“It’s gone. Everything from the blackout is unrecoverable.” Mercy’s voice, though much like Marla, is thankfully without an accent. It doesn’t take the sting out of six missing days, but it’s a nice parallel.

“It is what it is, I guess.” I’m not actually too disappointed about it. She’d split off a part of her attention and explained to me that my upgrades were something different than anything before. I’ll grow like I would on earth because that’s how my body learned. On the other side of that, the level of my augments would make my growth almost insane compared to most people. Which is good because I am woefully behind comparatively.

The extra growth will be nice, but the problem is that the six ‘floating points’ that people usually get to assign at will are automatically moved to where they are most needed at that moment. Mercy says the algorithm is beyond her right now but she can put it on the list of future research. It’s not all bad though, most people only get to choose where those points go once every twenty-four hours, mine will assign instantly depending on some algorithm. Considering the rest of the augments are over the top helpful I feel like this one is probably for the best as well.

“Most people assign them the same every time anyways. I personally use the points spread out through my stats.” I’d almost forgotten I was in the middle of a conversation with Shawn.

“Yeah, I’m not too worried about it. Everything else is geared to give me an advantage, gotta take the bad with the good, as it were.”

Shawn and I were in route to meet the captain of the ship Crucial which we had landed on a few hours ago. I’m disappointed I didn’t get to see it from the outside, we’ve been walking from the docking bay for almost ten minutes now. We haven’t taken too many turns and we are just now getting to the captain’s door.

“Alright, he wants to meet you alone. I’ll be out here when you are done, remember your manners, but try not to come across as a pushover.” Shawn seems more nervous than I’ve seen him before.

“I’ll do my best, see you in a few.” The door I was standing in front of was the same color as the doors on Marla, but looks like a different material. I had been trying to connect with the network to the ship but kept getting a prompt back about needing captain’s permission.

Shawn nods at me and hits the ‘call’ button on the panel next to the door, “Good luck.”

Before I have a chance, the door opens and a deep voice calls, “Enter.”

I give Shawn a little wave and walk into the room. It doesn’t surprise me too much, I had expected a sparse environment. The room is the same basic color as most of the walls in the ship, the slightly off-white color. The room isn’t very big, probably twelve by sixteen feet. I imagine he’s got a set of rooms connected to it, there’s a door off to the other side of the room. The desk is a flat panel that is sticking out from the wall next to that door, with a holographic display on it. There are a few chairs across from the desk, nothing fancy though.

The big surprise in the room is the man behind the desk. Standing just over five feet and probably close to three feet wide. He’s got a bald head and a braided red beard that reaches almost to his waist. His outfit is the same one-piece suit as Shawn was wearing, except for it is a navy-blue color and has a rotated cube sitting where lapels should be and an embroidered nametag on his left breast says ‘CPT. Lager. The parts of his face that I can see are a darker shade of white, and his eyes are a dark brown color.

“It’s not polite to stare son.” His voice sounds like it’s coming from his stomach, a deep base.

“I…I’m sorry captain. I beg your forgiveness, I didn’t realize you were a dwarf.”

Most captains are dwarfs in space. The elves make great crewman, and techs but dwarfs tend to be a bit more pragmatic when it comes to captaincy. Mercy tells me.

“…Hasn’t said a word to me in the last couple of days and sends you in blind. That Shawn is going to be the death of me. I’m surprised Betty didn’t tell you at least.” He doesn’t seem too upset about it.

“I saw Betty for a few minutes when I woke up but she went to tell Shawn I was up then never came back. Shawn says she’s debriefing with the XO. I Didn’t see her while I was on Marla too much.”

The captain looks annoyed when I mention that, “Betty was debriefed the day you got here. I’ll have to talk to her, she might be avoiding you, Baron. Let’s discuss that another time though. I hate to get straight down to business as it were but we need to discuss your plans for the future.”

I’m fine with getting right to business. Shawn is under the impression that we are going to storm off and take back a crown, I’m not sure that’s what I want to do.

I figure I’ll lay it out, no need for misunderstandings heading forward “It needs to be discussed, sir. My whole life I have been an invalid, living on a single planet without any responsibilities than myself. I am in no way, shape, or form in any way prepared to lead a rebellion. On top of that, I don’t think I really want to. I just got into space. It’s something I only imagined in my wildest dreams and death, even if there is a chance I can survive via clone, is still something I would rather not experience.”

He looks relieved at my short tirade, “I’m glad you feel that way but there are a couple of things you need to understand before you make any long-term decisions. First is this: The guard is split internally on that very aspect. It’s been more than a few years since the Aelvans royalty were deposed. In that time things have gotten better in more than a few ways. Don’t misunderstand me son, just as many things have stayed the same or gotten worse. It’s a matter of perspective. We can discuss that another time. Second: Whoever put you in that prison knows you’re out now. That’s a cat that isn’t getting back in a bag. Third, and last: You are not a prisoner here. Your parents made contingencies for everything. I was captaining the Crucial long before the insurrection. This is your fathers personal ship and we have all of the documentation on what he wanted to happen once we freed you.” I can see there is a genuine sadness in his eyes when he mentions my parents, fond memories mixed with loss.

“He’s left you with options son. Your parents were good people, they didn’t keep truck with most of the royal caste. I think they both realized, and planned, for you to be your own man. I’d like to lay it all out for you Baron. Your father always shot straight with me, treated me as an equal, and I would like to repay him that by doing the same with his son. Are you OK with that?” His deep voice leaves a bass echo in the room every time he clips his sentences off.

“I would appreciate it greatly captain Lager.” Growing up thinking I had CP lead me to be succinct in my everyday life, when you think you could die at a younger age you tend to take things by the horns.

“Fine by me then. I do not believe a rebellion is the way to go. Your father and mother stood outside of most of the drama that happened all those years ago. Your father even refusing to step into the role of king when it came down to him and a few others left. He stayed outside of most of the fighting as well. I can’t say I don’t believe he agreed with the rebellion's side of things, but I think he understood. The Aelvan monarchy was oppressive to most races, granted, it wasn’t intentionally so. But it still was. Things looked rough for a few years, but things are about equal now. That’s the way I see things anyways, I’ll thank you if you find your own opinion.” I’m a bit surprised he admitted that he doesn’t think the rebellion as a good thing.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Thank you for your honesty captain. I’d like to do some research before I get too far into it, but I’m inclined to not want to incite some kind of bloodbath. Especially if the parents I never met didn’t believe in it.” I’d like to do some research on how things are now, and how they were before. For all I know the Aelvan rulers were into human sacrifice like the Aztecs from earth.

“Now we’ll get to the decisions you need to make son. Your father left a contingency if you decide you want to rebuild the Aelvans empire and I’ll follow them as best I can. If you decide to go that route most of the guard will follow you. This includes thirteen fully stocked and prepared war-ships, a few freighters, and probably a couple of planets that believe in their cause. The downside to that is some of those ships don’t hold with that cause and will probably want to withdraw from the guard. If that’s the case it’d be best to just let them go, you don’t want to force their hand into doing it knowing they might break at the worst possible time.” Judging by the way he’s talking I don’t think that’s his preferred option either.

“Your next option is to announce you have no intentions on rebuilding. You should probably somehow release it wide as well. The people who want you probably won’t stop because you don’t have intentions, but people will know you exist and that’ll bring a measure of protection all its own. If you go this route there are still going to be some who want to make a run at the council, so you announcing your intentions not to will cede their legitimacy away and insulate you from it.” I think this is his preferred option, his voice levels out in tone.

I can’t help but realize that these are things I wouldn’t have noticed before.

The heart is feeding you information, now that you are open to it your ‘stats’ have taken effect. Ah, that makes sense, I wonder how she knew what I was thinking.

I’m in your head silly. Any thoughts you have I’ll hear, you’ll eventually learn to keep your own but until then I’ll hear everything. That’s a bit off-putting.

Hmm, why can’t I hear your thoughts then?

You are. You probably aren’t picking them up because you aren’t looking for them. I imagine they are like fleeing thoughts to you, there then not. You’ll learn eventually that we are more alike than any person you will ever meet, I am based on your memories and personality that I searched through when we merged. I am a lot of information and my own type of entity but were still one, if that makes sense. I guess it kind of did; if her personality is based off of my memories and experiences then she can’t help being of the same mind as me.

Exactly. I’m sure eventually I’ll start making my own assumptions and decisions but even then, I’ll still be formed off of you. If I had been based on a ship, or a machine it would have been too foreign to assimilate and even if I’d managed to there’s a strong chance you might not have accepted me. That was the single longest sentence she had ‘said’ to me since activation. It’s good information to have, not exactly useful, but interesting.

The captain had let me talk to myself, finally clearing his throat.

“There is one last option. This is kind of the ‘catch-all’ option. Your mother was an intellect without equal in a community of geniuses. I can only assume she had your father add this one knowing it was probably the greatest probability. You can relinquish your royal rights. This would cause a cascade of events that would distribute every ship in the fleet to its separate captain. It would split the treasury accounts that are still active, seventy-five percent being disseminated to the captains and crew, the last twenty-five going to you. This would also net you any ship in the fleet you wanted, minus the cruiser class. This would not solve the problem of the council coming after you. You’d still need to go to send out a statement saying you had no intentions to help the rebellion.”

If I’m honest with myself the last one had my attention the most. I don’t want to lead any organization of this size and I definitely don’t want to do it in combat, “Is there a time limit here, can I take some time to decide? This is a heavy pill on top of what has already happened. If possible, I would really like some time to wrap my head around everything that is going on.” The feeling that I’m just under the surface of water but no matter how fast I try reaching the top it’s just out of reach is going to overwhelm me at some point.

“There is no time limit son. You take as long as you need to, just keep in mind that the fate of thousands, maybe even millions rests on your decision” No pressure there.

The captain changes the subject and we spend some time talking about the crew. My brain is barely working at this point. My options are completely overwhelming to me. Eventually, the captain takes pity on me and releases me back to the wild with a promise that I would come back the next day for dinner in the officer’s mess.

I almost stagger into Shawn as I walk out the door.

“Are you ok man? You look like you just came down off something heavy.” His question is a bit easier than his usual slams.

“You’re a dick. We’ll start there. You could have warned me the captain was a dwarf damn it.” I catch the smile he tries to hide with a cough.

“Nah man, I forgot about that.” He can’t keep the smile off his face, so it’s pretty hard to believe him.

“Whatever man. I’ve got a decision to make, I assume you know that though. I feel like the captain is the kind of guy who likes to keep it real with everybody.” Shawn looks like he is struggling with something, but just shrugs.

“Yeah. I’m going to decline to say anything though. We’ve been friends for a long time and I don’t want to cloud your decision with my experience, I’m with you whatever you decide.” I’m glad to hear that. On the ship, he seemed passionate about the whole rebellion thing. It could have honestly been adrenaline though, things were crazy then.

“Good deal. Are we sleeping on Marla, or do I get my own room? Can we grab some food, I am starved man. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I go straight from content with food to borderline starving every couple of hours.” My appetite was always stable growing up, if incredibly healthy.

“It’s the augments coming online. The nanites in your body have to finish building some of them. Others are probably tearing through sustenance coming online. Most of the augments will be passive once they are complete, but until then you are going to be almost constantly hungry.” There’s a sympathetic look on his face, I imagine this is something that happens in kids. Probably exacerbated for me since mine are trying to get years of growth in as quickly as possible.

“As far as a room you’ll be right down the hallway in the officer’s area. There will be a dispenser for food in your room, the same thing we had on Marla, but if you want the good stuff you’ll want to head to the mess. They make real food, not flavored bricks. My AI got a message saying the captain would like to see you, me, and Betty at the officer’s mess at seventh bell.”

I did as well, I did not want to interrupt the conversation. You should ask about clothes and a shower. Thanks, Mercy.

“Does my room come with a shower or clothes?” I had managed to get one of the body suits Shawn and Betty had started wearing. I was wearing my old pants over them though. The suits didn’t leave much to the imagination, and I never really liked tight fitting clothes.

“Ha ha, forgot about that part. Yes, you’ll be in a high-crew level suite, so you’ll have everything you need in there. There’s going to be a fabricator for clothes in the room as well if I remember right. The body suits are a staple, but most people don’t just wear that. The crew are usually allowed to wear whatever they want unless they are on duty, so I’m sure you can just pick something out of the list and be fine.” I wasn’t built like Shawn with his giant muscles and square jaw. I wasn’t very tall and I definitely needed more muscle before I might want to do any showing off like that.

Thinking about my own perceived deficiency I realize that I was taller now, probably about five-eight, and I’d put on some muscle. I doubt I’d ever be built like Shawn, but I could feel the muscle growing. Which brought me to the realization that everyone we passed was some kind of attractive. They were all athletic without a skin blemish between them.

Nature of the universe. You can have things you don’t like changed at certain shops, it’s generally a painless procedure. They just tweak something in your DNA and your body acclimates on its own. A little disconcerting that somebody could just jerk your DNA around, but I imagine there’s some type of safeties built in.

We took a couple of turns heading back in the direction we came from, where Marla was docked, and finally, come to a side hallway full of doors without many people around.

Shawn stops me at the second to last door in the hall, “I’m in the next one down if you need me. At the risk of sounding corny; Welcome home.”