6y 9m 0w 2d BV
The Lost Minstrel dropped from FTL near the planet Madoro. John was at his usual seat at the nav unit with Regalo manning (Gaoing?) the coms. Vanima had taken to sitting on the captain’s chair and watching the stars drift by on their window. I remember being just like my first time on a spaceship looking out the window, John reminisced as he looked to the Qinis. They had dropped out just off of the planet’s moon. John accelerated and took them in close.
“This is The Lost Minstrel contacting Madoro control tower please respond.”
“This is Madoro control tower, we read you The Lost Minstrel. Please send over standard documentation and ship specs.” Regalo tapped away at the terminal. There was a brief pause before the control tower responded.
“Ship The Lost Minstrel you have clearance for planet side and space station hangar, please clarify which platform you will be docking at.”
“The Lost Minstrel to Madoro control tower we will be landing planet side.” John’s nav unit beeped as it received the coordinates for the planet side platform. Vanima rose from the captain’s chair and sat at the scanner as John broke atmosphere.
“We’re on a class 8 world and there are 8 cities and the coordinates they gave us are at the capital.” John and Regalo looked at their medic in awe. Vanima simply responded with an amused and slightly smug look. “I have no idea how to read details like its atmosphere composition and gravity, but at least I can read its classification and development level.” They kept looking at her in bewilderment. Vanima rolled her eyes and walked back to the captain’s chair.
Soon they passed the clouds and could see the land below. Vanima quickly rushed to the window, almost pressing herself against it. The men chuckled at her moment of childlike innocence. Man I remember the first time I saw an alien planet, John thought as he set the autopilot to take them to the coordinates and joined her. The planet below had dense forests but the trees were pitifully quaint compared to Sefsek’s. The leaves of the trees were a shimmering orange as the wind gently caressed the foliage. It’s like the whole forest’s on fire. John looked at Vanima’s innocent awe and chuckled as he returned to the nav unit and kicked his feet up on the terminal. They waited in silence for an hour as Vanima gaped at the scenery and the men simply relaxed at their terminals. Soon the ship informed John that they had arrived at the capital. John walked up to the window and watched. Unlike the Qinis, the Celzi preferred a more urban environment, with their city resembling Manhattan. Their equivalent of central park was a jungle of trees with green leaves. The ship gracefully landed in a hanger.
“Alright I’ll go deal with the docking crew. Regalo, could you check up on the primary reactor? It’s having trouble shutting off and linking to the city’s grid,” John informed the Gaoian as the human rose up. Regalo got up from his terminal and left the bridge in a hurry.
“What should I do?” asked Vanima.
John stopped in his tracks and contemplated a suitable job for Vanima.
“Actually Vanima, come with me. You’re a lot more eloquent and knowledgeable about the Celzi than I am, so if you feel like I’m doing something dumb just hit me.” Vanima rolled her eyes and smiled at the human as they walked out onto the hangar platform.
Sweet Jesus, Mary n’ Joseph what the fuck! No. Nope. We’re leaving. Will not deal with space swamp monsters. Fuck that. Fuck this. Fuck you. John was met by a small group orangutans with abnormally long upper bodies with skin, if you can even call it that, made of some green mossy thing. They had four golden eyes pointed in each cardinal direction. Oh God you can’t even escape their eyes. He felt Vanima’s hand on his back and reminded himself. I am literal death and the space swamp monsters can’t hurt me. He repeated the mantra in his mind as the knot of fear loosened.
“Are you Shipmaster John Ash?” one of the swamp monsters asked. John nodded and the Celzi handed him a data pad. “Please select which of our services you’d like to purchase. We are from a private corporation, so if you do not have any Celzi Alliance tender then we accept Dominion Credits and Dominion Credits only. We recommend that you exchange your Dominion Credits for Madoro tender,” he(?) mechanically recited as John looked over the all the options.
Ok I know the ship needs a degaussing and a nutrient sphere replenishing. I can tack on some waste removal too…
“Don’t forget to ask for a hull check,” Vanima whispered to John. John tapped away at the options and the total came down to 40 DCs. Well we’re down to 162 DCs. John handed the tablet back to the maintenance crew just as Regalo exited the ship.
“Alright my faithful and loyal crew I have a number of things I wish to procure for our mighty and loving ship so Vanima uh… you come from a rich family right?” Vanima looked to John with narrowed eyes as she pieced together what John was about to ask.
“Yes I am. I managed to withdraw from my account around 8000 Mirons before my father froze them because I left.” She answered. The blank looks of her friends prompted her to elaborate. “So in terms of DCs it would be around 600? Give or take 10 DCs.” The men’s jaw gaped at the amount.
Holy shit! That’s more money than I ever had! Goddamn Vanima!
“What? Is that a lot?”
“Yes Vanima that is very much a lot of money! We could get all of the planned modifications for the ship with 762 DCs!” Regalo exclaimed as they began to walk out of the hangar.
“Yeah!… What modifications are we getting again?” John asked as he tried to remember the long list of things they had skipped out on because of all the redundancy John insisted was necessary. Regalo rolled his eyes.
“We need a nanofactory-”
“Nanoforge,” John interrupted. Whoever named it nanofactory needs to be shot for passing up on nanoforge.
“-A shuttle, and some stasis pods,” He finished listing.
Vanima looked down at Regalo and asked, “What do you mean by a shuttle? Is the ship not enough?”
“Well John wants to explore deathworlds, and he won’t land the ship, so he’ll go in a one man shuttle while we stay in orbit,” Regalo explained. Now it was Vanima’s turn to gape at them.
“Why would you want to VISIT deathworlds?” They had exited the hangar now and Regalo led them to the shipyard next door to place in their shuttle design order as well as other ship modifications.
“Why not! I want to see other deathworlds. I want to see alien life that won’t explode if I punch them and that evolved on gravity that’s actually comfortable for me,” John explained. Regalo gave Vanima a you-can’t-talk-him-out-of-this-I’ve-tried look. Vanima sighed at the human’s borderline suicidal curiosity.
“So Regalo, about the nanoforge. I want to use it to build a badass sword.” Regalo looked to John with his ears perked up and the human elaborated. “Well if I’m going to be visiting deathworlds I’ll need to be armed and the laser guns are useless.” Regalo was about to correct John that the guns used were called pulse pistols and didn’t use lasers, but thought better of it. Vanima slowly shook her head at her captain’s lunacy as they entered the terrestrial shipyard. The shipyard was unlike anything John had seen in the sci-fi movies. It was just a large room with a counter tucked away in the bottom right corner. Regalo strode over to the counter with both of them in tow. The Celzi at the counter didn’t even turn to look at them for an eye was already on the crew.
“Hello welcome to the shipyard…” the Celzi sighed. And here we have exhibited A for why we have a suicide watch. “How may I help you…” Jesus now I’m a little depressed.
“We would like to design a one man shuttle,” Regalo answered, ignoring the Celzi’s extreme apathy. The Celzi tapped away at an unseen terminal behind the counter and a squat box rose from the floor next to the counter.
“Please design your ship at the terminal. The costs will be calculated at the end of the design stage. Your shuttle will be complete in 1-4 days,” he mechanically recited. Seriously just stop it now I almost don’t want to make the shuttle… almost anyway.
John giddily walked to the terminal. Regalo began watching John like a hawk, curious as to what a deathworlder would consider a ship, and Vanima pulled out her notebook, ready to jot down possible hypothesis about deathworld psychology.
John tapped at the materials that he wanted to build the ship out of. He selected a premade design labeled Antique Craft that vaguely resembled a weirdly large typhoon fighter jet minus the guns and safety. John fiddled with the design; mimicking the fighter jet he watched a documentary about back on earth. And they said memorising music pieces is useless. WELL LOOK WHO’S LAUGHING NOW MALCOM YOU PIECE OF SHIT. NOT THIS GUY BECAUSE HE CAN REMEMBER WHAT A HURRICANE JET LOOKS LIKE. Was it called a hurricane jet? Tornado jet? Monsoon jet! No… Typhoon? Fuck it who cares I know what it looks like. He thought as he swapped out the material of the ship’s shell to aluminium.
“Why did you pick that design? You could just use shaped shields to be aerodynamic. It leaves a lot more room for things. This shuttle could easily fit in the cargo hold. Why don’t you make it bigger?” Vanima told John and Regalo sighed.
“Yeah but what if the shields fail,” John retorted.
“Why would the shields fail?”
“I don’t know, but if they do then I want to be in something that’s more aerodynamic than a brick,” He told her as he modified the interior. He chose the same nav terminal system as the one in The Lost Minstrel. He stripped away all of the scanners and other electronics save for a small coms system, leaving him much more room for his other modifications. He could hear Vanima scribble away in her notebook as John chose some relatively fast kinetic thrusters. He added some to the underside of the ship so he could land and take off vertically along with some landing gear. He replaced a lot of the steel around the cockpit with a dense clear polymer. He added 4 stasis chambers in the belly of the shuttle along with a large reactor for a ship of its size. His final addition was an FTL system, which prompted weird looks from his friends.
“Well instead of spending more money on getting space life rafts, we could just use the shuttle, and if I’m reading this correctly this drive should give us a solid 45 kilolights, 60 if we don’t care about the reactor exploding later.” Vanima nodded along with the response as she saw the sense in their captain’s reasoning.
John looked at the total cost of the ship and paled then he looked to Vanima. The Qinis looked over his shoulder and looked to the price. “Hmm… This will cost around 6660 Mirons. I mean I am indeed willing to spend money on this. It’d be good data to see how John’s body reacts to a habitat similar to Earth,” she said as she tapped out on the terminal her payment details and which ship to deliver the shuttle to.
“Oh John what do you want to name this one? It’s FTL capable so it needs a name.” John scratched his beard as he thought up of a name.
“Hmm… How about Prestissimo?”
Vanima shrugged and let John type in the name. She confirmed the order and the giant hangar buzzed as the nanofactory set to building the shuttle.
“Alright the ship should be done by tomorrow. So what do we do for the rest of the day,” she asked as she turned to the men. “Well now my sweet Vanima, we do what we do best,” Regalo told her.
“We hit up some random bar and play music.” John grinned, unsettling the Qinis. John quickly closed his mouth, hiding his teeth. Right shit, teeth means I’m gonna eat ya in alien.
The trio returned to The Lost Minstrel and simply relaxed in the common room. Vanima had managed to integrate herself in the ritualistic rhythm of the men. She sat with John watching the news, now that they were connected to a system net, and explained the events. Regalo was sitting between them, engrossed in writing something John could only guess at.
“So I get that the Celzi Alliance is fighting the Dominion against some legislation saying that you need to buy planets from the Dominion, but no one ever said why they’re fighting against that legislation,” He told her as he stretched out his legs. Vanima tapped her finger on her chin as she organized an answer.
“Well the Celzi are fighting to implement militaristic expansion in terms of how colonization goes. Why they’re doing that is simple. They are the best military tacticians in the galaxy. The Celzi evolved on a planet with an ambush predator called Cruezz, so they’re practically wired to spot traps and they make incredible soldiers. The way their eyes are positioned leaves the only blind spot right on top of them. Their strength isn’t exactly on par with, say, a Locayl’s, but they make up for it with their agility. Before you the Celzi were arguably the best soldiers the galaxy had in terms of a fighting force. So when you’re the best at something you want a system that plays to your strength. That’s why the Celzi want militaristic expansion to be the policy for colonization,” she explained as the news reported more success along the front line as the Dominion push inwards was finally halted and receding from overstretched supply lines. John nodded at Vanima’s explanation then asked:
“Why are the Qinis part of the Alliance? I mean no offense but you guys look flimsy as all hell.”
“Well if the Celzi get their way then the Qinis can just mine away the entire galaxy without restriction. My father runs one of the largest asteroid mining conglomerates in the Alliance. If the Celzi Alliance wins this war then it’ll let my father’s company mine asteroid belts without needing to ask anyone or secure mining rights. The Qinis would essentially bankrupt all other manufacturing races because of just how good we are at it. Give us a few hundred years and we’ll be the best but the Guvnurag have us beat at the moment,” she elaborated as John intently listened to her. Regalo was contently typing away at his pad, occasionally stopping to scratch his chin. “Well now that you know my species exists what have you found out so far? I mean I’ve been sitting in that scanner so long I’m pretty sure I have an ass print on the chair.” Vanima rolled her eyes at John’s crass humor.
“Well I’m sure you know this, but if your species were to join this war the side you join wins. I’m not sure how to tell you but your species literally thinks faster than the rest of us. Your neurons are coated with some sort of insulator.” John raised a hand, stopping Vanima mid explanation.
“I’m gonna stop you there and tell you to explain this to me like I’m a child.”
Vanima rolled her eyes and continued.
“Alright then a neuron sends signals by electric pulses. Now an average sapients’ neural pathways has to travel all the way down the pathway to be passed on to the next one. Gaoians have some of this stuff as well as Celzi but not even remotely to the extent you do. Your brain is different it’s practically covered in the stuff. Every neural pathway is covered with this insulator while the Gaoians and Celzi only have this on their spinal column. This stuff allows your electric nerve pulses to skip up and down the pathways as opposed to walk all the way, do you understand me?”
John nodded as the information sunk in. He leaned back in the couch. Regalo leaned against him and John reflexively wrapped his arm around the Gaoian. Well shit son. I’m like Captain America to these people, he thought as he watched the Celzi news. Regalo eventually rose from the couch and began preparing them lunch as the news went to the general state of the Celzi, including recent Hunter attacks and where they were.
“So Vanima, where do the Hunters come from?”
Vanima tapped her finger against her chin as she tried to remember if there was an answer.
“As far as I’m aware we just don’t know. The Hunters have just always been there.”
John nodded. They must be a super old race if they’ve been there since everyone can remember but they had to come from somewhere. I’m gonna be really pissed off if they turn out to be like… The Elder Race of our galaxy… Well look on the bright side John. You can throw up on the bastards and melt them. He chuckled to himself, eliciting an odd look from Vanima.
“When humans get FTL you bet your ass we’re gonna hunt the Hunters.”
“Lunch is almost ready you two!” Regalo called out from the kitchen. The pair rose up and set the table as Regalo set out their meal. They ate in contented silence. Regalo and John wolfed their last bits of goro root stew whilst Vanima ate with composed gusto. John and Regalo rose from the table and quickly did the dishes as Vanima sat there confused. Once the boys were done they looked to Vanima.
“Alright Vanima, while I go get my violin and decide on what I’m gonna play I want you guys to find the most crowded public place there is,” He instructed them as he left the common room.
Vanima was confused. What do you mean find somewhere public? Do they not have a plan?
“Wait, do you guys not research areas with auditions and perform there? I mean you two came just in time for the Festival of Beauty, so I thought there would be some sort of performance audition here,” she told Regalo. Regalo chittered heartily as he tapped away on his coms. A 3D projection of the city’s layout appeared on the kitchen table.
“No, the ship name is more than just fanciful poetry it is quite a literal name. We arrived at Sefsek by complete accident as you know, and although we arrived here voluntarily we have no idea what current performances are on. We only auditioned for the festival because some Qinis official was convinced we were celebrities. We’re playing this by ear as John would say,” Regalo replied as he scanned the map for open areas like markets or high streets. Vanima looked at the map and pointed to the park.
“Why don’t we have him perform there? It’s an open area and there are bound to be a lot of people there. We could even sell tickets to a professional and grand performance,” Vanima suggested. Regalo simply looked at Vanima for a moment.
“You are much better than us at this clearly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what John and I would have done is just go to a restaurant and sign on as a performer and that’s it. One time we just went to a random one and performed then left.”
Vanima sighed exasperatedly at the men’s method. It really is fortunate John plays so well. They probably would’ve gone to the army or something with John’s strength to earn their meals.
“Regalo how about you let me organize concerts and performances. You two seem to have a lack of… showmanship.” Regalo chittered slightly at Vanima.
“Alright while you do that I’m going to see the nanofactory and get some repairs done on the ship,” he informed her as he rose and walked down a hallway to the inner workings of The Lost Minstrel.
Alright if we’re going to be performing in the park then we’ll need a podium of sorts or at least. We’ll need a speaker to project the music through the area clearly or the wind will just sweep up John’s violin. We have a concert hall here but it’s just 50 people. We’ll need to advertise with the park performance and sell tickets just after it. Hmm when would the performance have to be? We could do it a week from now… A week will give them enough time to prepare for it and spread word. I’ll need to print out tickets from the nanofactory. Location, date, and performer, she thought as she walked down the hallway looking for Regalo.
The underbelly of The Lost Minstrel was a vastly different from the rest. Pipes and cords adorned the walls and ceiling. Where the rest of the ship was sparse and comfortable the hallways were cramped and small. Vanima had to duck a little to even be able to fit in the hallway. It was a confusing maze but she managed to follow the faint sound of Regalo’s feet scuffing against the floor resounding through the silent hallways. The scuffing stopped for a moment so she followed the general direction it had come from. She found Regalo tinkering with the control panel of a machine. The Gaoian turned to Vanima and waved before resuming his tinkering.
“I’m adding a password to the nanofactory so John can’t access it, and I’ve just come up with the most deceitful password,” he proudly announced. “You see John will expect a long and complicated password, but the password is the word password. How ingenious is that! He’ll never think that the password is the word itself!” He smugly finished as he tapped the terminal fondly. “So what can I help with?”
“I need you to make some tickets for a performance.” Regalo nodded and tapped on the terminal.
“Plastic ok?”
“Yes please could you engrave on it that John is performing on the ship The Lost Minstrel and set the date for the performance a week from now and make 50 copies of them,” Vanima instructed him. Regalo dutifully tapped away at the terminal and the nanofactory began spitting out small dull grey plastic rectangles with something engraved on it in the standard alphabet the translators used. She collected the 50 cards and carefully carried them back to the common room. Once there she looked through the pantry of the kitchen and got a box to hold and sell the cards in. John returned to the common room with his violin case strapped on his back just as Regalo exited from the hallway.
“Wonderful you’re both here! Now, we’re going to the park, and John will be performing. Regalo, you will be advertising to the local park goers that I am selling tickets for a performance a week from now,” She ordered them. Vanima stunned the men with her authoritative tone and they hurried after her as she marched out of the room.
They marched in silence out of the ship and to the park. Vanima looked to the city around her in concealed amazement. The buildings are so tall! There are people everywhere and no one cares that I am not walking with slow grace and delicacy! They don’t care that I’m short for a Qinis. This is the best experience ever! Is this how John feels every time he visits a new planet? I’ll need to ask him later. The architecture here is so different from home though. Everything is functional, not a scrap of decoration. My word I really have stepped onto an alien world. There’s no beautiful organic curves, no attempts to blend the buildings in with the forest just big ugly rectangles of steel and glass. It’s like the Unmentionable district, ugly and droll.
They arrived at the park and Vanima decided to walk at a slower pace to drink in the sights.
The trees were tall and had thick black bark. Green moss decorated the trunks of the ancient giants, only the bottoms of the tree spared from the green coating. Vines and leaves were festooned along the branches. A multitude of flowers filled the air with their delicate aroma. Her mouth watered at the sweet taste of such scents.
“Alright how are you two holding up?” she asked as she turned around. Both John and Regalo were panting and in varying degrees or exertion.
“Could you please… not… walk so fucking… fast,” John panted. Regalo avidly agreed with John’s sentiment.
“I can understand if Regalo was exhausted, but how are you tired John?”
“When I breathe it doesn’t feel like it’s enough.”
Of course! His oxygen intake is a lot higher than ours how could I forget! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I was so obsessed with the park performance I forgot how thin this air must be to John. Vanima quickly rushed to her friend’s side and ran him through breathing exercises she had developed in the event the atmosphere couldn’t accommodate John’s voracious need for oxygen. She rubbed John’s back as he took deep breaths and exhaled small ones.
“Oh no please I’m quite alright,’ Regalo sarcastically said as he regained his breath.
“Well this oxygen level should be fine for you, but John needs about 5 times the oxygen intake you do.”
Regalo’s ears flattened in shock and fear and he quickly clutched John’s hand. The human finally managed to catch his breath.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. If I could fight Hunters in this kind of oxygen level thing then I can play. Now come on, we have a park performance to do,” he declared as he strode forward, panting ever so slightly he made it to the main square of the park. A large ornate fountain, clearly of Qinis design, dominated the center. The marble was intricately patterned and inlaid with gold leaf.
John stood at the fountain and opened his violin case. Not many Celzi turned to look at John, but it was always hard to tell where a Celzi’s focus was.
Vanima quickly walked up and sat on a bench near the fountain with her box of tickets. John turned on his speaker and began playing. The piece that played was unlike any of the previous ones Vanima had heard before. While the others were most certainly written solely for the instrument, this felt more like a song than an instrumental piece. It was slow and deep at first. She tried to imagine a male Qinis singing it but it just felt wrong. Like a Qinis would be so open about how they felt. She then imagined the next best thing, John. She imagined the human singing in a deep voice. When the higher part came in a female human entered the scene. Vanima had always imagined female humans to look similar to Qinis but shorter and stockier. The fictitious female had long golden locks that seemed to be made of sunlight and a green shimmering dress. Together the fictional humans sang and danced across the plains of Vanima’s imagination.
She was interrupted from her reverie by a Celzi couple.
“The Gaoian over there told us you are selling tickets for his performance? My mate and I very much liked this song and would like to see more.” Vanima nodded and smiled at the couple. She sold them the tickets and more came to line up until the Qinis had run out of seats, leaving many Celzi angry. John had finished his piece and started to pack away his violin as Regalo returned.
“Man that was pretty cool. I haven’t busked since I was in London,” John sighed contently as he strapped the case to his back.
“That was a good piece too. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one before,” Regalo told him as he scratched his chin.
“Well yeah I’ve got around 10 books of sheet music in here. Haven’t you wondered why my case was so thick and large for an instrument so small?”
Regalo cocked his head to the side and conceded the point to John.
“John, what exactly was that piece?” Vanima asked as the trio left 50 satisfied Celzi with their tickets and many more unsatisfied. “Well it’s called For the Dancing and the Dreaming. It was originally a duet song meant for a couple, but the version I played was for the violin.”
I knew it!
“Ah so it is a mating song amongst your species,” Regalo commented. The human turned an odd crimson.
“Uhh… yeah I guess you could say that…” he mumbled.
Note to self: Mating seems to be an intensely awkward action for humans from John’s reaction.
They walked through the park at a leisurely pace. John and Regalo idly talked about how the trees reminded him of a place called Amazon. Vanima walked in a comfortable silence, intently listening to the description of John’s planet.
“Ah, so your planet is a jungle planet,” Regalo nodded along as they walked.
“Well no. Jungle is just one of the ecosystems we have. Like we have deserts, mountains, deep oceans, even in our volcanoes there’s life… I think, not too sure on the last one but I heard there were bacteria there,” he explained. The aliens were shocked at the sheer diversity of habitats on the planet.
“And there is life in each of these habitats?” Vanima asked as she pulled out her pocket notebook and miniature pen.
“Well of course there is! I mean there is life in every corner. You can’t sneeze without bumping into some form of life,”
Regalo chittered causing the pair to look at him.
“For a deathworld, it’s surprisingly alive isn’t it,” the Gaoian chittered. They shared a hearty laugh as they walked out of the park. They navigated the streets of the city in content silence. John’s shoulder’s were slumped and his gait relaxed as his steps flowed forth like a placid stream and Regalo was gently swaying side to side as he meandered alongside. Vanima still walked with her back arched and posture impeccable.
Oh to be as free as they are. It must be nice to not care how sloppy you look, She thought as they made it to the ship. The crew silently returned to the common room. Vanima took her place at the couch and Regalo sat beside her in the middle. John had deposited his violin case on his seat and slowly walked towards the maintenance hallway.
“I’m just uh… gonna… lookatthenanoforgebye!” and with that the human scarpered out of the room down the hallway, resounding thuds marking each step.
Regalo smugly smiled at Vanima.
“Now, my dear friend, we will see my cunning password trump John.”
John never liked the maintenance underbelly of The Lost Minstrel. It wasn’t large and open like the concert hall of the ship or any other part of the ship really. The normally almost silent hum of the generator became almost painfully loud as John took a wrong turn in the maze like maintenance tunnels and entered the reactor room. It was turn after turn, reaching dead end after dead end until John roared into the hallways.
“Goddamn it Regalo where the fuck did you hide the nanoforge! I want my badass sword you fucking raccoon!”
John stalked the halls for what felt like hours, ending up at hundreds of dead and various alien terminals that controlled unknown aspects of the ship, until he reached his Island of the Blessed. There it stood on a small raised platform. The Nanoforge… John approached his holy grail and knelt before it.
I would like to thank God for giving me the opportunity to make the most badass sword in existence. I would like to thank mom and dad for starting me on the violin and Madame Yuki for teaching me. I would also like to thank the dead Corti assholes who abducted me on new years day, because let’s face it: I’m having so much fun in space.
John reverently approached the terminal. He looked upon the small computing tower with the touch screen. Oh sweet Jesus yes. I’m gonna be a space knight. John clicked the terminal on and was asked for a password. Regalo you password protected it how dare you! Uhh shit what would Regalo put down as a password… Gao? A denied screen popped up at the suggestion. Fuck. Gorai? Another denied screen. Gaoian. Denied. Starships. Denied. Sexy Gaoian Gal? Still denied. Fuck… Password?… John half heartedly tried. The machine whirred for a second before a green password screen popped. Oh my fucking God are you screwing with me. I’m gonna need to teach you cyber security buddy, he thought as he selected a tool option. Hmm… ooooh a weapons category? Pulse pistol shell, pulse rifle shell, anti-tank rifle shell? Oh sweet mother Mary I have found it. Plasma sword. I lack the emotional faculties to cope with how awesome this is. This is for you 10 year old John, you glorious bastard you.
John designed the sword after the Italian long sword he remembered from his knight obsessed youth. He put the activation switch in the hilt and pressed enter. It took a good half hour for the sword to come out. John took it in his hand. His breath caught in his mouth as he held the sword aloft. His thumb clicked the on button and it faintly hummed as the edge of the blade glowed a molten orange. Thank you Lord…
John turned off the edge and crafted a plastic sheath for his blade. Pulse pistols didn’t do shit against me, so they won’t do shit against deathworlder species I meet, so a sword was the right thing to make, he thought as he tried to come up with ways to justify his actions to the rest of the crew.
He arrived back at the common room.
“Well John have you giv-” Regalo stopped mid sentence as John drew his sword from his sheath. The aliens gasped as John activated the edge.
“But but but how! How could you figure out my ingenious password!”
“Come on dude, seriously? That password is a huge cyber security no no. A good password isn’t the word password,” John chuckled as he deactivated the blade and replaced it in its sheath.
“Why did you even want this sword? We could have just armed you with pulse rifles,” Vanima told John.
“Uhh… Well this sword is for when I visit deathworlds and the inhabitants of said deathworld do not turn out friendly. Pulse pistols don’t really damage me that much and I don’t know about you, but a sharp hot edge will do plenty damage to me.” They slowly nodded along as they say John’s logic. Yes! They bought it. Regalo rose from the couch.
“You make a fair point John. I hadn’t thought of you using the sword like that. Although you’ve been in there so long it’s the end day meal time!” the Gaoian chittered as he went to the kitchen to cook a hearty meal. John sat on the couch next to Vanima and admired his sword.
“Y’know Vanima a good sword like this needs a name.”
“It does?”
“It does.”
Vanima tapped her chin with a finger as she pondered a name for the blade.
“How’s plasma sword?”
“That’s a bit… unimaginative?”
“How about Guardian?” Regalo suggested from the kitchen.
Well… It is meant to protect me from deathworld species…. Yeah that’s a good name.
“Yeah, Guardian. I like that. Good pick Regalo!”
“I try my best.”
John drew out his sword and held it aloft for all the galaxy to see.
“To better days and easy travel!”
Vanima quietly giggled as Regalo shook his head in the kitchen.