《Vapid Recourse》


 The Prologue

    In 2180, a collaborative research project, known as Pana, between the University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas, and the University of California-Berkeley, created the nanites Panacea. An end-all cure-all for every ailment, even, up to a point, age.


    The result was the Veritas Renaissance, as researchers had a much longer life to complete their work.


    With the discovery of gravitic manipulation and the ion drive, all earthly research was stopped, in favor of space exploration and extraterrestrial colonization.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    After 10,000 years, research has become more introspective, with the decline of discovery in the real world scientists ventured to create their own.


    They did not know their creation was borrowing from something ancient. We thought we were the first.


    Now in the smallest town in the galaxy, Greenton, on the Planet Auctus. James and his Dashad companion Dreq will discover what VR really means.

 Chapter 1: If

    If you can keep your head when all about you


    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;


    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,


    But make allowance for their doubting too:


    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,


    Or, being lied about, don''t deal in lies,


    Or being hated don''t give way to hating,


    And yet don''t look too good, nor talk too wise;


    If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;


    If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,


    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster


    And treat those two impostors just the same:.


    If you can bear to hear the truth you''ve spoken


    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,


    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,


    And stoop and build''em up with worn-out tools;


    If you can make one heap of all your winnings


    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,


    And lose, and start again at your beginnings,


    And never breathe a word about your loss:


    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew


    To serve your turn long after they are gone,


    And so hold on when there is nothing in you


    Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"


    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,


    Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,


    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,


    If all men count with you, but none too much:


    If you can fill the unforgiving minute


    With sixty seconds'' worth of distance run,


    Yours is the Earth and everything that''s in it,


    And---which is more---you''ll be a Man, my son!


    -Rudyard Kipling


    Greenton, Auctus, February 14, 458 UE. Spelman Axiom School: 2305 hrs A.M.S.T. Auctus Mean Solar Time


    ¡°Okay class today, as you know, will be your last final of your high school career. As always, your last final, is history. Does anyone know why?¡± Looking around the teacher called on hand. ¡°Matthew.¡± The teacher said, for that was whom the hand belonged to.


    Matthew, a bright student, but not the brightest in the class, stood as you should when giving an answer. ¡°For we must understand, and remember, our past. Both triumphs and disasters. So we can properly act in the present, to create a better future.¡± Matthew then sat down.


    ¡°Correct!¡± The teacher said. ¡°Now who can tell me who said that, when, where and why? Timothy.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Timothy stood, ¡°Richard Foster, April 11, 2116, UN Wharenui, New Zealand, Earth. His goal was to unite the world. His plan was to solve disputes virtually, leaving no real fallout. It is in his success at said moot, that he is referred to as the ¡®Father of the One World¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Timothy. Okay, here is a hard one, whoever gets this right will receive 10 points on their final.¡± At this, the class gasped in unison. Of a maximum of 60 ten points was a lot. ¡°Who can tell me where Richard got his inspiration for that statement?¡±


    The teacher looked around and saw no hands.


    ¡°His father?¡± A shy girl named Susan said.


    At this, a bully "coughed" the word "stupid" sparking a lot of people to chuckle, thinking her stupid to suggest such a thing. The teacher was about to admonish the class when a boy, James, stood. James was usually very quiet, well to most people. He was much more vocal with people he liked. But at school he was quiet. James hated bullying, it was not much of a problem as it was in the past. Even though, nanites gaurantee that no one will be born with genetic deficits, and muscle mass and body fat would stay at a reasonable and consistant level, unless one was truly interested in changing on of those factors. Genes were genes, and some people just may be born ugly, or not as smart, or not as coordinated. No one cared about skin colour anymore either. The point is, no matter how perfect your society, there will always be a little guy and a big guy. James, out of a school of geniuses, was the genius. He had the highest critical thinking ability. Though no one knew it, except the teachers. Not even James. Grades were announced at the end of Axiom in order to prevent disfunction.


    Most of the time James left people alone and they him, but nothing got under his skin more than bullying.


    ¡°Actually Susan right, she just didn''t explain herself very well.¡± James saw the entire class¡¯ confused look, and the teacher¡¯s smirk. He continued though, acting oblivious to their expressions. ¡°His inspiration was the poem ¡®If¡¯ by Rudyard Kipling. The poem is told from the perspective of a father talking to his son. And knowing that Richard idolized his own father, for good reason, seeing how his father, though rich, worked tirelessly to improve living conditions of the poor, and knowing his father¡¯s favorite author was Kipling, we can infer that Richard¡¯s father told him ¡®If¡¯ at some point. Maybe even when Richard sought his father for counsel before going to the UN moot.¡±


    At this, the only people in the classroom with smiles were Susan and the teacher.


    ¡°Thank you James, I could not have said it better myself. For your correct answer Susan, and for proving her validity James, you both will receive the ten points. Also I would like you to stay after class if you could. I would like to speak to you.¡±


    35¡ã 33¡¯ 9¡±N: -107¡ã 6¡¯ 44¡±W. (~80mi NW of Rio Ranchero). Earth. December 24, 2590 AD. Classified: 1706 hrs G.M.T.


    ¡°Time, 1706 hours. Gravitic Manipulation experiment D17-47q.¡± An old Dr. Martin Trent, spoke into his omni-comp. Too old if you were to ask him. At 453 he was already 43 when modern medicine found nanotechnology to be the panacea for humans back in 2180, making them live much longer, people born at that time will live to be 400. It was not until 100 years ago that scientists found a way to biosynthesize the nanites, that now we''re part of the human genome. People born after that have a life expectancy of 800 years! Phenomenal, but sadly Dr. Trent is too old, he was born too long ago for that boon, not that he wanted it. 550 years, was how long his life estimate was and that already seemed too long for him.


    ¡°Begin sequence.¡± Dr. Trent said with tired eyes. He had been working on artificial gravity for travel in space for over 200 years. To say he was tired of failure was an understatement.


    With matter to energy converters, resources were unlimited. Need to charge your phone put a rock into a matter converter, affectionately known as a D-mat, and you can power your house for the rest of your life let alone charge your phone. Need a hamburger, just use an energy to matter converter, affectionately known as a printer, and it uses energy to create a hamburger at the atomic level, though, for whatever reason, it would taste like dirt. With the invention of the D-mat and the Printer, poverty and homelessness were wiped out.


    Now that we had an unprecedented peace man looked again to the stars. In 2345, yes, yes everyone knows, sequential numbers and blah-dee-bla-bla. Light speed was achieved. That, actually, was not as complicated as previously imagined. The D-mat made enough energy for an ion drive. There were two problems, the first was the energy at that speed would destroy the gravitational need to pull together, a defining trait of matter causing the object to break up. The other problem was inertia. If you accelerate from zero to c in a fraction of a second, you will be paste on a hull. Kind of like a bug on a windshield. The only way to fix these problems, is to create an inertia dampening field. For this you need to be able to manipulate gravity, thus Dr. Trent¡¯s work.


    Dr. Trent became the leader in this field when he published a paper on a decidedly simple concept. Gravity is the natural reaction matter has on itself and energy. Like magnets, positively polarized iron attracts negatively polarized iron. So if regular matter attracts regular matter, then the only way to repel regular matter would be with antimatter. It turned out after lots of experimentation, he was wrong, antimatter more absorbed regular matter, like a vacuum, or absolutely erratic. Through this discovery however, Dr. Trent found it may be possible to reverse the aspects gravity controls. Two centuries of failure brought him here.


    A disk sat on the other side of 4 feet of lexan glass and an energy barrier. Well actually it''s a barrier made up of tightly packed y-rays locked in their photon state named HiDAPLoB, or High-Density Aural Phase-Locked Barrier, but no one is gonna call it that, not even the military. Dr. Trent stared at a circular disc 6 feet in diameter and four inches thick. The disc was in a sphere made of an electromagnetic field. The disc was shot with a dense beam of energy consisting of electrons that were Valance Recognized, basically they were previously valence electrons that were ripped from atoms.


    This was Dr. Trent¡¯s last try for success. After two hundred years he would quit.


    As the disk spun clockwise with the VR electrons coursing through. It¡­ Started to float, pens and paper and other light objects pulled towards it, and Dr. Trent, was crying. After two hundred years, he had succeeded.

 Chapter 2: The Begining of Adventure

    Outer Ring, Greenton, Auctus, February 14, 458 UE. Spelman Axiom School: 1020 hrs A.M.S.T.


    ¡°You wanted to see me Mr. Soto?¡± I said to a man, who appeared 30 but was actually over 360 years old, with glasses, or ¡°spectacles¡± as the one wearing them liked to call them. Nowadays he was the spectacle, no one wore those anymore.


    ¡°Yes, come, sit down James.¡± The spectacle said gesturing to a chair.


    ¡°Mr. Soto, I don¡¯t mean to be rude but if we could hurry this along I have someone waiting on me¡±


    ¡°Tell Dreq he can wait¡­ From right here.¡± He added as I stood. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that, I know you can do it.¡± Seeing my worried face, he said, ¡°don''t worry, your secret is safe with me. I know the repercussions if this got out.¡±


    ¡°Now,¡± Mr. Soto continued, ¡±tell me James, what do you plan to do? Now that you are graduating from Axiom, what are your goals?¡±


    ¡°Well Mr. Soto¡­¡±


    ¡°Alexander.¡± Mr. Soto interrupted.


    ¡°Sorry?¡±


    ¡°Call me Alexander, when it is just us, of course.¡±


    ¡°Alexander,¡± I say tentatively, as if trying out a new word. ¡°I want to continue school, I plan on submitting a request for the Institute of Technology on Mithycar. I know I don''t have a sponsor. I¡¯d have to be bound to the school for one hundred years, but after I could have any job I wanted.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ The Royal Institute, I thought as much.¡± Taking off his glasses, Alexander looked at me. Then with a wry smile he asked, ¡°What about the Navy? Maybe a pilot?¡±


    How did he know about that?


    ¡°Don''t act too surprised, I''m a tad more observant than most, smarter too. How else would I have obtained this!¡±


    With a flourish he sent a message to my omnicomp. It was a missive from the RIT.


    The message read,


    James Valdamar Sabol,


    Congratulations, you have been accepted to study at the Royal Institute of Technology, on Mithycar. Due to having sponsorship of former Dean Alexander Dimitri Soto,you have been offered schooling, with all expenses rendered null. You may start your education this upcoming semester, or you may take your leave and resume your studies in 133 years.


    Dean Leslie Ann Martin


    P.S. James, be a darling, could you please inform Lex to, GET HIS ASS BACK HERE! Thanks.


    I was so shocked. How did he do this, well he was the Dean, the freakin¡¯ Dean. Regaining my inner composer. I said ¡°the Dean huh¡­ well uh,¡± with a wry smirk of my own I added ¡°thought you would be taller.¡±


    ¡°Ha, ha, ha, hilarious. See how funny it is when you have to call this short guy Master.¡±


    ¡°Well Master, I guess I will be the first Apprentice who knows all his Master¡¯s bashful skeletons. I can just chat it up with Leslie. She seemed like she wanted us to be best friends¡­ Lex.¡± Lex¡¯ face became white when I mentioned Leslie, then scarlet when I said Lex. ¡°Ha ha, I can be a sadist too, old man.¡±


    ¡°Who are you calling old?¡± Lex said, conveniently forgetting previous embarrassing dialogue. ¡°Anyway, I called you in, not just to give you that, which I should have proofread first.¡±


    ¡°That''s Illegal.¡±


    ¡°I also wanted you to do something,¡± Lex continued, ignoring me. ¡°I got you something, it¡¯s on The Atrium in docking bay 72B, If you don''t like it, then on Monday You and I will head to Mithycar. Tut tut, I don''t want to hear ¡®Oh Alexander, how am I ever to get up to the space station?¡¯ Use your damn ship. I¡¯ve seen it, hell everyone on the Council has, no one goes after it because it looks like a damn fighter that ate a destroyer. You should hear what the Council says! Of course the Duke lies, saying it''s his ¡®to ensure the safety of Auctus.¡¯ Bloody counsel knows he¡¯s full of it but he is cousin to the High King.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I thought I was being careful.¡±


    ¡°Oh you are careful, that''s the only real reason the Council is letting it slide, you¡¯re not showing yourself to the populace. Also they don¡¯t have a clue whom it belongs to. Now, go get your graduation present. It''s a DivePod you''ll get it before everyone else, start smart, as I know you will, have some fun you got a long life ahead of you.¡±


    ¡°See you tomorrow Lex.¡± I say standing, to leave.


    ¡°Alexander¡±


    Catching his meaning this time, ¡°but I like Lex more, it¡¯s succinct¡±


    ¡°Fine, but, you have to promise me, if you catch anyone else calling me that, you have to punch them in the face.¡±


    umm..


    ¡°I''m serious.¡±


    ¡°If you say so, but if said person is a girl a verbal reprimand is all I¡¯ll do. It probably won''t change anything, but something tells me Leslie will take care of that.¡± With that I left the classroom.


    If I had half the insight you seem to have when I was your age, let''s just say I¡¯d probably would have retired here fifty years ago. A wife, kids, and a queue of people back to Earth, paying whatever credits they had on them for advice on women. Nah, just the wife and kids, I¡¯d be smarter than that. With that thought Alexander bought a ticket for passage to Mithycar, departing on Monday.


    Exiting the school I see Dreq, curled up on the grass with six girls all petting him. Seeing me Dreq got up, and the girls gave me a death stare. Dreq is a Dashad, think of an ancient Earth tiger with pointed ears like a lynx, but a bit bigger, well, most Dashad. Dreq is only two meters long and 90cm tall, but he is not full grown yet. Also, where tigers and Dashad are orange, Dreq is white, this is not only highly valued in Dashad culture, it is the biggest chick magnet I have seen.


    Since people were still around I spoke out loud, ¡°Dreq we are going to The House.¡± The House was more of a hidden bunker in the forest. Where my ship and Grav Suit are, as well as other things I tinker with.


    Where are we going, I''m guessing your laggard behavior had something to do with change in plans.


    ¡°Hey, I was not that late¡±


    Yes, but, I am correct, no?


    ¡°Yes your right. We are headed to the Atrium¡±


    The space station, Dreq said, showing interest. Though it is technically thought, it is insulting to refer to it as such. For Dashad, it is how they speak. Thoughts are private, spoken words are shared. Though there culture consists of tightly knit groups, individuality is highly revered. Why?Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°Straight to the point as always. Lex got me something.¡±


    Who is Lex?


    ¡°Alexander¡±


    ...


    ¡°Mr. Soto.¡±


    Ahh. Did he happen to say what this item was.


    ¡°Yes. Hey, Did you know he was the Dean of the RIT¡­¡±


    Yes


    ¡°... And he got me a spot there for free, it''s so awesome, I can''t wait to¡­ Wait you knew?¡±


    Yeah it was said at the pep rally you missed.


    ¡°I told you to tell me everything important from that.¡±


    Sorry, I got most of it, some just slipped my mind.


    As we entered the woods I started to using my mind. Yeah, more like you were distracted by girls. You are too much of a chick magnet.


    You''re just mad because I''m better looking than you.


    That''s like comparing a pineapple to socket wrench.


    Or Dashad to tigers


    No, I know it is a blatant insult, but if you were to show your picture any human in the galaxy, then ask ¡°what is this¡± they would say ¡°Oi, that there is a bloody great big bengal tiger!¡± You''re my best friend and I know you''re different, but to most people, not on Auctus, you''re a tiger. But it''s not the end of the world. In many ancient human cultures the tigers shared the spot of the noblest of beings.


    Hmff, finally some respect.


    Oh, so now you wanna be a tiger.


    No! What was the other being, humans?


    Nope, the only other being to match a tiger was a dragon.


    What''s a dragon?


    Let''s see, a giant lizard with wings.


    Sounds stupid.


    Get in the House, you''re just jealous that you don''t have wings.


    Yes, you''re just jealous that you don''t have wings.


    Hehe, you said yes.


    Shut up, you know I don''t lie.


    Yeah, I know, but it¡¯s still hilarious.


    Walking up to a large boulder I put my hand my hand on a hidden scanner, the door opens with a slight hiss. Inside there is an elevator, after heading down about sixty meters, the elevator opens up to a large room I call the Garage. It''s more of a hangar, but I''m keeping within the ¡®House¡¯ theme.


    I am filled with nostalgia upon looking at the Garage; Today was the ninth anniversary of the House¡­


    Outer Ring, Sector six, Greenton, Auctus, February 14, 449 UE. Sabol Residence: 102 hrs A.M.S.T.


    ¡°Breakfast first James, do your chores and your father has a surprise for you!¡± My mom said as I was about to run out the door. Turning around I grab a biscuit, with egg and sausage, and shove it in my mouth. I then nod a thank you at mom, which she returns with a wry smile and a shake of the head, and I bolt out the door.


    My chores are standard farm stuff, muck stalls, feed animals, lead the cows into the dairy, then brush the horses. We have two hundred and twelve of them, three for our leisure, and the rest for breeding. Lots of people throughout the galaxy buy horses from us, and some other farms, for recreational pleasures. I don''t brush all of them but I have eleven that are my responsibility.


    I like riding, but I prefer to spend my time tinkering in my room, much to my parents chagrin. Not that I hate the outdoors, it¡¯s just that I''m more of a night person. I always wear sunglasses during the day, always.


    My chores came easily, except for brushing the horses. Roger, my dad¡¯s horse, always gives me a hard time. I told Dad once, so he watched one day. Watched him behave perfectly that is. Only when Dad is around does Rodger cooperate. And Dad chooses to believe the horse!


    After dealing with Roger, I completely forgot about my ¡°surprise¡±. I guess that made it a surprise, since I forgot about it. Naturally, because I forgot, when Dad asked if I was ready, I respond with, ¡°what for?¡±


    ¡°For your surprize!¡± He said with a victorious smile. He always had that, like he just won the most glorious of battles, and now wishes to share in drink and revelry. It was because of this most everyone loved Dad.


    ¡°Yeah, just finished brushing Rodger.¡±


    ¡°Hey, his name is Voyager, he is a noble steed.¡±Dad haughtily replied.


    ¡°He does not deserve a title of nobility, so he gets Rodger, a common name.¡± I say dryly


    Obviously ignoring my remark Dad says, ¡°Oooooowwweeee!! Son, do I have the surprise of your life! Because you so kindly wanted to include Voyager, tack him, and Reckless. While you are doing that, you should probably tell Dreq to get his butt over here, he won''t want to miss this!¡± At that he started briskly walking with his stupid smile.


    Though his actions made me all the more curious I had to add, ¡°Dad the last person to use Oowee died probably two thousand years ago.¡±


    ¡°Nope, He¡¯s still alive!¡±


    If you were present at this interchange you would have seen a poor soul go and saddle Rodger, because that is the stupid horse¡¯s name. Then that same poor soul putting tack on Reckless. Yes, my horse¡¯s name is Reckless, my dad is fond of horses. Maybe too fond, depending on who you ask, but he sure does know his stuff. His favorite are the stories of ancient war horses who showed bravery beyond most humans. Of which Voyager, Reckless, and Mom¡¯s horse Marengo are nominated.


    After setting tack, Dreq showed up, he is my Dashad Bondmate. We bonded last year when I found him in an old maffenbear trap. The trap was sent by illegal poachers thinking the Dashad prey. Setting animal traps of any kind is illegal on Auctus, and Dashad are sentient, therefore have the rights of humans. It would not be poaching, it would be murder.


    Hey Dreq, Dad has a surprise for us. Can you tell him the horses are ready. Dreq ran to the hose up to the front door paused and ran back. Dashad don¡¯t yell, so to speak. They instead, extend their range and speak normally. If you are in their range you would hear them but if you are one step outside of their range you would hear nothing You know, it is still kinda weird the way you speak.


    Maybe it is your speech that is weird.


    Nope you speak using your brain to manipulate preons, this ability is severely limited with humans, and classified as magic. This in ancient welsh and other norwegian, and scandinavian cultures was tied to fate and therefore wyrd.


    Well in Dashad culture weird comes from humans and it means¡­ nothing because its a


    stupid human word.


    Hehe, you can¡¯t lie.


    Dad, James is making fun of me because I cannot lie.


    ¡°James,you should be more like your brother here, and not lie.¡± He chides, trotting up with that smile, clearly in on the joke. Getting in the saddle he bellows, ¡°onward!¡±


    Sighing I mount Reckless and follow. After five minutes we reach the woods; five minutes after that we come to a stop at a large rock. Though exceptionally large at five meters tall it was by no means a surprize, I have known about this rock since I was five. ¡°Dad, this is not a surprise, this is a rock, one I already know about.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the surprise.¡± He says as he dismounts, without tethering Rodger.


    ¡°Even though it worked for Moses I don''t think hitting it is going to bring water.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha very funny, let¡¯s just see what happens when I put my hand here."


    The next thing that happens is, the rock scans Dad¡¯s hand and opens revealing a maglift. Gesturing me inside, Dad walks in. I dismount and tether the horses like a responsible rider, then join him and Dreq who was already inside. ¡°Your mother has been complaining about your cluttered room for some time now. And, as any good parent, she wants you to chase your dreams, just as long as it does not make the home unsightly,¡± Dad pushed a button and the lift went down for a few seconds then stopped. Then it accelerated backwards throwing me and Dreq into the padded door. Smirking he continued, ¡°Sorry, but the nearest dessert is 60 miles away. It needs to be in a dessert because we cannot disturb the arboreous biomes,¡±


    On Auctus, any above ground construction was illegal without specific permits and a need for the building.


    ¡°Why would we need that? We are under ground.¡±


    Ignoring me, again. ¡°When I was your age, my great grandfather told me stories that his grandfather told him about houses people built in trees. Kids used them as a base of operations for exploring, and whatever flew their ship. I thought, since you need space to build your ¡®projects,¡¯ and a base of operations for your own adventures, I built this.¡±


    As if timed for a holovid, the elevator stopped and promptly opened. Inside, the Treehouse was a huge metal cavern almost like a huge¡­ ¡°Hanger.¡± I mumbled.


    That was why it needed to be in the desert. The opening of the ceiling would disrupt a life giving biome.


    ¡°Well, I know how it is your dream to build a spaceship, and your mom and I decided I that if you sold your share of the crops we grow and maybe sold a few of the things you build, oh, and get a bot to do your chores, then maybe you can save for one.¡±


    Although I knew it still would not be enough, the hope was palpable. And it was an awesome surprise. After exclaiming ¡°Thanks dad!¡± And a hug, I went exploring. In the back there was a huge D-mat, probably the one used to dig the Treehouse. Then there were four Printers of descending size, from large enough to print an entire hoverbike, to one small enough to print nanites.


    ¡°Your mom already called the Axiom to say you were needed at the farm, so make sure you don''t come back till after school. Also I''m assuming you will want to start selling your share now so eat from the food Printer, in the kitchen. Hope you heard that bye!¡±

 Chapter 3: Atlanta my Darling

    60mi W of Greenton, Auctus. February 14, 449 UE. Kage Desert: 252 hrs A.M.S.T.


    Five minutes after Dad left I realized he was gone. Dreq? Where is Dad?


    He said don''t come home till after school because Mom lied for you, Print your food from the kitchen, which is over there, and¡­ That''s it. I wish I could lie, it would make these moments so much more fun. Besides why don''t you just look it up in your head, you have one of those eidetic memories. And I know you remember everything you hear.


    Everyone has an eidetic memory, even you, don''t act like you go back and replay everything you did not hear the first time.


    You¡¯re right, I just listen the first time!


    That is another thing, because of nanites, no one gets sick, and everyone has eidetic memory, the nanites code that gene, along with many other beneficial attributes. From first grade through with grade we sit at school with Wikipedia pages flashing in front of us to a second each. On Wikipedia¡¯s 200 year anniversary, it hired experts to approve all of their pages. Now, after absorbing all the other Wikis, and Wookie, it is the official databank and collection of knowledge for the human race. Primary School consists of Math, History, Language(almost all of them), and Science(Pre 2500 AD). Middle school is Science, after 2500 AD, and all of the 8431 years during G.E. or Galactic Expansion, the 6004 years of the Space Age and the 1839 of the Conflict Age. All new science since the Unified Era, U.E. are either studied in Colleges or Classified. High School consists of knowledge application, writing, logic, and psychology, oh and historical analyzing, or anthropology. As you can probably tell school is so boring! At least until high school.


    Whatever, since I¡¯ve got all day I am gonna start on the ship.


    You do realize you still can not pay for all the parts?


    Yes, but I can afford the titun, to make the framework, and I bet I can conjure up some of the internal systems.


    But you can''t buy the outer hull plates, or the ion drives.


    Dreq, one day I will, besides I have to start, just because all the energy gained from digging this paid for its construction does not mean Dad did not work hard on it. It would be a shame if I was not even going to try to use this space.


    Okay, you are right, what do we need.


    First we need tools, I¡¯ll print them right¡­


    We have tools, both human and dashad.


    Really! Where?


    Literally, there is a neon sign¡­


    Looking around, I get a real look at the place, the first thing I realize is how large the place really is. At four football{soccer} fields across and two and a half wide, there was enough space for a fighter squadron. I need to figure out how I am gonna build one ship, let alone eight fighters. The hanger was tall enough, for any ship that was not too long or wide would not be too tall.


    To my left was the neon sign that said tools. Yeah, it really was neon. Inside were all the tools I would ever need. Some of them were for spaceships, like the vac-welders and VGC or vacuum gel coolant.


    The gel was first discovered in a hidden heat vent in Mariana¡¯s Trench and was thought to be a living organism that fed off heat. After further study it was found that the gel was an excretion of a small krill like fish that fed off the minerals of molten rock. Not only that but it had its own genetic structure, it was the only known instance where a creature produced an entirely different species. The gel would react to the temperature, sucking in heat and putting out cold, or if the temperature were cold it would put out heat. The gel was so interesting because it seemed to ¡°hate¡± the cold, and would ¡°die¡± if it got too cold, so the heat it had stored would be released to warm the surrounding waters. After they were discovered scientists bred the krill, and soon the VGC well at that time it was just GC would replace all forms of air conditioning.


    It was not until space travel that the gel was confirmed biotic. An accident on a space walk caused an astronaut to rupture his suit the GC in his suit was exposed to a vacuum, but it did not break apart, and it pulsed heat keeping the astronaut warm. This saved the astronaut¡¯s life and gave the gel an extra initial.


    ¡°Well Dreq, It looks like we got everything we need!¡± I yelled. I still have not gotten the hang of ¡°yelling¡± with my mind.


    Stop shouting, I¡¯m right here.


    Oh. Well, I think I¡¯ll start on the titun frame.


    Titun refers to a specific titanium tungsten alloy that is used in most framework, from buildings, hoverbikes, and cars to spaceships, and spacestations. The first thing I did is start printing the struts. I already knew what I needed because I already had my blueprints. This has been a dream of mine for almost a year now, I have put a lot of time into researching technologies.


    As I set the printer, I went to grab the vac-welder and the armbots. Armbots are used in industrial manufacturing and shipwrighting they are used to hold things in place. All they consist of is a robotic arm with seven degrees of motion. They are kind of like a really precise crane, or since I am building a ship, gantry.


    I tasked the robots to get the pieces from the printer and arrange them according to my blueprint. Having eight armbots, I never had to wait, but the process was still slow going, unlike a normal welder, a vac-welder removes oxidation layers from the metal, this allows the atoms to bond creating a seamless connection. Kind of like how two drops of water will combine to make one.


    In space metals that collide fuse together creating one piece of metal. Of course there are exceptions, like water and oil some liquids will not combine, but water and juice will. In the same capacity metals will do the same thing. For example platinum group metals, like platinum, gold, iridium, and palladium would combine. But those metals would not fuse with iron perhaps.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    The only other exception are pieces of iron with the same polarities, and other metals that are magnetic. Obviously magnetic material with the same polarity will push away from each other.


    Using a vac-welder I get a seamless frame to work with. ¡°But James,¡± you say, ¡° are not welds stronger for joints then the actual metal?¡± Well you are right, but have you ever tried to weld over a broken weld? It is really hard, you often don''t get it right the first time and it looks like crap. Also welds are not known to be flexible so making hard turns in space would break them.


    It took me straight till dinner just to get the cockpit frame done, Dreq would help, dashad can use telekinesis, in a similar way that they communicate but it takes a lot of effort. It is strange to see a four foot long hundred-fifty pound dashad lift a 200 pound strut, but weight does not matter, mass matters, I see a lot of puns there. Because dashad manipulate preons, the weight of an object they are lifting is irrelevant, the amount of preons is.


    With Dreq and I exhausted, we called it quits and headed home.


    Outer Ring, Sector six, Greenton, Auctus, February 14, 449 UE. Sabol Residence: 2212hrs A.M.S.T.


    Back home I excitedly go over all the stuff I have planned. Over dinner Mom gives me a contract that allocates farmed produce to an account in my name, for now it was small. Just the amount of food I would eat regularly, but Mom said that the amount could grow if I contributed more to the chores. Then I started talking about the spaceship.


    ¡°...The problem is, so many parts are huge, and regulated. And since the regulated parts cost a fortune! That is why not everyone and their dog has a ship.¡±


    ¡°That''s why we set up the account, so you could pay for these things. It will take a bit of will, and patience, I hope you did not expect to have a space ship by tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Of course not Dad, but I ran the calculations and even if I sold double I would not have one till I was twenty. It¡¯s alright though, I have other projects I can work on.¡±


    ¡°That is a good attitude to have about it, maybe you should think a little smaller for now, after all you¡¯re so young¡­¡±


    ¡°That''s it Mom! You¡¯re a GENIUS!¡± I lept from the table and gave her a hug. ¡°Oh, can I be excused?¡± I asked bouncing.


    ¡°Yes but first, how is she the genius, when I built you a hanger?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because I am a woman Richard, and I don¡¯t put my heel in my mouth.¡±


    ¡°Also she said I need to think smaller, plenty of the parts that are regulated have smaller versions that aren¡¯t. Maybe I can build the ship using multiple smaller pieces, the only exception would be the gravplate and the core! Oh and mom, your gender has nothing to do with it, don¡¯t be ridiculous¡±


    ¡°That-a-boy.¡± My father said to my retreating back as I hurried out of the house.


    Over the next four years I built the majority of the ship the titun frame was easiest, then obviously came as much of the wiring and inner pieces. After finally purchasing the core, the rest of the power systems came easily.


    The first notable issue came from the engines. I decided to use probe drives, with a hundred strapped to the back, distribution of power became a hassle. In order to compensate I had to alter the core, which turns out is not illegal. All you have to do is buy the core. Then you get a shipwrights license, and a permit for a ship for each core you purchase.


    I basically tore the whole thing apart and made a new one that worked for my ship. It turns out there were hundreds of improvements that could be made and I spent six months on for refab.


    Instead of large expensive adamantium hull plates, I bought thindrives, thousands of them. Since they have an adamantium hull, with two, two inch thick, 4 foot by 4 foot plates on the top and bottom. Thindrives are now about the size of a hand, their precursor was a large thin supercomputer that would fit in a wall or floor they were black boxes for starships of all sizes which means they are cheap, but the hulls are thick and ridiculously strong. The blueSheet is still in the PDB or Printer Databank, many old blueSheets were still logged in the PDB and would be forever. they were simply forgotten. The best part is they are not regulated. I ended up purchasing all I needed for a quarter of the price of one normal hull plate.


    Of course two inches was way too thin for a hull. I laminated two plates with Atwood''s inch layer of E-gel in the center. E-gel was originally used as a radiation barrier, eventually the tech had become obsolete, especially because it was power hungry. I used the gel to modify the genetic structure of VCG. The idea came from drew pointing out their similarities. The finished product was a gel that created an energy barrier of its own, and, fed off of focused energy too. Thus making it an effective defense against both projectile and energy weapons. I each laminate square, in an evenly spaced pattern to allow for more of the laminate squares fit in the spaces and overlapped like scales.


    I finished the ship by my fourteenth birthday, all I had to worry about were armaments and defense systems. Turns out my parents had ship defense covered for my ship, one of dad¡¯s friends from the navy is a researcher for ship defense. Dad bought all of her top gear. Apparently this was Mom¡¯s idea. She wanted to make sure I was protected while I ¡°flew across the Universe.¡±


    I obtained the best Point Defense system in the galaxy, for my size ship, and a prototype barrier. I had to complete rebuild the engine core in order to produce a better distribution of power. Everything came together nicely, all I had was one more step


    Arming my ship came with a few complications, CYNERS were easy enough to build and the parts were not regulated. Cyners stands for, Controlled Yield Nuclear Engagement RocketS. These things were the size of a newborn''s arm but the yield of a half a kiloton. I installed six jettison tubes, four bow facing, and two toward the stern.


    I wasn''t able to get energy cannons or railguns. Apparently these weapon systems were illegal for anyone under 16. So I built model ones, for practice. Interestingly enough, after the age of 16, the Cyners became illegal. I found out later that Cyners are sold to young kids as toys, like model rockets. They had no CPU, so they could only blind fire. Also, they lacked a, you know, nuclear payload.


    The last order of business was the gravplate. I spent days trying to find a way to use multiple small gravplates, but having multiple gravplates within the same system canceled the gravitons rendering the plates inert. Two explosions and a dark matter accident later I discovered dark matter plates which allow the chaining of regular gravplates. This was good news until I applied it a larger structure and found that the plates did not generate an inertia field. Since I don''t want to be pulverized whenever I accelerate to lightspeed, I need a regular gravplate.


    Let''s just say I acquired one, don''t worry I got it from a bully, and a noble bully at that.


    Said bully was the same one who would one day spark the laughter that embarrassed Sarah after her accurate answer to a difficult question on one of the last days of Axiom. Said bully happened to also be the son of the Duke of Auctus. It was this Duke who promised his son a system bound starship for his 14th birthday. Said bully had seen me working with a three dimensional blueSheet of my gravplate lacking spaceship, and vituperatively pestered his father for one just to spite me.


    Graveplates gain a unique signature when turned on, it can be measured easily. This makes stealing on virtually impossible. Fortunately, said bully was an idiot. He insisted on seeing the ship come online himself. All I had to do was sneak into the foolishly unguarded hanger and retrieve the gravplate. I know it was dishonest, but, I, really, hate, bullies.


    With the gravplate installed I christened my ship the M.S.S. Atlanta. Atlanta was the Greek goddess of adventure and M.S.S. was a TLA for My Starship. I was worried that the bully that I stole the gravplate from, would recognize my ship when he saw the blueSheet. Now, a smart person would have used their idetic memory to look take the image and mentaly reconstruct the ship, but the bully was never really good at putting the pieces together.


    For the next three years, I mined unmarked asteroids for chits and credits, and used them to make different things for myself. I also took my parents up a couple times, after I got the hang of landing.

 Chapter 4: Day Girl

    Orange light flowed through the window, basking the cavernous room in a pale glow. ¡°Asca, hurry, Alinedharwen , get up, today is the day, we have a busy schedule. First, bath, then riding attire, then the bonding ceremony, bath, royal attire, your coronation, festive attire, and then a party.


    Morning already? ¡°Ugh, Lethiel, the first three are okay, but all the coronation does, is tell whole Kingdom ¡°I¡¯ve gone through puberty! Quick someone marry me! And the last is just pompous brandishing and skylarking¡± I said pouting, ¡°It¡¯s not funny!¡±


    Still laughing, to my chagrin, Lethiel said ¡°You are too bold, Alinedharwen. Quick you must hurry the ceremony is in one mark. Get yourself cleaned up, I¡¯ll meet you outside.¡±


    ¡°Five more minutes¡± I sighed and rolled over. I heard the mumbling of an incantation and with a pop my eiderdown was gone. Knowing what ice came next I bolted upright and glared at my lady in waiting.


    ¡°Don''t look at me like that, I know you have been looking forward to the bonding ceremony since you were four.¡±


    It was impossible to stay angry with Lethiel, my glare quickly softening into a gleeful smile, ¡°You''re right, I¡¯ll be down in twenty.¡± I said as she yawned. I really was excited, I have been waiting for this day since Daddy took me to see the High Drakes. I am just not a morning person, I like to call myself a ¡°day girl¡±. Sunrise not included. I don¡¯t sleep till noon either, I just like to get up when the last vestiges of night have been devoured by the light. That''s a whole half a mark after sunrise.


    I undressed as I walked to the bathroom, As I entered, I noticed the large bath was already full of hot water. Silently thanking Lethiel for thinking ahead, I got in and washed myself quickly. After my bath, I dressed myself in a blood red tunic, black pants, my favorite velvet cloak, a reversible green and dark violet cloak with the violet side out.


    Leaving my room, Lethiel muttered a quick spell to dry my damp silver hair and proceeded to braid two ladders, one from each side of my head that came together in the back with a fishtail.


    ¡°That violet matches your eyes very well, are you sure you are not trying to attract a husband?¡±


    ¡°Stop teasing Lethiel, you know I wear this almost every day.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know you look for a husband almost everyday.¡± Lethiel declared while handing me a mirror.


    ¡°I will not marry any of those ¡°nobles¡± who feed off the chaos of the coming devourers, that''s even if we are to believe the Einshidar.¡± Looking in the mirror again astonished at Lethiel¡¯s skill with hair. ¡°How do you do that, and so quickly?¡±


    With a wave of her hand the mirrors vanished and she said, ¡°Practice lots and lots of practice. And if you don''t believe the Einshidar, believe the Mithrin, their prophecies are always true.¡±


    ¡°I do believe the Mithrin, but I still don''t like it, the nobles and their sons are stirring up trouble all across the galaxy and Father does nothing. He even presses me to marry one of these utinuin en lokirim.¡±


    ¡°Alinedharwen, That is not language becoming of a lady!¡±


    ¡°If being a lady requires me to marry one of those vile toddlers, then I would rather be a whore!¡±


    ¡°If your Mother¡­¡±


    ¡°Leth, if my mother were here she would understand my plight and stop this insanity. My father was not forced to marry. He did not have to worry about being forced to marry someone he did not love. With all this havoc stirring with the anticipation of the coming of the Devourers, the nobles are pressing a marriage. An arranged Royal matrimony has not occurred in ten thousand years.¡±


    ¡°Your father, the King is doing his best in these trying times, and ever since the Queen died, he has had a lot more responsibilities to take care of, without the support of loving wife.¡±


    ¡°Yet he wants to deny me the sanctuary of a trusted husband?¡±


    ¡°You may be right but he is your King, his word is law.¡±


    ¡°Then I will fight the law!¡±


    ¡°How about you wait till after today, remember do not make promises when you''re happy or decisions when you are angry.¡±


    ¡°Very well.¡± I said as I stepped outside the palace onto a platform where a shuttle was waiting for me to get to the Galcrist. My family¡¯s ship is old, four thousand years old. A outrageously long, bumpy, rectangle. To be fair it was also the most advanced ship in the Royal Fleet. It was a ten minute ride to the Galcrist. Once aboard I went straight to my quarters on the ship.


    Thirty minutes later, I get back in the shuttle and head down to Draegamor, home planet of the Dragons. They are the oldest sentient beings in the known universe. Dragons were interplanetary before we Elda existed. They play more of an advisory and law enforcement role in galactic society. They no longer care for leadership though they might as well. If the dragons want something to change, it changes no matter what the King says. It is not really out of spite though, it¡¯s more of an agreement. Dragons being old and wise are tired of the stress of politics, they prefer the stress of fighting pirates. Dragons also tend to form a bond with other sentient species. That''s why I am here. All princesses bond with a dragon. For everyone else, young dragons will go on a Pilgrimage from planet to planet, to find their bond. A Bondmate is always the same gender as their dragon with few exceptions.


    This is why I am here today, to receive my Bondmate.


    ¡°Can''t we postpone this ceremony till a later date.¡± I hear my father''s whispers echoing through the corridor.


    ¡°Your highness, please do not ask such as things of the dragons, if they heard but a whisper of question such as that, they would see it as a treasonous transgression.¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°Yes Silus. You are right, I shall let it go. It seems some things no matter how inconvenient, are just unavoidable.¡±


    Waiting for a few seconds, I approach the loading ramp. After pressure destabilizes the ramp drops, giving view of three dragons. A very large red, of well over a hundred meters in length. To his left, a small green, barely twenty meters, and on the other side of the red was a blue, her length was thirty meters. The differences in the size of dragons depends chiefly on age. Thus the red was very old and the green young. The blue was an exception, they were never over fifty meters. Only females could be blue, and it was very rare, in fact she was probably the only one in existence. To even glimpse her was an honor.


    ¡°High King, you insult us in landing in an assault shuttle. For twelve thousand years, the crown princess has arrived on a personal cruiser, with her prime family alone. You break thousands of years of tradition, what do you have to say for yourself.¡± The red spoke.


    Trembling my father said, ¡°I knew of no such tradition.¡±


    The red glared for a moment befor it softened, then exploded with laughter. ¡°I never get tired of seeing that face.¡± Red replied, after composing himself.


    ¡°Rest at ease King, Elder Rancor, likes to tease the King every time a new princess arrives. We let him do it because he is old, and senile. I am Sarissa, welcome to Draegamor.¡± The blue bowed her head, to which my father and I returned with a bow of our own.


    ¡°Hey my name is Aracor, not Rancor, young people have no respect, or sense of humor.¡±


    ¡°Greetings Princess, High King, I am Trogheron, shall we get started?¡± The green finally spoke, with Aracor and Sarissa bickering in the background.


    Before I could stop myself I said, ¡°so you must be the wise one. After you.¡± Gesturing to the large hallway departing from the hangar.


    At this, the bickering stopped, all eyes were on me. For a few beats, nothing happened, but the silence was broken by Aracor¡¯s laughter once again. ¡°I''ve changed my mind, the young have a sense of humor. What they lack is patience. To quick to stop and smell the roses.¡±


    ¡°Aracor,¡± I say. ¡°Do not include me in such rabble I would love to partake in conversation after the ceremony, and you two lovebirds can bicker all you want tomorrow.¡±


    A strange silence came over the dragons, and I got the feeling I said something I shouldn''t have. What I did not know at the time, and wouldn''t know for a while to come, is blue dragons only soulmates are grays. And one hasn''t been born in so long that they have been passed to legend.


    ¡°Well, you are right, banter can idle, but I''m holding you to your promise of conversation, after the ceremony of course.¡± Aracor as always was the one to break the silence.


    We walked for what seemed like miles. Aracor used the time to impart some of his knowledge of the history of dragons. Eventually, we stopped at a towering mithril door covered in ornate gold plated carvings. Aracor opened the Titanadoora as if it was part of a doll house. ¡°Alright in you go, walk around a bit, feel for one that calls to you.¡±


    ¡°That''s all, I was expecting a long speech about the regalia of dragons.¡±


    Aracor chuckled and said ¡°Even though it is called a ceremony, we don''t stand on it anymore. Of course, if you want to hear about the majesty of dragons, I remember the speech well enough to orate it.¡±


    ¡°Nope, I''m good!¡± And I quickly enter the room and only Aracor follows. ¡°Why don''t the others follow?¡± I ask confused.


    ¡°Well, your Sire cannot view a ritual for the Princess, as for the dragons, seniority.¡±


    ¡°So you get to come be cause you are the oldest. That seems unnecessary.¡±


    ¡°I believe there is a misunderstanding, when I say I am the oldest, I mean I am the oldest. Now, disrobe¡±


    ¡°Excuse me!¡± I dignify, appalled at the very notion.


    ¡°My fire, you other sentients still hold sentiment to your accoutrements. A barrier protects the Eggs anything not living is destroyed, so it''s nude now, and keep your clothes or nude and no clothes, your choice.¡±


    Silently cursing I quickly take of my clothes. As step through the barrier I feel a little tingly, then I feel clean. In fact I never have felt so clean in my life. Skipping, I forget all about being nude in front of an enormous dragon.


    ¡°So you gonna just run around or are you gonna find your Bondmate.¡±


    Blushing, I wander amongst the hundreds of eggs, taking my time to examine each egg I pass carefully. Every egg in the room looked the same, bright red of color, thin like serpent eggs, and as tall as my waist. After about an hour of searching, I stood up and stretched my sore back. Taking the time to look around, I noticed an egg in the back. It seemed slightly shorter than the one next to it. For that matter, all of the eggs were the same size, except this one. Curious, I walked over to it. As I got closer, the egg started to glow!


    ¡°It seemed you found one, that glow is fledgling¡¯s fire. It burns the inner membrane of the egg and makes the shell brittle. Don''t worry about it, the fledgling will burn itself out getting out. It won''t have fire again till it is three months old.¡±


    Only half listening, I ran to the egg and reached for it.


    ¡°DO NOT TOUCH IT!¡± Aracor boomed, a voice so thunderous the ground trembled. Then, in a quiet voice, more to himself, ¡°Why do they always want to touch it?¡±


    Shocked out of my mind, I kept backward. ¡°By light, why?¡±


    ¡°The breaking free is a right of passage for the fledgling helping it will not only bring shame to it, it may stunt his growth.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± Crack! Immediately I looked at the the egg. It had a crack right down the middle, and smaller fractures snapping from the center. Then two holes opened up about five inches wide. Two little emerald horns came out. Then a the head followed with the small piece stuck on its head. It supposedly used its mouth to crack the egg more. I couldn''t tell because eg was still in the way. Then it lifted its head and I found myself staring into to eyes of golden color affixed on the face of a blue. And she was magnificent.


    ¡°My fire, a blue is quite a blessing.¡± Aracor¡¯s words brought me happiness, but the way he said them, it was as if there was also a curse. ¡°You may approach her now, it will take a short time for the bond to take.¡±


    Bang! The Titanadoora opened, and a large gold came in, maybe three quarters of Alacor. He gestured to him, Alacor dipped his head as the gold whispered something in High Drake.


    Aracor flinched almost inscrutably but I notice it. Something happened, something big, but he did not share it. ¡°Princess, I have an important matter to take care of. I''m afraid I am going to have to postpone our conversation. Please, take a few moments to get to know your bond, then a pink, Vastera, will come to take her. She must be raised by dragons, for the first month that is.¡±


    After my nod, he left, and I turned to more important matters, he dragon that was to become my bond. She snuggled in my lap. The size of the egg was quite deceiving, for the dragon before me was only the length of my forearm. It took awhile for me to notice a small sound, like tiny metal balls rolling on a table. A strange sensation of tingling starts in the back of my head, the sound gets louder, and the pressure grows. It gets louder, and tighter, pounding in my head, till I can''t even hear my own screaming. Just when I think it cannot get any louder, or the pressure any more intense, it does, though only a little, and only for a second.


    Then it all goes silent with a loud pop. The most excruciatingly painful experience I''ve ever had, was occurring in the back of my head, and... Nothing, the pain went away and in its place was a presence. This was the Bond. The last thing I remember was a pink dragon, likely Vastera, came in and took Mirikest.* **

 Chapter 5: The Atrium

    The Atrium, Protovitae System, February 14, 458 UE. Docking bay A6823: 2658hrs A.M.S.T.


    The flight to the atrium was uneventful. Basically you fly up, announce your inbound vector to STC, and they assign you a docking bay. For me it was always going to be 5000 or above on the A Port. There are three docking ports, A, which number from one to twenty thousand, are for commoners. B, numbering one to fifteen thousand, for commercial freight. And C, For nobles, and royalty, bar the King and immediate family. They do not dock onto stations in order to remain battle ready, in the event there is an attack, they can either fight or pull out quickly. The docks are then split into sections of five thousand. The first is a Membership Port, you pay a monthly bill of energy and your ship to dock. When a member, your ship will remain in its docking bay, instead of being brought to a hanger. This prevented having to wait for your ship to be brought around, when visiting the Station. The next group, five thousand and one to six thousand, was basically the same, but it had a docking fee instead of a membership, and if you wanted your ship to stay in dock you had to pay by the hour. Each subsequent group led to a decrease in services, allowing for cheaper pricing.


    Farmers may get more than they used to in ancient times and dad does part time services in research and development, but we still weren''t rich, okay we were well enough off, we were definitely not poor, but I am not skipping out on real food just for premium docking space I won¡¯t even use very often. Anyway, after docking the Atlanta, I spin around in my chair and grab my cloak. My cloak was made of spider silk and was gray on the outside, and scarlet on the inside, but you would not see it. The scarlet that is, the cloak completely shrouds my suit. I then depart from the ship. Dreq knows to stay behind, if someone saw a white Dashad, then they could link my ship back to me. I want to stay incognito, because I am a commoner, and, considering my ship is one of a kind in a galaxy with almost every new design you can come up with, a noble might claim I stole it. I don''t want to go through that so Dreq stays. I also have nanites that disguise the scales on my ship to make it look like a complex geometrical shape.


    ¡°Docking fee is eight hundred chits¡± the longshoreman said, clearly bored with his existence. ¡°name please¡± he added.


    ¡°How about two credits, and we forget the name.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, Mr, Val Ren, docked here at¡­ 2701 hrs.¡±


    ¡°Have a good afternoon.¡± Leaving it at that I walked off the airbridge with a smile on my face, though no one could see it because of my helmet. There was no money pouch to steel afterwards, but the interchange was exactly how I imagined it. I saw it once, in one of those ancient vids, called a movie. I had always wanted to do that.


    The atrium was massive. Unlike other space stations, full of hall ways with shops lining the sides. The Atrium was different. Instead of endless hallways, it was entirely open. In this openness, was a huge forest. The forest contains many pathways, and covers 60 square kilometers, about the size of Earth''s Manhattan island. The forest was made of huge trees that stretched upwards two kilometers. In fact the the Largest tree, towers over the rest at 6.3 kilometers, just 40 meters from the ceiling. It is interestingly in the center. It is both interesting and weird because it was not engineered. It just turned out like that. So, obviously the tree was named Yggdrasil, and became the Command tower and SIC, or station information center. Station security was also located here.


    Shops and pathways weaved through the forest at many different levels, leading to the shops, hotels, and restaurants carved into the trees. The best part, in my opinion, was the fresh air. It was not the stale recycled air that came from scrubbers. No, it was the fresh air you would find planetside.


    I was most worried about the pathways. I don''t know if I have mentioned this, but I am very clumsy, The procters say its a problem with my vestibular nerves. One of the few things they can''t fix, mainly because they don''t know the cause, or how my nerves are any different from everyone else''s. It does not mean I am not dexterous, but walking on uneven surfaces is very difficult for me. As you can probably guess I did not play sports that required running. Instead I did things like, throwing knives, and projectile weapon sports. Its part of the reason I named my ship the Atlanta, she is also the goddess of running. Infact I run every day, but it is not the same on a treadmill.


    It is my fault anyway, when I realized I could not repair Atlanta on my own, I created nanites with coded in self-preservation software, I know, this is really bending the law. At first this led to the nanites eating each other, so I gave the nanites hive mind matrices and changed the self-preservation that as long as the ship was intact and there was one nanite left, they would survive. This led to hyper efficient repairs.


    One day when I was nine, an explosion occurred while i was working on the drive matrix, long story short, it blew off my arm and two of the ships nanites got into my body. When my body¡¯s nanites found them they attacked. Unfortunately my ship nanites were tougher, they started killing and eating my nanites, and using them to replicate themselves. The data they gained from my body¡¯s nanites gave them the impression they had been transferred to a ¡°new ship.¡± They proceeded to kill off and replace all of my nanites, and then optimized my body. They repaired my arm in seconds and the rest of my body was fine.


    This was a fantastic development because i was faster stronger and could think faster than ever. Unfortunately balance was to abstract of an idea for the nanites to understand, so I was left with a clumsy body.


    With this in mind, I obviously did not want to walk, or trip all the way across the station. So naturally I just started flying, then I realised some people were staring. I cursed in my head, my suit did not use and Ion drive, so everyone was bewildered as to how I was flying. It was easier to conceal on Auctus because the blue sky hides drive trails, but here there was no blue sky. Sighing I press on toward B72.


    The Atrium, Protovitae System, February 14, 458 UE. Docking bay B72: 2712 hrs A.M.S.T.


    ¡°Hey boss, look here, you gonna wanna see this!¡±


    ¡°Tony, I swear to god, if this another one of your pointless gossip stories, I¡¯m gonna fire you.¡±


    ¡°No you won¡¯t boss, seriously look at this, It just went out on the Omninet, two minutes and it¡¯s already spread past the system.¡±


    ¡°What! Okay get over it here, show me.¡±


    Tony went over to the captain and gave him his omnicomp. On it was a video of a strange person wearing a gray trench coat over a spacesuit, and a hood pulled over his helmet. The person was floating above the ground looking at the camera. ¡°Tony, why are you wasting my time. He is probably using a Flantry to float.¡±


    ¡°Keep watching¡± Tony said.


    The next thing the captain saw was beyond shocking, the person flew off, without Ion drives. That should be impossible. ¡°Where is Erny?¡±


    ¡°Last time I checked he was at the main cargo ramp.¡±


    Quickly the captain sent the video to his omnicomp, and after returning Tony¡¯s, he headed to the main cargobay. Once he got to the bay he located Erny, talking to the same person from the video! It seemed the man wanted something his ship brought in, and Erny was telling the man that we were not carrying one, whatever that was. Just as the captain was about to step in, he was utterly shocked for the second time today, that was probably a record. After a hundred years in the military and two hundred years of being a Masscall, he had pretty much seen all the weird the galaxy had to throw at him, and he had thought, what he had not seen would not surprise him. But he was wrong.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    The man standing twenty feet away from Erny, did what the Captain thought impossible. An action left only to his favorite ancient stories of another galaxy. The man reached out his hand and ¡°pulled¡± the shipping manifest from Erny¡¯s hand, to his.


    After a couple of beats the captain announced himself.


    The Atrium, Protovitae System, February 14, 458 UE. Docking bay B72: 2714hrs A.M.S.T.


    Did Mr. Soto lie to me? I thought as I argued with the Bosun, which was getting me nowhere. So, I did something a little extreme, I gravpulled the shipping manifest from him, and proceeded to read it. After a few moments, a tall man came down the ramp. ¡°What seems to be the problem,¡± he said ¡°I¡¯m Captain Ross, Victor Ross.¡±


    ¡°I am James Rex, I was told there would be a divePod at commercial bay seventy-two, waiting for me. but your Bosun here tells me that there are no divePods on this ship.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna take a wild stab and guess that, ¡®These aren¡¯t the droids you are looking for¡¯ won¡¯t work on you.¡± The captain chuckled at his joke, I didn¡¯t get it, but the way the bosun rolled his eyes told me it was a quirk of the Captain. He noticed my gaze and followed it to the Bosun catching him at the end of the eye roll. ¡°Come on Erny, really. I know normally i make those references when the barely make sense, but this time¡­ He literally used the Goram Force.¡±


    ¡°Now you''re mixing references.¡± said Erny


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter!¡± The captain sighed, then turned to me. ¡°The truth is we have one, but it is meant for a kid.¡±


    I pull down my hood and take off my helmet, ¡°that would be me.¡±


    ¡°Well, when Alexander told me I was giving this to a kid smarter than the entirety of my crew, I thought he was kidding. Now, I¡¯m not so sure.¡±


    ¡°You know Mr. Soto?¡± I ask surprised.


    This time the Bosun spoke up, ¡°Yo primo Lex use to roll with us back in the umphf! Holy Santa Maria what was that for!¡±


    ¡°Lex told me, anyone to call him that, gets punched in the face.¡±


    The Captain laughed, ¡°He finally let someone besides Leslie call him that eh? Take pride in that, Alexander only lets people he holds in the highest regard use that name.¡±


    Losing a fight with the blood in my cheeks I asked if I could have my package.


    ¡°Yes, here it is.¡± Another voice came from the ramp. The man was built like a freighter. And spoke with a strange accent. ¡°Watching Ernesto get punched in face was very entertaining. Back in Mother Russia we greet people with fist to face sometimes, but only of our greatest enemies, or our most respected friends. I hope Erny will become respected friend. He may be Bosun, but he could easily have my job if he wanted.¡±


    ¡°Yeah hombre, first mate is too much of a hassle we, no hard feelings chacho, but now I owe you one!¡±


    ¡°How old are you kid, eighteen?¡± The captain said.


    ¡°Seventeen.¡±


    At this all three of them looked at me, stared for a couple seconds.


    ¡°Well,¡± the first mate was the first to recover. ¡°It looks like Dimitri was right about you. What do you think Captain?¡±


    ¡°If you ever want a job, you have it kid. You would start at common spaceman, that''s the highest I can put you without real experience.¡±


    ¡°Well, I have my own ship. Would you have space for it.¡±


    ¡°You are just full of surprises. Tell me, how did you get your hands on a spaceship.¡±


    ¡°I built it.¡± I said simply.


    ¡°Kid if you want a job, you''ve got it, and at able spaceman, too. I haven''t been surprised in fifty years son, and you come here and do it ten times in the past twenty minutes.¡±


    ¡°Can we see ship?¡± The first mate asked.


    ¡°Sure. But, what is that?¡± I question pointing at a frisbee size disc, Erny was placing on my container.


    ¡°A bomb.¡± Erny declared nonchalantly.


    ¡°That is a Flantry, or floating gantry. It makes moving shipping containers effortless.¡± The captain assured as he hopped on the container, and the other two followed suit.


    Thinking this was common, I put on my helmet and got on, the three meter by two meter crate gave plenty of room for all of us. The three looked at me expectantly. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°These things don''t fly on their own,¡± Erny scoffed, ¡°you got to push them.¡±


    Realizing what he meant, I got off and started to push the cart.


    ¡°Kid we don''t got all day.¡± The captain spoke, ¡°the Flantry can go up as well.¡±


    ¡°Captain he can''t fly,¡± Erny protested, ¡°he does not have¡­ Ion¡­¡±


    ¡°You were saying¡­¡± The captain remarked.


    I stayed silent and notified the longshoreman to bring my ship to dock. He would then use a Tractor, to move my ship.


    The Atrium, Protovitae System, February 14, 458 UE. Docking bay A6823: 2740hrs A.M.S.T.


    ¡°Ahh, Mr. Val Ren I hope you had a pleasant stay.¡±


    The other three did not react to the fake name, ¡°Mr¡­¡±


    ¡°John Silver¡±


    ¡°Mr. Silver, I would like to show my friends my ship, but it is quite special. Perhaps, for 100 credits plus ten for the tractor driver, I could have an empty docking bay with malfunctioning cameras.¡± Receiving the credits he says, ¡°Apologies Mr. Ren it appears our Dockcams are malfunctioning, I will need my fellow stevedores to help me fix them. Please wait to depart, we will have them fixed in ten minutes.¡±


    After he left the first mate spoke, ¡°Is this first time to station for you?¡±


    ¡°I hear you Andrei, kid seriously you want Erny¡¯s job?¡±


    ¡°I was a too afraid to dock, even with the nanites. I did not want people taking too close a look at my ship. And, if I worked for you, I would want to start at the bottom, like everyone else. Otherwise I would get no respect.¡±


    ¡°Fantastic answer! You are wise beyond your years, and Erny was just about to pay his debt.¡±


    Erny just shook his head and said, ¡°Yeah, yeah, whatever. What is this you say about nanites? You use them to cloak your ship.¡±


    ¡°I use them for a lot of things,¡± I tell him as I pull out my omnicomp. ¡°But right now, they are being used for this.¡± I click a tap a few buttons and the nanites recede, revealing the scales.


    ¡°Well, it look like dragon, but does it spit fire like one.¡±


    A few more buttons and the weapons dropped down. A fixed proton rail main battery, complemented with two fixed heavy mag rails, four turrets, two bi-laser and two mag-rail gatlings, and four free moving laser cannons on each wing with standard targeting and point defense capabilities. No ordinance, that would attract too much attention, and is ilegal.¡±


    Andrei was drooling, which the captain pointed out, and was registered with indifference.


    ¡°Kid, that ship has more firepower than a dropship, if you put ordinance on it, you would have a civilian cruiser with destroyer class weapons capability.¡±


    ¡°Well Captain I want adventure, that''s why she is named Atlanta, so she is prepared for anything.¡±


    ¡°Make one for Andrei, I pay, three times what it costs. Half now, Half in two months when we get return.¡± Andrei was fervent. ¡°Make it red, please. Red Dragon of Mother Russia has nice ring to it, don''t you think?¡±


    Dreq this is it! I say forgetting he won''t be able to hear me. ¡°Okay I¡¯ll build one for you, but just you, and the captain, and to everyone else it just appeared out of thin air.¡± Just then the airlock to my ship opened and Dreq came out.


    For the whateverith time, the three crew mates were shocked, so was I for that matter.


    What are you doing out here!


    Hey you were the one who was like ¡®Dreq come out here.¡¯ ¡®Dreq this is it!¡¯


    What but¡­ We will talk about it later, say hi then go back inside.


    Dreq introduced himself and retreated to the ship. ¡°Well kid, I''m gonna head back before you give me a heart attack, seriously consider my offer. I have a feeling you will rise above us all, it would be an honor to see you start your journey with us. Erny, let''s head back, leave your Flantry with James, let''s let Andrei hammer out the details of our new ships.¡± At that the captain left and I reactivated the nanites.


    Andre and I spent another ten minutes hashing out details, then I left to go home.

 Chapter 6: Brave New World

    The Atrium, Protovitae System, February 14, 458 UE. Docking bay B72: 2800 hrs A.M.S.T.


    ¡°Erny, I want you to keep tabs on the kid, any news from Auctus and I want to hear about it.¡±


    ¡°Aye Capitan, I was going to do that anyway, its been along time since anyone has punched me straight up. I was alert too, still wary. I¡¯ve never seen anybody move that fast.¡±


    ¡°Captain, this boy is special, he seems to know way of world. But, he seems oblivious to his heritage. I know only one person with violet eyes like his, and last time I checked His Majesty does not live on Auctus.¡±


    ¡°Aye, you¡¯re right Andrei, violet eyes are common enough, but not those, only royal blood has those. The strange part is, I know for a fact, King Matthew has never been unfaithful, and he never spake anything of the heir¡­ Oh¡­ Gorram retirement my ass, Alexander is there to watch over James!¡±


    ¡°Captain on deck!¡± Bellowed Andrei as the trio entered the bridge.


    ¡°Captain, we are all aboard and ready to depart, and we have been sent a heading from STC.¡± The update was given by Nathan Presley the navigator aboard the The Eagle Spire.


    ¡°Aye aye, Heave to, and let''s get on our way. I have to call Alexander it seems my best friend has some explaining to do,¡±


    ¡°XO Remonicov has the deck and conn.¡± Andrei announced as the captain left.


    60 mi outside Greenton, Auctus, February 14, 458 UE. The Treehouse: 2850 hrs. A.M.S.T.


    After I touched down I set the armbots to build the framework for Andrei and the Captain¡¯s ship, Now that I had built one I could automate the whole process. Afterwards I unload the DivePod and move it to the bedroom,


    Dreq, two things, one, let''s start building you a suit. Somehow you heard me through the ship what were you working on?


    I was calibrating the main battery.


    Okay... what exactly were you doing?


    I was synchronizing the photon emitters to deliver photons in a single line through the nanotubes.


    Huh? That could increase efficiency by 40%! Wait, we don''t have that many nanotubes, ahh, controlling the photons with metron plated nanotubes, perfect. So what if we give you an adamantium suit with metron inner plating? It seems the metron amplifies preon integration.


    It will probably work, the only downside would be comfort.


    Comfort won''t be an issue, remember metron is both a superconductor, supercapacitor and a kind of a non-newtonian liquid, it will probably feel like silk.


    Except the silk will be as hard as steel, not soft fabric.


    Um¡­ you are covered with really really soft fur. I apologize if I fail to see the your discomfort.


    I walk over to the holobench and pull up the blueSheet for my suit, I reconfigure the suit to fit Dreq. The metron was the real issue, metron is naturally a fluid, but it solidifies as energy, that is not mechanical or chemical, is introduced. The metron absorbs the energy and lets it course through itself, solidifying it. The easiest way to apply it would be in a vacuum, in zero gravity, and inside a Dyson sphere.


    The issue is I may be able to simulate that environment, but the gravity plate would give off energy that the metron will absorb. Wait¡­


    Dreq, can you make a preon sphere, that blocks out all energy, or better yet, do you think you could control virgin metron with preons?


    I can try, how about you set the suit to print nanoprint**, and I will start to line the pieces with metron. You don''t have to be here for that, why don''t you get in that divePod you got and try it out.


    With nothing to do, but wait anyways, I take a shower. Afterwards I don the nerveSuit that came with the divePod. It is supposed to enhance the connections to the nerves and provide a barrier making it safe to be forcibly logged out without nerve damage, It is still not recommended since forced logouts can harm the brain, but this still keeps you stabilized and prevents seizures.


    When I opened the pod, I noticed the inside had a thick layer of biogel. The gel was designed to adjust to the exact softness its occupant needed. This gel was something that had to be grown, because it was living. It is unknown if living things could be printed, but it was long ago deemed illegal, and sofar no one was brave enough to try it. Either this pod cost a fortune, or all you really paid for was the biogel.


    Something caught my eye, I looked up and down the pod looking for what drew my attention. At the side of the a light on the pod control panel was dim. I looked back in my memory and saw it was blinking, but now the light was feeble, as if trapped mid blink.


    ¡°Ah, tarc dung, don''t tell me it already broke, I barely touched it.¡±


    ¡°I''m afraid that would be my fault.¡±


    Pulling my caster I whirled around looking for the source of the voice. The source was a NEW ALIEN. Well maybe it was not new, the alien was a Gray, like from the old earth vids. The gray aliens were one of the most famous old earth fictional aliens, right up there with little green men.


    Not lowering my caster I ask the obvious, ¡°who are you?¡±


    ¡°Who do you think I am?¡±


    ¡°Obviously you are a Gray, but your kind has been, until now, bound to fiction.¡±


    At this, the Gray¡¯s face changed slightly, it''s small mouth turned to a smile and the eyes, they, became square. Or maybe the skin around the eyes changed structure.


    ¡°I''m impressed, most people would not be so calm, I am Jev, it''s a pleasure to meet you James.¡± Jev said sticking his hand out for me to shake.


    Taking it I replied, ¡°Did you stop time? No, you, bent it, around us?¡±.


    This time he made a new face, his eyes he came pointed four, in each cardinal directions, like a star in the cathedrals. ¡°Now where did you get a fanciful idea like that? I have to say James you''ve surprised me, and it is not often one of us gets surprised.¡± His eyes changed back to the normal ovals. ¡°To answer your question, yes, I didn''t want anyone walking in on our conversation. I come to give you your future. I can''t have anyone else knowing it, can I?¡±


    ¡°Because someone will want a different future.¡±


    Jev¡¯s eyes became the four pointed stars, then hexagrams, ¡°very wise James. Now let''s get down to business¡­¡±


    ¡°A Vitality out of Vitiation


    To navigate the dark


    A secret Manifestation


    To which ancient prophecy harks


    A distant people you must descry


    To guide the Forces that close the gap


    A Grand Almanac where answers lie


    To unlock the knowledge to bring the Ancients back


    A final friend you must find


    To destroy the enemy whom cannot be beat


    A perfect match to sharpen your mind


    To be crowned together your work complete¡±


    ¡°What the hell man.¡±


    ¡°I apologize, I must give you your future in riddles. For if you knew the exact nature of the future you could have, you may change things irrevocably, and some of those changes could be disastrous¡±


    ¡°I get it, you structure it like that so I will know what it means when the events occur, that way I will know what decisions to make at these ¡°anchor points,¡± removing the likelyhood I can exploit Time.¡±


    Jev¡¯s eyes became stars again. ¡°You have tremendous insight, maybe this time, you, my Recipient, shall be the one to follow your destiny.


    As Jev turned to leave I called after him. ¡°Wait, don''t leave without a gift.¡±


    ¡°A gift, why?¡± The Gray asked, it was a curious response from one so¡­ worldly. To be one with Timeless experience, and to ask an infant the question ¡°Why?¡± The Gray would tell you that ¡°Why?¡± is the most important question of all. For it is the question why, that unlocks curiosity, and curiosity is the box that holds the keys to the universe.


    ¡°You told me my future, it is only natural that you receive Valued Recompense.¡±


    The black in Jev¡¯s eyes shown with light, and in them, for only a moment, I could see the substance of the universe. Then they became normal again.


    ¡°The way I see it you came all the way from... wherever just to give me a prophecy of my future. That''s a solid if I''ve ever heard of one. Mom always says ¡®a gift is an proper response for a gift.¡¯¡± I went out to the holobench I took two of my spare gravSuit** gauntlets and removed all the stuff that made them space worthy. I kept the gravplates and the projectors that create shield like energy barrier. As I final touch I changed the size and shape to fit his three fingered hands.


    Presenting it to him I said, ¡°these gauntlets are one of my greatest achievements, they can manipulate gravity to push or pull objects to you, or eliminate it within a certain area. It also comes with barriers. It will, probably, tap into your nervous system, so with a little practice, conscious thought will activate the features.¡±


    ¡°You know, in all my time I have received a gift but once from Recipients. ''Twas also a human, a little girl who bestowed upon me this necklace,¡± Jev replied pulling a candy necklace from under his vest. ¡°This was given twenty thousand years ago, there is something different in humans, maybe you shall be the one to grasp this destiny where others have not.¡±


    At that Jev walked through the door to the tool room, and closed to behind him. I had a feeling I would not see him if I reopened it.


    Deciding to follow in his example and enter my own Narnia, or rather Veritas Redefined. Returning to the Dive Pod I lay down and close the lid.


    ¡°Sensing biological presence. Identifying.¡±


    A suave female voice spoke. Though obviously artificial, it had a very calming effect, it was a strange balance between maternal and sultry.


    ¡°James Valdimar Rex, Identified. Please provide vocal authentication.¡±


    ¡°James Valdimar Rex, present.¡± I provide in a monotone voice. A standard protocol when operating any computer besides a personal omnicomp.


    ¡°Authentication acknowledged. Verifying. Identity confirmed. Commencing submersion.¡±


    LEDs in the pod flared brightly once, then everything went black. It seemed like hours, though my omni told me it was just a few seconds, of darkness, no feeling, at all. Off in the distance I hear an explosion, suddenly klaxons are blaring.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°Get up Ensign!¡±


    What? Ensign? Opening my eyes red light slams into my retina. A shadow passes over me and I see a hand reach out to me.


    ¡°Get up! We are under attack! It¡¯s, it''s the Rachna**. Hurry we must find the Princess and get to the escape pods!¡±


    Suddenly everything took a blue tint and time stopped. A window appeared with a ten second countdown


    ----------Abandon Ship----------


    ---


    You are an ensign in the Royal Navy, assigned to the armory, a recent explosion knocked you unconscious where a resourceful marine sergeant wakens you.


    -----Your ship has been attacked by the ValRachna!-----


    -----Find the Princess and escape the ship to the planet below.-----


    ---


    Reward: dependent on degree of success.


    ---


    Accept?


    ----------Yes. Or No.----------


    Hurriedly I say yes, and time resumes and I return to the world of flashing red and klaxons. I grab the man¡¯s hand and he pulled me up. ¡°Alright where to?¡± I said trying my best to sound like I was in the navy.


    ¡°That''s your call sir. I¡¯m a Marine Sergeant, you''re an Ensign. Now normally I don''t take orders from you, chains that bind and all that, but these are extenuating circumstances and you outrank me. Sir.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Obviously the game wanted me to be the leader. ¡°Do we have eyes Sergeant.¡±


    ¡°Internal systems only sir. We are completely blind void-side.¡±


    ¡°Sergeant set up a program to search for the Princesses face, and spacesuit.¡±


    ¡°Done sir I have sent it to your HUD¡± Well that¡¯s handy. I had just realised I had a spacesuit on. Fortunately my hud showed me a picture of the Princess so I knew what she looked like. She was an absolute beauty, with silver hair and violet eyes, a lot like my eyes. Strangely though she had pointed ears.


    As I start to head out the doorway the Sergeant was by, he spoke up. ¡°Forgive me sir but I think you should arm yourself first.¡± Embarrassed I look around and see what is available. First I grab a weapon that looked like a pistol or a caster. Seeing a holster on my hip I place it in. I also grab some grenades, two red and two blue. Guessing the blue are non lethal. Glancing at the Marine, I see a rifle on his shoulder. I grab the same kind.


    Once the rifle was in my hands a readout came on my HUD showing my ammo. I was sure a thousand round clip should be enough but I went and grabbed two more mags just to be sure. I also grabbed another caster and placed it in another holster and placed it on my left hip. Not for me, though, for the Princess, if we find her. Lastly I see a red cabinet. I open it to see tubes that look like epipens, seeing they were medicine I grab a satchel off the floor and fill it with them.


    ¡°Well sir, I''m glad you''re my CO right now, you sure know what to grab. That is when you are reminded you should grab somethingin the fistplace¡±


    ¡°Well I want to save anyone we can that we come across.¡± Grab another duffle and put sidearms in it, the more people w have the better chance we got. But only if they are all armed.¡± The Sergeant quickly complied, but he put five rifles in first, then four casters.


    ¡°Let''s move.¡± I say determined, leading the way through the door. Right out the gate, we see two naval officers pinned down, one shot in the leg. Reaching in my bag I pull out an injector and give it to the wounded officer. ¡°Name and Ranks.¡± I ask them.


    ¡°Petty officer Arn, and this is Petty officer Wilnon, sir¡± The non wounded PO stated Damn, I still outrank them.


    ¡°Sergeant, sorry what is your name?¡±


    ¡°Manan Sir!¡±


    ¡°Manen give these POs a weapon.¡± He handed each of them casters, I thought it odd to hand out the casters first, but I did know that Sergeant Manan knew what he was doing.


    ¡°Wilnon can you walk now?¡±


    ¡°Sir yes sir. Good as new!¡±


    ¡°Alright let''s move out Manan you got the rear, Arn, Wilnon, check the rooms as we move.¡± We continued like this for five minutes, then a boarding ship punched through the bulkhead. Without thinking I jumped to the side, aimed and fired, my projectile punched right through the head of the first Rachna that dropped in. I was amazed , not at the shot, I had plenty of practise in RL, I was amazed that I did not fall on my ass. Balance has been a crippling weakness since I was nine.


    ¡°Contact!¡± I yelled, that''s always what I had seen on the holos. Eight more Rachna dropped in and were neutralized before they could fire a shot. ¡°Don''t touch their weapons, we don''t have time to figure them out.¡± Arn was just about to trade in his caster for a bigger gun.


    *Ding* ¡°Match found, the Princess is in the loading bay.¡± It seemed the voice was in my helmet. ¡°We¡¯re heading to the loading bay.¡± A map popped up on my hud showing me the way.


    ¡°Die you rotten flesh eaters!¡± A voice rang out down the halls.


    ¡°Sir, that¡¯s Tully.¡± Manan said.


    ¡°Check it out Manan, we¡¯ll be right behind you, we¡¯ll clear the rooms. I don''t want to get flanked just because we aren¡¯t careful, Arn watch his six Wilnon and I will sweep the rooms.¡±


    We caught up to Manan behind cover making his way to Tully, who was crouched behind an open door. As I dove beside Manan a projectile ricocheted off my helmet, and I froze.


    It was different before when the Rachna didn''t have a chance to shoot at us. Bullets and light casts were slamming into the crate I was behind. Consciously I knew it was just a game, but it felt real. How close I came to dying was no joke. The fear was crippling. I have not ever trained for things shooting back.


    ¡°Sir, sir, SIR! Can you hear me?¡± Manan was shaking me, trying to get a response. He shook me out of my shock.


    With a dry mouth I wheeze out ¡°yes, I can hear you¡±


    ¡°That''s good sir, those POs still outrank me and I don''t fancy their leadership skills¡±. Manan thumbed backwards. Turning I saw the POs hiding behind the bulkhead.


    ¡°Manan I''ll cover you while you get to Tully and give him an upgrade. That caster is probably low on charge.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir!¡± Manan got up, then hesitated ¡°Sir?¡±


    ¡°If you have a suggestion Manan let¡¯s hear it. You have more experience in this department.¡±


    ¡°Sir I suggest you burn that clip during cover fire. Make the enemy think we are dumb, and out of ammo.¡±


    ¡°Fantastic, I alway wanted to pull a Schwarzenegger. Don''t break cover until they see me.¡±


    ¡°How will I know they see you?¡±


    ¡°Because all fucking hell will be breaking loose!¡± I laughed a little, Obviously Manan didn''t get it. It is a really old joke. Standing I started spraying bullets down the causeway. Through the com I told the POs to move up next to me. It took one and a half minutes to get through the mag. I yelled a curse and ducked as the Rachna rushed our position, right into Manan and Tully¡¯s barrels. It turns out we were on the ass end of the group trying to breach the loading bay. ¡°Manan, get that door open. Tully prepare for breach. Arn, Wilnon, watch our six. I''ll head in first. When I get in, marines you know what to do POs stick on me.¡±


    As the door opened the marines stepped in beside me the large bay was empty save a small contingent in a fortified corner. The marines seeing no threat turned around and covered the door. Arn and Wilnon flanked my left and right.


    One of the soldiers in the room came up and saluted. A left closed fist over the right breast. I returned the salute, though I found it strange, it clearly was not human military, we used a flat right hand to our forehead as a proper salute. ¡°You and your team will hand over your supplies by order of the Royal Princess!¡±


    ¡°Fortunately for you we have extra, which we will share, don''t try to employ that impractical bullying during a hostile takeover!¡± That was Manan.


    ¡°I was not addressing you pe-chanas.¡± The soldier then turned to me.


    I was caught off guard by the strange word. It obviously was an insult, and another reason not to like this guy. ¡°What he said, show a little respect, and if you still want to try to take them from us, just know it''s probably the dumbest idea ever conceived to try to take marine¡¯s gun away.¡±


    ¡°Hoorah!¡± Tully and Manan yelled. This odd mixture of alien and human ideas was confusing.


    ¡°You!...¡±


    ¡°Calm yourself Saggon, they have clearly come to help.¡± A regal voice permeated the vast hangar. It came from an alluringly curvy spacesuit.


    ¡°Manan hand out the weapons and treat wounded. And Manan do you have a psychic gift or something? You brought the perfect amount of weapons.¡±


    ¡°Ah, it seems he was one short.¡± The opulent voice returned.


    ¡°Don''t worry Princess I got you covered.¡± I handed her my spare caster. ¡°Dreq, I swear, If I ever meet someone like her, I will ask her out on the spot.¡±


    Suddenly all the activity in the corridor halted. ¡°Your a mage!¡± Saggon was the first to recover. I had automatically broadcasted that across preons, and everyone of whatever this race is, is sensitive to that sort of thing.


    ¡°You all heard that¡± I chuckle shyly.


    ¡°You mean that was just a thought!¡± Mannon seemed surprised. ¡°I thought you cast a ward or rejuvenation, or something.¡± Mannon continued but he was only muttering to himself.


    ¡°What do you mean if you meet someone like me.¡± The Princess said hotly, ¡°I am the only of myself and we just found each other five minutes ago.¡±


    Ah, can''t tell them this is all a game, ¡°Alright then, your highness, would you like to go out sometime, maybe grab some coffee.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve never taken coffee before, but I would be willing to try, as long as it¡¯s not a drug.¡±


    ¡°You don''t have coffee! It''s a dark beverage, it¡¯s¡­¡±


    ¡°Ahem¡­¡± Mannon politely coughed


    ¡°Right, we''re headed out, let''s get to the escape pods. My team we take point, the Royal Guard will take the rear and do their job.¡± Some of the Royal Guards bristled at my order, but they complied.


    Slowly we made our way to the escape pods with brief periods of contact every now and then. When we reached the pod bay antechamber we ran into a large amount of friendlies trying to punch into the bay.


    Many were injured, ¡°Tully take my duffle and treat the injured. Who''s in charge here!¡±


    ¡°That would be me, Lieutenant Auriles. I respect you moxy Ensign, but you don''t have that authority¡±. I gulped. ¡°In normal circumstances I might give you a ¡®fun¡¯ assignment, but I''m out of ideas right now and you just swooped in with medicine for my injured AND the Princess. Believe it or not you single handedly raised moral higher than it has been all day, as of this moment if you have any ideas you have the conn.¡± With that he saluted and took position behind a closed door.


    Nervously I say, ¡°what''s the situation Lieutenant. Sitrep.¡±


    ¡°This door leads to the airlock into the pod bay, right now we have 20 something Rachna in the airlock and more in the bay it''s all we can do to open the door and blind fire, but that is getting us nowhere. Also we felt a wave of power earlier, they may have a mage¡±


    ¡°Sorry.¡± I said bashfully, ¡°I let a few thoughts escape. Through the Lieutenant¡¯s visor, I saw that he didn''t believe me, but when he looked at the Princess, his look changed, something about her expression made him realize I wasn''t lying.


    Looking down at my suit I see my grenades, ¡°well Lieutenant, today is your lucky day. I got four grenades, two nonlethals for the airlock and two lethals for the pod bay.¡±


    ¡°I like it but let''s switch it up, the lethals could damage the pods¡±


    ¡°Alright Manan let''s do it Lieutenant if you could open the door we will throw the lethals then close the door.¡± I handed a lethal and nonlethal to Manan and we took our positions on either side of the door. After a three count The door opened and we threw the lethals in and the door shut, after tremor the door opened again and we cleared the airlock, there were only two rachna still alive.


    We lined up at the bay door and applied the same tactics. We opened the door threw the nonlethals into the bay and closed the door again. Two seconds later the door opened again and our entire group rushed the bay. Ten seconds later all hostiles were down and the bay was ours.


    ¡°Alright everyone get into the pods!¡± An unexpected voice shouted. We turned our eyes on the Princess.


    ¡°Princess you are first.¡± The Guard Captain said. But she shook her head, I knew better than to argue.


    ¡°Alright you heard her anyone still injured is first, with the Lieutenant. By the way Auriles, you have the conn.¡±


    ¡°I have the conn, ensign you and your team will be last on the ground with the Princess. You have shown you¡¯re good, perhaps even the best, Guards I want you down first with me, we need the to secure the ground. Move out!¡±


    In an astonishing two minutes everyone was in their respective pods and planet bound.


    Suddenly I was pulled, I opened my eyes in front of me was a full body mirror and I was naked. Suddenly a woman appeared she was radiant, clad in a resplendent gold dress. She had golden hair and golden eyes. I was definitely self conscious, unfortunately I could not move. ¡°Welcome! Unfortunately you have died for no reason at all, but it is not the end. You perished in this planet''s magnetic field. This trapped your soul, and it was given to the gods, to us. We can bring you back. In fact you can be brought back an infinite number of times, for your soul is not bound here.¡±


    ¡°Since you are being reborn would you may chose your form.


    ----------Choose your race.----------


    ---Human---


    ---Random---


    Umm¡­ ¡°Random?¡±


    ---Accepted. Please modify your appearance.---


    What? I didn''t mean¡­ the only option is human anyway. "I want to be taller, seven feet." I came in at just barely six foot five, and that was just barely average, I mean most girls were that tall. You may think me sexist for wanting to be taller than the girl, but you know what, thats what I want, If you have a problem with it, I don''t really care. ¡°That''s all¡± I didn''t want to change anything else anyway. a white pare of shorts faded onto my body. Oh, now I get underwear!


    ----------Choose your name----------


    Immidiately the name the discrete longshoreman gave me came to mind. "Val Ren"


    -----Accepted-----


    ¡°Well if that''s all step into this portal.¡± The goddess stretched out her hand and the mirror shimmered and swirled into an azure vortex.


    ¡°So, what race am I.¡± I said jokingly


    ¡°How should I know?¡± The goddess said, just as I stepped into the portal. Her response was confusing, and worrying.


    The world went black again then opened into a desert. Somehow I ended up on my back looking at a blue sky.

 Chapter 7: The Coronation

    ¡°Finally you are awake, hurry we must prepare for your coronation.¡±


    Uuuggghhh! I have a headache. Sitting up, I squeezed my eyes shut due to the luminosity of my room. ¡°How long was I asleep Leth?¡±


    ¡°Just over a mark. Now hurry you must bathe and dress in your coronation dress.¡±


    A whole hour. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this over with.¡± After another bath, Leth helps me with my dress. My dress¡¯ primary color is white, with a secondary color of blue, and a tertiary color of gold. The bodice was white with royal blue facings on sides, and a thin, golden pattern along the breasts. The bodice had a plastic stay sewn on the inside with a gusset sewn over it. The dress had a seamless waistline, that flowed into a very full skirt at formal length. Over the waistline I wore a blue lace belt, four inches wide, with a gold buckle in the shape of an eight pointed star. The skirt was a crinoline, with a fade into royal blue to the tail. Though the dress was very beautiful, I hated it. Okay, maybe not the dress itself, because it was gorgeous! I hated the reason I was wearing it.


    Normally the coronation is a benchmark for a Princess, letting the kingdom know she has been prepared to take the throne if necessary, and to express she is a woman. A woman who is free to do what she desires, till she decides to take the throne, or when the previous Monarch lays deceased. But my father has turned it into a chance to present me to the nobles as a trophy to be won.


    Lethiel put my hair up into a plaited chignon, and gave me diamond earrings to complete the look. Exasperated I leave my chambers. The palace is a grand building, obviously, it being a palace, opulence is key. Functionality always ends up second in buildings like these. I won''t bore you with all the details but suffice to say, I had Leth show me the servant passageways, this saved time, and kept me from running into my father.


    Am I prepared to be the next Elven queen, yes, it is how I was reared. Prepared, yes, ready and willing? No, I am finally free of all the court nonsense, I have no interest in jumping right back in. I need time to do my own thing. Walking toward the royal balcony A guard to my right stops mid salute, so does his counterpart to my left. Why did they stop? I turn to Lethiel and she is frozen mid step. ¡°Strange.¡± I remarked


    ¡°I guess from your perspective it would be, but for me, this is the standard operating procedure.¡±


    The being was grey with a head the shape of an upside down egg, its mouth small. Its nose was without form, its two nostrils were flush with its face. The eyes were most intriguing, they were large and oval, black as the void and they seemed to entrap you.


    He wore a nondescript onepiece jumpsuit and alien looking gloves. ¡°What are those?¡± I ask pointing to the gloves he wore.


    ¡°Interesting, a strange being appears out of nowhere and bends time around you, and the first thing you ask concerns his attire.¡±


    ¡°You are Mithrin. Don''t be so misogynistic.¡± I state definitely.


    ¡°Peace, I was merely intrigued, but, yes. I am mithrin, and, I am Jevorahcildren, but you can call me Jev. We go by many names, the Ancients called us the Glaskurairut, the Dragons call us Koravsadonmirav, you know us by Mithrin, and the Forgotten call us the Grays.¡±


    ¡°You said the forgotten, who are they?¡±


    ¡°Normally I would give you a clever prophecy, but the Dragons are defiant, where the Dashad obey. One of each kind saw this prophecy and were told by me to forget, but alas, we can not control, merely guide. So, go, ask them about the Forgotten, and while you''re there, could you please tell Aracor that the Soulchains do not bind blue.


    At that the Mithrin opened a door to a side room and time resumed. ¡°Your highness?¡± Leth looked at me questioningly, ¡°are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Yes, let''s just get this over with.¡± I started moving again, the guards had finished their salute, their right fist, firm over their heart.


    After a brief fanfare, the Herald introduces my presence. There was another musical performance and then a show of dance. When the dance ended, the High Sage began. The act of coronation was done in complete silence as was tradition. For a Sage only spoke when answering a question. And only a Sage can speak during the coronation. When the diadem was placed on my head the Sage turned and faced the crowd. This was symbolic, a chance for someone to question the High Sage on his decision. No one questioned the High Sage. After a few beats the entire audience proclaimed, ¡°Who is She, High Sage?¡±


    The Sage replied with the voice of a thunderclap. ¡°Alinehdarwen, Daughter of Maelwen, Wife of Renden, Daughter of Lorahnwen, Wife of Manen. Queen.¡±


    The High Sage left the balcony and my father approached the edge and spoke, unlike the sage he used a magical device to project. He started with congratulations, but then, he prattled on about how I was now a woman ready to be wed. He even said that ¡°I was looking for a husband.¡± If my mother were still alive she would have smacked him so hard for that.


    My father finished, and then it was my turn to speak. I refrained from using the device and used my own Ri to amplify my voice.


    ¡°Thank you all for coming to my coronation ceremony. This is a Tradition marking my maturation, and my completion of the studies and knowledge needed to take the charge that is this mighty kingdom. I shall not be taking the throne today, for I must still find myself. Then, also, find myself a husband, but I can''t do that while I''m talking to you now can I? I hope you all enjoy the celebration, unfortunately I cannot attend, an important matter has just arisen and I must attend to it.¡±


    I quickly left the balcony and returned to my suite. I quickly changed out of my dress, and into a high neck blouse, black leggings and a half length jacket dress, all black, and my violet cloak to go over it. It was then Leth came bursting into my chambers. ¡°Leth I don''t want to hear anything, I''m leaving, I need to get to Draegamor.¡±


    ¡°I wasn''t going to say anything.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± I sniffed, as I turned my back to her. ¡°No comments about how I need to be present at this party.¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡± She said simply as she undid my hair. ¡°You have been crowned, officially graduated from Queen''s school, besides, I know you wish to see your Bondmate.¡±


    When she said that I felt guilty, I hadn''t thought of my Bond as a reason to go to Draegamor. To be honest, Mirikest felt much closer than light years away. ¡°You know me too well.¡± I said covering for myself.


    ¡°Very well.¡± She said, but with one of those signs that says ¡°I don''t believe you.¡±


    ¡°You say that as if you don''t believe me.¡± I try my best to sound shocked, but Leth knows me better than that.


    ¡°Do you really want to play this game? I am giving you a way out, so you don''t have to tell me the truth. Do you really want to give me the opportunity to dig for the answer?¡±


    ¡°It sounds like you already know the answer.¡± Haughty was a position I often took when I felt Leth was backing me into a corner.


    ¡°Well, you know I''ve been alive for a long time, I''m even older than Aracor, and you know that''s the exact reason I want you to find someone.¡±


    ¡°I know, but it isn''t that.¡±


    ¡°Alright I won''t ask anymore about it.¡± She concedes, just as she finishes braiding a simple ladder on the right side of my head.


    I left the room and walked briskly down the servant corridors, exiting through a side door at the private spaceport that held my personal starship. The design is based on a Ramlay. A plant creature from the planet Vjatar Let. The creature took a similar shape as a bird in that it had wings a body and a tail. Its wings were but single leaves on either side. Its body a third leaf perpendicular with its broad side forward, and a blade of grass as its tail.


    The ship may seem vulnerable, with only a single engine on the end of a long tail, but, like the ramlay, my ship has thick hollow wings. Technically they aren¡¯t hollow anymore, they house an extra engine on either side, and measures and countermeasures in case someone thought to attack me. The loading ramp was located underneath the tail, where, on a ramlay, the blade of grass met the leaf.


    Personally I felt it was kind of gross. Though the ramlay is a plant, I couldn¡¯t help but feel like I was entering the bowels of a monster. Just thinking about it made my skin crawl a little. My ship was smaller than the others belonging to my family. Mainly because I insisted on a singular level, and a drastically lower crew. I got all the way down to a four pilots, two engineers, and a cook. I kind of wanted to cook for myself, but Shayla really, really likes to cook, it¡¯s a little scary.


    ¡°My Queen,¡± Mareth, one of my pilots greets me as I complete the last few steps up the loading ramp. ¡°What is our destination?¡±


    ¡°Draegamor, Mareth, and I¡¯ve told you before, I have a name.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but I could not pass up the opportunity to address her Magnificent Royal Highness with her new exalted title.


    I let out a small giggle, Mareth had given an over exaggerated bow, he could probably tell I was a little tense, and did his best to lighten the mood. ¡°How do you always seem to know how I¡¯m feeling?¡±


    ¡°Ah, well you see, its an ancient elven art. It has this really long name, but in more modern words, it¡¯s called unequivocally candid, with perhaps a small amount of cantankerousness.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t pull one over on me, you used ancient, and cantankerous, to subtly highlight that you view yourself as a grouchy old man, and it also doesn¡¯t answer my question.¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Well, my lady, you generally have two modes, happy and cheerful, and unhappy and cheerful. It becomes an easy task to differentiate the two. Today you are neither, in fact you seem to have a great weight on your shoulders.¡±


    ¡°You are insightful as always, Maretoh.¡±


    ¡°Likewise, Alineh.¡± Mareth reached into a small pocket in his sleeve and pulled out his wand. Wands were thaumatech* devices used for just about everything. In this case, Mareth was using his to communicate with the bridge, telling the current on duty pilot to get us under way. ¡°Looks like it will be a little less than a mark.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be in my quarters.¡± I said with a nod.


    Throwing myself onto my bed, I lie there thinking of the implications of today''s events. Though I originally loathed the thought of the coronation, I walked out of it slightly giddy. Defying my father in public, and, it¡¯s like a huge weight has been lifted. A Mithrin appeared to me! A path has been laid out for me, and better yet it doesn¡¯t include my father¡¯s machinations. Mirikest! My little dragonling. She felt near me, so close, even now so far from Draegamor. I wonder what she is doing, where she is, right at this moment.


    *cough*


    I sat up immediately. How had someone snuck up on me. But as a glanced around my room, no one was there. ¡°Come out.¡± I tried to use my best commanding voice. I had worked really hard at sounding Qeenly. My command seemed to work, just not in the way I expected. Instead of a person, stepping out of whatever method they were using to conceal themselves, there lay, right next to my hip, a little dragonling. Our eyes met and the cutest little cooing escaped from her mouth. I giggled, and the poor little one must of thought I was laughing at her, for she hid her head in embarrassment.


    ¡°Mirikest, no!¡± I couldn''t help but giggle a little more as i scooped her up and held her to my chest. ¡°That was the cutest sound I¡¯ve ever heard!¡± At that the little saphire reared its head and blew out a puff of smoke, just as I started laughing, throwing me into a fit of coughing. She was obviously perturbed at being called cute.


    ¡°Awe, come now, don¡¯t be like that.¡± I say, and a small part of me is a little perturbed that I sounded like Lethiel. ¡°One, day you will be a great, big, powerful dragon, but never be upset at being cute. Mirikest seemed to understand every word, and a determination grew in her eyes. She settled into my chest and resumed her cooing, well maybe it was more of a purr. A let out another short laugh. ¡°Tch, see what you made me do, now I sound just like her.¡± This time I wasn¡¯t refering to Lethiel. I was only five years old, it was my mother who told me that.


    I was a little girl, many of the other royal daughters made fun of me. It was one morning, Lethiel was trying to do my hair. At first she thought I was being defiant because I was woken at sunrise instead of a more proper hour. My mother walked in and demanded to know what all the fuss was about. It was then I fell in a heap, tears running from my eyes. ¡°All the other girls are mean to me, they say I¡¯m frail and weak, that I won¡¯t be good at magic, and that, that I¡¯m ugly.¡± I sat there with my hands covering my face.


    My mother scooped me up and held me in her lap. ¡°Awe, come now, my sweet little girl. I see jealousy is rampant within these halls. All of those things are untrue. In fact, they are quite the opposite.¡±


    I stopped crying and turned to my mother, a defiant streak in my eye. I¡¯m not going to Vjatar Let, I''m not training with Master Sojek, and I¡¯m not letting her do my hair!¡±


    My mother¡¯s eyes softened, I expected her to match my defiance with her own, but instead her eyes looked on the verge of shattering. ¡°That would be most saddening. You see, beauty is a blessing not all are born with, one might say it is unfair, and many will envy, but, to squander such a gift is the highest insult. If you are blessed with strength, the best way to give thanks is to strengthen yourself. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, it is your responsibility to improve yourself, and become the most beautiful you.¡± When she finished a single tear escaped her eye.


    It was at that moment my grandmother came in, Mother cast a spell, one to relay recent events. It was then I was a single tear escape her as well. Grandfather Mannan had once told me, that in all his time, he had never once seen her cry.


    It was a little over two years before I truly understood, what truly had happened that day. I was being sent to the maelstrom planet to train in magic, for my mother could no longer teach me. She had to go and fight a war, one in which the mithrin told her she would lose her in. She cried because she was afraid, afraid I would give up all the blessings I had been given. It was then My resolve strengthened like iron.


    ¡°My lady, Alineh, we¡­¡± It was Mareth, of course, he was the only one, besides Shayla who needn¡¯t knock. It was then I noticed a single tear rested on my cheek. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    I shook my head, partly to assuage Mareth, and partly assuage myself. As if the action made it all better, and, in its own way, it did. ¡°Nothing, I am much better now.¡±


    I think, something in my posture, told him i spoke the truth. ¡°Well that makes me glad, I have never seen you quite distraught.¡±


    ¡°No, not distraught, bittersweet. Tears don''t come from only sadness. It''s a mixture of the two, for sadness is just mediocrity without happiness.¡±


    ¡°That is a very wise statement, one that takes many far too long to understand.¡± At this he seemed truly mollified. ¡°Well, I came to inform you¡­¡±


    ¡°We''ve arrived.¡± I interrupted.


    ¡°No, we are out of snow pudding. You shouldn¡¯t be so impatient, if¡­¡± His eyes widened a little, signifying he got a personal communication.


    ¡°Now we''ve arrived.¡±


    ¡°No! We are also out of thrift cake.¡± Mareth again received a notification. ¡°Also, we have just touched down. Welcome to Draegamor.¡±


    I rolled my eyes. ¡°This isn''t my first time here, not like you.¡±


    ¡°Who do you think carried you back to Galdor.¡± Mareth scoffed


    I scoffed back, ¡°Don¡¯t say that like I¡¯m sooo corpulent!¡±


    Mareth smiled and turned around, over his shoulder he said, ¡°Hey I didn¡¯t say anything, you my little lady will have to take that particular issue up with my aching back, I think he would disagree.¡±


    He left me there with my mouth hanging ajar. I promptly closed it with a little chuckle. I knew he was joking. He did say little lady after all. It turns out my chuckle woke my sleeping friend. I got a slight stink eye, before a calming stretch. Then Mirikest shimmied up my chest and came to a rest on my right shoulder. Her tail coiled halfway around my neck and her head up and alert.


    ¡°Okay Mirah, it''s time to get some answers.¡± Mirikest let out a soft bark. As epic as I made it sound, it was actually quite dull. I had to wade through three hours of compulsory civil processing, it was a lot like the time I went to get my starship license. You would think being princess, or in my case now Queen, these things would be alleviated. Nope, not until I officially took the throne.


    I sat in a small office, surrounded by floor to ceiling bookcases that left only a singular wall visible behind a desk. That wall had a fireplace and a large painting of a grey dragon above it. A man entered the room, he had blazing red hair and he was tall, just over two meters. I knew this because I myself stood at two meters in height.


    ¡°Ah I see you have found your bondmate.¡±


    ¡°Don''t play dumb with me Aracor. And don¡¯t even think about taking her back, otherwise she may think I came here to return her.¡± To say I had a scowl on my face might be understating things.


    ¡°No need to worry,¡± Just then a woman came in, slightly shorter than I and with blue hair.


    ¡°What he means to say is that the whole ¡°Dragons must first be raised by dragons is a lie. They only are trained by dragons when they get older.¡±


    ¡°Sarissa is correct. Dragonlings are allowed to ¡®escape¡¯ while their bondmate is unconcious¡± With that Mirikest let out a sharp hiss. ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand little one, you actually did escape, in fact you did so faster than any other dragon, in history.¡±


    Mirah puffed up her chest and blew a puff a smoke, but I noticed something. ¡°Why do you seem so surprised?¡±


    ¡°She has a right to know Aracor, it applies directly to her.¡±


    ¡°Technically it''s indirect, but you are right.¡± Aracor sighed, and I grew a little impatient. I was close to speaking up when he continued. ¡°We believe the reason she was so successful is her strong connection to her mate. When a Grey and Blue are birthed in the same year, the other is fired when one¡¯s bondmate is found.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean.¡±


    ¡°It means that she has a strong bond with her Grey partner, in fact, her escape is evidence enough that she has the natal bond in recorded history.¡± Sarissa seemed extra excited. Then she seemed a little sad. ¡°You know she is lucky, one day she will turn white, when she meets her mate.¡±


    ¡°You don''t seem to be surprised.¡± Aracor said.


    At first i wondered what tipped him off, and then I realized I had the barest hint of a smile on my face. ¡°Well, that leads me to why I¡¯m here, I was visited by the Mithrin.¡±


    ¡°I knew it!¡± Aracor boomed. Then, a little timidly added, ¡°not that you were visited, though I guess part of me did, seeing how it is the only way I could be right. Please, tell Jev he has my sincerest apologies. It is not right one of my ancestors chose to keep his memory on the prophecy. I personally think it disgraceful. It is not our place to be prophets. Unfortunately, every oldest since has passed it down, because the only way for us to forget is to give the memory to another. And whom would we trust?¡± At that He reached out his hand and a beam of light connected to my forehead. There was a dizzying feeling and then¡­


    A Vitality without Vitiation


    To navigate the light


    A secret Manifestation


    To peel back a terrible blight


    A forgotten people you must remember


    To find the Forces that guide creation


    A sacred sword of perfect timber


    To cut the final thread of Ascension


    A lasting friend of ancient lauding


    To destroy the enemy whom They did bequeath


    A perfect match to strengthen your body


    To be crowned together, unending peace¡±


    There was a brief flash of light and I came back to the room. ¡°Who are the forgotten.¡±


    ¡°Man.¡± It was all Aracor said at first.


    ¡°I know a lot of men.¡±


    ¡°No, you know a lot of males. It is the only thing of there¡¯s which we still use. The nominations of Man and Woman, com from the forgotten. Humans, they call themselves. They look like us, or as we are now, much like you as well. They have one physical distinction, their ears are round. They have other differences too, both few and many at the same time.¡±


    ¡°Well, I think the Grey dragon¡¯s bondmate is a, what did you call it, Human?¡±


    ¡°My fire, it really is beginning¡­¡± Aracor seemed lost in thought. ¡°Where have they been all this time, and how will he ever get here.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I have this feeling he is supposed to find me. So, I must become as visible as possible.¡± I don¡¯t know where the thought came from, but in my heart I somehow knew it to be true. I looked over at Sarissa, she seemed a little out of touch, as if she was conflicted inside. It took me a few beats, but then, it all came to me in a rush.


    ¡°Oh, I can''t be-lieve I almost forgot. Jev told me to tell you, and he mentioned you by name Aracor, ¡®the Soulchains don¡¯t bind blue.¡± I laughed excitedly. ¡°I get it now the tension when I called you lovebirds, the slight downcast looks Sarissa gave about the fired Grey, the intense conflict I can see in her eyes. You two are in love, and have been for a really long time, but you thought it was impossible to be together, because you thought Blues could only be with Greys, but in fact, it¡¯s the opposite, kind of like all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares. In that metaphor the Blues are the rectangles.¡± Throughout my building explanation, the faces of Sarissa and Aracor turned to shock, then anger, then hope, and I think I am seeing the burgeonings of joy! ¡°I sense¡­ no we haven¡¯t hosted one in almost a century¡­ can we do it,,, we must¡­ I feel it¡­ Oh, it¡¯s wonderful¡­ it¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s¡­ time for¡­ DRAGON WEDDING!!!¡±


    I reached out and grabbed Sarissa¡¯s hand and yanked her out the door, laughing and cheering, I could hear Aracor stumbling to catch up, and he would, but he couldn''t see Sarissa right now, we had girl talk and wedding plans to create, she was going to be a bride!

 Chapter 8: Start Veritas Reifined

    Area Unknown, Novus Ordo, Date Unknown. Local Marker Unknown: Time Unknown


    I sit up to get a good look of my surroundings, to my left an endless expanse of sand, to my right an endless expanse of trees. Let¡¯s just say, I would not need a hydroreper* to find which way there was water. As I stood to get up I felt pain all along my skin.


    -----Warning-----


    You are highly intolerant to sunlight, so much so it does percentage damage, you will receive 10% damage a second till you find cover.


    ¡°Shit!¡± I bolted toward the trees as fast as I could. It turned out to be faster than I thought, in four seconds I covered one hundred yards. The odd part was I felt I was going slow. Nanites made me fast, but more like twice as fast as normal, that run should have taken me ten seconds and I should be dead. I saw the red bar in my upper right periphery, it was down at fifty percent, I probably lost that last ten from running into a tree.


    -----Warning-----


    Congratulations you have found cover, but light still gets through, you will lose five health a second.


    After a watching for a moment, I saw I regained one health a second, this information was provided when I examined my health bar more closely, apparently the system didn''t count the loss of health combative because I did not get any real wounds just some sunburn. My normal regeneration was 1 point for every five seconds


    I look up to curse the sun but notice how broad the leaves on the trees are, enormous, like grown umbrellas. Just the smaller ones were large enough to be a blanket, that gave me an idea, I¡¯d use the leaves as cover.


    I turned my attention from the leaves to the relatively tiny trunk, they were eight inches wide, but hundreds of feet tall. The wood had to be very strong, as there was no ordinary way I can think of that the tree could remain structurally sound. Starting to climb the tree my foot slipped and I kissed the slick bark, losing five health. Frustrated that I was about to die after just starting I futilely try to shake the tree. This triggered a memory for me and I hopelessly mutter a line from an ancient earth tale my mom read to me. ¡°Shake and quiver little tree, throw your leaves down to me.¡±


    *Tring*


    -----Codex found (1/???)-----


    You have found the Cinderella Codex. When you only have underwear, ask the trees for leaves to share!


    Looking down I realized I was still only wearing the bright white underwear. Would that have triggered if I was wearing something else. It did not matter I had discovered the codex, whatever that was, and three leaves fell, two of them wrapped around me. One became wild Crusoe looking pants, and the other a cloak and hood, of a similar style.


    -----Steelwood Leaf Pants-----


    These pants was a blessing of the Erzebet Forest


    Class- Legendary(Codex item)


    Level- Scaling


    As this Item levels its durability rises, and it gains abilities, in exchange for higher defense.


    +1 defense +2 Agility


    -Animals and nature will now be neutral, instead of fearful, towards you. Predators will not attack you without provocation.


    -when worn with cloak-


    +2hp/s +5% camouflage


    -----Steelwood Leaf Cloak-----


    This cloak was a blessing from the Erzebet Forest


    Class-Legendary(Codexx Item)


    Level- Scaling


    +2 defence +1 Agility


    As this Item levels its durability rises, and it gains abilities, in exchange for higher defense.


    This cloak can hide your identity, unless the cloak is recognized as yours.


    -When worn with pants-


    +1% camouflage


    I was utterly baffled, two minutes in and I stumbled on two legendary items. Looking at my health bar, I notice it only goes down 2 points every second. Tch. I move to find better cover when my foot tramples on the third leaf. Seeing the solution immediately, I use the third leaf as a blanket.


    -----Light covering-----


    Your shelter is paper thin and will partially protect you.


    Sun damage -3


    Now my health was going up one point a second. Then, without intending to, I fell asleep.


    Darkspace


    He sat gazing into at large Television, he liked the ancient devices. They were much better than mirrors, and holograms took up too much space. Besides a two dimensional format was much better for his observations. He was currently sitting in a Lay-Z-Boy chair, eating popcorn. He loved the human inventions. None of the other races invented a chair like this. He guessed it was what happens when a race evolves as fast as humans. The other beings developed technology at a much more relaxed pace, giving time for restructuring.


    Like during the human industrial revolution, technology was invented so fast, work hours were cut in half, because of factories and automobiles. This gave them more time for recreation. Then when the cyber revolution came about everybody started working at home. Other races were and are much more utilitarian. Every little piece of tech was developed at a slow steady pace.


    On his screen Jev watched one of his Recipients. It was odd, other races would first look for food, or decent shelter in a new world, but this recipient decided to sleep under a leaf. It seems the boy decided to take my advice. He thought, sure food and shelter come next, but the universe has a way of providing when other beings don''t meddle in its affairs. He recalled a human quote, ¡°Behold the fowl of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren¡¯t you worth more than they?¡±


    The idea of a heavenly Father was debateable, Jev thought, but he knew there was a higher power that created the universe, all universes. The Ancients proved the existence of greater beings, or being, but whether it was a God or simple person behind a pen, was unclear.


    Jev observed the boy for hours, or maybe minutes, time was relative in blackspace. A sensation began brewing inside of him. The boy had not done much, but it was more than any other who tried before him. Jev had tried for countless millennia to accomplish his task, but each time ended in failure. This boy, however gave him an emotion he had not had in a long time, so long in fact, he had forgotten this emotion existed.


    Area Unknown, Novus Ordo, Date Unknown. Local Marker Unknown: Time Unknown


    I woke up to night. I slept through the whole day? How did I even fall asleep? Well, now that the sun is gone I can finally start to move around. Standing the leaf fell off my back. I looked around and found I could see perfectly, in fact better than I could in the day.


    The sound came next, and it was unbearable. An unrelenting cacophony of forest din, elevated to a volume that seemed to tear at my eardrums. I took deep breaths and closed my eyes. It seemed like hours, though it was more like a minute, that I spent in unending white noise.


    I remembered there was an ancient play that was performed on a two dimensional platform, where a blue and red clad farm boy from another planet had the same problem. To help him his dad told him to pick out his whisper in a choir of loud farm equipment.


    Without a hazardous father to whisper to me I took to patting my knee. A steady rhythm over and over again. After five minutes of this I found my pat. I closed my eyes and focused on it, and the forest chorus quieted. I thought I saw a faint green light where my rapping was. I opened my eyes and saw nothing different. Closing my eyes I found it again. I turned my attention to it and then as a breeze came in, a cascade of green rippled across my mind''s eye.


    I spent an hour marveling at my new perspective. Everything shone with light in my mind. Every insect was a lightning bug. A small bright light floating in this dark world. The wind died down and everything darkened. I panicked and let out a gasp, then things in front of me lit up, but the light was contained, it shone, but it did not spread, the spaces between objects ware obsidian. The glow became faint and vanished.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    I realized I was viewing the world with sound, I opened my eyes and the onyx fled, and was replaced with a dark night. It was becoming more and more clear that whatever I was, was made for the dark. This came as good and bad news for me. Since I prefered it that way, the bad news first. Like in the real world, many people are going to be active during the day, and therefore, for me to excel in this world, I had to be able to operate during the day.


    The sunlight seemed to be a toxin to me, and like most toxins I''m sure you can gain resistance to it by minor exposure over time. This is a game after all. I decided to spend all of tomorrow sleeping under the leaf.


    The good news is, this development could potentially lower the possibilities of what race I turned out to be. I would have to wait for a town, then ask around as to what types of races operate at night.


    I suppose I shouldn¡¯t be surprised that when I took a deep breath, I could smell better than normal, but it was more than that. I could tell that there were seven animals in my vicinity. I could practically pinpoint them by smell alone. Obviously I had heightened senses.


    -----Congratulations-----


    You have discovered you have heightened senses, they will now be set to slightly above average, you will have to practise to improve them.


    --bonus--


    Since you discovered Auditory Visualization through echolocation, it shall be added to your skills once your Hearing reaches Excellent.


    -----Hearing-----


    A trait or ability that gives a quantifiable account of your ability to hear. This is a skill only available to those who focus on improving their ears, or given as a racial trait.


    Current Level-Natural 1%


    -----Sight-----


    A trait or ability that gives a quantifiable account of your ability to see. This is a skill only available to those who focus on improving their eyes, or given as a racial trait.


    Current Level-Natural 1%


    -----Smell-----


    A trait or ability that gives a quantifiable account of your ability to smell. This is a skill only available to those who focus on improving their nose, or given as a racial trait.


    Current Level-Natural 1%


    -----Taste-----


    You have not eaten anything yet, you must establish a diet before taste can be discerned.


    -----Touch-----


    A trait or ability that gives a quantifiable account of your ability to feel. This is a skill only available to those who focus on improving their sensitivity, or given as a racial trait.


    Current Level-Natural 1%


    Well that voids. It makes sense though, pun intended, it would be unfair if I started with all of those abilities that high. Though I believe they are traits in my case since I did not try to obtain them I just had them. So all I had to do was practice these traits to master them. I guess I should get started.


    It wasn''t easy, I began to strain my eyes and guess what each object I saw was, then I would listen. The night foul, the insects, the wind caressing the leaves, it all made sound and I tried to identify each one. When my ears grew tired, I tried to smell, I started logging smells into my brain. Grass, dirt, moss, steelwood, some strange flower, three different kinds of mushrooms. It wasn¡¯t long before I went nose blind and I shut out all my senses. The only one I used was touch, I focused on the wind, the air temperature, even the smallest irregularities in airflow, I knew that sound, movement, and even breathing could change the air around me.


    It took the entire night, but I began to find different little hints, to bring a picture of the world around me. The dark night brightened a little, the sounds sharpened, the smells lasted longer, and I could feel the ¡°holes¡± in the air more crisply. My ability with all my senses had ranked up to Improved.


    A slight tingling came on the left side of my body, a soft glow pierced the corner of my vision. The sun was rising. Realization dawned on me, I had spent an entire day in the game. Since I have to be asleep anyway, I guess now is a good time to log out for now.


    All Places, All Times


    She felt his call, from him who She had not heard from since the Time of the ancients. He was one who one might say She loved. She felt Love but she was not Love, Love is her younger sister. She was the eldest of her siblings, older than Time Himself, in fact Time was created in order to properly evaluate her. Of all her siblings She has had the most struggles. Many times some of her siblings beat her, tortured her, and tried to remove her existence, But she always stayed strong.


    She was Hope. An emotion, born into reality from the hearts that feel them. And she loved one of those hearts. This was a first for any emotion. Though they were realized from the minds of sentients, they only had a companionship with them, even Love did not wholly love a single sentient. Hope is the first to love, but she does not know her Love for who She truly is. Fortunately Her sister did, and Love immediately brought it to the attention their Parents. Their Mother, Wisdom, was pleased, for she knew that Love was a powerful force, like gravity, constantly pulling together. But their Father, Truth, who knows all truth, knew the True meaning of this event.


    The time had come, and this event has irrevocably altered the future, His only worry was, is it too soon? His wife was right, Love, their second daughter, was like Gravity. Gravity however, He was unmerciful and relentless, Gravity did not pick and chose, he did not play favorites. But his beautiful daughter was gentle, kind, and patient. She also had a task, a task that would give Gravity so much entertainment. His only Hope was in his daughter.


    Wisdom and truth created a Glaskairut body for their daughter in the womb of an isolated woman. It was not artificial though, they did not create out of nothing, they just gave life to the dead seed of her husband. And guided the genes for a female body.


    Truth knew that this would not be their daughters true form, but he could do nothing. He had to trust his wife, for she was Sapient. The embodiment of True understanding. He had to put his Faith in Her Recipient.


    60 mi outside Greenton, Auctus, February 14, 458 UE. The Treehouse: 3200 hrs. A.M.S.T.


    The divePod hissed open, I sit up and stretch. I was pleased to find no aches or pains ailed me. A quick look at the clock and it confirmed 3200 hours, about an hour an ten minutes longer than a full day in the pod. I¡¯m a little surprised to see Dreq floating in the air, a shimmering blue sphere around him. He must be applying the metron. I decided to go and take a shower, I felt a little stuffy in the nerveSuit. Twenty minutes later I walked back in the main room, again dressed in the nerve suit, but feeling a whole lot better because of the shower. Dreq was finished, or at least taking a break, since he was no longer floating. Instead he was laying on one of the many couches placed in ¡°strategic¡± locations around the hangar, and he was glaring at me.


    ¡°What?¡± I ask innocently.


    ¡°I believe when Mr. Soto gave you the pod, he intended for you to actually use it.¡±


    ¡°Dreq, I¡¯ve been in there the whole day.¡± I was a bit confused.


    ¡°Look at the clock bub, it¡¯s barely been over an hour.¡±


    ¡°But I lived a whole day in there!¡± I was extremely surprised to say the least.


    ¡°That¡¯s quite impressive, but it doesn¡¯t matter. I got a communique from Mr. Soto. I am supposed to keep you in there for the next two days, as a ¡®graduation project¡¯ that will count for 50% of my grade. So in you go, I expect to receive half a year''s worth of memories when you get out.¡±


    ¡°Dreq don¡¯t be ridiculous, Lex can¡¯t do that.¡±


    ¡°He can, and he will. I looked it up in the student charter.¡±


    I let out a sigh, when Dreq got like this there was no way to argue with him. It was best to just do what he wanted. To be fair, Dreq never lies, and he practically does everything I ask him to. I would be a terrible Faed if I didn¡¯t do the same for him. It wasn¡¯t even a real question in my mind, if he wanted me to do it, then I would do it. It¡¯s what being Faed, is really all about.


    Unquestioning Loyalty


    Unwavering Strength


    Unending Guidance


    That was the creed all Faed lived by, or were supposed to live by. I walked over to the divePod, and again lay down. The dive sequence initiated and I was pulled back into the game.


    Darkspace


    As Jev sat staring at the television, he felt the air around him constrict, though odd it was not new in Darkspace. Some areas were getting larger while others shrunk. But still, his instincts told him otherwise, another reason he was an outcast. Glaskairut don¡¯t have ¡®instincts¡¯, or ¡®gut feelings¡¯. But his never failed him, and he had learned to trust them, something momentous just happened, he just didn¡¯t know what.


    Bailiel walked through Jev¡¯s bathroom door. ¡°I hope you cleaned your hands brother.¡± Jev cheerfully said, but he was actually surprised at this visit. Bail was the one of the only ones who came to see him. Actually his brother was one of three. The two Oldest came to see him weekly, or hourly, time was relative.


    ¡°Put a knife through feces, brother.¡± Bailiel sneered. He loved his brother, but he was constantly angered by his jovial nature, not to mention his failures.


    ¡°Well now I really hope you washed your hands after doing that!¡± He knew what his brother meant, that old earth idiom, ¡°cut the shit¡±


    Ignoring his brothers humor, Bailial delivered his news. ¡°The Oldest are with child.¡±


    ¡°What!¡± Jev exclaimed throwing his popcorn everywhere. With a thought he made all the kernels disappear, such were the benefits of Darkspace. ¡°I felt something, but this, this is fantastic.¡±


    Belial repressed a sneer, though everyone else thought his ¡®feelings¡¯ were insignificant, he knew otherwise. It was a powerful ability and Bail was jealous. ¡°They requested only you be present for the birth.¡± Bail also knew what an honor that was and was again jealous.


    ¡°Thank you for this news brother!¡± Jev gave him a hug, something the humans did, and rushed out his front door and into Arden¡¯s front door. It was only a second, or seven months, time is relative. Arden¡¯s wife Celethia was in labor. ¡°How is this possible.¡± Jev inquired.


    ¡°You know Time passes how we will it in Darkspace.¡± Arden said calmly.


    ¡°Not that and you know it, I thought your were sterile.¡±


    ¡°It seems something intervened to give me a little hope. That¡¯s a good name for the girl, Hope¡±


    ¡°Don''t you think, for the Oldest, that is a little on the nose, you should be more enigmatic.¡±


    ¡°Okay then what would you suggest oh wise one.¡±


    ¡°So you know it is a girl?¡±


    Arden looked at him incredulously. ¡°What do you think we have been doing all this time? Just sitting here waiting on you!?¡±


    ¡°Okay, sheesh, don''t get grumpy. Since hope is what she brings you, wait why hope?¡±


    Arden scratched his head, ¡°I, am not entirely sure, maybe it is because it might mean, someone is watching out for me, and is trying to make things better for an old being like myself.¡±


    Satisfied, Jev continued, ¡°How about Anya, it''s the latter half of how a small group of humans, a long time ago, said hope.¡±


    ¡°I like it,¡± a female voice spoke, ¡°now if you two don''t stop jabbering like old beings, I am going to RIP YOUR TONGUES OUT!¡±


    Both males, decided it would be best not to point out that they were old, or the difficulties in that feat considering they had no tongue but merely used their throat to talk. It was a smart choice, considering Celethia probably knew that, and, with certainty, meant their throat in the first place.

 Chapter 9: The First Vapid Recourse

    Area Unknown, Novus Ordo, Date Unknown.  Local Marker Unknown: Time Unknown


    I got up at the crack of dusk, I had a feeling I was going to have too much fun repurposing daytime idioms.  Quickly I check my notifications and am happily rewarded with the sight.


    -----Congratulations-----


    Due to surviving an entire day in the sun, you have a reduced the damage you receive by exposure by a quarter of a percent.


    Photosensitivity damage:  9.75%


    This was going to take a lot longer than I thought.  I was resigned to solitude in a forest at level 1 with no food, because I could not hunt, otherwise I would gain experience and level up.  Once I thought of food though, I of course, started feeling hungry.


    To take my mind of the hunger I focused on my hearing, all night.  You know I had half a mind to quit right now, the only thing holding me back was my promise to Lex.  Sitting against the same tree I repeated last night¡¯s exercise.  Total side note, I wonder if I just personified night, I mean I gave night, an inanimate¡­ thing, the ability to possess.  Anyway scrolling through the Wikipedia page on bats, I found that bats used the time difference sound hits their left and right ears to pinpoint the horizontal direction.


    After I analyzed a cricket I would then try to locate it directionally, I would then point to that direction, unfortunately, and this was not really of help because I realized that I could find the cricket just by the difference in loudness between my two ears.  I continued the exercise only because the game seemed to want recognition for actions, in order to give out rewards.


    I decided to leave my eyes open tonight, and simultaneously try to use improve my eyesight.  I picked out an object in the dark and tried to identify it, at the same time as banishing crickets.  This proved to be two difficult so I ended up alternating.  Off in the distance I thought I could see a bush.  I realized I needed to confirm what I was seeing.


    I was curious because the bush was not there during the day.  I cautiously approach the bush, watching and listening intently.  I reached out and touched the bush and it fell over.  With unhindered speed I kept backwards, narrowly escaping the fangs of a large spider.


    I never really had a fear of spiders, but I was afraid of this one.  I sat stunned, I may be unnaturally fast, but I had a feeling that this spider was faster, the fact I escaped earlier was sheer luck.  The spider circled me, moving with such grace no other could match.  Why are you not attacking?  My clothes!  Slowly I stood, not wanting to provoke this epitome of grace.  A stray thought went through my head at the spider¡¯s beauty, it was not ugly as one might expect, but its entire being emanated lithe precision.


    I locked eyes with the creature, though it had eight, it only had two on the front of its head, placed in almost human position, as close as you could get on a spider that is.  I saw an intelligence there, one most would ignore.  I decided to consider it sentient, I bowed deeply, my back parallel to the ground and my eyes, inches from his?  ¡°I apologize food encroaching on your hunting grounds, since I have stolen your chances of a meal tonight, allow me the attempt to replace it.¡±


    *Tring*


    I grinned satisfied as a quest popped up.


    -----Vapid Recourse-----


    Your foolish blundering has scared off prey, causing an unnecessary problem.  Help the Arachari get some dinner.


    --Quest Difficulty:  F--


    How was the difficulty ¡°F¡± if I have no weapon?  ¡°Well,¡± I start, as I turn to face the Arachari. (Arak-charee)  ¡°What do you normally eat?¡±  I was not actually expecting an answer, at least not one I understood, so I was surprised when the Arachari let out a short chirp, followed by two clacks of its fangs, then began skittering around franticly.  Frantic, is probably not the best word, for the he still moved with that same fluid beauty, nor was he scared.  He was just moving very quickly.


    I focused on him, trying to discern what it was he was doing, and as if he could read my mind he slowed, not much but just barely enough for my eyes to interpret his movements.  He was drawing, or more accurately, weaving a picture on the forest floor.  The picture was of an odd animal, but it looked familiar, it was, the picture at least, the size of an Aussie dog.  It was lithe with a long tale ringed tail, its face was pointed, like a mouse, and it had small ears.


    ¡°Got it.¡±  I boasted with determination that I definitely, did not, have.  The Arachari gave a single clack with its mandibles.  The sound was odd, it hung in the air longer.  I turned around and started jogging¡­ and then dove away from a moving tree!  Okay, the tree did not actually move but I was moving too quickly.  Dusting myself off, I try again, this time at a light jog.  After getting confident I sped up to same pace I tried to start with.


    It was odd, the speed I was traveling at now was a full sprint in reality.  I decided to have some fun.  I ran towards the dessert, and once I broke the tree line I let loose to a full sprint.


    I¡­ am¡­ fast! I thought, then I looked down at my feet, they were a blur of motion, I was probably running about forty miles an hour.  I look up and low cactus just yards in front of me, and I panic, then I just stop.  Suddenly I had no speed, it was if I was normal again, running was the same as it always was.  Cursing the game for its cruel tricks I headed back to the forest, which by now was just on the horizon.  I was just about to break into a jog when I noticed something, a lizard, a yard long was ambling through the sand.  It was about the same size as the dog thing.


    This would be a perfect substitute for the Arachari, and it moves so slow I should be able to beat it with a rock.  I scavenged for a suitable rock and hefted it above my head, waltzed over to the lizard and brought it down and hit dirt.  At the last second this sloth lizard jumped out of the way and put down a mad dash across the barren earth.  I sprinted after it, but it was just barely faster than me, at least in my new slow state.  Tired of eating its dust, I gave up, which is when the lizard went from fifteen, to Mach one in a second.  The damn thing took off into the desert like a slingshot.  Turning I see another sloth lizard but this one was walking faster than the one I just chased off planet.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I sighed and ran towards the forest, only to trip over a rock that was two hundred yards away.  I suddenly came to me that it was my brain that was changing speed, not my body.  Picking myself off the ground I started sprinting again, this time when I got to the tree line I focused, and my brain caught up with me.  I started weaving through the trees looking for one of those dog things, and it did not take me long to find one.  I grabbed a dead tree branch, ran up to it and creamed its head.


    --Sneak attack-(x2), Critical hit-(x4), improvised weapon-4, Strength-20, speed-35.  Total-470--


    --lesser kill-1, targeted strike-5, stealth kill-5, mercy(special)-5, one-hit kill-10.  Total-26xp--


    The mercy tag was strange, it did not seem merciful to behead an animal with a blunt object.  Maybe the cause was the instant death.  But, this was an isolated incident, as such it was impossible to deduce what the actual cause was, and I did not feel like butchering animals just figure it out.  At the same time though, I felt it was important somehow.


    I picked up the carcass and was about to run headlong into a tree, again.  Fortunately I stopped myself and focused.  The world slowed again, but only by a little, it wasn''t like the comic books where time seemed to stop.   This was part of the reason why I wasn''t able to notice it in the first place.  On my way back to the Arachari, I pondered the fact that I didn''t have to actually be sneaking to get a stealth attack.  It seemed as long as the attack was unexpected.


    I came to the bush that had covered my new friend.  It actually took me three hours just to find him, I held the carcass upside down, and its blood quickly pooled at my feet.  I looked down at my feet, curious at what was making them wet, and I froze.


    Several things happens in the three seconds I was in that trance.  First, I realized what was staring me in the face, I was a vampire.  The sensitivity to sunlight, the enhanced senses, and the buff during the night time, the speed and the strength, hell I was even in Erzebet forest.  As in the try and of the regent Elisabeth Bathory, where the term bloodbath comes from.


    Elisabeth Bathory, was a countess of Transylvania who was unimaginably cruel, and is only outranked in the legends of vampires by Dracula, a count of the same province of Hungary.  The interesting thing is she actually drank blood, unlike Vlad III the Impaler, whom Dracula is based, so she is more of a vampire than Bram¡¯s.


    The second thing that came to mind was a stupid pun about being Hungary for blood.  Stupid I know, but when have you never had a stupid thought?


    The last thing I thought was, damn.  Then I lost control.


    ***


    Deep Space, The Eagle Spire, 64, Phorcys 458.  SW-3 S.D.  Captain¡¯s Quarters


    ¡°You lied to me Alexander.¡±  Victor Ross said to the holoComunicator.


    ¡°I did not lie, I only did not tell you the truth.¡±  Alexander replied.


    ¡°There is no difference.¡±  Victor frowned.


    ¡°Captain, there is a quantifiable difference.  Lying means I told you something that was untrue.  I did no such thing, I merely avoided telling you true statements.¡±


    ¡°That is ostensible and you know it!¡± Captain Ross gritted his teeth.


    Alexander chuckled as if his best friend¡¯s frustration was comical, which in fact, at least to him, it was.  ¡°Be that as it may, it is still accurate, besides, you can''t expect me to just throw around galactic secrets.¡±


    ¡°You should have told me!¡± Victor almost shouted, he was quite angry with Alexander.


    ¡±And you should have asked!¡±  Alex yelled back.  ¡°I quit the career of my dreams, out of the blue, to move to the rim of the galaxy, to take up a teaching position on a blasted farm world, and you didn¡¯t even ask why.  Or, better yet, if I was okay.¡±


    Victor was mollified at this, it was true, he just assumed it was a midlife crises.  ¡°You¡¯re right, I didn¡¯t, I¡¯m sorry.¡±  He apologized, but he was a Captain, now some child, he did not look down ashamed, but straight into the eyes of his best friend.


    ¡°I cannot reveal to you the truth over tacCom, when you come back to Auctus I will tell you the story.¡±


    ¡°What if the boy does not like your gift?¡±


    ¡°Then I will see you sooner, but I have a feeling that I am going to stay right here.¡±


    ¡°What makes you so sure?¡±


    With a big Cheshire grin, Lex replied, ¡°Because that boy is special.¡±  Then his face went serious.  ¡°And because he must.¡±


    Ross was curious about Alexander''s last statement, but he knew he would have to wait for answers until he could securely talk in person.  ¡°We will all be calling him ¡®Sir¡¯ one day.¡±  He chuckled.


    Alexander looked at him with an intense stare,¡±I believe ¡®Sir¡¯ will be disrespectful.¡±  Then he cut the connection.


    Ross was left staring at empty space, pondering his friend¡¯s last words, and he had to admit, Alex was probably right.  He glanced at the clock.  In space time was counted in ten months, of a hundred days each.  Each day was two watches, first and second.  Each crew member had one watch on duty, followed by two off.  Each watch was five hours, and each hour was 52.6 minutes. There are no seasons in space, so that is not a problem Victor had second watch tomorrow.  The earth calendar day could is calculated by adding the minutes, or by divided the total days past in a Star Date year by 2.7397¡­ or by adding the minutes, yeah, that is easier.  It was just starting the fourth of first watch, Victor had first watch in the morning so he needed to get some sleep.

 Chapter 10: Fish Tank

    I am so bored!  I could no longer spend time with Rhiencala, Vastera took her to be reared properly.  I tried to talk to Aracor, but Sarrissa told me I could not, that he was too busy.  ¡°Too busy for the future queen of the Galaxy, who has brought word of a Mithrin.¡±  I belligerently tell her.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid¡­¡±  Sarrissa started, but I did not let her finish.


    ¡°I am not one of the vainglorious nobles who vie for power.  I know there are some things more important than me.¡±  Sarrissa looks about to speak, but I confidently bulldoze her voice.  ¡°That being said, I still know my value, and I coupled with significant information, that comes from a Mithrin, is of great import.  I just hope that my information does not turn out to be vital to whatever Aracor is doing.  It would be a shame if something terrible happened because you would not let me see him.¡±


    ¡°Do not threaten me!¡±  Sarrissa sneered.


    ¡°I will do what I wish, I am heir to the throne.  You even pay us fealty, if you wish to change that then I, and your dignitary, who is Aracor, will have to meet, besides, I was not threatening, it was simply a warning.  I do not appreciate being disrespected, and accused of such a debased action.¡±  I finished with a fierce glare, or my best attempted at one.


    ¡°You would go to war, simply because you were not given what you want, that seems excessive, and childish.¡±


    ¡°Dammit Sarrissa, if he is too busy, then he is too busy, I just wanted to present you the possible consequences, to sway you.  Have you never gone to a market where a vendor may tell you of all the bad things them at May befall you if you do not buy their items.  I hope you did not kill them for threatening an almighty dragon.  How dare you call me childish for something so benign!¡±  By this moment I was screaming at her.  It probably looked quite comical.  An almost six foot tall elf, scolding a forty foot dragon.  I reached down to the console in front of me and cut the transmission, and the Dragon disappeared, as if that elven girl simply banished it.


    So here I was now, in my room bored out of my mind.  Leth said she would be back a half mark ago!  I thought, it was vexing, without classes to take, I simply had too much free time.  This morning, while we were out riding, Leth told me she had an idea to carry me out of the doldrums.  She said it was a secret but it should be ready just after lunch.


    Tired of waiting, I got up to see if I could hunt down Leth, when she opened the door, ¡°about time!¡±  I said with the biggest impatient sigh in history.  ¡°You¡¯re late.¡±


    ¡°I apologize, your highness, but I believe the wait will be worth it.¡±  Leth huffed, out of breath.  ¡°It took me longer than I thought to drag this all the way from the barracks.¡±  Leth turned around and disappeared around the corner.  I heard a rough grating sound and in came Lethiel pushing a large tank filled with blue fluid, and it had a runed computer attached to the side she was pushing from.


    ¡°How is a war tank going to alleviate my boredom?¡±  I said, looking at the giant aquarium.  ¡°Am I supposed to put fish in that?¡±


    ¡°No silly, you know what this is, yes it¡¯s true that these reality devices were used for war, but now, they are used for more¡­¡±  She giggled at her rhyme, ¡°more recreational purposes.¡±  She beams at me, and I return with a derisive glare.  ¡°Now, don''t give me that look, I know how you hate this medium of social activity.  This is completely different, a whole new world was downloaded onto the servers!¡±  The elation on her face is overwhelming, but she pauses.


    Irritated I speak, ¡°okay what, what is it?¡±


    She had a gleam in her eyes and a smile that said ¡®I got you!¡¯  On my part, I stayed with my dispassionate glare, perturbed.  ¡°Well,¡± she started, then paused, as if to see if I were still paying attention.  ¡°It¡¯s a game!¡±


    ¡°Oh amaaazing!¡±  I sardonically reply, I was thoroughly disappointed with her revelation.


    ¡°No, you don''t get it, it¡¯s not like horseshoes on Paratopia,¡± Leth pleaded.  Paratopia was a social reality where people talked and laughed out loud, way faster than you could in real time.  ¡°It¡¯s a whole different world!  New places to explore, people to meet, things to do.  New rules and parameters that stretch the boundaries of our imagination!¡±


    I was actually interested, but I made sure I did not show it, though Leth already knew she had me.  But you know how it is, a girl''s gotta keep up appearances.  ¡°And how do you know this?¡±  I ask, something had me suspicious.


    ¡°Jimmy told me!¡±  She said with that gooey smile.  Jimmy is the notorious ¡®genius¡¯ who is courting Leth.  His real name is Natarjim, but ever since he discovered ¡®jimmy¡¯ in the code for Paratopia, it has become his moniker.   ¡°Jimmy is the head Cypher that fixes problems on the networks, he was the one who discovered the new code.  He read the code, but he did not enter the game.  He blocked it for everyone until it was deemed safe by the King, but after your ceremony, everyone would rather defer to you.¡±  She saw my panic and assured me.  ¡°Don¡¯t worry no one is asking you to govern, but they want your approval first.¡±


    ¡°I''m in.¡±  I shout, then shrink a little with embarrassment.  The thought of a new world where I could be anyone was quite appealing.


    ¡°What?  Just like that?  I would¡¯ve thought you would be more stubborn.¡±


    ¡°This is a chance to be myself, without the entire galaxy looking over my shoulder.  I will try it out.¡±


    ¡°Well you will have to start tonight, you can play whilst you sleep.¡±  I was about to argue, tell her I wanted to start now, but she continued, ¡°You must attend the Smuggle ball game.¡±


    I don''t even know who competed, don¡¯t get me wrong smuggle ball is an exciting sport.  I was just... preoccupied.  Leth had got me excited, and all I could think about were the possibilities in this new reality.  Leth told Jimmy to meet us at the gates to the palace after the game, where Leth and I waited for a whole mark!  He apparently witnessed a robbery, so he had to give an account.  The whole trip to my room was taken in silence, after my huge tirade, where I complained like a child about how long I had to wait.  We entered the entertainment area, a large living spaceman my quarters used when I have guests.  Jimmy quickly dropped his backpack on the floor and pulled out a large dark purple suit and handed it to me.


    ¡°You will have to change into this, Leth said you liked purple.¡±  Jimmy said as he bent down and pulled another object out of his pack.  It was a tablet, made of glass with a large strip of metal on one side, the kind you¡¯d use when computing.  ¡°Oh,¡± he added as I was about to head into my private quarters to change, ¡°the suit will conform to you after you put it on.  All you have to do is press that button.¡±  He pointed to a dark, glowing blue button on the beltline.  I nodded and turned to leave, ¡°and,¡± he added again.  I turned, this time giving him a frustrated look.  ¡°You should probably lay down, on a flat surface, so the floor or a table, before pressing that button¡±


    I turned to leave, but he added another thing, I just sighed, with a tired, annoyed look I turned back to him.  ¡°Um, well, you see¡­¡±  Jimmy was very red.


    ¡°I got it.¡±  I said, he obviously was trying to tell me I could not wear any underwear.  I dashed into my room hoping to avoid another Jimteruption.  Quickly, I stripped down to my underwear, sighed, and then removed that too.  The texture of the gangly gargantuan garment, was velvet, extremely soft to the touch, it slid smoothly over my bare skin, as I stepped through a hole in the back.  The suit was so large I was wondering how it would stay on me.  I reached behind me to try to seal the back, but the suit had done it on its own.  It did not surprise me though, I have many outfits that do the same.


    I laid down on the floor, and rested my head, then I pushed the button.  All at once the suit collapsed, squeezing me everywhere at the same time, I suddenly realized why Jimmy told me to lay down.  Without a bra, it was the only way to give support to my breasts, and also not flatten them against my stomach.  I heard a soft double-beep and the constriction stopped, then a tiny hiss, I then felt as if my entire body fell asleep for a second, as millions of tiny needles went into me and attached themselves to my nerves.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Standing, I turned toward a tall mirror and scoffed.  The suit left almost nothing to the imagination.  It was practically my skin.  All it left to the mind were my nipples, and the folds between my legs.  Taking another long sigh I turned around and left the room, on my way out I thought two things, one, thank god it obscured my crack, and two, damn, I look sexy!


    Jimmy, to his credit, kept his head down when I walked back in, so when his jaw dropped it still looked like he was looking at his tablet.  At least to Leth, who was behind him.  When he finally recovered he told me to get into the tank.  He reached to the side of the tank and brought up a wire helmet.  The thing was so thin, it looked like it would break if a fly sat on it.  He handed it to me and said, ¡°Your highness, please put this on, the suit gives physical input, while the wire cap give other input directly to your brain, like sight, smell and taste.  This game also has some other programs for the wire cap, but I could not figure out what they did.¡±  His look suddenly becomes serious, and for a second, I could see why Leth liked him so much, but Jimmy was not my type, so the thought went away quickly.  ¡°Your highness, all I know about this place is it has different rules, and it''s, enormous.  It''s a solitary planet, five hundred times the size of Stermihhil.¡±


    That was insane, Stermihhil is the largest star in the galaxy.  It was 3.63 billion kilometers across.  ¡°Different rules?¡±  I ask.


    ¡°Your highness, from what I can gather, resources are unlimited, things seem to replace themselves in short order.  It will seem like months, but in real time it is much shorter.¡±  He paused in thought.  ¡°Many things that are impossible here are paltry there.  Perhaps, a better way to describe it is, if you can think it you can do it.  There are limitations, but you will find out what they are.¡±  Another pause.  ¡°And one more thing, the game seems to read your brain signals, to interpret what you want, what comes most naturally.  If you wish truly wish to see in infrared light, the game will make it easier, show you how to obtain such an ability.¡±


    With that he gave me a runed mask to supply me with breathable air.  Jimmy made sure I put it on right, then he looked back down at his tablet, he touched a few things and the liquid I was in changed density and I slowly fell beneath the fluid, and I stayed there floating as if I was in space.  The fluid does not hurt my eyes.


    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­


    Lifting quarantine¡­  Establishing preliminary pathway¡­  Pathway secure, establishing primary pathway¡­  Pathway secure, initializing data synchronization¡­ %10¡­ %25¡­ %50¡­ %75¡­ %90¡­ Unpredicted complication¡­ Complication addressed, proceeding¡­ Data synchronization complete¡­ Initializing submersion¡­


    Blinding blue light came into my eyes, I tried to shut them but I couldn''t.  The light mellowed to a soft ocean blue, and a woman appeared.  She was clad quite scantily, and she was so beautiful, even I was blushing.  It probably didn''t help that she was wearing a very translucent purple dress, exposing her full chest.


    ¡°Welcome child,¡± she spoke.  Her voice held power, it was not soft, but it was melodic, as if she held all the wisdom in the universe.  ¡°I am Wisdom,¡± well I guess she does, ¡°I apologize, I am not quite used to doing this introduction yet, actually I was a virgin, until now.¡±


    At that comment I was completely abashed, and my face was scarlet.  I could''ve been my imagination, but I swore I felt blood coming out my nose, but I had no arms to check.  Besides the feeling quickly disappeared when she started laughing.


    She seemed to understand my facial expression.  ¡°Ha haa, I do apologize again child, you must forgive an old woman and her little amusements.  I only meant this is my first introduction.  I have many children, I b piece you could say I am experienced in that area.¡±


    She paused as if giving me a chance to speak, but all I could say to her was.  ¡°You''re as much an old woman, as my uncle.¡±


    She laughed, for like twenty minutes.  ¡°I like you child, I can see why my daughter enjoyed this so much.  You see normally my daughter Hope is normally the one who does these initiations, but she is currently preoccupied, for the foreseeable future.¡±  The way she said it, it was as if she could foresee it.  ¡°Well, let''s get started.¡±  She gave a flourish and a mirror appeared.  ¡°Do you wish to change your appearance?¡±  She bawdily said, pushing her chest out.


    It was obvious what she was saying, so more out of defiance than preference I a geeky shouted no.  As the mirror started shimmering I shouted ¡°wait!¡±  She gave me a voluptuous smile, which I ignored and said, ¡°I want my mother¡¯s nose.¡±  I had my father¡¯s angry nose, though it did not take too much away from my beauty, It was not a vain decision.  Right now I wanted nothing to do with my father.


    Wisdom gave a frown, as if surprised, but curious as to why I chose that.  I misinterpreted it to mean she was confused.  I realized my blunder, how could she know what my mother¡¯s nose looked like.  I was about to describe it when her face relaxed and with a flourish in my direction, my nose changed.  It was almost exactly like my mother¡¯s, the only difference was it was crafted to better fit my face.  I was shocked, but felt it better not to question Wisdom.


    She nodded her approval, as if her sultry behavior was merely a test.  I suddenly felt insignificant in front of her.  Sensing my fear, she spoke with a voice laced in appeasement.  ¡°Do not fear child, for it is I who fear, as of this moment, you have much more power to sway the universe than I.¡±  I was about to speak, but she continued.  ¡°Now, what do you wish to be called?¡±


    I thought for a moment, ¡°Violet¡±.


    There was a minute presence of surprises in her eye, but it vanished in a blink.  ¡°Well, Violet, welcome to Veritas Redefined.¡±


    Confused I asked, ¡°What does that mean, what language is that?¡±


    ¡°It is actually two languages, both are primary languages of the Forgotten.¡±


    ¡°The Forgotten have more than one language?  Would that not be confusing for their race?¡±


    ¡°There was a time when the Ljosalfar had multiple languages.¡±


    ¡°But that was thousands of ages ago¡­  You did not answer my question, the first one.¡±


    ¡°It means truth, brought into a new light, reevaluated, because new information has been discovered.¡±


    ¡°Are you part of that new information?¡±


    She then gave me the biggest compliment I have ever received.  ¡°You are very wise, more so than I would have expected, Jev just might succeed.  To answer your question¡­  Not yet.¡±


    She then shimmered out of existence, leaving me to ponder if she was real or not, I decided to treat her as if she was.  Then everything went black, but just for a second, then a golden glow enveloped me and I opened my eyes.


    ¡°Welcome traveler, you have awoken in the temple of the Stars¡±


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    I hope I am a convincing woman.  All you LADIES out there, please, please, I beg of you, give me input on how to better portray the female psyche.  I do not want a female lead defined by vanity and sexuality, but at the same time, girls are sexy, and they care about how they look.  If you think something is offensive, or not feminine, please comment your opinion and I will evaluate its prudence, along with another female friend.  I am not bigoted, and I wont say I completely understand women, but at the same time, I am not so naive to think that they are not unpredictable.  Also if you think my comment about women being sexy is sexist, go somewhere else, that would be like me being insulted because you described me as white.  ^,..,^

 Chapter 11: Not so Itsy Bitsy Spider.

    Erzebet Forest, Novus Ordo, Date Unknown.  Local Marker Unknown: Time Unknown


    I have decided to start a regimen, after yesterday''s¡­ Incident, it was clear I needed more information.  After the game recognized my understanding of my race it gave me Sanguine as my subspecies, labeled my abilities as traits, and gave me the reason behind the night buff, and, to my chagrin, lowered the buff to times two.  Interestingly though, my speed did not seem to change, like before I had a limiter on me, and now I could only go this fast.  All that meant though, was I could get faster!  Another downside was I also got a debuff during the day, halfing my traits and abilities.


    This was my last night for the night in reality.  The first thing I needed to do was push my balance, it was something I put on the burner, but I was actually excited.  I''ve spent ten years incapable of balance, this was finally a chance for me to test it out.  I spent two minutes trying to climb the tree different ways, and finally settled on an awkward ¡°rope climb¡±.  After reaching the first thick six inch branch I swung up on the branch.  I got my feet under me and slowly tried to stand.  I expected it to be difficult, therefore, when I tried to compensate for nothing, I lost my balance and started to fall.  I focused and the world slowed, it was barely noticeable, but it was enough.  I quickly and precisely caught myself, then slowly stood again.


    Tentatively taking steps, it took all my concentration not to bug out.  The balancing part actually came easy, it was the fear, not of falling, but of doing the unknown, like walking into a dark cave.  Getting more comfortable with time, my steps become confident.  I smile slowly crept across my jaw, I was finally at the same level as everyone else, well at least in balance.  I started sprinting across branches, leaping and climbing higher.  When I climbed another twenty yards up I noticed the reason theses  trees stayed standing.  The branches had grown together, connecting each tree to its neighbors.  The beaches were wider now, the same width as the trunk at eight inches.


    They were like pathways which I, of course, used to get to the top.  An hour later I came to the top, panting, with plus two to speed and endurance, and plus ten in climbing.  There were three moons in the sky, and trillions of stars, beauty did a disservice to the sight.  As much as I wanted to continue to look at the sight, I knew I needed to train.  I''m a vampire, which means I''ll have to meet them to gain more information, and if vampires were anything like the legends, then I needed to be stronger.


    With a deep sigh and looked down to start my descent and I froze, the realization struck me like lightning, the branches were aligned with reason, and it''s shape¡­ Was a spider¡¯s web.


    ¡°Will you walk into my parlour?¡±


    I shuddered, that other spider was nice enough, but the size of the ¡°web¡± meant something.  Either there was one monstrous spider, or worse, and more likely, thousands, hundreds of thousands, of, relatively, smaller spiders.  It was beautiful, but it held danger.  ¡°To ask me is in vain,¡± I said aloud, ¡°for who goes up your winding stair, can ne¡¯er come down again.¡±


    *Tring*


    --Codex found! (2/???)--


    -The Spider and the Fly, you have found a Codex ability, Trap detection.  This skill can be earned by lesser means, but a Codex will grant you more experience, and a more powerful version of the ability.  Trap detection:  25.


    --Trap detection is now at Tier 5, apprentice.  You can now detect most traps up to 25 feet away, and novice traps through walls.--


    Suddenly a few blue dots appeared in my vision, but for a split second I swore I saw the entire forest shine with the same ghost blue.


    The chill up my spine was more like a freight lift packed with Semtex, threatening to explode into full blown panic.  With a deep breath I reigned myself in.  I needed to get down, fast.  I focused, then listened, I crouched and put my ear to the trunk.


    I heard thousands of little thuds, nothing seemed to be in a hurry, but I was wary nonetheless.  I started down the same way I came up, I did not trip any alarms coming up, as the saying goes ¡®if it ain''t broke.¡¯  The going down was easy, that was until halfway I started to hear other spiders, unfortunately they were behind me and they forced me deeper into the forest.


    It took me twenty minutes to get to the lowest branches in the lattice.  Signs of Arachari became increasingly apparent, silky white fibers covering the trees.  I paused, stood completely still, I had several senses, I wanted to use them.  First I touched one of the silk fibers, one that didn''t have the soft blue hue, indicating a trap.  It felt like my omnicomp when I get a message, the image of tiny spiders running around inside the frame made me laugh.  Unfortunately, I was still in contact with the silk.  The vibrations ceased, for a moment, then resumed.  This time the vibrations were in sync, it even seemed to make sound.


    Spiders use different patterns or songs to tell certain things, and the Portia Labiata spider uses those same ¡°tunes¡± to attract other spiders to the edge of their webs.  If I had to guess, I tripped an alarm, though the alarm sounded alot like ¡°Itsy Bitsy Spider.¡±  I stifle another laugh, which became fear when the dire reality dawned on me.  They knew someone was in their home, and they were searching.  I had to press on, I could not go back the way came, in case I ran into investigative patrols.  With a heavy sigh, I press onward, now every branch has webbing on it, and I keep time to the song.  Keeping track of the vibrations through my bare feet.


    Around the fiftieth ¡°Down came the rain,¡± the vibrations stopped.  I lurched precariously on my left toes, I had never been so thankful for balance as this moment.  The vibrations came back with the same constant hum it had before I laughed.  I gently sit down on the branch to calm my nerves.  I look up and blanch, every web above me had a blue hue to it.  The only routes I have were the way I came the way ahead and the ground.  Ahh, the ground! I facepalmed, I could have avoided this whole thing!


    Trying to find my way down, I saw movement in the distance, about thirty yards away there was a girl in a pond, swimming.  No she was not naked, that only happens in the vids, no-one goes skinny dipping alone anyway.  She had a shamrock bikini, and though strapless it efficiently covered her bosom.  The girl had dark hair, pitch even.  She obviously was unafraid of being in this forest, so naturally I assumed she could help me.  I got down from my perch sliding down a trunk and landing softly on the dirt.  While still cautious I announced myself.  ¡°Hello, miss, could you help me?  I seem to have lost my way.¡±  I say with a smile.  Turns gracefully in my direction.


    ¡°Are we spying on me.¡±  She says coyly, in ancient greek I might add.  Why do women always assume men are spies.


    ¡°We are not spies, at least I am not, if I was I would not have announced myself.  And what reason could one have to spy on oneself?¡±  I said in my own coy manner, also in ancient greek.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you clever, well obviously not clever enough, to get lost in your own forest.¡±  As I was taking steps closer, her face came into detail, the had four eyes on her forehead, much like Trigon, from those pre space, picture stories.  And one on each side of her head, two inches above and behind of her ears.  I had a feeling she was a lot more at home in this forest than I was.


    Since running probably was not the best idea, I decided to play this one out.  ¡°My forest it may be,¡± I said¡­  What?  It probably is not a lie, It¡¯s called Erzebet forest after all.  ¡°But I was not reared here.¡±


    She frowned, ¡°Sapien!¡± She growled.  ¡°How dare you, this place belongs to the Arachne!¡±


    ¡°Woah easy, first, I thought you were Arachari?¡±  This was an educated guess based on my wiki knowledge on Arachne.


    ¡°Yes, that is what we are known as, just as you Sapiens are known as Human.¡±  She scoffed at me, actually scoffed, as if I was some impertinent two year old holding her hostage.


    ¡°Second, I am not Sapien, I am Sanguine.¡±  At that admission a pulse ran through my body, normally I would take time to study it, but I had more pressing concerns, like staying alive.


    The girl suddenly gave a frightened look, confused, I looked behind me, half expecting to see a ferocious monster.  ¡°W-why are you this far south?¡±


    Ignoring her fear I pondered her statement, I had come east, which meant vampires were up north, I now had a direction.  Unfortunately it seems I will have to get a lot stronger before I arrive there, it seems that we will have¡­ Conflicting points of view.  ¡°Calm down, I mean you know harm.¡±  My statement did not seem to assuage her trepid behavior, so I asked her a question.  ¡°Why are you afraid?¡±


    This got the intended result and she visibly relaxed, ¡°You really don¡¯t know?¡±   I stepped forward so she could see me and nodded.  ¡°Most, in fact almost all Vampires are nice, in fact they are quite enjoyable, but there is a small contingent of old and powerful Vampires that are cruel, and full of hate.  No they don''t hate, they are just cruel.  And the nice Vampires have no reason to be underneath the palace.¡±


    It noticed that it was a little brighter than it was, ¡°Can I ask you a favour?¡±  I said beseechingly.  Her fearful look returned, quickly I added, ¡°If I can prove to you that I am friendly?¡±


    At this she came out of the water, full of grace, as if she were floating, not walking on eight legs.  To call it walking would be an insult, maybe traipsing, or promenading would be better.


    I got a look at her lower half, she wore a chartreuse swimming skirt over her human pelvis, her thorax was small about twice the size of a rugby ball.  It was odd, to me, who had never seen it before, but it was not ugly.  She was beautiful, I must have said the thought out loud because she immediately turned red.  She turned around and sat on the river bank, I came over beside her.  I had this overwhelming urge to touch her thorax, which I acted on.  It was overwhelming, It felt like slightly tougher human skin, I scratched it and she shivered.  I bashfully retreated until she shook her head.  ¡°Don¡¯t stop.¡±


    So I didn¡¯t, instead I told her, ¡°I will prove to you I mean no harm.¡±  Her beat red face nodded, I continued, ¡°I come from far away, a place that, while it has its faults is amazing in its own right.  There I work on a farm, and occasionally fly through space.¡±


    She looked at me curiously, ¡°Where else would you fly but through space, I would imagine flying through dirt would be quite difficult!¡±  She said with a laugh, the ruby started to fade.


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°You misunderstand, I meant through the stars!¡±  I replied with my own smile.


    ¡°You''re a Traveler!  Just like me!  But that''s impossible, there are no Vampire Travelers.¡±


    ¡°I was not originally a Vampire, or maybe I was, sort of, anyway, I started my journey here Human, but along the way was turned.¡±


    Shocked she asked ¡°you were bitten?¡±


    ¡°What,?  No!  I, sort of, chose to be one, like you chose to be an Arachari.¡±


    ¡°I did not choose to be anything, Arachne is what I am.¡± She berated while standing.


    ¡°Wait, you mean, you are like this in reality too, how, where?¡±


    She was mollified by my question, and its sincerity, so she sat, and inclined her head to her thorax.  With a smile I resumed my petting.  ¡°We call the planet Rachnai¡±  The Wiki flashed through my head, at first I thought it was info on the planet, but it turned out to be a fictitious race, in a pre-space game about space, huh, how ¡®bout that.  I returned to a slightly miffed face.  I gave an apologetic glance, she continued.  ¡°We were banished to this world, by the human goddess Athena, after Mother Arachne, tried to show the Humans the corrupt nature of Zeus.  We tried to go back to your world using a Gate Key.  A single use Item to transport a Thousand Arachari back to your realm, somehow we miscalculated, and we were put on a forest planet.  We spent our lives learning, trying to get back to this realm, so we could bring everyone back.  Turns out we can''t, not without a Gate.¡±


    I tried to wrap my head around what she told me, Zeus real?  That had to be fake, but she says she lives in our realm.  ¡°Humans are not the same, tell your people to let go of your hatred, we would readily accept your kind.¡±


    ¡°We don''t hate Humans, not anymore, not really, 5000 years is a long time to hold a grudge, but what makes you certain?¡±


    ¡°We accepted the Fae, and the Unicorns, we have made contact with a race called the Dashad, in fact my best friend is one!  I¡¯m actually surprised we have not run into each other before if we are both space faring.¡±


    ¡°Our only presence in the void are mining ships and planetary defense.  We do not explore.¡±


    It was now definitely sunrise as it was now bright enough I could see the color of her eyes, they were golden, with a tinge of purple speckled around the pupil.  I sped thing up, ¡°Miss¡­ I¡¯m sorry I still do not know your name, I am Vadak here, but James Rex Outside, a nobody, from nowhere.¡±


    ¡°I am Armia Aracne, here and Outside, Princess of the Arachar.¡±


    ¡°Well, my lady, I will find your race, in the meantime I have to go, could you possibly, for the next while, feed me some blood and keep a leaf over me, and only the leaf, don''t put me in a cave, while I am asleep.  I have to leave for a while, it would be nice if you could do that for me.¡±


    She gave me a horrid look, but then relaxed, ¡°Fine but only for a month, in here, and I won''t have to feed you anything, but you will be famished when you come back.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±  I gave her a hug, something she clearly was not used to, then I stood.  ¡°Oh wait, do you have something to write with?¡±  She nodded and stood up went to a nearby tree and pulled something out of a brown backpack.  It was a piece of charcoal.  I focused, and the world slowed, just enough that if someone said the spanish word ¡°pero¡±, which means ¡°but¡± it would sound like ¡°perro¡± which means ¡°dog¡±.  And I started to draw, It was a rough sketch of the milky way galaxy.  ¡°I live here,¡± I pointed to the very edge of the drawing, ¡°about where are you?¡±


    She pointed close to the center, Inside our TDZ, or Temporal Danger Zone, suddenly I knew why we had not found them.  The TDZ was a wide circle around the center of the Milky Way.  It¡¯s an Imaginary boundary that is a no-fly-zone, at  or above light speed.  It was created to keep people from accidentally getting sucked into the black hole at the center, or flying through it in hyperspace.  The real line of danger was actually a thousand parsecs inside the TDZ but, there is a reason why elevators are built to hold twice their specified safety weight.


    ¡°Last thing have your communications people start broadcasting a message on the UV spectrum, short pulse, long pulse, long pulse, long pulse, and a one second pause, short, long, one second, long, long, one second, short, one second, short, short, short, then wait two and a half seconds and repeat.¡±  I wrote the dots and dashes on the leaf for her.


    The sun was starting to peek over the horizon and I had to log out.  I gave Armia another hug, which she was still uncomfortable with, ducked under the leaf and logged out.


    --Terminating sequence--


    Outer Ring, Sector six, Greenton, Auctus, February 15, 449 UE. Sabol Residence: 200hrs A.M.S.T.


    It was two in the morning, on most days everyone was up by now.  Hell, most people were up at the zero hour, but hey it was Saturday so people slept in.  Except Mr. and Mrs. Sabol, and those like them, farmers, who were up by the first hour at the latest.


    Alexander Soto was walking up the path to his charge¡¯s house, to inform him of a change in plans, when he heard said charge, calling to him from behind.


    ¡°Lex, I was just going to go look for you.¡±  James paused.  ¡°I see you found my house.¡±  James held a face that said he was about to die of laughter.


    Lex with quizzical yet annoyed expression stated, ¡°yeah, so?  And why are we speaking Ancient Greek?¡±  Lex'' anoyed look was just for show, James knew that, James also knew how to annoy him, so he deserved the look.  This time though, it was hard to keep up the facade.  A normally clumsy boy ran like an Olympian sponsored by Atlanta herself, hell, he was even speaking Ancient Greek.  He decided to play along, but he was still stumped, and that was a new feeling.


    "Thought I''d change it up, ¡°and I guess you really are a conquistador!¡±  And James belted his laughter nearly falling to the floor.  "Discovering  my house way out here in Sector Six."


    With the same perturbed facade, Alex replied, ¡°ha, ha, ha, you''re hilarious, because my middle initial and primary surname have the same phonetics as the conquistador Hernando de Soto.  I am Russian dammit I have no clue how that name came about.¡±


    ¡°That''s an oxymoron.¡±  Dignified James after he recovered.


    ¡°Which part?¡±


    ¡°Primary Surname, duh, it''s funny how you thought being Russian could be an oxymoron!¡±


    ¡°I see you are having fun picking me apart, it seems fun!  How about I give it a try, hmm?  James I noticed you did not trip while sprinting like a madman, also you were slightly faster than I thought you were, still well within human bounds but, well?¡±


    James blanched a little, ¡°Really?  I didn''t notice.¡±  He landed the most unbelievable excuse of all time.  Quick to change the subject he said, ¡°anyway, I came to find you, because I wanted to tell you that I am about to become the most popular and most important person in the galaxy, under the High King, of course.¡±


    Alexander became nervous, did he find out?  He thought, but he hid it well enough and pressed for Intel.  ¡°Really?  How do you figure?¡±


    ¡°I found and made contact, with a sentient alien race!  I have to tell Captain Ross I will take his job offer, only if we make physical contact with the Arachari the highest priority.¡±


    ¡°The Arachari eh? Why do I get feeling there is catch?¡±


    Lex¡¯ accent was slipping, possibly from the surprise, but more likely, he was still sore from the Spaniard joke.  ¡°Your English is terrible.¡±  James tried to dodge the question, but Alex kept giving him a firm look.  Reluctantly James added, ¡°they''re in the TDZ.¡±


    ¡°Oh, is that all, are you sure there planet I sent inside a star!¡±


    ¡°Jeez Lex, it''s not that bad.¡±


    ¡°How far?¡±


    ¡°At least 150 parsecs.¡±


    ¡°Obviously it''s outside survey range, otherwise we would know about it, but, and correct me if I''m wrong, you don''t have any clue where they are?¡±


    ¡°I have a clue!¡±  James pontificated.  He picks up a stick and drew a circle then a smaller one is the central of the larger circle, he then put a dot on the edge of the large circle.  If this is the Milky Way, and that dot is us, the smaller circle is the TDZ, and this dot,¡± he said placing his stick two inches inside of the smaller circle, ¡°is them.¡±


    ¡°You just pointed out a hundred square parsecs, at least.  Well, I was concerned how I was going to break to you that you only had till Sunday, the Eagle Spire changed its plans, she dumped her cargo at their first port and are coming back here.  Now, it seems you will have to pack.¡±


    Alexander watched James run inside his house, then he did an about face, and walked back down the long drive way.  He was going home, he decided he was not going to tell Victor about the boy''s plan, he''d let James do that.  All he wanted was to be a fly on the wall during the revelation.  Just a Alexander reached the end of the the gravel driveway, James darted past him towards the woods in between the school and where he was currently standing.  Lex almost missed James'' comment about him being a conquistador, he let it slide, he was more curious about where James was going, and why he had yet to fall on his face.


    Alexander always found the answer, it was in his blood.  But, for the life of him, he could not figure out what was going on with that boy.


    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Hey peeps, sorry for the really late release, had family over, had not seen them in a while, and I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them.  To make up for it, this is a long chapter.  And, if all goes well, I will have another today!.  Sorry for any extra errors, could not use word, so I had to eyeball my own errors.  See you later!


    Mudrost-  ^,..,^


    Edit:  I decided to change the second half of the pond scene.  I tried rewriting it four times, it was just too vulgar for my taste, and it seemed fake, so I changed it a bit.  Anyway its now still PG-13, at least I think so.  Thanks for understanding!  ^,..,^

 Chapter 12: Midshipman Rex

    60 mi outside Greenton, Auctus, February 15, 449 UE. The Treehouse:  220hrs A.M.S.T.


    Shit shit shit shit shit!  I was frantically trying to work on the third ship.  I decided to make a third ship, one for Ernie.  The other to could be built by my armBots, well to a point, I had to be there for the personal touches, but that could wait till much later.  Ernie seemed to be the kind of guy who was wip smart, but hated the limelight, so I was building a stealth personnel carrier.  It was kind of like a marine dropship.  Okay it was a marine dropship, except the cockpit was its own ship, a tiny little stealth fighter.  The kind of ship that would be undetectable, both optically and with any conventional or military detection system, even LADAR.  Its only weapons would be two four count cyner pods an automated laser turret, for point defense and anti personnel, and the PAN-ACE-A or Polymorphic, Advanced, Nanomolecular, Anihilator.  The ¡°ACE¡± is silent, or just there to make the acrostic work.  Besides, now I could have different models, like the PAN-ACE-B and such.


    Anyway, like the name suggests it¡¯s the ultimate cure all.  Basically it¡¯s a tiny particle accelerator turned into a weapon.  Basically, if used right, it would rend any ship in two, hel it could destroy a star.  But it was a one-off, the weapon had a five minute start-up, and it required to be refueled with unstable Uranium and Plutonium.  A special very expensive molecular compound.  The cockpit would in theory be able to attach to two different bodies.  A dropship, and an evac ship.


    That was the theory anyway, the problem is the damn separator, I¡¯ve been at this for an hour and still can''t figure out a way to make the damn thing work.  Every time I¡¯ve attempted a separation it¡¯s blown out the dropship hull.  Which is where I am now, I have 50 hours till Captain Ross docks on The Atrium and I can''t get this damn thing to work!


    You should make the airlocks out of superdense carbon polymers.  Dreq said as he came in.


    ¡°Dreq you¡¯re here!  Great get on the two dragons, and I¡¯ll try the diamond polymer.¡±  Dreq was talking about bullet proof glass, well for this day and age.  Imagine bullet proof glass for powder based firearms, but make it harder than diamond.  You get a flexible extremely hard piece of glass.  At two inches thick, it could stop a MPD or Manned Payload Device, basically a small wrist fired missile designed for taking out dropships.  Why aren¡¯t dropships made with this, because it''s heavier than god, expensive too, but mostly heavy.


    I put a two inch thick vertical airlock on the dropship, and a one inch thick vertical airlock on the main ship.  The added weight was a pain, but it actually balanced the PANACEA, and separation went off without a hitch.


    Now it was time for Dreq¡¯s suit, turns out the only thing he built were the wings, which actualy worked amazing.  Dreq modeled them after real bird wings, they would have been impossible to build without nanites, the only difference was the outer feathers were solide adamantium, not billions of fibers, like real feathers.  Dreq said he wanted them to act like a shield, so the outer layer was more solid.  It cut down on flight capability but it actually worked.  Dreq synced them to his nervous system, had them harnessed on his back.  He could actually do short ¡°hops¡± of flight, like a peacock or a chicken!


    The trouble was the infuriating suit.  The metron would not bond to the inside of the suit.  Or it would break.  Honestly I have not done much work with metron, normally I just ordered the parts with it in them.  It turns out metron is way cheaper than I thought, the parts were expensive because metron was so hard to work with.  IT so happens that there is no ¡°proper¡± way to do it, you just have to apply it over and over and over, till it works.  That took Twenty-FIVE HOURS.  Twenty-five hours of cursing, frustration, and doing the same thing over and over again.  It was like someone wanted to pull a joke on insanity by creating metron.  Doing the same thing a thousand times is insane, but doing it a thousand and one times, and finally getting it right was genius.  Just like Thomas Edison.  The suit was tricked out with the same thing mine had, optical, audio, and olfactory enhancements,


    The only difference was the addition of small repulsors at the rear of the wings, for extra speed, and for traversing in zero Gs.  Also I retrofitted the suit so the wingpack stade on the harness Dreq wore, it was clear he was never going to part with the wings.


    Fifteen hours and counting till Captain Ross arrived, I spent the time finishing up the dragon class ships, and I built the evac hull for the Bat class.  That''s what I am calling the stealth ship, mostly because the atmoWings (atmospheric) wrap around the hull while in space, like a bat when it''s in a tree.  Dreq, he, played with his suit the whole time.  Well, after he modified the dropship to become an  all-terrain APC, same with the evac ship.  A brilliant Idea really but I wish he did more to help.


    He finally quit with his suit three hours before I had to get up to the Atrium.  He started ¡°Calibrating the main batteries.¡±  Who spends that much time on the freaking main battery, and how does it get uncalibrated in the first place.  His response to when I posed that question was ¡°Garrus Vakarian, and why are we speaking ancient greek?¡±


    Cause I was speaking it in the game and keep forgetting to switch to English.


    Okay, why were you speaking ancient greek in the the game?


    I closed my eyes and grabbed for the preons, and sent Dreq all the memories I had of the bast few days in game.  It was something only Dashad, or their Bondmates could do, it was a much faster way of communicating.  I got an hour of peace while Dreq was processing the information.  At the end the only thing he said was¡­


    You were scratching her butt?


    No!  I was petting her Thorax.  And she liked it.


    I¡¯ll bet she did, who does not like it when random strangers scratch their butt?


    I was not!  Besides you saw her say ¡°Don¡¯t stop.¡±


    Yes but was that your memory or your weird twisted fantasy.


    You know it was my memory.


    Yes, but can''t a guy just tease you for a little.


    You would not let me gripe, so you can''t tease.  Now help me realign the flux capacitors.


    The Atrium, Protovitae System,  February 16, 458 UE.  Docking bay A6832: 417 hrs  A.M.S.T.


    I docked at the same dock as last time, It seems Mr, Silver recognised my RF signature, or at least told STC to dock me here.  When I got off I made sure to show my gratitude with Ten credits.  It was just five credits shy of a membership, but Mr, Silver was discrete, and apparently loyal, I appreciate that.  Ten credits was half my remaining balance, but hopefully Captain Ross and Bosun Andrei can still pay for my work, considering they dumped their cargo.


    Dreq decided to come with me, we argued on the way, but he insisted.  He said that I was an adult, and he was ready to reveal himself.  The secret of our Bond would get out, he said we were ready, but I was not so sure.  Could we fight the noble class.  Dreq was Prince of the Dashad, I would be a defacto King, for all intents and purposes.  A lot of nobles will fight it.  I did get a good laugh though, he gave Mr. Silver the fright of his life.


    I had my duster on, with the red on the inside, but the hood was tucked inside.  Dreq¡¯s suit matched his coat, stripe for stripe, and the wings were a matted white, and painted to make them look real, but the paint switched to a more reflective white when he was in his suit.


    As we made our way to bay B72, Dreq used his suits claws to do his flight leaps from tree to tree, he still had not quite gotten used to flying, without jumping, but he flew nonstop the last quarter mile.  If people were surprised at me flying without repulsors, Dreq was a polka-dotted unicorn.  When we landed outside of the B72¡¯s causeway, two Dashad, walk in front of us.


    Blasphemer, the right one said, how dare you pretend to be Elurra!


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I am Elurra! Dreq replied.  The Dashad were surprised to hear a response, they looked at me, thinking I was the one who spoke.


    The left one snarled and said to me, you lie!  I should rip out your throat!.


    Dreq stepped in front of me, his helmet split in half and slid up, revealing his snowy face  You will do no such thing, Tiger!


    The Dashad on the right immediately bowed and apologised, but the on on the left growled, How dare you call me such a vile animal.


    You are right, tigers are considered noble, you are a hyena.  Instead of being civil with us you act like a savage animal.  Dreq threw out a mental attack and the Dashad retreated along with his companion.  Dreq closed his helmet and continued down the causeway.


    We entered the bay and were greeted by Captain Ross.  Dreq immediately flew up to the rafters, probably to take a nap, he liked to take naps in high places, like trees.


    Captain Ross, Andrei Ernie and the longshoremen were standing mouth agape, towards the ceiling, praising the heavens for¡­  I actually don''t know why.  Or, they could be surprised, yeah that¡¯s probably it.


    ¡°Kid, you maybe wanna quit with the surprises, I hate surprises.¡±  Captain Ross said.


    ¡°Not sure what you mean Cap, besides, who doesn¡¯t like surprises?¡±  I ask with a smile on my face.


    ¡°People who have seen combat, or run a spaceship, I¡¯ve had plenty of both, which means I like surprises doubly less.¡±


    ¡°Well I guess Ernie does not get his ship then, since you don''t like surprises, oh and I¡¯ll have to take some things off your ship.¡±  I sigh and look dejected.


    ¡°O-orale, Capitan, maybe, your being to hastie, eh, nuevo hombre built me a ship, maybe you could make an exception, just for him, besides he kinda fits under the column of, extenuating circumstances.¡±  I had the distinct feeling Ernie knew something I didn¡¯t, but I let it pass, I was enjoying the moment.


    The Captain nodded, ¡°Alright how much is Ernie''s ship gonna cost me?¡±  The captain stole my dejected look.


    ¡°Well, his ship was not in the deal, so it¡¯s free, you will only have to stock the supplies, it kinda bled me dry.¡±  I gave a disheartened giggle.  ¡°Captain, the specials on your ship are weaponised countermeasures and extended sensors, honestly you could find way better sensors, since it¡¯s not a specialty of mine so you may want to upgrade them, don''t worry, I¡¯ll install them for free.¡±


    ¡°The weaponised countermeasures are my thing though, basically I thought with you being Captain, your job is to watch over the crew, if one of your fighters is ¡°tagged,¡± you can fire countermeasures to intercept the Cyners.  Andrei your ship is made to order, what you asked for you got,let me know if you think of anything that can be upgraded.¡±


    ¡°Lastly, Ernie, you struck me as the kind of guy who only wants to be noticed when you want to be noticed.  So you have a stealth ship¡±  I brought up an image of the Bat-class ship with a holoprojector.  ¡°This is the all new bat-class ship.  It¡¯s a multitool, on this tiny craft are the most advanced stealth systems I could create, I''m sure there are better but the nanites can make up the difference.  This ship is a cure all fix all ship, perfect for a ranger or a scout.  Its main battery is highly illegal, oops, I mean, slightly against the law, only because it is a superweapon that could take out a star.  But that''s only if you really suck at aiming, I call it PAN-ACE-A.  It is legalized because it will only fire with a special compound that will not disrupt a star, also its a one-off, you¡¯ll need to buy the ammo.¡±


    ¡°What makes the ship really special, is this.¡±  An animation took place of the ship connecting to the dropship hull.  It comes with a dropship, and a slightly larger evac ship attachment.  You will have to buy stasis pods and medical supplies for the evac boat.  Both boats are all terrain APC¡¯s.  You could, probably stealth drop on right on top of a Governor''s ass.  Definitely after I research more stealth technologies.¡±


    I finished my speech, and they were speechless, except Ernie who said, ¡°hey Jefe, can, can I shoot it?¡±


    ¡°Shoot what?¡±  Victor said, without much attention.


    ¡°Boss, the Annihilator, of course, what else could I possibly want to shoot.¡±


    The Captain quickly regained his wits, and came back with the snarky comment, ¡°Your mouth.¡±


    Every, single, one of us started laughing.  Then the Captain spoke again, ¡°Normally I would pay you for the third ship, since you kept your end of the deal, and didn¡¯t try to sell me it, but it¡¯s gonna cost a lot of credits just to outfit it properly.  Alexander told me you were gonna take me up on my offer, join the crew?  He didn¡¯t give me any specifics he just said to clear a bunk, and a lab for you gear.¡±


    I clasped my hand and shuffled them nervously.  ¡°Why do I get the feeling this i gonna be another one of those surprises, but the bad kind, like I just watched my evac from a hotzone get blown to pieces.¡±


    I took off my helmet and set it down, ¡°I found and made contact with an unidentified sentient being, well actually it is an entire race.¡±


    I could tell the Captain was shocked, but he kept his cool, I guess he was getting better at hiding it, ¡°Right lots of people claim they¡¯ve run into unknown aliens, what proof do you have?¡±  Or he didn¡¯t believe me.¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time I have met an USB.¡±  This got their attention, ¡°I mean, um, forget I said that, the race I want to find are the Arachari.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I believe you, but there is a catch isn¡¯t there.¡±


    ¡°You sound like Lex, maybe there is no catch.¡±  They were not buying it.  ¡°Okay, the catch is this,¡± I pull up a galactic map and put a red dot inside the TDZ.  ¡°This is where I think they are.¡±


    ¡°Claro, por su puesto, pinche cabron cree que los gentes en el TZP¡±  Ernie was sardonic, which apparently made him speak spanish.  He said, ¡®Of course, the freakin ass thinks the peope are in the TDZ¡¯


    ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± the Captain was much more relaxed, ¡°it¡¯s not too far in, alright kid zoom in, what star system.¡±


    ¡°That''s it the dot is the estimated area.¡± I said sheepishly


    ¡°What!  That is like, hundred square parsecs!¡±  Andrei exclaimed.


    ¡°I told them to broadcast an active signal, across the U.V. spectrum!¡±  I tried to convince them.


    ¡°What¡¯s it say?¡±  The captain asked he looked like he was seriously considering it.


    I shuffled nervously again. ¡°James, in morse code.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha ha, He has a sense of humor, no?¡±  Andrei supported.


    ¡°I expect you want me to supply here, then immediately set off into the TDZ without telling anyone.  Fine, I¡¯ll do it, but only if Alexandr comes.¡±  The Captain decides


    ¡°I¡¯m comming, I¡¯m comming, I¡¯m sorry, that I am getting old, and I can''t keep up with a flying boy and a flying Dashad!¡± Lex huffed as he came into the room.


    ¡°Good, well let''s get those ships into the Eagle Spire¡¯s  third hangar, and let''s get your stuff up here!  We got a schedule to keep, congrats James you wanted to start at the bottom you are now an ABS, or if you prefer the militant rank, midshipman!  Now get to work!


    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Yay I got the second chapter done!  Again eyeballed the editing so if i missed something point it out, especially if there are discrepancies in the stories.  I know what you are thinking, where is the action, where is the combat, i''m sooooo bored.  Fear not next chapter will have some fighting I promise.  Mudrost- ^,..,^