidden under his jacket and aimed it at the unknown threat.
“Freeze!” he shouted.
“MEOW!”
The orange pegasus slightly lowered his weapon and cocked his head in confusion. “What?”
The alicorn's horn glowed, flooding the area with light and revealing the identity of the mysterious presence. Standing on top of a trash can was a big black cat that was looking at them with unconcealed hostility.
“Phew,” Flash Sentry breathed in relief, putting his pistol back into the holster. “So, it was you all the time, eh, little fella?” he chuckled, trying to pet the head of the cat. The cat in response hissed and clawed the air in front of him, trying to scratch the outstretched hand of the pegasus.
“Whoa, buddy,” the young guard exclaimed, retracting his hand out of reach from the sharp talons of the cat. “I get it, you want to stay alone.”
The cat gave them a last nasty glance, then it jumped on the ground and walked away.
“Mystery solved,” Twilight said with a smirk. Her expression turned however to a worried frown when she saw Pinkie Pie. Her hair had partly deflated and she was looking in disbelief in the direction where the cat had gone.
“Pinkie? Are you alright?” Twilight asked cautiously.
“Yeah,” she said, before frowning. “I mean, no. I mean- urgh!” the usually happy party planner exclaimed irritably, stomping toward the exit of the alley.
Twilight and Flash exchanged a glance and hurried after her. Pinkie Pie was visibly upset, something that happened very rarely.
“I don't understand! I was so sure that there was something hiding here, instead it was just a grumpy kitty.”
“Pinkie, please, calm down,” Twilight said in attempt to tranquilize her friend.
“Calm down? Calm down?! How can I calm down, Twilight?” In a blink the earth pony was in front of the alicorn and grabbed her by the shoulders. “My Pinkie sense was wrong! It has never been wrong!” She exclaimed, shaking her friend. “What if it were to happen again? What if I were the only one able to feel a danger but I couldn't?” She suddenly stopped shaking Twilight and gasped dramatically. “What if there's a party and I don't know about it?” she exclaimed, clearly horrified by the perspective. “All these bad things would happen and nopony would be able to know about them in advance and it would be. All. My. Fault!”
Twilight brought her wings around her friend, enveloping her in a warm hug. The effect on the distressed mare was almost instantaneous, her breathing become more regular and her expression relaxed.
“Pinkie, you have no reason to blame yourself. Being wrong can happen to anypony, it's natural. Trust me, I know how it feels to be wrong when you're so sure of something, heck, just look at my lab after the experiment.”
“Experiment?” Pinkie Pie asked in confusion, forgetting her frustrations for a moment.
“Err, long story. I'll tell you tomorrow. The point is, you weren't doing anything bad, in fact, you were just worried for those you care about.”
“This doesn't change the fact that my Pinkie Sense was wrong,” she grumbled, crossing her arms. “It’s never happened before.”
“Maybe it's because you’re fatigued from the long journey,” Twilight offered. “I have no idea how you special ability works, but everypony is more inclined to commit mistakes when tired.
“... yeah, maybe,” Pinkie Pie conceded, finally looking at her. “Well, I better go. I wanna wake up early to prepare a surprise breakfast for the Cakes and the twins,” she said with a small smile. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
“Of course! I would be happy to hear about your vacation, as will the girls I’m sure.”
“Great! I have a lot of photos to show you. Nighty nighty!” She waved at them and walked away, although without her trademark bouncing gait.
“I still feel sorry for her. She was so sure of herself,” Twilight admitted.
“Yeah, me too. At least, she seems to have taken it rather well,” Flash commented.
“It's one of the perks of being Pinkie Pie. No matter what life throws at you, she will always be able to find a way to cheer up.” Her gaze drifted briefly toward the alley. “I don't think it was the cat,” she said suddenly.
“What?”
“The strange feeling that I felt when I cast the spell. It wasn't the natural magic signature of a cat. It felt different, like some kind of disturbance in the environment.”
“If it wasn't the cat, then what was it?” Flash asked, trying to hide the hint of nervousness in his voice.
Twilight tapped her index finger on her chin, assuming a contemplative expression. “Hmm, probably just a residual effect of this afternoon's accident,” she concluded with a shrug. “Energy emissions of that entity can interfere with the magic of a spellcaster.”
The pegasus looked at her with concern. “Do you feel alright?”
Twilight smiled at him reassuringly. “Thanks for the concern, but you don't have to worry. It's just a temporary nuisance, I know from personal experience that all residual effects will disappear within the next few hours.”
Twilight yawned, covering her mouth with a hand. “Well, I don't know about you, but I think that we'd better follow Pinkie's example and go to bed. Tomorrow we have to complete the inventory of the rock samples to be returned to the Museum.”
“Oh, joy,” the pegasus said with a hint of sarcasm as he grabbed the sack with the telescope from the ground, causing the alicorn to roll her eyes in amusement.
Twilight and Flash resumed their path toward the library, completely unaware of the two concealed presences intent on observing them.
“That was close,” the Zealot muttered, releasing a breath of relief once she was sure that the ponies were far enough.
She and Zhar had retreated inside of the alley to rely on the shadows to hide the slight optical distortion caused by the active camo when the user moved, but in the process she had inadvertently kicked a tin can lying on the ground. Fortunately, the ponies hadn't seen the tin jar as it moved apparently by itself, but the noise hadn't gone unnoticed.
Her moment of relief didn't last long. Her body tensed when she felt the big hand of the Commando on her shoulder. She turned, only to see the emotionless helmet of Zhar a few inches from her face.
“Next time, try to be more careful,” the Commando said coldly. “You may not be so lucky.”
The conversation that they had on the ship before the mission flashed through her mind and once again the Zealot wondered if the rumors about the Commando killing his subordinates when they committed a mistake were true.
“Anyway,” he continued with a more casual tone. “good idea using the cat as a diversion, although it was a bit risky.”
Tarya gulped nervously. “I had to think quickly.”
Zhar nodded, then he looked back in direction of the tree. “I wonder how they managed to sense our presence even with the active camo,” he said as he watched the two ponies go inside the library, turning on some of the lights.
“Maybe they're able to perceive the interferences in the electromagnetic field or in the air pressure,” Tarya offered. “Nax theorized that the Changelings use their horns as a natural condenser for some kind of energy that they then exploit in different ways, from energy beams to telekinesis. After seeing that sort of scan performed by the one called Twilight, I think that it’s reasonable to think that the same thing happens with the ponies who have a horn.”
“This still doesn't explain how the pink one could sense our position or how she managed to come so close without us noticing,” Zhar pointed out.
Tarya had to agree with him, it didn't make any sense. A thought suddenly struck her mind. “How come you weren't able to notice her? No offense, but you are quite an expert in fighting stealthy enemies.”
That was an understatement. The number of Jiralhanae Stalkers and ODST commandos that the Spec Ops Officer had killed in his career was impressive, to say the least. According to some rumors, he was even responsible for the death of a team of Headhunters, but the relative files were classified.
The Commando growled, barely containing his irritation. “I have no idea, but I can assure you that she will not have a second chance.”
Tarya decided to not press the matter. Zhar was well known to be a hellhound on the battlefield. The fact that he hadn't been able to detect the mare must have been a blow to his pride.
They waited in silence before the lights of the library were turned off, then, once sure that there weren't signs of activity, they neared the building. It was even bigger when seen up close. Tarya touched the massive trunk, feeling the rough texture of the bark. She smirked. Her uncle would have been fascinated by the sight of the tree.
Her attention was then caught by a big wooden signboard located next to the entrance.
“Golden Oak Library,” she read aloud. “Not really creative, but it seems appropriate.”
The signboard also contained some informative lines about the history of the library. Most of the information was useless to them, nothing more than a curiosity, but the last lines told her a different story.
“Oh, this explains the bodyguard,” she commented, clearly intrigued.
“What have you found?” Zhar asked getting closer.
“According to these notes, the library is also the residence of princess Twilight Sparkle.”
“Really? How interesting. Then it's a further reason to take a look.”
The Zealot studied the door's lock. “Give me a few minutes,” she said, crouching in front of the lock and extracting some tools from a pocket in her breastplate.
It wasn't long before the lock clicked opened with a barely audible sound.
“Here we go,” Tarya said, opening the door with a gentle push and standing up straight again.
'When you deal with plasma reactors and antigravity plates on daily basis, a mechanical lock is a walk in the park,' she thought while putting the burglary tools back in place and taking a step inside the strange building.
The moment she was inside the room, the eyes of the Zealot began to sparkle in excitement. The walls were entirely covered with books, all placed neatly on shelves that seemed to have been grown from the wood of the walls rather than assembled. An entire library filled with the knowledge of a completely unknown species was right in front of her, waiting to be read. It took all her willpower to avoid succumbing to her thirst for knowledge and grabbing the nearest book.
'There will be time later for this. For now, let's focus on the mission,' she thought, studying the room in search of anything that could led them to the origin of the energy beam. 'Let's see, shelves filled to the brim with books, a big round table with chairs, a ramp of stairs that go upwards, two doors, a hole in the ceiling- wait, a hole in the ceiling?'
The hole was circular, at least half a meter wide, with charred edges, like if it had been created by something incredibly hot. Looking down at the floor, she found a hole that matched the one in the ceiling. She compared the vector of the energy ray with the disposition of the two holes, finding out that they matched perfectly.
“Seems like the shot came from downstairs,” she commented. “There should be an access for the basement, somewhere.”
It didn't take long to find it. Of the two doors, one gave access to what seemed to be a kitchen, while other lead to a ramp of stairs that went down.
They walked cautiously down the stairs, making sure to distribute their weight uniformly on the wooden steps to avoid causing unwanted noise, until they reached what looked like a laboratory.
Along with more shelves loaded with books, the wide room was filled with an incredible amount of what seemed to be scientific equipment, as well as blackboards and tables loaded with countless laboratory glassware and sheets of formulas.
What had these things in common? Almost everything in the lab was destroyed or damaged.
Many glass containers were cracked or shattered, the halos caused by the spilled liquid that they once contained evident on the surfaces on which they rested, the electronic equipment was destroyed or heavily damaged, while the tables and a good portion of the wooden floor were blackened, evidently burned by an explosion whose epicenter seemed to be a strange device located in the middle of the room, right under the hole in the ceiling.
“So this would be the experiment that Twilight Sparkle mentioned,” Zhar commented, studying the strange device.
“So it would seem. Or at least, this is what is left of it,” Tarya replied as she examined the wreckage of the equipment. Thermionic valves? She already knew that the ponies were a primitive race, but she expected that they had at least invented the transistor. “It doesn't take a genius to know that something went wrong.”
She spent the next several minutes examining the device, taking pictures and performing scans of the different components.
“I don't know about you, but whatever this thing is, it doesn't seem to be a weapon,” she said once she had finished. “There are no targeting systems, nor even a mechanism to adjust the inclination or even move it. Most importantly, I doubt that anybody would be stupid enough to try to shoot an energy weapon in a closed environment, especially if it can only fire perpendicularly to the ground. My best guess is that it's some kind of device to generate energy.”
“What brings you to such a conclusion?”
“This,” she said, showing what seemed a curved fragment of rock covered by crystalline material in the convex section.
“A fragment of a geode?”
Tarya nodded. “The power plant in that town was full of these things. From what I was able to understand, the locals managed to find a way to use them as batteries, although I still have no idea what kind of energy they use to charge them.”
Zhar remained in silence for a few minutes, digesting the information. “So, we were basically just in the wrong place at the wrong time?” he eventually asked.
“As astronomically low as it is, statistically speaking,” - she admitted - “I think that's what happened.”
The Commando snorted. “All those precautions and paranoia, just to discover that it was a lucky shot.”
“Well, try to look at the bright side. We have one less thing to be worried about, and we didn't have to blow up anything.”
“Many things can still happen. If there is a thing that I know for sure, is that things never go according to plan,” he said, making his way to the stairs.
“Just out of curiosity, what kind of explosives have you brought?” she asked, following him.
“Proximity bombs, explosive charges, plasma grenades, and some cans of C7, as well as the relative detonators.”
Tarya was astonished by the amount of explosive that Zhar was carrying. He had enough firepower to blow a hole in the hull of a human destroyer. But there was something that confused her.
“Where did you get those cans of explosive?”
“Black market,” was the curt reply of Zhar as he opened the door to the library's lobby.
“Oh.” That explained a lot. When the war against humanity ended, a lot of war material was looted, not just from the Covenant arsenals, but also from the ones of the UNSC. She was then reminded of the conversation that she had with the doctor. “Let me guess. Fireteam Heretic?”
The Commando nodded. “The only reason why those two idiots are on the ship is because of their shooting skills and the fact that, thanks to their previous career as mercenaries, they have contacts in the underground.”
Tarya grabbed the handle of the front door, but paused and gave a last look around. 'Might as well take advantage of the situation,' she thought, walking toward one of the bookshelves.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you think? I'm gathering intel,” she replied as she scrolled quickly through the different titles. “Help me finding something useful on our guests.”
After a quick search, they managed to find what they were looking for. Two slim volumes, respectively named Base guide to Equestria and Surroundings, and Introduction to the Pony Race.
The Zealot put them both on a nearby table and began to browse quickly through the books, not even bothering to read what was written on the pages, instead scanning the text with the camera of her helmet, so that she could read their content once they were in a safe place.
The entire process lasted just a few minutes and, once she had finished, she put the books back in place.
“Alright, we can go now.”
The Commando nodded. “Let's find a quiet place from where we can contact the battlecruiser and inform the Shipmaster that the inhabitants don't pose a threat to us. After that, we'll rest a bit until the crack of dawn. I have the impression that tomorrow will be a long day.”