I knelt down and gently held Eshami’s chin, guiding her to stand with me. “I’d appreciate your guidance in this quest,” I said to her. She blushed slightly.

With one hand holding Grand Hierophant Eshami, I reached out to the angel with the other. The moment our hands touched I felt a pulse of energy — electricity? My vision blurred as crackling sounds invaded my ears from all around me. A swirling cloud of smoke blinded me and stung my eyes.

This is no normal teleportation magic! I realized.

My eyes readjusted to my new, darker surroundings. The sounds around me had changed into intermittent sparking sounds, like tiny lightning bolts. The lights flickered off and on, and everything sounded a little muffled, muted.

“Are you okay, Eshami?” I asked, looking around me. My companion looked both curious and terrified. The angel is nowhere to be found.

Typical.

“Great! I’ve been spirited away somewhere by a divine being with no instructions!” I thought to myself.

Eshami drew her longsword and cast upon it a brief blessing, making it illuminate light as if it were a flickering torch. “We are in a long corridor,” she stated simply, underselling the situation.

Indeed, as I looked around on one side of the hallway I now found myself, there was a long row of doors without knobs or handles. On the wall against each was a panel shaped like a large hand.

On the opposite wall was a series of windows, all looking out into blackness and stars. A round green-blue ball rotated silently below.

“We are in amongst the stars?” Eshami whispered.

Indeed, that seemed like the most logical conclusion, absurd though it was. Did the angel teleport us onto his ship? No, his ship was hovering above the city of Pendown. Perhaps this was a different ship?

“Hello?” I called out, hoping for a clue.

I heard a whirring noise all around me, then a short grinding sound.

Suddenly, a ghostly man appeared before me, startling Eshami and setting my uneasy thoughts about this quest aflutter with even more unease!

“I am Ketal, Master Servitor,” the ghostly man stated. “Welcome.”

I circled the apparition cautiously, my hand never leaving the hilt of my sword. “Where are we?” I asked.

“You are onboard Prison Ark 2–3–7. The ship has suffered damage after passing through an anomaly.”

“Very well,” I responded curtly. I was a hero.

A hero of precise action.

I needed to know what to do.

“How do I fix you — I mean the Ark?”

“You will need to secure the Control Room, the Engine Room, and investigate the Matterstream Drive and the Ballast Tanks to ensure safe operation of this Ark.”

“Well, that is a tall order!” I thought to myself, “even for me!”