The Sun crept through the hut because the sister of Araya'Ndanki had left the window open before leaving for the fields.

Slowly, the fisherman opened one eye and and let out a sigh. He stretched on the bed and yawned loudly before getting up and sitting up, his head still bowed down. He had not gone to bed particularly late last night, he was just being lazy.

After doing his daily prayers to A'mano and washing his hands and face, Araya stepped outside the small hut in which he and his older sister lived. The early morning's chill had alread passed and midday's warmth began filling the air about the peaceful village. He saw the children running about and the maidens returning from the river carrying jugs of water over their heads. Some of the elders had sat at the common room's entrance and were busy with their looms and parchments. The hunting dogs' pups lay sleepily at their feet, their adults having left with the hunters at the breaking dawn.

Araya grabbed his net and headed for the river. He passed by the maidens and smiled at them, bidding them good morning and, discreetely, winking at Imena'Nkana, eliciting a few raised frills of pleasure and a smile back. The road to the river had been paved with stones hundreds of cycles before he had been born, yet it was still flat and regular, and, whenever the need arose, carts could travel between the River and the village with little diffulty.

The Fisherman arrived to the River and boarded his small fishing boat. The boat had belonged to Araya's father and grandfather and was a sturdy, if old, vessel that was rumoured to have been built with wood from the River's delta, where it became very much narrower and where the trees would sometimes unroot themselves off the shores to walk into the waters.

"Thirst is a very natural thing" said the elders in regards.

Araya was smiling at the promise of a great catch that day, seeing how the flying fish were leaping to and fro, when suddenly the sky grew dark, like when a great cloud blocks the Sun for a few moments before the winds blows it away. The fisherman looked up at the Sun and wondered at this, since he had seen no clouds in the sky on that bright morning. He let out a cry as he saw a massive object, very much of the size of one of the Unknown Towers of the far north, pierce the skies and fill the air with the sound of a thousand riders, no, of ten thousand riders, crossing the Canyons of Silence at night.

The Flying Tower seemed to be slowing down as it neared the ground, but its massive size and long distance from the fisherman made it hard to determine. The sound was beginning to be deafening and Araya had to gather every last bit of courage to prevent himself from diving into the water and swim away towards the shore. He instead crouched within his boat while pulling down the sail and steered the vessel back to the small pier, relying on the current alone.

Imena'Nkana had just delivered the water to her grandparents' hut when the Flying Tower clove the skies above her. She had been happily whistling an ancient and simple tune and would have gone to the fields to do the day's work had the Tower not flown above her and had it not made the loudest sound she had ever heard. Indeed, the Tower made the loudest sound anyone in the village had ever heard.

At first, Imena was unable to understand what she was feeling. There was an emotion that urged her for action, choking every part of her that wished to remain static. But the action she was urged to perform was unclear; she could only perceive the raw emotion. It grappled with her will to remain calm and collected, and it beat it into submission almost immediately. Across her mind flashed images of her grandparents, her field, her crops, her friends, her belongings, her hut, all them raining upon her as they had never done before - all in a matter of a fraction of a moment. The agony of having lost them gripped her heart but almost instantly let it go; her grandparents' hut she could see from where she stood, her field was merely a few minutes' walk from their home, she had begun the harvest of her crops days before, she had walked to and from the river along with her friends (he had even seen Araya on the way), she had few belongings and her hut was less than a stone-throw away.

Whenever a hunter visited the village he or she would sit by the fire at the elders' hall and tell stories about the wildlife. The had often described the most alien of sensations. It usually occurred whenever a wild animal was on the loose, or whenever a trap failed, or whenever they were led astray in some strange forest. It could not be understood by the peaceful villagers.

Could Imena have experienced that? Could Imena have experienced fear?

"Imena! Imena'Nkana!" someone cried from afar. Imena turned around and saw her friend Dipeya'Toga running towards her. "Imena! A mountain took flight and ripped the skies!"

"I saw!" Imena cried, snapping out of her stupor. "Where is everyone?"

"They fled to the Kuma as soon as the thunder broke down" said Dipeya, shaking uncontrollably. Most of the villagers had already left for the fields before the Tower had ripped the skies and would reach the Kuma quickly. "Imena, we must hurry too! I feel strange. I feel awful. I felt for a moment as if everything I had, my sister, my hut, my fox-squirrel -everything- had been lost! Look at me! I'm shaking!" Tears began to well up in her eyes "I don't know what came to me! I just don't know! I-!"

"Dipeya, it's... it's fear!" Imena said. "Do you remember the hunters' tales? I think it's fear!"

"What shall we do?" cried Dipeya. "What shall we do? Should we fly to the Kuma?"

"We must find everyone and stay t-together" said Imena, with a strength and a resolution she would only much later understand, though her teeth were clattering as she spoke. "W-We must make sure everyone is s-safe!"

"Imena'Nkana! Wait!" cried Dipeya, but Imena was already speeding towards her grandparents' hut. Dipeya stood frozen for several seconds but she eventually darted off to the Kuma.

Her grandparents' hut was bigger than hers, but, as every hut in the village, consisted of a single room. Imena nearly crashed through with a cry of "Grandfather! Grandmother!" She found her grandfather with a pitiful look of perplexity mixed with the newly-discovered look of fear, holding his wife in his arms while the poor old lady clutched at her breast with both hands and breathed with difficulty.

"Grandmother!" Imena cried, helping the old lady up. "What is wrong? What is going-?"

But the old lady moaned in pain, dropped her head backward and passed out. The old farmer let out a cry and nearly dropped her, confusion and fear numbing every single one of this movements. Imena was quick to catch her and slowly lay her on the floor. The poor old lady was pale, her grey skin growing paler and paler with each passing moment.

"What's happening to her?" Imena cried, getting the same feeling of loss she had had when the Flying Tower had torn the skies, only this time the feeling did not seem to leave her as quickly.

"I don't know" her grandfather said. "I don't know what's happening Imena'Nkana. Why was a Tower flying through the skies? Why did it make the sound of a thousand thunderstorms? I don't know anything! I don't kn-!"

"Grandfather!" said she speaking out loudly before the old farmer could sink into a deeper state of fear. "Everyone is gathering at the Kuma. We should go there too! A'mano will protect us!"

"Yes, yes," said the old farmer, in a daze. "W-We, we should leave. H-Help me carry your grandmother."

The old farmer did not have much strength left, so it came down to Imena and her will alone to carry the old lady outside. She stumbled upon a grinding stone and nearly sprained her ankle trying to break the fall for her grandmother, she then stumbled upon a pot and fell over, painfully landing on her waist while trying again to break the fall of the old lady.

"All right, I think I got it this time" said Evets.

"That's what you said one, two and three hours ago" replied Colin.

"Third time's the charm, isn't?" Evets' voice came from under the Orbiter's exposed control panel.

"Yeah but this is your fifth time already" snapped Colin.

"Oh hush. You're distr- Ow!" There was a loud, electric crack and the Orbiter's antenna sprung to life, spinning slowly at first but steadily gaining revolutions.

"Excellent! Lemme just see if we managed to lower the voltage now..."

"What are you two gentlemen up to?" asked captain Aetius, stepping over a considerable amount of debris and salvaged crates as he approached the technician and the engineer. Valentina followed close behind.

"We're trying to restore the Orbiter's power back, sir" answered Evets, still from beneath the control panel.

"The rocket engine is working just fine, so we could easily have this baby up in the air and at low orbit in a matter of minutes" said Colin, picking up a pebble and tossing it as far as he could, as if he were trying to make it reach escape velocity.

"But the Orbiter's spectroscope doesn't seem to have been designed for the energy density we ran into" said Valentina, taking a look at the spinning antenna. "And even though I applaud your interest in measuring the electromagnetic fields of the planet from low orbit, I don't think this is something in which we should be concentrating at the moment."

"We're perfectly aware of that, cutey-pie" said Colin, brandishing a winning smile at Valentina. "But we're not trying to map every single EM source on the planet."

"Just the real strong ones," said, Evets, his voice becoming harder to hear because of the antenna.

"To what purpose?" asked Valentina, raising an eyebrow.

"So we could pinpoint the location of the source of the interference that brought our vessel down," said Captain Aetius, grasping Evets and Colin's intent.

"That's right, skipper!" said Colin. "We can't take off, we can't use holonet broadcasts, we can't use our coms amongst ourselves, hell, we can't even send a text message to people standing on the other side of the ship.

"So our only course of action is to locate the source of the interference and, if possible, shut it down," said Evets. "Hey, Colin! How's that filter working?

"What?" Colin leaned toward the panel, trying to make out what the engineer had said.

"I said, 'How's that filter working?'!"

"Oh! I think you did get it this time. I'm finally getting readings."

"Yes, he managed to capture some readings," said Valentina checking the monitor. "But the output is still a little problematic. Even if I zoom out completely I can barely see some peaks, amidst much noise."

"You see, Evets?" said Colin, leaning toward the panel again. "Valentina says you're doing a half-assed job, so you better get back to it."

"I did not say that!" said Valentina, horrified.

"What?" came Evets' muffled response.

"We'd best leave these two gifted gadgeteers to their job, miss Branford," said Captain Aetius putting himself between Colin and Valentina before the technician could notice her blushing. "Come."

"Well let you know when we get something done, sir," said Colin as the captain and the scientist walked away. Not long after Colin had spoke there was another electric crack! and a muffled cry from Evets from underneath the control panel.

"Carbuncle" read Valentina on one of the crates surrounding the Orbiter's site. "What is that?"

"It's the Orbiter's class," replied Captain Aetius. "A Carbuncle-class Space Spectroscope."

"Oh, indeed. And, pardon my ignorance, what exactly is a carbuncle?"

"Besides a nasty infected abscess, 'carbuncle' is an archaic word used to denote a grenat."

"Oh, you mean a garnet."

"Precisely. A red garnet. Somebody probably thought that associating the colour "red" with the infra-red spectrum was clever."

Valentina smiled. Both of them made their way to the cargo bay, where the sound of an roaring engine was quickly filling the air.

"Iggy, the battery is broken,"

"I know, Eddie."

"We're gonna have to replace it."

"I know, Eddie."

"Also, check the fuse box. At least half of the fuses melted."

"I know, Eddie."

"At least the tires are all righ- wait, no: third, right-hand tire is bust and second, left-hand's rubber is partially melted.

"¡Coño, tío! What part of 'I've been working on the Rover for four hours' didn't you understand?!"

"Sorry..."

Ignacio Carrasco had been indeed working on the Bronco for four straight hours but had managed to fix most of the issues. The all-terrain ground transport was a sturdy vehicle, yet the cargo bay had been one of the most damaged areas of the Octavarium and the expert pilot, despite his competence as a mechanic, had only been able to repair it so far.

"Where the hell is Evets when you need him? I swear, I'm going to take that diploma of his, roll it over and stick it up his-!

"Uh, Captain on the deck!" whispered Eddie as he saw Captain Aetius and Valentina approaching.

Iggy grudgingly put down his wrench at stood up.

"How are the repairs going, mister Carrasco?

"Running into a few problems, capitán," replied Iggy, trying to put on a better face. "The battery is broken, we need to replace it; half our fuses are burnt, those need replacement too, and finally some of the tires are damaged beyond repair and, you guessed it, need replacing as well."

"Well, keep up with the good work, mister Carrasco, we are probably going to need the Bronco soon, if misters Narrol and Teriah get the Orbiter to work."

"Captain, what do we need the Orbiter for?" asked Eddie. "It's not as if we could get, or needed, any readings out of this rock right now."

"Misters Narrol and Teriah are working on the Orbiter so that we can trace the source of the interference, mister Varius," replied the captain. "That's why we might be needing the Bronco: the path to follow might be too long for a simple stroll."

"That's quite a lot of initiative you got there, isn't it, captain?"

Valentina and the captain turned around to face Geno Ryan, smirking at them.

"I mean, this crew definitely shows a lot of enthusiasm, doing all these things like repairing the satellite, fixing our ride, adjusting the spectro-thingy to catch electro-encephalo-ergonometer waves or whatever."

Valentina winced at the abuse of terminology perpetrated by the businessman as Aetius frowned. "And that's a bad thing, mister Ryan?"

"Not at all, captain!" Geno answered, mockingly saluting. "I'm sure crew members doing all sorts of things on their own initiative, including, but not limited to, cutting down alien trees and igniting a radiation detector - all without the Captain's consent - is perfectly normal!"

"And what would you have them do, mister Ryan?" said Iggy, wiping off some sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. "Have them sit down around a campfire telling stories?"

"First of all," scoffed Geno. "I would have them step away from me until they're properly showered. Second of all, what I'd do is-"

"Well, we don't have time for "would do's" now do we mister Ryan?" Aetius said sharply. "We do have time for "will do's" though, and what I will do is that I will send you to the kitchen and appoint a new kitchen staffer to be Hyun's assistant if you feel the need to partake in our enterprise as somebody actually useful.

"And", the captain said, approaching Geno with clenched fists, "I will do something much harsher if it ever occurs to you to question my authority in front of my crew ever again. Do I make myself clear, mister Ryan?"

Geno's look of disdain did not fade, but his smirk was gone. "Yes, sir."

"Captain", said Iggy after Geno had slunk away. "I'm sorry, sir, but that idiot does have a point. I hadn't thought about it myself, before I sat down to fix the Bronco, but maybe I should've waited for your command."

"Yeah, captain," said Eddie, "and maybe it is a bit dangerous to bring out the power tools and start chopping down trees just like that.

"The suit does have a point," agreed Aetius. "I already told Dora to stop playing predator with the local flora and fauna. Misters Narrol and Teriah are only doing what they thought it was natural to do, just like you two."

"Captain, if I may," Valentina said, timidly. "Maybe you could call for a staff meeting and, and make sure everyone knows their place and duties?"

"And why would that be necessary, miss Branford?" Aetius asked, raising his brow. "The crew of the Octavarium is a perfectly capable crew."