In the days that followed, the two worked together like partners.
The Shadowglide sailed smoothly and quietly through Intergalactic Space, and Shelly began telling Song Chen more about the Blood-Eclipse Star System.
She went into great detail: the Blood-Eclipse Clan's patrol routes, the divisions between the major districts, which races submitted on the surface but harbored resentment, and which had become the clan's loyal lackeys.
She also told him that things were far from peaceful within the Blood-Eclipse Star System.
Although the Resistance Organization had suffered brutal purges, it had never truly disappeared.
They had secret contact points and their own set of recognition phrases. If he could find them, they would become Song Chen's greatest allies behind enemy lines.
Day after day passed as they traveled.
Sometimes, they stopped to observe strange celestial bodies.
Intergalactic Space was not entirely lifeless. Song Chen discovered that many places considered "empty" on Blue Star actually had ecosystems of their own.
Extremely faint psychic energy crystals drifted among the clusters of fragments in some asteroid belts.
Deep within certain dark nebulae lay enormous ice-crystal structures. They reflected the light of distant galaxies like pale blue mirrors standing in the darkness.
On one occasion, the Shadowglide's detector suddenly beeped.
An extremely faint point of light appeared at the edge of the star chart, moving at tremendous speed.
Song Chen brought up an image and saw a severely aged spaceship.
The ship looked like a bent metal pipe, its surface covered in impact craters and scorch marks. It had no lights and emitted no signals. Only something resembling an engine at its stern still pulsed extremely slowly.
"That's a refugee ship," Shelly suddenly explained.
"A refugee ship?"
"Some people knew the Blood-Eclipse Clan was coming, so they built ships and fled. Most were caught and