The Dark Ship Options

[Franavu]

This is a story I've been writing for a while now, sort of an ongoing project. I think it is ready to be posted, or at least the first part of it.
The story is elder scrolls related, it'll just take a while to get there.

As English isn't my first language I hope you'll forgive me any spelling or grammatical mistakes I might have missed.

Okay, here goes the first bit, I hope you'll like it.
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The dark ship

The dark ship shot through the great void of space, on its way to a planet of legends…

Meanwhile,
Captain’s log, supplemental
We still haven’t found the smugglers’ ship we were send here to find, we lost its warp trail two days ago, we haven’t recovered it yet, and I don’t think we will. How we lost the ship is still a mystery to my crew and me, one minute it was there, the other it was gone and nowhere to be found.
I wonder what they were shipping, one more thing we have never been told, I don’t like this, I don’t like this one bit... [Pause]…What’s worse, my first officer, who is from this region of space, looks like he hasn’t slept the past few days. When I mentioned it to him, he murmured something about bad dreams. He clearly doesn’t want to talk about it and I haven’t pressed him…not yet at least.
This region has some pre-industrial civilizations, none the smugglers could have wanted to go to…I hope. We really don’t need Prime Directive issues; of course it has to be taken into account, at least until we know why they went this way.
[End of log entry]


The dark ship stopped, they had lost their pursuers, for now. His red eyes shone with hope.

Captain’s log, supplemental
Still no smugglers, I have ordered to search all the inhabited planets for the ship…I don’t really expect anything from it, but I just had orders from command to keep looking…No reason given. This is madness, the bloody ship can be anywhere by now, I hope they have a damn good reason for all of this… [Pause]
I spoke with my first officer this morning, he looked worse again…I couldn’t keep ignoring it. First he evaded my questions, but I kept pressing. So at last he told me about his dreams, about a woman speaking to him at night, about glowing red eyes in the dark and strangely enough about large sugar crystals. I have advised him to talk to the ships counsellor about this; I hope he will follow my advice.
He also spoke about the stories of his people. Their legends tell about an exile from their birth planet by red eyed warriors and about lesser, greater and false gods. The stories say this exile happened because they had become so arrogant they thought they wouldn’t need the gods anymore. Sounds like a standard tale of hubris to me, earth must have dozens of them.
[End of log entry]

[Franavu]

He saw the ruin he had been looking for. Would he find it at last, after so many years? He drew his weapon and started walking.

Captain’s log, supplemental
We have found the ship; it is in orbit around an uninhabited M-class planet. It seems that people lived here once though. Scans show there are fairly well-preserved ruins on the surface. The ship itself is empty…and well shielded. So far, we have found no way to get in.
Whoever was on it must be on the planet. I’ve ordered full scans of it… I want to know what we’re dealing with before I send people down there. I have…[Pause]
I have asked my first officer if he knows anything about it…He claims not to, but he gave me such an odd look when I asked…I don’t know, I really don’t…
I have assembled an away team, we’ll leave as soon as our scans of the planet are complete, I’ll lead it personally…Number One can keep the smuggler ship here if its owner or owners return.
I feel I have to go down myself, I know it’s against procedure, but delegating this responsibility seems just…wrong.
We’ll have to take a shuttle to the surface, there’s too much atmospheric interference for the transporter…This doesn’t bode well... I just hope we’ll get back to the ship in one piece…Everything inside me says to go away and never to return again, that is not an option of course, but still…
Anyway, the scan of the planet should be about ready by now.
[End of log entry]

He had found it! The devices were just right. After looking for so many years, he had found it at last. A way home perhaps, or at least an answer to the questions that had been haunting him for so long. But what was that? A bleep from his scanner. Others were landing on this planet; his pursuers must have found him. He pulled out his sword and heard the familiar hum of its magic. They wouldn’t be expecting this, that much was sure, and he readied a spell in his mind. As strong as the magic of his sword was, as weak was his own, but at least he could still do it. He looked at his scanner; something was to be said for technology. The others were leaving the craft. If they got him, all would be lost. They were almost upon him; he could hear their leader giving orders. The words of the spell rose to his mouth, as they rounded the bend he would release it. But then, a sound behind him, the hissing of steam and the screeching of metal on metal. He whirled around and released the spell, too early; it missed and hit a boulder. Behind him he heard shouts of warning, but he wasn’t paying attention to them. He had his eyes fixed straight ahead, on the ruins’ guardians.
They were remarkable craftsmen indeed…