by Isaac Hooke
“You did well, Engineer,” Jed said, leaning back. “Or should I say, Warmancer?”
“What?” Tane asked.
“Check your notifications,” Jed said.
Tane saw the familiar flashing icon in the lower right of his HUD and enlarged it to read the notifications he had received during the battle.
Level up. Your overall level is now 8! Neural pathways have been enhanced and reinforced! You now have an attribute point to allocate.
Level up. Persistent Flame is now Level 1. You can now spurt a stream of superheated flame from the base fire for short periods of time, up two meters away from your hand. Energy shields will absorb the fire up to their rated charge levels before allowing the flames to penetrate. Note: stamina drain spikes with each burst of flame released.
Attribute up. Dexterity +1. Current Dexterity: 12
Class change: your class is now Warmancer.
That was a quick level up for Persistent Flame. It was essentially the second time he’d ever used it, and he’d gone from creating a flame the size of an apple at level zero to the ability to intermittently spurt fire up to two meters in front of him at level one. He thought of the man whose mind dump had originally taught Tane to Siphon. Likely the man had already been close to level one in Persistent Flame at the time his imprint was recorded. It made Tane wonder how close he was to leveling Air Current—the other “free” Essencework that had come with his Siphoning skill. He was glad he hadn’t splurged to upgrade those two skills when he originally purchased his Siphoning ability. Not that he could have afforded it. Though he suspected other buyers had fallen into the upgrade trap. Who wouldn’t? When someone saw they had a level zero in something, if they could afford it, their first instinct would be to upgrade it. These chip manufacturers certainly had their human psychology down. Of course they did: they built devices that enhanced human brains.
He was a bit disappointed that Beam Hilt Control hadn’t leveled again, but in truth he hadn’t really been expecting it. According to the manual that came with his chip, it would become harder to increase each skill as he attained the higher levels. The progression would be more exponential than linear.
However, that progression behaved slightly differently for a base skill like White or Dark Siphoning, because all works of the Essence, Dark and White, essentially relied on them. Even Beam Hilt used the White Siphoning skill, for example, as did Chrysalium Siphoning. Because those two basic skills were relied upon so much, he could expect to level them far faster than anything else, especially non-Essence skills such as Sharpshooting. The higher level Essenceworks were also harder to make—more complicated, more draining—so in theory, if he used those more, that would also count toward more experience in the two base skills, and hence allow for faster leveling in either.
He was wondering where he should allocate his earned attribute point. His eyes drifted to Sinive, and on a whim he added the extra point to Charisma, bringing his total to nine, and instantly regretted it.
Should have put it into Endurance.
But a part of him wanted to look better for Sinive. Then again, Charisma didn’t actually affect external features, but rather operated on the brain centers responsible for socialization and persona, and the projection of energy as perceived by other human beings. That, too, was from the manual. He wasn’t sure it would make a difference with her, but hey, everything probably helped.
What Jed had said a moment before returned to the forefront of his thoughts.
“How did you know my class changed to Warmancer?” Tane said. “I’m spoofing it.”
“I have some hacking skills...” Jed said cryptically.
Tane shook his head. “Remind me never to connect to the same local mixnet as you.”
“Whoever said I have to connect to a mixnet to read your skills?” Jed commented.
Tane stared at the man, and felt violated. “Tell me, what else can you read with those hacking skills of yours?” He was reminded of Roadroller, a shady purveyor from the Runner’s Market of Kalindor who Tane had sold a dweller energy weapon to in exchange for some nanotech injections. Roadroller had been able to read Tane’s skills with a special RFID reader installed in his fingertips. Maybe Jed had something similar embedded in his battle armor.
“I can only read the notifications that show up on your HUD,” Jed admitted. “It’s not really a hack: you might want to turn off notification sharing in your settings. Unless of course you like broadcasting your leveling updates to the world.”
Tane shook his head. He’d read through the digital manual provided by his chip twice, and he thought he’d gone through the privacy sections with a fine-toothed comb. Obviously he hadn’t been as attentive as he had believed.
He went into his settings and found the appropriate entry and switched it off. He deactivated most of the other privacy-related options as well.
G’allanthamas made a clattering sound, and a series of clicks and squawks were returned over the intercom. He tilted that sideways-oriented head toward Tane.
“My apologies, but I prefer to speak to the AI of my shuttle in my native tongue,” the dweller said.
“It’s fine,” Tane said.
“You know, this shuttle of yours doesn’t really look dweller,” Sinive said, examining the cabin around her. “These walls should be made of black crystal, shouldn’t they? Not metal.”
“Of course it’s not dweller,” G’allanthamas said. “The shuttle is of human make. From the time of Tiberius.”
“How the hell is the power core still working after a thousand years?” Sinive said.
“I’ve replaced the core a few times…” G’allanthamas said.
“And the human AI speaks dweller?” Sinive asked.
“I obviously reprogrammed the AI,” G’allanthamas said. “Impressive, is it not?”
“Yes, you’re one impressive alien,” Sinive quipped.
“I admit, I had help from the other dwellers who followed Tiberius,” G’allanthamas said. “It was originally a cargo shuttle. These deck holes weren’t part of the original design. We ripped out the floor and installed something more suitable to us dwellers, and it became our designated transport while on this world.”
“Like I said, impressive,” Sinive told the alien. “Still, a thousand years… I’m not sure just how air-worthy this thing is.” She knocked on the cabin wall. Like the exterior, there were veins of what appeared to be rust marring some of the surfaces. “That looks like rust to me. By the way, if this shuttle is a thousand years old, then how old are you? Fifteen hundred?”
“That’s about right,” the dweller said. “I was already four hundred by the time I met Tiberius. I’ve seen a few things in my day.”
“I’m sure you have,” Sinive said. “I seem to recall one of those dwellers aging backward before my very eyes, back on Remus. You remember that, Tane?”
“I do,” Tane said. That would be the dark work of Renewal.
“Does that have something to do with your longevity, Dweller?” she asked.
“I do not reveal the Dark secrets to ordinary humans,” G’allanthamas said. “Only the Doomwielder.”
“Fine,” Sinive said.
Tane considered volunteering the information to her, but decided he’d wait until Sinive asked him privately. G’allanthamas could be offended over the smallest things, if memory served.
And yet those aren’t my memories, he reminded himself.
“Hey, by the way, what’s your shuttle named?” Sinive asked the dweller.
“What’s it to you?” G’allanthamas replied.
“Okay don’t tell me,” Sinive said. “I’m only curious. I like to use the names of shuttles and ships when I’m talking about or to them, that’s all.”
“You’ll never be talking to my shuttle,” G’allanthamas said. “So you don’t have to worry about that.”
Sinive didn’t answer.
Probably a good thing. He didn’t need her and the dweller constantly at
each other’s throats.
“The AI is not programmed to speak human,” G’allanthamas continued. “Though it can understand your words, of course.”
Still Sinive remained quiet.
G’allanthamas titled his head toward Tane. “Have I offended her?”
Tane shrugged inside his spacesuit. “You’re asking me? Half the time I don’t know if I’ve offended her myself.”
“Why do you care about offending me anyway, Dweller?” Sinive said. “I thought you wanted to turn me into a Dirac?”
“That’s right, I momentarily forgot I hate you,” G’allanthamas said. “That usually happens after I’ve fought side by side with someone in battle. I promise you it won’t happen again. On both accounts.”
“Good,” Sinive said. “Wouldn’t want you going soft on me now.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” the dweller said.
“Though if that was your way of complimenting my battle prowess, well, you fought pretty well yourself,” Sinive said.
“It wasn’t,” G’allanthamas said. “But thank you.”
Sinive crossed her arms. “Why do I try?”
Tane shut his eyes, and almost fell asleep when the dweller spoke again.
“The best approximation of my shuttle’s name in the human tongue is Skreeereefalameeecheeleess,” the dweller said. “Which means Carapace Full of Ugly Brown Streaks. It means ‘rusty,’ essentially.”
“Ah,” Sinive said. “Appropriate name, given how the shuttle looks. So we’ll just call the AI ‘Rusty’ for short.”
The AI gave some screeching response over the intercom.
“He doesn’t like that,” G’allanthamas said.
“Sorry Rusty,” Sinive said. “Once we humans pick a name, we never change it.”
Rusty shrieked and clattered in apparent outrage.
Tane decided if he was going to sleep, he might as well be shameless about it. He lowered himself so that he lay back on the cabin floor.
“Wake me when we’re closer to Matahapte,” Tane said.
The cabin abruptly jerked and Tane slid into the wall. He felt a momentary sense of butterflies in his stomach.
“Whoa,” Sinive said. “Inertial dampener failure or what?”
“Sorry, almost hit a tree,” G’allanthamas said.
“Hmm, I’m not sure this is the best idea,” Tane said. “Do we really have to stay underneath the canopy the whole time? I mean, couldn’t we fly just on top of the jungle? The TSN will have a hard time picking us out from orbit, especially if we stay low. And if it’s LIDAR you’re worried about, remember, LIDAR can only be used in relatively tiny, focused blasts. They’ll have to concentrate the beams, and won’t be able to cover more than one or two cities at once, especially with a moon of this size.”
“Yes, but they’ll have deployed a grid of surveillance satellites,” Sinive said. “I know, because I used to work in an IMINT unit.”
“IMINT?” Tane asked.
“Image Intel,” Sinive explained. “AIs analyze the images in realtime, and as soon as we emerge from the canopy, they’ll know.”
“I’m afraid she’s right,” G’allanthamas said. “This shuttle doesn’t have much in the way of stealth capabilities. The fuselage will readily reflect sunlight, giving our position away. And at night, the thermal profile will be obvious.”
“Ah,” Tane said. “Could you use some masking or blurring Essencework?”
“Yes and no,” the dweller said. “Yes, in that, I can mask each of you individually. No, in that I’m not powerful enough to mask the entire shuttle.”
Tane grabbed the artifact from his storage pouch. “What if you Siphoned through this?”
The dweller seemed to consider the artifact. “Yes. If you enlarged it, I could do it. But only for a short period of time. Twenty standard minutes, maybe half an hour. The drain on my stamina would be too great for any longer.”
“All right.” Tane replaced the artifact. “Staying under the canopy it is. But please try not to hit a tree, okay?”
In answer, the cabin shook violently again.
Another close one.
Tane shook his head, then laid back and tried to sleep once more. The cabin shuddered disturbingly a few more times, but thankfully he soon found the temporary oblivion he sought.
15
Tane awoke to a silent cabin. From where he lay he could see the insubstantial form of Sinive resting against the wall across from him.
He sat up, and the sideways-oriented head of G’allanthamas turned toward him.
“Damn, it wasn’t a dream,” Tane said.
Next to him, Jed shifted. There were heavy bags underneath the Volur’s eyes, but he seemed just as alert as hours before. Tane suspected Jed hadn’t slept at all, probably preferring to keep a constant vigil. Jed didn’t trust the dweller, no doubt. Tane wasn’t sure how much he trusted the alien, either, despite the favorable memories.
Memories can be faked, after all.
Checking the time, he saw that only three hours had passed. Even so, he felt so much better than earlier. Definitely well enough to Siphon freely. He considered experimenting with his Dark timeline to confirm what would happen if he created a new work while his existing reserves were in use, but decided that since he was aboard a shuttle, it was safer to simply ask G’allanthamas. Besides, he didn’t really feel like beginning the interminable fight against those dark flames just yet.
“Gall, do new Dark Essenceworks affect existing reserves?” Tane asked. He excluded Sinive from the comm, since he didn’t want to disturb her rest. “Let’s say I have two Fingers of Ruin in reserve, and I create a third?”
“Your reserves remain intact, while the new work activates immediately,” G’allanthamas explained.
Ah. It was definitely a good thing he hadn’t tried that aboard. Though he supposed he could have used something safer like Night Vision.
Tane glanced at Jed.
“So I still don’t really know what the controlling nanotech did to me,” Tane told the Volur. “I know it created a new chip, but did it infect or corrupt my existing chip in any way? I still have my HUD, and everything otherwise seems normal...”
“The two chips operate independently of one another,” Jed said. “Your existing chip shouldn’t be touched... you still have all your enhanced abilities and the skills granted by that chip. And yet you can also be controlled, thanks to the new TSN chip.”
“So when we remove the control chip, I’ll retain the abilities granted by my old one?” Tane said.
“That’s the theory,” Jed said.
The Volur had told him he needed a shutdown code to safely remove that control trip. But Tane knew of another way, thanks to his latest memories. It would require something more than a shuttle, however.
“You’re sure you don’t have a starship, Gall?” Tane asked.
“Positive,” the alien replied.
“You have an idea, Engineer?” Jed commented.
“Sort of,” Tane said. “It’s too bad we can’t steal a starship in this universe.”
“Oh, we can,” Jed said. “Assuming we can find one on the surface.”
“Shipyards are a good place to start,” Tane said.
“True,” Jed agreed. “But you also need to have an AI core to plug in. Unless you happen to have one hidden away in your storage pouch?”
“No.” Machines and starships showed up in this universe as long as they were located on the surface of the involved planets or moons. But they invariably appeared without AI cores, rendering them essentially useless. It was part of the “no sentient species” rule, which prevented humans and other sentient lifeforms—including AIs—from being mirrored in this universe.
“What is this idea in regards to, anyway?” Jed asked.
“Removing the control chips in my mind, and Sinive’s,” Tane said. “I’ll tell you more when we’re back in our own universe. Or get access to a starship. Whichever comes first.”
Tane lo
oked at G’allanthamas, who was silently watching him.
“When are you going to tell me how you met Tiberius?” Tane asked the dweller.
G’allanthamas swayed, and Tane’s memories interpreted the way the alien’s tentacles moved as a sigh.
“He came to me,” the dweller said. “Rifts existed in human space for many thousands of years. One-way rifts that would only lead to the Umbra. Tiberius took a ship into one of them. He said the darkness had been calling to him all his life. It was a leap of faith for him to travel here, knowing that he would never return. He landed on my homeworld. He lived with my people, and I trained him. He discovered Dark and White Mixing, and with it, a way to travel back to his home universe. He took me and a few of his followers with him for a time, and while there, we began encoding memories to leave behind to the future Doomwielder. You.”
“Wait,” Tane said. “You trained him? I specifically remember Tiberius being trained by a dweller named P’lotholemus. On a planet in my universe. P’lotholemus was wearing an environmental suit.”
“P’lotholemus was one of his teachers as well, yes,” the dweller said. “But the original training did not take place in your universe. What you are remembering are staged events. Understand, P’lotholemus was one of those who came with us to Tiberius’ universe—your universe—and once there, Tiberius had him repeat key lessons so that the memories would encode better. Keep in mind his original training had been over a hundred years previous by that point, with the recollections of those moments merely jumbled fragments in his mind. It was best to redo them.”
“I suppose that makes some sense,” Tane admitted.
“After we returned to your universe, Tiberius lived out the rest of his days in peace, for the most part,” the dweller said. “Before he died, he discovered a unique Dark timeline that allowed one to travel back and forth between universes without any White Siphoning involved whatsoever. He taught the timeline to one of his Builder apprentices, but the youth used the skill too openly, and was eventually caught by one of the tribes whilst visiting the Umbra. This tribe, or faction as you call it, was known as the Cre’ite.
