NMS: The Next Adventurer

NMS: THE NEXT ADVENTURER

CHAPTER 24: THE OVERSEER

Noma took the Radiant Pillar into orbit. Vis destination: a space station. Vis purpose: To hire an overseer who would manage the building and running of a research facility.

The station was up ahead, parked in orbit. A few asteroids rolled past, blindly following gravity’s command as they had done for aeons beyond count. Noma steered the ship toward the blue shaft of light that guided the ship toward the station’s entrance.

As before, once the Radiant Pillar came close enough, the stations’s tractor beam took over and Noma’s ship was gently drawn into the hanger bay. After it smoothly settled down, Noma stepped out, the echoes of vis boots as they trod on the steps of Radiant Pillar’s metal ladder ringing out around the space station’s cavernous interior. Noma looked around in wonder at the sheer size of this place. How long had it taken to construct something so large, and at what cost?

Noma made vis way up a flight of stairs to the rooms where traders, mercenaries and other types went looking for work. There, ve met a little Gek who was studying sophisticated habitat blueprints on a tablet. This was an overseer.

Noma was about to try and attract the little alien’s attention when it turned and focused its deep black eyes on vir. “Is it really you”, it chirruped. “Forgive me, I’ve been searching for a long time. I am contracted to aid you this and every other cycle. Don’t worry, everything was paid for long ago”.

The Gek spoke as one would to a friend whom one has not seen for quite some time. And that was not all. As it chirruped those words, the Gek emitted pheromones that triggered memories in Noma’s mind. Ve saw places ve had visited and things he had done, and yet none of those memories were recognisable. It was like being inside someone else’s head.

The images gradually faded, but the feeling of being guided by some mysterious force remained. Noma thought back to all those other times ve had felt as though ve were walking a pre-planned path, starting all the way back at the beginning when ve had woken with almost total memory loss on a strange planet but with a ship and the resources to repair her.

The little Gek interrupted Noma’s thoughts. It told Noma that its name was Deminens and that it was heading off to begin work as an Overseer.

Noma followed Deminens as the little Gek climbed into its spaceship and headed for Noma’s base. Radiant Pillar followed, although it was nowhere near swift enough to keep up with the Gek’s more advanced spacecraft. Noma’s adopted home world began to fill the view outside the cockpit as the Pillar dipped below the upper atmosphere.

By the time Noma had flown vis ship to the lake where ve had set up base, Deminens’s faster ship had long since vanished over the horizon. This did not concern Noma much, for ve had no reason to suppose the Gek would be heading anywhere but to Noma’s base to begin work as an Overseer.

Noma could see the lake where ve had set up base coming into view, its crystal-clear waters sparkling as the sunlight reflected off it.

Noma landed, and headed for the newly-constructed building, expecting to find the Gek inside.

Sure enough, Deminens was there, and already the workstation that Noma had built was full of sophisticated plans for buildings and facilities. As soon as it saw Noma, the Gek chirruped in a business-like manner. “If you prepare chromatic metal, I will use it to calibrate a science terminal”.

Noma headed off to gather what the Overseer required….

Thanks to Hello Games for the images