by Isaac Hooke
New White Essencework learned.
Healing. Level 1 (White Siphoning Level 2 required).
New White Essencework learned.
Light Glove. Level 1 (White Siphoning Level 2 required).
New skill learned.
Chip Database Upgrade. Level 2.
Attribute up. Strength +1. Current Strength: 10
“All right, looks like the new nanotech took,” Tane said.
“I’d like to perform a final confirmation scan, if you don’t mind?” Bill said.
Tane leaned his head onto the machine and once more the light flashed into his eyes.
When it was done, the synthetic said: “All is well. I should probably mention, the Chip Database Upgrade also includes a free storage space increase, as well as the ability to archive the last twenty-four hours of video in a rolling log, as recorded by your eyes and ears. Just like they use in the military.”
“Nice, how do I activate it?” Tane asked.
“It’ll be in the Rolling Log section of your HUD,” Bill said.
Tane found the appropriate setting and activated it. He waited a few seconds, and then tried rewinding to the start of the recording. The scene played back in the upper right of his vision.
“Looks good,” Tane said.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” the synthetic asked. Bill’s gaze encompassed Tane, Jed, and Sinive.
“I think we’re good,” Jed said.
“Thank you for your business,” Bill said. “Come again soon.”
On the way out, Tane tried to ID Jed. He didn’t get “Volur” listed as the class, as the warrior was still spoofed as a professional dancer. Sinive was little better.
I’ll just have to try IDing something else.
“Aren’t you the special one,” Sinive said, not looking at him. “Got yourself a brand new Chrysalium necklace. Maybe you should let it sit on top of your sari for all the world to see. Add in your rings while you’re at it. Let everyone know you’re a Volur.”
Feeling the need to get in a riposte, he said: “You’re just jealous because you left empty-handed.”
“Did I?” Still not meeting his gaze, Sinive produced a Chrysalium tree from the storage pouch hidden underneath her sari. She held it to eye level and examined it. “Not so empty-handed after all.”
It was the same tree he had seen her studying in the shop. Tane hadn’t seen her purchase it: she’d obviously stolen the item. How she had avoided triggering the security systems, he didn’t know.
Her hacking skill, again.
“You thief!” Tane tried to grab the item from her, but she swooped her hand away.
“That synthetic deserves a little thievery for his outrageous prices,” Sinive said.
“But it’s not right,” Tane said. “I’ve never been friends with someone who steals.”
“Good,” Sinive said. “I don’t want to be friends.”
She hadn’t looked at him for the entire exchange. He wasn’t quite sure what she meant, considering that she had said the same thing in his room the night before, moments before they’d had slept together.
Tane glanced at Jed, but the Volur merely stared straight ahead, stone faced. Trying to pretend very hard that he hadn’t heard.
“Fine.” Sinive stopped abruptly. She shoved the silver tree toward him and finally gazed into his eyes. Hers were fiery, filled with anger. “Go ahead and return it then. See if I care.”
Tane snatched the item from her, feeling angry in return at the way she was treating him. He spun toward the shop entrance, only to stare uncertainly at the door. He wondered how he was going to explain this. Maybe he could just leave the tree on the front step or something, but the proprietor probably wouldn’t notice before someone walked by and snatched it.
Jed saved Tane the trouble. The Volur held out his hand. “I’ll do it.”
Tane gladly handed the item over and Jed entered the shop. He returned a moment later, empty-handed.
“What did you tell the synthetic?” Tane asked.
“That she shoplifted the item, and we caught her,” Jed answered. “Bill agreed not to press charges, since the item was unharmed.”
“Not that it would matter,” Sinive told Jed defiantly. “I’m Mika Shawarma, sandwich specialist extraordinaire.”
“I thought I knew you,” Tane said. “But I really don’t. Not in the least.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but Tane looked away, feeling hurt. She held her tongue, thankfully.
He was careful not to meet her gaze all the way back. He kept expecting her to say something, to apologize, even hoped for it—an apology not just for her behavior at the shop, but for the way she had acted all morning—but she said nothing.
And that only hurt all the more.
20
Tane, Sinive and Jed sat in a food court in the basement of a downtown residential skyscraper. Thankfully the air conditioning was operating in full swing,
It was relatively crowded, considering that it was lunch time, and those who liked to socialize had come down to eat rather than having their meals delivered to their rooms by robot or drone.
Conversations began to dull on the far side of the court, and heads turned at the tables there, watching as someone or something apparently walked past. Tane couldn’t quite make out what they were looking at, but the conversations at the tables picked up again as soon as whoever it was had walked by.
The head-turning and conversation-hushing effect continued as the individual in question approached Tane’s table, until finally he saw what everyone was looking at.
His mouth fell open, and he stared. A woman unlike any he had ever seen before was walking down the aisle between the tables. He could see why she had drawn so much attention. She wasn’t dressed in a sari. She wore a clingy top and bottom, with the flat belly of her midriff bared, and ample cleavage showing above that. Hair tumbled down her shoulders in long sensual waves. But it wasn’t just the clothing and hair: while Lyra was beautiful, and Sinive was extremely cute, this woman was the epitome of sexy. Every movement seemed designed to elicit a response from the opposite sex. Her hips waggled sinuously, like a snake. She had a slight smile, almost a smirk, curving up the corner of her mouth. Her eyes twinkled sultrily. Kohl heavily accented her eyes. Her lips seemed plump, luscious. She had a small, dark beauty mark to the left of her mouth, beneath her dewy cheeks.
“Try not to let your tongue drop out of your mouth and drool all over the table or anything,” Sinive commented snidely.
Tane snapped his mouth shut.
The woman had two sawed-off plasma rifles hanging from holsters crisscrossing her back in an X pattern. The stocks of each were accessible above either shoulder, out of the way of her hair. On her thigh was another holster, containing a pistol. A small elliptical device was attached on top of her belt buckle—obviously a shield generator.
Tane ran an ID.
Name: Gia Tijale
Race: Human
Level: 14
Class: Interstellar Corrector
Weaponry:
2x G9 Sawed-Off Plasma Rifle.
1x B&E Storm Zx4 Subcompact Plasma Pistol
Shielding: Energy. (50/50)
Base Armor rating: 1
Total armor rating (including shielding): 51
He noticed that in addition to the basic information, his chip update now gave him a weapons breakdown, plus an armor rating: at least for those people who actually had weapons and armor equipped, and weren’t engaging in spoofing.
“Tane, Sinive, meet Gia Tijale, interstellar corrector,” Jed said, snapping Tane’s attention back to the here and now.
“I hate that title.” Gia took a seat next to the Volur. “I think of myself more as a righter of wrongs.”
“Corrector?” Tane asked.
Ordinarily, his chip would have filled him in on the details by just thinking about the term, but since he wasn’t connected to the Galnet, and the chip’s internal dictionary
didn’t have a definition, the word meant nothing to him.
She looked at him in amusement. “When robots go bad, I hunt them down and take them out of commission. For a fee.”
“So a bounty hunter,” Tane said.
Gia’s face darkened. “I hate that title even more.”
Tane glanced at Sinive, who was smirking at him.
“She’s one of the best correctors in the galaxy,” Jed said. “Her services are in demand in many systems. You may have noticed the interstellar in front of her class.”
“Yes, in demand…” Gia smiled bitterly, sitting back. The smile lines accompanying that grin seemed a bit subdued, as if they had been bolstered with cosmetic fillers underneath. Tane immediately had the impression she was older than she looked. Gotta love rejuvenatics.
“That demand comes in waves,” Gia continued. “Some months I’m booked so solid, you’d think all the robots in the galaxy were revolting. Other months, business is so dead, I begin to wonder if humanity has finally cracked the AI code and created the perfect machines. I’m in a down month at the moment. I’ve had to find other ways to maintain my income level—got a ship to pay off, after all. I’ve started taking on side jobs.”
“And so here we are,” Jed said.
“Here we are,” Gia agreed.
“You’re so pretty,” Sinive interjected suddenly.
Gia inclined her head slightly. “Thank you. I love your look as well.”
Sinive’s cheeks flushed a pleasant red.
Not understanding the interplay between the two women, Tane glanced at Jed in confusion, but the Volur merely shrugged.
Gia glanced at Jed. “Silence Cage?”
Jed stared into the distance, and a moment later the sounds of the crowded cafeteria faded away. People at the neighboring tables still gawked at Gia, but Tane couldn’t hear a word any of them were saying. Nor would they be able to hear what was spoken within the Essencework Jed had created.
“Thank you.” She looked at Tane, and raised a hand to cover her mouth as she spoke. It was done offhandedly, almost as if she were simply rubbing her lips, and Tane understood immediately she was hiding her mouth from the lip reading software some people had installed in their chips. Then there was the cafeteria’s AI, which would be recording the tables from every angle via a multitude of tiny cameras.
“So you’re the Engineer Jed told me about,” Gia said. “You look exactly as I imagined you. Kind of young. A bit nerdy. Complexion could use some rejuvenation treatments. Not too tall. Not too short. Not too ugly, nor too pretty. About average in every respect. And yet you’ve attracted the attention of a Volur of Jed’s standing. What makes you so special? And most importantly of all, why do you want me to take you into the Dark Universe?”
Tane glanced at Jed uncertainly. The Volur spoke, covering his mouth in a similar fashion to Gia.
“I was under the impression—” Jed began.
Gia raised her free hand, interrupting. “I asked him. And I expect a reply from him. I can’t respect a man who won’t answer for himself.” She leaned forward, and her eyes became withering, boring into Tane. Suddenly she didn’t look so sexy anymore. “You want me to risk my ship, and my life, by traveling into the Umbra? Then you’re gonna answer me. And that answer better be good, or I walk. And good luck finding another ship to take you to the Umbra. At any price.”
Tane looked once more to Jed, who shook his head subtly as if to say: “don’t tell her the real reason.”
Tane covered his mouth with one hand, pretending to scratch his upper lip. “It’ll be a quick in-out operation,” he told the woman. “Enter the Umbra, jump to the planet in question, and return.”
“In-out,” Gia said in distaste. “Every operation you men perform is a quick in-out.” She stared plasma bolts at Jed, so that Tane thought the words were meant for him, but the Volur pretended not to notice.
Sinive, meanwhile, guffawed.
Gia eyed Tane once more. “You didn’t answer my questions.”
“She’s right,” Tane told Jed. “If we’re going to make her bring us to the Umbra, she deserves the truth.”
Jed shook his head even more firmly.
Tane decided he would have to trust this woman: he doubted she had been bluffing when she said she would refuse them passage. And she would do just that if he told her anything other than the full truth. Traveling into the Umbra was no light thing.
Tane looked Gia firmly in the eyes, and said: “I’m the Bender of Worlds.”
She stared at him, seeming confused for a moment, and then broke into an uproarious laugh. “The Bender! The Bender of Worlds!” She threw back her head and her shoulders shook with mirth. “He’s… the World Bender!” She wiped the tears from her eyes and then placed her hand back in front of her lips. “Funny man. The Bender of Worlds. Now seriously, why do you want to go into the Umbra? And don’t tell me it’s just because you want to gather loot.”
“Tiberius Tribulantes, the last man to wield the Dark and White Essences, left an artifact for me on a planet there,” Tane said. “That artifact will teach me how to remove the control chip that’s in my head.”
“You have a control chip in your head?” Gia said. Her right hand shifted toward her shoulder, almost unconsciously, as if she were getting ready to draw one of the rifles at her back.
“Yes,” Tane said. “Without the Dark and White Essencework the artifact will teach me, the TSN can easily assume control of me.”
Gia glanced at Jed.
“He speaks the truth,” Jed said. “Not a word he told you is false. He is the Bender of Worlds. And the TSN has planted a control chip in his mind.”
She stared at Jed for several seconds. “You didn’t want him to tell me. Why?”
“The fewer people that know, the better,” Jed said. “Not just for us. But for them.”
“How did you ever escape the TSN?” Gia said. “If he has a control chip…”
“With difficulty,” Jed said.
Gia nodded to herself. “This isn’t good. Not good at all.” She glanced at Tane. “I’m not sure I want to involve myself in this. If the TSN finds out, I’ll lose my license. They’ll hunt me. Especially if they’ve chipped you. You’re essentially they’re property, now.”
“I’m no one’s property,” Tane said, growling slightly.
Gia gazed at him, but her words were for Jed. “This complicates things even further. Not only do you want to travel into the Umbra, but he’s the….” She shook her head. “I’ll to have to increase my fee even higher.”
“I can only afford to pay what we originally agreed,” Jed said.
Gia placed her elbows on the table and clasped her hands. She placed her chin against the rest formed by her knuckles, and tapped her lips with her index fingers. “Why should I help you? Why should I risk everything I’ve worked for?”
“Because you’re an honorable woman,” Tane told her. “And you help those in need. You said it yourself: you’re a righter of wrongs. I’ve been wronged. Help me make things right again.”
Her eyes seemed suddenly moist, and she blinked rapidly, sitting back.
“I’ll do it,” Gia said.
After returning from the downtown area, Tane planned to spend the rest of the day in the short term rental suite.
Since Sinive had only posted a maintenance notice for the dweller’s suite, Jed set up a Galnet watch to keep track of the inventory on the remaining rooms the team used, and if one of them became rented, the Volur would come knocking at the door.
Shortly after arriving at the room, Tane took off the sari so that he was wearing only his shirt and pants underneath. He removed the cap to reveal his sweat-matted hair; underneath the brim, the cap had a wide perspiration stain.
Wanting to see the effects of adding a point to Strength, Tane went to the mirror and lifted his sticky shirt. He didn’t see any abs, but he thought there was some more definition on his pecs. He rolled up his sleeve. Yes, definitely some slightl
y more toning in his arms. Or maybe he was just imagining it. He felt stronger, anyway.
Too bad he had no one to show off his new body to.
He threw his clothes into the sonic cleaner and then took a sonic shower. When he was done he dressed—he was feeling a bit cold thanks to the air conditioning, which he had set on ultra high. He accessed the remote interface and changed the setting to low, and then sat on the bed.
He decided to try his new Essenceworks. Light Glove caused his hand to erupt with a white glow that seemed sourced within the hand itself. The glow faded after only a second. He slid on the glove of his suit assembly and tried again. When he set the work, the glow appeared to come from the fabric of the glove itself. This time, he folded his fingers into a fist and moderately punched the nightstand beside his bed. His glowing hand broke right through the wooden stand as if it were paper. He felt only a small pressure on the outside of the fabric—no pain.
He stared at the broken remnants beside the bed in dismay.
“Whoops.” Hopefully it wouldn’t cost the owner too much to 3D-print a new one.
He donned his Feral Necklace and created the work again. The glow was brighter, and seemed to form a thick globe around his hand. It also lasted for two seconds this time. It was definitely acting at the next higher level, thanks to that necklace. He decided it was probably wise not to punch anything this time.
He created the work again, but this time set the Branchwork upon his opposite hand, causing the Light Glove to form over those fingers instead.
He was feeling somewhat depleted from creating the same work several times in a row, though the weariness wasn’t too bad at all. He was definitely getting used to the Essence, overall. It helped that his Siphoning was at level two now, and that he had a higher base Endurance, he supposed.
He removed the spacesuit glove and equipped his rings and bracelet, and felt even better. He decided not to don his gauntlets, however, since he wanted his hands bare for his next experiment.