The tactical room was abuzz with energy.

And Vance was not ok with it.

Arwin had pulled him and Glass over to a table, where seemingly everyone else was standing, looking at a giant map of space (or maybe something else? It was hard to tell)

And oh, god. Why was Vance panicking over this. It was stupid. But he didn't know why they were there or what was happening and oh god he's really in space and-

"Hey, you good?" Glass shoved Vance a bit, most likely to get his attention. "You seem a bit off."

Vance nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." He bluffed.

Glass nodded. She probably saw through Vance's lies. "Well, any second now Arwin's gonna start up this meaning, things'll probably make more sense then."

As if on cue, Arwin clapped a few times, gaining the room's attention. "Attention, attention," She called out, her voice loud, clear and stern. She seemed to radiate a sense of authority over the rest of the people in the room.

"As you may or may not have heard," Arwin began. "We have a new face among us." She gestured to Vance.

Suddenly, the entire room seemed to turn to Vance. He smiled and waved awkwardly. "Hey."

"He's from earth," Arwin continued, "But we found him drifting through space on an abandoned starcraft."

A strong, tall looking woman standing on the other side of the room made a small gesture with her hand. (She had a neon orange body and long, wavy blonde hair. Vance made note that she could absolutely pummel him if they ever got in a fight.)

"Yes, Astrid?" Arwin made eye contact with the woman, who was apparently called Astrid.

"Could it be the castvernon?" Astrid asked, her voice rough and deep. "I mean, we know they have a habit of random kidnappings."

Arwin shook her head. "I'm afraid not. There weren't any recognizable symbols on the craft, especially not any castvernon ones."

As Arwin continued to explain, Vance turned to Glass. "Hey, what's a castvernon?" He whispered.

"Rock people." Glass whispered back, not bothering to make eye contact with Vance. "Lotta people here are castvernon. Arwin, Astrid, Chard." Glass gestured to the two former people she had mentioned, then two a tall, lean blue person, most likely the latter. "They used to be a giant galactic empire til we killed their leader a few months ago."

"Ah." Vance nodded, barely understanding any of that. "So they're... rocks?"

Glass nodded. "Yeah. Astrid over there's solid fire opal, Arwin's emerald, Rachard's moonstone, etc. They all live pretty long too. 'S weird."

Vance nodded, watching Arwin and Astrid talk. The more he watched them, the more he noticed how crystalline they looked- the way the harsh white light bounced off their skin and hair, like a miniature light-show. It really made them seem even more nonhuman than before.

"Were there any symbols at all on the ship?" Another voice (one distinctly male and distinctly metallic) piped in. Vance redirected his attention to its source- a short-ish man with long hair in a ponytail and a body seemingly made of silvery metal.

"And who's that?" Vance asked Glass again.

"Zy." Glass responded. "Robot, my best friend, good at stealth shit."

"Good question," Arwin responded. She punched a few buttons into a control panel, and the holographic star chart everyone had been staring at was replaced with an image of a simplistic, geometric logo (it consisted of a floating triangle wedged into a different triangle shape). Vance recognized it as the only thing he had to stare it while drifting alone through space.

"Make anything of this?" Arwin asked Zy.

The robot put a hand to his chin, studying the hologram. After a few moments, he shrugged. "Not anything in my database. Though it is remarkably similar to the castvernon logo."

Astrid nodded, turning from Zy to Arwin. "Could be a subsect of the Empire. We've already seen the fallen courts, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more like that out there."

Arwin shook her head. "No, the structure of the ship wasn't castvernon at all. Too sleek, too lightweight. I know castvernon ships, and that wasn't a castvernon ship."

"If we can't identify them by their ship, maybe by the people themselves?" Zy turned to Vance and looked him dead in the eyes. "Hey Vance, did you manage to actually see any of your captors? Can you describe them to us?"

Vance pressed a hand to his temple, trying to draw back all the memories he could. "They were..... Tall. And kinda glowed?" He shrugged. "Sorry."

Zy seemed slightly disappointed. "That doesn't solve much. Unfortunately for us tall and glowing happen to be some of the most common traits in the galaxy." He laughed and looked at a few certain people around the room, including Astrid and the person Vance assumed to be 'Rachard'.

"Which are notable traits of the castvernon." Astrid hit the table, most likely lightly (she looked like she could flip the entire thing over without a second thought). "We might've killed Ikari but there's still a lot out there."

"Calm down, Astrid." Cautioned a voice from the other side of the room. Vance turned and found that it belonged to the blue person he assumed was Rachard. "If Arwin says it's not a castvernon ship, it's not a castvernon ship."

"That's Rachard." Glass whispered, confirming Vance's suspicions. "She's the oldest person here, like around nine thousand I think, and definitely the coolest."

"Huh." Vance responded. For someone supposedly nine thousand, she looked pretty young- around her late thirties, he would say, if she was human.

Rachard continued, not seeming to notice Vance watching her. "Arwin, is there anything else notable about the ship?"

Arwin nodded. "It was a fairly large ship, with many holding cells similar to the one we found Vance in, though all the rest were empty. It was also unarmed, I'd classify it as a mere cargo freighter if the cargo it was holding wasn't people."

"Any ships' logs or other information?"

"Unfortunately, no. The pilot and crew must've taken them when they abandoned ship."

"Where was the ship found?"

Arwin pressed a few more buttons on her control panel, and the hologram of the logo disappeared, the image returning to the star chart. The image zoomed in on a few clusters of dots. Arwin pointed at one of them, "Here. The Lyral system."

Rachard nodded. "And who controls that system?"

"The State of Lisoire." Arwin explained. She turned to Zy.

"They're a neutral power." Zy stated, accentuating his words with hand gestures. "Not part of the baron but not exactly against them either. Pretty secretive people, too. They don't even partake in the convention of the planets."

Rachard paused to think. "Are they secretive enough that they wouldn't want a mysterious ship flying through their sector,"

"No, they allegedly have blockades all around it." Zy paused. "Are you saying this might be a Lisoire ship?"

Rachard shrugged. "Could be."

"Do we have any records of the lisoire being 'tall and glowing'?" Astrid chimed in.

"No, but we don't have any physical records of the lisoire anyways so.." Zy shrugged.

"It's worth a shot." Arwin stated, gazing at the starchart. "We can arrange a diplomatic meeting with the lisoire and discuss what happened to Vance. After all, most of us are what remains of a galactic power. Shouldn't be too hard."

Most of the group nodded uncertainly, Vance included.

"Very well. We'll discuss the mission itself soon." Arwin clasped her hands together. "Meeting adjourned."