different. They had to be fueled by liquid metal. And old ships are a good source of metal. I can see why they did it that way, back in the days.”
“But these days are long gone. And so should be these stupid rules,” Peppita declared.
Sutu was still on his knees and unable to formulate coherent sentences. “Why? What? How? The cult… based on… I can’t believe it.”
“This is the part you can’t believe?” Peppita asked. “The whole thing with the almighty, illiterate being that tells you what you should and shouldn’t eat, that was alright for you? But that this whole cult is based on an old salvaging company is impossible for you to accept? I think over the years you grew too fond of not thinking for yourself.”
“But our whole existence is a lie. What are we supposed to do now? Burn all the books?” the weeping priest asked.
“No,” Peppita explained. “That would be as stupid as following them to the letter. I think it is good, that your culture has some rules and traditions, even if they are silly. They unite you and give you a feeling of community. And a few guidelines on how to behave are never wrong. All your cult needs is a little reform. Don’t take everything so serious, don’t melt things down that belong to someone else and please, if you are hungry, just eat whatever you like.”
Sutu stood up and took a few steps towards Peppita, thereby breaking one of the most important rules of the cult of Vexex. To his great surprise, the Great Salvager did not punish him for this heresy. “You don’t understand,” the priest said. “I can not simply reform our cult. Our rules do not change.”
“Your rules were memos from a salvaging company once. Apparently they did change,” Peppita said.
“You have a point,” Sutu admitted. “But only the High Priestess can make such decisions. And I highly doubt that we can reason with her.”
“In that case,” Peppita proposed, “it might be time for a change of management.”
“We should not be here,” Sutu reminded everyone. “This room is only for the Menn-Tenn-Enk-Kru.”
“He is right,” Kip agreed. “We should get to the Blasting Beetle and go home right away.”
“No way,” Peppita replied. “We have to help these people. Think of all the people that get protelized.”
“Thinking about being killed makes it much worse, actually,” Kip confessed.
“Then think about all the innocent ships that get liquefied. We have to put an end to this.”
She carefully opened the door and made sure nobody was in the maintenance room beneath the pit. “How long till they return?” she asked.
“The ritual dance will continue in a few minutes. Whatever you want to do, do it quickly.”
The four entered the room and quietly closed the door behind them.
“I was right,” Flinton boasted. “This is an old autoyard. At least it was once. There are a lot of modifications, if you want to call them that. I’m pretty sure the standard design comes without all these feathers and skulls.”
“Can you fix it?” Peppita asked.
“I have to take a look at it. There are some strange things going on here. See that pipe? It looks as if the matter reservoir is directly connected to this planet’s molten core. That is why they can dump all the ships in the pit and it never fills up. I am not sure an autoyard can work that way, but I’ll try to fix it.”
Flinton approached the maintenance terminal. He cleared the display from a thick layer of dust and could see a warning in big red letters.
“Maintenance overdue. Last maintenance was 287497 days ago. Please start sequence as soon as possible.”
Underneath this warning were two buttons, one was labeled “Start”, the other one “Cancel”. The engineer took a long look at those buttons.
“Can you fix it?” Peppita asked.
“Don’t rush me, this is a very delicate procedure,” Flinton responded. After careful consideration he decided to push the start button. “There you go. All done. It says it will be operational within a few minutes.”
“I still can’t believe it,” Sutu sobbed. “Everything I believe in… gone. What should I do with my life now. Without the Great Salvager my life has no meaning.”
“Don’t say that,” Peppita cheered him up. “Your life has now even more meaning than before. And only because we now know where your cult comes from doesn’t necessarily mean that there is no Great Salvager. Right, Flinton?”
The Skaren gave his captain a confused look. “I disagree. In my opinion it means exactly that.”
“And what do you think, Kip? Is there a Great Salvager.”
“Well, this is a difficult question. I think there might be, but who knows. We should not talk about it, that is my opinion. Having a strong opinion on such matters always leads to disaster. So I say, there might be a Great Salvager, but maybe he never interacts with us. Is everyone alright with that? Did I offend anyone?”
“Yes, you offended me,” Peppita hissed. “That is a stupid and cowardly opinion. ‘He might be there, but does not interact with us’, what is that even supposed to mean? What’s the difference between something that exists and has no effect on our universe and something that does not exist and has no effect on our universe. You, Kip, are a coward.”
“Sorry, captain. In that case, I revoke my statement and go back to having no opinion at all. That is often the safest approach.”
A beeping noise interrupted their debate.
“Maintenance finished,” Flinton said proudly. “I did it.”
“You only pushed one button,” Peppita objected. “What kind of engineer are you even?”
“Obviously a good one, if I can fix this monstrosity with one push of a button. Should we try it? Build one ship, just to see if it works?”
“I don’t think that would help us. Rekira would just attribute it to the Great Salvager. It would prove nothing. I have a better plan. Can you set it up, so that you can activate it remotely?”
“Of course,” Flinton replied. “No problem. What kind of ship do you want?”
“I don’t care, just leave it on the factory setting. We just have to prove that it works.”
Flinton pushed a few buttons on the terminal, then a few buttons on his Widget, he always carries around with him, then again some buttons on the terminal.
“All synchronized,” he said triumphantly.
“Good,” said Peppita. “Then let’s get out of here. We have an announcement to make.”
“Gather round, everybody!” Peppita screamed. She was sitting on Flinton’s shoulders at the edge of the Pit of Sacrifice. “There is something you all need to know!”
Cultists entered from all the entrances and even the Menn-Tenn-Enk-Kru interrupted their ritual dance just to listen to Peppita.
Finally even Rekira joined them. “What is this insolence? What is she doing there? Sutu, these three were your responsibility. What happened here?”
“What happened here,” Peppita answered the question of the High Priestess, “is that we found out the truth about your religion. A truth that not even you know, Rekira. The whole cult of Vexex is based on an old salvaging company. This pit here is nothing more than an old autoyard.”
“Lies!” Rekira shouted. “This is heresy. Kill them,” she ordered.
“No,” Sutu said in a sad voice. “They speak the truth. We read the original pieces of the Holy Book of Salvaging. Nothing we believe in is true. There is no such thing as a Great Salvager.”
“And we can prove it,” Peppita added. “We repaired the autoyard, and now we can build ships here. Without the power of the Great Salvager, just by pushing a button. Nothing magical about it. Do it, Flinton.”
Flinton pushed a button on his Widget. Peppita grinned, but the longer it took for the ship to appear the more her smile turned into a frown.
“What is happening, Flinton? Where is the ship?” she whispered to her engineer. “Don’t tell me you screwed up pushing a single button.”
“I don’t know what’s hap
pening,” Flinton confessed. “It should work. Maybe it needs some time to warm up.”
“Warm up?” Peppita shouted. “Are you serious? Look at this lava. Does it look too cold to you. You think it needs to be any hotter?”
“I am sorry, maybe one maintenence sequence was not enough. I told you we should try it first.”
“Kill them! And Sutu as well, he is a traitor,” Rekira ordered. The cultists slowly approached Peppita, who was desperately trying to find a way to escape. Sutu knew that this was the end and although he now knew, that there was no Great Salvager listening to him, he had to pray. “Oh Great Salvager. I doubt you can hear me. I doubt a lot of things, currently. But if you are there and if you are really almighty, please give me a sign. Just a simple one. I ask for nothing more.”
As soon as Sutu ended his prayer the whole temple began to shake. The lava in the Pit of Sacrifice bubbled more than usual and soon something peeked out of the lava surface. It was the nose of a ship, and soon the rest of it followed, emerging from the pit.
“See, Pep, all it needed was a little warm up.” Flinton grinned.
“Thank you, Great Salvager,” Sutu shouted. “Thank you for giving me this sign. So you are real after all. All bow before the might of the Great Salvager. After a thousand years of waiting he finally returned and gifted us this magnificent ship.”
The cultists stopped their attack and bowed before the pit.
“This does not change anything,” Rekira shouted. “It only proves my power as High Priestess. I made this ship appear. So stop bowing down and kill