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https://docs.google.com/document/d/154ZAh8CxP1kSH5CGtc8GvtfyGAozpRl-9Yn02erW_Pc/edit?usp=drivesdk
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Alex was finally able to shake the literally bone-deep itch from his finger and he let loose a shudder. “Sh—”
Bev flinched back, and then he sensed little tendrils of power radiating outward. Ironically, his lack of focus at that moment allowed him to see the language of that power, and it was simple. ‘This is unpleasant.’
That was obviously a translation, but it encapsulated the simple concept sent outward with his voice. It was more than just the tonality, though it meshed with that. It almost seemed to slip into the surrounding magics for a moment before being overwhelmed and washed away.
Would it be unpleasant for others to maintain a spell while I spoke? Regardless, that was beside the point. He pulled power back from his throat once more. “I apologize, Bev. I wasn’t focusing.”
She gave him a tight smile. “Another thing from the redacted section of your stat sheet?”
“Most likely.” He then frowned and almost asked how such a thing could be redacted, but he decided it wasn’t good to call further attention to it, suspecting that it might be some combination of the System maintaining the integrity of the scenario and his resistance to examination.
He took a deep breath and smiled, trying to get them back on track.
“Should I expect that level of itching for every bone I alter?”
Bev gave a slow nod, clearly bringing her own thoughts back to the matter at hand. “I’m afraid so. It will likely be a bit less concentrated if you do more at once, but from my understanding, if you get the itch, it will be pretty proportional to your healing speed.”
Alex grimaced. “Faster healing, more itching.”
“Precisely. I’m sorry.”
He sighed. “I guess it will be over sooner too, so it’s a trade-off…” He could always take off his regeneration enhancing ring, but that would start a 24-hr reset that he wasn’t too keen on. “Should we do the bio-clean-up?”
Bev shook her head. “No. I highly recommend we do it after you do your bone work. It would be better still to do it after whatever other augment we settle on. After all, you only get one bio-clean-up for free for enlisting.” She frowned. “You really should have gotten it in basic, but your file doesn’t record any such thing. Even so, I’d think that a mistake if I couldn’t see the evidence for myself.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Thank you? I’m rather messed up, eh?”
She huffed a laugh. “I didn’t mean it like that, but I suppose that’s true enough. Regardless, as I said, you only get one, and I believe you’ll get more out of it if you wait until after.”
“Oh?” He was a bit surprised, though he supposed that he should be.
“Do you want the specifics?”
He hesitated before shrugging. “I mean… not really? But what’s one example?”
She smiled. “Fair. The template you’re going to use includes more robust connection points for your ligaments and other such parts of your muscular-skeletal system, and a standard bio-clean-up ensures that your ligaments haven’t begun retracting or losing connection. So…?” She gestured implicatively. “You understand?”
He gave a slow nod. “So, it will enhance that connection as a matter of course. Waiting is a way to get some other bio-enhancements on the side?”
Bev chuckled. “In a way, but nothing you’ll get in this way will be as good as a true enhancement. You’ll just get better results if you aren’t shifting around your skeleton after.”
“Understood. Thank you.” He smiled. A niggling feeling had him check the time. It had been about an hour. “Ahh, I need to check in. It’s about time for me to dock the ship, assuming everything's going well.”
Bev nodded. “I’ll be here. I don’t have another appointment until tomorrow. Obviously, if there's an emergency I’ll handle that, but otherwise, we can continue your skeleton.”
Alex smiled, pushing up to his feet and extending a hand. “I’d like that. Thanks, Bev.”
She took his hand and shook it. “Of course, Alex. See you soon.”
Alex left the med-bay, moving straight to his duty station. As soon as he slipped into the bridge view, he was greeted by Natasha.
“Welcome back. How was your… exam?” The woman gave an inquisitive tilt of her head.
He snorted. “Purely professional. She’s going to help me with some of my attributes.”
The Russian gave a slow nod, seemingly satisfied. “Good, good. She’d likely be a good source of information on that front.”
He smiled. “That’s what I thought. Any word from Audry or Jabu?”
“Juba.”
“Hmm?” He frowned, not understanding.
“His name is Juba.”
Alex colored a bit. “Oh… thank you.”
Natasha nodded, moving on. “They checked in just before you popped up. All clear and safe to dock. How’s the jump charge coming?”
Alex instinctively flicked his eyes to the side and the answer came. “Right on time. Just less than seven hours of charging left.”
She grunted. “Grant is asking for an hour of our time in about two hours.”
“Oh?”
“Physical training.”
Alex grunted. “Fair.” He sighed. “I suppose we’ll be grateful in the end.”
“Likely.” She easily agreed.
He sighed. “Well, I should get us docked.”
“Good luck! I’d hate to die from a hull-breach on the first day.”
He gave her a flat look. “Thank you for the vote of confidence.”
She reached over and patted his shoulder, the sensation coming through as if she were truly there beside him. “It’s what I’m here for.”
He snorted and shifted to the flight mode, taking a moment to just be, examining the large, nearby asteroid and the infrastructure on it.
Right there. I see the dock. It helped that Natasha had highlighted it to his view. Useful synergies indeed.
It was fascinating to see how things that he would have considered sci-fi were right here alongside magic and other traditionally ‘fantasy’ elements.
I suppose that sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. That quote was usually used to state that historical references to magic could just be about people who were ahead of their time or even ‘aliens’ of one sort or another. He snorted with derision at that, then froze. Well… I’m on a spaceship and the System seems to have been around for thousands of years. Maybe the idea of aliens coming to earth isn’t so crazy… ?
He shook his head. Well, frizz my hair and call me crazy… I still think people made the pyramids though.
But he was getting distracted. That quote could be used in the other direction. It was possible that magic could look like incredibly advanced technology.
He liked that, and he had the keys to ‘reading’ that magical programming. Yes. I made the right choice.
He refocused on the flight mode, the open space around him, and the ship he was controlling. In that vein, he gave the lightest flutter of power to the levi-steel frame… or he tried to.
His mana control wasn’t the best.
So, while he did apply the effect evenly, he put too much into it. His only saving grace was that he’d pulsed the mana rather than trying to sustain it.
Even so, the ship jerked toward his destination and was suddenly moving a bit too quickly toward the dock. To make things worse, it wasn’t even at the right alignment.
Alex’s eyes widened, and he tried to consciously pulse mana in the other direction.
He was… not precise.
The next thirty seconds or so had the spaceship jerking in zigzags in proximity to the asteroid, Alex’s panic rising.
What the flip-flap-flooping madness is this!
He’d come into perfect alignment with the asteroid before, upon arrival. He’d even precisely set the levi-steel to hold position an exact distance away without even having to think about it.
His mind froze.
He hadn’t thought about it at all.
That pause might have spelled disaster, but instead, it neatly unplugged his conscious mind from the process and his instincts—helpfully provided by the system—neatly stepped into the gap, his mana dancing through the controls in a way his still-fractious, conscious mind couldn’t yet accomplish.
The ship steadied, rolling just slightly to properly align with the gate and in less than ten seconds, a perfect mating of ship and asteroid occurred.
Green indicators flashed in his awareness as the levi-steel infrastructure of the ship meshed with that which was embedded in the mining station.
He wouldn’t be flinging the massive rock around, but he could maneuver it now at need along with his ship.
Alex just sat there for a moment in the flight mode, right eye twitching, hands shaking, and breath coming a bit ragged.
This is after I’ve spent time with my mana manipulation training… He looked at the tri-rings in his Inventory. I… I am going to get more time with those… Every day… Mother of children, I nearly killed us all, slammed into a space rock I started less than a hundred yards from. Natasha could never know how close her joke had come to reality.
He shivered. Then, he had another thought. How many other Initiates would find their end because of something similarly so simple…
He shook himself again and transitioned to bridge mode.
Natasha was giving him an inquisitive look when he arrived, and he met her stare with an embarrassed smile before looking away and clearing his throat. His vain hope that she hadn’t noticed had been entirely dashed. “That… wasn’t great.”
The Russian grunted. “Understatement, Alex. Did you try to brute force it?”
He tilted his head to the side. “That is… accurate. It seemed simple, and so I didn’t really lean on the training until the end.”
“Well, we are all grateful for the type of end that was reached.” She gave him a meaningful look.
He sighed and nodded. “I thought that the mana manipulation training I’ve been doing would be enough, but this makes my efforts feel like a fingerless man attempting to play the harp.”
She snorted at the analogy. “Well, see the doctor about that malady. I hear we can regrow fingers these days.”
That made him grin, taking some of the sting from his overt flubbing of the simple task. “True enough. I’ll get to practicing.” He considered. That might actually help make the itching of bone adjustment more bearable… And even if it didn’t help per se, it would be good training to continue working while distracted. He smiled. “I’ll be ready when I’m needed.”
“Or you’ll let the system’s granted skills take hold?” There was humor dancing in her eyes.
He huffed a light laugh. “Yes, that.”
She gave him a little wave. “I’m working on my skills here. I’ll hold down the fort. Go do what you need to do.”
He gave a little nod and willed himself out of the interface, the bridge vanishing from around him.
The webbing retracted a moment later, allowing Alex to stand.
No, not retracting like some sort of reel. It’s compacting on a molecular level. His Speed Reading skill triggered as he briefly examined the small corner of magic involved in that portion of the crash-webbings enchanting or runework.
Even still, it would have been a couple of hours’ read for him at the moment to take it all in. Instead, he just skipped through the headings—for lack of a better way to describe it.
Fascinating. The material itself had been created to allow for very tight and close interlacing compaction and easy expansion again. Material science married to precise magical effects. Truly wondrous.
He turned to walk from the room before hitching at a thought. The system does this without actually understanding the language. This is the result of trial and error, experiment and iteration…
He glanced back toward the chair. How much could be pared out while maintaining the functions?
It was likely a lot. But a more pressing thought came to him, showing him that he really hadn’t been in his right mind, and he was only now beginning to come back to himself.
Why?
Why had Runia kept true understanding of the language of power from the System? Surely she knew how useful it would be.
He frowned, striding from his duty station and back to the med-bay.
Bev greeted him with a smile, setting aside whatever paperwork or other work she’d been occupying herself with. “Are you ready?”
He nodded. “I think I want to do some mana-manipulation practice while my bones shift and rebuild.”
She nodded. “Good distraction and training in one. I like it.” She smiled. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you the whole time.”
“Thank you.” He pulled out the tri-ring, slipping it on his fingers. How much mana…?
Bev gestured to a bed. “How about you lie down this time? Then you can close your eyes and just focus on the mana?”
He moved to where she’d indicated, laying down and getting comfortable.
It was still a bit odd to feel all but naked under his pants. He was not used to going without underwear, and the cover-all gave that feeling.
He was not looking closely at Bev’s outfit. The fact that it was effectively thick, more obscuring body paint would make for a distraction if he let himself begin to consider it.
He closed his eyes, slipping the tri-ring in place. I think… Let’s start with three hundred points of mana.
The most he’d done in the last scenario had been two hundred points, but he’d leveled since then, and he suspected that his new magic cognition attribute would assist.
Before he engaged the rings, he shifted his focus to his skeleton, bringing up the system menu and following Bev’s advice. “Blood Basher, skull. Ready?”
He didn’t open his eyes as he waited. Her response came a moment later. “Ready. Keep in mind that this incorporates a lot of fluting and ‘crumple’ sections to keep your brain intact and unharmed during harder impacts.”
His eyes did open at that. “What now?”
She smiled. “Just making a skull harder wouldn’t help as much as most think. As such, most quality bio-mods for the skull include a closer fit with the brain while adding in other methods for cooling and circulation. Then, there are portions of your skull that will be designed to give out and crumple to absorb any impact in a way that doesn’t expose edges or shards to your neural tissue. It is also designed to be incredibly cheap to heal, even if only relying on natural regeneration. All told, for this high-end change, you’ll find your head able to take nearly twice the amount of force before you sustain true damage.” She smiled. “And that is before stats come into play. This is a doubling of your base defense for your head and brain.”
He blinked at her. “I know you simplified that for me, maybe even to the point of inaccuracy, and I still only barely understand what you’re getting at.”
She shrugged. “Thankfully, you don’t need to understand to make your selection. The only better options would include a dispersed neural network modification and not only is that expensive, but people have occasionally had issues of changed cognition from the process." She smiled. “Beyond that? You’ll have to tier up a few times.”
He grunted. “Fair enough. Here we go.”
He closed his eyes and selected the skull modification. Then, before he could even begin to feel the change, he dumped the mana into the rings, allowing his mind to fill with the mana-maze before him.
Let’s get this operation underway.