Into the aether! Here's last time.
The heroes fly towards Stygia, the mysterious fragment in the Dust Cloud. They make good time getting there, but as they approach what their instruments tell them is a fragment, they still see...nothing. Too late, Iris realizes that they're going to crash, and tells the others to brace for impact!
The crash into the surface of the fragment and skid around in a circle, slamming into something rocky. No one is injured, but the planet is completely dark - no natural light sources at all. Iris feels her way around the exterior of the ship to the thrusters and determines that the acceleration has been damaged - they can probably fly, but it'll be slow. She tells the others and they find some flashlights so that Oola can work on fixing the ship.
But as Oola is walking around the ship to the thrusters, she just...vanishes. She finds herself in water, completely unable to see, sinking faster. Iris falls in as well, and the two of them thrash around a bit before Oola manages to find Iris, but even then they're not sure where to go. (See, no one ever thinks they're gonna need the Swimming skill...)
Zeenia gets on top of the ship with Twoot and scans the ground, looking for the others. They spot a crater leading into the water and some ripples, and Zeenia jumps in with a light. She swims down toward them, but all they see is a light and Zeenia, ironically, had already warned them them about swimming towards light in a pitch-black water (the Deeps are where things want to eat you, see). And then a song comes up, a lovely and haunting melody from below. Oola, always curious, tries to head down for it, but Zeenia catches up with them and they all surface.
The three of them talk over what they've seen (well, heard). Zeenia can survive here - the water is colder than she'd like, but breathable. Iris has no desire to go diving again, but grudgingly admits that the strange song is the only thing they've seen (again, not seen, but y'know) on this fragment that is indicative of life, and they don't have the first idea where to look for the Kryptoria. Zeenia notes that this fragment is dotted with craters leading into the water, and concludes that Stygia is essentially filled by an ocean and covered with a rocky outer crust. Anything that slams into the fragment with any kind of force punches right through it, which is probably what happened to the Kryptoria.
Oola fixes their ship, first, in case they need to leave quickly. And then Oola and Iris don their space suits and take air tanks, and they all head down into the depths.
For a long time, there's nothing. Then they hit an underwater slope, and slide all the way to the sea floor. The ground down here is just as black as the surface, and their lights don't help much, especially when they note creatures swimming past their field of vision. Oola reaches out with her mind-reading device and determines that these creatures - which look like big eels - are determining the best way to eat them. She warns the others ("Not friendly!") and the creatures attack.
One of them lunges for Iris and a set of tentacles on the front of its face opens, revealing spiky protrusions and a lamprey-like mouth. She draws her sword and fends it off, but another one swoops in and strikes Zeenia's body. It fails to penetrate her suit, however. A third one clamps down on Oola's back, sinks its teeth in, and swims away with her.
Hearing Oola yelling for help over the radiophone, Zeenia pursues her and finds her in a crevasse in the wall. The creature is sucking her blood out, but Zeenia kills it with her vibro-blades. The other two try to attack Iris, but she fells one with her ray gun, and Zeenia (after checking that Oola is not dying), rushes up and kills the last one.
In the crevasse, Oola hears the song rises again. In the light of her flashlight, she sees a humanoid figure. It reaches out and touches her head...and then blissful nothing.
Zeenia and Iris head back to the crevasse, but Oola is no longer there. Zeenia squeezes in and feels around at the apparently solid wall, but her tentacle goes right through it. Something gently but firmly pulls her into the dark, and she grabs Iris and drags her along.
The characters awaken (but were they asleep?) in pitch darkness. They are linked telepathically to each other, but there is someone else in the link with them. They ask who it is, and the voice that answers is oddly soothing. They are the natives of Stygia, the voice tells them.
The voice is polite and helpful, but explains to them that the Stygians are a truly ancient race. The struggle that the characters are in at present - a charismatic leader rises, assembles an empire, abuses power, and is brought low by those not just willing to fight, but able to inspire others - is one that they've seen countless times before. They can't say if the characters are the ones to end Anathraxa's reign, or indeed if one side is really "good" or "evil" in any objective way. They are, however, willing to answer some questions.
Iris asks about the Barrier, and the voice responds: "Go to Dracos. Do not get distracted. Gaze upon the queen's beauty, but not too close. You will hear the voice you need." Oola asks if the Queen's fear of mind-reading is significant, and the voice says that Anathraxa fears psionics because they might truly see her, and she feels that if her true nature were known she would lose her position. Oola wonders if they might be able to resolve this without violence, but the voice says that they won't - Anathraxa's influence is too deeply entrenched.
They ask after the Kryptoria, and the voice says that it is happy - rather, willing - to show them to where it lies. It crashed into the fragment and no one survived, sadly. Zeenia, during this conversation, marvels at the voice and its apparent lack of physical form. She asks if she might return to converse more, and the voice says that she can, but that the Stygians see things on a different scale than other races. "The stars, to us, are not points," the voice says, "but streaks, for we see where they have been in addition to where they are."
Zeenia's brain breaks a little, and she realizes that this isn't something she's prepared to learn. The voice asks that the characters not reveal the truth about Stygia to anyone, because they don't wish to be inundated with people seeking knowledge. Just say that Stygia is a dark and mysterious place, and leave it at that.
The characters thank the voice, and it raises them up to the Kryptoria on a song (Zeenia's brain breaks a little more). It then raises the entire ship into the ether, and the characters get back on their own ship to tow the Kryptoria back to Barter.
There, they talk to Lux again, who is amazed that they brought the whole damn ship back. She agrees to build their weapon and throw in a hover-scooter (she's still coming out well ahead, once she gets done selling this thing for scrap). She asks where they found it and, upon hearing it was Stygia, obviously wants to know more.
"IT IS A DARK AND MYSTERIOUS PLACE," responds Zeenia, and Lux just kinda leaves it at that. She needs a few days to build their weapon, but after that, the characters are heading to Dracos!
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