Beyond The Glowing Whirlpool

Chapter 31: STACIE'S JOURNAL

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A trip to the Florah planet turned out far more eventful and fortunate than it was expected. Not only it was easy for them to stock up on as much sunstone crystal as they wanted, but they also obtained a priceless piece of Ancients technology, the map finder. Now that they had enough crystal to last them a lifetime, they reactivated the forcefield and were able to gain access to the rest of the city and continue to study it. Since they were now protected by the forcefield again, there was no need for Ivar's spaceship to hover over the Asuris planet, so it returned back to Sattera. But since Atlantis was still a target, half of Ivar's squad along with him was now moved to Atlantis, as well as some of the scientist's hand-picked by professor Torrent, to continue with the study of Atlantis and Ancients. With everything that was discovered in that vault, there was much to be learned. And now that their crew had doubled in size, they expanded their living part of the city by updating more rooms to the living conditions and prepared a whole level just for Satterans.

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-Lord Ivar. I have brought what you have asked for. - Said one of his men, handing Ivar a certain, strange-looking case.

-Excellent. - He remarked, opening the case to check it's contents.

-Would that be all, sir? - Said the man.

-Yes. You are dismissed.

-Thank you, sir. But, may I be so bold as to ask what use do you have for that, Lord Ivar?

-I need it for a personal purpose which isn't important enough for you to know. Now return to your duties.

-Understood. - The soldier dropped his head in a slight bow and walked away.

Ivar took the case and carried on to execute whatever it is he had planned for the rest of the day. Finally, he was done with all the preparations. There's just one last thing that was missing, so he set out to fetch it. As Ivar strolled down the hall of the third floor, suddenly a piece of paper at his feet made him halt. 

"Huh? What's this?" He wondered, as he picked it up and looked at it. 

It had a drawing of some sort of elements on it with some writing beneath them. 

"Hmm... This looks like it could be Stacie's handiwork. But, why is it here? Did she drop it?" 

He took the paper and was about to keep going when a light breeze blew from the outdoor terrace-like balcony's entrance and carried a couple more pages along with it. Puzzled, he looked at the entrance... 

"So that's where they're coming from..." He picked them up as well and went over to the terrace.

 He entered it and paused for a moment. There was Stacie laying on one of the settees. She was asleep. And next to her on a small table, was her journal sitting at the top of the pile of other paperwork and some of the ancients books. The journal was wide open with the breeze flipping through its pages and scattering other loose papers, all over the terrace floor. She must have been working on something here then fell asleep, figured Ivar. 

"Looks like she's overworked herself again. This is unacceptable." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm going to have to do something about the amount of assignments professor Torrent loads upon her." 

He sighed as he gazed at her peacefully slumbering face and her petit body curled around a small, decorative pillow. She looked so content and serene that he didn't have the heart to wake her. Another wave of warm breeze blew rustling her tangled hair, along with few more pages of her journal and it caught his attention.