Drifting Alone

Annabeth loosened her death-grip on the joysticks that controlled the Venture II's movement, a smile coming to her face. Through the windshield of the cabin, she could see blurring fields of blue and white, rushing along in the direction opposite of the ship. If any sort of science fiction movie was accurate, she was being transported to a far-off place far faster than any normal vehicle would be capable. Hyperspeed, or something like that.

She rested back in the admitably comfortable pilot's seat, closing her eyes and reveling in the victory. She didn't know who created that portal or if she was technically trespassing by borrowing it, but she was thankful for such a prime opportunity to leave Oasis Station. When her eyes opened, it wasn't too long until the colors of whatever sort of light tunnel she was in faded, giving way to the black of space, which was broken up by several differing shapes in the distance. From where she sat, she could easily see that each had their own differing features, moreso than the great asteroids that flooded the area around her home. Her home planet, she fondly realized she'd be calling it now.

With the confirmation of her success, she couldn't stay still anymore. She left the pilot's chair, spinning about in the spacious cabin and throwing victorious fists this way and that. Annabeth proudly strode out of the cabin and into the Venture II's central hall, remembering that Ima had been sorting through boxes in the ship's storage bay. If his tendencies were anything like hers, he'd still be there, fast asleep like she was.

Only, when the doors slid open, there was nobody there. The stool he'd been using was completely bare, all the boxes in their place. She began to worry, and began searching the other rooms. The barrack, then the infirmary, and even the airlock. All were completely devoid of Ima, even though his equipment was stills stored where he left it. It was then that the gravity of her mistake truly sank in, and she fully understood as she slowly settled back into the pilot's seat. She'd left him behind. She was alone.

Continued in "An Indelicate Evening"...

There was nothing like taking a day off to fly towards the vast emptiness. While she would have been content with staying in her room and read a few books while laying down on her comfortable bed with a bowl of food at her side, this time, Rose wanted something else to do. She brought along a friend, a being made out of plasma who had to be wearing a special suit in order to interact with anything on the ship without vaporising it, so there was something other than the silent rev of the engine, and the little pitter patter of tiny rocks as she passed the site of a collision between two asteroids.

While Rose and Ozone had been talking about just about anything the latter asked about, a ripple in space had put a halt to their conversation. Scanners picked up a corridor of darkness appearing just on the edge of their scanning range, and that usually meant bad news. The ship they were piloting was a small unmarked one used for scouting, so it had the speed to outrun any potential threats. It was armed lightly, and there was a stash of weapons inside the lockers just in case the pilots needed them.

Rose set the ship's course towards the corridor as Ozone simply watched for any dangers Rose failed to see. When they got close enough, she saw another ship. Pirates? Refugees? Or just civilians? She couldn't tell, but she worked to patch herself through to their radio if they had one. "Hello? Can you read me, fellow traveler?" she asked in a burst transmission and waited for a reply.

She adjusted her ship so they weren't going straight for the unidentified craft. She didn't want them thinking she was a lawless pirate or anything. She just hoped this ship wasn't as well. There didn't seem to be any other ships as far as she could see, but she had her hand ready at the weapons deployment button if this ship showed any hostility towards her.

Annabeth eyed the planets that filled the space in front of the Venture II, wondering where she should go. Alone or not, there'd be no point to the journey at all if she just waited in space and didn't do anything, right? Before she could make a decision, however, the in-build radio of the console began acting up. Immediately, she grew excited. Had she not gone very far at all? Had someone in Oasis already sent a ship to find her?

Her thoughts wandered as she adjusted the various knobs on the device, silently regretting her poor understanding of radio tech. By the time she had it right, the hail had already ended. Half for courtesy, and half for not wanting to just leave such a phenomenon alone, she tried to respond anyway, sending a hail of her own at whatever ship had tried to contact her.

"This is Lee-Clement, aboard the Venture II," she stated in her message, trying to keep close to what she remembered of the rules that Oasis Station space programs had when they were still active. Name, ship, status... Perhaps the latter could wait. This technically wasn't a distress signal. "I can hear you now. Do you hear me?"

She didn't wait for an answer. Rather, she took a mobile headset from the console and moved away, grabbing her jacket from a rack and slipping into the too-long sleeves. While she fastened the front, she kept the headset to her ear, listening for any response that might come back. To think that, even after going through some portal, there would still be other ships in the same space... Maybe some of the programs were still going after all.

The pilot responded, but Rosetta didn't know what to make of it yet. Both the names of the pilot and the ship didn't match anything on record, so there was a chance this ship was neutral, much to her relief. "Loud and clear, Venture II. This is Ryley, aboard Spyglass Echo, pleasure to run into you."

Rose activated the scanners to check for any weapon systems coming online and warming up. "Lee-Clement. Did I say that right? Are you in need of assistance? We've detected an anomaly in this area just now. It's usually a bad sign for anyone nearby, so it's a little concerning."

Why was this ship here, and by itself? It wasn't unheard of to see lone ships drifting peacefully through space, but with the rising hostility of the heartless, nobody would have gone out on their own. Her military exposure told her to take every move to get the upper hand should this turn out to be a trap, but at the same time, she had grown weary of those protocols and for once just take it easy. This was her day off after all. She could risk making herself a target for a chance of a peaceful cruise.

A woman's voice came back, confirming her hail and asking if there was a need for assistance. 'Ryley', she said her name was, before explaining that there was an anomoly in the area, and how it was a 'bad sign'. Was she talking about the portal? Sure, it had looked pretty unfriendly, but she came out alright. That is, minus the part where she got too enthusiastic and ended up alone aboard the Venture II.

"I'm guessing you mean that portal-lookin' thing," she replied, making use of the headset's microphone. " I came in and out without any damages, so it doesn't seem all too dangerous. Only problem I can really think of is that I don't really know where I am at the moment." She decided to leave out the mention of Ima or her lack of crew. There wouldn't be any point in randomly telling people about that. Besides, it was becoming more and more obvious that this person she was conversing with was familiar with a world in which those 'anomolies' are common. There was no way she'd be from Oasis.

Annabeth walked around as she spoke, but stopped when she felt something bump against the back of her boot. Did she knock into something by accident? She turned for a quick look behind herself, but there was nothing but her shadow. What had she struck? The air? She shook her head, urging the thoughts away. Obviously, she was just a bit on-edge, what with the adrenaline of the earlier event still running through her. "Any chance you could give me some directions?" she asked, returning to the radio conversation.

Why would anyone go through a corridor, or any type of 'portal-like' things for that matter, without knowing what was beyond? Either this girl was making her story up, she was the reckless adventurer type, or she just needed to escape in a hurry. Whatever the case, she hadn't raised any flags of suspicion just yet, so Rose decided to lend a hand to a lost traveler.

"I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with this area yet nor how to get to places from here, and the map I have needs a custom decryption software to be read, but... hold on one moment while I check something." She brought the map she was talking about onto her screen, and after careful scrutiny, she returned bearing good news. "I see an automated station nearby. If it's still functional, you can get an encryption-free map of the local area, and with luck, some of the outer sectors."

There was a pause from her, and when she spoke up again, she was less enthusiastic. "I'm not sure if its safe there, so you might want to be careful. Here, I'll send you the coordinates. Ah heck, I'll escort you there as well. To be honest, I'm a little interested on why you chose to go through that portal, and at cruising speed, we should have five or so minutes to chat."

Rose brought the ship to a respectable distance and aligned herself towards their destination. From their distance, both could tell how many people were in their respective cockpits. There was only one on Venture II, which wasn't all that uncommon. Ozone, who was sitting right beside Rose, waved her arms in the air to say hello to Lee-Clement.

"Ozone! Careful, you might hit the switches!" Rose told her companion, not knowing that she left her radio on. The plasma-based being lowered her arms, but continued to look at the other ship. "Alright, we'll head off on your mark, Venture II."

Thankfully, this 'Ryley' person seemed more than willing to help, and directed Annabeth toward a nearby station. "Didn't know there were rest stops in space." Annabeth found herself throwing down a joke before she could stop herself. Was it really the right time? Maybe, maybe not. Her habits didn't quite seem to care.

This other pilot also offered to guide the way herself, saying that they'd have time to chat about Annabeth's decision to use the portal. Looking back, there was an urge to scold her previous self for jumping on the chance without a second thought, but she didn't bother. Even if her mind were a bit clearer now, she'd made a decision and now she was going to stick with the results, lonely as they may be.

"I'd be glad to have you aboard. Figuratively." Annabeth had to correct her statement when she remembered that they actually were in ships here, and it may be taken literally if she didn't. Still, having someone else around who knew what they were doing was something welcome in her mind.

Meanwhile, the other ship had pulled in front of hers, and both were now facing each other. Through their sunshields, Annabeth could clearly see the crew of the other ship now. At the center of the helm was a blonde-framed face she assumed to be that of Ryley. Next to her was someone new, who hadn't yet spoken. They wore some kind of lit-up suit of techy looking armor, and seemed to have a really, really shiny mask of some sort. This one waved to Annabeth rather enthusiastically, who happily returned the gesture. Ryley turned on this person then, and the radio passed on her words shortly after as she warned 'Ozone' to be careful of the switches in the cockpit. So this partner wasn't a copilot? Perhaps a bodyguard, then? They certainly looked the part, at least from this distance.

True to Ryley's word, the Venture II's console soon lit up with the reception of a file. She took a moment to open it and look over the text, but was frustrated to find she couldn't understand a single bit of its contents. She couldn't help but be disappointed. The convenience could only go so far, she knew, and they were all lucky that they happened to go by the same spoken language. The written language, however, was completely different than the standard of Oasis Station. "I really hate to break it to you, but I can't read this," she stated over the radio. "Like, at all. Completely different from the language I know.

Great, a language barrier... Rose completely forgot about that possibility, but since they spoke the same language, she expected that things weren't as different when written down. She was clearly wrong there. She could be seen scratching the back of her head as she looked over to Ozone, which wasn't of any help since she didn't know what to do either.

"Um... well... I guess just stick close to me as I lead you there. Is your ship capable of tracking mine? If it can, try locking onto me in case something breaks our line of sight on the way there, just don't lock in with weapon systems. The warning siren in this thing is annoyingly high-pitched. Alright, I'll go out slow." The Spyglass' engines whirred to life as the thrusters sent the ship off softly.

she realized that they were going to have some trouble with the map. If the other pilot couldn't understand the coordinates, then she wasn't going to be able to read the map either. "Hey listen. That map's going to be a trouble to read too," she said, expressing her newfound concern. "Does your ship have an automatic translator for maps in different languages?"

Ryley gave a number of potential solutions to the issue, but many of them simply didn't apply. A single language was the standard back at Oasis, and even it that wasn't the case, this writing looked nothing like what hers would be. She almost thought of it as an alien language before realizing that, in a technical sense, Annabeth was the alien in this situation, flying in a strange ship with a language nobody writes and, if that were anything to go by, a completely different culture. It spoke volumes of what her greatest challenges might be in the future.

Thankfully, there was one good tool at her disposal. "I don't have guns, but I do have an orbit lock! I'll just run a few laps around you on the way there, I guess." As she spoke, she flipped a nearby manual open, searching for the section on orbit locking. It seemed straightforward enough- Highlight an entity, hit the button with the circle and a rocket on it, stay in an orbital path until it was interrupted or shut down.

Something bothered her, though. Why would this person assume she had weapons on board? "Say, while we're 'chatting', I have a question: Is this area dangerous, by any chance? You assumed pretty quickly that I had weapons to lock with." If space was dangerous, then Annabeth would be eager to land as soon as possible. She could fly a shuttle as simply-made as the Venture II with ease, but even if it were properly equipped she knew it wouldn't last in a fight. For starters, it was built for well-calculated space expeditions, not zero-G dogfighting, and that wasn't even touching on whether she'd be able to properly use a ship that was.

An orbit lock? Interesting. That was useful for a lot of things, but that function wasn't installed with the ship since it wouldn't be used much with this class. Though she can't lie, it was weird having a ship revolving around her own, but Ozone seemed to enjoy watching it go in and out of sight.

"Well, this is space. Plenty of pirates and their ilk lurk everywhere. Knowing that, I assume that even civilian ships by now have at least one gun, even if it was just an ion blaster to defend themselves with. I guess I'm just a little disconnected when it comes to those things." She gave an embarrassed chuckle, but realized that what she said might raise a few more questions like why she would feel that way. Well if that question, or anything like it arises, she could answer without lying, though she may have needed to leave certain details out.

"Now that I think about it, there's probably a lot of unarmed ships out there, just not in areas like this where hardly anyone ever drifts through." She herself would use an unarmed ship, but only in crowded places and where pirates weren't likely to appear. "So where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?"

Space pirates, according to Ryley's explanation, were a decent threat. Enough so, in fact, that armed transport was just about necessary. That only added to Annabeth's worries. She'd definitely have to modify the Venture II somehow, and get some guns installed if there was a posibility like getting mugged in space.

Then came the question that had to come eventually: Where was she from? Annabeth wondered how to explain it for some time, but soon found a good way to do so. "Think... deserts," she began. "Lots of space, sand and rocks everywhere, but the land is just about useless. There's nothing for miles, and it's impossible to settle. If you're lucky, there might be an oasis hiding somewhere. I come from a place kinda like that. Most of the people there don't bother traveling anymore. Does that kinda make sense?"

The thought she put into it brought up new concerns. If she was somewhere far enough to have completely different civilizations than what she'd been brought up by in Oasis Station, then just how much distance had she covered? And with that in mind, who had been trying to get there from here? Annabeth didn't voice her concerns, and soon ignored them herself. As of now, there were other things to sort out, like the map. "Now that I think about it, the map should work just fine so long as it's image based. Text is an issue, but I'll at least be able to know where different planets are and how to get to them. Kinda like a picture book, maybe."

It was easy to imagine a desert. Her country's back yard was basically a desert, albeit it was a tundra... Well a lot of people say it was basically a desert, so it still count in her mind. But if she were talking about the desert people first thing of when hearing the word, the hot, sandy biome with brutal heat during the day, and chilling cold during the night, then all she had to think about was the world known as Agrabah. She never visited the place herself, but with the description given previously, she doubted that it was too enviable to pass up.

Finally, Ozone spoke up, or rather, her mumbling was loud enough to be faintly picked up by Rose's microphone. She was repeating the word 'desert', trying to recall something relating to it.

"Yeah, I can imagine a world like that. And if resources are as scarce as they are, I can see why people would rather settle than go venturing out." Though there were bound to be missed opportunities by neglecting something like exploration. But it wasn't her place to go telling people that, especially someone she just met.

"Yeah, the maps are usually encoded in multiple formats to cater to as many systems possible, but if for some reason your ship can't accept any of them, then there should be a static map exported to an image format, with or without the labels."

She got out of her seat after turning on the autopilot to stretch a little and walk around to keep her muscles from falling asleep on her. "Your home planet must really be far away. Did you venture out to see the great infinity of space?"

"Agrabah!" Ozone suddenly shouted. A surprised gasp escaped Rose as she jumped a little. "Agrabah's a desert, so are you from there?" She sure sounded enthusiastic, mostly because she remembered the world. Rose didn't say anything though. It was unlikely the other pilot was from that world, but she'd rather not answer for anyone.

Thankfully, whoever had mades these 'automatic station' things had accesibility in mind when they did so, because there were going to be multiple versions and formats to draw from. "That sounds just about perfect!" Annabeth confirmed. "I was never good with the sorts of maps that had all the text and symbols everywhere, anyway. Just show where what something is. Shouldn't be so complex..."

"I'm sure it's nowhere close," she said in reply to the question of her home's location. "The space around Oasis was pretty crowded, but there was nothing useful. Here, though, it seems so much more open, and with plenty more of use." She couldn't help but wonder just how the Oasis government would even approach this place if they knew something like it existed. It was already obvious that she was stepping into something massive in comparison to what she'd come from. "I wouldn't say I'm here for the space, though." What was she here for?

She and Ima had always been dreaming of becoming the heroic tag-team, like in one of the fantasy games, but what was step one? It wasn't like her humble home had been oppressed by an evil warlock. Come to think of it, maybe no such villain even existed? Maybe the pirates were the greatest threat here, instead. In that case, perhaps becoming a space cop would have to do.

"Agrabah!" shouted someone new from over the radio. This 'Ozone' character, perhaps? Whoever she was asked if a place by the name of Agrabah was her home, saying it was a desert. Annabeth waved her hands defensively at the radio, even though it wouldn't relay her movements. "N-No, I didn't mean an actual desert, sorry! It was j-just an analogy! Like, the area around Oasis is barren." For some reason, even though the voice sounded perfectly unassuming, it carried an intimidation factor of sorts. Was it the sheer volume? Maybe the image of the armored guard left in her head was influencing how she thought of it. Annabeth made an effort to abandon such offensive thoughts, feeling they were a bit rude. Clearly, this Ozone was a perfectly normal human being, just like them!

"Sorry about that," Rose began to apologize, though one could easily tell that she was holding back laughter. "She can be quite excitable." Although 'normal human' is a description that was galaxies away from the truth, Ozone has adopted plenty of human traits, and not just from Rose herself. She was regularly surrounded by different people, so it was inevitable for her to grow her own personality. Though at the moment, she was still malleable and prone to impressions, which left a seed of worry inside the blond's mind.

"I'm guessing your choice to go all the way out here was in search of adventure?" The idea sounded really charming to her. It really did. "Since you told me something about your home, I should return the favor, shouldn't I? Let's see... My planet is called Haven. Most of the land there formed a super continent, with only the north country being separated, though there are islands here and there. While there were a lot of countries, four of them were were known as powerhouses because of the amount of power, influence and prestige they had. Each of them specialized on a certain category like tourism, medicine, education, and technology. I'm proud to say I was born in the later. Even though living there was a complete pain..."

"My home is space itself!" Ozone chimed in. "Well it used to be, till Rose found me and took me in. She even gave me this nifty suit so I don't vaporize the things I touch, even though I don't even do it all the time."

"It was more for my piece of mind... I didn't want to wake up with a new hole through the ship..."

The description of Ryley's home made it sound kind of... crowded. One continent with almost everyone on it just couldn't be pleasant, and if only four of them held the bulk of the power, there was no way that'd end well. Annebeth understood immediately why someone would want to leave, but chose not to voice it. Insulting someone else's home would be rude, wouldn't it?

That, together with the avid guess as to why she had left gave Annabeth the feeling that they'd get along just fine. They seemed to share enough of the same feelings, after all. "Y'know, if pirates really are so much of an issue out here, I'm glad I ran into you instead," she said. "I'd take a like-minded traveler over a space mugging any day."

Once again, Ozone spoke up with some exposition of her own, saying that space was her home, and that someone named Rose had given her a suit to keep her from vaporizing things on touch. However that worked, Annabeth hadn't the slightest clue, and so she figured she'd just roll with it.

"That sounds pretty... safe," she commented, unsure of how else to describe the unusual story. And who was this 'Rose' person, anyway? So many new people were being mentioned and introduced already, she felt a small need to start writing things down. When Ryley spoke up again, Annabeth connected the dots, assuming 'Rose' was probably just her birth name, and that Ryley was her sur. That made a bit more sense.

Her quiet contemplation of all the information being thrown at her was interrupted by a 'ping' coming from the Venture II's console. They were approaching an object, it seemed. "I take it that's the station you mentioned?" she asked over the radio, sure that they would have picked it up as well.

She too would prefer meeting friendly fellows instead of being shot at as well. It was a given, really, but something else about the situation made her happy. For one, the girl they met was in good hands for now, and two, she felt like the friendliness of a stranger was just refreshing. Things not coming out to shoot them to pieces while they were both in unfamiliar space was a bonus to the whole situation as well, but she wouldn't say something alluding to that in case she might jinx it for the two of them.

While Lee responded to Ozone's exposition, Rose couldn't help but take from her tone that she was confused on what the plasma being was talking about. Rose could sympathize, since there were a lot of things she learned about that she had no related knowledge prior to her world-hopping adventures.

Lee came up on the radio again, presumably picking up the station, asking if it was the one Rose was talking about. "Yeah, that should be it. Hmm... you might want to switch to manual controls since there's some junk floating around out here..." Her display had highlighted said junk on her screen. Most of them were small, and could hardly leave a dent on a ship's hull, but there are some larger pieces that could be damaging.

"Looks like this station got hit by some stray asteroids some time ago. But if your ship is capable of it, you should do some long-ranged scans for any ship or drone signatures in case asteroids weren't the only things passing through here. I'll do the same." If the station was still operational, then Venture II's systems should be able to download it once they got close enough. But then came the question of compatibility, which Rose decided to address if they ever came upon that bridge.

Annabeth took the advice readily, releasing the ship's orbit lock and reorienting it so she could get a better look at the station. Once she actually saw it, she knew what Ryley meant by asteroids. The station looked more like a cloud of debris from where she was sitting! Just like in the science fiction books, with the space stations that were invaded by aliens, and then the brave, but unassuming protagonist was sent in to investigate, only to be ambushed and-

She shook her head, clearing it of the fantasy. Aliens wouldn't just randomly attack a map station! That was just stupid. This was clearly done by the pirates Ryley had mentioned. "You were talking about pirates earlier," she pointed out. "Sounds like you think they might be involved."

As per Ryley's suggestion, Annabeth turned on the only scanning function the Venture II had: A simple resource check. Sure, it wouldn't actively warn of incoming missiles, or identify whether or not a rock was actually an armed ship, but in theory it would tell her a bit of what everything nearby was made of.

Unfortunately, that theory didn't hold true. The console came back with a countless number of unknowns. "Say, just what are these stations made of, anyway? Venture doesn't know any of the materials here." Culture, she could believe. Language, most certainly, but did this place really need to have different matter? It was starting to look less like a different sector of space, and more like another dimension.

Did she think pirates were involved? "That can be a possibility. They can be crafty and it'd be bad if we're caught with our pants down." But so far, she couldn't find any signatures of any active electronics aside from the two ships and the station's, which was a good sign that they could relax a bit, but not too much to miss any new signatures entering the area.

"To be honest, I don't know. These stations could either be man-made or alien-made and the material they use can vary greatly. But this one to me seems to be the former, so I'm guessing some type of titanium compound? Carbon fiber is a popular choice, and I'm sure there are a couple of metallic alloys as well. I'm not sure why your ship can't tell, but maybe the mixture they used on the station is completely different to what it's programmed to detect?"

She was just shooting at the dark right now since she never delved too deep with ship systems like that. She could understand the principle behind it, but not how it worked exactly. "Um... Is there a setting to make it look up it's molecular combination? Looking up the elements its made of might give us a clue."

Rose glanced at the screen and they were still in the clear. They should be close enough to the station. If the transmitter on it was still intact, then Venture II should be able to connect to the system in a few moments.

'Caught with their pants down', eh? Annabeth made an effort to remember that line for later. For now, there remained the matter of the scan. Ryley suggested that perhaps they'd be made of titanium or carbon fibers, which seemed outlandish to Annabeth. Assuming they were thinking of the same kind of titanium, then that would mean these people made space stations from what would have been a jeweler's metal back on Oasis. In what sort of fantasy world was it common enough for industrial use?

Then came the question of carbon fibers. First off, how would somebody make fibers out of carbon, and second, how could that possibly be used to weave a building, let alone a building in space? After a few moments of silent confusion, she said to herself, "This place is weird..."

The matter still remained of the scan. Ryley asked about molecular combinations, and Annabeth pondered the idea. More specifically, she wondered how to possibly respond. She had no idea what this person was talking about! "J-Just a sec," she said before leaving the console to search for a manual. Sure, she knew how to drive the thing, but there were gadgets on the Venture II she'd never even touched before. How was she supposed to know which buttons did what? They weren't even labeled!

Her panic was interrupted by a confirmatory 'ping' from the console. "I think Venture has the station," she announced, returning to her place. "So... How do I download this map? I don't see a prompt or anything." In reality, she was probably looking straight at it, but any data the ship collected was in the same language as everything Ryley had sent, and she had no greater luck trying to read it.

If she thought this part of the universe was weird, wait till she finds Wonderland. The place looked like something a substance abuser would see at the tip of their high. Given enough time, it shows its charms, especially in the dream-like scenery and the fantastic creatures, but going in blind into the whole ordeal would guarantee massive confusion and the internal struggle of convincing yourself that you haven't fallen into a psychedelic trap. The place gave her the creeps to be honest.

The Spyglass connected to the station and downloaded a copy of the sector's map without a problem, so she knew the system was intact. Lee came to the radio asking how to download the data, and Rose couldn't answer that in a non-complicated matter since she doesn't know how the Venture's system worked. "You... you don't know how to get the data? How do you normally get data from remote stations? It should be the same... If nothing comes up then... I guess your ship's system is incompatible... I was worried about this..."

She could try sending the data she got directly to Venture, but could the ship even read it? "Hold on... let me see if I can find a work-around... Erm... I guess I'll try sending the image data to you, but I'm not sure if your ship can properly display it. If this doesn't work, I might need to give you a spare data assistant."

Thankfully, Ryley didn't seem too surprised by the issue, and quickly proposed a solution with only a small bit of hesitation. Once again, Annabeth didn't understand a great deal of what she was talking about, but figured she'd gotten the gist. Ryley would take it instead, and send it afterward. "Ssssurrre... Sounds good to me."

Annabeth wondered if maybe she should have been a bit more clear when she'd explained her origin. This other pilot was talking about stations and space travel as if she were a veteran pilot, but this was the first time she'd properly flown the Venture II. That she had yet to collide with anything yet was a miracle in itself.

Of course, there would be more convenient times than then to go over the little details. Assuming she didn't actually vent herself before they were done, Annabeth wanted to land somewhere afterward. Walk around, learn the ropes of this new... place. "Hey, I'm curious," she spoke up. "Do you know what a good place to stop would be once I've got a map? Preferably a city-sort of place." Cities were her domain, and chances were that there would be plenty, but there was a chance that there would be planets with more spread-out populations, and perhaps forests or other forms of wilderness.

Rose scratched her head a little as she sent the data to Venture II. "Sending the data now." Was she approaching the problem right? So far it was barrier after barrier with the other ship's system, and she was starting to doubt that this was as simple as she thought it'd be. If the image came out corrupted on Lee's end like with the coordinates, then there was no other recourse than to dock and give her a physical device with the map data. And a crash course on how to use it. There was probably a user manual on the device, but she might have difficulty reading it...

Despite her years of using space crafts, she never had never been in a situation where she was working with another ship that had this much trouble. Granted, she never ventured out too much on her own, usually sticking to areas where the Shadows operated, so it was surely understandable that she couldn't help this other pilot that much, right?

"A good place to stop..." she hummed for a moment before giving out a list of places Lee might want to visit. There were plenty of places she could go to, but Rose decided to give her some which were more technologically capable.

"There's this one world with a really nice city named San Fransokyo. They speak the same language, but their writing is a bit different too."

"Didn't you get shot at there? And something about a car crash?"

"Yeaaa... But that doesn't mean she should stay away from that place. Trust me, Lee, the place is beautiful. Just don't go down any dark alleys. Their technology isn't too behind, so it won't feel too foreign, hopefully. Twilight Town is also a good place to check out."

Ryley suggested a city named 'San Fransokyo', which was apparently on a nearby world. By her words, it was a rather nice place, where people just happened to speak the same language. Annabeth couldn't help but see Oasis Station in her mind at the description of a city. Ozone spoke up about cars and being shot at, and the image didn't budge. "That sounds perfect," she concluded. "I'll make sure to keep an eye out for it, thanks."

Thankfully, there wasn't much more of a wait for the data, and a clear image map soon came up on the Venture II's console screen. Annabeth cued up a print of it, wanting a physical copy as well. "Good news and better: The map turned out fine, and I distinctly remember a pack of crayons in the storage bay, so I can just fill in the blanks myself!" She sent the message through and left the console again, trotting down the primary corridor to storage. The door opened with a loud hissing noise, and she wasted no time stepping in and getting started with sifting through the many boxes stashed there.

There were still some words that needed to be said, of course. "I don't think I can thank you enough," she admitted through the remote headset. "It's one thing to give directions. It's another to do... all this for some random pilot out in the middle of nowhere. So, uh... Thanks." She had to resist the urge to smack herself for saying exactly what she had just said wasn't enough, but she was well aware of her lack of... eloquence when it came to talking with strangers. Or friends. Or anyone, for that matter.

Rose was glad the girl wasn't dismayed by the shooting and car crashes. San Fransokyo was a beautiful world, and truly felt like a piece of her home had broken off and manifested into that place. That reminded her. She had to visit that place again and see what gadgets they have. Her last visit didn't turn out quite well, but she kept her fingers crossed.

The news of the image being delivered and received safely was a relief. That was one problem dealt with. She congratulated herself with a stretch and a little drink of water while the other pilot went to grab some crayons. She assumed that meant she was printing out a physical copy of the map and marking it with those, or 'crayon' was some kind of device with the same purpose but went directly through a digital medium to mark out the digital data. Either way, it gave her some time to inspect the station and the damage it retained from years of drifting in space.

When Lee came back to the radio, she thanked her for all she had done, and in reply, Rose simply said, "It was my pleasure to help. Times like these, people would do well to do as much as they can for others who need help, even if they're total strangers. And besides, you were a pleasant person to talk to. I was happy to lend you a hand."

Annabeth felt a bit of pride when Ryley called her 'pleasant'. "Aww, stop it, you," she insisted, waving dismissively at no one in particular. "No need to flatter the newbie, y'know!" She resumed her search, but had some trouble finding anything but the excessive number of canned foods that she and Ima had stored there. In her frustration, she almost missed the feeling of another presence in the room. Almost.

The sense of eyes on her back was too much for even her to miss. As far as she was aware, no one could've possibly been aboard with her. If that were the case, how could someone be watching?

She turned quickly, locking her eyes to where she had felt the gaze from: A particularly dark corner of the room with... nothing in it. So the feeling was a fluke, then? Real or not, it bothered her. "I think I'll be looking for them some other time," she announced through her headset shortly before stepping out of storage and letting the door shut again. She saw nothing of the movements in the shadows, and remained unaware of how accurate her seemingly paranoid instinct had been.

Annabeth didn't let the odd sensation bother her, however, as it was gone the moment she stepped back into the brightly-lit corridor. She shrugged, deciding to just grab a flashlight next time, and returned to the console to look at the map image again. Next to each planet shown was an illustration of sorts, which showed a variety of exaggerated landscapes and structures. A caricature of the different worlds, perhaps? Convenient, seeing as she'd be going by descriptions alone. "So, is San Fransokyo the one with the bridge-lookin' thing?" she asked, tapping an image of a massive red suspension bridge. Even on such a small image, she could see roads paved on it. If there were such a huge bridge somewhere, no wonder it was shown as the primary trait of its planet.