Location: Solar System; Above Venus; Valterion Shipyard; Bay V

What the hell is Project V?

Is it the ship? But why would it have such a weird name? Every other ship we've seen so far has followed the usual naming convention. Project V as in Project Valterion? It's fitting, considering how much my family likes to put their name on things…

But a ship that big right in the middle of the original Valterion Shipyard must have some documentation, right? There's also a good chance that information about it landed in my family's vault. I should probably give Dad a call.

Anyway, I inform the others about my discovery, which starts a big discussion about what Project V could mean. I let them sort things out and use the time to call my dad. The Video Call spell takes quite a chunk from my reserves, and for the first time ever, I notice a short delay between casting the spell and when it reaches my father. As soon as he accepts, though, the delay is gone, fortunately. That reminds me just how far away from home we are.

That said, Dad's face appears before me, and he greets me warmly. "Hi Sara, how are you? How's Earth treating you?"

I smile back at him. "Hey, Dad! I'm not on Earth currently, by the way, but I'm good for now. Oh, and you might want to look out for mentions of Sara Valterion."

His eyes open wide, and he suddenly looks a bit shocked. "You've revealed yourself? And what do you mean you're not on Earth?"

"Yeah, I had to… We ran into Prince Kai – thanks for informing me about him by the way – he locked two of my friends behind a security door and my DNA was the only quick was to get them out. So far, only my team should know about my identity, but who knows who has loose lips… Also, I'm about to meet up with the Prince in a few days, and I don't plan to hide again. This'll catch him off guard. Anyway, you now can probably guess where we are."

Dad completely ignores my sarcasm and only locks onto the final part of what I just said. "Not on Earth, and you needed your DNA… Oh! The shipyard, right? And don't worry about your identity. Jas and I are prepared for the inevitable."

He pauses for a few seconds and then tilts his head in curiosity. "But if you've already dealt with the Prince, and are even going to meet up with him," he actually winks at me! "Why are you calling me right now? You obviously haven't just missed my voice, right?"

I let out a loud groan, which causes Lucy to look at me with a raised eyebrow. I ignore her and focus back on Dad. "It's not that, Dad! He issued a challenge for everyone who doesn't profit from earning a County, and there will be the first meeting to discuss the terms soon… Obviously, he is awaiting just Lisa on my team, so it'll be a chance to get back at that arrogant powerhouse of a Mage. But that's also not why I'm calling… No, we just discovered a starship that dwarfs everything I've seen so far, and Clara had a breakdown, thinking this is another Worldender Ship, as it looks strikingly similar, according to her.

"We now found a way inside, and the inside isn't built out at all. It's basically just an empty shell right now. Because of that, we're pretty sure that it isn't a Worldender Ship… Or at least not yet. Anyway, I found the designation Project V on a few supplies that are standing around inside and wanted to ask you if there is maybe something about it in the vault."

Dad's mirth is washed away when I tell him about Clara's breakdown. Concern enters his voice when he replies. "Is she alright? I can send a specialist if you want… Dammit, I should have thought of that and informed her beforehand. Please say sorry to her."

"No, no, it's okay. Maja helped her, and she seems to be okay right now, but thanks, Dad!" After saying that, the remainder of his words register in my brain. "Wait a second! You knew what we would find here? So you guys have really been here before us to check things out!"

He chuckles in reply. "Obviously… As if we wouldn't check out the biggest discovery in our history. We're not stupid after all. Anyway, yes, I know about Project V, and honestly, I've been waiting for you to find it as it's really exciting. The truth is, I didn't know about it before seeing the ship either, but a trip to the vault was very educational. What do you think Project V and, in addition, Bay V stand for?"

It's crazy. At times, the Earth Adventure feels so real, but in moments like this, I'm reminded that everything is basically just a big game. That doesn't take away my excitement, though, as discoveries like Project V or even those ancient Healing spells are just amazing regardless of whether my parents have seen them before. That said, it isn't worth spending too many thoughts on what Project V could mean, so I just tell Dad the first theory I had earlier.

"I'm not sure, but considering where we are, my guess is Project Valterion…"

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"Not bad," Dad replies with a broad smile. "But believe it or not, we Valterions can be a little more creative at times. No, Project V is short for Project Voidseeker! That's also the name of the ship, by the way, the VS Voidseeker. Unfortunately, that's all I'm allowed to say. Everything else you will have to find out yourself. It's somewhere in the shipyard, I promise. Just one more thing for Clara's sake… The Worldender resemblance comes from leaked data that Utopian spies picked up. They then used the original construction notes of the ship to build their own version of it with a twisted purpose. Conor was furious when he recognized the first Worldender Ship's hull and came down very hard on all parties involved after the big fallout."

Phew, that will be a big relief for Clara. But if the Worldender Ship was fully done while the Voidseeker here was still in construction, how long did the idea of such a ship exist? And how early were the plans stolen? Crazy. Also, Voidseeker, I wonder what that means. Dad said I have to discover things myself, so he probably hid the information from the vault somewhere here on the shipyard…

"Thanks, Dad! Now I'm very excited to find out more."

He laughs a little. "Oh, I'm sure of it! Then don't let me waste your time any longer. Have fun learning about Project Voidseeker and say hello to the others from me. See you around, Sara!"

"Oh, you're not wasting my time, Dad! But yeah, I gotta go, see you!"

He disconnects our call with a drawn-out chuckle, and I focus back on my surroundings. My excitement must have shown, as all my friends stare at me with expectant expressions on their faces.

Lucy is the first one to break the silence. "Do tell, what did you find out?"

"Well, I asked Dad and he let a few things slip… Not that much, though, as it would be against the spirit of our challenge here. But I do know what Project V stands for now…"

"Come on, don't leave us hanging!" Lydia impatiently says, and I feel kinda bad for drawing out things.

"Alright, alright. It's not Project Valterion as I originally thought, but Project Voidseeker. Our job now is to find out what that actually means. Dad said that the information is somewhere hidden here on the shipyard. Unfortunately, that could mean everywhere, but I also don't think the organizers would be so cruel as to put it outside of Bay V here. So we probably only have to turn this place upside down."

"Voidseeker, huh?" Tim says, while everyone else groans at the fact that we may have to search the whole shipbuilding bay. "I wonder what that name means…"

We split up for the search, with one group staying inside the starship and the other group getting back out to search the shipbuilding bay. I'm one of the three to stay inside together with Tim and Alina while Lucy, Nick, and Lydia are on outside duty.

Our search takes a while, as expected, and the day slowly draws to a close. That means meeting back up outside of the ship and eating dinner. After that, we quickly pull out our tents and go to sleep right here inside Bay V.

In the end, it takes almost the whole next day of searching until Lucy excitedly calls me over a Communication spell. "Sara! We've found it!"

She sounds very excited and cuts the call before I can respond. I grumble a little and tell the others. Clara knows where they are, at least, and so I quickly teleport us over there. I glare at Lucy upon arriving. "Rude!"

She just laughs and replies sheepishly. "Sorry, got a little too excited, but you've gotta see this. It's just the tip of the iceberg, as I only skimmed the first few documents, but this is huge. Project Voidseeker is so much more than I imagined in my wildest dreams!"

Okay, so if it's really that amazing, then I'm letting her off the hook; otherwise, she stays on my shitlist. "Show me…"

She pulls out a tablet while Alina asks Lydia where the information was hidden. Lydia grimaces when she answers. "Don't ask… It's almost as if Sara's dad has a sadistic streak…" She holds her fingers a few centimeters apart. "It was just a small data drive of this size and hidden inside one of the countless drawers in here, below a giant stack of degraded paper. We only found it because Lucy didn't learn from our experiences in the Song Medical complex and clumsily managed to turn it all into dust."

For the first time since arriving here, I let my gaze wander and gulp. Cruel indeed! The whole room basically consists of drawers… It probably was an archive room or something back then. Anyway, I look back at Lucy and take the tablet from her. Then I start giggling when I notice all the paper dust that is still in her hair. Serves her right.

"What?" She asks.

"Nothing, nothing," I wink at her. "Thanks for the tablet."

I turn it on and…

Wow, Lucy wasn't exaggerating at all!

Alina and Tim both look over my shoulders and gasp upon reading the first few lines. "Holy shit!" Tim curses. Alina seems to be lost for words.

As for why we're all reacting so strongly? Well, Lucy didn't exaggerate… Project Voidseeker really is insanely ambitious and way bigger than I thought.

If I'm reading things correctly, then the ship is supposed to be fully self-sufficient, and I really mean self-sufficient! According to those texts, you could throw the ship straight out into space, and everyone aboard would be completely fine as they could grow everything they would ever need. That's the main reason why the ship is so big, apparently.

Wait! Throw the ship out into deep space…

Into the Void.

Voidseeker!

Conor Valterion was building a colony ship! But where did he want to go? I hastily flip through the digital pages, literally devouring everything I can read until I find something.

Andromeda!

Conor wanted to send a ship to the Andromeda Galaxy! Holy shit. That's so far away, literally millions of light-years.

2.5 million to be exact. There are even some calculations, and now that I look at the numbers… It doesn't seem so far-fetched? Conor hoped to find ten Master Space Mages for the trip, and if everyone did a max distance jump once a day, the trip wouldn't even have taken a year. Crazy! Hell, if they managed to jump once every hour, they would have made it in 100 days.

Wait a second… What stops me from trying to reach Andromeda myself? I just need to find a few willing Space Mages. The ship is right here. It's almost finished and should be good enough to be jumped to my parents' modern shipyards to be completed.

I'm actually wondering why no one has made the trip yet. I should probably ask my parents before fully committing. But I'll definitely be taking the ship home with me! That'll probably mean that Maja has to stay here to protect the shipyard from others, and we should check if the engines are already built into the ship… Then we can send Jack to get fuel and get the Voidseeker moving before too many people are interested in the shipyard.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan. First, telling my friends about my plans, then calling my parents, then everything else.

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