Tagrale - Desolate Stars

Chapter 2-3

While getting the drink she came up with four new possible titles for the section she needed… none of which panned out. So she was back to going painfully through the headings one by one. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she could just scan them, but she had to take enough time on each to be sure it wasn’t what she needed written in a cryptic way.

Time carried on ticking painfully by. Jenna started to harbour thoughts of getting back through the Tagrale to Sironus just so she could hunt down whoever had put the handbook together. Though judging by the sheer volume of entries it was probably a large team of people. Even so… putting the effort in to find them all was becoming more and more tempting.

She almost missed the entry when she got to it, partly through tiredness and partly because it was so cryptic. Non-advisable regeneration of critical allocations. She was several entries further down when a nagging feeling made her go back and check.

Even then she wasn’t sure, but it felt as if it was worth looking at. Not that she held out much hope — she’d already checked out a dozen likely and unlikely sounding entries and none had been what she needed.

This reference led to volume three. She opened it, spent a minute tracking through to the right page, then began reading. Almost immediately she let out a sigh of relief. She’d found it! Finally!

The section she needed was surprisingly short and to the point, but it was too complex to remember. The thought of dragging the huge handbook along with her made her frown and she considered tearing the page out, something her younger self would have considered sacrilegious.

Then she caught herself and had to laugh. She’d obviously spent too much time with the physical books. Still amused at herself she grabbed her datapad and took a photo of the information.

She was ready. No… she was prepared. Not really ready. She found herself checking through the limited systems she could access one more time. When she started to repeat the checks she mentally forced herself to stop. The reset had to happen. Better to get it over with.

Fighting the urge to check things just one more time she grabbed all the items she’d prepared, made sure she had her suit helmet and headed for the door leading off the bridge. She couldn’t help but pause when she reached it, looking back at the bridge and wondering if she’d see it working even to this limited level again. Then she turned sharply and marched away.