Web of Worlds

by Michael Atamanov

  Listener! We’re very sorry, but no available drones were found in the nearest part of the galaxy. We recommend you get by with those you already have or order the Pyramid to send a new one.

  Ugh, too bad Uline, the Geckho brothers and I had destroyed all the Small Guard Drones at the Relict outpost. I could easily have had one right now. But who knew back then that they were so rare?! In any case, I was not very upset. In fact, it was really cool! Now I could improve my armor! But I didn’t have time to get happy before reading the next message, and my happiness blew away like the wind:

  Equipment diagnostics underway...

  Attention! Unsanctioned modifications detected. The Pyramid has been informed of your serious infraction. Listener, the hierarchs are wise and just. They shall determine your punishment.

  My heart seized up. “Unsanctioned modifications” clearly meant cutting off the back part of the spacesuit, which was meant for a tail (or an abdomen, who knew with these Relicts) and the extra pairs of upper appendages. Ugh, what would happen now... Was my Energy Armor, a well-earned source of pride, and a great suit for either the vacuum of space or corrosive environments going to be somehow limited in function or even just disactivated?

  Attempting to establish connection... Error!

  Attempting to establish connection... Error!

  ...

  Attempting to establish connection... Error!

  I don’t even know how many times the message was repeated. A few hundred at least, maybe even a few thousand. I didn’t look at them all and immediately jumped to the end.

  ...

  Attempting to establish connection... Error!

  Listener, in case of military action, all public communication channels will be blocked. As such, the most probable reason the Pyramid is unreachable is WAR! Given the extraordinary situation, we recommend using an emergency channel to contact the Pyramid. (Yes/No).

  ...

  Decision time expired.

  Pyramid connection session ended. Message transmission canceled.

  And was that all? Did I just get lucky and the message about the amateur refit of the Listener Energy Armor had not been sent anywhere? I ran through all possible settings of my overly self-sufficient spacesuit. The armor was working as usual. I detected no switched off elements or limitations. In fact, a new tab had appeared: “accessories,” and my back oxygen tank had become removeable. Clearly it could be modernized or somehow replaced.

  Electronics skill increased to level seventy-one!

  Machine Control skill increased to level seventy-one!

  No, I didn’t detach the tank yet, I was in no position to do so now. For now, I figured it was good enough that everything worked out just fine and my armor was still in working order. Further experimenting with the ancient artifact had to stop, because Gerd Ayni appeared in my doorway:

  “Gerd Gnat, a messenger has come to our hangar from the commander. He’s demanding to be seen, he wants to speak with the captain. Shall we let him on board?”

  “Yes, Ayni. Bring him to the lounge, I’ll bring his package there right away.”

  I was slightly shaky and my weakness palpable. Nevertheless I managed to reach the bridge where Ayukh handed me the opened black stone with a rat’s nest of wires. The Navigator was just glowing with desire to share his joy about the new map, bursting to show me our new capabilities and interesting discoveries. But I asked him to wait a minute.

  Moving my disobedient legs unconfidently, I entered the largest room on the frigate, which still served as a lounge deck. It was quite crowded. The brothers Vasha and Basha, as always in their free time, were gambling on the three-dimensional board game Na-Tikh-U. Gloomy Avan Toi was lying next to them on a cushion, watching the twins play as he proudly showed everyone the trophy stuck to his helmet. Tini the kitten was talking with Imran and Orun Va-Mart was joining in, although I couldn’t imagine what language they were speaking. In the opposite corner, Minn-O La-Fin was whispering something with Valeri and, when I came in, both girls gave a titter of laughter. I guessed they were making fun of me.

  However, the Dark Faction princess quickly turned serious, walked up to me and said that General Ui-Taka refused to speak to her face to face. He just sent a message to her communicator saying: “Offer does not stand. In ten days your husband will only be able to negotiate for what position in my faction he can trade his space frigate for.” Of course, that was about the answer I was expecting, so I wasn’t mad at all and reassured my wife that everything was fine, and as it should be.

  But there was good reason to think. Minn-O told him the frigate would be ready in a different timeframe: six days. I had given the ten-day timeframe only once: at the meeting of directors and high-status players under the Dome. The circle of those I suspected of spying for the Dark Faction seriously constricted.

  Here I had to stop thinking because Ayni had brought a dangerous guest into our common room: a level-190 Brawler armed to the teeth and wearing combat armor.

  But I knew this messenger. Gerd Lekku was the one who threatened me with a weapon during the party, putting a blade to my throat. However, I harbored no ill will towards him, because I knew perfectly that he was just putting on an act for his master. I handed the messenger the valuable package and recommended he treat it as carefully as possible, because the explosives inside were enough to blow up an apartment block. Gerd Lekku put the dangerous cargo in his inventory after which he suddenly drew his blades, which sparkled with energy:

  “Gerd Gnat, you offended my master, the great Leng Keetsie-Myau when you spoke to her unaddressed! And when you touched the Great One. And when you dared to dance the Dance of Awoken Love with her. That ritual dance is only performed one time in life by a couple after they fall in love. Twelve formidable warriors of the Miyelonian race have been waiting for that honor for a long time, guessing who the Great One might choose. And you ruined it all! There is no forgiving you! I challenge you to a duel! Ah-sahntee maye-uu-u rezsh shashash-u!”

  Chapter Eight. Going Home!

  A DUEL? That wasn’t even funny. He was a melee character specialized in duels at level-190 going against a level-76 player with shivering arms who was so weak he could barely stand. A duel between us? For such a contrived reason? To hell with this Brawler! Trying to speak evenly, without raising my voice, and praying that my dangerous guest didn’t know Geckho, I said:

  “Vasha, Basha, please escort that ruffian out of here! And hold him tight! Then bop him on the head a few times so he doesn’t escape. It won’t make things worse. Okay, okay, enough! That’s enough! You don’t need to give him a flat-face like a Persian. Imran, take our guest’s blades so he doesn’t accidentally cut himself!”

  Gerd Lekku brayed, trying to escape and shouted that it was not done this way! He said that he challenged me to a duel, so I had to treat him a certain way. But I paid his whooping no mind. The powerful twin brothers were holding the hysterically flailing Miyelonian tight and weren’t thinking of letting go, especially given they didn’t understand his cries. The Miyelonian Gerd Ayni was watching that scene with her eyes wide in horror, and Tini and Orun Va-Mart were also pressing their ears back in fear. Clearly I really had broken the rules. But that didn’t stop me:

  “Tini, hand me that tattoo machine you just got!”

  The kitten hurriedly handed me a small gun and even showed me how to turn it on, how to make it do one of the many ready-made patterns and how to change the color of the ink. I played with the settings and found a portrait of Leng Keetsie-Myau among the patterns. In theory, I could make this drawing right through the fur, but I didn’t want to:

  “Imran! I know you have a shaver. Tini steals it sometimes then puts it back to train his thief skills. Give it to me please!”

  The Dagestani silently went into his bunk and quickly returned, extending me the electric battery powered shaver. I shaved a large section of fur on the Miyelonian’s right thigh. Then I skeptically looked at my quaking hands and called my travel
ling wife over:

  “Minn-O, you’re a princess, right? I don’t know how it is in your world, but in mine Princesses are all forced to learn to draw from a young age whether they like it or not. Were you as well?”

  “My husband, you are not wrong. In that way our worlds really are similar. Those drawing classes are one of my most hated childhood memories. But in the end, my tutors were able to teach me something...” Minn-O La-Fin walked up and took the tattoo machine in her hands.

  The captive Gerd, when he finally realized what I was going to do to him, started howling obnoxiously and trying to escape again.

  “Don’t move! Keetsie will never forgive you if her portrait turns out lopsided!”

  That did the trick! Gerd Lekku froze motionless, went silent and bore it all skeptically while Minn-O quickly and professionally, as if she’d been doing this all her life, made a complicated multicolored drawing on the Miyelonian’s skin. At the same time, I stood next to her and calmed the prisoner, explaining the obvious:

  “Ah Lekku, you have no idea how lucky you are! Look, there are twelve of you in the first circle of favorites and another fifty in the second. To Keetsie you’re all identically flawless and boring. There’s no basis to choose, she told that to me herself while we danced. I’ll give you the chance to stand out from this whole sad milieu. Yes, precisely! I’ll guarantee that Keetsie remembers you! Gerd Lekku, you’re going to be thanking me! Okay then, there you go. See look how pretty! I don’t know if the tattoo will stay after death and respawn, but in your place, I would get it done again. Okay, let him go! Imran, give our guest his weapon back!”

  It was a very tense moment. There was a serious risk that, after setting Gerd Lekku free, he would flare up and even break out his blades. In any case, I was prepared to mentally stun him. I had very little mana, it hadn’t yet come back after the poisoning, but Valeri-Urla answered a mental call, saying she would help me. And the Tailaxian had gotten up off her cushion with both hands grasping the stone amulet around her neck. Seemingly it was what gave Valeri strength and confidence.

  But the Miyelonian’s reaction was unexpected. He took the blade in his right hand, cut a couple glimmering figure eights in the air and... with a sharp swipe, cut off his own fluffy dark-gray tail!

  “Gerd Gnat, you had no reason to fear me. I would never attack someone weakened by illness, because there is no honor in such a victory. I just wanted to scare you and express my jealousy over the fact that you lapped me and the Great One’s other favorites. But... nothing went the way I was hoping. I definitely wasn’t expecting to be treated like that! At first I wanted to clobber everyone here on the ship, but then I changed my mind and decided you’re right! Please, take my tail as a trophy. You’ve earned it! Let everyone see that you beat me and consider me a worthy opponent. Rumors to that effect will quickly reach the Great One. She will want to interrogate me, then she’ll see how proudly I wear her face on my body. You’re completely right Gerd Gnat, Keetsie had no real choice because all her favorites are ideal warriors who have never known defeat. We even have similar stats, skills and appearances. But now, no matter how this whole story ends, I will be different from the others and the Great One will remember me! Thank you!”

  I bowed to the dangerous high-level player and extended a hand in reconciliation. The Miyelonian froze in surprise. That gesture was unknown to his race. But Ayni the translator explained the significance of my act, and Gerd Lekku cautiously touched my hand with his claws.

  Authority increased to 49!

  The bloody tail stump was probably hurting the Miyelonian, but he didn’t show it in any way and even refused assistance from the Medic. As soon as the Brawler left the frigate with his head held high, the delighted voice of Dmitry Zheltov rolled down the halls of the starship:

  “Our hangar’s energy shield is down, we have been given permission to leave the station! Let’s get going home!!!”

  “Wait, I need another couple minutes!” I remembered that the Jarg was waiting patiently to meet with me and I wanted to finish that up before leaving, especially now that I’d received unambiguous advice or maybe even an order to kill the tricky messenger. “Minn-O, give me your laser pistol for a sec! No, no. I don’t need any help. I’ll handle it myself!”

  I went down the stairs to the first deck and hurried to the main airlock. At the exit from the ship, Eduard Boyko was standing watch. He assured me in a whisper that my orders for the darksiders’ shipment had been carried out. Great! I told the Space Commando to head to his bunk and get ready for takeoff then ran off the gangway and, looking around, discovered the many-eyed eight-armed “armadillo” sitting patiently against the wall and headed toward it. I had no weapon in my hands, but the level-54 Analyst somehow guessed my intentions and, hanging the universal translator around his neck, quickly burbled out:

  “Good one. Deal is complete. Keetsie is receive. Tell to kill Jarg.”

  Okay then, if it had already worked out the mission the Miyelonian commander gave me, all the better. No longer hiding anything, I took out my laser pistol and, setting shot power to maximum, pressed the weapon to the Jarg’s head. The alien Analyst didn’t try to run or defend himself. But it did ask a question that totally baffled me:

  “To speak with Keetsie. How many times must to kill Jarg?”

  How many times? What kind of weird question was this? Just one time, which I honestly told the huge armored toad. The Jarg quickly lit up and burbled again:

  “One fast. No shot. I to explode. Person to wait not long. Not to fly away. Then to take Jarg. Space. Flight. Crew.”

  What??? No, the beginning was easy to understand: this alien Analyst was assuring me that there was no need to shoot because he would just blow himself up to soothe the Great One’s anger. That was just fine by me, because I really didn’t want to be executioner and kill an unarmed creature. But from there the Jarg was suggesting that I not fly off and patiently await its respawn, then take him with me on the starship as a full crew member. Was he all there? Why would I want him on the frigate?

  “Tell me even one reason to wait for you, and even more to take you with me,” I demanded, having absolutely no idea what he could possibly offer to make me change my mind and agree to take this slippery freak on my ship.

  In reply, the Jarg took a polished black stone out of his inventory, held it in his four upper sucker-hands and showed it to me. This was an exact copy of the one I was holding before. That’s what I’m talking about! I quickly ran a scan on it and saw that the Jarg was not holding some mere replica, and the filling in this case was exactly the same as the one in the previous stone: a big crystal drive surrounded by wires and fused into some explosive.

  Scanning skill increased to level forty-one!

  “Now to know you. The true value. Information. Deal. To bring Geckho. Big commander. Waid Shishish. Help to Geckho star-war. My reward. Jarg member crew. Analyst. Lots to analyze. Benefit.”

  I lowered my pistol. Seemingly I had started to understand what was happening. The deeply embedded agent of the Miyelonians may have been a Jarg by race, though that was nowhere near guaranteed, and had gotten some very important information about the Meleyephatian horde. That information was of such critical importance that Miyelonians had even started a big space war so that, in the chaos, their agent would have the chance to send the crystal drive to its destination. But the package was entrusted to this Jarg messenger at some stage of the operation, who had ruined everything and decided to stage the “accidental” loss of the data by having a human named Gnat open it recklessly. Yes, the Analyst had analyzed everything correctly, considering my character and abilities, and got what he was after. However, as it was now turning out, he had a duplicate of the valuable object and was planning on sending the second one to the Geckho.

  “But why the Geckho? Why not the Miyelonians?” I asked.

  “No starships. Jargs have. People is just one. Suzerains protect. Geckho reinforcement. Very need. Shared goals. Other
wise destruction. By Meleyephatians. Or Miyelonians. No difference.”

  “Yes, you’re right. We do have common goals, and both of our races need to make the Geckho stronger as they are our protectors. But do you realize how mad Leng Keetsie-Myau will get when she finds out the valuable cargo escaped and slipped out of her greedy hands?”

  “Keetsie not to know. Jarg not to say. Gnat not suicidal. Miyelonians crew not to speak.”

  I gave a nervous chuckle. Precisely because I was not suicidal, I would not try to hide such vital information from an all-powerful Truth Seeker. And honestly, I had plenty of Miyelonians on my ship who would give me up to their vaunted commander in a second if they knew about this package. Basically, we’d play it by ear. Now, as the Jarg correctly said, we had common goals. I put the pistol in my inventory.

  “Alright, have it your way. But there is no time to wait for you to commit suicide and respawn. My faction is desperately awaiting me and my frigate. Every moment’s delay comes at too great a cost to my friends. Maybe you could just blow up in one of the empty bunks on the starship, then respawn on the ship?”

  “Respawn point on starship. Dangerous. Must to think.”

  Ah yes, I had already forgotten. A foolish suggestion. Setting one’s respawn point on a starship was a deadly endeavor because if the ship crashed in open space, the character and the player in the real world might die once and for all. But I didn’t have time to tell the Jarg I’d changed my mind and would retract my demand before I read a successful Authority check message. After that the Jarg started burbling again, puffing out his cheek sacs:

  “Agreement. To give stone after. Crew. Landing. Green zone.”

  After that, the black stone and universal translator put away, the many-eyed armadillo went down on all eight arms and legs and, taking short quick hops, dashed to the frigate gangway. How about that! The strange creature agreed to take a risk and move his respawn point to the ship! Clearly, he couldn’t wait to get off such an unwelcoming station and saw no better way.