Ruins?

“What do you mean, the energy source is in the middle of some sort of temple?” Claude was understandably shocked. Normally they found energy stones in the center of an impact crater or, if it was inside of something, a natural cave that the stone had drilled down into. The last man made structure that had arisen from an energy stone was the Eluria tower that the Ten Wise Men had erected on Expel.

“Just look for yourself.” Ernest’s voice had an excited edge to it as he tapped on his control panel and the display screen shifted to zoom in on the location in question. Of course he would be interested in any sort of archeological find. Claude blinked in amazement. He was looking at a structure that sort of reminded him of Mayan temples from ancient Earth, maybe with a little mixture of the ancient Middle East given some of the domed tops. Ernest tapped on his control panel again and the screen shifted to some sort of tower. “And the other five energy sources all seem to be in one of these.”

Everyone was silent for a few moments before the third person on the bridge spoke. “Well…this is different.” All three of Opera’s eyes stared intently at the readings. She quickly checked the Federation database. “The planet is classified as unexplored. I’m detecting a handful of developed areas that could be the ruins of towns or even cities. Nothing that looks to be standing though, outside of the temple and towers anyway.”

“A whole planet of ancient ruins!” Ernest’s excitement grew.

Claude could hear Opera’s sigh of concern. Ernest had mostly been unable to pursue his archeological hobbies these past two years. In theory that should have brought him and Opera closer, but it had seemed to only make their relationship more troubled. If Ernest could dive into archeology again, he would likely get lost in it completely. Claude could commiserate with Opera's frustration. His own attempts to pursue a relationship with Rena had been equally unsuccessful.

The starship was not very large and there wasn’t really any place for privacy. Ernest and Opera shared one bedroom, Celine and Rena a second, and Claude actually had to share a room with Precis. They had the bridge, a small eating room that wasn’t really a kitchen or a dining area, the engine room, a tiny medical facility, and a small cargo area. The only place of real privacy were the very small bathrooms each bedroom had.

So Claude’s attempts to find alone time with Rena inevitably failed. Ernest was oblivious and would randomly stumble in on the two of them, ruining the mood, but at least harmlessly. Celine and Precis were the worst offenders. Claude almost suspected them of intentionally interrupting his attempts whenever they innocently wandered in on him and Rena. Precis also came with a second set of issues. Sharing a room with her was trying. For starters, she was frequently teasing him. He’d largely ignored it for most of their travels, but now that she was eighteen, it was becoming harder to do so. She’d moved from playful jokes and subtle innuendo to outright comments about her body that she’d begun to show more and more of. It was rapidly reaching the point where Claude would either have to say something to her or convert the cargo area into a place he could bunk. Granted he didn’t really have the means to do that.

Still, not all of his attempts to woo Rena had failed. They had shared a few kisses, and he’d once even groped her breasts through her clothes. The problem was that she grew shy and flustered as soon as anyone even remotely interrupted their time together. Between his minimal progress with Rena and Precis’s constant teasing, Claude was growing more and more irritable from a need to get some sort of release. He suspected Opera felt similarly, though he doubted her problems were from interruptions. Ernest just didn’t seem to be interested in anything sexual and his attempts at romance were few and far between. If Claude was honest with himself, he didn’t understand what Opera saw in him. Ernest was a great friend, but a horrible romantic partner.

“So what do we explore first?” Ernest’s excited question snapped Claude out of his musings.

Claude frowned in consideration. He’d become the unofficial leader of their expedition, but exploring ruins wasn’t his forte. The few planets they'd found with any sort of civilization on them, they'd avoided interacting with the people. “You and Celine are the experts in this sort of thing. What do you think?”

Opera gave a soft grunt but Ernest quickly latched onto Claude’s question. “The temple seems the best place to start. It is the unique structure, while the towers, which appear to be identical, are likely offshoots or auxiliaries to the temple.”

“Well, let’s head to the temple then.” Claude turned to leave the bridge. “I’ll go let everyone know.”

Opera sighed and began piloting the ship down towards the temple. Claude quickly made his way through the ship. He found Celine sipping on tea in the eating room. She hopped up excitedly when Claude informed her about the ruins. Claude couldn’t help but notice the way her breasts jiggled invitingly from the movement. Celine always dressed in ways that exposed her glorious cleavage. She seemed to enjoy catching Claude sneaking glances at her, though this time her excitement kept her from noticing his gaze.

“Perhaps we can find some treasure down there.” Celine’s eyes sparkled with excitement similar but different to Ernest’s. “If so we might need to take a break from tracking the Sphere and see if we can sell it. Our last resupply was almost six months ago, you know.”

Claude grunted and quickly tore his eyes away from Celine’s chest before excusing himself to find Precis and Rena. Precis was in their room. Claude opened the door and immediately heard the sound of metal striking metal coming from the bathroom. He tried not to groan in concern. Precis loved to tinker and he didn’t even want to imagine what she was doing to their bathroom. He yelled out his news but Precis either didn’t hear him or was choosing to ignore him. Deciding it would be best to just leave her to her machinations, Claude quickly exited and headed towards the medical facility. As he had predicted, Rena was in it.

For a brief moment, Claude’s cares and concerns drifted away as he watched the beautiful blue haired woman. She was lounging in the examination chair, reading a book that he presumed was on medical science. Rena had taken to being the crew’s medic. Given her own healing symbology, medical techniques seemed unnecessary, but Rena had stated that one never knew when they might need something her symbology couldn’t handle. Claude’s eyes were drawn to her long shapely legs. Her high boots and skirt covered most of them, but the way she sat left a nice portion of her thighs exposed to his vision.

Rena noticed his attention and smiled shyly as she set her book down. “Claude!” She realized where he was looking and blushed as she straightened her skirt. “Did we find another energy stone?”

Claude nodded and quickly filled her in on the discovery. Rena seemed concerned about the discovery. With Nede gone, she seemed to have taken her entire species’ guilt over what they had created. Claude was quick to try and ease her concerns. “I’m sure it’s nothing to be worried about. Opera didn’t detect any monsters. If the energy stones did cause anything here, it happened a long time ago.” Rena frowned a little but didn’t dispute his theory.

With everyone informed, it was simply a matter of waiting for the ship to land so they could begin exploring the temple. Precis did emerge from their bedroom but wrinkled her nose at the idea of exploring a temple. Everyone else could explore, but she was in the middle of something and wanted to finish it. Opera was able to land the starship just outside the temple and then joined everyone else as they headed off to investigate it.