Guybrush gave the wrench a huge pull, and locked the last nut into place. "Done this side," he said to Wally, who he could hear straining away on the opposite side of the ship.
The repairs were going well. With the intial help of the Hermit, they'd managed to shift Boss Hog into a large metal hangar. Despite the structure being only temporary, somehow the Hermit was able to get a breathable atmosphere inside, allowing them to work without suits. Having helped them this far, the Hermit had left them some days ago to finish the job on their own. Even now that he had visitors, the Hermit was extremely hard to pin down. Sometimes they went for days without seeing him.
"I'm done," said Wally. He dropped his wrench to the rocky ground and wiped his sweaty brow. "Time for a break, don't you think Mr Brush?"
"Yeah, all right," said Guybrush. "We're nearly done anyway."
He stood back and looked at their work. The outer hull had been completely replaced. Inside, there hadn't been much to do, as the general structure was intact. Most of the repairs had involved replacing burnt wiring.
Guybrush looked down to the base of the ship, the one area they hadn't had to do any work in at all.
There was still that mystery to work out. And maybe he could talk to the Hermit about it...
"Take an hour," said Guybrush. "I've got to see the Hermit."
He found him in the lounge, picking over a PCB board with a metal toothpick.
"Look, I've got to ask you something," said Guybrush.
"Hmmm?" said the Hermit, not looking up.
Guybrush sat down. "What's that rock in my ship? Wally fired a blaster shot at it and now we're stuck here. And I know you know something about it, because you haven't asked me about my cargo once. So tell me: what is this stuff, and what is it doing in my ship?"
"Well, that's a tough question," said the Hermit. "I can't tell you what it is: I don't think it even has a name. I call them Portal Stones, but you might think that's a pretty bad name-"
"Them?" interjected Guybrush.
"I'll get to that. You told me a story, and now I'll tell you one. 'Bout thirty years ago, I was flying around the outer moons of Saturn, looking for minerals. Didn't find any, but when I landed in this large rocky valley, I came across a small group of reddish rocks. Like the one in your ship.
"I didn't know what they were, so I loaded them all up and set off for the nearest trading post. The assayer didn't know what they were either, so I went to another trading post and auctioned them all off as 'unknown treasures'. Made quite a bit of money out of that. But I still didn't know what I'd found.
"I'd hung onto one of the rocks just in case, and I tried to analyse it. But no luck. Then, one day when I was probably a bit frustrated, I took out my blaster and shot the damn thing. And I ended up in here."
P.S. Special thanks to "Doug Dalquist"