It literally made paving stone roads.
Then he had nothing to do but read and watch progress bars on the city.
He had increasingly become more aware of Satomi as well. If he didn’t miss his guess, the same was true for her in regards to him. He’d assumed it was the familiar bond and gave it no more thought.
Sighing, he flipped over the book cover and turned off the light in his room completely. Nearly all lights in the world of Otherlife would switch to a night-light mode when deactivated, unless moved to a completely off position. What he wanted to do happened to be easier for him in the dark.
Closing his eyes, he traced the connection between himself and Satomi.
He had only recently learned of being able to trace the tie between them when Satomi had accidentally showed him how. She had followed it to him in the early hours of the morning.
He’d been surprised at the sudden intimate contact of her mind. Not nearly as surprised as she had been when she found him awake on the other end. After that he found that he could do the same.
They had taken to initiating contact with a slight nudge before pulling on the bond since the first incident. They used it as a way of knocking on each other’s mind.
Should she or he allow it, the other could gauge their emotional state, their desires, poke through memories that were fresh, and even read their surface thoughts. Even see and hear through the other’s eyes.
Runner had decided to take a sneak peek at her, hoping that she might be awake and he could have someone to talk to. Instead he found that she was doing what he desperately desired to do himself.
Sleeping.
Rather than invade her mind, he let the connection fall dormant.
Runner leaned back into his alcove and contemplated what to do with himself.
His door opened and closed smoothly. Quickly. There had been no sound, no movement, and damn near no way he could have seen it.
The only thing that had alerted him to it was the fact that the night-light setting in the connecting hall provided enough light to silhouette the doorframe.
That and he’d been looking at it. He would have missed it for sure if he hadn’t been.
Runner activated his Stealth and remained unmoving in his windowsill. Runner could only hear the barest of noises as someone crept closer. They were nearly silent in their movements.
Eventually the intruder halted. Runner could only guess it was beside his bed.
Reaching out with his targeting reticule, Runner mentally moved it about, attempting to lock it on the intruder.
He’d only get one chance. They’d attack his bed, realize he wasn’t in it, and then be alerted.
Runner felt his skin prickle when he worried for the others. If someone had gotten this far, there was no telling what was going on.
Runner flipped open his minimap to confirm positions as well as open his raid window, then stopped dead.
Hannah?
Positioned directly in the middle of his room was Hannah’s blue dot.
Without even thinking about the possibility of her being there to harm him, Runner turned on the night-light function of his room and dropped Stealth.
There was enough light to see her now. It was indeed Hannah. She was crouched low over his bed, her hand on the covers.
“Hanners, I’m over here. I couldn’t sleep. Something wrong?” Runner asked quietly, trying not to startle her.
Her head whipped around to pin him in place. Other than that movement, she had frozen in place the moment the lights came on.
“Hanners? Are you okay? Is there something the matter?” Runner got up, dropped the book in the alcove, and went over to her.
“Talk to me, what’s wrong?” Runner stopped perhaps an arm span distant from her.
Hannah slowly stood up, her hands coming to rest at her side. He noticed her fingers curling into the hem of her armor. The tips of her boots started to turn as if she were contemplating sprinting out of the room.
“Hannah,” Runner said. That got her attention. She shivered as if a bucket of cold water had struck her.
“Talk to me, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Hannah replied.
“No? You were creeping around my bed for no reason?” Runner asked, unable to suppress a grin.
Hannah scowled at him, her brows slamming together like two angry thunderclouds.
“Hanners,” Runner began, and then took a seat on the edge of his bed. “Talk to me.”
The Thief looked ill at ease. Letting out a shaky breath, she sat down next to him.
“Everyone will be back. Soon. You’ll be busy.”
“Yep. I’ll be glad to see them all. After Rabbit…after she died, I don’t really care for sending people off on solo missions.”
“At least you won’t be sleeping alone anymore. Your own private bed warmers,” she said acridly.
“Hanners, really? I’m not really sure what to say to that. You know I’m not that way and that if I was, I’d have been sleeping my way through the guard. From what everyone tells me, I wouldn’t get a single no.”
Hannah bit her lip and shook her head.
“I’m no good at this. I’m a murdering Thief who doesn’t understand this stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“This. All of this. Everyone else seems so ready to throw themselves into your fucking bed. Even as someone else does it, they’re ready to happily take the spot that’s still warm to the touch. I’ve even seen the way your little pet fox looks at you.”
“Okay. Got all that. But I’m not sure I understand?”
“My past isn’t pretty. I’m no virtuous maiden.”
“And?”
“I’m damaged, I’ve been used repeatedly. You say my history was written for me but that doesn’t damned well change it. Now does it?”
“And? I’m not exactly a fount of goodness, Hanners. As to your past. So? I’m no lovestruck teenager dreaming of deflowering the perfect virgin maiden, ya know. I love you for exactly who you are.”
“And that, what the fuck does that mean? How can you love me when you love so many others?”
“I couldn’t answer that in a definitive way that you’d be happy with, I imagine. I do though. I love you all in different ways and for different reasons.”
“I don’t want this. I don’t want to be part of this… group marriage thing you’re setting up. Yet at the fucking same gods damned time, you pox-ridden bastard, I want to do exactly that. To be with you.”
“Okay? Unsure how to respond here. I don’t want you to think I’m trying to get into your pants only to bed you. I mean, totally want to bed you. Got the whole sexy Thief, experienced woman, I’ve got blood on my hands, dangerous lady, and might kill you thing going on. But I do realize that this relationship I’m building isn’t for everyone. It’s very likely people will want out, and that’ll be the end of it.”
Hannah groaned and bent over at the waist, her hands trapped between her chest and her knees.
Runner lightly ran his hand up and down her back, doing his best to comfort her while not confining her or pressuring her.
Runner had promised himself after his talk with Satomi that he’d be honest with all of them. Even if he sounded stupid, infantile, or wishy-washy in doing so.
“All I can say, Hanners, is I do love you. And I’ll not spurn you.”
Hannah groaned again in response to his words.
Then she stood up and left his room as if she’d never been there.
The morning can’t come soon enough.
Runner spent the early hours cat napping for small periods at a time before he woke up with a start as his mind started to dream. After that he worked on his sculpturing skills.
He’d tracked Hannah here and there as the night went on. She had retreated deep into Norwood. Her blue map marker crisscrossed the streets and rooftops as she patrolled restlessly.
When the morning did come, he felt exhausted.
The morning
sun has vanquished the horrible night.
Moving to the dining room when the clock chimed six a.m., he felt relieved.
Runner felt the gentle push of Satomi against his mind, and he immediately opened up to her.
She scanned through his thoughts, dug through his most recent memories, and promptly departed. He had the vague impression she was concerned for him but he didn’t care to think on it too much.
Things were slipping out of his control. Faster and faster he was being forced into a position he didn’t want.
Srit hadn’t responded to him in months. Even when he watched quietly from the white room, her avatar was unmoving and unresponsive. Her war with the Omega was escalating.
Repairs were complete, and upgrades were now being installed in the ship despite constant interruptions from the outside world.
What little news he got from the mainland was beyond bad. Cities were completely deserted, people were being pressed into service irrelevant of who they worshiped, and there was famine on a level the likes of which he couldn’t begin to fathom.
It was also spreading further and further. In all directions the war was picking up new combatants, new cities, new nations.
Refugees had flooded the islands of Tirtius and Vix. So much so that an immigration policy had to be enacted.
For the country of Norwood, citizenship was guaranteed for two people for every one that provided three years of military service.
One could shorten that term of enlistment by one year by volunteering for race reallocation and duty reassignment.
Faye’s ranks had swelled. From two brigades to six, creating two divisions. With one reserve brigade.
Sophia’s second-in-command had doubled Norwood’s Own. They now had a battalion’s worth of active and two companies of reserves.
The city guard had tripled as the population increased. They had begun offering deferments from the army to serve in the city guard.
At least his finances were well in order. Even without the stream of materials pouring through the plane to him from Alexia, the early investments Isabelle had made into the economy were now paying off. They were easily operating at a profit even with the extreme increase of employees.
Most of the materials Alexia sent over were warehoused in a separate plane, GMHUB 4. There they piled up in ever greater mounds.
Like some crazy hoarder collecting precious metals.
To use them irresponsibly would flood the market and break the economy.
Runner laid his forehead to the table and closed his eyes.
The Triumvirate spoke with him regularly, but by general consensus they all kept their distance from him.
Need to solve that soon.
“At least I can solve that,” Runner mumbled into the wooden surface.
The problems without solutions were beginning to overrun him.
Taking slow deep breaths, Runner sought out a quiet part of his mind and found his personal AI.
It had no sentience and never would. It only helped organized his thoughts, sped up his cognitive abilities, and allowed him to interface with the system easier.
It worked for both the ship, the game, and the Omega systems.
He also had found that if he looked into it deeply enough he could fall into a meditative state.
Runner felt the weariness that had been dogging at him for weeks slip from his as he dove into that tiny AI that offered him solace.
Burrowing deeper into the program, he watched as it pulled information in and filed it into a database hosted on the main server.
To his eyes it had the look of a bridge more than a processor. It utilized the natural speed of the ship’s system to track, store, and process information.
Runner watched the flow of data like one might a stream. The currents of data eddied and swirled, moving, sorting, filing.
Then someone was there, gentle hands pressing into his shoulders.
Main cannon one reported current upgrade being optimized.
Runner started to pull his mind back from the data flow and lift his head.
He failed to do so.
An alarm buzzed in his ear, his user interface blurring as the ship’s system console overrode it.
Main backup oxygen storage tank currently full.
An image of a stasis pod flashed angrily at him. A second alarm began ringing, completely out of sync with the first. The stasis pod went to a solid red image as the alarms screeched at him.
Medical server has completed internal audit of crew. All systems normal.
His head was lifted from the table and leaned back against his chair. Runner had no choice but to go with the motion.
Bay four receiving ammo load, transfer to gun racks when distribution system upgrade complete.
His mind was unable to keep a coherent thought together.
Galley storage reports no food on board. Mess officers have been notified.
Requisitions have been filled out. Nonperishables on order.
His console devolved into static and began to spit out artifacts. Bits of images stuck to his view as the windows shifted wildly.
Golden eyes peered at him through his console. Then there was movement, a voice that sounded like it was calling to someone. The room moved with shadows and then there was a flash of light.
Suddenly a moment of lucidity broke through as a pair of dark green eyes peered into him. They anchored him even as they glared at him.
I think I’m disconnecting from the server. Damn.
Chapter 11 - Matchmaker -
07:11 am Sovereign Earth time
5/14/44
Runner fought against the warmth of his internal program, the luxury of non-thought that it provided. His body in the game was little more than a fuzzy feeling.
His green-eyed anchor stayed in the middle of his vision. Latching onto it, he stopped fighting against his personal AI. Instead he leveraged it, forcing it to work for him directly instead of passively.
Focusing his mind to a point, he brought along the program and put it to work at not merely halting the disconnection but reversing it.
As his will and intent sharpened he could feel the ship’s systems coming to life alongside him as more and more processing power was diverted.
Runner felt something similar to the tendril of power Ernsta had used to trace his connection. Where Ernsta’s had felt powerful, confident, and accurate, this one did not. It felt decidedly awkward, unsure of itself, blindly attempting to find his core.
Latching onto that tendril, he plunged it into himself as he mentally clawed at the gates of his mind. Previously he had tried to open himself to Ernsta when it felt like she encountered something like a firewall in his soul.
This time he not only opened up to whoever was trying to reach him, but he tried to shove them inside himself. Like an ancient god finding a tasty soul in the middle of nowhere.
Burning agony, sweet blessed pain, ripped through his body.
Warm shadows, darkness, a kind touch, hatred, screams, blood, murder, violence, the cold grave, and pleas for death assailed him. He drank it in. All of it. It burned his mind and body as if he were holding a living flame.
But he could feel it. Every screen, every warning, every alarm died out immediately as his brain snapped into the present and the system.
He ate it all like a starving man given a meal. When there was nothing left, the pain was gone. In its place was a quiet serenity.
Then he felt that mass of emotions and feelings moving. Fearing it would escape and send him back to the near death he had only barely escaped, he flung himself mentally at it.
Burrowing into it, he tried to bind it to himself. He clutched at it like a man drowning at sea happening across a life preserver.
Surprisingly, instead of slipping away from him, it molded itself to him and remained. Buoying him.
The smothering darkness of it all enclosed and encased him. Lifted him. Content that he was no longer in danger, Runner let go of h
imself and felt his mind turn off.
Runner opened his eyes to find a blue sky above him. Clouds scooted their way across the horizon as the sun began to set in the west.
Runner tilted his head to the side to watch the sunset.
He took in a deep breath and found the smell of grass, earth, and sunshine was all he could detect. As far as he could see were the fields of grass in what Alexia had called Eden.
He hoped he was in Eden. Whether he was dead or alive, this place felt wonderful.
“Your plane is beautiful.”
Runner turned his head to the other side and found Brunhild, Ernsta, and Amelia.
Brunhild was the closest to him, standing and looking lost in the open fields.
Ernsta stood a foot beyond her sister. Her head was on a swivel as she took in the area in all directions.
Amelia was skipping in the grass, tumbling through it, and then throwing handfuls of it into the air.
“Our plane, now,” Amelia squealed, delighted. Collapsing near his feet, Amelia rolled back and forth in the green field.
“I don’t really understand,” Runner admitted, looking to Brunhild and then Ernsta.
“Neither do we, in truth. Your familiar summoned Amelia. Not us,” Brunhild said, gesturing at Ernsta.
“Oh, ah,” blurted out Amelia. Then she sat up, a few blades of grass stuck in her hair. “Vixen called on me because lovey was unresponsive. That compulsion thing hit me so hard I thought I was going to die. It was like when we were in the thieves’ guild and you—”
“Minxy? Please?” Runner asked, giving her his best “Amelia, stay on track” smile.
“Mm, anything for you,” Amelia said. Spreading herself out, she grabbed his ankles and laid her forearms across his shins. Setting her chin down on her wrists, she looked up at him.
“So, lost in the haze of whatever that was, I found myself pressed to you like a cheap blouse that was one size too small. I tried to probe you to find out if you were under some type of divine attack, and then you ate me.”
Amelia clicked her teeth shut loudly, accentuating her point.
Ernsta and Brunhild looked mildly shocked; they seemed to be beside themselves and almost as much in the dark as he was.
Otherlife Awakening: The Selfless Hero Trilogy Page 19