Chapter 6

“What are you lot doing?” Jax asked.

“Soaking up the Hyrodenzer,” Blair told them with a big grin.

“We stole your idea and filled up three pairs of socks and tossed some into the ship as well as under it where the Hyrodenzer seemed the worst. They seem to be working a treat.”

Jax extended her magical senses and felt the Hyrodenzer had been contained in three areas. It didn’t radiate along the ground or from in the ship anymore.

“Damn, that stuff sure loves those crystals,” Jax replied.

“Yep, we were thinking that we should open the tanks and toss the crystals in. then chuck a repair spell on them. You can then check us over and make sure we are clean,” Blair told Jax and the others.

Bluey and Ernie were game, but first, they had to find the tanks.

Tommy said, “Why don’t you put some of the crystals into the toe of a sock and hang it from your belt? If there is any Hyrodenzer still in the air, I think the crystals will absorb it.”

They all agreed and were soon wearing a sock with half of the foot filled with crystals. While Tommy and Eddie had donned a sock, they decided to stay outside since they had the kids.

They set up a small camp in what Tommy deemed a safe area. They soon got the billy going for tea and found some snacks for them and the kids in their satchels that they wore everywhere.

The other five members of the team entered the ship.

“What a bloody mess,” Blair stated as they looked down the 4m wide aisle.

Dirt, old vegetation, broken, used, and dirty items were lying everywhere, along with trampled in mud and blown-in leaves and snow. Most of whatever had been useful on this floor had long since been removed or damaged beyond repair.

“They almost look like shipping containers,” Bluey commented.

He was looking at the eight storage boxes. They were bolted two high and two long and to the sides of the 8m high area. They noted the top containers were still closed and decided to check them out later.

“I think the rear engine is that way,” Blair said. “I’ll see if I can find the fuel tank and top it up with the crystals and repair it.”

He pushed on the door and gave up, so he put a spell on it to open, and it did. He waved at the others and disappeared inside.

“That looks like a lift I saw in Sydney,” Bluey said as they walked towards the front of the ship.

As they looked into the containers, they realised that the mage had been living in one of them. He had set up a sort of lab in one of the others. The other two had been used to store whatever the mage had deemed useful in old crates or around them.

“He wasn’t very clean in his habits,” David observed.

“I agree. It was no wonder he was a walking disease. I think that pile of dust over there on the mattress is him,” Jax said as she turned back to look through his notes on a rickety table.

“Why would he be ash?” David asked as he recognised the shape of a small man in the ash.

Even the man’s clothes had disappeared if he had been wearing any at the time of his demise.

Jax shrugged, “Something my people do. I was shocked when I realised your people had to be buried because your bodies took so long to decompose.”

“I’ve read that magical people that are very old will go to dust in just days, which is far faster than the common people. They often take about a month in our time to break down to dust.”

“I can only assume that because the people that went to your planet mixed in with the local sentient races that it affected their biology. Even Mayor James wasn’t as pure of his race as he would have liked to believe. He was at least half-human.”

Jax dropped a bare crystal onto the table and watched as the crystal darkened as it soaked up the traces of Hyrodenzer on the table. She went and dropped another into the ash and wasn’t surprised that it went dark quickly.

“Wow! Did he bathe in it or something?” David asked and found himself adding a few more crystals for good measure.

“I think he was trying to fix the ship so he could leave here. But going by the leak under the ship, he didn’t have much hope of doing that without magical crystals. I don’t think he was more than a novice as he only had a ring.”

Jax pointed to the small ring in the ash, which had two gems on it and an empty place where the Quaz crystal would have once been.

She then commented, “Poor bastard, he was probably quite mad by the end.”

Jax and David collected the darkened crystals with long tongs and put them in another canister.

They then went to see where the others had got to. Finding that both sets of doors had been forced open in the lift, they walked through into the front engine room.