It was in the shape of an arrowhead. A fine aesthetic, a blend of both beauty and function. It stood upright as the hologram slowly rotated. I almost couldn't believe what was before me as the information was relayed in my head regarding it.

  -''So, can it fly us out of here?'' Provence addressed the elephant in the room.

  -Don't think it was designed to fly through compressed rock.

  -How about lava?

  -Apparently it can traverse bodies of water.

  -Soo, close enough?

  -''Jesus Christ.'' I said as I brought a palm to my head. ''It might just be our only way out.''

  I've put my brain to work, literally. Shortly, a set of lights began flickering invitingly along the shortest path towards the said ship. Mind you, not that we needed a red carped and the ''come this way retard'' guidance lights. Nonetheless, despite my luck holding valiantly along the years it was already tried, tested and beaten up innumerable times. Adversely, fate always looked for opportunities to throw me into the most awkward and dangerous of circumstances. So if I could aid my cause in any way despite how insignificant, I believed my luck would thank me for that helping hand. Being mindful saved you from winning stupid, deadly prizes sometimes in life.

  -That's it, we're done here! The lights will lead us to it!

  -''How much time do we have left?'' Asked Provence as she took Shana up in her arms.

  -Pretend it's less than what you think, so run until you leave burn marks on the carpet!

  -Don't need to tell me twice!

  We followed the third tunnel. And as such as we were passing by the statue of Mateo Alighieri I realized what his hand gesture now meant.

  He beckoned to look for the prize held within the separated part of the inner time capsule. A great enclosed cylinder shape that housed the ship itself. Not made out of super hardened glass as nearly all the internal walls we have seen so far. But made of the same metal as the shell of the capsule. Isolating the great prize held within from all the rest. It was the optimistic expectation for the rest of Mankind to follow on his example. To achieve the means that would help us discover greatness in the furthest reaches of space.

  -Cassiel, the lights are going out behind us!

  -I know. Only the sections we need will still retain light and oxygen.

  The vastness of the interior structure was once again slowly drowned in darkness. The lights were going out, section by section. The dome behind us already inert. The great statues covered by more and more layers of shadows. Our own tunnel slated to remain pressurised and lit until we passed the threshold to the gigantic silo. All this while the tremors, as light as they were, continued to vibrate through the floor. The muffled screeching metal would have stressed someone with a weaker mental constitution quite unduly.

  -''Wooaaaah!'' Provence bellowed as both of us began gliding in the middle of the tunnel before fortunately landing easily back. ''What the heck!?''

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  -The gravity is becoming unreliable!

  -What do you mean!? The planet doesn't just lose its gravity!

  -Not Terra's! The capsule's artificial gravity! Right now the capsule is probably upside down in a weird angle in the depths of the earth.

  -This is just mind-boggling!

  -Hey, it keeps us from stumbling around!

  -''The lights are shutting behind us, but we're still here!'' Shouted Provence.

  -I know. We're not gonna run back now. And the computer knows it too!

  -''I prefer it damn waited a bit!'' Provence replied sharply, obviously displeased.

  As we were rushing towards the entrance of the silo, the gravity gave up just when I was about to land my step onto its threshold. Somehow I fumbled it's landing, crashing with the momentum onto the floor before I felt it pulling at me. Pulling me back into the depths of the now pitch black tunnel behind me!

  -Gyaaah!

  During that time Provence had made an incredible leap forward. Throwing Shana more or less safely inside, before turning with magnificent reflexes to catch me just a second before I would have been out of her reach!

  -''Ah!'' I gasped, relieved.

  She looked at me possessively. As if defying the darkness and whatever malice wanted to snatch my life away. After she pulled me over the threshold and inside, a pair of heavy metal doors slid shut. Hearing audible locks being engaged. Inside the silo the gravity still held.

  -Thank you, my lupa.

  The screeching muffles of the abused metal outside were barely audible here, and the tremors were absent. Though in no way I assumed this place would keep us safe anymore than the rest of the capsule if it imploded. Bar a minute or two.

  -''Do you know where we are going?'' Provence asked as she picked up her breath.

  I halted for a brief moment. Taking Shana out of her arms as my turn to carrying her before resuming my pace. The guiding lights were absent here. And the widely spacious corridor presented many doors and ramifications.

  -''Straight ahead to the primary shaft.'' I said.

  We passed through two more bulkheads before the last gateway revealed the greatest prize that the capsule held. Presently the interior contained a gloomy penumbra. But as we stepped in lights began shining to life. The first floor was lit, and then level after level, floodlight after floodlight, the Cygnus was revealed in all its sizable grandeur.

  -My goodness... can we truly sail the stars with this, Cassiel?

  -We can, if we get to pierce through the crust outside.

  -Can we?

  -... We'll see. Let's go.

  My head was a mess of jumbled information trying to remember details from the packet of information that the terminal somehow, mentally blasted into me. As if the computer just threw a compact and heavy stack of papers about it directly at my head before saying ''Take it meatbag, and get the fuck out!''.

  Though it was an exaggerated exercise in imagination. Used as I was with taking light things in a grimmer way by how often fate just seemed to fuck with me.

  -How do we get in?

  -''Back entrance through the hangar.'' I pointed.

  -But its standing upright.

  -''Means it should also have its own artificial gravity.'' I told as I paced towards it.

  It truly was something unique finding a starship was present here. Such time capsules were known to greatly vary in their contents, and spaceships were some of the rarest things to be preserved. Even the few that were known to have had them usually only were small system runabouts.

  But this... this was definitely the largest ship that was ever added into a capsule! I was fairly certain it was three hundred meters if not more in length, with a width of about half that. It had a fairly thick middle body of maybe sixty meters.

  It was of an arrowhead shaped design. With a bottom that was flatter, probably for actually landing on worlds. A well-balanced mix of romance and function, of aesthetics and practicability. The Cygnus was pleasant to look at.

  As it were, it was secured inside the silo all along the length of its hull. Many thick power lines connected to it sprang below into the metal floor and to the rest of the capsule complex. The ship was the quaternary power supply that the main system nexus of the capsule had tapped into for it's continued existence. That gave me food for thought, already coming up with the evident problems of how that would complicate my plan of putting the ship to use. If it even was at all possible to escape the mantle's crust in it.

  We came to a halt by a terminal before the great vessel. Giving Shana to Provence to hold, I was already instinctively pressing my palm against the black surface. The expected green glow appeared, then... nothing else happened.

  -Cassiel?

  -''This is new.'' I replied simply.

  -Everything's new here. Well, in an old way... pristinely preserved is the better term I believe. But that's not my point. What's holding us up?

  -I'm not sure, it's the Cygnus.

  -What about it? I thought it gave you complete access.

  -It did, but...

  -But?

  -The ship seems to have a mind of its own.