"What is this place?" I asked as we stepped onto the ice-covered grass. Despite the bitter chill, the blue-hued plant life here looked to be healthy and lush, albeit coated in rime.
"Just a moment, I'm taking a look," Tarvalen said. I noticed that his hood had changed colors, now orange instead of white.
"Are you okay, Kendel?" Aria sounded concerned. "The temperature here is well below freezing, you'll catch a terrible chill without any protection."
"Um…" I rubbed my arms. "It's cold, for sure, but… I think I'll be okay. Lum's stopping me from freezing to death, I'm pretty sure."
"My my. What a lovely baby dolly," Aria lilted.
"Hear that, Lum? She's calling you a good girl," I said, taking her into my arms.
"Hard for lose," she replied.
"Okay, guys, I think I know where we are," Tarvalen said, tapping on a large tablet. Where did he get that?
"I did some triangulating based on my current cosmographical data. We landed on some IU-affiliated planet called… Echnogg," he continued. "And yeah, it's like ninety percent frozen wilds. Though apparently there's a tonne of volcanoes too. Good thing we didn't land on one of those, eh?"
"So, this IU," I began.
"No, it's not bad," he answered. "Short for Interplanetary Union. It got set up after some giant space war nearly destroyed two planets. One of which was your homeworld Galacti, by the way. I think you'd benefit from picking up a bit of cosmic history."
"Yeah, I'm on board…" I looked around. "But for now, should we find a town or something?"
"We can just warp somewhere else," Tarvalen shrugged. "No need to stay here any longer without…" his voice suddenly trailed off.
"What?" I looked where he was looking, but didn't see anything. Then I noticed the deep indents where the Shell had landed. "What the…? Tarvalen, did your ship—"
"Its reactive lockdown triggered! Arghh, probably from the chill," Tarvalen groaned.
"Is your ship not geared for extreme weather??"
"Well…" He seemed to deflate pretty quickly. "Just getting it built was troublesome enough, I couldn't afford any more bells and whistles."
"That does explain a few things," Aria mused.
"So, yes to finding a town," I said.
"It would be easier if I had any data on this planet," Tarvalen grumbled, "but how am I supposed to have data on a world I've never been? I didn't even have coordinates to this place! That variant, I swear!"
"Hmph, I'll ignore that," I decided.
Still, it really was cold here. As we tromped through the frozen foliage, the sun peeked through the clouds, but I couldn't feel much heat from it.
"Nose, rock," Lum whispered.
"What kind of rock?" I asked, but Lum didn't say anything else. Maybe she had something like a cooldown between sentences? I wasn't sure.
As we walked through a meadow sparkling with frozen dew, a hot breeze blew past me. "Whoa! What the… Aria, Tarvalen! Did you feel that??"
"Maybe we're near a volcano? I dunno how this hecking world works," Tarvalen shrugged. "Aria, find anything yet?"
"This way," she pointed. That was when I noticed that the ground was thawing under her feet, leaving soft blue underbrush in her narrow wake. Her master though… yeah, I had a feeling Tarvalen wouldn't notice.
Soon we reached a smallish town. With all the people and icemobiles roving about, I got mostly the same impression as that other town in Konjico… Aanvil, right? I almost wished Qelimara had joined us, just so she could compare notes.
In fact, aside from being covered in rime, I could almost mistake this for a small town back home.
"Here's hoping they know Terran Basic," Tarvalen said as we entered the town square. There were lots of people gathered here, talking and pointing at a nearby spacecraft. A banner hung off of it, but I was sad to realize I had no idea what I was looking at.
"Aha… Hulic Galatring. I know this one too, thank goodness," Tarvalen sighed. "It is an IU world, after all. Good, good."
"Well, what's it say?" I asked.
"Oh, just a recruitment drive. For, uh, the Lightspeed Corps. Funny coincidence," he noted.
"Heilo," a woman called, approaching me. "You guys travelers? Cute light baby."
"Hehe, thanks. She's at least one week old," I replied. "What town is this?"
"Hem, you really are travelers. Welcome to Vaella Beilosa, also Lightspeed Central."
"The space mercs are based here?"
"Were founded here, yes. Basically the same, right?"
"You're speaking their language, but you can't read it?" Tarvalen asked me. "What's up with that?"
I just shrugged, then turned back to the woman. "This world is Echnogg, right?"
"Is, yes. Pretty cold past the equator, yeah? But Vaella Beilosa is near an oasis, so good water and growth."
What was an oasis like on a frozen world? Before I could ask, Tarvalen cut in: "Listen, lady, we… our ship. How much do you think it'll take to borrow a new one? Or maybe the Lightspeed Corps can give us a lift? Er, as long as it isn't General Moroz."
"Why not Moroz? He was born here, same as Hexel and Nalapsis."
"He--!" He quickly composed himself. "Yeah, okay. I get it now. Nice ironic twist your baby put us through, eh Kendel?"
"What, you think Lum did this?" I glared at him. "She can't even reach the orb, let alone tell it the coordinates."
"Oh, I know it was her," he replied. "And plus, voice input is just a convenience thing. Obviously the Shell takes manual inputs too."
"Alright, wise guy." I held Lum in front of me. "Be honest, baby dolly. Did you make our ship come here?"
"Skippy bowls," she replied.
"See? Innocent on all charges," I said.
"You don't even know what she means!"
"It's vibes," I insisted.
"Listen, we can't get back to my place with just vibes. We've got limited time and extremely limited resources, so we'll need to plan our next move carefully."
"Wait… are you trying to play leader?" I snickered.
"Of course I'm playing leader. I'm the leader." Tarvalen tried to sound confident. "I've got the vehicle, right? It's only fair."
"The vehicle you lost," I pointed out. "Did you lose your remote return unit too?"
"No! Shut! I just haven't recharged it since then," Tarvalen retorted. "You think we would've had to make this trek if I could just call it back?" He pointed a thumb at Aria, who was wandering around. "Under normal circumstances, I'd just leave it at home with her, because her aura gives it… the… charge… it… needs."
Aria glanced over, and I stifled another laugh.
"Uhm." Tarvalen discreetly activated the device. "It'll arrive in maybe five minutes."