Condition Evolution 2: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure

by Kevin Sinclair

  “I’m an acquisitions expert, and yes I can turn invisible. The mask I’m wearing has a dual purpose. It stops me from preaching my innocence, and it also blocks my ability to turn invisible.”

  “What’s an acquisition expert?” Ember asked.

  “I find rare and valuable things and then I sell them.”

  Images of golden statues and magnificent-looking artifacts popped onto the screen, along with various computer screens showing numbers and information.

  “Are you completely innocent of any wrongdoing?” Ember asked.

  “Well, some of my work has touched upon grey areas,” Elyek replied.

  “Elaborate?” Ember said, shortly.

  “Well, not everything we’re hired to acquire was in neutral territory. Some of the things I have found, others would lay claim to, even though they didn’t know they were there. Then there is the various information that I was required to find. Again, there may not have been laws against taking the things I found, but there are always at least two sides to an argument.”

  “Not true,” I said. “I’ve had an argument with Ember where we were both agreeing to the same thing. Still, Ember likes to argue. I think she wanted to make out she was right. She’s like that.”

  “And, Shaun’s a fucking simpleton, who doesn’t even know what he’s talking about most of the time,” Ember retorted.

  “Fascinating,” Elyek said, without expression.

  “Yeah. So, innocent or not?” Ember asked.

  “I’m not innocent, but I’m not actually guilty of breaking any Empire laws either.”

  The stream of images seemed to validate what Elyek was saying.

  “So, there are people who want to own you. Is that because of your invisibility?”

  “Yes. Although, the ability to create more Veiletians is a massive boon. They’d be raised in captivity, subject to the whims of a slave owner. That’s not what I want for my children.”

  “Do people collect you guys? You said you were rare,” I asked.

  Elyek laughed at us, “Do you really know so little outside your own little pocket of the galaxy?”

  “Hit the nail on the head there. We're trying to learn fast,” I said.

  “Let me enlighten you. I’m androgynous and I’ll be able to produce offspring in around forty years. Offspring, who at this moment in time, will be born into captivity.”

  “Well, consider us enlightened,” Ember said.

  We had watched the display the whole time. There was nothing really coherent other than Elyek, Veiletian children and cages. I was sold hook, line, and sinker. I couldn’t hand Elyek over now. I was waiting to hear what Ember would say on the matter with bated breath. I really didn’t want to fight her over this, but I would.

  “You do realize you're worth three hundred senlar coins to us, and they’ve the tracker number of our ship, right? Even if we decided to set you free, we’d be hunted,” Ember paused.

  Elyek was about to respond when Ember started up again, “And, what would you even do if we let you go?”

  As she spoke, my heart sank a little. We were all in a situation here. Then, I remembered something. “I gave them the wrong docking bay number. They won’t be able to track us,” I said, excitedly.

  “Of course they will, Shaun. The supervisor will just tell them which bay we were in. We weren’t exactly in-con-fucking-spicuous.”

  “You think?” I asked, although I knew the answer.

  Ember ignored me.

  “If you let me go, I can get you three hundred senlar no problem. I can get you more. I’ve a lot of money, only I need to get it out of one of the banks before my assets are seized.”

  We were watching the display open mouthed, as images of Elyek moving what looked like huge sums of money from account to account.

  “I need to talk to Shaun alone for a minute. Don’t mind the silence.”

  Ember disappeared from the control room. I felt her in my Mindscape, so I followed. “What do you think?” she said, as soon as I appeared.

  “We can’t hand Elyek over. Even if half of what they said was true.”

  “I know that! I’m not a monster, Shaun. If we let Elyek go we’re getting hunted by even more people, and they can track this ship. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s a complete fucking rust bucket. If we get chased we’re escaping nowhere, not to mention our pilot can barely fucking fly!”

  “You noticed that too? Well, shit. This is a pickle.”

  “A pickle! Urggh!” she growled in frustration.

  “They did offer us money. Maybe we could buy a ship, then drop them off wherever.”

  “My god, Shaun. That is actually a really fantastic idea!” She didn't even sound sarcastic. It put me on edge, and I stood looking at her quizzically. “Seriously, Shaun. Well done! Let’s go sound them out on our new plan.”

  We both reentered Elyek’s mind.

  “So,” Ember said, loudly and Elyek’s form startled at the sudden words. “We’ve an expensive proposition for you. I’ll let Shaun tell you it, as it’s his idea.”

  “Okay,” they said with uncertainty.

  I gulped. I’d been put on the spot. “If we don’t take you to Weka Four people will track us down. Our ship is the pits, and our pilot is a bit rough around the edges. We’ll not last very long in any space fight, or flight,” I explained, then paused.

  “Your proposition?” Elyek responded, a little impatient.

  “Fuck it,” I said, getting to the point. “You’ll need to buy us a ship. If, you can afford it that is. Then, we can drop you off anywhere you like. And, if we’re hunted we can escape, and not be killed for freeing you.”

  “Well, I can’t exactly use my money when I’m a slave, can I?” Elyek said, almost happily. “I agree to your terms.”

  “We need a few assurances first,” Ember jumped in. “Like, as soon as we take the mask off, you’re not going to go invisible and start trying to kill us?”

  “Yes. I promise I won’t go invisible as soon as you take my mask off. I’ll be nothing but grateful.”

  The mental display showed Elyek hugging us both. We nodded to one another, satisfied by the truth of their words.

  “While you’re with us, will you act as a member of this crew until we get you to safety?”

  “Absolutely. Yes! I’ve a number of skills I can offer. I’m excellent with computer and navigation systems, and I’ve extensive knowledge of this whole quadrant of the galaxy. You will see. I will be very useful.”

  The display showed the truth of their words. Ember jerked her thumb back, indicating to get out of there, suddenly disappearing herself.

  Once we were back in the room Ember walked over, opened the cage, went straight for Elyek’s mask, and took it off.

  “You’re free. Welcome to the crew! Well, for as long as all this takes to get cleared up.”

  “Oh!” Elyek said, taken aback, and clearly not expecting the sudden turnaround in circumstances. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I won’t let you down.”

  Ember moved forward and hugged Elyek, surprising us both and probably Ember herself. “Come on. I’ll show you your shitty, little room. Decorate it however you like,” she laughed. “Shaun. Go tell Calegg there’s a change of plan.”

  “Will do. And welcome to the crew for however long, Elyek. It’s a pleasure having you. Don’t have any aversion to Torax do you?”

  “What? No, not really. I haven’t had much to do with them. As long as they don’t try and fry me to an invisible crisp, I’m sure we will get along just fine,” Elyek smiled.

  C13

  The Plot Thickens

  I found Calegg hovering over a screen reading the text displayed.

  “Hey, pal,” I said, gently to bring him out of his deep concentration.

  “Hey, Captain. How’s it going?”

  “Well, that’s kind of what I’m here to talk about. There’s been a change of plan.”

  “Okay. What’s up?”

&nb
sp; “Just before I start, I want you to know that we don’t want to lose you, but it’s totally your choice. We can put you down with a few senlars wherever you want.”

  “For fuck sake. Just tell me already, will you? The suspense is killing me.”

  “Well, for starters just call me Shaun, and well… the story is… we’ve freed Elyek. They’re going to be part of the crew until it’s safe to drop them somewhere. We won’t be cashing in the job.”

  “What!” he exclaimed with confusion written on his face.

  “Elyek, the prisoner. We’ve discovered that they were captured unjustly and gonna be sold as a slave. That’s not who me and Ember are. We can’t hand them over.”

  “You know they’ll send people after us if you don’t complete the job, right?”

  “Yes. We know all that, and before you say it, we know we can’t escape in this ship. Here’s the thing. Elyek’s got some serious moolah and they agreed to stay with us until they can buy us a ship. So, we’ll get them to safety and have a sweet new ship for you to fly.”

  “What kind of ship?” he said, eagerly.

  “I don’t fucking know, Calegg. I don’t know how much money Elyek has, and I don’t know how much spaceships cost.”

  Calegg laughed, “Anything, will be better than this. Do you know it's bad luck to not name a ship? I didn’t bring it up because I honestly think it’d be bad luck to name this ship.

  “And, Shaun. Seriously, I was never even bothered about the bounty. I just wanted a place to work. You’ve already given me an opportunity no one else would. This galaxy is shitty; if you’re not in one of the powerful groups, then you’ve little worth. If you happen to be from an out of favor race, then you're worth less than nothing.”

  “Deep man. Still, you’re worth something here and always will be. If, you’ve our best interests at heart.”

  “This is a great opportunity for me and I’m proud of you, giving the prisoner a chance. I know it would’ve been you who forced that through. You might be an intimidating person, but I also think you might be a genuinely good person.”

  “Thanks, Calegg. I’d always try to do the best by us all. As for where we’re going, I imagine Elyek will help with that. Only, we’ll have to stay roughly on course to Weka Four, for obvious reasons.”

  “At least, until we can get our new ride,” Calegg said, bouncing up and down like a kid.

  “Are you glowing Calegg?”

  “Oh, shit. Sorry, I was just happy. Excited for the adventure, even. I wasn’t going to burst into flames, I promise.”

  “I didn’t fucking think you were. Is that something you can do, Calegg? I thought you could maybe make a little fire ball, or something.”

  “Ah, well. I might also be able to coat my body with flames.”

  “Really? Anything else I need to know?”

  “No, no. That’s it.”

  “Nice. You’re gonna be a real valuable member of the team. Don’t explode the ship though.” I pointed at him.

  “I won’t. I promise,” he said, almost desperately.

  “Chill, dude. I know you won’t.”

  “Ha, chill. I like it. You're actually a funny guy, Shaun.”

  I waved off the compliment like I’d intended the pun. I really hadn’t. I seemed to have a knack for finding them, nonetheless.

  “If you’re staying we need to discuss your needs.”

  “What do you mean? I’ve a bed. We have food?”

  “When do you need to sleep? And, what needs doing while you rest? We should work this out now.”

  “Probably a good idea. I’m happy to spend eighteen hours a day on the bridge. Although it’s a lot, it’s not unheard of. Some crews would insist upon those hours from a pilot. Also, I need to reacquaint myself with everything.

  “I can manage to eat and toilet without needing someone to take over on the bridge. The other nine hours of the day I’ll sleep. We’ll need someone here for that, although I’ll have navigated our course, so it will be just the checks you’re already familiar with.”

  “Sure. We’ll sort out a rotation for that. Quick question; I count twenty-seven hours in your daily plan. Is that like a thing here?”

  “Yes, Captain,” he said, trying to hide his look of disdain. “A galactic standard day is, and has always been, twenty-seven hours.”

  “Oh. Right, because back where we’re from there are only twenty-four hours in a day.”

  “Okay. Well, I think I should break this to you now. We’re not back where you’re from and we really need to get you up to speed on galactic times, language, culture, history, social structure, ruling classes, and legal rights, or lack of them. Otherwise, you’re probably going to get us all killed.”

  I don’t know why I found that so damn funny, but I fell into a laughing fit. When I finally recovered, I said, “You’re not wrong, Calegg. Lucky for you, we’re ignorant of such things or we’d have had a preconceived idea of you and turned you down flat.

  “Now seriously, is eighteen hours not too much?”

  I’d clearly put him off with my sudden change of direction, but this Torax dude was all over the place anyway. One minute he was meek and desperate, and the next he was acting like he was the bloody captain. I made a mental note to keep an eye on his bipolar personality.

  “I’m the pilot. It’s my job. Plus, it’s not too taxing. It’s only difficult if something goes horribly wrong, if we’re landing, or taking off, or being chased. The rest of the time it’s just keeping an eye on the instruments. If, anything happens when I’m asleep just get me. Okay? “

  “If you’re sure. I mean, me and Ember do have lots of training to do.”

  “Yeah, go for it. Try training in a couple of the things we’ve just mentioned while you’re on.”

  “You’re a cheeky bastard, Calegg. But I like you. I’ll also encourage Ember to learn all of that. I’ve a certain skill set, and I think that’ll do us all more good than me reading up on galactic social structures, or whatever the fuck you said earlier.”

  “I’ll take your word for it, Captain.”

  After that odd exchange, I went to find Ember to let her know Calegg was still cool with everything. She was still in the room she’d assigned Elyek. “You okay, guys?” I asked as I entered.

  Elyek nodded, sitting sheepishly on the bed.

  I continued, “Calegg is more than happy to stay on with us. He’s also gonna be flying the ship for eighteen hours a day. We agreed in the nine hours he needs to sleep we’ll divide monitoring the bridge between us. That’s three hours each.”

  “Sounds doable,” Ember said.

  “Elyek, you said you were part of a small crew. What did you do? What other jobs were there? We’re a bit green, and well, any advice is welcome,” I asked.

  “Oh. Well, I can fly most craft apart from the heavy classes, where I can function as part of the flight team. Other than turning invisible and acquiring things, my main skills lie in computing. I can pretty much hack anything I’ve ever come across.

  “I can help with any of the jobs that come up, but on the whole space flight is pretty boring and there’s not much to do. The computer does it all for you, including the maintenance. Unless, something physical comes up. We had this one crew mate who kept blocking his toilet. Still, that was his problem. We usually just kept moving to our next job.”

  “We’re probably gonna need a job after we drop you off because, I’ll be honest with you, we don’t have much money at the minute. Do you have any advice on finding work in this place?”

  “I’m sorry. I would rarely handle the business side of things. However, protect me as best you can and that won’t be a problem.”

  “Why? Do you know of a good job?”

  “Not really. But, I’ve more money than you can imagine.”

  “We don’t want your money. We want to make it on our own thanks. We're just looking for some advice,” Ember said, angrily. I knew why; she hated the idea of being bought. A hangover from the
dark past she’d suffered.

  Elyek looked taken aback. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t trying to buy you. I want to help you, like you’ve helped me,” they explained.

  “You’re buying us a ship. I’d say that’s more than fair payment,” replied Ember.

  “If you’re sure. Can I ask something?”

  “Ask away, Elyek,” I said, before Ember could say anything else emotion driven.

  “You keep mentioning ‘dropping me off’. I don’t really have anywhere to go. Would you let me be a part of your crew in a more permanent way?” they asked, looking terrified by the vulnerability they had shown.

  I didn’t know what to make of it. We potentially had another crew member in less than two days of deciding we were going to put one together. Besides, Ember was handling this conversation, so I kept silent.

  “If you’re so rich, why the hell would you want to be part of this little shitshow?” Ember asked.

  I thought it harsh at first, only to quickly re-evaluate, and agreed with Ember’s sentiment. It was a good question.

  “There are hidden enclaves of my people, but I don’t want to end up stuck in one of those. Otherwise, I have nowhere to go, no family and no home. My last crew were my only family. To be honest, they treated me as little more than a tool. I would sit in my room bored, and alone until they needed me. In the eight hours I have known you…”

  “Ember, I forgot to say,” I interrupted Elyek, “the galactic standard day here is twenty-seven hours.” They both stared at me coldly. “Sorry Elyek. You were saying,” I said, sheepishly. I just didn’t want to forget to tell Ember.

  “I was saying that in the eight hours I’ve known you, you have released me from slavery and welcomed me like few others ever have. Literally, no one this side of the galaxy would let me just walk free. They’d finish the job or steal me away to help their own goals. You two seem to actually want to free me and send me off on my own. If I’m honest, for me that would just be either a death sentence, or at the very least I’d be caught. Unless, I managed to get to a Veiletian enclave, which would be impossible by myself.

  “With you two I feel like I have a chance at something different. Even though you are both very weird and have no clue what you are doing. You seem to be capable with good spirits, and impressive powers of your own.”