"To here they'll come and from here they'll go, ships of life and ships of death, rushing from nowhere to the place foretold"

  - Construction manual, Yi-tian Station (37 BCE)

  Three large, parallel, dark-metal discs held the 52,335th Quadrant Repair station together. Hundreds of pillars erected on the discs, themselves supporting vertically rotating solars.

  During this age, the repair station served roughly 14,500 units at any given time, 45% above the designed capacity, reportedly with below average specifications and bot-repair hardware.

  Still processing the consequences of what had happened in Calazen, the NeoFrame-187 asked Casper "Shithole still overoccupied, or can we find a place to land?"

  "Number of units is above average, but there are two vacant docking stations along the 33rd level. Begin decelleration?" the AI quipped, "Acknowledged and Affirmed, get us home Casper." NeoFrame replied, diverting his attention to calling Argo, check if he was in the station.

  Exiting the docking station, NeoFrame was automatically connected to the repair station's network as he entered the elevator, 153 Radorgs extracted from his balance as he ascended, for the service of refueling the pod, plus elevator charges. Reaching the halfway level of the structure, the elevator stopped, its doors opened, and NeoFrame got out, finally entering the Inspection District of the 52,335th Quadrant repair station.

  NeoFrame stood at the end of a very large street made of silver-stone, a naturally glowing material, which itself was only among about a dozen other streets, all leading towards a massive central square in an archetectural pattern that resembled a massive asterisk.

  "Nothing like the sight of home." NeoFrame thought to himself, easing his external shield.

  While the ceiling itself was lit up by an artifical source, which combined with the light from the silver-stone made the whole environment quite well-lit, almost like daytime on a planet only mildly distant from its sun.

  The sides of the streets were lined with alleyways that led towards massive grey, drab, buildings, each complex building practically attached to the one beside and behind it, with very little space between the two for the alleyways. The walls of each building completely splattered with graffiti signs, symbols, sometimes even entire paragraphs written both in standard and stylish writing.

  Hunters of all sizes, shapes, classes and colours filled the streets, bustling, hustling and scurrying from one complex to another, trying to find the worth of the intel, items and material gathered during their journies.

  With each complex specialized in inspecting certain types of items: atomic material, weapon-type, flora, fauna, item, pod-part, hardware, software, etc. the inspection district acted as a hub for hunters returning from missions across the galaxy, and was the 2nd busiest district within the quadrant, only beaten by the Procurement District which served as the repair station's auction house, where hunters could buy/sell their findings from across the galaxy.

  It was fairly common practice for hunters to get their findings inspected and valuated at the Inspection district before heading straight to the Procurement district to cash-in the spoils of their missions.

  This wasn't however, why NeoFrame was in the Inspection District, he was here because of Zenbot, and the strange item that the ancient unit had gifted him on Calazen, an item that he had to get inspected.

  So he headed towards the square, pushing aside any and all passerbys, and ignoring the loud holographic popups that interrupted his stride and showed up infront of his face, informing him of the services and amenities within a nearby complex.

  The closer a complex was to the square, the higher quality its services were assumed to be, it was for this reason that as NeoFrame got closer to the square, the popups became less frequent and the crowd of hunters, more sparse. The shops near the square after all, needed no introduction and were assumed to be automatically known about, "Infamous Weaponsware", situated on the ground floor of a complex only a single block away from the square, was one such shop.

  The shop was empty when NeoFrame entered it, a common occurence at the aptly titled infamous entreprise. He delved deeper into the shop, searching the environment for any sign of activity.

  Before long, a tall, slightly rusty robot with one right and two left arms entered the room from a corner, as it dashed through the room, shouting with enthusiasm "GramFram-66's Infamous Weaponswares, servicing hunters for 95 standard years! How can we hel-"

  "Oh, it's just you." The unit was visibly dissapointed to have laid eyes on NeoFrame.

  NeoFrame, obviously amused by the reaction replied "Good to see you too, Grams".

  GramFram, visibly irritated, starts pacing towards the counter "Not a day goes by that I don't regret giving coupons to that good-for-nothing unit."

  "So, where's that slimy Argonaut friend of yours? I don't see him tailing you around like last time." GramFram questioned as he seated himself behind the counter.

  "I'm here alone. Argo seems to be on-duty, so I'll pay out of pocket." NeoFrame replied.

  "First, hard to believe that grouch actually works for a living, and second, are you aware of my inspection prices?" Grams quipped.

  NeoFrame stood firm, signalled affirmatively. "Fine then. Put your garbage weapon on the table. And lay it easy, the table's made of True Mahogany, carefully grown and raised in an exo before being cut down, not even all your parts could pay for it."

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  "It's, it's not a weapon. It's something else, a misc I think." NeoFrame said in a low voice.

  GramFram, taken aback, replies "What do you mean it's not a weapon? Did you not read the sign outside the shop, its infamous 'WEAPONS'-ware not 'SOMETHINGELSE'-aware'." while forming air-quotes with two of his three hands.

  "I know the system revokes liscenses for inspecting misc items. But I also know that you're the one person in this station who knows how to get around the system, and whose liscense the system will never revoke." NeoFrame blurted impulsively, clearly taking GramFram by surprise.

  Composing himself, NeoFrame continued in a softer voice, "And besides, how often do you encounter miscs nowadays anyway, don't you want to relive the glory days too? Back when everything in this quadrant was unidentified, a misc at every corner of the quadrant?"

  GramFram was visibly conflicted at the prospect, and weighing his choices regarding it.

  "I got it from another GramFram unit by the way," NeoFrame quipped, gauging the shopkeeper's reaction.

  "Okay, fine, I give in. I'll take a look at it." GramFram laid back at his chair, swinging his arms back in frustration.

  NeoFrame held out his hand, projecting a holographic contract through his forearms. "Secrecy contracts are usually signed after inspection, you know that right?" GramFram said.

  "Just being sure." he said, while GramFram signed the contract. Immediately, NeoFrame went to his inventory and produced the item, a thick leather purse, filled with thin strips of hard metal visibly poking out.

  "Is that,"

  "Yes, it's a human belonging. A wallet, I think he called it. And that's not all." Neoframe picked up the purse and carefully scoured his hands into it, producing a thick plastic frame tied to a piece of looped cloth.

  "Do you know what this is?" NeoFrame asked GramFram, holding it out. GramFram, looking at it with disbelief , said"I've heard stories about it. To think I'd be able to see one. It's an Identity card right? Used to differentiate humans from one another?"

  "Mmhmm." Neoframe nodded his head. "And not just any identity card," he brought the card closer to GramFram "You see this logo," he pointed towards a picture of a green-blue planet covered by a red-ribbon, with P.S.F. written in bold white letters, "That's the People's Space Federation logo."

  "This card belongs to one of them, the original humans, the ones who built this station, and every other station, and half the operational planets not only in this quadrant, but every quadrant in the galaxy. Before a single advanced unit walked on land." NeoFrame said, with intense seriousness.

  "How'd you get this?" GramFram asked, containing his awe and pulling slightly away to focus on NeoFrame's face.

  "An ascendant, on a planet called Calazan. Called himself Zenbot." NeoFrame said. GramFram, taken aback, asked "Wait, you said. So this ascendant, he was a GramFram? Like me?"

  "That's what he said. Though he looked quite different, neither me nor Casper could guess the unit at first, we only realized it after he told us." NeoFrame said.

  "He also mentioned that the environment it belonged to was still accessible, and gave me a mission to search from whence it came." NeoFrame continued.

  "So you want me to stick it in a locator, tell you where it's from?" GramFram inquisited. "Yes. And at not too steep a price if possible." NeoFrame said, modulating his voice to end the sentence in a joking tone.

  GramFram snatched the ID card off of NeoFrame's hands, opened a suitcase sized drawer and carefully placed it inside, before slamming the drawer and pressing a few buttons.

  "I won't charge you for this. I ask for another thing in return." GramFram looked at NeoFrame with a stern look, NeoFrame anticipating his next words.

  "The co-ordinates to the ascendant, I'd like to visit him. Perform my first pilgrimage." GramFram proclaimed.

  The P-word. He'd said it. In front of another unit no less. With minimal chance that the system hadn't heard him. NeoFrame was momentarily stunned, a hint of inspired even. Very few people were embarking on pilgrimages in that age, especially considering everything that entailed.

  "Suit yourself, old skank." NeoFrame said, his voice modulating in signs of clear admiration.

  Just as he said it, the machine in GramFram's counter started booping, and the drawer opened on its own, responding with "Analysis completed. Location History identified."

  GramFram opened the drawer and toom out the ID card, projecting a holographic screen from his hand to show the results.

  "This is possibly the oldest object I've ever seen." GramFram said. "Oh really, let me guess, it's from a thousand years ago? That'd be what..1000 CE?" NeoFrame asked.

  "Fifteen hundred." GramFram said, in disbelief. "1500 BCE. That's when it's from." the shock of the info hitting NeoFrame like a brick.

  "Does it say where it's originally from?" NeoFrame asked. "It seems to have been on a planet called Calazen for a few recent decades as you said, but it's spent a whole lot longer somewhere else, spending most of its existence in...Malova?" GramFram said in a confused manner.

  "Of course. Makes sense. That's where the humans first landed when they came to this quadrant. And don't the records speak of the P.S.F establishing a labarotary there? That's where this must be from." NeoFrame excitedly blurted his chain of thought out loud.

  "Yes. The Northern Lab. That'd make sense. I still have a hard time believing that there's such a place hiding in a planet so teeming with units." GramFram said, using one his hands to strike a thnking pose.

  "But that might also precisely be why. The planet is famous for low-level missions, perfect to test newly minted units. Most units see the planet as a training ground, and never visit it once they're eligible for actual missions. So the chances of units missing a crucial location right under their noses does seem plausible." NeoFrame postulated, before asking Casper, "Hey, are there any missions in Malova that I'm eligible to sign up for?"

  "There are multiple available missions in Malova, might I suggest one?" Casper inquisited. "Sure thing." NeoFrame replied.

  "There's an extraction mission in Molova Minor, requiring 50 low-level creatures belonging to the local fauna to be poached, addressing the leather shortage in the local economy. Time Limit: None." Casper presented all releavant information as a hologram from NeoFrame's arm.

  "That sounds wholesome. Shall I go for a little hunt then, Grams?" NeoFrame says snatching the ID card back from GramFram's hands and double tapping the card, encapsulating it in a bubble, vanishing into NeoFrame's inventory.

  "Make sure to refresh your memorybook beforehand, I have a feeling the copies are going to be pretty in-demand." GramFram said, as NeoFrame turned his back on the counter.

  "Already did it beforehand, Grams. I also sent you the co-ordinates for Calazen, good luck on the pilgrimage old scrooge. Make sure you don't skim on the supplies." NeoFrame said, as he exited the shop, ready to head directly to the island planet, Malova.