“That… was not the shape I was expecting…”
Tenuk reduced the thrusters, slowing the ship down to a standstill. In the darkness of the void, a familiar golden trim winded its way through what looked like an abandoned fuel station, with a warehouse behind it.
“What were you expecting?” a voice from behind Tenuk asked.
“Geometric shapes, I guess…” Tenuk replied, glancing at his crew. “Most Voidborn beings like gold-trimmed cubes and pyramids, not weirdly ornate structures that match what most mortals would call a gas station.” Tenuk turned to his side, where his co-pilot Retvik was working through a myriad of different scans. “So, should we land in the empty parking lot or do you think a tether would be better?”
Retvik grunted, not quite ready to answer. “Let me finish these scans first.”
“Alright then,” Tenuk shrugged, peering over his shoulder. “What do you two lovely ladies think?”
Elksi and Phovos both shrugged the same way Tenuk had.
“Should land it!” Elksi suggested. “Don’t want to finish exploring and our ship not be here, waiting for us. Nice and easy to secure the ship too.”
Phovos’s answer though was less optimistic. “I’d rather we wait until Retvik is done with the scans. For all we know, there could be a swarm of monsters inside that warehouse.”
“Could also be a swarm of gold!” Elksi countered Phovos’s gloomy outlook. “Time-wise, it is all abandoned!”
“Yeah but still…”
“It is abandoned,” Retvik finally spoke. “Heat scans show the whole thing is cold and dead. Even the unusual growth at the bottom is close to zero Kelvin. If there was something alive and moving in there, we would know about it immediately. Cannot have movement without producing some sort of heat.”
Tenuk nodded, thankful for the information. “Cool. So you think I should land the ship down there?”
“I think so, yes.”
Without a hint of hesitation, Tenuk flicked a couple of switches, rotating the thrusters upwards to bring themselves closer to the empty parking lot. He slowly and steadily moved the ship downwards, making sure he was level with the lot, before initializing the landing sequence. The ship’s extending landing gear made contact with the dull tarmac, settling down nicely.
“I am still totally the king of parking ships!” Tenuk smiled. “There’s no way anyone could do better.”
“If you say so…” Retvik muttered, before undoing his straps and standing up straight. Phovos and Elksi did the same.
“While we’re here…” Tenuk tapped on a console next to him. Four sheets of paper, all with a black grid on them and what looked like a bird’s eye view of the weird, abandoned gas station, came flying out of a nearby printer. By tilting the sheets in various directions, the images would alternate between an overhead view and an architectural view, allowing visibility of the buildings’ layout inside. “We should all take a map each. In case we get lost.”
“It’s like, two buildings though!” Elksi protested.
“Doesn’t matter. We’re going into the unknown,” Phovos grunted.
“Yeah, to loot the place!”
“Better safe than sorry.”
Tenuk turned to Elksi. “Phovos is right. Better safe than sorry.”
“Aw fine!” Elksi accepted the map. “But I call dibs on the first treasure we find, alright?”
“Sure, sure,” Retvik smiled, leading everyone towards the exit hatch. “Come on now, we have work to do…”