by Z D Dean
The body suit didn’t yield any new information, but it did give him a better insight into how the suit functioned as environmental protection. He didn’t see any need to improve that aspect of its capabilities, and instead, just improved the tensile strength of the material. This gave him more protection in the areas between the plates of rigid armor he wore.
The holdout gun was a simple energy weapon that utilized his suit’s Rua stores as ammunition but otherwise didn’t provide any breakthroughs in his understanding. After spending some Rua on extra view screens, he was able to take off his helmet and properly inspect it. It was a treasure trove of Rua technology. He spent the majority of the time learning how every component, from his improved visual overlays to the core for his AI, worked. What stood out most to him was the fact that the helmet functioned as almost a self-contained system. Power storage and even the neural network for Ann was limited by the amount of space the helmet had.
Instead of changing how effectively the helmet worked alone, he began exploring the idea of making his entire armor set one working system. The first thing he did was take the design for the Rua capacitor and implement it on the inside of his backplate. Small connectors ran along the outside of his under suit to connect his helmet to the power supply. There was a risk that if a round penetrated his backplate, he would be blown apart, but he couldn’t see a situation where he would turn his back on an enemy that could kill him.
After getting the back piece modified, he turned his attention to the two upper chest pieces. On the inside of these, he created more neural networking, connected across his under suit. When he finished and reassembled the armor, both Ann and his workstation AI were running so fast that he couldn’t even understand what they were saying.
After he got them slowed down, Ann was the first to speak, stepping on his station AI.
“What have you done? I’ve never had this much processing power inside of a suit before.”
“Link up with Marvin, and take a look at my work from the station.”
It only took a millisecond for her to review what he had done.
“I am having Mara remove wall panels near my core. If you implement this in the walls around the core, I will be able to process faster than any AI the Groz ever created,” she said, and sensing his concern continued, “with this power, I will be able to salvage more data from the storage you brought back from the carrier. With the addition of sensor probes, I would be able to better calculate the location of your home world.”
He wasn’t sure of her true motivation. It was impossible to tell with AI. He was sure that if it helped him get home, he was in. He didn’t realize just how much of an improvement he was making until Marvin keyed him in. With his new processing abilities, he was able to do a better and more accurate analysis of the Rua systems running through the equipment he had already analyzed. Screens and screens of new improvements and data flooded his vision. Before he could even think about reviewing it, he had to close it all and push it to one of the external monitors on his station.
He quickly learned two things while reviewing the documents. First, while his improvements were impressive, they were child’s play to the newly improved AI. Everything he did could be cleaned up by the new AI’s routines. Second, he learned that his sleep-deprived brain was not up to the task of parsing through the information. Just before he got up to leave, Samix entered and handed him both her helmet and her chest plate.
“Ann said you had made a breakthrough and that I needed to bring you my equipment.”
“Yeah, I found a way to make her run faster than when she is integrated with our helmets. This should make you almost one with the ship.”
He set the armor pieces on the bench and had Marvin start the AI core improvements. The connections would just be printed between the pieces and Sam would have to put them on her under suit after they were done. With the station working, he headed to his quarters to catch up on some much-needed rest. As he began to disrobe for bed, there was a knock at his door. A simple thought saw the door slide back into its recess, revealing Sam.
“We need to talk.”
While sitting on the edge of his bed, he motioned for her to take a seat at his desk and continue. As she fought to find her words, he continued taking off the armor plates on his lower half.
“Are we still good?” she asked. Not waiting for him to answer, she continued. “Things have been weird since we left the XES01. There is something between us, right? On the other ship I was in command, so I was comfortable. Here, I don’t know how this works. Then I saw how Mara was acting around you, and it made me jealous. I don’t ever get jealous, and I wasn’t sure why I was until I thought about it. There isn’t anything going on between you two? Because that would kill me. I know that there isn’t anything going on between you two.”
While she talked, he stood and walked toward her. Her words were all coming out in a jumble as if she would forget them if she stopped to breathe. He stood and kissed her passionately. Mostly because he had wanted to since he met her, but also to get her to stop talking.
After a few heated seconds, he pulled away to her dismay.
“Sam, you are an amazing woman. When I still thought I was going back to Earth right away, I was hesitant to pursue this. Now, I realize I might spend my entire life searching. I want nothing more than to have you with me while I do it.”
As he spoke, her dismay turned to nervousness, and quickly to happiness. By the time he finished she was hanging onto him, happy tears occasionally dripping from her eyes. For the first time since he had slipped the surly bonds of Earth, he was happy. Both sat comfortably, basking in the reciprocal admiration they felt for each other. There was a need that permeated the atmosphere in the room, but it wasn’t carnal. They simply needed someone to make them feel less alone. They talked for hours as they reclined on his bed. Sam eventually talked herself out and fell asleep with her head on his chest.
At the sound of her slow steady breathing, he gently removed his arm from beneath her head and began stripping off the rest of his armor. Before he finished, Ann spoke up. It was merely a whisper to avoid waking the sleeping woman.
“You should sleep with your armor on. With my new processing power, I should be able to make all the neural connections in your body in one night. It will help us work together.”
“Not tonight,” he said simply, as he rummaged through his bag to find the pair of sweatpants he had made back on the XES01 to sleep in.
After tossing them on the edge of his rack, he pulled the covers up over Sam to make sure she was comfortable and headed for the shower. He washed as quickly as possible and dried with a towel instead of the air jets so he didn’t wake his sleeping pilot. After he was finished, he pulled on his pants and crawled into bed next to the woman.
“You smell much better,” she mumbled as she snuggled back up to him and promptly fell back asleep.
Chapter 13
He woke in an empty bed to the sound of a buzzer going off.
“Ann, what is going on? And shut that damn buzzer off.”
“The Settler fleet has arrived. I will open up a tight beam communication channel as soon as you are ready.”
Fleet, he thought as he quickly changed into his armor and headed to the bridge. He was the only one present, so Ann popped open the channel and waited. The image on the screen materialized showing him the long-eared, stout creature that he had befriended months ago. But unlike the last time he had seen him, Axis’s ship working clothes had been replaced by the garish finery of his clan.
“Axis,” Zade said. “I hope you are doing well, friend.”
“Zade, you marqua. How’ve you been? Why all the mystery?”
“Not bad, aside from the Unity repeatedly trying to kill me. What’s with the armada?”
“Well, I know you and you don’t do anything in half measures. I figured if you were calling me out to the middle of nowhere, it was best to be prepared,” Axis replied candidly.
&n
bsp; “Fair enough. I need to call in my favor to help these people.”
“Let’s meet on my ship when I get closer to you to discuss the details. I want to show you some proper Settler hospitality and get another game in.”
“Sounds like a plan. How long are you going to be?”
“Should only take a few hours. See you then.”
The channel cut and the screen went black.
With time to kill, he headed to the galley. Sam was enjoying her breakfast while she perused some documents. She hadn’t noticed his entrance before he spoke.
“Not the morning I was hoping for,” Zade said playfully, scaring Samix, who jumped and spilled her sloop onto the table. “I was thinking something more personal, but the news that I’ll be seeing Axis again soon perked me up.”
“I know,” she said dejectedly, pointing from her now empty cup to the pot of sloop. “I want to keep things as professional as possible with Mara around. I still think she has a thing for you, and I don’t want to cause any problems.”
“Good point. Where is she anyway?”
“She’s been spending most of her time in the settlement with her brother. Ann told me we are meeting up with the Settler Fleet today. I can’t wait to see Axis again. It feels like it’s been so long.”
“Well, if she isn’t on the ship,” he started with a grin, much to Sam’s dismay, as he leaned in, kissed her, and set her refilled cup down in front of her. “Just kidding. Whenever you’re ready, know that I am a man and always ready.”
“Easy there, buddy,” she said with a laugh. “With Mara around, I want to keep things at least a little professional. I don’t want her to think less of me because I’m sleeping with the boss.”
After they finished their breakfast, they headed to the forge room for her to grab her upgraded equipment. She was excited to see how it would affect her interactions with the ship while flying. As she checked out her new capabilities, he got to work implementing the neural network expansion on the wall panels Mara had left propped next to the door. Even after the panels were upgraded, he had a few hours to kill before the meeting with Axis, so he decided to reinstall them near the AI housing.
The improvement was immediately noticeable as soon as the final panel was screwed into place. From his position on the ship, he could hear the forge fire up and begin producing something. The ship began to shift around him. The changes weren’t drastic, but after spending weeks aboard Ann they were noticeable to him.
“What is going on Ann?”
“I am now able to analyze slight inefficiencies in my design that could lead to suboptimal performance. I have implemented changes to the overall shape and layout of the ship to make us more effective.”
“Is that why I heard the forge spin up?”
“No. I have determined some locations to search for Earth with the highest probability of success, so I used the forge to create an exploration module for myself. With it, I will be able to deploy probes to search for the electromagnetic signature of your planet.”
“That’s great news. We can head there as soon as we are done here.”
“The contested zone, like space itself, is extremely large. Although I have found a way to search for your planet, it may take a while to successfully locate it, even with my improved performance. We have a better chance, but you should continue to find more Groz relics to improve your strength until I find something.”
Sam notified him that she had seen the changes across her station and could see the improvements. She also informed him that she was a little miffed that she would have to relearn the ship’s capabilities. After informing him that they would be taking off to link up with the Settler fleet, he felt the ship begin to move.
He made his way to the bridge and could see that it had subtly changed as well. It didn’t feel as wide as before and the spacing between the control stations was slightly different. He couldn’t understand the reason for the latter but assumed the former was because the ship had slightly narrowed. In space, aerodynamics didn’t mean much, but Ann was capable of atmospheric flight as well, which made the new trait more important.
“Three minutes until dock,” Sam said from her station at the front and dead center of the newly laid out bridge. “Axis came ready for a fight. We will be landing on his carrier.”
In no time they were heading for docking bay twelve of the monster ship. From what he could see from the bridge windows, he estimated that it was even larger than the dilapidated Groz carrier that had been the reason for them visiting the system. They passed through an energy field and were directed to land via lights on the bay floor.
It wasn’t until they landed and began the shutdown procedures that he saw Settlers begin to enter the bay. They hurried over to the ship and began tying it down with safety straps. With the gravity plating on the big ship, he had to assume it was just a safety precaution in case of power loss.
He and Sam headed to the cargo bay where they rode the lift down to ground level. As soon as they cleared the floor of the ship, he spotted Axis heading towards him with an entourage. Even in different clothing, he could spot the little alien by his cocky stride and puffed up chest. To save the small guy the trip, Zade and Samix began walking to meet him somewhere in the middle of the bay.
“You both seem different,” Axis said when the two groups met. “Bigger, and your sounds are muted. Are you wearing some type of armor?”
Zade had forgotten that the Settler species lacked any kind of eyes. They relying on their hearing and vibration receptors along their body. It made sense that Axis wouldn’t be able to comment on their appearance in full Groz armor, and instead noticed the different sounds they made as they moved.
“Yeah, things have changed since I beat you at chess last time,” Zade quipped as he took a knee to embrace his friend.
“That was luck, and nothing more,” Axis replied with laughter in his voice.
As soon as Zade had mentioned beating Axis at his own game, murmurs started amongst the contingent that had followed him into the docking bay. Both chose to ignore them and focusing on their reunion.
“Follow me. We need to get you comfortable. You sound ridiculous inside of that helmet,” Axis said, leading the group towards the interior of the ship.
As they walked, Zade spotted different crew members working along their path. Some were working on electronics inside the walls of the corridor, while others were simply preforming maintenance on the structure of the ship. Each wore some kind of polymer sleeve over their ears and the vibration receptors on their heads. Zade figured they were devices that translated the silent, stationary work into sounds and vibrations that their minds could interpret as a picture. Artificial eyes were the only way he could describe them to himself.
“So, what do you need, friend? Why am I out here in this far-flung, shithole system?” Axis asked after they entered a comfortably appointed sitting area.
“There is a problem with the local miners that you may be able to help with. I think it will be a win-win for everyone, though. These asteroids are packed with different precious metals and the miners need a patron to help improve their mining camp.”
As he laid out the situation in the system, a worker brought in a game table and began setting up the pieces. He could tell immediately it was the same game that he had played with Axis back on the exploration ship, but this board was so much more elegant. These pieces were dark and light crystal, whereas the ones on the other ship had been made of plastic.
“As soon as I saw the asteroids, I sent a couple of ships out to scan them. It appears they are full of gold and platinum. When I found out, I sent a message back to the clan to purchase the rights to the system,” he said as he made the first move of the game.
Zade thought a while, mostly on his opening move.
“Weird. The miners only talked about gold. Any interest in setting up an operation to help these people out?” he asked as he moved one of his pieces forward three rows and up two levels
.
“Using the locals would expedite our start-up,” Axis mused as he looked over the board. “This system has the largest concentration of platinum in the Unity. Of course, I am interested in adding this resource to my clan’s stockpile.”
“Awesome, after I get done beating you here, we can go set something up with the representative for the miners,” Zade said.
There was a snicker from one of the workers stationed near the men.
“Get the hell out, I have something more sensitive to discuss with our guest,” Axis said to the man who looked terrified at his outburst. After the man was properly chastised, he turned his attention back to Zade. “This is going to be some very bad news. You may want to dismiss your bodyguard as well.”
“She’s fine. Whatever you can say to me, she can hear.”
“There was an accident a couple of days after you left Xi’Ga,” he paused, searching for the right words to use. “Samix crashed her ship while racing through the asteroids around the planet. Rescue teams were dispatched as soon as it happened, but they couldn’t find her in the wreckage. I am sorry, Zade. I know you guys were close.”
Zade sat silently, trying to decide if he wanted to reveal Sam’s true fate. Before he could speak, he heard the gentle click of her helmet release.
“Well, it didn’t exactly happen the way you think,” Samix said casually.
Zade watched as the alien’s already strange color paled to a new tone.
“What? How? We had to observe days of mourning for you,” he said, his confusion becoming anger.
