The Enteral Wanderer entered Spiralspace late the next day. Meridian placed estimated travel time at eight days. Spiralspace was not a very large sphere, but it's proximity to so many travel routes made it a very important one. It was this location that fueled the growth of the Rock of Bral, an asteroid that orbits the system's single air world.
It was Beta shift, and Hall was at his desk in the library, busily working with a collection of maps. He was working on a set of guidebooks for the five spheres of the Pentiacate. Sources that existed for the five spheres were long out of date.
Phantom was there, looking through a book of star charts.
"Meridian says we can use a slingshot maneuver through the Pinnacles," he said to Hall. "It would shave a day off the trip."
"Does it pose any danger to the ship?" Hall asked.
"No. He's plotted this maneuver before."
"Fine, but have someone standing by on the major helm, and call me when we are within range," Hall said. "We may need some extra speed."
"Aye. See you at the poker game later," Phantom said as he walked out. A few minutes later Onestar walked in, followed by Whisper.
"What brings you to our on-board repository?" Hall asked.
"I want to check some things down here," Onestar said as he headed for a section of the shelves he had never shown interest in.
"An I'm a Gandorian cloud bat," Hall said. Onestar gave him a strange look.
"You're running away from her, aren't you?" Hall asked, standing up. "You have been going to all lengths to avoid spending time with Crystal."
Onestar scowled.
"Let her know how you feel about her, no matter what it is, so both of you can move on, either together or separately."
Onestar still didn't move.
"Confound it man," Hall said, slightly annoyed, "for once in your life admit you're human! Tell her how you feel!"
"Hall," Onestar whispered, "I don't know how I feel. I don't even think I remember how."
"What?" Hall was used to Onestar's occasional confusing statement. It had something to do with him being a samurai, and to the bard, they all talked a little funny.
"I said that I am not sure I know how I feel." Onestar finally sat down. "It has been so long since anyone has shown any interest in me... of course I am not counting occasional dalliances on a shore leave..."
"Yeah," Hall added with a smile. "Remember the Darnath Twins."
"Did you ever tell Belieth about that?"
"She figured it out for herself. Besides, I thought she was... and they were.... BIG... and... DON'T TRY TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" Hall yelled sarcastically.
Onestar smiled slightly, but that quickly faded.
"The last several nights I have been having... dreams. I have found them to be most disturbing. I seem to see a figure from past, the past which I cannot remember. And I have a name. Arista."
"Have you talked to Merrabor?"
"He is a psionicist. I possess some powerful defenses. He might be hurt. I will not risk that."
"What are you going to do?" Hall asked. Onestar stood without saying a word, turned and walked to the door. Finally, when he reached the entrance, he looked back.
"I will do what I have always done. I will do that which I know." With that he left. As the door closed behind him, Hall pounded his fist into the desk.
Blaise worked busily in his study, examining the accelerator crystal and magical surge device from the Doombat. Blaise had cobbled together some components of the Nextasy device to interact with the crystal. He was hoping that he could eventually integrate the crystal into the device. In theory, it would give the device the ability to retain more information and operate for longer periods of time.
Zebart was there with him, but the gnome was so enthralled with what Blaise was doing that for once he was silent. His eyes were glued to the arcane's six-digit hands, as he moved the various components around, trying different configurations. Every so often he would ask Zebart to hand him one of his numerous tools. The gnome was all too happy to oblige.
After a while, Blaise was puzzled. He looked over at the smoky-black crystal, where some words were displayed in soft, white letters:
System error, Check High Kernel area F21A.
"OK," he said quietly, "let's try this." At that he moved one of the strange cables in the large porcelain box. Nothing happened.
"Mr Pascal?" Zebart asked. "Whatifyoumovedthisjumperwirehere?"
"I tried that already," Blaise answered. "Nothing happened. It's as if part of the crystal has been sealed off."
"Isitdamaged?"
"I don't think so. Everything checks out. It's as if someone had locked a door to a storage room. The room is there, but it can't be opened."
"Coulditbeencoded? Perhapsifyoutried adifferentencryption algorythmyou willgetbetterresults?"
Blaise smiled.
"Of course! Magic works on somewhat different frequencies in Clusterspace! No wonder my decoder wasn't working." Blaise continued to smile, somehow amused as his own oversight.
He moved one of the chords, then typed some odd words on the keyboard. The Nextasy device gave off a "beep," and some new words appeared on the crystal:
High memory area available, 32 MB free.
One file found.
"Whatsthat?" Zebart asked, pointing to the reference to the file.
"Let's find out..." Blaise said, typing in some more words. After a few seconds, the crystal went blank, but was quickly filled with the image of an elf. Blaise recognized the elf as an Astromundi elf. He assumed that this was one of the elves from the Doombat, before the shadowelf appeared. The elf began to talk.
"This message is for the ears of a one Blaise Pascal. I have encoded this message in a way that only he can translate. Many years ago you worked with several of my tribe mates, who provided you passage to the Sphere of Realmspace. At the time you were leaving the Highport Collective, in protest of a major business transaction involving creatures from the lower planes. I can only tell you that things have become worse.
"The illithids are attempting to find the Sunsteeler, and we have reason to believe that they have found at least part of it. We elves have begun to work in secret with the human and dwarven communities of the Cluster should a combined resistance be necessary. We dread that such action will be needed. We are currently en route to the Rock of Bral to meet you, but I fear that we will not survive the trip. One of my crewmen has died, and another has developed a strange disease that appears to be draining away his very substance.
"Should I not survive this trip, you will eventually be given more information about this problem, but all I can say now is that Clusterspace will one day be in need of outside help, and you are in a better position to find that then we are. Mr. Pascal, we need your help."
At that the image faded, and the Nextasy device returned to its dormant state. Blaise hunched back in his chair and stared at the opposite wall, deep in thought.
"Zebart," he asked quietly, "why are these things happening all at once?"
"Whatdoyoumean?"
"Onestar tells me that Omnispace is coming apart at the seems, Hall tells me that Solaris is on the verge of interplanetary war, and now the Cluster is heading for a fate too horrible to contemplate," the arcane explained.
"Don'ttheelveshaveawordforthis? Somethingtodowitheventsbeingtied togetherbecauseofonefactorthatmakes connectedeventslooklikecoincidentswhen infacttheyarebydesign? ShouldIrundowntothelibraryandget adictionaryI'msureIca..."
"Verenthestae," Blaise said, cutting the gnome off.
"Oh...yeah!That'sit!"
"Yes," Blaise whispered, "that's it." The arcane then went silent, and descended deep into thought.
DAY ONE:
"Prepare for docking procedures!" Phantom called out, as the Eternal Wanderer began it's final approach to the Rock of Bral. The rock orbited a rather ordinary air world, ordinary except for the fact that several of the asteroids that orbited it had breathable atmospheres. The Rock was the most famous of these.
The crew began to prepare for docking. Hall and Onestar met each other on the main bridge, where they were greeted by Ville.
"There is a lot of traffic around here," Ville said, "but in light of the upcoming business meeting that's to be expected."
Onestar lifted his binoculars to see the Rock in the distance. From this point, it looked like a brightly lit ball of dirt. The light of the five small fire bodies that formed Spiralspace's primary were also making it difficult to see anything. Phantom came down from the observation deck.
"There are two lamprey ships approaching," he said, "both with Bral markings."
"These must be our escorts," Onestar said. "Damian?"
[Yes, captain?"] the drow answered, his voice emanating from the wall.
"Maintain this position until the lampreys clear us for landing, then wait for docking orders."
[Aye, sir.]
Hall was already on the bridge with Meridian and Li T'Sing, laying out an approach. On the table was a map of the Rock.
"Considering our size," Hall started, "they will assign us either pier 86 or 96," he said, pointing to the appropriate piers.
"96 more likely," Meridian added. "That whale ship will get 86."
Indeed, beyond the Wanderer was a brightly colored whaleship. From the looks of the markings, it probably came from Greatspace. The two lampreys came within hailing range...
"Blaise," Onestar called, "take the crystal and..."
"Dreadnought!" a voice boomed. It was coming from the hailing crystal, but there was no visual image to go with it.
"Do not move or you will be fired upon!" the voice continued.
"What in the planes is all that about?!?" Hall stammered.
Onestar, obviously furious, stormed down to the crystal.
"Get me a visual!" he barked. Blaise began to work with the device, when the voice spoke again:
"Illithid vessels are forbidden to approach Bral for the duration of the Conorg conference, by order of Prince Andru!"
"They clearly haven't been looking at their guest roster," Hall mumbled, slightly amused.
"Everybody stay calm," Onestar said. "We are about to receive visitors."
Hall and Onestar met each other on the muster deck. It was almost as if they were looking forward to receiving their visitors.
A dimension door opened, and a team of commandos swarmed over the muster deck, all ready to attack anything that moved. They all stopped when they saw the dreadnought was not manned by illithids, but by humans, elves, dwarves, and the like. They were suddenly very confused and very embarrassed. The crew couldn't help but chuckle. The looks on the commando's faces was truly hilarious.
"What is the meaning of this?!?" Onestar barked, the proper touch of anger in his voice. "I am Onestar, captain of the Eternal Wanderer, the ship you have just boarded in a hostile manner!"
"Blaise!" Hall called, "see if you can raise the captain of the Bral guard."
"I will indeed," Blaise responded, as he resumed working with the crystal.
"It would appear," Onestar commented, "that the Bral guard has become lax in following standard docking protocols."
"I'm sorry sir," one of the commando's said, "we though you..."
"Were Illithids?!? Check your rosters. We have a reservation to dock, and we carry one of the delegates for the Conorg conference!"
"This won't look good," Hall said quietly. "Attacking a ship carrying a delegate, and ignoring standard docking protocols. I'm sure the Spelljammer's Aid Society will love to hear this."
The commandos continued to blubber, trying to apologize, when Blaise called:
"Hall, Onestar, I have Prince Andru himself!"
Quickly the samurai and the bard walked to the hailing crystal, to see the image of Prince Andru. His features were hard, and he looked somewhat sinister, but not overly threatening.
"I am sorry for this... misunderstanding," the prince said quietly. "Indeed, we do have a docking reservation for the Eternal Wanderer II, which I assume is you?"
"Yes it is," Onestar replied.
"It would appear that my commanders have not been reading the latest intelligence reports," the prince continued. "If they had, they would have been looking for a dreadnought instead of a hammership. I will discuss this matter with them at my earliest possible convenience."
"No harm has occured," Onestar stated in his most diplomatic style. "No harm except to our pride, that is."
"In compensation," Andru stated, "I will have my guard escort your vessel to my personal docks, where you may remain docked for the duration of your stay. I will also prepare spaces in the guest house for you and your senior staff, should you elect to use them."
"That is acceptable," Onestar said. At that, Prince Andru bowed his head and the crystal went blank.
Hall turned to look at the commandos, who were now totally humiliated.
"You heard the man," he said. "Escort us to our dock!"
The commandos went back through the dimension door, like puppies with their tails between their legs, as the two lamprey ships assumed an escort position around the dreadnought. A few minutes later, the Eternal Wanderer passed below the Rock of Bral and slowly maneuvered into place beside the royal docks. Five other ships were docked there, all from the Bral guard. Some dock hands grappled the Wanderer and secured it to one of the piers. After a few moments, the dreadnought settled on the Rock's gravity plane.
"Helm down!" Hall called.
At that, Damian lifted himself from the helm. The low, pleasant hum of the bardic helm stopped as the Eternal Wanderer came to rest.
"Docking procedures complete," Phantom called. "Prepare to receive customs."
Hall and Onestar walked to the observation deck and looked up at Prince Andru's palace.
"How do you like this?" Hall asked his friend. "The royal docks?"
"This should do quite nicely," the samurai answered with a smile, as he watched three customs officials approach the Wanderer. The two quietly started to laugh.
