Chapter 14: Welcome to the Neighborhood
“Ready for jump,” the navigation officer of the Deq’ual navy’s latest stealth ship, the Sprite, said. After seeing all of the different aggressive species that were attacking Emerilia, they had been deployed in order to gather information on the various aggressive species systems with stealthed remote drones.
“Take us to the Nal system,” Captain Xue said.
“Engaging jump drive,” the navigation officer called out.
The space around the craft distorted as they entered jump space, exiting outside the system and deep in the asteroid belt of the Nal system.
“Looking for recon and communication platforms,” the sensor officer called out. His eyes darted across his screen as information came into his terminal.
The more systems they went through, the better they had become at sensing out platforms that the Jukal had put throughout their controlled systems.
“No portal in-system. We’ve got basic communication arrays. Looks like some sensor satellites around the planet Nal, which the Nalheim live on.” The sensor officer looked at light readings that were coming in from a few minutes ago.
“One day of silent running, then I want to start seeding the system with remotes.” Captain Xue relaxed slightly. He wouldn’t fully relax until they’d completely scanned the system for a few hours and knew about everything within the system.
“I’m picking up some odd readings,” the sensor officer said after a few moments.
“What?” Xue sat up in his chair, trying to not appear too alarmed by what sensors was calling out, even as his heart raced and his palms started to sweat.
“It looked like a flicker but I thought that I was reading an asteroid reducing in mass—its orbit changed slightly. I’ll need a few more minutes to check it out in more detail,” the sensor officer said.
They had the best sensors possible; they combined multiple different sensor types and were centuries ahead of anything that the Jukal had made. The Jukal were happy, making the same thing over and over again while the innovated sensors used by the Deq’ual system’s navy were highly accurate and effective.
***
Dave and Malsour had finished looking through the asteroid base and all of the various projects that were underway.
Dave’s skill had gone up when they’d been not only looking over the projects but lending their help.
New Active Skill: Teacher
Level: Apprentice Level 8
Effect: You can teach people skills that you have prior knowledge of, up to your level of ability. Your students are 5% more likely to understand what you’re teaching them. Teaching on subjects you have a higher knowledge on will yield higher results. Teaching skills you have mastered or created give a higher chance for students understanding your lessons.
It was odd to have so many people around. They had become used to having just a few of them working in cramped quarters.
It was slow going at first but they were quickly coming to understand what Dave, Malsour, Steve, and Bob had been working on and it was opening up a number of avenues of projects.
“Okay, your power distribution is all off. With the soul gem construct, it’s an easy fix— you just increase this line of code.” Dave pointed to a screen that showed lines upon lines of magical runes. “Then the soul gem construct will alter its size so that it can fit it. You've got to take off these restricting lines of code here for the size. If you can’t make it bigger due to there not being enough space, run a second power line conduit,” Dave said over the dwarf’s shoulder.
“This?” The dwarf looked at the new code that Dave had entered. The hologram to the side showed a different image than before, with an increase on stats on the side.
“You’ll get the hang of it.” Dave smiled and clapped the man on the shoulder.
The dwarf laughed, looking to Dave. “Well, we’re not all magical coding crazies like you lot.”
Dave joined in. The atmosphere within the different bases was greatly relaxed. Without the threat of monsters and creatures in Emerilia, these people were able to unleash their minds on the problems that they found.
Dave and Malsour found that most of their time was not spent on dealing with issues that they had run into but instead trying to get everyone else up to date on all of their practices and understanding the various items that they were using to push the development in the Nal system and through Pandora’s Box.
Instead of hindering them, as they taught others, they were both coming to understand what they were working with more and more. As they discussed issues with more people, it was possible for them to have more breakthroughs.
At the same time, Dave was increasing the level of his teaching class.
“We have sensed someone searching one of the asteroids currently being mined,” Jeeves said through a private chat to Dave.
Dave looked up from the dwarf he’d been talking to, to Malsour in alarm.
“Ready our defenses and get me a look at what they are. Ready Battleship One.” Dave disappeared from the lab, before he appeared inside Battleship One. Malsour appeared next to him; a circle appeared next to Malsour as Ela-Dorn, who had her finger raised into the air, looked around in confusion, finding herself within Battleship One.
Power surged through the massive ship. All of its reactors surged up to their maximum. Dave’s hands moved through the air as he checked through the queue of things that were being worked on.
“Malsour, Ela-Dorn—we need weapons online as soon as possible— at least one bank of cannons and some missile tubes. Malsour, you work on that. Ela-Dorn, I want you to raise everything that will get the jump mechanics working, as well as the flight drive. We’ve got twenty minutes to work on as much as possible. Get Jeeves to help you to prioritize. Also, see if we can get some of the shields and barriers online if at all possible,” Dave said, not stopping his own work as he turned off everything that wasn’t required to bring the ship up to combat readiness, freeing up power and resources to devote to what would bring the ship up to fighting condition.
“I have been analyzing the information on the unknown ship. It uses magical coding for its stealth covering and it’s rather impressive. Also, by the drives, it seems that they are using ideas from our own flight drives,” Jeeves said.
He had met with Sato and Edwards within the Mirror of Communication but there was still no way for the two groups to meet up and try to talk to one another and create some kind of mutually supporting agreement.
Dave didn’t know where they were and they were a paranoid group. They had survived on the outside of the Jukal Empire’s reach for hundreds of years, doing everything that they could in order to not be found out. Dave and his groups had aided them out a lot but still they were hesitant to help him with more than just a few ideas here and there, fearing that he might use this information to turn on the Deq’ual system or undermine any advantages they might have.
“Bob.” Dave said, using a Mirror of Communication to get his voice chat through the portal linking the asteroid base and the ice planet.
“What?” Bob sounded irritated.
“I have what looks to be a ship paying attention to one of our asteroid mines. We’ve shut down everything but we’re getting readings that the ship looks like it might be from the Deq’ual system,” Dave said.
“Really? They’ve made it this far already?” Bob’s annoyance turned into a voice filled with praise.
“Well, it looks like it. However, I want to check with Sato. Could you ask him?” Dave asked.
“Give me two minutes and I can message him,” Bob said in a panic.
“Got it,” Dave said. “Thanks Bob.”
“I’ll let you know what he says.”
Dave cut the channel, going back to his party chat with Ela-Dorn and Malsour.
“Okay, let’s do everything we can to get this beast combat ready and see just how good our stealth runes are,” Dave said.
“We’re not
going to engage them?” Ela-Dorn asked. She didn’t know about Sato and his people.
“They might be a group that we’ve been working with,” Dave said in a hesitant voice. She’s come this far—telling her, there isn’t much risk. Dave continued. “We made contact with a group of humans who are hiding out in space. We gave them a whole bunch of information and we told them about our own practices and most of the technology we’re working with here. The technology we’re seeing on their ships is based on magical coding, which makes me think that they could actually be these same people.”
Dave wore an apprehensive look on his face but there was also hope and happiness. If they hadn’t made it to this stage already, Dave didn’t think that they would be able to truly support what he was doing. However, it looked as if he had underestimated them.
Though, why are they in the Nal system?
Ela-Dorn had a look of shock on her face.
“We can think on that later. Right now, we need to get this battleship ready to fight,” Malsour said, his gruff voice bringing them all back to their work.
They worked to get some weapons, shields, and drives online. The armor was mostly complete. They had some firepower but basically if it came to it, they would need to bluff the people on the other ship, or unleash an unholy shit storm of missiles and hope the targeting circuits weren’t too bad on the cannons.
Dave worked, hoping that Bob could get Sato as soon as possible.
“Oh shit—it looks like they’re readying weapons and shields! Strap in!” Dave yelled, jumping to the captain’s chair. Malsour and Ela-Dorn sat down at the navigation and engineering consoles in front of the captain’s chair.
“Damn, these seats are pretty comfortable.” Dave tried to keep the nerves out of his voice as he connected to the soul gem matrix of the ship. Runic lines across his body lit up as his eyes glowed gray. Runic lines spread out from the soul gem chair underneath him.
Runic lines spread out from the chair as he took complete control of the ship. He couldn’t teleport the entire ship based on his strength alone, but by altering the coding of the ship, he could use it to boost his own power and do the heavy lifting while he simply acted like a guide for it all.
Still, it was a risky business and the amount of power he was talking about was enough for him to pucker right up.
***
“I’m not picking up any more readings from the asteroid. I’m going to switch to optical scopes,” the sensor officer of the Sprite said. His screen changed to an image of the asteroid instead of a three-dimensional representation of all the light coming off the asteroid.
The main screen showed the asteroid. Everyone stood ready at their stations, able to carry out their captain’s orders immediately.
Xue watched over it all, his palms sweaty as he looked out over various readings.
The sensor officer made a noise of interest and zoomed in on the asteroid.
A boxy-looking device with what looked like a drill bit on the end of it stuck out of the asteroid. Behind it, there was a shuttle with a massive cargo box attached to the rear of it. As the asteroid spun, more of the drills were revealed and there were only a few cargo hauling shuttles.
“Why aren’t they doing anything?” the sensor officer said.
Xue wasn’t picked for this mission for his good looks. “Bring to battle stations and seal the ship. Prepare to leave the system and warm up the missile and cannon tubes!” Xue yelled.
One moment, they were looking at the asteroid belt; the next, a mass of armor appeared in front of them.
“They’re trying to contact us!” the communications officer said as everyone started to panic.
“What are they saying and look to get us the hell out of here!” Xue said. His biggest priority was to get everyone home undetected; other than that, he was to make sure that the Jukal never knew there were humans still in the universe.
Xue looked to the secret panel in his chair, knowing that it would destroy the ship completely, leaving no trace of those within.
“Hey! This thing working?” someone yelled.
“Yes, it’s on. They’re only receiving.” Another voice sounded as if they were talking through their teeth.
“Oi, you lot with Sato?” the voice asked.
“They’re still not talking back.” The second voice sounded frustrated.
“Well, shit! How do I get them to talk? I know Edwards! And Sato! I’m Dave!” The last part was yelled out.
“No need to shout—the pickup is from your seat,” the second voice said.
He knows Sato and Edwards—is this a ploy? Xue cut off the audio.
“Contact Deq’ual immediately! How are we for jump?” Xue asked.
“We need to get clear of the asteroid belt some before we can jump again. If we do a micro jump, we can do it in two goes. However, the chance of not hitting a rock or something isn’t high,” the navigation officer called out, no hesitation in her words as she laid out their options.
“Captain Xue, what’s going on?” Admiral Adams appeared on the main screen.
“Admiral, we have someone who has appeared in front of our ship in a massive warship.” Even as Xue looked at it, he couldn’t believe its size or the weapons that covered it. “We don’t know how it got to our position but there is someone saying they know Edwards and Sato.”
“Prepare to escape and hold readiness but do not fire! Do you have an image of them or know who they are?” Adams asked.
The communications officer turned and looked to Xue; he indicated for her to say whatever was on her mind as an image appeared on the main screen.
“The man in the commander’s chair calls himself Dave,” Captain Xue said.
“How the hell?” Adams said to herself before she turned away from the Mirror of Communication.
“Get me Sato right now! Wake him the hell up! Tell him Dave showed up in the Nal system!” Adams barked, an irritated look on her face as she looked back to Xue.
“Ask Dave what’s his last name in both realities,” Adams said to Xue.
“My voice only,” Xue said to the communications officer.
“You’re live,” the communications officer said.
“Hello. I wish to know what Dave’s last name is in both realities.” Xue felt odd saying it.
“Whoa—there’s life! See, Edwards is a smart cookie! Didn’t think that he’d actually be able to build stealth craft out of everything. Must’ve really applied himself, you know,” the one called Dave said.
“Dave, I know you’re Mana fatigued—but last name,” Malsour said in calm tones.
“Okay, so this is reality, so Grahslagg. Earth simulation, Zane,” Dave said.
Xue looked to Admiral Adams, who had a shocked look on her face that quickly turned to one more serious.
“Hold position and do not fire. Tell him Sato is on his way.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Xue said.
***
Sato woke up to alarms in his room. He smacked the intercom next to his bed as he jumped up and pulled on his clothes.
“Report!”
“In the Nal system, one of the stealth ships has been intercepted by a larger ship. Bob is also trying to contact you through the Mirror of Communication and Admiral Adams is asking for you to report to the command center as soon as possible,” the person on the other side said.
Shit, just what the hell happened? Sato clamped down on his emotions as his face hardened and he finished putting on his clothes. “I’ll be there in three minutes.” Sato hit the com and rushed out of his door toward the command center.
He passed through the different checkpoints; the various guards opened the doors for him ahead of time so that there was no need to slow down. He reached the command center and his eyes found the main screen, filled with a diagram of a truly massive warship. He looked over the highlighted cannons and missile banks.
“Sato, Captain Xue and the crew of the Sprite were supposed to be placing down remotes within the N
al system in order to watch over the Nalheim race and see if Dave and his group were up to anything within the Nal system. As they were doing so, they found anomalous readings. They looked into it more and found out a number of mining drills that had been stopped.
“They started to power up their weapons and looked to escape when the ship on the main screen appeared. The person in charge of the large ship has tried contacting them. His name is Dave Grahslagg,” Adams said.
“How the hell?” Sato asked under his breath, unable to keep the confusion off his face. His solemn expression quickly returned as he frowned. “I’ll contact Dave and see if this is really him.” Sato moved to a free console with a Mirror of Communication. He used his contacts and dialed Dave.
Dave answered after only a few moments. “Hey, Sato. Have a nice nap? Seems you lot have been busy with the ship making department. If I didn’t know stealth coding, then I wouldn’t have been able to pick up your little scouting ship. Sorry if I sound a little out of it. Mana fatigue, ya know—just need a big ole nap.” Dave sighed.
“Dave, that’s really your ship?” Sato asked.
“Well, one of them—can’t have just one.” Dave yawned.
Sato couldn’t stop himself from looking at the main screen and the warship on it. It was bigger than Sato’s main line warships that were being built within the asteroid shipyards. It had more weapons, more armor and the thing looked terrifying. The amount of resources and the people needed to work on it must be astronomical.
“Dave, why are you in the Nal system?” Sato asked.
“Well, when we came into contact with the Nalheim and they surrendered, we traveled to the planet Nal—you know, get the treaty signed...well, there wasn’t a treaty and Malsour was basically made their king.”
“Dave,” someone said, outside of the Mirror of Communication’s field of view.
“Oh yeah, sorry. Brain’s all over the place. That’s Malsour.” Dave picked up the Mirror of Communication in his seat and pointed it at Malsour before he put it back in its holder.
“Okay, so Nal. We were there, portal, ice planet—well, you know we were looking for fuel. Found it, by the way—thanks, guys. Then from there, we expanded, we needed more resources and so we got to work on a few surprises for the Jukal.” Dave grinned.
Emerilia Series Box Set 4 Page 65