This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Thirty

There was no worldship that opened up directly over top of Cor Obscurum; instead, Michel had wormholed to the system that the planet was a part of and had haggled for almost an hour with a shady freighter pilot who eventually agreed to transport him to the planet itself.

"Nobody goes there," the man had said - a beady-eyed mole of a man who kept his hood pulled low, glanced around with nervous frequency, and scratched the insides of his elbows almost as often. 

"Why not?" Michel asked him.

"Because nobody comes back."

After a large sum of money was exchanged - and the man had refused to even give Michel his name - they set off on a hyperlight ship and touched down on the lone port of Cor Obscurum. 

Michel had no sooner stepped off the freighter than it fired up its engines once again and departed.

He shielded his eyes and watched the glare of its engines disappear through the dense cloud cover that shrouded the planet. After it was gone from sight, there were very few lights to be seen anywhere.

Cor Obscurum was a rock planet with a toxic atmosphere and no natural water; Michel breathed heavily through a sealed exosuit and had to use its built-in lights to see anything. The cloud cover was much thicker than Aquilo-Nix's, and it was eternal; no sunlight ever penetrated it. The entire planet existed in perpetual night.

Hence its name.

The landing pad Michel stood on was connected to the only structural complex on the planet: an entire compound, totally self-sufficient, connected by closed walkways so that its inhabitants only had to step into its harsh environment to enter and exit whatever ships arrived. A handful of geodomes, a power plant, an administrative complex, a living quarters, and the protomaterial transformer itself were the only buildings rising from the dusty rock of the area. Dark mountains loomed on all sides, secluding the compound from most of the harsh weather. Nestled in the stomach of the rock, the compound seemed more like an unspeakable secret than any sort of industrial complex.

Michel walked briskly to the doors of the landing pad and allowed it to scan his retina. Since he still had full MP clearance, they slid open without issue, and he walked through the decontamination center.

Coming out into the main reception office, he was surprised to find nobody stationed at the front desk. "Hello?" he called out. The room and hallway beyond it were well lit, fully functional, and deserted. Nothing answered. Nothing moved. 

He stepped out of his exosuit and made his way cautiously around the room.

The drawers of the receptions desk were closed and organized; there were no papers on the top of the desk. It looked as if they had simply shut down operations for the night, but protocol for all port receptions was to remain open 24/7. Besides, the local time was only three in the afternoon. The automatic hailing system that had identified the freighter as it landed should have reported an incoming vessel to anyone in the receptions area, anyway.

Michel was becoming nervous. He thought about hailing the freighter to come and pick him up, but as he opened his comm link, he stopped.

He had known he wouldn't be returning when he set his badge down on Vlad's desk in Dragotsennost'.

This was bigger than him. Someone had to know the truth. 

Michel let out a deep breath, steadied himself, and turned down the hallway into the main complex.

******

Reya sat in her room alone. It was cold, and she hugged a blanket around her shoulders.