Alzigo nodded. “It’s possible.”
Bulco shook his head. “A powerful alien sent dozens of freighters with a precious cargo, only for some of it to fall into the hands of space pirates. It doesn't add up.”
“Just one more thing we’re going to have to figure out,” Nori said.
“Everything about you humans is so weird,” the alien said. “Your culture, your paths - even your thinking process seems to differ from the accepted standards."
“What do you mean?”
“You suspect someone wronged you. The evidence suggests it is a powerful individual or group, and yet, against common sense, you seek them out, charging head-on. Most enlightened races would give up on such a notion, act more prudently, and seek safety first.”
Nori shrugged. “What can I say? Humans don’t give up. We don’t shy away from our problems.”
“Yeah, we prefer to face our problems head-on. And punch them in the face,” Bulco said.
“I’m starting to realize that.”
An awkward silence followed.
Lana shifted uneasily. “What did you mean earlier when you said humans have weird Paths?”
“Most sentient life forms have common Paths that are based on two attributes out of the total six: Technicians, Soldiers, Machinators, and such. But your Paths rely on more.”
“Your sensory enhancement implant let you see this much about us?” Nori frowned.
“Indeed, Miss.”
“I still don’t get what the big deal is, I’m sure there are plenty others who have advanced Paths.”
“That is true. Paths that rely on three attributes are considered uncommon but are still fairly widely spread: Pilots, Gladiators, Scientists, and the like. But three of you have rare Paths that rely on four attributes, significantly increasing your score’s potential. And as for your companion, Nathan, I’ve never met anyone whose path relied on all six. If the rest of the humans all have such advanced Paths, I think your race’s actions will soon send ripples across the galaxy.”
“I guess it's good to be human.” Nori shrugged. “While we’re on the subject, can you expand a little bit about Paths? For example - what's the difference between secondary and primary attributes?”
“It is quite simple. A Path’s score is determined by the sum of its attributes. Secondary attributes count as half of the primary ones.”
The tall woman furrowed her brow. “Wait, isn’t having more attributes in your Path a handicap then? An individual with a Path that has a single attribute would invest in that attribute every level up instead of spreading it around.”
Alzigo shook his head. “That is an astute, yet misguided assumption. Paths that rely on a single attribute are very limited. A Lifter with a huge Strength can do nothing but lift heavy loads. He might be great at it, but he’ll have no chance in a fight against a Soldier half his level who invested in Strength and Agility.
“I think I see what you’re getting at,” Nori said slowly. “The soldier could dodge the lifter’s blows and retaliate with weapons only available to him.”
“Exactly. It’s a crude scenario, but the logic extends beyond combat. In addition, don’t forget that attributes hold additional benefits. Higher Intelligence will make a person smarter and more resourceful, regardless of his Path. In addition, there are implants and body augmentations that require a certain attribute threshold to be used. So having a Path with a wide range of attributes means you can more freely assign those points and reap multiple benefits.”
“I’m starting to feel uncomfortable here,” Bulco said. “I put most of my points into Strength, but that’s only a secondary attribute for an Engineer. Probably would have been smarter to invest more in Intelligence.”
Lana snickered. “Talk about the chicken and the egg.”
Alzigo nodded. “You are correct. Engineers benefit more from Control or Intelligence than they do from Strength and Awareness, however, that does not mean you have made a grave error. You're merely two points away from a strength of ten. When you reach it, you’ll be able to equip a wide range of personal augmentations that can prove useful in your chosen Path.”
“Oh? Like what?”
“Integrated armor plating, like the one I’m wearing. It offers substantial physical protection. Useful when working on unstable machines. Or a multipurpose augmentation tool that fuses with your skeleton and offers a wide range of Engineering tools.”
“That one sounds interesting. What tools are we talking about?”
“It can grow robotic arms to assist you with delicate operations. The arms come equipped with plasma cutters, measurement equipment, and can generally act as a rudimentary workbench.”
“I like the sound of that,” Bulco said with a glint in his eye. “How much?”
“The basic model costs seven and a half thousand piTec.”
“Holy shit!”
“Make it a solid seven and we have a deal,” Nori said.
“Agreed.”
Bulco turned to her in amazement. “I appreciate the gesture, it sounds great and all, but you heard the man, I can’t use it until I hit the next level and increase my Strength and I need six more Tec before that’ll happen.”
“You can use my exoskeleton,” she said, tugging it away. The slender straps that hugged her body started to come undone on their own, folding in on themselves until they looked like a mass of dangling metal pipes. Nori held up the bundle and looked at Alzigo. “That should work, right?”
He nodded. “These devices bind with the wearer and increase his Strength on an internal level as well. Wearing this, your friend would be able to equip the multipurpose support augmentation.”
“Good, then it’s settled. Add the cost to our debt.” Nori handed the bundle to Bulco who stood staring at her.
“I appreciate the gesture, kid, but that’s yours. I’d feel bad getting stronger at your expense when I’m already stronger than you are wearing it.”
Nori shook her head. “Strength isn’t one of a Navigator’s attributes. It’s nice to be able to punch things hard, but I’m not planning on getting close and personal when I can shoot from a distance. It makes more sense to make our heavy hitter able to hit harder. And we’ve already seen how important your job is on the ship, anything that can help you patch her up quicker would benefit us all. Once we reach the moon, if we do find an alien base, I’m sure a portable workbench will come in handy. Come on, we’re just wasting oxygen talking about it.”
“Actually, Miss,” the alien merchant said. “I have multiple life support modules catering to a wide range of alien life forms, we’re not in danger of running out of oxygen in the foreseeable future.”
Nori didn’t answer, her gaze never left Bulco’s.
The large man relented. “Oh, alright. How do I put this on?”
With Nori’s help, the exoskeleton unfolded, wrapping the large man’s body with the thin support bracers. Bulco held up one metal-wrapped fist and chuckled. “Feels like I can smash a Warped’s head with this on.”
“I have the MAT stored right here, excuse me for a moment.”
The fearsome-looking alien moved to the side and clicked the console on his forearm. A hatch opened in the wall. He retrieved a small package, then brought it back, placing it on the ground in front of the bulky Engineer. “Here you are.”
Bulco narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he looked at the spiky metal pack. “That looks more like something you’d use to torture a guy than an engineering tool.”
“I assure you this is quite a standard configuration. Simply touch it to the center of your nervous cluster and it will do the rest.”
“He means your spine,” Lana translated.
“Shit. Can’t believe I’m doing this,” Bulco muttered. He took off his shirt, exposing his thick muscles. He picked up the metallic tool and held it to his back.
From where she sat, Nori could see the ball spikes growing and shooting into the large man’s back. Bulco’s expression changed,
becoming full of wonder. He didn’t look like he was suffering any pain.
Nori watched, mesmerized, as the last bit of metal was visibly absorbed into her companion’s body and began crawling under his skin.
“This almost tickles,” the Engineer said. “I feel weird.”
“It’ll be finished in a moment,” their host promised.
The bumps on Bulco’s body snaked upward. They writhed around the Engineer’s shoulders and arms until settling in place, allowing his skin to return to its normal smooth shape.
“OK, that’s pretty cool,” Nori admitted.
“Did it work?” Lana asked.
Bulco’s eyes were unfocused. “Wow. I’m getting a lot of new information here, gimme a sec.”
The others watched him as he concentrated, reading text that only he could see. After several minutes, he took an alien component from his pocket and held it over his palm. Lana gasped as two slender robotic arms, hardly wider than pens, emerged out of his arms and delicately poked the item. Two more arms grew from his shoulders to hold it in place and the engineer let go of the device. There were some faint sparks then the item started pulsing faintly. Bulco held up his hand and the robotic arms deposited the item in his palm, then disappeared, retracting back into his body.
“What just happened?” Lana asked.
Bulco smiled in satisfaction. “I found this geometric stabilizer on the freighter, but it was damaged. I couldn’t fix it since my Engineer score was too low. But with the extra strength and the MAT, it was a piece of cake.”
“Cool,” Lana said. “What does it do?”
“Once I install it in the Hummer, it’ll let us drive over even rougher terrain.”
Nori nodded. “Awesome. Did it hurt?”
“What the arms thing? Nah. It felt weird at first, but now it feels like a part of me.”
“That’s how it usually works,” Alzigo said. “Your body and the Tec from the MAT are in symbiosis--” An orange light flashed on the alien’s forearm. “Repairs on your freighter have completed. You may depart at your leisure, though if you wish, you’re welcome to stay as my guests. I have plenty more Auja fruits in storage.”
Nori got to her feet. “Thanks, maybe next time. We should get going; the situation down there isn’t about to handle itself.”
They bid their host goodbye and returned to their ship.
They arrived at the bridge and settled into the chairs that sprouted from the floor. Bulco pored over his console. “Well, internal sensors say we’re spaceworthy again. I guess they’re good for that much at least. We should consider upgrading them soon or risk the ship’s exploding on us without our realizing it.”
“We’ll add it to our shopping list,” Nori said distractedly as she operated the ship’s controls.
A gentle tremor ran through the freighter as the docking seal released. The ship rotated, putting the station and the Earth behind her.
“Next stop, the moon!”
13 - Companionship
Nori’s chair melted away into the floor, leaving her standing in front of the main monitors. The three giant screens reflected the space around them, a never-ending vastness filled with specks of light. Earth’s moon loomed large on the center screen.
Bulco looked at the Navigator. “Shouldn’t you be flying the ship?”
Nori shrugged. “There’s no need. I plotted a course to the moon and at maximum thrusters, we’ll make it there in about six hours. There’s no sense staring at the passing stars.”
Lana’s chair lowered as well. “Technically, the distance to the moon is too short to see any significant star movement, but I agree, there’s no sense just sitting idly in here, and I sort of burnt out from having pored over the ship’s systems for so long.”
Nathan’s force field disengaged around him.
“So what do we do to pass the time?” Bulco asked, getting out of his chair.
“We can sort through all the equipment we bought?” Lana suggested, flashing Nathan a smile as he emerged from his seat.
“Good idea, girl.”
They walked to the cargo hold and found the small pile of items the alien trader had left them. Lana picked up a plastic case about the size of a shoebox and opened it. Seven strips of metal lay on a soft layer, but the last one looked different than the others. The young Expert narrowed her eyes.
Implant, Communicator
Implant, Sensor Enhancement
“These are the implants we ordered,” she said. She picked up one of the communicators and hesitantly pressed it to her temple. The rigid looking piece of metal instantly liquefied and seeped through her skin. Lana winced. “Ouch. Feels like the morning after a dorm party.” An instant later, some of the silvery stuff seeped back through her skin, forming into a thin metal strip behind her right ear.
Bulco snickered. “You kinda look like a cyberpunk wannabe.”
Nori and Nathan each picked up an implant and held it up to their temples. The alien tech responded, creating the same shape on their right ears.
“Ah, whatever, just give me one,” Bulco grunted and repeated their action.
“Testing, one two three,” Lana said with a smirk. “You copy?”
Nori nodded. “Loud and clear.”
Nathan and Bulco nodded.
“Cool. You just need to think on who you want to talk to and the implant does the rest. They’re good for about ten kilometers on their own, but with the ship acting as a communication beacon, it should extend up to five hundred kilometers.”
“That’s good,” Nori said. “It means we can communicate with people on the planet from low orbit.” She paused, frowned, and shook her head. “Don’t ask me how I know that.”
“I guess it’s just Navigator’s stuff,” Lana said. “Anyway, Alzigo mentioned that in most alien cultures, the implants connect to the general communication system, so the range could extend to cover an entire planet.”
She retrieved the sensor enhancement implant and gingerly pressed it to her temple.
Prerequisites unmet: Intelligence 6
“Bummer,” she muttered ruefully and placed the implant in her pocket.
“What else do we have here?” Bulco picked up another small pack with a wide strap connected to it.
Modular Spacesuit. Power cells: 100%. Air supply: 100%
He gingerly touched the box to his chest and the strap instantly locked around his waist. The small box unfolded, rapidly spreading a thin film around his body.
“Holy crap,” the large man muttered as the fabric covered his head, blocking his sight. A second later, the part covering his face shimmered and became transparent.
“That’s so cool,” Lana said admiringly.
“Good thing I’m not claustrophobic,” Bulco grunted. He examined The Puncher on his arm, which wasn’t covered by the suit, then he concentrated. The suit retracted from his body back to the small pack, now belted around his waist.
“Handy,” Nori noted. “Mine doesn’t do that.”
“I think your suit is actually better,” Lana said. “It offers some physical protection that ours don’t.” She handed Nathan one of the belts and put the last one around her own waist.
The zero-grav boots came next. They were just oval strips of unknown material, but when held against their soles, they extended over their own shoes.
“OK, that’s pretty cool.” Bulco lifted one leg to examine the new layer. “It even patched up a tear I had in my shoe.”
“Looks like that’s everything,” Lana said. “Anyone hungry?”
Nathan nodded enthusiastically.
Bulco chuckled and patted his back. “I could grab a bite to eat too.”
They passed through the bridge and into their quarters.
Nori frowned as she looked around, seeing nothing but the six beds. “Where’s the kitchen you mentioned? Or the toilets, for that matter?”
“Check this out,” Lana said with a grin. She moved toward one of the beds and raised her hands. Just l
ike the chairs on the bridge, the bed in front of her melted to the floor and several counters popped up instead. There was even an implement that looked like a stove. Lana opened a drawer and retrieved a cardboard box. “Who’s up for cereal?”
Bulco shook his head. “That’s not food, girl. Move over.” He stood next to Lana, opened another counter and took out several items. He cut thick slices of bread, spread a generous amount of mayonnaise and slapped some jerky on top. He took a large bite and closed his eyes in pleasure. “Now that’s the breakfast of champions.”
Lana looked disgusted and prepared a bowl of cereal for herself. Nori and Nathan didn’t have her reservations though, and they each accepted the Engineer’s sandwiches.
“Not bad,” Nori admitted between mouthfuls. “How did you come up with this combo?”
“Easy. That’s all we have in stock. Well, we have a few jars of preserved capers, but I’d die before I eat those.”
“I like capers,” Lana said defensively.
Bulco looked at her as she happily chewed her cereal and chuckled. “I rest my case.”
Nori bent and a narrow stool sprouted from the floor to support her. “I assume you didn’t do much cooking before the Calamity?”
He shook his head. “No. Maria, my wife took care of that.” He stopped and his expression became pained. After an extended moment, he continued. “She always used to say that with hands like mine, I better stick to being a mechanic and leave the cooking to her.” He chuckled, and his eyes became distant. “She also used to say that with a mug like mine, she’d be the only one willing to cook for me, anyway.”
The corners of Nori’s lips twitched. “I bet she was never worried about you being unfaithful, then.”
“Ha!” Bulco slapped his thigh. “You’re right about that. I think you two would have hit it off. She was fearless, like you.”
“Can you tell us a little bit more on how you got to be a gang leader?” Nori asked. “You gave us the abbreviated version, but I’d like to hear the full story.”
Earth Force (Relict Legacy Book 1) Page 19
