Gaia found Niya's words intriguing.
"Niya, what do you mean by black mist?"
she asked patiently.
But Niya's sign language skills were clearly not advanced enough to explain something whose true nature she herself did not understand.
After all, she did not know what her own ability really represented, nor did she have any chance to understand what terrible secrets were contained within the projections of those dark entities.
She could only describe her own vague subjective feeling:
"It was something very bad."
Even though Niya's description was extremely unclear, Gaia, who knew that blanks were the inverse polarity of psychic power, still gave serious thought to those words.
She did not know exactly what this so-called black mist looked like from Niya's perspective.
But something that made a soulless one feel bad was very likely some kind of concrete manifestation of a special psychic phenomenon as seen through Niya's eyes.
At that thought, she turned and looked at the closed medicae station door, her gaze shifting slightly.
Although she had not noticed anything specifically strange about Priestess Lena, she still remembered Niya's words and decided to pay closer attention to that mysterious Genetor in the future.
...
"Mr. Tylvius gave us the supplies we needed in advance, but he said the servitors and crew still haven't all been gathered yet. We'll have to come back after returning from Swuvi to finish counting our people."
On the bridge, Solomon, having already finished checking the cargo and supplies, smiled as he spoke to Gaia beside him.
Gaia was not surprised by that outcome.
With a commission like this, there was always going to be a final payment left hanging.
The fact that the other side was willing to give them an advance and not even demand collateral already made him the most generous client imaginable.
"For throne gelt... no, wait, for justice, set course for Swuvi."
Solomon, putting on an air of ceremony, activated the freshly repaired main engines.
Scorching ion plumes erupted outward, and the roughly refurbished Spear of Destiny slowly departed the berth like a drawn blade.
Its long, sleek hull cut through the black curtain of the stars as it began to glide and accelerate, preparing to head at full speed toward Swuvi, which was not especially far away.
However, just as it was about to complete its final acceleration using a gravity slingshot, a stray asteroid suddenly appeared and nearly smashed into the ship's side.
The smile on Solomon's face froze.
He suddenly remembered that Mitchell, the Navigator who used to warn them of danger in advance, was still in the middle of his own resurrection attempt.
Which meant that if nothing unexpected happened, he would personally have to micro-manage the whole voyage to Swuvi by hand.
Fortunately, the distance between Swuvi and Igor III was less than ten light-years, and Tylvius had already given them a stable Warp route, so the Spear of Destiny only needed to perform a short Warp jump to reach Swuvi.
Under normal circumstances, that kind of short-range jump was generally safe.
But with the Spear of Destiny in its current state, Solomon still could not help breaking into a cold sweat...
...
In the dim sea of stars, a B-type star glowing with a violet-red radiance hung silently in the void, constantly releasing torrents of blazing radiation into the surrounding darkness.
That powerful radiation swept mercilessly across everything nearby, fundamentally eliminating any possibility of life arising on any world struck directly by it.
And yet even in such a harsh environment, whether by the Emperor's grace or some other reason, the giant gas planet in the fifth orbit and the terrestrial world in the seventh orbit happened to share the same orbital cycle.
Under the magnetic pull of that giant gas planet, known as the Shield of Dos, most of the star's high-energy particle rays fell into its furnace-like atmosphere, with only a small portion passing beyond it and reaching the terrestrial world called Swuvi.
And those few escaped rays happened to provide exactly the right amount of heat and light for life.
Human colonists had set foot on that uniquely blessed world long before the Age of Strife and had formed a self-sustaining closed social order there.
The ruling Magris family had once believed themselves to be the last surviving humans in the stars and thus styled themselves the Supreme Human Emperor.
But with the arrival of the Great Crusade fleets, both that title and the world's self-isolation were gently removed by the warm and friendly armies of the Imperium.
Later, when an Adeptus Mechanicus expedition fleet established the forge world of Igor III nearby, the Magris family brought with them certain inherited technologies passed down on Swuvi since ancient times and struck a bargain with the servants of the Machine God.
From then on, Swuvi was responsible for supplying the forge world with food and manpower, while the forge world in turn would provide it with weapons of war and assist in the training of its Knight forces.
It was also worth noting that because the Magris family valued power and glory above all else, Swuvi rejected the entry of any representatives of outside ideologies other than the required members of the Imperial Creed and the Mechanicus priests who came to maintain their Knights.
And now, the orbital detection arrays of Swuvi had identified an incoming ship.
It bore no markings of identity at all, and its design was relatively uncommon.
So the representative of the Orbital Defense Lancers responsible for security at the void-port, Baron Helmo, immediately initiated a one-sided vox transmission.
"This is the Swuvi Orbital Defense Lancers. You are now at the outer edge of Swuvi's gravity net."
"Begin deceleration immediately. We will be boarding for inspection."
On the bridge, Solomon, whose expression was already worn down to the point of exhaustion, became irritated the moment he heard those words.
He knew that self-sufficient Imperial worlds generally had severe xenophobic tendencies and bureaucratic habits.
But this was the first time he had ever encountered a place that was so eager to board and inspect a ship before it had even reached port.
Boarding was an extremely serious matter. No matter how powerful a ship was, its interior was always vulnerable.
Even the Imperial Navy and the Inquisition, who possessed immense authority, would normally only inspect ships that had already been identified as serious threats by solid intelligence.
And merchant vessels like his, operated by free captains, were especially not supposed to be inspected, because that generally meant somebody would actually find something.
Like, for example, the ruined body of Dushi they were about to bring down with them.
Solomon clenched his fists. He was already exhausted by the series of sudden incidents during that short Warp jump, and now he had to deal with this too.
Furious, he strode over to the vox transmitter.
Then he drew in a breath and replied in a humble, almost servile tone:
"Honored defense officer, this is the Spear of Destiny. I am Free Captain Mordecai."
"Naturally, ensuring the safety of the planet and inspecting passing vessels is the duty of gentlemen such as yourselves. That said, I heard from a friend that as long as one handles the proper transit permit, the inspection process can be skipped."
"And for those of us who do business, time is throne gelt. So, if I were to arrange such a permit now, how much would the processing fee be?"
After his words were transmitted, the vox channel fell silent for a brief moment.
A while later, the other party's voice returned with a trace of amusement.
"I see. It seems you understand our difficulties. In that case, we can waive the boarding inspection."
"As for the paperwork, it's simple. Prepare your ship's security assurance fee, and once you reach the berth, hand it over to the void-port guide."
Then the man quoted a number so outrageous it nearly gave Solomon a heart attack.
Though reason told him that the reward from the Forge Lord was worth far more than this little bit of extortion, the act of being forced to pay it still made him feel like dying.
Once everything had been settled and the void-port had been opened to them, Solomon nearly collapsed against the central mast of the bridge.
"Waaah... making me pay money like that is worse than killing me."
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]