章節 14: Chapter 14 - Finders Keepers
Zenith felt a bit of excitement too as he heard Fable's tone. "You know what this stuff is?" Fable laughed. "Not a clue! But whatever it is, to be hidden in what looks like a capsule to keep things sealed and fresh, it's probably good!" He approached and knelt down beside Zenith, reaching in to pull out an object.
"What the hell is this for?" he and Zenith looked at it with confusion. They could see it was made out of some odd textured material. It had some buttons and fit comfortably in the hand. It was black in color while the buttons were colored, and the center had a green X on it that could be pressed. Extending from the head was a cable, and at the end was an endpoint looking as if it could be plugged in.
Zenith reached in and grabbed some other things. Inside he found a wooden frame, as well as what looked like an image or picture: a young man with two people, middle-aged, a man and woman, and beside them an odd furry creature with its tongue hanging out.
There were all sorts of objects. Fable then spoke up. "I know what this is now. These are the belongings of a human!" Zenith was dumbfounded. "Why would a human make or use this space to put their belongings?"
Fable shrugged, responding. "Beats me. All I know is, these are really sought after by those rich collector snobs. They don't really have any technological value, but we know humans seemed to have limitless power. The fact that they would even take the time to hide their belongings shows that we weren't much different emotionally."
Zenith nodded, then raised his head to look around. "I bet under each stone pillar is another capsule..." Fable nodded with a greedy smirk. "Why don't you go dig out some more? I'll tell grandma and my sister."
Some time later, at the outpost dock where ships were lined up, many had their own teleporter devices active as it was a much easier method to transport found goods directly onto the ship or to sell them. Two individuals were standing beside each other, sneering a little as they looked over at Jenabell and Mirabell.
"We made a killing selling that stupid relic site. Stone pillars, could you believe it? So dumb." The bald-headed man laughed quietly. Then his companion replied, "You know what's really dumb? The idiots who bought it. It's Allspace too? They really have fallen. Wanna tell Scorpius? We might even get a connection if they know we wasted more of Allspace's funds."
Before they could continue, Fable exited the teleporter, dragging two large capsules behind him as if they were nothing. Zenith followed with one, using the gauntlet to assist. Jenabell and Mirabell had excited looks on their faces. A quick energetic chime left Mirabell's body.
"What the fuck?" The first man who spoke was dumbfounded. He was confused. He had seen images of capsules before and had even found some when he was very lucky, so he understood a basic shape. What stunned him the most was that Fable and Zenith kept going back and forth, bringing capsule after capsule.
The situation seemed to get a little out of hand. More and more people were looking over with amazement. Such a haul was very rare unless a new teleporter device that had never been opened before was used, but even then, those were privately sold and definitely not used within the outpost for fear of greedy people.
A commotion soon broke out. Many were starting to point and get closer. The relic hunters here were used to scavenging the leftovers that have been scraped to the bone by others. What really put people down was the fact that many of them would never find that final treasure which could shut down a teleporter device, so the pain of knowing something was there but they couldn't find it would be haunting.
"You're shitting me? They actually found relics?" The second man's eyes widened. He looked angry, enough so his face was reddening and his fists clenched. Suddenly the credits they got seemed like a pittance compared to that haul.
With the commotion around them, Mirabell looked a little nervous while Jenabell maintained her calm as she approached a capsule. When Zenith and Fable had finally brought out the final capsules, the teleporter device quivered before it contracted and returned to its normal state. Then it seemed to lose its energy and disintegrated.
This caused others to look stunned and talk more. "Seriously? They actually found the relics? So damn lucky..." A relic hunter sighed, admiring the perception of Zenith and Fable. Another chimed in as well. "16 time capsules in total... What's in them? I bet the rich guys will be drooling for whatever is inside," speaking from experience, having seen how such individuals act.
Many held jealousy, admiration, greed, though no one would dare lay a finger on them in or outside the outpost. It was a death sentence and would get you hunted by the federation. Besides, everyone hoped that one day, they would get their own windfall.
"What do you think, grandma? Our little Zenith has the senses of a Stygian beast!" Fable laughed, smirking as he and Zenith, who rolled his eyes, walked beside Jenabell. Mirabell rushed over too, watching as their grandma opened up the time capsule.
"Eh?" Jenabell leaned down. Inside the capsules were neatly assorted books. "Human books..." Jenabell quivered. "Actual books, nearly perfect condition..." Those watching from the side suddenly caused a large uproar. "You're kidding me... the first capsule?... Forgotten human knowledge?... What are the others going to contain?" He really was tempted to rush over and start opening them himself.
Zenith looked confused. He could see symbols and text on the pages as Jenabell opened them, but he didn't know the human language, more so as they had several languages that were used. "Are books from humans important?" Jenabell nodded seriously. Fable, though, moved to keep a careful watch on the time capsules in case someone couldn't control themselves.
"You see, with books, we can slowly understand more of what humans understood, maybe one day piecing together everything to reach their technological advancement. Not just for that, but other reasons too. Wouldn't you like to know about your ancestors and their traditions?" Jenabell spoke.
Mirabell gave a steady twinkling chime as she also looked at some books, looking with excitement as if she could read them. Zenith seemed a little thoughtful. The federation seemed to value every piece of human technology or object, like an orphaned child wanting to find traces of their parents. He suddenly remembered the picture he had seen in the relic site; humans looked identical to them. This would make one even more fanatical in searching.
Jenabell shut the capsule, her eyes slowly narrowing and gazing around. "Zenith, you start loading the capsules onto the freighter. We'll look into the rest away from the gawking eyes." She knew better than to open every single one in front of the crowd.
Zenith nodded, walking over and grabbing one by the handle. He then began to drag it away before a voice sounded out. "Hey kid, not so fast!" From the crowd that parted, a group of 15 individuals made their way over. It was the two men from before who had sold the teleporter to the outpost, which was used as a third party.
"You trying to steal from us, on the outpost? Wow, you got guts," Fable spoke, moving to stand between the man and Zenith. The man at the front snickered, watching as Jenabell and Mirabell moved to stand with Zenith and Fable. "I wouldn't dare... You see though, there's a bit of an unfair problem..."
Jenabell chuckled quietly. "What problem? You gave the teleporter device to the Relic Syndicate's sellers, we bought it, we found the relics. There's no problem." Jenabell added, understanding and pointing everything out. The crowd began to speak amongst each other.
"Tsch... Look, old bag, we sold the device for a lowball. I think it would be fair to give us some capsules. We won't ask for much; we want 10." Fable's eyes narrowed, and Zenith carefully clenched his weapon and gauntlet.
"You're trying to rob us after being so stupid that you couldn't find the relics?" Jenabell grinned. She then spoke up. "Imagine if all of you found a relic site, got the loot, but the person you bought it from demanded more than half of it. Is that fair? Who would want to be a relic hunter if all you needed to do is demand the findings?"
When Jenabell spoke, smoothly speaking up, the crowd seemed to agree. Deadly eyes and irritated gazes focused on the relic hunters who had demanded compensation they didn't deserve. A heavy aura and tension seemed to surround the dock.
This made those hunters incredibly nervous. The leader at the front reached for his weapon, nearly sweating bullets. He needed to control the situation. "Now listen here, you-" Suddenly a voice interrupted him. "Is someone trying to rob another?... Oh dear, oh dear! It's been a while since I had to deal with bandits." The crowd quickly parted as if knowing the source of the voice. A lady in fitted battle attire, with hair cut on one side while the other hung loosely in a curved style, hands behind her back, approached. Beside her, two robots, both nearly 3 meters tall and combat-ready, walked with her obediently.
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