I winced in dismay when the gray-haired Ayukh mentioned the Meleyephatian map out loud. Although the Tailaxian girl Valeri-Urla had not installed her espionage devices here on the bridge, I still thought it better not to mention the fact that we had anything to do with the crystal drive where the map originated. After all, it was the cause of this whole big space war.
Six and a half days... I considered it. Obviously the search for the mysterious Relict base could wait for now. We had more accessible targets to fly to. The space trading hub Kasti-Utsh III for example. Although there wasn’t much for us to do there without space currency. At the very least we could fly out there to release the Morphian. The wise Vaa, who was now in the form of Anya from First Medical, wanted to get off at the first inhabited station we came across. Before parting ways, the Morphian had asked to speak with me one-on-one, without anyone else there. Vaa wanted to know everything about my interactions with Fox, and promised to tell me something interesting in order to repay me “in kind.”
However, we had some trouble finding a secluded place for a chat. My whole ship, with the exception of the bridge, was stuck full of espionage devices like a pincushion. Beastmaster Valeri-Urla had obtained my permission to place them there after being ordered to do so by her Tailaxian prison guards. And she did so with aplomb. But it was hardly possible to talk privately on the bridge either. One of the two pilots or the Navigator was always on duty, and if I was seen fraternizing with the Medic the crew would ask questions I didn’t want to answer. Furthermore, a third of the crew looked on Anya with a healthy suspicion and even hostility – she was thought to be behind the bio-weapon attack under the Dome, so her every step was scrutinized. The Morphian herself, perfectly able to read the emotions of intelligent creatures she came into contact with, realized in her first minutes on the frigate that she had made a serious mistake in her choice of human form. However, it was too late to change the human female body now – on such a small starship, the switch would not go unnoticed and would only make things worse. I told Vaa about the espionage equipment of the Meleyephatian Horde and advised the Morphian to just spend most of her time in her bunk with Uline Tar. Yes, my business partner had relinquished the bed that once belonged to Princess Minn-O La-Fin, who was back on Earth, to the new Medic girl.
Tamara wanted to be at Minn-O La-Fin’s side along with her adoptive father Roman Pavlovich. To be honest, I was hoping until the very last moment that the whole trio would be reinforcing my crew, but I read the Princess’s mood and realized she wanted to stay home and handle faction affairs. Alright then, I wasn’t planning to go dragging anyone into space, so I didn’t wait for my wife to make an embarrassed request and offered to let Minn-O stay on my own. Furthermore, I declared the Princess my “senior wife.” It would be better that way – my wife was expecting a child and risky adventures in space as a “travelling wife” were medically unwise. Furthermore, if my chat with the Kurimiru shuttle captain didn’t go smoothly for some reason, Princess Minn-O could serve as an alternate channel for communication with Coruler Anri-Huvi La-Shin.
I shuddered and turned my head, coming back to reality. The crew was still awaiting their captain’s decision about where to take the newly remodeled frigate. Okay then...
“Dmitry, for starters let’s take a couple loops around the planet and test all the on-board systems before our long-distance flight. And most importantly, we can finally make a complete map of the virtual Earth with all its continents, seas and archipelagos. I’m sure it will be appreciated. The terrestrial factions are probably sick of ‘playing Civilization’ and blindly probing into the darkness to discover new territories. I’ll set the ship scanners to search for energy and heat sources so we can add all inhabited nodes to the map as well. Then...”
I turned the spinning chair toward the Navigator and asked whether he still had the coordinates of the platinum mine we discovered way back with Captain Uraz Tukhsh. I had it all saved on my old Prospector Scanner, but then I had to give it up to the Great Priestess of the Miyelonians along with the data it contained. In theory, I could have gone and found the same asteroid again by reusing the same settings on the ship’s scanning systems, but what if there was an easier way?
“Yes, Captain Gnat. I have everything saved.”
“Great! Then right after we compose a map of the planet, let’s fly there! If the rich platinum vein is not being worked, we can sell its coordinates to some asteroid miners from the Geckho rolls. I bet we’ll earn one hundred thousand crystals at the very least, easy money. Plus, if there is another Meleyephatian mining facility there,” I said with a predatory grin, “we’ll have to teach the smuggler another lesson. He can’t go around being so disrespectful. This is beyond the pale!”
Chapter Two. Platinum Mine
I STOPPED THE STARSHIP PILOT, who was about to start the frigate on its next loop around the planet to pass over a strip of previously undiscovered nodes:
“Okay, Dmitry, that’s enough! This planet’s geography is not all that complex, let’s not waste time coloring in the last few dark islands. We have bigger things to attend to.”
In fact, all that remained were a few undiscovered regions outside the range of the Tolili-Ukh X’s scanning systems, but the map was ninety percent complete. What was more, I didn’t see even a remote resemblance between the virtual planet and the real Earth. This one had two continents, one of which was gigantic and occupied practically half the surface of the planet. Something of a Gondwana. The second was seven times smaller and its shape was distantly reminiscent of a waning half-moon. But that was the one where the Geckho spaceport and all the factions I knew were located: Relict, Human-3, Human-6 and La-Fin. I was more interested in the small continent than the huge one, and I ordered the pilot to pass over it two times to get a more complete picture of our closest neighbors’ lands.
We were quickly able to identify the Chinese Human-1 Faction because I already had a vague where it was. Based on the lights and energy sources, the Chinese faction had at the very least nine nodes, although their further expansion was impeded by the ocean on one side and a range of impassable snow-capped mountains on the other. However I did see that they had a navy. And their numerous transport ships spoke to an established connection with overseas territories.
I also knew the coordinates of the La-Varrez faction’s hexagons, and was able to get a very good look at them from space. But what had me most interested was not even in the capital hexagon, which had been rebuilt since our attack – they had a structure on a little platform encircled by tall mountains that looked just far too much like a space port. At the very least, I saw a two-mile long landing strip, hangars, shipyards, a dispatcher’s tower and even an electromagnetic catapult. Based on all that, the darksiders were having problems with underpowered booster engines, so they were using other methods to try and get the heavy starship into orbit. I saw the aftermath of a fire and a scattering of singed ship fragments. Seemingly a prior attempted takeoff ended in catastrophe. In any case, it looked very much like the Dark Faction was preparing for a space race in secret and building its own starship.
The big continent then was populated by a plethora of factions – I saw hotbeds of development chaotically strewn in patchy strips through the endless virgin forests and thousand-mile swamps of the virtual Gondwana. It was impossible to tell which faction was behind which island of civilization from orbit, but I was planning to take a closer look when I got back from space. After all, we had to make contact with all of them, regardless of which world they hailed from!
Another consequence of studying the virtual Earth from orbit was that my Scanning, Cartography, Electronics and even Eagle Eye skills were levelling rapidly. In fact, my Gnat hit level 86 overall. And though the skill growth was unambiguously good news, the fact my character only leveled up once came as a slight disappointment because I was hoping for more. From time to time, I still looked back fondly the hour-and-a-half-long survey expedition I took on high-speed antigra
v through the Human-3 Faction territories just after I started. I leveled up five times in that relatively short trip. But now, mapping out a whole planet was only enough for +1...
I had to admit the bitter truth that my days of fast and easy levelling were behind me and wouldn’t be coming back. Now every new level would be coming harder than the last. Nevertheless, when I looked at the game-menu window that showed Gnat’s information, I felt a distinct twinge of pride:
Leng Gnat. Human. Relict Faction.
Level-86 Listener
Statistics:
Strength
14
Agility
18
Intelligence
33 +5
Perception
29 + 2
Constitution
17
Luck modifier
+3
Drones
2
Parameters:
Hitpoints
1958 of 1958
Endurance points
1385 of 1430
Magic points
1388 of 1612
Carrying capacity
62 lbs.
Fame
75
Authority
63
Skills:
Electronics
80
Scanning
56
Cartography
77
Astrolinguistics
91
Rifles
57
Mineralogy
56
Medium Armor
60
Eagle Eye
82
Sharpshooter
42
Targeting
37
Danger Sense
63
Psionic
89
Mental Fortitude
97
Machine Control
91
Mysticism
43
Attention!!! You have three unspent skill points.
I HAD BEEN ACTIVELY using Magic and Endurance points during the scan and controlling the ship systems, so they hadn’t yet gone back up to max. But disregarding that minor hiccup, my character was coming together beautifully. I had laid a great groundwork for the character I wanted to become: a terrifying psionic mage with a slant toward mental control of technological systems of any and all kinds. I had also dug around in the game menu and added “Authority” and “Drones” figures to my basic character sheet. They were switched off by default because the vast majority of players never used them, but thankfully it was customizable. And while digging around in the interface, I saw a number of other disabled parameters that caught my eye, like: “Pet limit,” “Immunity to damage time,” “Invisibility sphere radius,” and even “Sex-change cycle duration.” So all those things must have applied to some classes and races in the game.
And what could I say about levelling Gnat’s skills? I was still quite far from what the First Legion required, main skills at least one and a half times higher than level. But my psionic abilities had broken away from the pack and were quickly gaining ground. Astrolinguistics and Cartography weren’t too far behind either because my gameplay style made active use of them. I also had a plan to level Scanning quickly. To that end I had a whole hundred geological analyzers in the hold awaiting their hour. Speaking of that... I might get the chance to use a couple of them very soon.
“Navigator, give the pilots the coordinates of the asteroid with the platinum mine!” I asked Ayukh. Then I was getting ready to leave the bridge because I had nothing else to do there for the next three to four hours but, suddenly, the frigate started spinning clockwise on its front to back axis. I even had to grab for the edge of the instrument panel so I wouldn’t fall over.
My dismay must have been distinctly reflected on my face, because both pilots shot out in concert in different languages:
“Captain, that was not my fault!”
Both were pointing at their counterpart as the source of the vexing error. I demanded an explanation first from main Starship Pilot Dmitry Zheltov.
“Captain, if you’re looking for specifics, the Tolili-Ukh X’s third and fourth maneuver thrusters, which are quite challenging to control, have engaged in a right-left turn. And the first and second, which govern vertical pitch, had already been activated. If you release these levers here, the frigate goes into spin mode. And I don’t have enough hands to manipulate all our thrusters at the same time, especially when I also need to break the main at the same time. After all, our frigate is of Meleyephatian design, and their race has twice the limbs of a human. When I was alone at the helm, I put linear movement on autopilot and just controlled left-right and up-down. But that is inconvenient and takes too much time, which became especially clear in aerial combat. So San-Doon and I agreed to split the load. But we must have had a communication breakdown – my copilot jumped the gun and started a right turn before I gave the command... It’s definitely his fault!”
The copilot gave approximately the same story, but he thought the spontaneous spin-out was Dmitry Zheltov’s fault. The main pilot, in San-Doon’s words, was supposed to be responsible for the main starship control parameters and stay out of the copilot’s hair after giving corrections on pitch angle, banking and yaw. San-Doon even worked up the courage to ask the head of the First Directory to appoint him main pilot because he had twice the seniority and with his “thirty years in aviation,” was more experienced than the recent Space Military Academy graduate.
And although San-Doon was complaining in the language of his magocratic world, Dmitry Zheltov surprisingly understood him and was sincerely outraged:
“Let’s just see which of us is more experienced when it comes to piloting space vehicles! I have dozens of hours of real flight and even a few combat take-offs, as well as hundreds of hours on training simulators in the Academy!”
A serious conflict was brewing between the two respectable pilots, so I had to put a stop to it. I even give a little magical nudge to put out the spark:
“What is this I hear?! Two members of my crew are having a pissing contest! Okay, might as well just drop trou and take out a measuring tape!!! This is just embarrassing! It makes no difference to me how you share responsibilities but, by the time the frigate reaches the asteroid belts, there better not be any more unplanned spin-outs! Otherwise I’ll have you both locked in your berths until the end of the flight and take over piloting myself! Got it? Good. I’m going to send you both to Gerd Ayni the Translator. She’s a very capable Miyelonian and has already learned Russian and the language of the magocratic world, so she’ll be able to help you communicate.”
Psionic skill increased to level ninety!
I poured Magic Points so generously into my emotional send-up, that my mana was just about down to zero. But still, it worked on both pilots and then some! They both assured me they could find a way to be better coordinated professionally and that there would not be any more friction between them! If that was so, then good.
Back in a normal tone, I told San-Doon not to worry about his linguistic isolation. Gerd Ayni the Translator would be giving daily Geckho lessons for new crew, of which we had four, as well as any other takers. And I didn’t make an exception for “Anya from First Medical” either. Let the Morphian sit out the required hours in lessons rather than me thinking up some plausible explanation for how an earthling managed to learn an alien language over the few brief conversations she’d supposedly had with Kosta Dykhsh.
Feeling like my duty was done, I called up Ayni and told the cute orange kitty her mission. And although studying the language was not officially required, it would be a clear boon to those who wished to remain part of my crew.
FROM TWENTY MILES AWAY, the large dark asteroid looked entirely featureless. There wasn’t a single crack on its smooth surface, nor even craters from collisions with meteorites or other celestial bodies. Just over a mile long and pear-shaped, it was composed of mixed si
licates of iron and nickel. One side was practically flat, as if someone took a giant knife to the cosmic fruit and cut off a slice.
“Captain, that is definitely the asteroid! Or rather its largest remaining part of it,” the gray Navigator compared his records again and confirmed. “The trajectory just shifted. It seems to have collided with another massive body.”
Looking at the data from the locator, I shook my head in doubt:
“It doesn’t look much like a collision. If that was the case, there would be debris and dust scattered around. Also, where is the other ball in this game of cosmic billiards?”
I played around with the settings on my ship scanning systems, adding filters for density, radioactivity, albedo and other commonplace parameters to take neighboring objects out of my three-dimensional model of the pear-shaped asteroid. Yes, this was the very same fire-kissed rock where we had once found a covert automated facility for harvesting precious metals. However, before us now was an utterly nondescript space rock, looking like hundreds of thousands others in this asteroid field. And the dimensions, density, and other parameters of the asteroid all fell within average ranges. If we were coming across it now for the first time, we’d have flown right past without even noticing.
A Jump into the Unknown (Reality Benders Book #5) LitRPG Series Page 4