Chapter 3

Meanwhile, at a space station not too far from the LSS Freedom, a station dweller named Dayvon tries to sell yet another piece in a much sought after collection.

"How much do you want for it?" an unnamed figure asks.

The small rust colored droid shrugged. "You know, come to think of it, I don't know if I'm going to part with it."

The unnamed figure didn't want to waste any time. He grabbed Dayvon by the neck and lifted him up. "Don't push me around punk! I've been searching for this for the past millenium! Now, you can be nice and give me a fair price, or I can rip your head off and take the book with me!"

Dayvon rubbed his neck. "Heh, I didn't figure you for the serious type. I don't really need credits right now, but I could use the protection. How's about you give me that class 7.5 long rifle on your back and enough energy chips to power it for about 10 cycles?"

"It's a deal." The figure then handed over the rifle and several batteries.

Dayvon reached into this bag and pulled out a large dust covered text. It was made out of what seemed to be thin plastic sheets. "I don't know what you'd want with some old thing like this. There's not a single computer related item in it, it's prehistoric."

The figure said no more and walked off into the crowded space station.

"Weirdoes no matter where you live in the galaxy" Dayvon said to himself.

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Waitstate went about periodically checking the ship to make sure crewmembers were at their stations. He arrived at the holodeck and opened the doors.

When the doors opened, Waitstate could see that Dark Force was meditating in what seemed to be a forest. "I told the entire ship to get to their stations, what the heck do you guys think you are doing?"

Dark Star stood up while the others remained sitting with their optics shut. "I am trying to improve the efficiency of Razer during battle. The better our minds are connected, the better we will function."

"Why must you always defy me?" Waitstate asked impatiently.

"We are going to engage Spectral Death right?" Dark Star asked.

"Right" Waitstate responded.

Dark Star continued. "At some point in battle we will board the other ship and you're going to need a strike force. This would not be the first time Dark Force-"

Waitstate cut him off. "Look, I appreciate the gesture, but an order is an order. Next time get clearance from me before you do something like this. Finish up and report once you're at your stations."

"Fine" Dark Star replied emotionlessly.

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By the time Dark Force was situated, Waitstate had returned to the bridge.

"Welcome back fearless leader" Shadowpaw welcomed.

Waitstate nodded and proceeded for his seat. "Status report."

"We've got nothing yet Wait" Slipstream replied.

Waitstate sat down. "We'll search until each of the power cells have been drained if we have to."

"Don't worry, we'll find them before then. There are a few space depots not too far from this sector" Artifice replied.

Waitstate nodded. "Magic or not, they're still Cybertronians and need to refuel."

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Not far away from the LSS Freedom's current position, the Doom Gaze docks at a space port. Xaraxus and his crew exited and walked through the long airlock.

"That book is close, I can feel its energy emanating in this station" Xaraxus stated.

"If the Cult was capable of locating the book with this much accuracy, why didn't they do it 50,000 Vorns ago?" Hail asked.

"It was too far out of their reach. Besides, they didn't have any reason to retrieve it until now" Xaraxus replied.

"Lazy procrastinating bums if you ask me" Rust commented.

Xaraxus quickly turned around to face Rust. His eyes started glowing, and with one motion of his hand sent Rust into a wall. "Fool. The Cult would have done much worse to you if they heard you say something like that. Toom, Zip Zap, pick her off of the wall and let's get moving. We've got little time to fool around."