While Happy and Alena planned to use the day to fully explore their new ship and ‘do some girls-stuff’, Robin also had two things on his list.
“I need to get ROMAS back online, then I can start preparing the Star Atlas for Proto.” He muttered as he entered the engineering room. His passive sense sent a shudder all over his body when he came so close to the heart of the ship.
While it was amazing to see all the things the Keeper were doing with ?ther, it also came at the cost of availability of a regular power supply. He didn’t find even one normal power outlet on the whole ship. Therefore, he had to go directly for the source.
The Keeper used a machine that Robin didn’t even begin to understand to convert the energy produced by a generator into ?ther. For now he planned to jack into that connection and siphon some power to recharge his Neuro Chip.
He chose some of the things Alena had bought on her short trip to the settlement and began his work. After he had soldered a few wires and checked their connection with his mutation, he paused and leaned back. Letting his head rest on the cold metal cleared his mind.
“When was the last time that I actually used my skills as technocrafter?” He wondered out loud, “Was it when we built the little drone in the mystic sea that we used to send an SOS to Happy?”
Carefully he added a few electronic parts to his construction and a gentle smile bloomed on his face.
“Jim would have loved this.” He sighed and his thoughts wandered to his old boss, “Mate, I hope you’re doing good wherever your soul may rest right now. You know, we found out who the bastards are that… that killed you. Do you believe it? In the end it was Patience who kept a cool head and decided that we should take a step back. Letting go of any thoughts about revenge.”
Robin, sitting alone in the dark engineering room of a Keeper ship, began to giggle.
“I’ll live my life as if it is a damn fucking adventure. Using every moment I have. So, when we meet after I follow you to the other side, I can tell you a hell of a story!”
***
- Power supply recharging…
- Loading systems…
- Waking up ROMAS…
- Routine completed!
- Functionality of your personal assistance restored.
A few system notifications scrolled through his Interface before getting replaced by a message from his companion.
- Greetings, Robin Tulward.
- How can I help you?
“I never thought that there would come a day where I’m that happy to see you!” Robin cheered and sat down. From the back of his head came a long cable that was connected to the little transformer he had crafted, which was directly wired to the generator.
- Checking date and time…
- I have been offline for 9 days, 11 hours and 57 minutes
- Please provide data for the events that were missed
“I’ll give you an update in a minute.” Robin agreed, “But first I need you to help me with the Star Atlas. Your main part is on the way here and looking for a new home.”
- With the growth of your skills there is a high probability that you’ll be able to do the necessary adjustments. (89%)
“That’s what I wanted to hear!” Robin laughed and began to look through the schematics ROMAS was showing him.
Later that day, when Mereus began to hide behind the ocean at the horizon, Robin was in the upper deck and sat next to the cube that looked like it was made of highly sophisticated electronic panels. As before, faint light spilled out between the gaps of the panels. The light was of ‘fluffy-cloud-blue color’, as Happy had described it to him.
However, instead of enjoying the beautiful sight, Robin was panting in short, angry breaths.
- Your description of the ?ther flow is not accurate
- Your schematics of the ?ther flow aren’t accurate
- Please try again…
Barely stopping himself from pulling his hair, Robin waved a sheet of paper around that showed a complex network of lines and nodes.
“You little shit! This is a perfect representation of this fucking box! What else do you want to hear?”
- This is a highly sophisticated piece of technology
- Your amateurish descriptions of its internal workings are lacking
- A more accurate description will help to minimize the risks of making a mistake when connecting the transmitter.
“Amateurish? Are you kidding me?” Robin cursed loudly, “I have described this a hundred times in the last few hours, drawn more than 10 schematics of it. This has to be enough! Just tell me where I have to connect the cables already.”
- As you wish
- Try the following connections:
- A1 - S7
- A2 - S19
- A…
Robin slumped together, mentally completely exhausted, when ROMAS finally gave him the next instructions. The crafting of the transmitter had been a quick and clean job with the parts that Alena had procured. But when they started discussing where the device had to be connected, things escalated.
When his head stopped pounding and he got a grip on himself, Robin reactivated his energy sense and got a visual overlay of the cube. A complex network of red lines ran criss-cross all over the huge object, a representation of the ?ther flow inside. If Robin hadn’t spent so much time on training his mind to process the increased feedback from his mutation, he would have long blacked out.
Carefully, he used a delicate screwdriver to remove some of the panels.
“We could have done this 4 hours ago!” He mumbled dissatisfied.
- Your initial description of the inner workings were lacking
- The probability of errors occurring during the implementation was too high (6,7%)
Robin nearly dropped his tools as he opened and closed his mouth a few times, lost for words.
“You made me go through all this because there was a 6,7% chance to make a mistake and break this thing? Burn in Plasma!”
- The chance of critical failure was slightly lower (1,5%)
- Reworking the schematics lowered the overall risk to 5,2% and the critical risk to 1,3%
“That… wow… Just wow!” Robin muttered, “When Proto moves in here, I’ll make sure he repays me for the squandered lifetime!”
“Rob?” Happy asked when she walked out of the elevator, “You’re still not done yet? The ice in your cocktail is melting… again.”
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“Leave me alone! I want to suffer in silence.”
“Huh, just hurry up already. Ang’Tue should arrive any moment now.”
“Hurry up? This is a delicate piece of technology, I have to be careful. Also, does it look like I’m just chilling here? Waiting for the time to pass?” Robin asked exasperated.
“Well…” Niu hesitated, “Two hours ago you also just sat there like that and-”
“Fuck off!”
***
Just as Robin came out of the ship to join his friends, a dune buggy approached on the beach. As it was night already, details were hard to make out.
“Oh? That should be Ang’Tue, right?” Happy asked and jumped up.
“Hopefully, yes.” Alena agreed and also stood up. However, Robin saw that she reached for the rifle next to her seat and could only agree. They had learned the hard way that things tended to work out differently than they expected.
He sent out an Echo Pulse but couldn’t detect anything unusual. A quick glance over his shoulders confirmed that the walker was well hidden in the thick forest.
Luckily, their worries were unfounded and Ang’Tue jumped out of the buggy the moment it came to a halt.
“Greetings!” the old man said, a friendly smile on his face. He opened his third eye and inspected the little group and the camp they had built.
“You look good!” He chuckled and walked up to Robin to shake his hands, “So the women really managed to get you out of prison?”
“Kind of, yeah.” Robin laughed and gave him a quick hug, “Good to have you back. The crew is finally complete again!”
“Aha! And what is with me?” An artificial voice complained.
The Eltaran rolled his eyes but quickly reached into his pocket to take out a tablet, “I’m not part of this or what? Do you even know how much I had to risk to get you out of that cell?”
“Hey Proto.” Robin said with a flat voice, “Risk? Yeah, not much and in the end, I even managed without you. But I appreciate your good intentions. After all, it was the mission to rescue you that got me in there in the first place.”
“Just because your plan was shit! I’ve computed dozens of alternatives that would have had way better chances of success.”
“Uh! Is that because of the knowledge you got when the Starborn created you?” Happy chimed in, her eyes sparkling like little stars.
“Yes!” Proto immediately agreed but then quickly corrected himself, “I mean, no. That is because of my superior intellect and diligent training to sharpen my mind!”
“Ugh, can we just move on?” Alena asked, irritated. Her face was a cold mask as always, but with time Robin had become better at reading her overall body language and ROMAS only confirmed his observations.
- She enjoys these kind of interactions (87%)
- The tension in her body is fading (96%)
- Overall she is still on the edge
- She fears for her brother’s safety (71%)
“I know,” Robin muttered, “it’s time to sort things out.”
***
Robin, Alena and Happy gave Ang’Tue and Proto a quick run through the events they had missed and updated them on their situation.
“Wow, you went through a lot!” The old man said, hardly keeping up with the crazy stories they told him. “I haven’t had nearly as much excitement on Rucasur. Not that I’m complaining. I mostly bought supplies and new equipment and talked to the Elders of the Eltaran.”
Looking past the man, Robin spotted the many crates on the buggy’s cargo grid.
“Where did you get the money for all the stuff?” He asked curiously.
“Ha! That was easy, do you know how much money is lying around on forgotten bank accounts? I did the UAS a service by cleaning up that mess for them!” Proto proudly explained.
“You stole money from the UAS? What the heck?” Robin gasped.
“Awesome!” Niu laughed, “How much did you get?”
“Uhm, about 1,9 billion? A few million more or less…”
“Whuuu!! We’re rich!”
“Ugh, yeah. Great. I’m sure no one will notice that.” Robin shook his head, “Whatever, let’s talk about our next steps for now.”
“Drinks!” Happy yelled!
“Ay, drinks.” He agreed with a laugh.
A few minutes later, the crew of the Relentless Stride was sitting around the campfire with sausages on a stick and fresh cocktails at hand.
“First of all,” Robin began, “I want to say thank you again. The risk each and everyone of you took to ensure the safety of the team is not a given!”
“Cheers!” Ang’Tue raised his glass and everyone joined in.
“Now, we have a lot to discuss. Beginning with the last part of my meeting with the Augur. I already have come to a decision - well, it’s more like they decided for me - but you still have the opportunity to think about it.”
“Whatever it is, I’m in.” Alena said with a shrug, surprising not only Robin, “What? When I decided to join this crew, I accepted that there won’t be a way back. So, whatever it is that the Keeper want from us - I’m in! Let’s make this our next great adventure!”
“Who are you, and what did you do to my stoic friend Alena?” Happy asked suspiciously, “Rob, can you scan her to see if you find any anomalies?”
Robin only smiled and slightly bowed his head to Alena to express his gratitude for her trust in him. Then he began to explain what the Augur was asking of them.
“For the Keeper, everything is a trade. They offered me information and the walker, the Relentless Stride, and in return they expected me to personally deliver a message.”
“That doesn’t sound like a fair deal…” Ang’Tue muttered and then his third eye opened, “Unless there is a catch and it is really complicated to reach whoever you shall meet.”
“That’s exactly what throws me off.” Robin agreed, “It’s way too easy. And I personally learned that the Keeper aren’t offering things for free.”
After taking another sip from his drink, he continued, “They want me to find and meet the First and deliver a simple message - after we visited the hidden world of the Eltaran.”
“Me?” Proto asked in confusion, “What message?”
“The Keeper know many things, like that our next destination indeed will be the Eltaran colony, if they agree. What they didn’t know was that Proto is with us already. There is no need to search for him. I could finish their mission immediately without even leaving my seat.”
“But you wouldn’t have visited the Eltaran first.” Proto said, “What’s the message?”
“In a minute.” Robin said, “As you all can guess, there is a catch somewhere. Something is bound to happen after we meet the Eltaran and I’m pretty sure it’ll be fucked up as hell and drag us in dangerous waters or the Keeper wouldn’t be so generous with their offer. You can decide if you want to be part of this. It’s your last chance to get out of this, there is no turning back afterwards. The Keeper are offering compensation for everyone in this crew.”
He paused for a moment and then repeated what the aliens had told him.
“Happy, if you agree, they will provide an information package that holds compromising data about your family’s business. You can use it as you want.”
Niu’s eyes went wide, clearly that was something that would help her with whatever she had planned for her family. Robin knew that things had escalated, especially after what happened in Fulan Point, but he hadn’t had the time yet to learn more.
“Alena, I already told you that Sevastian is being treated and that the therapy shows good results. The Keeper promise that they’ll make sure that whatever happens between you and the UAS will not affect his treatment. Your brother will be safe and secure, no matter how much we butt heads with the UAS.”
Finally, as if a boulder was lifted from her shoulder, Alena slumped down in her chair. All tension was gone and exhaustion showed on her face. She had been under even more pressure than Robin had assumed.
“I’m in, I already told you.” She muttered, then with a firm voice and without any hesitation she said, “I accept your terms!”
“Huh? You think they eavesdrop on us?” Happy asked and quickly looked around as if she could spot a Keeper hiding somewhere nearby.
“You tell me…” Alena said, looking at Robin.
“Yeah, probably.” he shrugged, not completely sure himself, “They should also know by now that Proto is part of the team.”
Then Robin looked to Ang’Tue, “For you, they propose an even better deal.”