The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 61: Destination Jelannax

Chapter 61: Destination Jelannax 

“Brace,” the captain shouted as the ship entered through the recently opened transport tunnel. He himself was already in his tunnel seat ready for the launch, the rest of the crew was also in their cabins waiting for the journey to be over.

It took two and a bit months but we had finally reached here.

We had been stationed near the transport tunnel’s entrance for four days now. Due to being a lesser-used tunnel it only automatically opened twice per month. There were very few tunnels that went to practically nowhere anymore.

Most connected large planets or popular stations and colonies, but there were a few old space rings that were created during the expansion age that were put in now odd places. Instead of just disassembling them, it was easier to just keep them around and have them only be used a couple of times a month.

I stayed in the hangar against the concerns of a few of the crew members. I don’t know if they were personally worried or if they were just projecting past experiences onto me.

This ring would shoot us towards another ring in kind of a hub of rings around Space Station Ex-Gamma. Afterwards, we would head through another tunnel to reach Jelannax.

Zeomoom

Once the ship entered the ring it was launched at top speed like a bullet down the tunnel. I watched as space blurred through the one-way window in the hanger.

Crack!

Rumble!

However, once it entered, the ship began to shake and a strong pressure weighed on everything within the ship. 

Wow, kind of impressive how badly this ship doesn’t meet tunnel transport regulations.

Every ship had a certain set of standards it had to meet before entering transport tunnels. The tunnels themselves had gone through numerous design iterations to ensure they were as safe as possible for human travel, but as with every mode of transport, you had to make sure the vehicle you were using met the right conditions.

With the ship’s current stability, I wouldn’t have been surprised if those under level 20 would just die from the flight if they weren’t in the pod. If they were, then they still would probably be sick for a while.

Finally, the ship was through the first tunnel. The captain quickly navigated the ship into a quiet spot in the hub where a lot of other ships were settled to wait for the next tunnel to open up in a few hours.

“That was awful as always.” I heard the annoying voice of Sara, as she entered the hangar again.

Look who’s back.

“It’s not that bad,” Said George, Sara’s companion.

Sara replied, “I know you say that every single bloody time, but I know you are lying to me.”

Sara had been around a lot. I felt this was partly due to an order by the captain, but from observing her personality, it seemed she was also doing it to relieve her boredom. George tagged along most of the time. I initially assumed it was to make sure Sara didn’t do anything stupid, but after watching them, it became clear that they just enjoyed each other’s company.

I called out from the opposite end of the room, “You’re boyfriend is right, it wasn’t that bad.”

“He ain’t my boyfriend.” Sara crossed her arms and flushed red.

I just shook my head, “What are you, fifteen?”

Sara yelled back, “What are you on about!” 

I rolled my eyes, at least these two made the past couple of months not boring. It was really easy to tease. George just rolled his eyes and laughed under his breath.

“Calm down Sara, she is just riling you up.”

“I know!” She readied her first for a moment before she breathed out and released her grip on the air. “Sigh… Ha… I shouldn’t let someone with no experience make fun of my lack of relationships.”

And she walks right into the next one.

I returned the fun fact, “I’ve dated multiple people.”

“How…” Sara’s mouth opened wide, genuinely shocked.

“Why not? I had a social life, I met people, and stuff happened. They all ended, they were just teenage relationships after all, but I learned some important life lessons in the process.

The rest of the conversation was uneventful as Sara was for some reason completely left shocked by my comments–which was a funny sight to see. I didn’t see what her problem was, she and George would make a good couple, maybe she was too embarrassed? Either way, she seemed to be only in her late thirties so she had plenty of time to realise her feelings–she was still in at least the first fifth of her life after all.

The humorous chat didn’t last long as everyone made their way back to their rooms after the hours passed by. 

The first jump took two hours, while the second was only expected to take twenty minutes.

I really was so far away…

Looking back, it would’ve taken a long time to get home if I hadn’t come across this ship…

It might’ve been possible if I got lucky and picked the correct direction to reach the transport tunnel to make it back home within the year–on the sides of the transport tunnel rings was an emergency line that could be contacted.

Where did they get that tip-off?

I did ask the captain but he said it was just from the usual sources. Further questioning didn’t help as he just gave me a description of how the process works. Jobs came in from two sources, direct contacts or middlemen, having people like him would also pay the middlemen to find leads or work for them, and this trip was another one of these leads.

Sigh… We should be there soon.

I stood up and moved towards the command room where the captain was located.

The ship soon left the space ring and emerged near Jelannax, along with hundreds of other ships that had entered the tunnel.

I walked past the captain, as he got out of his pod, “For all that extra speed, you really made up for it with a lack of durability.”

He groaned, “Nothing important was compromised.”

“Universal mandates would say others, but hey, I’m not judging.”

We neared the colony along with the other hundreds of ships. 

I looked upon Jelannax through the window, “It’s been a long time since I visited here.”

Jelannax was a large colony that was physically split into three main segments. 

The bottom segment was a large hemisphere that contained 70% of the population, it had pretty much all the standard conveniences of any city. The middle segment was a large cylinder, the same diameter as the bottom segment but its height was only about four hundred metres tall. The top segment was a lot smaller in diameter, but it was also a massive spiralling tower.

The three segments were connected via large vertical pillars that also acted as transport elevators. Together the three segments were bigger than some small moons.

“How long will it take to dock?”

“Five minutes, the quicker we are out of orbit the better.”

“Good.”

The ship accelerated downwards along with a couple hundred other ships staying in the herd.

The ship moved under the third segment. The third segment wasn’t smooth as it had extensions all over it. Then the captain and a bunch of other ships broke off from the herd and he flew between these extensions before eventually, a small port opened up which the ship flew into.

“Remember the deal.”

The old man groaned, “Of course, the crew has already made their plans to split and go back to or find themselves a new home. You scared the living life out of them with how easily you dealt with the monster at the start of our flight together.”

“I thought the experience of having their limbs broken and nearly being burned alive would’ve done it.”

“They were tough enough to deal with that,” the man sneered.

“Don’t be like that, use this opportunity to reconnect with your family.”

“As I said before, I don’t have one.”

I got off the ship and entered a dark quiet shipyard where we parked.

What a friendly place! Sigh, well I got a lot of work to do. 

I needed to make my way up to the top segment where the auction would be taking place. I couldn’t take the pirate’s ship as they would be breaking multiple laws and get me caught, and with my phone being smashed that was another one of my ID I couldn't use. However, that wasn’t my only option, I still had my two hunter IDs. Both were hidden on my person, the regular one was placed within my phone and while the phone was smashed it was fine if not a bit roughed up. The second was my Celestira hunter licence… I had kept it minimised and hidden under my right shoulder and thanks to armour it survived the fight.

The issue was I was hesitant to use either of them. My personal card was an issue for obvious reasons, it was the card I wanted to keep ‘legal’ and randomly showing up somewhere that wasn’t Earth or Metous would be extremely suspicious. There was also the issue I wanted to keep my–Hood fighting–identity a secret, so all that was left was the Celestira card… which was another issue.

Celestira had become a bit too famous. The incident on Metous was one thing, it led to certain parts of the public and organisations looking into it, but my attack on Juptar was also an issue. I simply didn’t know whether Dominous Hood had learned that ‘Celestira’ had attacked it, if they didn’t that was great and with the price I paid to Espr that day I hoped so, but I couldn’t lie that was still a worry, but at least my normal identity should’ve been kept a secret. Still, if I could, I wanted to keep my presence here as quiet as possible for as long as possible. 

The difficulty was in managing that and somehow getting to the top segment.

Well Jelannax, say hello to Ceella.