Leaning past the opened wall with every precaution, Rainier looked for any sign of track or adjoining cables that may lead to what appeared to be one of the portals on the ship's side. Deba asked Rainier why he was particularly excited about the gems in the volcanic region being remnants from the dead sun but Rainier would only speak of the possibility of their existence being proof of reigniting a dead star. Zoic studied the platform inside the cave's entrance as he walked around the edges. He stepped into the middle while the others carefully searched for a way to the ship. Faint at first, Zoic spoke a few muddled words. Finally he looked up at the rock ceiling and back to the others.
"What was the old tale, in your recollection, about the gems and the sound they produced?" Zoic asked Rainier.
"In one of the more well-known stories it's something that's sung rather than spoken. Sort of like a rhyme or a bit from a longer song." Rainier answered while trying to remember the words.
"The notes are what we're hearing but the wording has escaped me. It's been so long since I've been privileged to listen to the story of the once great sun and the beauty of its elements." The others looked on as Rainier tried to repeat the story he knew.
"It mentioned the gems, and it mentioned a light. The ship of the great sun and of all the suns we know. It spoke of gems being conductors, that lead to the door. An arc that held steady, that would lead into the skies."
Zoic motioned to Rainier and the others to come to stand with him in the center of the platform. As they all gathered to the center of the strange platform that held them aloft, it began to move. The group held each other's hands as it moved steadily through the opening of the rock wall and glided toward the ship. A singular step from the ship protruded from the lower right side and an entrance opened that would lead them into the ship. They marveled, but there was a bit of fright to the experience as it was quite a drop from the ship to the grounds below. Once the group were all inside, the doorway closed and the platform seemed to turn into a hazy cloud and dissolved completely into nothing. The cave entrance where they stood moments before dimmed and faded as the rock wall seemed to seal itself to its former state.
Inside the ship it was lit well enough for its new crew to explore and learn its secrets. They would be here for a while learning everything they could. This was unlike any other ship they knew. Rainier asked for Zoic's guidance, as Zoic himself was a more seasoned pilot of spacecraft.
The first stage of knowing the ship was to be acquainted with its engine apparatus and flight controls. These were ancient and although something of an energy still hummed in the ship to activate an open door for them, it was now time to figure how to operate the flight deck and get the ship out from the mountain-like dock it had been in for a long period of time.
The belly of the ship contained the engine's power container and the engines themselves. Inside a column-like area, they noted the engines were all smaller than expected. Quite compact. And there were twenty of these all lined up, four apiece up each level of five ascending sections of the column. Connected to that were coils that ran along the outside of the column encircling it in a perfect wraparound and then splintered off into small bead-like nodes. The nodes seemed to hang in the air but were held by magnetic features in the walls of the craft. The living area was basic enough and what would be a cargo deck was spacious and dimensional. It could hold much more than what it seemed. This was a massive ship. By any other standards, it was build to be a battle-worthy craft among other things.
Once Zoic translated the ship's controls and tested the ship's hover and flying moves, the next step was to figure out how to exit the mountain. Nobody was leaving the ship the way they came as it wasn't known how they could. So there was only one option and that was to take the ship and look for an alternative docking spot.
They discussed hovering up into the highest point inside the cavern walls, but the ship was simply too big the risk bringing the rocks down on them. In the space of two turns, and half onto another night turn, the riddle of how to exit the mountain was solved. The engines when fired up, simply radiated all matter around the ship and all natural, solid matter around it, dissolved into a thin layer of beam and scattered molecules. When the ship cleared the pathway it made, all the matter of rock and form melded back into its original state. That was the power of the ship's legendary capabilities.
The ship was made in various parts of the same gems they found back at the cave, but they were larger and appeared to serve a function for pulsating power from one to the other. Taking a look at the engine apparatus in comparison, it showed that the engine structure itself was more for the basic travel and nominal workings rather than what gave it its more advanced capabilities. When Zoic, with Rainier on standby, began to make way back to Tuoce they soon realized that the ship would react with elements all around it, and change in temperature and oxygen levels if exposed to extreme instances where it acted as a shielding device with having any onboard protocols for such things. They tested how it operated underwater. It was incredible. The vents of the craft enclosed like a smooth gel that pulsated with the sound of the waves present in the water. And coming out of the water left no trace of it as if the gel had combined with the air upon rising up from the surface, leaving no strings of the element from where the ship exited the environment. There was a soft glow about the craft that simulated the light in the element itself. Giving the crew the knowledge that this was a ship with the ability to cloak itself in between environments.
Zoic and Rainer took head of the control panel's system that lit the way to achieve cloaking within environments and ran a few more test runs in and out of the water. Nackendara and Deba were looking into the weapons system and taking account of what the ship had in way of defense mechanisms. The ship produced energy beams that could be concentrated and narrowed, to pinpoint a target. The overall defense of the ship itself was in the energy it produced. Making itself a shielding of its own without activation of any control measures from the crew. They discussed what to do next, and it was agreed to hold off on returning to Anuna to report of the finding of the ship to Tuoce and instead try space travel with the ship.
"We'll take it out two parals, and circle Cova from that point and observe the ship's reaction to the outer orbital planes." Rainier said. The others agreed.
Lifting off the surface and rising into the heights of space, they saw the ocean planet shrink from their observatory window that stretched from the bridge to the back deck. There was nothing isolated or closed in as the hull of the ship seemed to allow light from space itself into its structure. A very dim light, but light nonetheless. The ship was, for all purposes, an energy producing craft that absorbed whatever environment it was in and adjusted with it. The design was of no planetary make any of the crew were familiar with or experienced.
When they were out at two parals, Cova was still massive in their view but they were effectively in position for re-entry to orbit. They let the ship glide along and kept watch on the panel's readouts, Zoic translated the ancient symbols with Rainier's help. They tested the light factors and the capability of the craft to signal or make itself known should they hail any outpost or ports within the parso worlds of the system. There was success as the Cova outpost at Anuna did receive their signal. They instructed that Tuoce meet them at the highest landing platform. Stressing that the landing of the ship might be a bit tricky and that they are still in the testing phase of how to pilot the craft.
When Tuoce learned that the ship had been found and the mission was successful, a light of hope played across his face. He had forgotten what the feeling of hope was like. He was speechless that their finding was miraculously quick. He prepared to meet the new crew of what was remembered only by the eldest of Cova's population, as the Sun Ship 773.
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