“Measure twice, cut once. Count twice, order once.”— Tinkerer DB, #basics
Eddy turned the monocle off and pulled the lens back. He gestured at the air above the counter, and a holographic readout materialized between us.
[Advanced Item Appraisal: Sentinel Corp Director’s Commemorative Sidearm]
Name: [Unregistered]Item Quality: A (Military / Premium)Integrity: 100%Manufacturer: Sentinel Corp.Comparative Analysis (Tago Region): Within the category of kinetic sidearms, this item ranks in the 75th–90th percentile.
[Enchantment Matrix: Integrated Triple-Rune Configuration]
[1. Gyroscopic Stabilization]Recoil absorption and barrel-flip negation (85% reduction). Kinetic kickback is vented harmlessly as heat along the frame’s internal micro-channels, ensuring pinpoint re-targeting even under rapid fire.
[2. Phase-Shift]Partial barrier bypass. Projectiles briefly match the frequency of localized shielding upon leaving the barrel, ignoring up to 50% of any defensive field upon impact.
[3. Kinetic Reclaimer]Captures a fraction of the residual kinetic energy from the internal firing mechanism and feeds it back into the weapon’s own enchantment matrix. Ensures ambient enchantments remain self-sufficiently powered without the need for an external mana battery.
[WARNING - Structural Dependency]:The enchantment matrix is intrinsically tethered to the weapon’s factory mass distribution and frame geometry. Any physical modification (grip replacement, rail addition, barrel weighting) will disrupt the Kinetic Reclaimer loop, resulting in immediate cascade failure of all active enchantments.
Eddy waited until my eyes had finished their second pass over the warning paragraph, then tapped his finger against the line three times, in case the visual emphasis hadn’t been enough.
“A new grip, you said? Maybe a custom sight?” His eyebrow climbed and stayed climbed. “Go ahead, lad. Turn a ten-thousand-sol piece of art into a paperweight. I’ll even lend you the screwdriver. Free of charge. Wouldn’t even ask for the broken pieces back.”
I held both hands up. He grinned and dropped the act, the amber along the glyphs still pulsing, undisturbed by the appraisal reagent he’d swiped along the barrel earlier.
I went back to the readout.
“It’s A-grade.” I gestured at the comparative analysis line, not sure how else to put it. “Like... top-tier?”
Eddy tilted his head. “A is very good, lad. The best you can get at your level. S is Edgerunner grade. Ninetieth percentile and up, elite corporate, the thing executives carry to public events to make a statement. SS and SSS exist, but you’ll never hold one across a counter from me. A is what people like us carry when they can get them. The director gave you a thank-you gift. The thank-you gift is what professionals would mortgage their cybernetics for.”
I looked at the revolver. “Kinetic Reclaimer is amazing. I don’t need to recharge it? At all? So it works just like that?”
Eddy gave me his signature grin. “Exactly, whoever picked that one knew what they were doing. Gyroscopic stabilization is also solid; fewer things to blame when you miss.”
“Phase-shift.” I read the last one aloud. “Up to fifty percent barrier bypass. Is that good?”
“That’s the one to focus on, lad. Most barrier-piercing enchantments work on either mana shielding or electrical and almost never ignoring up to fifty percent. Anything else?”
“Yes,” I reached for my holoband. “Bullets. Whatever feeds it, and whatever feeds it well.”
Eddy was already moving on the terminal. “Cylinder takes .50 SAR. Sol Alliance Revolver, license-free.”
That was a new one. “License-free?”
“Sentinel made the choice on purpose. They built a director-discretion piece for people who don’t want to be told no at checkpoints when they bought unlicensed ammo.” He looked up. “You want barrier-piercing rounds. Your gun makes the round ignore up to fifty percent, and the rest is pierced. You use this only against barriers. You can get anti-armor also, but they won’t be as good. Fifty per round, which sounds like a lot until you remember what they’re for. You’re not putting these into a bug. You’re putting them into the one situation where a normal bullet is going to bounce off a shield or armor and leave you holding an empty gun.”
“So I bang, and whatever’s behind the barrier is no longer behind the barrier.”
“Anything.” His grin returned. “Maybe one day you’ll enchant your own bullets. Until then, fifty per round is the price of the privilege.”
If that was the case, maybe it was better than I originally thought. Use my future coilgun for non-shielded targets and take this when that failed. “Two anti-barrier reloads, two anti-armor reloads, plus one that my enemy will regret.” Eddy’s fingers paused on the terminal. He glanced at me, the small assessing look I was starting to recognize, and then his fingers moved again.
“Twenty-five rounds total. Cylinder takes six, plus one punchier. Twelve hundred and fifty sols.”
He vanished through the door behind the counter. The shop went quiet except for the small mechanical sounds of something being pulled from a shelf in the back room. Eddy returned with a small case, set it on the counter, and opened it. Twenty-five rounds, matte gunmetal, the casings stamped with glyphs I didn’t recognize.
“Anything else?”
“Maybe.”
“Lad?”
“...maybe.”
He folded his arms, leaned his hip against the counter, and waited. He’d done this exact pose perhaps thirty times over the years I’d known him, and it had a one hundred percent success rate, because Eddy could outwait furniture.
“Out with it, lad.”
“...I need twelve more emitters.”
The silence lasted exactly long enough for him to register the sentence, failed to reconcile it with anything reasonable, and then arrive at the only explanation that fit.
His face split.
“Oh, lad. Oh, lad, no. You designed a two-piece system.” He was wiping the corner of his eye with the back of one knuckle, unhurried. “Twelve emitters per piece. Two pieces. That’s two times twelve, which is, and let’s be careful with the arithmetic here, twenty-four. And last time you bought twelve. And you walked out of this shop with twelve emitters under your arm, and you went home, and you stood in your workshop, and at some point you looked at your pants—”
“Yes.”
“—and you said—”
“Yes, Eddy.”
“—oh no.”
I dropped my forehead into the heel of my hand.
He let me sit there. The laugh wound itself down to a single chuckle, then to a quiet exhale, then to something that looked almost like fondness.
“It happens, lad. To everyone who designs systems and forgets they designed two-piece systems.” He pushed himself off the counter and turned back to the terminal. “Same emitters, same price. Twelve more HexCore Series 9, dual-mode, scuffed-but-not-really-scuffed. Nine-eight-forty. Adding it to the tally.”
Item Appraisal Scan: ¢350Reagents (premium grade): ¢60Technician Time: ¢0 .50 SAR Barrier-Piercing Rounds (×12): ¢600.50 SAR Armor-Piercing Rounds (×12): ¢600.50 SAR Anti-Personnel Round (×1): ¢50HexCore Dual-Mode Emitters, Series 9 (×12): ¢9,840Total: ¢11,500
I looked at the number and suppressed a wince. “This is going to be a habit.”
“Lad, you’re past habit. You’re in the part where the habit owns property in your name.”
I tapped the transfer.
[Paid: ¢11,640]
His terminal chimed confirmation. He boxed up the rounds, slid them into a parts crate alongside the second emitter case from the back room. He pushed the crate across the counter, then paused with his hand still on it.
“Almost forgot. Your TinkererDB vote came through this morning. Provisional access—newbie channels, plus #ask-pro. Use #ask-pro when you’re building something and you’re stuck. Real tinkerers in there, pros who know what they’re doing, not the ones who read the wiki and want to hear themselves talk.” He grinned. “I’ll send you the invite later today.”
I stared at him. The TinkererDB had been a thing I’d half-stopped expecting. “That’s huge.”
“It’s overdue, lad.” His grin softened. “Pleasure as always.”
“Always.” I lifted the crate, suitcase still in my off-hand, revolver back in its holster, and headed for the door. He nodded, satisfied, and turned back to his terminal.
The doorbell beeped as I stepped out into the terminal crowd.
—
The noodle shop on the way home from Ashford was the one without the Palistra stamp of approval, which was why I went there. Two bowls, takeaway, the broth still steaming through the lid seal by the time I reached the maglev. The proprietor recognized me, charged me twelve sols for both bowls, and waved me out.
Comma was on the couch with a textbook open across her knees and a stylus in her teeth. She looked up, sniffed, identified the bag at twenty paces, and made the small pleased sound she’d been making since she was eight.
“Random noodle, my favorite,” I said, setting one bowl on the coffee table.
“...thanks.” That was all I got from her, because apparently textbook was more interesting that I was. I took the second bowl downstairs. The workshop lights came up as I crossed the threshold.
I set the noodle bowl on the corner of the bench, peeled the lid back, and sat down.
On the TABLO was another clutter, and a case. It was the needle from Orbital, and I was putting it off because something or other had always been more urgent. Looking at it now, I couldn’t remember what.
As I ate noodles, I glanced at the case.
It was the size of a matchbook. The needle sat in its foam, curved, pale metal, exactly as the merchant on Lutivex had handed it to me last week. I pulled up my reflection in the dark face of the Orbital projector, which was the closest thing to a mirror I had down here, the aluminum was just not usable for this. Maybe was time to buy a mirror?
Stop! No ADHD!
The image was slightly distorted; the angle was wrong, and I looked tired. I lifted the needle to my temple, found the spot, and dabbed. The needle shifted. It made three small adjustments along my skin, then it settled.
A display bloomed in front of me.
[KALLUM-LUTIVEX DISPLAY-NEEDLE PRO v5.11]Searching for compatible devices...
I activated my band’s pairing protocol. The needle’s display refreshed.
[Compatible device detected: KAL-HB-EXC-7714] Verifying authentication... Confirmed.Establishing a secure handshake.
A new panel materialized, replacing the search prompt with a corporate banner.
[KALLUM-LUTIVEX EXECUTIVE PRODUCT FAMILY]Welcome, Mr. Kallum. The Display-Needle Pro has been associated with your Kallum executive account. We’ve prepared a personalized onboarding experience with curated features, ecosystem integration, and a complimentary 90-day Kallum Cloud Sync trial.[ Begin Kallum Onboarding ] [ Standard Pairing ]
I selected standard pairing.
The banner dissolved. A simpler menu replaced it: brightness, position, transparency, gesture controls, application bindings. I worked through them one by one; the needle making minute adjustments to the projection as I went, the display sliding closer or further from my eye until it sat at the distance my hands were when I held a tool.
[Application bindings: 14 compatible devices and services detected. Sync now?]
I tapped Yes.
A list rolled out. Holoband core functions, calls, calendar, time, battery percentage.
The display reorganized itself. Battery percentage in the upper left, miniaturized. Time in the upper right. Calls and notifications would appear center-screen when relevant; I’d test that in a minute.
I practiced the dismiss gesture—a downward eye-flick—and the display vanished. A summon gesture—an eye-flick up—and it returned. It took four tries to get the muscle memory to feel natural and another six to stop over-correcting.
The needle, true to the merchant’s claim, was invisible against my skin. I checked the Orbital’s dark surface, tilted my head, and saw nothing but my face. As I saw my face, an intrusive thought invaded.
Who is the primary? Will Erika like your face?
“Shut up,” I said to myself, and I picked up the noodle bowl. I was three bites in when the band pinged.
[Eddy_Affordable: Welcome to TinkererDB, lad. Don’t blow anything up.][Attached: tinkererdb://invite/auth-token]
I looked at the link.
The needle, picking up that my eye had fixed on it, opened the invite without me touching the band. “Wait! I wasn’t ready! Not yet!“
A new panel resolved in front of me, larger than the device’s standard interface.
[SYSTEM ALERT: EXTERNAL CREDENTIAL SYNC]Source: Tinkerer DB AuthenticationServer Encryption: Standard (Level 2)
[APPLICATION STATUS: PROVISIONALLY APPROVED]Applicant: DashSponsor: Eddy_AffordableFinal Tally: 4 IN FAVOR / 1 AGAINST / 2 ABSTAINNote: Approval threshold met. Negative vote flagged as non-technical/sponsor dispute.
[ACCOUNT TIER: PROBATIONARY]Welcome to Tinkerer DB.Your access is currently restricted. Full membership is granted only after the community verifies your technical competence. Do not ask questions that can be answered by the search function.
[CHANNEL PERMISSIONS UPDATED]
[Unlocked: Read/Write]
#introductions#newbie-Q-and-A#ask-pro#scrap-sourcing-tago#basic-fabrication#brag-board-low-tier
[Unlocked: Read-Only]
#design-philosophy#market-trends#safety-and-explosions#gear-reviews
[LOCKED: Insufficient Rep]
[#advanced-metallurgy][#rune-integration-theories][#corporate-hardware-bypasses](...50+ more)
[PROBATIONARY REQUIREMENTS] To remove the [Probationary] tag and unlock full database access, user must achieve one of the following:
Accumulate a Community Reputation Score of +50
Wait 90 Earth days
Dropping to a Reputation Score of -10 will result in account deletion.
Build safe. Build smart. Don’t blow up your neighborhood.
[ > ACCEPT TERMS AND ENTER DATABASE < ]
I read it twice.
The 1 AGAINST was Eddy’s grudge holder. Internal politics; someone dislikes me, he had said. The 2 ABSTAIN was someone or someones who had read the submission and not been moved either way. The 4 IN FAVOR was apparently enough.
I tapped Accept Terms and Enter Database.
The panel dissolved.
The display reduced itself to a small icon in the lower-right corner of my vision, indicating that the database was now an active connection. New notifications would surface when relevant.
[#introductions]
[Bolt_Muzzy]: new blood. sponsored by Eddy. 4-1-2 vote.
[Bolt_Muzzy]: the AGAINST was personal. ignore it.
[VernierVi]: welcome welcome 💙 read the pinned messages first. they exist for a reason. people who skip them tend to show up later as case studies in #safety-and-explosions.
[FluxFinch]: also welcome but more importantly: Kallum surge redirector - anyone else getting a harmonic ghost in the secondary coil past twenty cycles or am I just losing my mind in real time
[VernierVi]: just you. OT, move to #flux-finch-fails
[FluxFinch]: i hate this server
I took another bite of the noodles.
Build safe. Build smart. Don’t blow up your neighborhood.
I had no current plans to blow up my neighborhood.
—
After finishing noodles, I pulled out my Guild Book.
[GUILD REVIEW COMPLETE][Status: APPROVED][Bronze-tier Reconnaissance][Visibility: Identity anonymized per Guild standard][You will be notified upon finish.]
[Paid: ¢500]
I exhaled. The contract had passed whatever filters the Guild’s reviewers used to weed out the obviously stupid or obviously illegal.
I closed the book and turned put my pants on the rack.
The pants were going to be a smaller job than the hoodie had been, because I had already programmed the sequence and pre-positioned the junction reinforcements. All the pants needed were twelve emitters and careful installation work.
I sat down, pulled the second emitter case from Eddy’s crate, and opened it.
Cut, extract, log, insert, connect, test, move on. The integrity counter ticked down with each removal and held steady through the new installs. The threading reinforcement dropped into place at each junction node without resistance. The new HexCore units slotted home, contact plates kissing the upgraded rails.
By the time the last emitter was seated, the pants showed clean ninety-percent integrity and full capability. I ran the diagnostic sweep. The hex array on the pants synchronized with the hoodie’s array, the two systems forming a single contiguous shield envelope from the shoulders to the ankles.
I sat back.
While I had been working, the needle’s display had been pulsing gently at me about something. I dismissed the installation panel and brought up the notification.
[Configurable telemetry detected.][2 systems available for sync.]
Two systems. The mana battery slot in the hoodie. The electric battery slot in the pants. Both standardized industrial slots with built-in surge protection, which, it occurred to me now, meant the slots already had monitoring built in. Active protection needs to monitor input to know when to trip.
Whatever monitored voltage could, in principle, report it.
I pulled up the slot’s spec sheet on the Orbital. After a few minutes of digging through the documentation, the manufacturer had buried the relevant pages behind an aggressively unhelpful “common questions” section that did not contain any of my common questions; I found the API endpoint.
The slot exposed standard battery telemetry: charge percentage, temperature, and fault flags.
That was all good, but it was locked behind a paywall. The protocol was proprietary, which was exactly a question I could test on TinkererDB. I sent it to a channel #ask-pro.
[#ask-pro]
[Dash]: hey, got StrataTech industrial battery slots IB6-f and IB6-m. anyone pulled telemetry off one without paying for the manufacturer’s SDK? I want charge %, temp, fault flags.
[FluxFinch]: oh paywall. yeah. everyone in here has fought a StrataTech paywall.
[FluxFinch]: there’s a converter. drops in front of the proprietary endpoint, re-exposes the whole telemetry stack as a clean open API. the guy who wrote it is a saint and also banned on StrataTech’s orbital, so, you know. our kind of saint.
[FluxFinch]: [tinkererdb://share/flux-relay-v3]
[Eddy_Affordable]: that one’s fine, lad. been around for years, well-vetted, no surprises. but DO NOT open a link from anywhere except this channel
[FluxFinch]: of course. if I dropped a link in #brag-board I’d be the cautionary tag in #safety-and-explosions by next week.
After installing Flux Relay v3, which could convert a proprietary API into an open one, pairing prompts resolved in my vision, and I authorized it from the band.
The handshake completed. The needle’s display refreshed, and a small new indicator slid into the upper right corner: two stacked bars, one blue and one yellow, each labeled with a percentage. No more glancing at the band during a firefight. The numbers would just be there.
Good.
I sat with that for a moment, then thought about the next thing.
A status indicator.
Single character; M for MIRAGE active, S for shield active, O for everything off. I would always know what mode the suit was in. And, while I was at it, I could toggle the modes from the band without reaching for the controller.
I pulled up the MIRAGE pairing first; the needle pulled the MIRAGE telemetry from the band’s existing pairing without fuss.
[MIRAGE Adaptive Camouflage System: ONLINE][Electric Power: 100%][Mana Power: 100%][Status: Standby mode][Sequence Database: Basic][Skins: Missing MIRAGE PREMIUM SERVICE]
I set MIRAGE aside and went after the shield. The shield switch shorted pins 70 and 97. That was its entire architecture. There was no controller chip. There was no remote interface.
I closed my eyes. “Oh, you absolute idiot. Well, then let’s not then.”
I brought up the needle’s display configuration once more. In the slot below the battery indicators, I added a state-dependent character; M when MIRAGE was projecting, O when the suit was offline.
[O]
I leaned back in the chair.
Tomorrow I’d make the enchanted bullets; I was still under doctor’s orders not to. I glanced at the school holo-tablet. I would need to figure something out with the school, like if I could skip it somehow, flex my family name.
But until then… “Math, here we go.”
Author’s note: Oh dear Aurelia, this chapter is notification heavy! I hope you enjoyed Dash tinkering with things and actually finishing something.