Condition Evolution 3: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure

by Kevin Sinclair

  They all willingly jumped at the chance.

  Nodding, I hit the comm. “Calegg, mate. I'm sending the Veiletians Miraek, Acclo, Hwista and Wulek back to the bridge. They’re all competent pilots but unfamiliar with the Uprising. Show them the ropes, then once you’re satisfied, they can go unsupervised. Give your steaming ass some rest.”

  “I'll be fine, Captain. Don’t worry about me. I can hold the fort.”

  “Calegg, I'm not asking you, and I’m not trying to replace you. You’ll always be the main pilot of the Uprising. It is your right, earned a hundred times over. But we all need help sometimes. Now, do what I bloody said. That's an order!”

  “Yes, Captain,” he said, wearily.

  “There you have it. Good luck with Calegg, guys,” I said, standing up. “Now, I'm gonna catch some zeds.”

  Ember stood with me. “See you all in a few hours,” she smiled and waved, and we went to our room.

  “What a day!” I said as I fell to the bed. I had no intention of getting undressed, showered or anything.

  “Yup. It's been yet another epic one.” She got into bed alongside me, draping her arm over my shoulders. You aced it today. It’s amazing to see you grow and find your way to making the right decisions, with barely a clue as to what you're doing. You’re the best fucking mascot a mercenary army with delusions of grandeur could ever wish for.”

  We both chuckled at the ridiculousness of it all, falling into a comfortable silence, swiftly followed by sleep.

  C13

  Waiting Game

  When we awoke the next day – although in our current existence, day and night literally meant sweet fuck all – Ember and I went to the bridge. I was relieved to see Calegg had gone to bed, as had Koparr. I was also impressed to see all of the weapon stations were fully manned by either Torax or Veiletian crew members. It was a strange feeling; I felt really proud to have a full bridge.

  I noticed only Hwista and Acclo were on the bridge. The other two must have gone to rest in order to swap over. Made good sense. Acclo saw us first and came over. “Captain, as we have more crew members, I took it upon myself to allocate people to positions. Elyek can make any necessary adjustments when they return, but here is what I propose. Hwista there is piloting the ship. They’re excellent, much more accomplished than me. I’ll be good enough in a pinch; I am a fast learner. In the meantime, I am acting as they copilot using the next workstation, which is purpose-built for the task.”

  “Cool. I saw Elyek over there quite a few times. That explains it.”

  “It does, yes. I have made sure all of our weapon stations are manned, as we have many enemies. We are heading into dangerous territory, are we not?”

  “Yip, we are. Totally agree with your foresight,” I replied.

  “There are various simulations that the weapon users can run through. They are like games. Miraek found them hidden away and has ensured they are accessible with ease, so now on-duty weapon operators can practice with these tools.

  “With your permission, we will run nine-hour-shifts on all systems. Although I believe Calegg will be piloting for 18 hours. Correct?”

  “Correct.” I replied.

  Acclo leaned in conspiratorially. “Hwista is a far superior pilot.”

  “Funny story, Acclo. Elyek has the greater expertise, and yet Calegg remains our chief pilot. Maybe while you’re all co-piloting, you could iron him out a little.”

  Acclo gave me a confused look. “Shouldn’t we have the best people for the job?”

  “Once upon a time Ember and I were stranded alone on a planet, no money, no friends, no pilot.

  “Calegg was a ship engineer who could fly a little. He got us off the planet, and has managed to save us a few times since. He is solid, reliable and a founding member of the Uprising. As such, he’ll be given the respect he deserves.”

  “I can see why you are keeping him as pilot. Although I disagree with your decision, I appreciate the loyalty you have shown to your comrades. On reflection, I think it means more.” Acclo paused, looking as though they were processing something. “I find I agree with your decision after all. I will make sure Hwista and the others support Calegg as much as possible. It does bring up another matter, the engineering terminal. Some of the Veiletians with us are competent engineers and should be of use. However, Calegg also operates that terminal while piloting. Although that may have been your only option prior to our arrival, it seems foolhardy for Calegg to continue being stretched too thin. I hope you don't mind, but I have set up a roster system that covers all of the positions on the ship. I have not filled in every position, as I am aware that we may have more Veiletians coming on board.”

  “More humans too, potentially,” I informed them.

  “More humans?” Acclo said, cocking their head to one side.

  “Sure, like me and Ember. We’re going to bring some of them onto the Uprising from the Thoth and Seshat, and possibly put a few Torax and Veiletians on each of those in return. Providing people are happy to go of course; no one has to go anywhere they don’t want to. We just felt it would benefit each ship to have a diverse crew, and to appreciate what each race has to offer.”

  “Yes, this does make sense.” A look of concern crossed their face. “The four of us who came to the bridge won’t be going anywhere?”

  “No. I'm more than happy to keep you guys here. I’m thinking, maybe the others who are not as emotionally tied to the ship are gonna be amenable to moving ships?”

  “Yes. I'm sure they will be fine with that, provided they are treated as fairly and respectfully as they would be here.”

  “You make a valid point about how people are treated. I know for a fact there are some knob-heads among the humans. However, I’ll give the ships’ captains explicit instructions to ensure your people are treated well. I’ll also ask you to liaise with the others of your race to get a feel for how they're received. Let me know if there are any problems and I will fix them.”

  “That is good to know, but there is only so much even you could do. You don’t operate capital punishment, do you?”

  I laughed. “Good god, no. But let’s just say I fucking despise bullies. Understand one thing, the Uprising is about standing up to bullies. Anyone caught abusing their place will be given the same treatment they see fit to dish out.”

  “I hope that is true. I have seen many abuse their power, and it has been ignored by those above them.”

  “I can only act if I know about it. As long as I’m made aware, I’ll deal with the issues that arise, personally.”

  “I’ll take you at your word, Captain,” Acclo said, half-bowing.

  “You should too,” Ember said from my side. She’d been unusually quiet until this point. “This lunk once ruined his entire life to stop someone being bullied, yet he still seems to have made it his calling. Some people never learn,” she smirked.

  “I think I have seen and heard enough to put my trust in Captain Shaun,” Acclo replied.

  Ember nodded, and continued to talk. “I’m really impressed with you making a roster for our bridge crew. The further we go, the more we are going to need full-time weapon coverage. I’m particularly interested in this game,” she grinned, and I did too.

  “Yeah. That sounds kinda cool. I might have to give that a blast myself.”

  “Yes. The roster should help greatly. We can change things around until we set off to our destination. If you are happy with the plans that I have laid out.” Acclo sad.

  “It's more Elyek you’ll have to persuade. They and Calegg have been responsible for running most of the ship’s functions. We just step in when they're overworking themselves. However, things have changed a lot in a short space of time,” I said.

  “They really have,” Ember added. “And while Elyek would have addressed these issues in time, you have already done so much to help in their absence. We’ll discuss it with them when they get back aboard. But I think that they will agree that you are perfect to oversee the
logistics of Uprising.”

  Acclo blushed, replying, “I would love to be involved in anything along those lines. I love prioritizing and organizing things perfectly. It’s a fascination of mine.”

  A thought sprung to my mind when they said that, but I buried it for now. I couldn't see how it would work, and it might be cheating. Acclo interrupted my thought process. “You really need to address the Calegg problem soon. He is presently doing 18-hour shifts to cover the two disciplines. There is no need for him to multitask the work of four people every day.”

  “Ha! I agree he needs to choose pilot or engineer. Still, we should let him continue the 18-hour shifts. I think he’d be heartbroken to have that taken away from him; he loves it,” I said.

  “Yeah. I agree he needs to choose. Though it sucks to be you, to be the one to tell him,” Ember smirked.

  “Well, actually, I felt like it was more your job. I’m terribly busy at the moment and, well, you hired him,” I said with a smirk of my own.

  “You’re a real asshat, Shaun. I’ll tell him what you’ve decided, and that you were too cowardly to tell him to his face.”

  I was about to retort, but Acclo spoke before I had a chance, and it was possibly just as well.

  “I’ll be happy to speak to him as I’ll be potentially taking more of a role in the organizational structure of the Uprising.”

  “No,” Ember said firmly, “it really should fall to me. I foisted any responsibility for this whole thing onto Shaun, so I suppose I should get my hands dirty with this. Plus you’re right, he needs to reduce his workload. I’ll speak to him.”

  “Oh, so you can answer reasonably when Acclo says something, yet act like a total fruit loop when I say anything.”

  “Yeah, well. I like Acclo.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” I said, getting evermore agitated.

  She gave me a long, dangerous look, “I love you, you fuckwit. It makes everything much more… murky.”

  I didn’t even know how to respond to that. I was happy that she said she loved me, nevertheless there were serious layers of confusion added to that statement. So I said nothing. Acclo saved me from answering, or from more awkward silence. “Would you like to see the roster, in case you feel any changes should be made?”

  “Yeah. I’d like a look at what you’ve done, Acclo. Show me,” Ember said, and they both walked over to the copilot monitor.

  Feeling slightly relieved, I decided to have a walk around and talk to everyone on the bridge. I needed to build some bonds with these people, or this whole thing wouldn’t work.

  I approached a Torax who was engrossed in his screen, running through a simulation. He was moving in his chair, trying to personally dodge the incoming imaginary missiles.

  “Looks fun,” I said, leaning over. “Do you think it will help?”

  “Definitely. It’s amazing!” Then he turned his attention to me with a big grin. “And intense!”

  I knew I wouldn’t get much convo out of him, so with a pat on his back, I wandered off to do the rounds with the rest of the seated crew members.

  Once I'd talked to everyone, or at least made some kind of connection, I sat in the captain's chair. I still had a serious case of imposter syndrome, but you know what they say: ‘fake it 'til you make it’. I wasn’t dwelling in self-doubt: I knew I could fight, I knew I was near immortal, and with Havok I was all but invincible. I had some sweet powers on my own account, too. But even so, I had nagging doubts that I should be leading anyone. Fuck, I could barely lead myself. Yet it seemed to be working so far.

  I resolved to just trust in the people around me and do the one thing I knew I could do, and wanted to do with all my heart and soul: to make sure everyone was okay and treated with respect, whether they were smaller, weaker or simply different. That was the reason I stayed as captain. I might not be able to do all the high-tech shit, or any of the other stuff, but I could, and damn well would, look after all these people. I had some serious powers now, and that is what I would use them for. Give a man a fish, and you can feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you can feed him until some fucker takes his fish off him. That's where I come in to smash the shit out of his oppressors and give him half a chance.

  I was relieved when Ember came and sat in her seat next to me. She nodded in Acclo’s direction, who had already gone back to man the copilot terminal. “One clever fucker, right there. They must be exhausted after yesterday, and they’ve literally organized every last person on the ship, including strengths and aspirations.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously, Shaun. I don’t even think it’s to get in our good books. I think they're just obsessive as fuck about ordering things.”

  “Sounds like a real boon. How do you think Elyek will take it?”

  “I think they'll be fine, to be honest. We’ve put a lot on their shoulders, so hopefully it’ll be a welcome relief. I’m sure the bigger we become, the more we’ll all have to do.”

  “Yeah, I hear you on that. Luckily, we’re surrounding ourselves with pretty decent folk.”

  “Plus, I actually feel like I can learn now! That Mental Clarity shit was a real handicap.”

  “Especially for you,” Ember nudged me. “We should probably do some inventory, Shaun. Every little counts.”

  “I was thinking earlier, I wish I could put Acclo in my head to do my inventory. They'd have it done in a day, I reckon.”

  “Nice theory, but they wouldn't have a Scooby Doo where to put anything, would they? They’re your memories, dumbass.”

  “Ah, yeah! You make a good point. Shall we go somewhere more private then?”

  “How about, fuck inventory, and practice levitating instead? Not really had a chance to try it out since we updated our vision,” she replied.

  “You know what, that actually sounds fun.”

  We both stood up. For some reason I found myself telling Acclo where we were going, then we popped out to train while we waited for the other ships.

  Once in the gymnasium, Ember sprinted off as soon as we went through the doors. She leapt into the air and kept on rising and rising, moving upwards and forwards at an impressive rate. I followed her and did the same. It was exhilarating to say the least. She came to a halt and turned around, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “This is fucking sweet, Shaun,” she said, breathlessly.

  “Yes, it is,” I said, gliding up alongside her. As soon as I spoke, I dropped altitude quickly, before I righted myself.

  She dropped down towards me. “Nice loss of control, Shaun.”

  “Yeah. It takes a lot to move forward and upward at the same time. Talking as well isn’t a good combo.”

  “I know what you're saying. I don't know if it's a Clarity thing or a practice thing. Either way, give it another month and we’ll have it sorted out. We’ve promised a lot of people a lot of things. We’re going to have to be on our A game.”

  “Oh wow, Ember. Way to fill someone with self-doubt.”

  “Get over yourself, Shaun. You signed up for this with me. Don’t go start being a drama queen. We’re doing this. Now, come on motherfucker. Let’s fly.” She zoomed off, downwards and ahead, before levelling out and going in a slight arc to fly around in circles. I followed her and managed the same maneuver, just executed in a more ungainly fashion. We spent a few hours flying around. No other training at all, just whizzing around laughing and having fun. It distracted me from the knot in my stomach about Elyek and the two ships.

  When the call came in saying that the ships had appeared, my relief was palpable.

  C14

  Shake it Up

  The Thoth and Seshat had appeared close to where we were, and it felt good to be together again. There was a certain amount of comfort brought by the extra protection.

  We wasted no time in setting up a video link once they were in range. Ember and I sat in anticipation in our quarters, waiting for the other two captains to pop up on the screen.

  To my immense re
lief, Elyek was with Astrid, which kinda fucked my flow up a little, because my first question was going to be, ‘Did you get Elyek?’.

  “Elyek! Thank god you’re okay!” Ember all but shouted, then said to Astrid, “Well done for getting them out. Was there much trouble?”

  “No, none at all. I know you love your ship and all, but you might want to consider changing it. It seems to be becoming quite recognizable,” Astrid replied.

  “Yeah. It's looking like it might be necessary,” Ember said.

  Elyek cut in. “Perhaps it is not. I am sure we can rename her and change the registration number a little to throw our pursuers off.”

  “You can do that?” I asked.

  “Well, hacking systems just so happens to be a specialty of mine, in case you forgot.”

  “No, I didn’t. And I'd much prefer to do what you're suggesting, rather than change the ship. I'm quite attached to the Uprising.”

  “I'll get straight onto it when I come over,” Elyek assured me.

  “I look forward to having you back,” I replied. “While we’re on the subject of transferring Elyek back, I wanted to talk to you all about mixing our crews up: spreading the Torax and Veiletians across the three ships and bringing some humans onto the Uprising. Only those who wish to come and go of course, we won’t be forcing anyone.”

  Both Astrid and Rufus looked uncertain at what I was saying, which annoyed me a little. Especially since one of Acclo’s concerns was how they’d be treated on the other ships. Before either of them could respond, I continued talking. “I’m aware not everyone is as well-mannered as we all are on our ships,” I said pointedly, looking at each of them in turn. “So I’m asking you to keep an extra close eye on any xenophobia that floats to the surface.”