A surprising success as the ship she's in begins to boot up. ((Plot convenience. She is on a ship, and now it'll help her.)) "The Gateway is controlled by someothing we don't know. You can go there yourself, but if you do, you will fry your system until you returned here." He smiles. "Unless you want to have your ship without a FTL drive, I suggest backing up your ship here." There was a Matter Manipulator on the ship, something that was oddly out of place. It seems like there's also a small note in it, but the ship dealer didn't care about it.
Aiden was getting annoyed by the lack of sense this man was making. He walked closer to him, standing in a position to intimidate the useless mechanic. "Look, you need to start explaining, fast. Nothing you say about how the Gateway works or why my ship may or may not be fix is adding up." Aiden pushes an accusatory finger into the man's chest. "How do you know so much about it when you say you know nothing?"
Jayde looked at the matter manipulator, picking it up. He removed the note and set the matter manipulator back down. He opened up the note and read it...
He found the auto pilot switch and the captain's chair. "I lost my ship here because I tried to fix it myself. I then found myself somewhere... after activating the Gateway... and I got this in return." He raised his left hand, which was gloved, and removed the glove. It was an... Erchius-powered mechanical hand. "I can replace your erchius crystal with a local one from the fourth planet, that's an actual fix." "I'd say that I built this because of a nightmare... but I hope this Tool can help. -GM" It had a picture of a man besides a Gateway, the console glowing red instead of blue...
Aiden examines the hand for a moment, then turns his back on the man, stepping away. Information was information, but the man was dancing around his questions, and the longer he did so, the more it made Aiden's blood boil. He rubs his chin with his right hand, wondering why he was getting so mad about it all. He only came here to get his ship fixed. Aiden lets out a deep breath, then turns back to the mechanic. "If you can repair the Erchius drive in my ship, that's all I need. Just do it quickly."
"You'll miss half of the adventures if you didn't check out that Gateway..." he not-so-whispered to himself as he snapped his fingers and other people scatter out. Five remain, and they temporary leave only to return with an Erchius crystal. He then boards his ship. Her dæmon adly follows for a moment before hopping to her back. Deep in the storage area was a contraption that leads to the ship's quarters, and it has clothes.
Aiden follows the mechanic back onto his ship, in part to make sure that nobody messed with his things on board, and partly to see that the engine was repaired. He covertly locks the door to his cabin as he passes, then continues onward to the engine room. He stares at the diseased looking Erchius crystal sitting in his drive. Still looking at the crystal, Aiden speaks to the robed mechanic. "So, was this caused by the Gateway up there? If so, will this crystal be affected as well?"
((I'm guessing this is what I'm supposed to do.)) "Well this is just wonderful." Kevin stands over the flaming wreck that used to be his ship. For his basic survival needs, he goes looking for some salvageable stuff in the wreck like food, water, or medical supplies. "I need to remember not to just go chasing random distress signals next time. If there is a next time..."
Jayde picked up the matter manipulator again. "Strange" He thought "I thought that" He shook his head and went back home with the tool. He pointed the thing at his forge. "Heres to hopes I won't blow myself to shreds. Jayde hit a button on the device, closed his eyes, and hoped for the best...
The clothes are in good quality, except for a sweater. "It doesn't affect the local systems, strangely." He went to carefully extract Aiden's crystal out of his ship. "And we are trying to know why the Gateway affects non-local Erchius, changing them in color. His daemon nods in sympathy before pointing towards the Gateway. The matter manipulator hummed to life, and worked fine as his forge became a handheld cube. ((I don't know how the Starbound system works but I feel like everything becomes a handheld cubes within your pockets, and your MM calls it out when you want to place it.))
"I guess it's fortunate for this system to have an Erchius mine, then." Aiden keeps a careful eye on the mechanic's process, taking note of his words. Despite living under the Gateway, the man seemed to know little of it. That, or he was attempting to hide some knowledge. Aiden wasn't sure what his motive for doing so would be, but considered it as a possibility. "What does the color change mean, by the way? And what do they have to do with the Gateway?"
Jayde opened his eyes again, and picked up the cube. "What in the name of?" He didn't question it, and got to work condensing his house into cubes. An hour later he was done condensing his house and set off for the ship. He got onto the ship and took out the Matter Manipulator again. He held it out with a bit more confidence, mostly sure it wouldn't explode. He hit a different button on the device, and it hummed to life again.
The sweater's on its plastic. Oddly. The man chuckles. "Well, we call the Gateway the Red Gateway since it turns Erchius crystals red. Other than that, there are rumors that the Avali came through the Gateway first." He carefully slowly re-added the new crystal in place. "That said, the Gateway had other... side effects, such as crashing a foreign ship close to it, a ship's nav database gets wiped out, or probably an admirable curiosity." The Manipulator sputtered for a moment before extracting what he would like to place and turns the proposed cube to the object itself. In other terms, it still works, despite actually looking older.
