The Adventures of Goryx and Xyrog

     ”Goryx!” Someone was shouting the Grundo’s name from across the platform, and they were coming closer.

     "Goryx mate, I heard you had a bit of a whoopsie at the ol' XZ, Chief almost lost his eyebrows to the back of his head they're saying." A large hand clapped him on the back and he looked up to see a short and somewhat rotund Krawk wearing the uniform and insignia of the Space Station Dock Master trainee.

     Goryx grinned, "Jas! I didn't expect to see you mingling out here with the common Neofolk", he said, clasping his old academy buddy's other hand. The two of them had gone through the Training Academy together. Jaster's brilliant negotiation skills and mind for complex logistics meant she had come out top of the year and nabbed the coveted Dock Master training post.

     "I saw your ship's callname come up on the comms and thought I'd hassle you about your absolutely shoddy security detail," she leaned down to give Xyrog a little pat of hello, "Are you two docked for long? I was thinking we could grab a Milkyway Shake at Grundos Cafe, for old times' sake".

     Goryx grinned, remembering the countless late nights they'd spent at Grundos Cafe during their Academy days, fueling their study sessions with those addictive shakes. "Remember when we accidentally spilled an entire Grape Slurpship all over Professor Z9’s anti-gravity thesis? I thought he was going to jettison us out of the airlock." Jas laughed, her eyes twinkling with shared memories. "How could I forget? We spent the next month reorganising the entire Grundo Warehouse to make up for it. Though I think that's where you first got the idea for your atmospheric purification system, wasn't it?"

     As they chatted, Goryx made headway towards the HQ, a squat, uninviting looking building just outside the passenger terminal. "Unfortunately this is a quick stop-in, Chief has decided to punish me with a solo repair job fixing up that rogue X47-Q telecoms satellite in the far-east quadrant".

     "Ahhhh, I heard about that, it's broadcasting strange spliced videos all over the place. Yesterday we got one on the Supply Deck from the Altador Cup in Year 9 when the Kreludoran gravity generator failed, which re-sparked that entire debate about whether it was part of some bigger plot to get Kreludor permanently kicked out of the tournament."

     They had reached HQ, where a burly Jetsam was standing guard in front of the door. The guard's demeanour shifted as they noticed Jaster, a grin running across their face, "Hey boss, ready for another thrashing on the courts?"

     "I think I've had my fill of Gormball for the next few years, sorry Terry," she waved a hand at Goryx, "My friend here needs to speak with Kal about that glitching satellite if you wouldn't mind letting him in".

     Jaster turned to Goryx, "Well it was good to see you, though brief, make sure you stop by for a proper visit when you next dock," and with a wave and another scratch for Xyrog she quickly disappeared into the bustling terminal.

     "Righto, straight down the hall and to the left - ask for Kali, no wandering," the Jetsam, apparently named Terry, was back to business mode, stiffly holding the door open for Goryx. He entered into the dark interior, the door closing with a soft snick behind him. He walked down the dimly lit, empty hall and took a left. At first, all he heard was a faint, rhythmic tapping, though the room seemed vacant. Then he noticed a barely visible tuft of hair behind the tall counter in the middle of the room, which turned out to belong to a Baby Mynci sitting at a computer terminal.

     "Uhmmm...Kali?"

     The Mynci was so engrossed in what they were doing they didn't seem to hear him. He cleared his throat and the Mynci looked up, startled.

     "Oh hi! Sorry sorry, I've just been looking through all these glitchy files coming through from one of the satellites," before he could get a word Kali continued, "It's absolutely wild, I mean how is it possible for it to be splicing in random old files - some from as far back as YEAR ONE - and sending them throughout the entire network. That's some major Mystic Island magic right there."

     Realising he wouldn't get a chance to say a thing unless he interrupted, Goryx jumped in, "Well that's actually why I'm here," he slid the papers across the counter, "I'm from the Kreludor Research Unit, heading over to the telecoms satellite, designation X47-Q to have a look over it and hopefully fix it."

     "Oh! Oh!" her tail grabbed the papers from him excitedly as she continued furiously tapping at the computer, "Have you had a chance to actually look at the code and data it's sending through?" Kali's fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up a series of disjointed video clips. "Look at this," she said, her voice tinged with excitement and confusion. "It's not just random noise. There's a pattern here, but I can't quite figure it out."

     Goryx leaned in, his brow furrowed in concentration. The screens flickered with fragments of old news reports, Virtupets commercials, and what looked like classified Kreludor defence briefings. "How is this possible?" he muttered. "Some of this footage is from before the satellite was even launched."

     "Exactly!" Kali exclaimed. "It's like it's tapping into some kind of... temporal data stream. But that's impossible, right?" She looked at Goryx, her eyes wide with the thrill of scientific mystery.

     “I mean look at this one!" She continued, playing back another series of snippets, starting on an infamous interview with the Kreludor Team Captain when they had to bow out of the second Altador Cup in Year 9.

     "We needed help," Captain Derlyn Fonnet was exclaiming on the screen, before being cut off by the cheery jingle of a well-known commercial, "If it's really stuck and you just can't get it out", and back to Captain Fonnet, "Their assistance was very much appreciated but it was too late."

     "And then look at this one," as she starts to open another file, Goryx interjects, "I think we're just dealing with a regular old malfunction. We've had it happen with a few of the other satellites from this era. They were made during the Virtupets War and had malware installed by Dr Sloth. We couldn't afford to put all new ones into orbit so we just stripped out the malware but it has made the satellites a bit unreliable and prone to glitching".

     The Mynci looked crestfallen, "Oh, alright - well still. I think you should have a look at the files they're super interesting. I've put them on this drive," she slides a green drive disc over to him, and then a second blue one, "and this drive has the satellite's exact coordinates and all the transmission data from the past three months, as per the request. Have a good day," she says, abruptly turning back to her computer and away from Goryx.

     Outside the Comms HQ, they pass Terry the Jetsam whose attention is fixed somewhere in the middle distance ignoring them. Xyrog gives a chirp of reproach, nudging Goryx with their nose. "I know, I know...but encoded messages through the satellite, that's ludicrous".

     Goryx weaved through the bustling crowd, his antennae twitching as he navigated the cacophony of the Hangar. The air hummed with the chatter of a hundred different languages and the whir of machinery. As he approached the familiar food cart, a smile tugged at his lips.

     "Well, if it isn't my favourite customer," Gula, the Elderly Jubjub proprietor, called out. Her wrinkled face crinkled with warmth as she deftly began preparing his usual order. "It's been a while, Goryx. What brings you back to our neck of the cosmos?"

     "Oh, you know, the usual," Goryx replied, leaning against the cart. "Keeping the galaxy connected, one malfunctioning satellite at a time."

     Gula chuckled, her nimble feet working in perfect sync as she wrapped two steaming Meteor Meat Pies. "Sounds like you could use a taste of home, then. These ought to do the trick."

     As Gula held out the wrapped pies, a sudden burst of static cut through the ambient noise of the Hangar. Goryx's antennae stood straight up, alert. The public screens, usually displaying a mix of arrival times and advertisements, flickered and went black.

     "We needed help..." The voice of the Captain Fonnet boomed from every screen, making Gula jump. Her foot slipped, and the pies began to fall.

     Without thinking, Goryx lunged forward, catching the precious parcels just before they hit the ground. As he straightened up, his eyes locked onto the nearest screen.

     "If it's really stuck and you just can't get it..." The familiar jingle of the Neopian School Supplies ad for Strong Forever Glue filled the air, its cheery tone jarringly out of place in the suddenly tense atmosphere.

     Goryx's grip tightened on the pies as he scanned the Hangar. Other travellers had stopped in their tracks, heads swivelling towards the screens. A hush fell over the crowd, anticipation thick in the air.

     Just as abruptly as they had come to life, the screens went black once more. For a moment, silence reigned. Then, like a dam breaking, the noise of the Hangar returned in full force. Conversations erupted everywhere, a mix of confusion, excitement, and wild speculation.

     "What in the name of Kreludor was that?" Gula whispered, her eyes wide. Goryx stared back at her, unsure of what to say…

To be continued…