Casts of this magnitude were limited by distance as well as sheer power. The Caster needed to maintain enough strength to Scry and verify their location once their astral form arrived at its destination.

  This had led to a few Guiness Book of World Record style attempts where Casters launched themselves like Olympic long jumpers into virgin space, then struggled to capture a split second of visual input before completely exhausting themselves and passing out.

  It seemed silly to Gondo, more for bragging rights than anything else. He remembered a promising kid from the S.P.A. once stole the title with an epic Cast, followed by some disgrace.

  With the power boost of the Moonshield he could easily best any of the previous records. Thier goal today had been generated by a complex algorithm inside the mainframe and was marked as a spot of interest. The computer was so powerful it was able to predict the cosmic layout of uncharted space based on the data from the rest of the explored universe. It was woefully inaccurate, but gave them a starting point at least.

  The rush of the Cast greeted Gondo as his mind plummeted through the stars. He opened his third eye to see light that had never travelled as far as the Milky Way. The constellations that had guided his predecessor's journeys across the oceans of Earth were gone. What new forms would they have dreamt up from this starry canvas?

  Looking around he found that he was in a relatively unremarkable area of space. No sprawling Supernovas, no dueling black holes. Just the stars and his floating astral body.

  He relayed this info and then began spending some time on shape-shifting. So far, he could change the shape of his astral matter, but not increase it.

  He was inspecting a claw-like appendage he had dreamed up when something odd piqued his interest.

  The area was dead all around him for light years. He wasn’t in a solar system of any kind, just the midnight zone of space, but he sensed something.

  He quickly summoned his blade hand and began scanning the area for any hostile entities. Nothing dangerous seemed to be lurking around him, but he still felt a tingle.

  There. With his telescopic vision and enhanced senses, he located the disparity. It was a small trail of energy, leading from oblivion to oblivion.

  “Lowell, I think I may have found one of your energy trails,” he said.

  Their voice came back to him as if from a long tunnel, “Try and follow it, see where it goes.”

  Bending his focus, he travelled to the area that contained the trail.

  He wasn’t sure which way to follow. There was barely a trace. He randomly picked a direction and bent his focus along the energy’s path.

  Time slowed to a crawl as he zoomed along. The more he focused on the pathway, the more tangible it became. Like a bloodhound with a scent, he picked up speed as his confidence at following the trail grew.

  Zipping along this way reminded him of his chase with the Newcomer. He stopped to pause periodically and scan the area in front of him. He wasn’t about to be led into another trap.

  Flying through space, focusing intently, he finally derived that there wasn’t just one trail, but two. One fainter than the other. Curious.

  Finally, after what seemed an eternity, he sensed something ahead. A physical presence, not an astral one.

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  “Looks like there’s something following this trajectory, moving away from me. I’m going to cautiously try and catch up with it,” he said.

  “Don’t be hasty Gondo,” Ignasius replied, “We are monitoring your vitals from here but we can’t see what you see.”

  “I won’t be,” Gondo said.

  He pushed his focus faster along the path. As he continued to experiment with the Moonshield his sensitivities were growing. Moving at speeds undreamt of before the formula, he was beginning to develop a spatial awareness of the universe around him. It made him feel more secure in moving so quickly, without running into any hazards.

  A form began to appear at the far point of his vision, roughly ball shaped. He closed on it rapidly and found what appeared to be a small meteoroid.

  “Huh, just a space rock,” he said.

  On second thought, why was a space rock travelling at such velocity? And why was it leaving this spectral trail? It was normal for rocks like this to orbit larger celestial bodies, but out here in the middle of nowhere it was odd to see.

  Possibly it had broken off of a comet, or was the byproduct of some impact.

  He analyzed it with his enhanced vision. Its composition wasn’t the usual stone. It lit up in colors he hadn’t seen on other asteroids.

  “It’s made up of some crazy materials. I wish we could somehow get this back to the lab to investigate,” he said.

  Looking closer, it wasn’t even comprised of rock. It was crystal.

  He continued to follow it until he noticed they were approaching an asteroid field. Even with the time dilation provided by his focus, they reached it in an instant.

  The space rock barreled into one of the asteroids, decimating it. Chunks of it went ricocheting off into space, others drifted in small clouds.

  Well, that was interesting, but nothing Gondo hadn’t witnessed before in deep space scans. He took a last look around and prepared to withdraw from the Cast.

  Absently, he noticed the space rock that he had been following glowing from the center of the impact. It looked like it was breaking apart. No... it was transforming!

  The crystals that comprised the rock began to shift into a wedge shape, almost like the body of a fish. It even looked like it had a small tail in the back. It began wagging its little tail and moving around the area. Its nose was composed of some material that was glowing bright pink.

  Gondo moved in closer to investigate and saw the thing had a tiny mouth, and it was using it to gobble up different colored elements that were floating around from the impact.

  He followed it as it busily chomped away at specific mineral clouds. He relayed the info back to his team.

  “Remarkable,” Ignasius replied, “It sounds as if it's eating the components of the asteroid!”

  After a while the little crystal fish seemed to have covered the whole area. It started to wag its tail and propel itself back the way they had come. As it went it began to build up speed, a great deal more than the tiny tail could accommodate for. He could sense it burning up some kind of resource it had inside its body. He followed it once again.

  The creature was moving very quickly again, and as it reached its previous speed it retracted back into a ball.

  “The creature seems to have had its fill, now its propelling itself back the way we came,” Gondo said.

  “How’s your stamina holding up Gondo? Can you follow it?” Lowell responded.

  He took a moment to assess himself. He was running out of juice.

  “It might be best if I head back. I think this little fella is in for a long flight. I don’t want to lose track of it though,” he said.

  The two of them were rocketing along, side by side. He reached out to touch the space rock. As he did so he felt a strange connection.

  He could sense a feeling of duty, and a desire to complete its task. He could also vaguely make out what seemed to be its next destination, far away in the blackness of space.

  Gondo removed his astral hand and stopped. The little fish flew off in a blink. Even as it left, he could still sense it, and its next stop.

  “I can’t explain it, but I think I can track it now. I’m going to head back, I’ll see you both soon!” he said, and doing so closed his third eye and allowed sleep to take him back to the warmth of the Sunsword.

  ....

  Hours later, back at the meeting table of the Sunsword, Gondo sat in his ornate robe sipping his post-Cast coffee, as the trio discussed their findings.

  “We’ve reviewed your Cast and I think we’ve figured out what that little guy is doing,” Lowell said, “It seems to be a collection vehicle for rare minerals. Much like the rigs we send to collect the findings of your Casts.”

  Remarkable. The space rock was like a small mining ship.

  “The next step would be to find out where it's taking its cargo,” Ignasius said, “Gondo, you said you had an idea of its next destination?”

  He remembered the feeling he had when he touched it.

  “I think so. It’s almost like one of the pings we use for Casting. I should be able to get myself there, or close to it.”

  “Just in case this is another cosmic trap, we’ll send you nearby and then approach cautiously,” Lowell said, “Get some rest. Tomorrow, we found out where this little fish came from.”