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Chapter 6 of Book 1: Exploring the Stars...

I couldn't leave that mineshaft faster, to be perfectly honest. It won't be the last time I'm exploring underground for sure, so I'll have to acclimate to that kind of a setting... but hot damn is it awful.

To clarify to all of you lovely people that have stuck with the story up until this point, I DO NOT do cramped spaces underground. I'm not exactly claustrophobic, but I want wide open areas to run around. In combat though, I enjoy being up close. At the very least, give me lots of cover to close in the gap. I figured I might at least explain the possible inconsistency in the previous chapter.

This being said, I feel like we're a lot better acquainted now. You are now more educated about the lovely protagonist of our story here. Let's move to the important task at hand though... which is powering up this portal!

There was a small receptacle underneath the panel. Seeing how it was basically the only place I could have put the core fragments into in order to power the device, I figured that was what I should do.

As I inserted the fragments, excitement raced through my body. Where does it lead? What would greet me on the other side? Is there a highly advanced civilization of alien life on the other side? Or will I end up in a seriously dangerous area filled with creatures that want nothing more to eat my face off? Maybe its really just a glorified doorway to a space bathroom, I'll never know until I walk in!

SAIL decided to suddenly interrupt my thoughts.

“It is now fueled and ready. The console itself should automatically take care of the rest after it receives user input.”

That was that, time to try this one more time.

I pressed the button on the console, which hadn't made any sound beyond the pressing of the button itself. I had expected a blip, or a beep of some kind. Luckily, the console worked perfectly, and upon turning around to see if anything happened... I had realized I was no longer standing in the same spot.

It was instant, and I hadn't even noticed a transition of any kind. I suddenly was surrounded by space itself. The ground wasn't grass, but pure rock. It looked like I was standing on a fairly large, rocky moon of some sort. There was obvious gravity here, but it looked like I should have floated off into space at any moment.

The most interesting piece of it all was the structure off in the distance.

There stood a pretty large building, which looked like it was multiple stories. It was made of a pretty tough looking metal, decorated with a nice radar dish and antenna on it's highest point.

I made my way there, noticing a small little stall of sorts beside it. It was labeled with a sign in front of it saying “Inifinity Express”. Come to think of it, this small building looked a lot like a typical gas station from modern times. It even had pricing for ship fuel next to it.

“Where the hell are we, SAIL?”, being the only thing I could manage to speak. I was really just excited and in awe of the moment.

“It appears to be a place nicknamed the 'Outpost'. It seems to be an interstellar hub, of sorts. This is a hot spot for trade in general.”

With my current state of mind, listening to what SAIL was telling me had literally occupied all of my brain capacity. I was on autopilot with my steps, and completely zoned out...

A sudden pain in my butt from hitting the ground had snapped me out of it.

I walked right into someone leaving the building and had zero memory or realization until after it happened. I felt awful and rude for having completely run into another person, but after looking up... I was immediately awestruck again.

The person before me was clearly a lady (or at least I'm pretty sure it was. She had all the features of one). One thing of note however, she had 3 red eyes. 2 of them about where you would expect regular humanoid eyes to go, with one more in the center of her forehead. What's more, she also had the appearance of a fish... in a sense.

Her skin appeared a bit leathery and spotted in some areas, particularly her shoulders, hips and knees. In other spots however, the flesh was perfectly smooth with fewer dots or none at all. There was what I can only imagine being 3 gills on each side of her stomach.

Finally, she seemed to be wearing something very reminiscent of a kimono. I'm not sure you could call it that however, as it cut off her shoulders and lower torso area. It was mostly blue, with a white lining and red strings weaved through the center of the lining. Each sleeve flowed, with a long bell shape to it. Covering a portion of her hands as well. The outfit was complete with a blue skirt with the same matching style, and a slit the went up the right side.

When my eyes met.... well, hers (All three of them, in fact.) she seemed pretty pissed about bumping into me. Her facial expression reeked of displeasure, not that I blame her to be honest.

But then, she did something I wasn't expecting...

She reached her hand out to help me onto my feet. I obliged, and stood up. Before I could say anything, she immediately bowed her head in apology. Her entire body followed the same movement, leading into a formal and polite style of a bow.

“I apologize, sincerely. I did not see you there, miss.”

Oh yeah, we never talked about that did we? Yeah, I'm a chick by the way. I bet you thought I was some guy this entire time, hah!

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