1y9m2w BV
The Crucible, Fyunipper Clanhouse, Haidao
Sharon
Jeeves. Was. Awesome.
Awesome, as in the biblical sense. The sheer capability available to her when fully connected to the facility could not be meaningfully described any other way. When she was here in the Crucible -as she called it- she designed, iterated and built more effectively than she had ever thought possible. Anything she focused on could be accomplished.
Today, she was playing with electrostatic fields.
Darpin looked on inquisitively. “Are you trying to build a go-cart entirely out of forcefields?”
Sharon laughed. “Not entirely. The reactor, seat, forcefield generator and treads are still physical objects.”
Darpin shifted slightly. “Why not just use physical components? It doesn’t take that long to build.”
Sharon shrugged. “To see if it can be done. Physical components have weight, and are not field-reconfigurable. Those considerations are generally trivial with this sort of vehicle, but I have other applications in mind.”
Darpin duck-nodded meekly, beginning to pace.
“What’s wrong, Daar?”
He stopped. “I dunno. I was just expecting things to be moving faster.”
Sharon glanced at him with a sly grin. “Really? You seemed quite happy with model twelve.”
She saw a glimmer of fear in his eyes. Model twelve was an earlier go-cart design that could easily reach highway speeds across the moon’s regolith. It also could pull three g’s of lateral acceleration, thanks to its stabilizing kinetics. The most ‘fun’ aspect of model twelve, though, was its complete lack of governing systems. The only thing that kept Darpin from splattering himself across the lunar surface was Sharon’s subtle adjustments to the vehicle’s controls, carefully nudging the vehicle around obstacles as she watched him slide panickedly across the harsh terrain.
Sharon smiled as she ran her hand across his head. “I’m not magic, Daar. It still takes me time to figure these things out. We’ll get there in time, don’t worry.”
The nano-forge finished construction of the components. The largest component of model sixteen was a caster-supported seat bolted to the necessary electro-mechanicals. Adjacent to this powered seat was a pile of four kevlar-impregnated nylon-lattice tubular treadplates. “Let’s take sixteen out for a spin.”
Together, they dragged the go-cart to the airlock. Both of them suited up and Darpin took a seat in the cart. Sharon hit the ignition, and the four wheels of the craft quickly snapped to their positions as the core of the unit was lifted into its resting stance. With an affirmatory yip, Darpin drove out onto the lunar surface.
Even though you could barely tell from looking at it, sixteen was still a four-wheel drive vehicle. Within the treads, spokes of electrostatic force were repelled by coupled electrostatic fields, all held in place by a virtual electrostatic axle. Carefully positioned variable power fields held the vehicle stable as it drove, acting as a form of suspension. There were hundreds of individual forcefields dancing together, flowing seamlessly past each other, all carefully emulating a few hundred pounds of scrap metal.
Obviously, this particular iteration would have crap performance -most of the reactor’s power was spent simply holding the thing together- but if it worked… well, she could only imagine the possibilities.
‘Imagine’. Jeeves had significantly altered her perception of that word over the past month. In fact, aside from the basic building blocks provided by the engineering databank, everything that she wanted to accomplish had to be imagined. Each and every item that she designed and built required painstaking thought and attention to detail; Jeeves did nothing on its own. She had learned an awful lot about engineering in the past few weeks during the repeated brute-forced iterative development cycles.
Darpin caught her eye, as he drifted around a rocky outcropping. Sharon identified expressions of fear, joy and excitement during the few times she was able to clearly see his face. Unlike some of the previous models, he seemed to be able to handle sixteen just fine. So, Sharon stepped out, away from the facility. This outdoor area was actually partially pressurized, possibly intended to be used as an overflow airstrip or something similar by the facility’s original inhabitants. She walked towards the edge of the containment field, stumbling slightly as she left the structure’s gravity field. Hopping the rest of the way to the edge of the pressurized area, she passed through the containment field into the wasteland beyond and closed her eyes.
Silence. Beautiful.
Opening her eyes once more, she gazed upon the brilliant violet gas giant hanging nearby. Her mind flooded with statistics and observations describing the planet before her.
Sharon sighed. Her subconsciousness simply did not know when to shut up. She re-entered the field and walked back towards the hangar.
Darpin brought the cart back into the bay just as she arrived. He parked and powered down the vehicle, causing the treads to roll across the garage. Panicking, he quickly turned it back on.
“Just let them go, Daar, we can gather them later.”
Darpin duck-nodded and shut the car down again. After de-suiting he approached Sharon. “When are you going to build something other than go-carts?”
“What, you didn’t like it?”
“No… it was fine, just…”
“That time comes closer every day. In fact, sixteen,” She waved a hand at the recently operated go-cart. “Provided all the information I needed to start development of reconfigurable roller-coasters.”
Darpin tilted his head adorably. “Didn’t you say that those were too complicated?”
Sharon laughed. “Things change, Daar. This prototype proved the last principles I needed to construct a prototype re-configurable track.”
Darpin tapped his foot. “So that means…”
“That means we’ll soon have all we need to build the amusement park.”
Darpin duck nodded, a mixture of excitement and disappointment visible in his ears. She carefully studied him, trying to discern his concerns. Hmm, well the source of the excitement was obvious, he was happy that they were one step closer to ‘fun’. But what of the disappointment? She stared into his eyes, trying to read anything. Suddenly, she found it; He was disappointed in the rate of progress.
She laughed softly to herself. Well, at least that was nothing too serious. Besides, she was actually rather happy with her progress thus far. He’d come around in time.
Wait… She was missing something important here. Sharon navigated the Gaori translation database, trying to find anything that would indicate something as specific as ‘disappointed in rate of progress’. She subconsciously (and thus consciously) knew that she would find nothing there, but she had to look, the alternative was just…
Sharon found nothing. She hastily removed Jeeves as she turned to follow Darpin down the hall. A familiar blindness filled her mind as she disconnected from the Clanhouse’s subsystems. This terrifying darkness rapidly gave way to a tranquil silence, as it did each time she removed the neural iterator.
How did she let this happen again? Why the hell did she still allow herself to violate her clanmate’s mind? That was simply… It was not okay to go poking around in people’s brains! There had to be something she could do to prevent this from happening again.
She would simply have to try harder, learn how to better control her subconsciousness. As easy as it would be to simply abandon Jeeves and find another path, it was too powerful a tool to let go to waste. She would have to become better.
Darpin stopped and turned to her. Even without Jeeves, she could tell that he was rather concerned about something. He rushed over to her and set a paw on her shoulder, speaking something in his native tongue.
She dug through her pockets, realizing that she forgot to bring a translator. A realization dawned on her. There was a way to fix this, a way to understand without ever having to risk violating Darpin’s mind again. Hastily, she again donned Jeeves. “Hold on a minute Daar; I want to try something.”
Darpin turned to face her. “What’s wrong, Sister?” He was concerned about her, no doubt; He only ever called her ‘Sister’ when he was worried about something.
Sharon held up a finger as Jeeves collected the information it needed. Then, in one quick burst transmission, a surge of data flooded past her consciousness. A complete copy of the Dominion’s Gaori language translation was routed around her subconsciousness into her long-term memory. An entire culture’s worth of syntax, vocabulary and grammar, along with all of Gaori’s gesticulation and scent cues; All of that content took barely a second to fill her mind.
Smiling, she took a step forward… then collapsed to the ground.
Sharon opened her eyes to see Darpin staring worriedly at her. “Sister, are you okay?” He ran his paw through her hair, then shoved her head gently to one side. “Your reflexes seem fine, at least.”
“What happened Darpin?” Sharon slowly worked her way to the wall, sitting against it.
“I don’t know. Your eyes blinked rapidly for a second… then you… uh, well, screamed into my mind, pleading for help. So I uh…” He gestured at Jeeves laying on the ground beside him. Suddenly, his ears perked straight up in shock. “You’re speaking Gaori!”
“Am I?” Sharon asked. “I am.” She smiled. “It worked.”
Darpin shook his head, glanced at Jeeves, then shook his head again. “That is… Fyu’s balls, Sharon. What happened?”
“In order to avoid the necessity of a translator, I instructed Jeeves to teach me the mechanics of the Gaori language.”
“That’s… helpful, I guess… but what if you were hurt?” As Sharon reached for Jeeves, Darpin held out a paw to stop her. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
Sharon shrugged. “That will soon become apparent. I will not abandon my assigned tasks.” As she donned the hat, Jeeves awoke. Surprisingly, her subconsciousness had a relatively clear grasp of what had transpired. Such a large number of axon modifications in such a short time depleted her cerebral arteries’ oxygen and ATP levels. The two heartbeats it took to replenish the blood took just slightly too long for her brain to handle.
While she still wore Jeeves, she studied the results of the knowledge transfer. ‘Memorizing’ the dictionary and related grammatical databanks had given her a nearly-perfect mechanical understanding of the Gaori language, both in word and gesture. But, until she manually learned the language, her Gaori would lack character. Obviously, that would require immediate attention. She had no desire to speak like a robot.
She removed the hat, addressing Darpin after her mind readjusted to the disconnection. “Temporary low blood oxygen levels; There should not be any permanent harm to my body.”
Darpin sighed. “…Alright. Please be safe, Sister.” He stopped, twisting his ears as he stood lost in thought. “I don’t want to lose you.”
A faint smile spread across Sharon’s lips as she reached over and hugged Darpin. He yelped in surprise, trying to escape. He soon abandoned his attempts and instead awkwardly returned the gesture. Sharon was a bit worried that she had overstepped a cultural bound, but his ears told her that he was perfectly happy. “Many thanks, Darpin.”
1y9m2w BV
Whitecrest Shuttlecraft, Gao Orbit
Ronovin
Ronovin landed the shuttle on the open hangar deck atop the Carpe Aeternum. He grabbed his bag and stepped out of the shuttle, the iridescent glow of the atmospheric retention field shimmering overhead. The deck’s elevator rose out of the floor near the rear of the ship and opened. Ronovin entered the elevator and made his way into the ship’s galley, surprised that Chuck had yet to show himself.
He was even more surprised when Chuck gave him a big ‘ol Stoneback hug from behind. “Glad you could make it, Ronovin.” Chuck said as he played with Ronovin’s fur.
Ronovin retracted his instinctively extended claws and chittered softly. After all the times that he had ambushed Chuck, it was only fair to give the human the opportunity to pounce first everyone once in a while. Yep, this was definitely his idea.
He struggled to fight against Chuck’s grasp, only able to turn towards the human once the Deathworlder had relaxed his grip. “Good to see you too.”
Something caught Ronovin’s nose. There was someone else here, their scent barely perceptible behind Chuck’s overpowering musk. He glanced around before his eyes fell onto the culprit; Pekin of Ironclaw was sitting at a table in the corner of the room, thoroughly amused. Ronovin tried to gently push himself away from Chuck.
The human stared at Ronovin, apparently fully aware of Ronovin’s pouncy intentions. “He’s my guest, Ronovin. Please play nice.”
Ronovin perked an ear. “Oh, ye of little trust.”
That carefully deployed idiom seemed to confound the human. Chuck stared through him for a moment, but eventually let him go. “Pekin, tell me if you need help dealing with him.”
Rovovin turned to Chuck, ears flattened in annoyance. “Fyu’s nuts, Chuck. You are acting like I…” He closed his mouth with a sigh. “I’m working on your little training project. I think it will turn out just fine.”
Chuck chuckled softly. “Good to hear.”
Ronovin turned to Pekin. “Now then, let’s see if we can discover what our Ironclaw associate has found so amusing.”
With a playful growl, Ronovin leapt across the room, the couch creaking in protest as he landed atop the pup. Only a moment later, he yipped in alarm as he was stuck by another of those Keeda-damned stun guns. He crumpled to the floor.
By the time he was able to move again, Pekin was seated next to him, jabbing the stun gun into his flank.
With a pained growl, Ronovin addressed his captor. “You can turn those down, you know.”
Chuck shook his head. “I don’t understand why you Gaoians use those so freely.”
After glancing down to confirm that he was still held at stun gun point, Ronovin addressed the concern. “It fills a useful niche. A method of definitely stopping a fight while leaving no clear victor. Which sucks for me, by the way. I usually win my fights.”
He started to stand, but Pekin chittered softly, shaking his head as he jabbed the stun gun slightly harder in warning. With a sigh, Ronovin laid back down and continued. “Ending a fight without resorting to a yield seems to appeal to a great number of Gaoians, though I assume that in rather short order, use of this-” He casually flicked a paw at the weapon. “Will come to be seen as the cowardly action that it is.” He shuffled slightly, covertly drawing his own device. “It also has its uses in non-lethal combat and various forms of mischief, as your friend has been happy to demonstrate.”
Ronovin carefully extended a hindpaw, using it to gently scratch Pekin’s shoulder. Predictably, Pekin jerked his head over to determine the cause of the offense. His distraction successful, Ronovin quickly ripped the stun gun from Pekin’s paw and tossed it behind him. He then surged forward, driving his own stun gun into Pekin’s chest.
With a startled yip, Pekin recoiled. Ronovin quickly pounced and subdued him.
“See what I mean, pup? You don’t need much power to get the job done.” Ronovin glanced at Chuck, noting his disapproval. With a sigh, he rolled off of the softly grumbling Gaoian and sat beside him. “You picked a good place to fight, Pekin. On this ship, the weaker Gaoian has the advantage.”
Chuck took a seat between them. He turned to Ronovin, laying a hand on his stun gun. “So, was that sign of cowardice too?”
“Well…” Ronovin ducked down sheepishly. “That was intended as a training demonstration.” Pekin let out a short jeer in protest.
Chuck merely nodded, wearing a sly grin. “Still, it looked like you wanted to hurt him. I can’t have you injuring my allies.”
Ronovin chittered grimly. “Relax, Chuck. It wouldn’t have been anything too serious.”
Pekin sighed. “Ronovin, let’s just get this over with. I know you’re going to pounce me as soon as we’re out of his sight. I’d rather do this where Chuck can still smell us.”
Ronovin pant-grinned as he stood. “Come on then, I’ll even let you have first pounce.”
After a deep breath, Pekin leapt from a prone position, landing on Ronovin. The two of them wrestled briefly but, after a depressingly one-sided fight, Ronovin held Pekin pinned.
Pekin was left panting after the exertion. “Are you happy now? I’m not sure how else you expected that to end.”
Ronovin pant-grinned again. “I just had to make sure that you still knew that.”
Suddenly, Ronovin found himself thrust into the air. A powerful limb wrapped itself around his neck and another around his belly. He landed on a hard wall of flesh, limbs pointed uselessly into the air. Without even bothering to struggle, Ronovin sighed as he addressed the assailant. “Yes, Chuck, I know you can beat me. Why don’t you challenge Pekin for a change?”
“Mmmm, nah. He’d put up less of a fight then you.” The unbreakable wall of human beneath him rolled to the side and released him. Ronovin picked himself back up to his hindpaws.
Pekin growled impatiently as he stood. “You know, Chuck, when I hear you say that, I begin to wonder why I’m bothering to help you.”
“Oh, hell, I don’t mean any disrespect.”
Pekin stared disbelievingly at Chuck.
Ronovin interjected. “Humans are obnoxious and disrespectful, get used to it if you want to deal with them.”
Chuck glared at Ronovin.
“Are you really going to make me throw your own words back at you?” Ronovin sighed. “And I thought that I had at least that aspect of human humor handled. The whole ‘mock insult’ thing. Am I incorrect there?”
Chuck grinned as he snorted in amusement. “No, no, you did it perfectly.”
Ronovin took a moment to study Chuck’s body language. “That was sarcasm, wasn’t it?” After Chuck’s non-response, Ronovin gave up. “I’ll just try again later.”
Pekin laid a paw on each of the other two to draw their attention. “As much as I enjoy watching you two play with each other, I believe that it is now time for me to do what I came here for. Shall I install the upgrades now?”
Chuck grinned. “Go for it. I’m not expecting any more guests.”
Pekin picked up his tool bag and left for the bridge.
Once he had left, Chuck turned to Ronovin. “Did you find one?”
Ronovin nodded. “Yes, I did.” He twisted his ears uncertainly. “I’m still not convinced that it’s a good idea to give you access to this type of technology.”
“You wouldn’t be here if you still thought that.”
“Right…” Ronvin paced back and forth. “So, I suppose you are redeeming your favor?”
Chuck smiled. “I’m hoping I don’t have to do that just yet.” The human reached into a bag on the table, extracting a sheathed blade. “This here is one of Bysteel Craftworks’ first products. What do you think?”
Ronovin took the offered blade, unsheathing it. He examined the forelimb length blade. Even though it was nowhere near as heavy as Chuck’s other blades, it was by no means light. He gave it an experimental swing, yelping in shock as the blade nearly dragged him across the room. He took a moment to catch his breath before glancing at Chuck. The human wore a smug grin.
Recomposing himself, Ronovin gave it a few more swings, adapting to the increased inertia with relative ease. He turned back to Chuck. “How?”
“Liquid heavy metals and capillary action. Mostly.”
Ronovin chittered softly and he continued swinging the blade. “This may actually work. You built this yourself?”
Chuck nodded. “I’ve got other sizes if that isn’t acceptable.”
Ronovin held the blade to his eye, admiring the smooth contours before returning the blade to its sheath. “No, I think this is about right.”
“Fusion edged?”
Ronovin tilted his head. “…Now that you mention it…” Chuck pulled out a second blade and handed it to him.
Ronovin unsheathed the second blade. Now this blade was light. He ignited the single fusion edge and gave it a few practice swings before returning it to the table. “I suppose you’ll want to sell these to me?”
Chuck shrugged. “I intended to trade both blades for the package. I figure I should try to keep my favor for something important.”
Ronovin flattened his ears. “That’s not how favors are supposed to work, human.” He sighed as he glanced at the blades on the table. “But I’ll allow it. This time. Call it ‘cultural differences’ or something.”
Chuck shook his head. “No, if that is how it works I’ll call in the favor.”
Ronovin pondered the situation. “I have a better idea. I’ll trade the package for another favor.”
Chuck narrowed his eyes, apparently unsatisfied with the arrangement. “I’m not a fan of owing undefinable debts.”
Ronovin tilted his head. “Do humans not swap favors? I was under the impression that humans frequently traded labor and companionship with close associates.”
“Wait a minute. Are favors just a currency of friendship among Gaoians?”
Ronovin nervously tapped a hindpaw as he thought. “That doesn’t smell quite right… but I can’t find fault with that depiction.”
Chuck snorted in amusement. “Well if this costs me my favor, that’s what I’ll pay.” He shook his head. “It’s your device, you name the price.”
Ronovin thought a moment. As nice as it would be to clear his owed favor, there were other costs at play. Goodwill would also be expended, a currency that he definitely would rather keep. “I’ll accept the trade. Package for blades.”
Chuck looked worried. “Are you sure? I don’t want to screw you over.”
…He could use this. A favor owed could generate good will, even if never spent. Though, he would have to be rather careful with his words. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure we can work something out later.” With that, he bought his ‘favor’ using the currency of the human’s own guilt. A subtle purchase, to be sure. But humans could be very subtle aliens… when they wanted to be.
Still, it would still be a tough sell. He could do more to reinforce the transaction. Recalling Chuck’s vulnerability to Adorable class attacks, he pounced, aiming to land in Chuck’s arms. He curled himself around Chuck’s shoulders, resting his head under Chuck’s chin. Putting on his best ‘cute puppy’ face, he stared wide-eyed at the human.
Surprisingly, Chuck did not respond as expected. He looked confused more than anything else. Hmm, was he developing a tolerance? What else was there that he could do? …Ah, yes. He began licking Chuck’s face, as he had seen in the videos on humanity’s tubes. That seemed to work. Chuck began laughing as he walked over to the couch. As he sat down, Ronovin uncurled himself and laid across Chuck’s chest, not allowing the human a reprieve. Ronovin purred softly as he dug his snout into Chuck’s shoulder. Finally, the human began to relax.
Good, the moment to strike was nigh. “We’ll work out something later, right? You don’t want to make widdle puppy sad, do you Chuck?”
“Of course not.” Chuck chuckled and began scratching between Ronovin’s shoulders. “But, I’m not convinced that any of those words accurately describe you.”
Huh. Rather then the trance-like state of gullibility that he expected, Chuck instead seemed merely content. He took a moment to ponder, licking Chuck’s face again, just for fun. What was different this time? In the Riverclaw Cafe, Chuck had grown frustrated in response to Ronovin’s aggression. Today, he was much more calm and relaxed.
On a whim, he gently nipped the underside of Chuck’s jaw, carefully studying the human’s response. Chuck looked a bit confused, but that reaction appeared to be more out of curiosity than anger or fear. Human body language was not the easiest to read, but Chuck’s response to Ronovin’s provocation was clearly not aggressive. That relatively benign response to Ronovin’s quasi-hostile actions clearly indicated at least some level of trust. …Perhaps Adorable’s power depended on an adverse relationship? He would need to collect more evidence before he could properly challenge that premise.
Chuck had begun working his paws along Ronovin’s spine. Purring softly, Ronovin wriggled himself into a better position to return the favor, not-too-gently kneading the Deathworlder’s absurd shoulder musculature.
It was a bit of a shame that he had likely lost the coercive power of Adorable, but such is the nature of warfare. Weapons are developed and new tools are designed to combat them. In hindsight, the human’s rapid development of a counter was hardly unexpected. But the timeframe? The narcotic effect of Adorable had been in use between humans for years, and yet Chuck developed a tolerance to it after only one event.
He really hoped that Chuck was actually beginning to trust him, and wasn’t merely faking it towards diplomatic ends. With an ever-dwindling toolkit capable of managing the human, soon he would inevitably have to rely completely on favors and guilt to keep the human in line. This was hardly ideal, but only a fool would have thought that controlling a Deathworlder would be easy.
Ronovin growled in pleasure as Chuck untied a spinal knot he didn’t even know he had. A soft chittering sounded from the bridge’s doorway. Ronovin glanced over to see Pekin glancing mirthfully towards him and Chuck. Reluctantly, Ronovin untangled himself from Chuck’s grasp. He stood and walked slowly towards Pekin.
Pekin turned to run, before quickly stopping.
Ronovin pant-grinned maliciously. “Did you just remember that there is nowhere to run on this ship?”
“I… uh… just needed to ask Chuck a question.”
Ronovin pounced, grappling the Ironclaw Associate and dragging him over to Chuck. “I got you something, Chuck. I think it wants to ask you a question.” He gently set Pekin on the ground.
Chuck shook his head. “Pekin, I don’t understand why you allow him to get away with this.”
Pekin glanced up at Ronovin as he stood. “I don’t think the term ‘allow’ accurately describes the situation.”
Ronovin again pounced him flat. “Cub, you’d do the same to me… if you could.”
Pekin growled and tried to roll Ronovin over. Humoring him, Ronovin allowed Pekin his victory. The look on his face was priceless. Ronovin chittered as he ruffled Pekin’s pathetic excuse of a crest. “What was that one proverb you had again, Chuck? Something like ‘true power is restraint’?”
“You? Restrained?” Chuck laughed.
Infuriatingly, Pekin began chittering as well. And he couldn’t even pounce the keeda-damned cub without ruining his point! Mercifully, Pekin soon ceased his outburst and offered Ronovin a paw. As Ronovin looked up at Pekin, he immediately noticed the shrewd, malicious twist in his ears. A subtle flick of one of them in Chuck’s direction made the intention clear. This was a power play. Pekin was trying to taunt him into aggression; The result of which would be a clear victory for the lesser Gaoian.
Ronovin glanced at Chuck. He was watching closely, but Ronovin saw nothing indicating the human’s thoughts. After a brief hesitation, Ronovin took the offered paw as he stood. This whole ‘restraint’ thing really seemed too convoluted to use effectively; or perhaps it was ‘drawing attention to it’ part that had failed him? Hmm, these human strategies were tricky.
Pekin turned to Chuck. “Look at that. Ronovin is so good at his wrestling that he gets to choose the winner of the brawl.”
Oh for Fyu’s sake… Such a smooth combination of smug mockery and submissive diplomacy… There was no path to victory now. Pouncing Pekin would seem crude, as the expected outcome was well understood. Pekin had set it up so that even losing the ensuing brawl would now be seen as excessively domineering. Oh well, if Pekin wanted a war of words, he shall have it. Ronovin bowed his head. “It is an honor to have my false concession complimented by a master practitioner of the true craft.”
Ronovin chittered softly at Pekin’s lack of response. He decided to leave now, before he had a chance to ruin that last impression. “Good doing business with you again, Chuck. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a cub that needs attention. We’ll talk later.” He packed his new blades and returned to his shuttle without uttering another word.
1y9m2w BV
Carpe Aeternum, Gao Orbit
Ironclaw Associate Pekin
Pekin was just finishing the setup of the holographic display when Chuck entered the bridge. He glanced over towards the human. “Finished stowing your ‘package’? What did you buy from him?”
“I’ll show you soon enough.” Chuck raised one of his eye’s furry brows. “Didn’t you have a question for me?”
Pekin perked an ear. “What? Oh, no. I merely heard you two playing over there and decided to observe.”
Chuck chuckled. “Ronovin doesn’t like spectators.”
“So I’ve seen.” He sighed. “I suppose I’ll never know what he finds so… enthralling.”
Chuck shrugged. “Not necessarily true.”
Curious, Pekin walked over to Chuck. “What could you possibly mean by that?”
Chuck eyed him up and down with a deeply terrifying predator’s gaze. “You’re favoring your right leg. May I?”
Pekin found himself agreeing without conscious thought. Somehow his curiosity had overwhelmed his survival instincts and he found himself on the floor before he had a chance to properly consider the question.
Chuck lay down beside him and grasped his hindlimb firmly. Pekin instinctively twitched his leg, attempting to rip it from the human’s grasp. But Chuck held tight, carefully immobilizing the leg without crushing it. “Every Gaoian I’ve met seems to have that same instinct. It’ll take a while to work around that. Let me see here…”
Chuck ran his paw along each of the muscle groups until he found one that satisfied him. The human began roughly squeezing and pulling his limb. Pekin resisted the urge to pull his limb free, knowing that the effort was futile and could only result in something worse happening. Confusingly, the terrifying contortions that the human inflicted upon him didn’t hurt as much as expected.
Pekin watched, intrigued. How could such violent actions not induce pain? “What are you doing?”
“You have something out of place. I’m not quite sure what, but I’ve been around Gaoians enough to know how your leg is supposed to fit together. Just give me a… There.” After one final fold, Chuck stood up and offered Pekin a paw.
Pekin accepted the paw and Chuck effortlessly pulled him uptight. He didn’t notice anything different… until he tried to take a step. “What…” He hopped around a bit. There was something deeply disconcerting about suddenly having just slightly more mobility in one of his joints. He awkwardly hobbled around, his usual gait no longer fitting his legs. “Keeda’s nuts, I can tell that this is definitely better-”
“…But you’re going to have trouble walking for a while.” Chuck waved a paw as he completed the statement.
Pekin thought for a moment. “Is there something wrong with my other hindlimb?”
“I don’t think so.” Chuck had already kneeled and began prodding his other leg. “Nope, you’re just used to walking with mismatched limbs.”
“Mismatched…” Pekin really felt like he should feel insulted by such a comment. But Chuck was not only correct, he had also -hopefully- addressed the concern.
“I’m surprised that your doctors didn’t catch that.”
“Ah… yes. I may have… neglected to visit one recently.”
Chuck chuckled. “I’ve got nothing to brag about there. I’m just as bad.”
Pekin chittered softly. “Well, thank you.” He hobbled over to the pilot’s seat, pondering as he walked. “That’s it, isn’t it? That brute spends all of his time tearing himself apart and relies on you to put him back together.”
Chuck shrugged. “Close enough. We’re also just good friends.”
Pekin’s ears fell. It was true that he couldn’t easily hope to match the rapport that Ronovin enjoyed, but still, hearing that implied dismissal hurt. He mentally bit his own tail as he realized that his disappointment seemed limited to the professional advantages that the Whitecrest operative currently held. Sure, he’d have to work on that, for the sake of both Ironclaw and his own prospects. But Chuck was a person too, and people were often more willing to negotiate if they shared a strong personal relationship with the other party.
…That was still a professional justification. Pekin sighed and shook his head, he’d have to sort this out later. “Moving on…” He made a few gestures, causing the ship to disappear from view.
Chuck yelped in surprise as he stumbled to the floor.
Pekin quickly disengaged the system. “Are you ok… friend?”
“Yeah, you just startled me, turn that back on.” Chuck rolled himself up into a sitting position as Pekin re-engaged the hologram. “So this is the holo-system?”
Pekin duck-nodded. He waved a paw towards where his own ship was visible a several meters away. “Impressed?”
Chuck nodded slowly. “Is this real?”
Pekin perked an ear. “If I understand your question, no. It’s a hologram constructed from the ship’s external cameras.”
“Can I access this from anywhere on the ship?”
“No… that would entail… a massive hardware installation project. It is only available in the bridge.” With a quick adjustment to the system, a wireframe outline of the Carpe Aeternum appeared. “And here is the requested wireframe model.”
“Nice.”
“Now Chuck, as I said earlier, this could just have easily been configured remotely. I still don’t know why you insisted that his operation be performed on site.”
“I have my reasons.” The human replied cryptically.
With a sigh, Pekin continued. “Anything that concerns me?”
Chuck paused a moment before answering. “No, not yet, at least.”
Even though Chuck seemed sincere, something was clearly amiss. There was something happening, something the human didn’t want him to know. After a short internal debate, he decided to simply let it run its course. For now, at least.
“How difficult would it be to install a hydroponics station in the cargo hold?” Chuck asked.
Pekin tilted his head. Another request. Another action that could have been performed from the comfort of his office. “Not overly difficult. Misha will grow fairly well in a ship like this. Cqcq would do fine as well.”
Chuck paused again. “I was thinking of trying to grow terran crops.”
Pekin’s jaw dropped. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
Chuck shrugged. “A little.”
Pekins focused his gaze on Chuck. “It would be imperative that those species were kept completely isolated from… well everything. You’d need to build an isolated room with a biofilter field enveloping the whole enclosure!”
Chuck grinned. “So, can you do it?”
Pekin realized that his jaw had been hanging open again and quickly closed it. “Yes… but it won’t be cheap.”
“I’m sure we can work something out.” Chuck smiled.
Pekin didn’t immediately respond. After a few minutes spent considering the challenges that such a room might face, he nodded. “An interesting challenge, to be sure. I would imagine that much could be learned in the process of creating such a system. Principles that should prove rather useful as your species takes to the stars.” He turned to Chuck. “I’ll need a few weeks to prepare, but the installation should take less than a day once I have the parts ready.”
“Before you depart…” Chuck held out the stun gun that he had lent to Pekin earlier. “This is yours if you want it.”
Pekin considered for a moment, before nodding and placing the weapon in one of his pouches. “Thank you.”
“Hell, you’ve done a lot more than that for me.”
Peking involuntarily twitched an ear in response. “Is there anything else you need from me before I leave?”
Chuck shook his head. “Not this moment. I’ll see you again soon.”
With that, Chuck departed the bridge, leaving Pekin to clean up his tools. This meeting left him rather disappointed. When Chuck had asked for this meeting in person, Pekin had assumed that the human had intended to discuss something rather more important than a small new project. With a sigh, Pekin returned to his shuttle and departed for Gao.
He had just set the shuttle to autopilot for the final approach, when a voice startled him from behind.
“Hello again, Pekin.”
Pekin turned, seeing nothing. “Chuck? Where are you?” He stepped out of the seat and moved back into the ship. “Why are you here?”
“I’m fairly certain that Whitecrest listens to the conversations aboard my ship. I don’t necessarily care for them to know about all of my business dealings.” Chuck pulled back a hood, his head floating in the air a few feet above one of the rear seats.
Well, it seemed that his earlier predictions were indeed correct. That counts for… something… probably. Remembering Chuck’s earlier business, Pekin perked an ear. “Are you hiding from Whitecrest using their own technology?”
Chuck shrugged. “Maybe a little. But a number of Gaoians went through a lot of trouble to keep my presence on Gao a secret. I figured I’d at least do my part.”
Pekin duck-nodded. “So, what did you want to discuss?”
Chuck glanced around. “Do you have a privacy field? Can’t be too safe.”
“Not here, but I do in my office.” Pekin’s ears twisted in concern as he put a paw to his face. “…I’m going to have to have to sneak you into the factory, aren’t I?”
Chuck smiled as he donned his hood. “It shouldn’t be too hard. Lead the way.”
1y9m2w
Training room, Whitecrest Clan Enclave, Wi Kao, Gao
Milt
The instruction had been relentless. Every day, Ronovin dragged Milt over to his training grounds. Some days were spent performing exercises with Ronovin’s special ops trainees, but most of the sessions were held after normal hours. This suited Milt fine, as he was already working his balls off trying to finish the work he was supposed to be doing during the daytime sessions.
Surprisingly, Ronovin proved to be a skilled, if perhaps brutal, instructor. Milt learned more during his time with Ronovin than he had during his training for the first trials!
He was surprised at how little emphasis was placed on the combat maneuvers themselves. Everything was about ambushes and positioning, stealth and speed. Most fights were over before they began, if your ambush was any good. No actual combat would ever happen unless you fucked up the ambush. This made sense; Surprise was always an excellent weapon.
But Ronovin took it so much further. He taught methods of disengaging from combat to re-enter a hidden state, and theoretical methods of employing a second ambush. Surprising someone who knew you were there? A difficult task, for sure, but not quite impossible. In fact, Milt was pretty sure he had seen Chuck do just that in the Rrrrtk’s shop. But, that was not why he was here today.
Milt shuffled nervously as he glanced around the room. Today was supposed to be Milt’s first real sniff of combatives. Ronovin had directed him to stand right here, the position marked with a pair of crossed lines painted onto the padded floor. The room was quiet, the only sound coming from the gentle hum of the privacy field covering the left wall of the room.
Several minutes passed by, the silence doing nothing to calm Milt’s nerves. Suddenly, movement; The privacy wall had dropped. He turned his head to see a high-velocity Gaoian rapidly approaching at chest level, hindlimbs coiled in front of him. “Sniper, get down!” He growled. Before Milt even had a chance to yelp, the Gaoian made contact, throwing Milt across the room with a forceful kick.