Starbound: A Space Odyssey 10 Ark Outpost 1

John and Lenny took turns in sleeping. Lenny went to rest first, he had tirelessly hunted Oscar for 5 days, he was already very tired.

They rested for 7 hours before John packed up the camp and they resumed their walk.

John stopped by a rock and took a water bottle. He drank a little and offered the rest to Lenny.

"Nah, I don't need it." Lenny said, "Novakids only need fuel, oxygen and hydrogen to survive. Anything inflammable can be our food. Of course, we will die from explosion if we consume something that liberates far too much energy that we can contain. Our 'brands' use the inflammable product and the gases to metabolize the fuel that keeps us alive." He explained, "Well... At least is how I heard it works. We don't have patience and neither the curiosity to study complicated subjects, almost everything we know about our own race came from studies of other races." He smiled, "We don't need water, but we do appreciate good alcohol"

[Basically, they are walking, sentient combustion engine.] John thought to himself.

"Hm?" John stopped in his tracks and looked ahead. At the end of the tunnel, just a few hundreds of meters away, John was able to see an orange light s.h.i.+ning through the opening

"Protector" John heard S.A.I.L's emotionless voice coming from his PIPS, "The radio signal is coming from that opening. You are almost there."

The closer they walked toward the light, the hotter the air around them become.

When they arrived at the end of the tunnel, John was already sweating, Lenny, on the other hand, was completely unaffected.

Inside the Novakid's electromagnetic field, or 'skin', their bodies can reach incredible heat, about thousands of degree Celsius.

The moment they emerged from the tunnel, they were greeted with a quite a sight. In front of them was a huge open area that had a giant lava pool as the floor.

The lava cast a bright orange light upon the two people and basked them in a fiery heat.

"Conner, look over there." Lenny pointed at the small island in the middle of the lava pool.

John stared at the island and saw that on top of it there was a building. He looked around and saw a cobblestone bridge that connected them to the island just beside them.

"Protector." S.A.I.L started talking, "The radio signal is coming from that structure in the middle of the lava pool."

"Let's take a look" John walked forward.

"Alright then." Lenny helplessly followed along.

John approached and inspected the structure.

It was a grey, ancient-looking platform that had two pillars forming an arch on top of the platform, and at the middle was something that looked like a computer on top of a solid cubic table.

At the pillars, John wasn't able to read the language that was written, but he identified some figures that were sculptured into it. There were 8 figures, 6 which were carrying something like a sphere. There was the plant-like people, Florans; the fish-like people, Hylotls; the bird-like people, Avians; the ape-like people, Apexes; the robot people, Glitches; and the Humans. Beneath those 6, it was the gas-bag people, Novakids, and another race that John couldn't identify. Those last two wasn't carrying a sphere.

"Protector." S.A.I.L interrupted John's inspection, "I have downloaded the message that was being sent via radio signal. Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes"

The message started, "If you've picked up this message, you must be near an Ancient Gateway. Please activate it to come and find me. You can power up the Gate with Core Fragments." The voice seemed to belong to an old woman, "Please come. I urgently require help; the universe depends on it. Use this Ancient Gateway and meet me in the Ark Ruins, just past the Outpost."

"Wow!" Lenny exclaimed, "Looks like the universe depends on it, we must hurry then." He sarcastically commented.

John ignored Lenny and circled around the computer. He tried to touch the computer's screen.

*Click* *Puff*

The moment his finger came to contact with the surprisingly cold screen, a hatch opened in both sides of the cube-like a table.

John crouched and took a look inside the openings. His eyes laid on the 10 oval compartments inside.

"There are 10 holes in this side." Lenny was looking at the opening at the opposite side from John.

"There are 10 in this side as well," John replied.

He took one more glance before he retrieved a Core Fragment from his Inventory. Just as he was about to place the Fragment into the compartment, the hole instantly sucked the Fragment out of John's hand. The Fragment easily entered the hole and then it began to s.h.i.+ne even more brilliantly with a crimson light.

John filled the spots on each side, the 20 Core Fragments started to s.h.i.+ne more and more brilliantly until the hatches closed automatically.

"What the fun-" Lenny was sucked by a portal that appeared behind them.

"Len-" John too, was sucked almost at the same time.